March 2004

Forum Car cloned?

Flat in Fifth on 19 March 2004

OK advice please.

Miss FiF and her best mate are both totally convinced they saw my car driving past their school this afternoon. Even rang me up because they wanted to cadge a lift and wondered where I was going.

When I said it wasn't me they quoted the registration number accurately down the phone at me. Same colour and model. My reg number is not a local one btw.

Except it wasn't my car. At the time this was parked 15 miles away. Witnesses available to verify that.

I have considered very carefully that this could be a wind up but no real evidence to suggest it is.

So what should I do now if anyting?

Sit tight on the basis that most witness statements are not that accurate?

Read more

Ian (Cape Town) on 22 March 2004

Aha! This happened here recently...

www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=20514&...e

Question Whining Honda alternator

Mikey Jay on 19 March 2004

The car, a Honda Prelude 1990 H reg has covered only 64K. The alternator appears to be whining. Alternators can pack up at around 70K. The trouble with alternators is that they can fail without warning, usually at night when you need headlights. Why hasn't someone designed an alternator which incorporates more advanced warning to the driver of impending failure? Would it not be a good idea to replace the alternator as a matter of course at this mileage to prevent the dreaded red warning light syndrome at night? The whining noise I am told can be caused by a diode failure and the resulting voltage difference creating resonance. (or something like that). Should I make any checks?Voltage output check seems a bit simplistic. Anyone any ideas? Adam or J S perhaps? All the best, Mike Read more

Mikey Jay on 23 March 2004

Thanks for your replies. Could be an idea Sierraman.

Question Escort TD, Air locked????

turbo_wiesel on 19 March 2004

Hi all,
having a bit of trouble :(

Had to go quite a way the other night low on diesel eventually found a station and filled up, about a mile after pulling off it died not instantly it wouldnt rev first then it just coasted down and cut out, tried starting it straight away and it just turned over. Got out and checked the usual stuff and couldnt see anything wrong so got back in and it started, it did this 3 more times before i got home!! after looking into it a bit at home i could see rather a large air bubble in the fuel pipe between the filter and pump, thought i'd use this as an excuse to change the filter, after changing it there was loads of air in it so i cracked a jubilee clip just after a one way valve on the pipe and primed it with the plunger till diesel had forced all the air out. Coming home tonight it cut out about 5 times, every time i checked it seemed to have a bit of air in the pipe. My question is does it need alot of bleeding to get all the air out or is something else causing the problem? car is a 95 escort TD, any help would be great, cheers lads Read more

DL on 21 March 2004

Sorry...me bad - it's a 2001 Y Fiesta!
--
groups.msn.com/honestjohn - Pictures say a thousand words.....

Question Windscreen scratches - 2002 Polo

Stork on 19 March 2004

How much fine scratching is normal on a car windscreen?

We have noticed that our windscreen has thousands of fine scratches where the wiper blades go. We\'d never noticed that on our previous car, although on the new car it\'s only noticeable with oblique lighting (street lights at night or low sun).

Could it just be because the screen is less upright than on the old car, or have we got a problem?

For information:

The car is a 2002 Polo, the windscreen has been replaced twice (once because of the scratching, but with no admission of liability, and once because of vandalism). The present screen is about 11 months old.

The wipers are a non-standard design (another bone of contention in that replacement wipers are not available -- anywhere! -- we ordered ours at the beginning of February and not yet in).

The old car was a 1985 Polo with standard wiper blades and a slightly steeper screen. Read more

Mapmaker on 22 March 2004

I should imagine that it may be because the screen is new and unscratched.

Following many years of use, a windscreen will have lots and lots of little scratches in all directions. It will just look not as good as new. For a newer car the bulk of the initial scratches will arise from the windscreen wiper.

Just like a new stainless steel sink, when the first few scratches arrive they will cause cries of 'oh no my nice shiny new sink has scratches on it' as the scratches will be very visible. After some years wear, the whole surface is so scratched that you don't notice new scratches, and there is a nice patina.

