January 2004

Flat in Fifth


Another article in today's Thunderer

www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-951546,00.ht...l

cameras for

entering box junctions
illegal right turns
illegal u turns
entering restricted lanes


Could it end up with more going down the unregistered black hole?

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Bromptonaut

Ppppssssttttt Fif ..... no one around?
Shield the screen with your left hand while you read this?
You appreciate, do you not that Box Junction markings, No right
turns are signs to which 36 RTA 88 apply i.e. offence
to fail to conform to Traffic Sign. And what does this
mean? Yes. NOIP.
Will our PTO\"s (Private Traffic officers) appreciate that it has to
be served.
Oh gawd more unsigned forms....
DVD


Typing this half behind that lovely Volvo advert so aplogies if my keying is even worse than usual.

Just spent a happy half hour in the company of part 6 and Sched7 of the bill. This is all about Civil enforcement. If you follow the principles of decrim parking enforcement you won\'t go far wrong. Section 68(3)a prohibits the bringing of criminal proceedings or the issue of fixed penalty notices for any act (my paraphrasing) in the scope of this system. There are further provisions allowing the Lord Chancellor (interesting to note that while DCA Civil Servants are beavering away finding all the exosotng references to the Lord Chancellor so as to remove them new ones are being created!)to make regulations dealing with appeals and adjudicators who will be lawyers of seven years standing. Again the parking model provides the template.

The rotine appears to be (i) caught by approved device or uniformed enforcement officer (ii) receive notice in the post (iii) pay up or ask for review by the Council (iv) appeal to an adjudicator. If you stillrefuse to pay then it\'s off to the county Court for enforcement by a baliff. suspect no appeal to the county court except for procedural messups- just like parking.

The optimist in me says this might actually be a good thing!!
Flat in Fifth

Growler, you are Minette Marrin and I claim my £5 !! :D

(only kidding G)

This article in the Thunderer is both mainly on topic and absolutely nail on head.

the link is >>
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2088-950736,00.ht...l

Minette Marrin: Sunday Times 04.01.2003
Everywhere we turn, nanny is there and ready to hit us

For those overseas who may not be able to access the link drop me a mail and I can send you the text. It's a cracker!!

Growler YHM !!


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teabelly

What a depressing article! I think I am going to leave a tap running just to waste water (a henious crime). Perhaps I will start braking late and accelerating harder than normal just to upset nanny :-)
teabelly

Sparks

Coming around to annual service for my VR6 and whilst I'm loathe to use a local VAG dealer due to previous experiences I'm also aware that the car currently has a FVWSH. It hasn't been modified in any way, I'm the second owner and current mileage is 58k. I'll be selling it approx 3 to 6 months from now. Any ideas as to how much difference the FVWSH would make when I come to sell ?

Cheers,
Sparks Read more

Phoenicks

try www.golfgti.co.uk. loads of enthusiasts looking for VR6's and all quite understand that a FVWSH costs a fortune, so most use specialists.

Should be able to sell it no probs.

pienmash

friend of mine from school,whom i met after 10 years ,kept getting parking tickets from a certain tory local gov ,i said to him ,you better pay them otherwise youll get your car towed,he sat down wrote out chq,s for bout 10 tickets all were for 80 pounds,he wrote the chq at 80 pounds and one pence,i asked whats the one pence for,listen to this bit,he said that when you write a chq for a parking ticket for this certain local gov,they send you a computer written (chq for one pence )back for over payment,then what you do is never cash the chq,ala the parking ticket which was issued gets stuck in the computer system as payed but never cashed...i.e. your chq for 80 pounds and one pence never gets cashed,until you cash your chq for one pence,hope this makes sense. ive tryed this and never heard nothing back of my local council ,the person who told me (my friend)is a computer programmer and wrote the program that alot of local councils use for parking ,so as anybody else tryed this???? Read more

Ivor E Tower

Back in the 1970's a colleague of my dad discovered a loophole woth parking tickets that has now been closed.....if you paid the most recent ticket, your record got cleaned up. So once he got one ticket, he then parked wherever he liked for the next 2 weeks, collected as many tickets as he could (as it were) then paid the last one only, and that wiped all records of the previous tickets, the system worked on the basis that you paid them in order.

stevek

N reg 2 litre petrol is fine when the weather is dry. When it is wet and damp it runs very rough. Plugs/leads and coil have all been changed but no real improvement. Car has done 126K. Has anyone any ideas on what I should check further please?
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kithmo

It's a radio supressor.

Leon on Derv

Hi guys and girls, happy new year to you all.

It is that time again when I have to start looking for a replacement motor for Leoness. By way of background, I visited my local Honda dealership because she likes the look of the Civic. After browsing this site for the initial feedback on the CTDI I discovered the 1.7 CTDI engine outputs 100BHP, no idea if this is at the flywheel or roadwheels.

On speaking with the guy in the showroom he stated the 1.7Ctdi engine was 85BHP, but was 100PS.

For all these years I have believed the conversion factor was 1.01387 or 1.4% (BHP to PS).

He also stated that this engine delivered 220 lbs/ft of torque, surely this has to be 220 Nm of torque???

