February 2004
I was driving to work yesterday and got a chip in the windscreen on the dual carriageway. The chip is about half a centimetre across. Is this dangerous and should I have it fixed straight away? I've heard that some windscreen companies can fix chips as an alternative to a new screen altogether, any idea who does this and how much it costs? If its anything like £50 then I'd be as well getting a whole new 'screen and paying the insurance excess, but I don't want to unnecessarily bump up all of our insurance premiums by doing that!!
Thanks
TGM
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At the last service the Honda dealer told me that they could see a few bubbles in my 1996 Accord air con and that it needed regassed, cost around £65 plus VAT. I think they are probably right as it dooes feel a little less cool than previously.
Does anyone know a good alternative place to go to get this done that may be cheaper?
Cheers
TGM Read more
Now be very careful guys.
Sight glassses were used only for pre94 cars running with R12, and CAN'T be used reliably for post 93 running R134a refrigerant. The simple reason is that with R134a there will nearly always be bubbles, so if you fill it until the glass goes clear, then the system will be overfilled and on a warm day the system will go pop. If you do have an old car (pre93), then in order to use the glass it needs to be at least 18*C outside. But as R12 is no longer available, you can't top it up anyway, and if you use an alternative (or R134a), then because it's not R12, you still can't use the sightglass.
They're still fitted to some cars for a couple of reasons. Some countries are still allowed to use R12, and some designs haven't changed. The only way to tell rerfrigerant qty is to recover it. There is no other way, and the dealer should know this.
There is one exception though, and that is the very latest Toyotas, where, due to system design, sightglasses have made a comeback.
Hull is bike city UK and cyclists ride in an assertive manner (not like it was when I did my Cycling proficency test). Can't teach my kids to ride bikes here, because they behave so differently, expecting cars to give way. We have a fair provision of cycle lanes, but this morning I passed two guys riding two abreast, one in the lane, one out in the main carriageway. The guy on the outside was riding with both hands in his pockets......
Tim{P} Read more
But that could not have happened.
At that time, all the Jags in the UK were fully employed on standby for JP himself, in case he needed transporting 100 yards to the venue for a speech on the need to use public transport.
I have a 1991 driver with pneumatic central locking. Up 'til now, the locking mechanisms have been working sporadically. Recently however, the pump makes a noise in the boot and nothing happens.
This wouldn't be much of a problem, had the fuel filler cap latch not locked!
Consequently, I can't fill her up.
Any ideas?
Should I just prise it open?
thanks
frustrated jim Read more
the vac connections or the electrical connections
My brother-in-law is looking for a hands-free telephone kit to fit to his new Mondeo. If anyone has any recommendations or opinions, I'd be most grateful for them. Read more
I've had a kit, fitted by Halfords Basingstoke, for some months now. It works well with good speech quality both ways, fast charging (engine running only), best bit is it cuts out the radio when in use and uses the radio speakers.
Halfords?! Fair play to them, it was fitted right first time, neatly, when they said, within the hour they promised and with a phone call to get me out of the caff. when done.
Cost: £99. If you change your 'phone to a different Brand/socket type the plug in lead (both ends) cost around £20.
Has Sir John Whitmore ever written a column in the Torygraph's Motoring section that's worth reading? He may be an ace driver etc - and been pally with Steve McQueen - but I'm not convinced.
Is anyone else?
Oh, in response to someone in another thread about JC, I reckon Stephen Bayley's column on the back is great. I always learn a lot from his pieces, they're full of wry humour and they're beautifully crafted. Read more
Communist rant? I might call Jason Barlow some things, but a disciple of Karl Marx he ain't. And what's wrong with a bit of challenging opinion? Pandering to your prejudices hardly broadens the mind.
i have been looking for a decent 2 hand car for about two weeks
1: main dealer very good car decent trade in price\'was going back next day to buy (£10K price)checked their web site £500 pounds cheaper,showed this to sales man he said you can have it at that price no problem,he would knock £500 off my trade in i smiled at him and walked.
