March 2004
I've been home trading for a couple of months and have just bought an ex-Motability Astra at auction. The car is untaxed. My problem is that the V5 says the taxation class is 'disabled'. How can I change the taxation class to 'private'? When I find a buyer, will the buyer be able to tax the car over the counter at the Post Office, or is there a different procedure?
Thanks for any advice Read more
Can't seem to get the Cruise Control on my Mondeo to work.
I know you have to be going over a certain speed, but is there more to it than simply pressing the ON button. Read more
Thanks for the replies. I got it to work this morning by pressing ON then SET. I was sure I had tried this as it is the way it worked on my old Accord.
Regarding the manual for the car - it simply tells you to press the on button. I don't know if it is an old manual I have but almost everything in it looks different from my car.
at 145k I need to change the head gasket on my mk2 Golf and I need a tool to do this as I don't have any torx or spline sockets at the mo.
Does anyone know what size(s) I would need for the cylinder head bolts?
and what is the difference between torx and spline?
thanks Read more
I did the cylinder head on my 1986 golf gti last year and bought the required tool from a local motor shop - it was a draper tool (can't remember size/torq etc) but it was only about £9 for a set of 2 sizes.
If not Euro car parts I think sell them
Ian
I have a slight concern with which oil to use on a 1997 MK2 Mondeo with the 1800 115bhp Zetec-E unit. It is currently being run on 5-30 Semi Synthetic oil made by Shell Helix.
The Ford dealer recommends this as it meets basic Ford specification. It is an API SJ oil. I am considering running the car on 5-30 Mobil One Fully-Synthetic. I am not really concerned with the cost of the oil but more with the long-term durability of the Zetec unit. It is running fine with the Shell Helix but I think it is only around 30% mixture of synthetic with multigrade. As I do quite a large mileage I am just wondering if any one was had experience or prior knowledge of which is the best choice for the long-term future.
Any help would be much appreciated.
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Your likely to find any brand of 5w-30 will be suitable for ford engines.
I've used fords own E type, Comma (V-cheap!), Carlube triple R (again cheap condidering it claims to stick to the engine like Castrol magnatec).
Cant say ive noticed any major difference in performance, at a push id say the Ford was the best, but only by a marginal amount and probably not worth it for the extra £'s.
Dave.
MY heater matrix has finally sprung a leak on my Pug 306 93 XTDT 128K. Now I know what was causing my windscreen to mist up after 15 mins of driving. It is definitely a coolant leak, as I can smell the antifreeze.
I have the haynes manual and can see that this is quite a tedious job (dash out). I will be doing this job myself, so if anyone has been there and has any shorcuts/tips for me, I would appreciate them.
Cheers
Solara Read more
Hey, your link to the pics did not work, are you able to send me them? Cheers
hi, bought a skoda fabia 1.4 comfort in august 2003. 51 reg, 12000 on the clock.
after about 2 months the power steering failed. blamed ona faulty sensor, and fixed under warranty.
after 3 months we found that after standing overnight the rear brakes bind, break free when reversing off the driveway with a clunk, and then make horrible gratin noises for a few miles. was told that this is \'normal\' due to the open construction of the brake system. this sounds like a load of rubbish to me, they are drum brakes, and i don\'t think they should do this. certainly haven\'t experienced it on my bikes or any other cars i have had.
recently noticed headlights dimming unexpectedly, and dashboard lights dipping then coming back on. mentioned this when i took it in for the £230 service. cough splutter choke. they said they found nothing wrong, so took the battery off, charged it and said it would be ok. the car does 50 miles a day, so charging shouldn\'t be a problem.
anyhoo, went away for 3 days, came back, and car completely dead. central locking not working, dashboard dead. AA came and jumpstarted it. he checked the current drain from the battery when everything off, and registered it at 450mA, as opposed to skoda guide of 150mA. took car to skoda, told them. they said faulty cell in battery, replaced battery. with an electronics degree, i fail to see why a faulty cell in the battery would cause excess current to be drawn from the battery.
anyone else had these problems with fabia? and has anyone experienced \'bad attitude\' from skoda dealers? i want to get to the bottom of these problems before the warranty runs out!!
regards,
jam_cam. Read more
Just to confirm - 1.5 -2.0 Amps. Neither the AA man nor I could believe it either so he called in to their technical centre to check. Numbers on his ammeter were about 2" high so no mistaking where the decimal point was!
Car now gone so I don't have to worry about it any more.
Ian
Hi,
I had my car serviced by a well-known chain of garages on Saturday morning, as per the rules of my aftermarket warranty, as normally i hate paying people for something i could easily do myself.
Anyway, i was in a hurry when i picked up the car so forgot to give it a once over myself until yesterday evening (150 miles later), when i noticed that the dipstick showed an overfill of approximately 4-5ml.
I've searched the forum for previous threads on this subject, and they tend to say that a slight overfill will cause no real problems, but should i attempt to drain a small amount back out again (or demand that the garage do it, rather)? It depends what is considered 'slight' i suppose.
Thanks in advance for your opinions and advice
The car is an M reg Escort 1.6 Zetec Read more
When cars came back overfilled by 5mm, I always assumed it was because 5 litres had been thrown in instead of the 4.5 needed (always DIY now so fill to the mark as it makes it easier to detect any drop).
Thinking a bit more, the filter quantity is equally likely. How does a garage dispense oil? I assume they have a big drum with a spigot?
I've got an old shape Megane ('98 model) and tried opening my bonnet this morning, but pulling the opening lever did nothing. I suspect the release cable has snapped or come loose. But I'm keen to open the damn thing and can't think how to attack it! Any ideas?
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Please to see you got it open. A friend had exactly the same problem on a Megane Scenic. After much jiggling we got it open. The catch, springs, and mechanism were stiff and corroded on his 2 year old car. Much grease and WD 40 needed. I suspect the shape of the bonnet puts the mechanism in line with some sort of exposed airflow which drys out the catch etc. Water may also be a problem. Some cars seem to have have locks 'burried down' in more of a procted position.
Hi
I see that prices for many used cars are very keen at CarGiant (aka the Great Trade Centre). I rang them and they said that their prices are non-negotiable. But is this really true?
I would be buying used without part-exchange, paying cash.
Anyone had any success with haggling there? If so, is there a best time of day, week, month to have a go?
Sol Read more
Fords of Winsford don't haggle either, the screen price is what you pay regardless of how much you argue!
PP
Moved to Technical - more chance of a response. ND
My car is a 2.2 petrol Zafira 2001 model with 57000 miles on the clock. It has a most annoying intermittent fault that the Vauxhall dealer seems to be at a complete lose to know what to do and is unable to cure the fault. Problem is the hydraulics to the clutch. It works fine when running round town but as soon as I go on a run of 20 miles or so at a constant speed of 70 ish all hydraulic pressure is lost leaving the vehicle without a clutch. Bleeding the system restores everything but it happens again after another 20 miles and so on..... Dealers remedy to date has been to check the hydraulic joints, replace the master cylinder all to no effect. I should also say that the car does not use any hydraulic fluid when the fault appears. Any ideas anyone? Read more
You will need to check on the pipe run from master to slave.
if it is running close to say the exhaust/heater hose possibly this may well be the problem.But as I said could be slave cylinder has a problem.as you are not losing fluid can only be one of two probs.heat or air intake from bad seal or connection
Browse
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Posting is an alternative but then you get a two to three day delay. Most customers want to get their hands on the car as soon as they can, particularly as once they have insured the new car they may not be covered on their old one.
At least when you go to the office you can collect the tax disc.
His gripe is that they don't do anything differently at the LVLO as they used to do at the post office.