February 2004
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3503651.stm
I hope this link works. Bonkers! Read more
Me again...
On top of my coolant system problems, just the other day my \"Airbag & seatbelt tensioning\" red warning light came on and won\'t go off now. After ignition, it goes out for half a second or so then comes back on... Is this a nasty, expensive, get-rid-of-the-car thing or a blown fuse £1 fix? I know which one my money is on...
Oh, V6 vectra 2.5 CDX for those that haven\'t seen the other thread! Read more
For those who are interested... I finally got this sorted (yeah, I know... quick worker!)
I had to go to the local Masterfit and was told it'd be 1/2 hour job & £20.95+vat to check ecu (or similar?) readout.
Slow Saturday so I was the only one in there and young lad on his own. He plugged in the techie bit, read out that the Passenger under-seat electrics had been upset at some point, pressed the reset button and the light went out... Took 35 seconds, I reckon.
Fortunately he had the decency to let me off paying for it!
i have a 1994 omega when driving at night with lights on low beam i can hardly see anything but when on high beam lights are very bright. is there a bulb upgrade which may inprove the low beam ??? the lights aim is spot on & the lights are set to 0 inside the car. Read more
Your car will have the patterned lenses, these like Mondeo MkI ones go dull/yellow with age. Try and get a pair of used clear lense halogen projector-type ones from ebay or a Vauxhall breakers such as AllVox www.allvox.co.uk/ I think these were fitted after Oct 1997, and some of the Osram Silverstar or Philips Visionplus bulbs you can get from the Powerbulbs someone else posted above. Good luck.
I am about to buy one I would really like some imput from 156 owners on their ownership experiances Read more
Bazza,
Let the masses buy Mondeos, Vectras et al.
Nowt wrong with them, but it's nice to own something that not TOO many people have...
An alarming incident on Tuesday travelling West on the dualled section of the A66. 2 truckers from a haulage company in Donegal waiting to leave a caff which involved them crossing both carriageways into traffic doing 70mph . First truck crosses and enters inside lane very slowly, fair enough other traffic can pass in outer lane, except that second trucker them enters outside lane again slowly and tries to overtake with queue of cars behind screeching to a halt.
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EC 92/24 states that if the speed limiter has a technical tolerance of 5 km/h, then the set speed should be 85 km/h. If the technical tolerance is less than 5 km/h, then the limiter should be set up in such a way that the speed cannot exceed 90 km/h. Cars speedo over-read by around 5 - 10 percent at this speed. I was overtaken by a German truck (left hand drive) while doing 100 km/h in my coach. It must have been doing 110 km/h plus!
According to Warranty Direct it is the most reliable car (by far) in its segment (in the £10,000 to £15,000 cars). As I am only concerned with reliability these days (after trying speedy Fiats, Alfas, Mustangs and Camaros) and as I have only 10/11 K to spend next summer, I'd be interested to hear your opinions on the Almera 1.5 currently priced £9,995 with extras. If you recently got one, what discount did you get for it ? (are they really in demand ?) Thanks Read more
Aprilia; I can only surmise that the 'marketing men' are doing their job well, and more and more people are buying cars with their hearts rather than their heads**. Lifestyle accessory rather than mode of transport. My next door neighbour has an Almera, which he's had no hassle with over the last two years, very well equipped and roomy for the money he paid for it.
** Yes I know that's a bit rich coming from somebody with 2 Omegas ;-)
My local independent tyre depot are very good on price and do a good job fitting tyres and even use a torque wrench on wheelnuts of late. However you have to fight like hell to get them to balance the wheels after fitting tyres, even though it earns them £4 a tyre.
Firstly it's "well guv, don't need to balance rear wheels" and they won't listen to my explanation of the effects on tyre wear and wheel bearings of the forces generated by unbalanced wheels, let alone the fact that I rotate wheels front back to front sometimes.
Next it's "have to let the tyres settle before balancing" but as they are so busy I can't face another hour long wait a couple of weeks down the line to have balancing done.
Has anyone else had this sort of problem or is it that the local guys are unbalanced? Read more
I've just changed the tyres on my father's Rover 600. I already had a good Michelin Energy 195/65 x15V spare and two Dunlop Monza's. I Bought these when I changed he front tyres two years. The plan was to put them on when the front tyres wore out. However the company who sold them to me went bankrupt.
I managed to get a Michelin 195/65 x15V to match my spare for £58 fitted & balanced at Eventstyres Manchester.
After they had fitted the tyres I noticed that the Dunlop's needed more weights to be added in order to balanced. I asked the tyre fitter why the Dunlop's needed more weights than the Michelin's. The pointed out that the Michelin's are heavier and better tyres than the Dunlop's.
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306 2.0 SE Cabriolet
Hi, been reading through the forum and suspect I may need to have my valve clearances adjusted on my '95 Isuzu engine Astra, as this appears to be the most common cause of cold starting problems.
Question is, what's a decent price to get this work done at a garage / main dealer and how long should it take?
Thanks! Read more
Dizzy, the 'about us' page mentions "All our parts are sourced from the original manufacturer where possible and every part is of the highest quality, with the same warranty periods as a dealer supplied part." >>
I did read that statement, but it isn't very conclusive. "Where possible" might mean "where the price is right". It certainly doesn't mean that all parts offered are Original Equipment.
"Highest quality" also doesn't mean much, unless they get every part expertly assessed against all others on the market. I would accept "high quality" but that's a lot different from "highest quality".
I assume the warranty is for a year? That's fine, but I'd want some parts to last a lot longer than that. "Warranty" doesn't equate to "long life".
I'm not having a go at Autovaux; we need firms like this to keep car parts at a sensible price level and I have no reason whatsoever to doubt their integrity. All I'm trying to say is that we should always read between the lines of advertising claims to see what is *really* being said.
My ford Ka is due for a 30k service, and as it is now out of warranty i don't really fancy paying 200 odd quid for the privilage, but i would still like the appropriate work done (as a student now 20k in debt i need to save all i can). so i phoned a couple of dealerships and their own fast fit chain, and was told on many occasions, that as the car is a ford they will not do anything unless its a dealership prices. GARGH!!!!! I even had one person tell me why i should go for a manufacturer's service over the "non branded service" due to the fact that you could not use any old oil. When i asked him if they kept a "specail cheap oil" for non manufacturer's service he said no! This is the sort of tripe that I HATE! (apologies for the rant, i am now going to lie down in a dark corner of my room!!!!!!!!!!!) Read more
If you want the proper oil, Asda sell it, badged Texaco (I think) - in any case it's the only 5W30 they do and is £14.99 for 5 litres, which isn't actually cheaper than all Ford dealers.
The last time i had my Ka serviced, when the oil was changed a good quality shell 5w40 mineral oil was put in (less than 3000 miles ago). This year with my next service looming i want to start using a fully synthetic oil (0w40)in the car and was wondering if it could go straight in without doing any harm. cheers for any help Read more
Your handbook says Formula E from Ford-usually at about £10 for 4.5 l. at your dealer.It's 5w/30 semi-synth.and is well overspecced for this engine which would run for ever on Ford 10w/30 or 20w/50 as long as it has regular oil/filter changes.
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Drive a Jaguar! Still a Ford I guess but there's always...
... a bus! There's a couple of double-deckers round Warwickshire with heated front screens, just wait until one of them retires ;-)