Question Diesel car filled wirh Petrol

ndbw on 19 March 2004

There is no current post on this but I wonder if my experience could be of assistance.
When serving in the RAF we converted from Mosquitos to Meteor jet fighters,ie from twin Merlins using 100oct petrol to twin Derwents using Kerosine.The meteors held 325 galls and their duration was app.60mins the fact that we were one of the few in the south to have this requirement for jet fuel,it was laid down that inm the event of a forced landing at another drome that only had 100oct fuel,it was permitted to fill up with this and add 1pint of engine oil per 100galls.of petrol to ensure that there was no damage to the fuel pumps.
Could this offer a cheaper alternative to draining flushing etc in the event of a mistake when refueling a diesel car

ndbw Read more

sierraman on 21 March 2004

1 pint of oil to 100gals petrol does not seem very much,0.125% ratio.
I have experience of diesel in a petrol car,luckily I did not fill up so had about 5 gals of diesel in with a couple of gals of petrol.Made it home in a cloud of smoke,pumped out as much as possible with an electric fuel pump on the supply pipe,then filled up,making sure to use petrol this time.Rather than discard the petrodiesel mix I added a gallon at a time to a nearly full tank(upper cylinder lubrication?).

Forum What happens with a speeding offence?

clariman on 19 March 2004

Well, it had to happen. One of our household has had our first ever speeding offence. A notice arrived this morning asking for details who was driving the car etc. It also said it was a notice of "intention to prosecute" and gives no mention of any fixed penalty.

So it is a first offence but the speed was 43mph in a 30mph area. Does the lack of "fixed penalty" imply a court appearance.

Any info or ideas on what might happen next would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Clariman
Read more

Dwight Van Driver on 20 March 2004

Mark succinctly outlines procedure.

On return of the first papers (NOIP) to Reg Keeper naming the Driver then ACPO Guidelines on Prosevcution should kick in.

i.e. for a 30mph limit then FP is offered for the range 35 to 49mph. 50 and above goes to a Mags Court.

So a Conditional offer will be made for you to trot along to the Mags Clerks Office within 28 days with the DL, pay 60 pounds, collect 3 points. The DL will be taken off you for DVLA to record the points and returned.

Note if a Phot Licence you will need the counterpart as well.

Note this only applies if you produce a DL with less than 9 points otherwise MC will decline and book you a Court apperance for possible disqualification.

DVD

Forum Insurance legality question

Nellyspania on 19 March 2004

Hi we are a two car family; wife has a mk3 polo which she uses for driving to work etc and i have a seat marbella (sad, i know) which i use for driving to work, rubbish tip etc.
Right, now i am registered as the keeper of the marbella and wifey is registered keeper of the polo. i have cover to drive other cars not owned by myself(as 3rd party cover only).
Originally we were both insured on the marbella, which was registered in her name as that was our only car, until last week when we bought the polo. when she phoned the insurance company to change to the new car they recommended that she transferred the registration of the marbella to me, otherwise she would require a two car policy. so in that case, is it legal for me to drive her car occasionally, because the wording seems very open to interpretation as how do you prove someone 'owns' a particular car apart from the implied ownership due to registation?

Yours confused Read more

Dalglish on 25 March 2004

Hi we are a two car family; >>

Yours confused

simple and most probably cost nuetral solution :

insure both cars for named drivers as insured & spouse.

my insurance company charges no extra for including spouse as named driver.

and as someone else has already said, they throw in business use for either person on both policies.

Forum Vectra CVT

leglessbutsmiling on 19 March 2004

Is there anyone out there who knows why Vauxhall launched and delivered at least 1 vectra 1.8 CVT (mine) and then withdrew the model from the range? Read more

Question Mk3 polo 1.3 cambelt

Nellyspania on 19 March 2004

I think the cambelt is now due for a change, is this a particulary difficult job to do? On my old jetta the main problem was getting the pulleys off in order to remove the lower housing and because of this i got someone to do it for me. Read more

DL on 21 March 2004

The hex-headed pulley securing bolts are the only thing that are gonna give you grief....otherwise it isn't a bad job.

Oh...doesn't the water pump spin to tension the belt? That might be a problem area.

Best ring around for quotes, replace the water pump at the same time.
--
groups.msn.com/honestjohn - Pictures say a thousand words.....

Forum Spyker

Algernon on 19 March 2004

I do not think many of us will be buying one of these, but we can all have some fun on the web site.

www.clockwork.nl/spyker/spyker_360/index.html Read more

borasport20 on 19 March 2004

That is one VERY nice looking car !

just 'cos I know what I'm saying doesn't mean I know what I'm talking about