February 2004
Can anyone help, I am looking for a body shop to do a dent removal and bit of paintwork on the boot of my car. The mobile repairers are no good as it's in a difficult central location in Edinburgh and will take a while to do. I have had a couple of very expensive quotes and wondered if anyone knows of an independant body shop or repairer in or around Edinburgh.
Thanks Read more
Dear All,
The C5 went into Citroen Dealer for non urgent body repairs and is there for 2 weeks. No problem.
Get call from dealer today to say whilst at subcontractor, battery has gone flat (no explanation given to my question of why?) and key code for radio has been triggered and what is it please? They are asking becuase although the radio was factory fitted but is not apparently on the Citroen system. I don't have it so they will contact the dealership who sold me the car to see if they have it.
A quick search of the HJ site gives me some useful tips under coded messages in 1998 but does not give me any other consequences of unexpectedly flattening a battery on a car with an alarm, satnav, computer etc. (my serach question may have been too complex)
Questions:
1) What other things should be checked ( i.e. could have gone wrong) before I accept the vehicle back from dealer?
2) Will this cause damage to the battery?
3) If so how can I check?
Your thoughts would be most welcome
Regards
Vercin Read more
Just a quick thank you note to you three for your postings. They were vey helpful.
FYI. A front wing was replaced and the baterry was, therefore, disconnected. With respect to the radio code, dealer now confirms one is not necessary for the C5. Dealer apologised for their error.
Thanks people
Vercin
As i'm sure you all know, the Mini cabrio will be launched this summer, branded as 'Mini Open'.
I am considering ordering one with a view to keeping it for the summer then selling it on at (hopefully) a modest profit after 3-4 months.
What does the backroom think of this plan? Is it likely that Mini Opens will be changing hands at a premium, as the hatches did for the first 12-18 months? Are there any obvious pitfalls i should be aware of?
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Sell in May next year when, like all ragtops, price will be highest and have fun in the meantime.
I know now when it is time to change your car. When you see a car, abandoned in a layby the same year as your own!
Saw, last night, a P reg Escort abandoned looking like it’s being picked clean of parts and kicked in at the same time. Probably no doubt be torched eventually as that is the routine these days.
Seems the whole life of a vehicle is getting shorter and shorter these days. So the question I ask is will this savage depreciation thing get worse or better in future years?
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Hi jazz
You must be in Saltash then!
I am around 10 miles from you.
I must be one of few who has parted with a four figure sum for a 10 year old motor, then again I have bought a Discovery!
FSH and 95K on the clock. Those TDIs go on for ever!
However the same rules apply. Rather than spend 15K upwards for a 4 year old model, I chose the route that would get the spec I want and at the right price, and minimal depreciation. That vehicle will still be worth £1000 in ten years!
Talking of P reg, I had to sell my P reg petrol Xantia over e bay, just needed to get shot of it. £460 I got for it, still someone got a bargain! I would rather they use it themselves than sold it on for a profit. If I were not fussy about a car, it's the sort of thing I would do.
Hugo
We are under political pressure to use public transport. Seems to me that...
If I have to catch the bus I'll need to get out of bed twenty minutes earlier to allow time to get to the stop with a margin. If I'm in bed and someone offers me the chance to stay there another 20 minutes on a winter's morning, I'd pay a fiver to be allowed to do so.
It's raining! Aargh! Ooh, a nice man with an umbrella will hire me one - oh, I'll pay £2.50 for a half hour use of that, while I wait at the stop, no trouble. Ta mate.
Oh this bus is so CROWDED. What? For a premium I can have a seat on my own, with all the legroom I want? Sure, I'll slip you a quid for that, thanks chum.
Oh this darned briefcase and shopping bag. It's such a struggle. What's that you say? You'll carry it for me, keep it safe? Ok! You're on! Have a 50p tip!
And now I've arrived, with a ten minute walk in the rain to where I need to be. Blow that, I'll pay £2.50 to get off exactly where I want.
So let's see. For that one journey I'd happily pay £11.50 over and above the standard fare not to do it. To be fair, coming home the bed bit doesn't apply. And it might not be raining. So call that £4.00.
So to avoid one day's commute by bus I'd happily pay £15.50 to keep my car then.
Gonna take a lot of pressure to make me change...
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Living (as I once did) just outside Cambridge, and commuting to London.
Either, leave house 7.30, no traffic so drive to station, catch 7.45 train.
