April 2004
Has anyone had experience of buying a car from Drive the Deal? I\'m currently looking at buying a new UK sourced VW Touran, the deals through online brokers look very attractive. However I\'ve had a bad experience some time back when buying through a broker. Thanks for any pointers... Read more
Has anybody any info on traveling by car to le mans for the 24hr race? Cost,Campimg,Sailing etc? is it worth the travel for the weekend.Thinking of a lads beer weekend! Any opinions welcome. Read more
Using new fangled technology, you can now follow the entire race
in English on Radio le Mans, set up especially for the
event.
>>
Take a small (pocket sized) FM radio with some headphones. Much cheaper than buying headphones with built in radio on site.
Radio Le Mans is excellent with interviews etc.
Little chance of a stand seat this year, unless you buy one from a fan with noshows.
When I went 4/5 years ago I think we made a big mistake going through the town.
We travelled in an XJS V12 with top down on a hot weekend - Excellent!!!!.
En route back we had to run the gauntlet of English fans having a beer or two and firing water pistols at us in the traffic.
Great fun even in the holding area for the ferry admiring the machinery. Lots of sleeping bags on the floor on the way back cos not many other travellers. Then lots of salutes up the A3 north toward London.
Do it!!!. Le Mans is taken over by Brits for the weekend.
Hi
Having a prob. with my Golf 2.0GTI 1996 (35,000 miles)AGG engine code.It has started to switch off when I am about to stop after I push the clutch down, for eg. at traffic lights. It runs 100% in between this. Prior to switching off absolutely no indication that there is a problem. Starts up first time after these episodes.
I have changed plugs and it has made no difference, cleaned distributor cap, and checked lead connections.
Any ideas?
Thanks
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A colleague's 2.0 Seat suffered from this symptom recently (older car, higher mileage) the garage checked for vacuum leaks on the inlet manifold side (changed a hose I think) and cleaned the idle speed control valve. £170 later the car is running ok again! Good luck!
Hi
The end pipe has come away (at the seam) from the back box on my Escort.
Anyhow, my question is, is it worth replacing it with a genuine Ford part, or are KwikFit, etc. as good?
Cheers
Mike Farrow Read more
No offer of a 3yr warranty, though the back box comes with a 2tr guarantee, so I'm not complaining :-)
They also have a guarantee of replacing brake pads when they wear out for as long as you own the car! Not bad food for thought...
I have just bought a 2004 Terrano that only came with a radio cassette I would like to fit an auto changer to this and would like to know what makes/models of changer will fit this car Read more
This site may help.www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/default.php?cPath=292_308
Just a little post to extoll the virtues of these systems, I had cause to use them today whilst turning as I entered a roundabout and saw a car that I had not noticed. It was of course totally my fault, I washed the windscreen at the wrong time and hence didn't see the oncoming car. :-(
Anyway, they work brilliantly, the Accord pulled up quickly in mid-turn with a minimum of fuss, to be honest, I think the driver of the other car got the biggest shock as I had been approaching quite quickly. I gave a smile and a cheery wave to apologise but I don't think she was impressed!
I just thought it was weird that if I had made the same drive in my own car I would undoubtedly have crashed it as it dones't have the driver aids...
Blue Read more
Lol! :-)
Well, Red H wouldn't be a bad one, but I was thinking of just changing it to Blue, that way it isn't linked to any particular brand and I won't ever need to change it again, and erm, hopefully I won't need the Brown Trousers name again, that was a one off!
The Blue Oval name isn't the worst bit though, I still drive the Fiesta to work and have even opened it up to show some of my customers who were looking at Jazz and Fiestas what the interior of the Fiesta is like. That way I save them from having to make the trip to the Ford garage, aren't I kind? ;-)
Blue
Time to sort out the rust bubbles which finally started to show rust through. From previous discussions, everyone favour to use "zinc rich" primer and then several top paint and lacqued coating. Questions are,
1) Can anyone recommend a local bodyshop around London Tower Hamlets areas? I want a quote and if under £100, I'll let bodyshop to deal with it.
2) Which zinc-primer has the highest zinc content?
3) Where can I buy it in London? How much?
4) The rust is in rear arches and extending to a 1cm x 1cm area on surface facing the side of the car. Car is dark blue metallic Nissan QX. Should I spray paint like using aerosol or should I hand paint? Any advice on the use of brush if hand paint?
Any advice welcome. Thank you very much.
Gazza
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'Davids' zinc primer (available in aerosols - possibly tins as well) is reckoned to be pretty good at holding back the rust.
Graeme
One of my customers has a P-reg fiesta 1.25 it has covered only 27,000 miles . What do people suggest in regards to timing belt replacement , my book says 100,000 miles or 10 years is that pushing it ? Or are these relatively safe to leave till the due time ? Read more
Andrew,
Thanks for detailed replies - very helpful! Is the procedure for cambelt replacement the same for a Focus with the 1.6 zetec s engine?
Hi once again! More problems with my citroen ax, after recently getting a new clutch and exhaust fitted!
My problem is that as I was coming up the road this evening, my accelerator pedal stuck so I couldn't release it to slow down - I had to put my foot on the clutch to disengage. It only happened for a couple of seconds and then popped up again, thankfully, but it gave me quite a scare...
Can anyone give a hint as to what might have caused this - (I'm not sure if this is connected, but if I'm approaching a turn-in/junction in 1st gear and slip into neutral, the car seems to rev a bit before idling)
Thanks in advance for reading the post and for any hints before I get back into the thing again :-)
CMM Read more
I can't comment on the AX as I am not familiar with the set up. But it is a relitively simple car, so it may be very easy to do. A Haynes manual (Your local library have them) will show all. On my Solara, it was very easy, just like a bicycle, ie. one holding nut at the carb end which pinched the inner cable tight. Undo this and pull out cable. Thread new cable in, pull up slack and tighten pinch nut. Thats all. I think a new cable was about £3-4 many years ago. They really are similar to a bicycle brake cable. Greasing the inner cable is the key. A garage may not be too bothered with this messy part. A pity as it is crucial.
I am shortly having to sell my Legacy GLS Estate (my third) due to purchase of new business which necessitates running a commercial.The purchase includes a sign written van so I need to sell privately within the next 4 to 6 weeks.
Parkers guide recommends £3025 for a private sale and £3295 from a main dealer. However, my local dealer has a 97 P on the forecourt at £4995!! older than mine and without my elec sunroof.I was told to advertise above £4k and reduce to £4k, which seems very optimistic.These figures are way in excess of Parkers, so rather than waste time and money advertising in various sources, should I try Autotrader only and at what realistic price? The stats are 98R, MOT Dec, tax Nov, 83k miles, 4 brand new tyres, never abused.
Just how accurate is Parkers,because the price diff between a guaranteed car from a dealer, and a private sale, albeit with fsh and warranted mileage, seems minimal?
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Legacies, even estates, seem hard to sell. I don't think comparison with one at a dealers it that useful, TBH, since many people will pay a huge premium for a car from a fracnchised dealer.
Why not try the eBay route?
Browse
Around 8% - pretty much equivalent to getting A/C & metallic for free. I'm sure I could have got within £500 of this via my local dealer, but I wanted a competitive price with zero effort on my part. The fact that I'd also been less than impressed with the sales / service of several local dealers was also a factor.