I expected better from this outfit. I will have the figures confirmed when I get my hands on a brochure, but I think this guy needs a re-visit to whichever training courses Honda provide for thier sales staff.

I was questioning myself becasue he was quite authoritative with his comments about the power output. Any credibility he had was lost when he stated that PS was only used to measure power output of European cars. Or is the civic now considered European because it is built in Swindon???

Leon Read more

J Bonington Jagworth

It would be nice to see power quoted at the wheels, as that is where it comes out...

green pug monsta

As the title says, where has it gone?
Admin - did you delete it? why?
A reson would be nice as would a little notification
Ben Read more

Dynamic Dave

It seemed you were asking a technical question (ie, why is my Escort TD smoking?) so I moved it to the appropriate forum, which it seems you've now found.

DD. BR Moderator.

green pug monsta

In mid november, i sold my BMW 328i cabriolet and down graded to a 98 S Ford Escort TD with 77k on the clock and part s/h(Due to buying a house and doing lots of miles for work meant i needed more economy)
When i test drove the escort, it was fine apart from blue smoke on overrun, which i assumed to be it burning off excess oil (Had just been serviced and sat on forecourt for a while)
Anyways, salesman put my mind at rest and i bought the car. less than a week and 600 miles later, the oil light flickered on going round a roundabout to work. Stopped, checked and there wasnt even enough oil to mark the end of the dipstick!
Back it went to the dealers. It came from a Ford main dealership btw. They originally tried to tell me it was getting used to doing long runs everyday and was \'settling down\'. At which point i got a bit cross and told the service manager he was talking rubbish as if it was settled by nearly 80k then there was a massive problem!
Anyways, they took it back in and told me it needed a new turbo and they had ordered one but it would take a while. Then days later they proceeded to tell me that they had sent the old turbo away to be tested and that it was fine and not the cause of the problem and that they were stripping the engine further to find the cause.
A few days later the call came to say that they had found a badly worn valve and that they had removed the head and it was being reconditioned (im told this included grinding all the valve seats, new set of oversize valves and a skim of 2000-3000 of an inch) If it was only the valves that were the problem, why the skim.
Anyways, put it all back together and gave me it back. Still blowing big clouds of blue smoke! i have doone 800 miles since so i know its not a \'settling down\' problem! It also starts blowing lots of blue smoke when you rev it while the car is standing, roughly the point where the turbo starts spinning up. Me thinks turbo is gone??
They are taking it back in again tomorrow, but i am seriously considering asking for my money back. Can i do it. I have owned it for just over 6 weeks and they have had it for a month of that! Im lead to believe under the sale of goods act you have to give them a chance to fix it, then if its still not right you can get your money back??
Help i dont wanna be stuck with this car if its gonna turn out to be carp!
Cheers
Ben Read more

Manatee

Look at the OFT website.

www.oft.gov.uk/Consumer/Your+Rights+When+Shopping/...m

Getting an engineer's report may be the right course but you might not need to do it.

The car should be of satisfactory quality. Apparently it isn't. I suggest that, if it's what you want, you call the General Manager in a reasonable manner, point out that the car was not of satisfactory quality when you bought it, and ask for your money back. Tell him you believe you are in the right, they have had a chance to fix it, and if they do not agree then you will take further advice from the local trading standards.

If they don't agree to put you back where you were, then go ahead and consult trading standards.

Thius is what I would do, ready to defer to any lawyers contributing.

Andrew-T

Returning home last week about lunchtime, doing 32-35 (indicated), two-lane residential road, 30 limit. 100 yds ahead a pair of riders on low-power bikes, one with L-plate, take to the road and proceed abreast, L on the outside. I give them one brief pip on the horn as warning that I might pass, and to suggest they make more space.
Response: they slow to 20-25, continue riding abreast.
I give 3 more pips, nothing aggressive.
Response: L continues to ride near centre of road. Companion (instructor?father?) slows to 15-20 and swings towards centre of road, making gestures.
As by then I am not far behind, I have to swerve, narrowly missing him. Fortunately L continues more predictably and I manage to pass unscathed, but not without crossing the start of a 'double-white'. Needless to say they practise vigorously on their horns when I turn off shortly afterwards.

What were they doing? Is is sensible to make a learner ride near the centre of the road? I assumed L was being escorted to a quieter practice area nearby. Read more

No Do$h

Oh to 'L with it all..... Two weeks time and we'll all be back into the swing of work again and it will become second nature to be tolerant and accepting of other motorists mistakes.

Won't it?

Cyd

Happy New Year all.

We all know that deionised water is best for use in the coolant mixture of our engines.

However, how about using water collected from a dehumidifier? Presumably this water is at least soft (it won't contain any of those hard salts like tap water) and so should be suitable for use in the coolant.

What is the collective backroom opinion on this? Any chemists out there care to comment on the purity of this water?

On a more basic level, why buy deionised when I've got a continuous supply of dehumidified for free?

Cyd Read more

bazza

Ok I'm with you now!! But this is not the place to discuss the contents of my fridge!
Baz