Or, leave house 7.36, hit morning rush hour, just about catch 8.15 train.
Or leave house 8.01, cycle 3 miles to station (lovely in summer, virtuous in winter) catch 8.15.
That half hour in bed well worth the 3 miles each way on the bike. I shall leave the debate of commuting by train to somebody else, but central London is not practical in a car for commuting.
There have been rust bubbles on right-rear-wheel arch of my 1995 Nissan QX. The bubbles were first noticed 6 months ago, covering a surface area of 10mm x 10mm. Now the bubble is getting more pronounce and started to spread round the folded part of metal towards the side of the car. Paint is not cracked. No rust is showing. Mechanically, it is perfect.
It has done 125k and I am planning to use it until it either dies (probably at around 250k), or when I finish my training contract in 3 years time.
Is it worth getting it fixed? Will the bubbling spread more quickly from on now?
How much would a body-shop charge to do this?
Is this a small enough job for me to do it myself? If I do it myself, it will be summer 2004.
Any advice welcome.
Thanks,
Garrison
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Aprilia:
Well, the thing is that it has not got bigger since last June when I first noticed it. It is not a normal rust bubble either. It looks (and feels) like the finishing at the sills of Mk3 Golf/Polo/Passat. A sandy finish rather than a polished finish. I am very busy at the moment (busy season in my field of work) and I need my car until April. I guess I would DIY it in late April - August.
With regards to the auto box, I am planning to have it changed every 30k (about once a year). My QX takes 9.6 litres according to the service CD. I had it done at the 100k service and the Mechanic charges my 25 pounds. I am guessing that the LSD also uses the ATF. Am I correct?
Our newly acquired (November 03) 2000 Mondeo 2.0 Zetec (old shape) has developed a wet drivers footwell. It seems like rain water, but there are no obvious signs of how it is getting in! Any ideas? Read more
My 95 mondeo had this problem but only when parked facing downhill and raining.
Pollen filter rubber seal does not seal against bulkhead. Lots of rubber mastic solved the problem.
I was recently driving south of Paris and had just passed through some dreadful jams (it is nice that there are signs telling you how long it will take to get to a particular junction) and needed to make up a little bit of time so I went a little bit over the posted speed limit.
Unfortunately there was a bliding flash which I presume was a camera taking a pretty photo of my face. Am i likely to be fined etc etc.
BTW for those of you who are off to France, the police are now stopping anyone doing more than 136 kmh on the 130 kmh stretch of the autoroute. It is incredible how much slower the French drive now! Read more
I've seen a speeding fine go to a British registered car from Belgium, turned out to be about £90. There were two EUR prices, that was the cheaper one. I don't understand what the detail on the penalty notice was, but appeared to be doing over 136kmh in 100kmh section.
I managed to reverse my car into a wooden lampost the other night. Foolish I know.
There was a huge arc of creosote on the corner of the bumper and some on the rear wing. The following day I t-cut the affected area and re-polished. I now have a series of small black scrathes on my bumper. The rear wing has a dent about 1/8" deep and 1.5" diameter, the paint has split where the metal folds in to meet the bumper. It doesn't look so bad, but partly because of the paint split and partly 'cos I'm a sad type who likes to keep my car polished and dent free (parking the furthest away form supermarket entrances, trolley bays, vetting adjacent cars for baby seats, any sign of of a careless driver(says me) and definately not parking next to 4x4's and MPV's).
I got a quote of £300 + vat to re-paint the back bumper, take out the dent and re-spray the whole the rear wing (Leon Cupra in Yellow).
Do people think that this is the sort of job that the dents-away type companies could do? How good a job do they do? Will they match thepaint accurately?
Despite having full no-claims and protected I don't want to claim on insurance, 'cos I'm sure they'll just reclaim it back the next couple of times I renew.
Cheers Read more
Don't know about the dent, but Chips Away did an excellent job on some botched bonnet paint job on my Alfa 155 last year. He repainted an area where someone had applied touch-up paint with what looked like a trowel and covered in some other areas. Totally invisible for about £95.
1. middle lane motorway hoggers
2. fog lamps on with no fog around
3. keep foot on brake pedal and blind driver behind when at lights person.
thank you. Read more
Agree with RF - it's common courtesy and prevents people who want to go straight ahead getting stuck behind you.
Don't see how flashing lights all the way through the sequence is a problem....maybe we shouldn't indicate at all in that case.
Browse
Steve Walkers body shop Whitburn Industrial Estate Bathgate.