January 2004
VW have recently signed an agreement with an Illinois based global Agri Company to jointly develop biodisel fuels for the auto industry, and are the first major manufacturer to further research in this field.
www.e4engineering.com/item.asp?id=50873&type=News&...e Read more
I need to get a small runaround (fiesta size) automatic car for my wife.
Needs to be reliable (new baby), and I've only got £1000 budget.
Any recommendations ?????? Read more
If its the new shape Astra they all have Aisin boxes, but even the old astras had good boxes. An auto box specialist once told me he rarely sees Vx or Toyota boxes gone wrong.
Hi,
As some of you may know, my dad has been considering selling his M3 for the last few months and has sort of 'half heartedly' tried to sell. However, he is definitely selling it now and he wants a realistic value of what its worth. He has his eye's set on a swift, practical estate car like a BMW 330i touring or a Audi A4 Avant.
Basically his cars spec is as follows (ive tried to be as detailed as possible!):
M3 Evo Coupe
1997 R
Full Service History - all bmw and M3 specialist
Cosmos Black Metallic
Tracker Monitor
Top of the range Clifford Avantguard 4 alarm with laptop connection kit
TOTAL spec, basically every option at the time - individual modena leather (brilliant condition), heated seats, climate control, 10 stack kenwood stereo with flip face tape player, electric seats, elec front and rear windows, light sensors, walnut interior, rear blind, parking sensors, trip computer, optional M Spoke alloys, etc...
Condition of the car is SPOTLESS - hes kept it in excellent condition.
Recently had inspection 2 with BMW and MOT - cost over £1000!
Tyres - all have excellent tred (michelin Pilot Sport tyres)
Any other info that is needed, just post me a message.
I appreciate your help!
Chris Read more
Glass's retail price is not really relevant in this situation- he wants to know what he should hope to sell it for. Glass's guide states its retail estimates are sticker prices, not even what a top dealer should hope to sell the car for. If you are trying to sell privately lots of the retail prices quoted are laughable.
I reckon its worth 11250-11500, though you might get near 12k if you are lucky, and live in the right area.
The headlights and dashboard lights keep flickering on my 405 TD Estate. Battery is good,alternator is good seems strange. Only other fault is the windscreen washer pump stopped, checked the connection and I get 12V when activated but when not pressed there is still 5.5v??? Any ideas? Possible bad Earth but where?
Thanks.....Justin Read more
To get to the common earth junction you WILL have to take off the front bumper an all will be revealed. A good clean and sort out will do the trick.
Strangely enough I squirted mine with WD 40 after cleaning and it was twice as bad. Had to dry it and clean it all again.
I too had the same proplems with the fans not cutting in so if you follow three thin reds into the loom (again behind the bumper) from the three relays infront of the fans, split open the loom and you will find a soldered joint. Check clean and/or replace.
Fullchat
Having replaced the fanbelt due to a squeaking when started from cold (see previous thread on Focus Diesel Cambelts), I was annoyed to find the squeak still existed, even if slightly less.
However a reliable mechanic has checked/cleaned all the pulleys and tensioners etc and gave them a clean bill of health, but also told me that this was a known problem with Fords and the air conditioning pump may need re-aligning.
Has anyone else heard of this, or know what it involved? Frankly I don't think much of this car if every fanblet change requires all the associated equipment to be 'tuned'!!
Its an '02 Focus 1.8TDi by the way Read more
From what I've heard, it is a known issue so it might well be worth mentioning.
I'd imagine your Focus and mine probably have very similar design and length of fanbelt withn aircon and so on.
The squeak from mine tends to only last 20-30 seconds and does sound like the classic 'slipping belt' noise, only quieter
I have a 99 2.5 tdi audi A4 which has an intermittent fuel leak.
Having picked it up and filled it up there appeared a leak under the car.
Took it to my local garage who informed me I must have overfilled the car as there was no leak evident to them.
Thinking no more of it have recently discovered reasonably small amounts of diesel appearing on my driveway. The car being 1/2 full I cannot believe this would be caused by it being over full. There is no noticeable drop in mpg but I did recently smell diesel after a longish drive.
Anyone got any ideas what I should be looking for/ the garage may have overlooked? Read more
The leak is under the filler cap.
Hope the Moderators will indulge me but....
Warnings were issued today about the rapidly spreading W32/Bagle-mm Windows worm. The worm poses as a test message and so far has tricked people in 87 countries into opening it and helping it spread. Bagle (which people are pronouncing Beagle), plunders address books for e-mail addresses and uses an in-built mail program to send itself to new victims. It also tells its creator about an infected computer and tries to open a backdoor that a malicious hacker could use to take control of the machine.
Infected emails include a file attachment ending .exe and the word "hi" in the subject line. The message contains the word "test" followed by the symbol =). The Bagle virus is set to self destruct on 28th January 2004 and will cease to work at all after this date.
For more info, see:
www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_857408.html
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3410209.stm
itvibe.com/default.aspx?NewsID=1200
Chad. Read more
Cheers. Will leave as read-only for now and move to IHAQ after 24 hours.
No Dosh
mailto:Alan_moderator@honestjohn.co.uk
I've read that from next year, dealers selling insurance products (which I presume includes things like GAP) must be authorised by the FSA to do so.
More work for the dealer! Read more
And mortgages from October this year.
In the latest survey by Alliance & Leicester the 3 series BMW comes out top with the lowest depreciation over 3 years losing just 29.8%.
It was good to see the Rover 75 in 5th position, losing only 34.2% over the 3 year period.
Bottom was the Renault Laguna which lost a massive 68.9%, followed closely by the Nissan Primera and Ford Mondeo, which both lost over 66%.
There is no question that depreciation is the greatest cost of car ownership when buying new, but the Mondeo makes a great buy at 3 years old.!!! Read more
I read somewhere (may well have been here) that when buying new it is best to buy one up from the base model in terms of spec and engine size (e.g. 1.6LX instead of 1.3L) to get the best trade in value in the future.
Hello Knowledgable Ones,
Got a slow water leak coming from the vicinity of the water pump on my 309GLD (XUD9 engine). I\'m guessing that this will be an engine out job in order to access it, as my well thumbed Haynes manual doesn\'t list it as a job you can do with the engine in.
Anyone actually done one in-situ all is it all too much faff and much better to lift the lump out?
Thanks in advance. Read more
Yeah! I was gonna say....3hrs tops.
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I'd heard about this, but I think it was Mercedes started doing something on a similar line last year. Kind of trying to claim they'd "invented" a new fuel.
Glad in one way to see VW investing in biodiesel, but I'm a bit sceptical about it at the same time - looks like a potential tie-up for GM crops and industrial scale agriculture. Also, a lot of people are discovering biodiesel and making/using it themselves, while small suppliers (like mine) are appearing and producing a quality product. A VW-developed fuel could create a monopoly by insisting that the warranty only applies to their fuel.
Ooh, aren't I a horrible cynic?
andymc