2 next i went to a fairly large dealer not main checked on the phone about state of car and checked on his webb site looked fine 60mins drive to view car was £7000 2 year old diesil 23k on clock full history got there car had 2 bald tyres engine bay was very!! dirty two different number plates (same index) it had water stains on the inside, the salesman told me the millage was correct and showed me a copy of the service same stamp 4 times with same coloured pen this on a 23k? car
i am looking for a decent car 1.8 etc up to 10k low millage
i live in the watford area any one out there know of any decent car dealersout there, i am lucky that i know enough not to buy a lemon i feel sorry for people who dont
thank you for helping me get this out
graham (tube)
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i have a phobia about beening rip off,i am honest with people
i expect the same back ,suppose i will have to get into the real world, to much hassle to sell it private,i know you play into their hands when you px, always get finance from bank
always get good deal,freinds the manager.
Hi Back Room,
I am selling my car to a dealer, it currently has a "personal" plate on it which I want to put "on retention" until I get a replacement.
I have the appropriate form from the DVLA for putting the reg on retention. They need the V5 with the form, and presumably they issue a new V5 with the old date-plate reg on it.
I was planning on handing the car over to the dealer (in exchange for a bank draft) tomorrow, but having read the DVLA form there are dire warnings that if the car is sold before I get a new V5 with the original date-plate on it, the rights to the personal plate pass to the new keeper.
So, backroomers, do I
... wait until I get the new V5 before handing the car over to the dealer (which could be weeks)
... hand the car over to the dealer, post the V5 and retention form to the DVLA, presumably I will get the V5 later and will have to take it down to the dealer to do the change of registered keeper (red section of V5) thing then? Isn't this a risk for the dealer that I never come back with the V5? How does he sell the car in the meantime?
... hand over the car to the dealer, do the red section of the V5 now, and hope that the dealer doesn't sell the right to my plate to the new owner? There *will* be a comment on the receipt that the plate is not being transferred to the dealer.
Shurely there isn't this faff on every time someone wants to sell a car with a personal plate to someone else?
If it matters, this isn't a manufacturer's main dealer, it's a local "specialist" dealer.
mike
PS and no comments over how vain I am to have a personal plate, thankyouverymuch :-) Read more
The dealer shouldn't be worried. Ownership of the car is titled to him by the receipt you would have given him when he bought the car. The V5 does not prove ownership, only tells the powers that be who is its registered keeper.
When you get the new V5 he will send off the red section at the bottom telling the DVLA that the car has been sold to a dealer and will keep the blue and green parts until he sells the car.
Most people wil hav eheard today of the case where a woman in Lincolnshire was found guilty and jailed for 2 years, for causing the deaths of her daughter and her daughter\'s friend in an accident.
clearly the mother\'s behaviour was stupid in the extreme but in the reporting of the case it was mentioned that the two girls were both thrwon from the car and found ead in a roadside ditch.
This is an awful story but some good can come from it if it serves once and for all to stop people themselves, or allowing their children to, travel unbelted.
From my observation a good 10% of drivers dont belt up and use in the back must be below 50% .
When will people relaise that their chidlren at at far more risk of death or serious harm from this than they are from paedophiles or whatever the latest opoular scare is about ? Read more
Another 'today's court case' in today's press re-inforces the seat belt point.
2 nurses killed, 1 maimed when thrown out of car on roll-over. Driver stayed inside and ok enough to leg it.
As he was uninsured, unlicensed, driving dangerously and 4x drunk it's hardly surprising he failed to insist on seat belting his passengers either, they perhaps could be blamed themselves a little here.
Contemptible pond life, glad he's being put out of harm's way for a couple of years while the rest of us make up for his lack of insurance with our own premiums.
Does anyone know where I can buy sockets (as in socket set) to fit SQUARE male drain plugs of various sizes ? I've got a set that fits female drain plugs (square and hexangular) but cant find others. Using a normal multipoint socket is never satisfactory, they cant grip the flats only the four corners and because a male drain plug is generally slightly tapered they round out the corners and jump when used on a tight plug. Read more
After all that, the drain plugs on one vehicle turned out to be nine sixteenths (14.3mm) and also slightly tapered which meant that the solution of using a half inch drive socket (turned back to front) couldnt be used. So I spent 15 minutes filing a square tapered hole in a hex nut which now fits snugly on to the drain plug and onto to which I can put a normal socket and use extension bars and a ratchet etc. Easy solution which I should have done at the outset. But I'll still buy a Gator socket.
Browse
Hi,
Well the insurer was Sabre, but that's not the point really - the points were 1) that there was a limit on the policy, and 2) that Autowindscreens et al overcharge enormously.
Cheers,
Mark