July 2004
Anyone with good ideas how to keep car upholstery looking as good as new (apart from getting seat covers)? My new Fiat Panda has great yellow upholstery (sounds a bit odd but it isn't) but I'm a bit concerned about how long it will stay looking good! Thanks Read more
I\'ve just replaced the brake fluid on my car using a Gunsons easibleed kit. The difficulty I had was getting the fluid to flow at a reasonable rate from the rear brakes. Afterwards I thought it might be something to do with the compensating valve. As the rear of the car was jacked up, the valve would presumably restrict the flow to the rear (as if the car was lightly loaded). The wheels really need to be removed to get at the bleed nipple so I presume the technique should be to lower the rear of the car so the drums are resting on blocks of wood so the valve works as though the car is loaded and allows more fluid through. Has anyone had a similar experience - does my theory make sense?
Thanks Read more
I've found I can bleed the rear brakes on my 94 Passat with the wheels in place and the car standing on the ground. It is a bit of a contortion though.
What I have discovered is that the bleed nipples are different spanner sizes front and rear!
Cheers, SS
Until yesterday I used to drive straight over those 1 metre square 150mm high humps which are usually spread 3 across the width of the road.
Perhaps it was the type of road or the view was improved by the setting sun, but I noticed that cars I was following were doing the same and apparently just missing the engine sump or exhaust by no more than a millimetre or two. A Ford Focus maybe even scraped a bit.
It occurs to me that I have been dicing with, well maybe not death, but at least a shock and a big bill.
I think from now on I'll be riding over the humps with one wheel and knocking hell out of the tyre, wheel and suspension.
Anybody damaged their cars this way? Read more
Good point, NW. This is called 'designed confusion',or something. The idea is that nobody really knows who has priority so everybody slows down. We had some here in Sunny Swindon but they were replaced with 25minute traffic lights a while ago.
What I would like to know is why (in Swindon anyway) all the humps have been placed in what I would call through routes; no houses actually on that bit of road, it simply leads from one area to another. Surely they should be placed in proper residential streets? I wouldn't mind one outside my house, the way people whizz up and down here just to save 0.02sec. before they get to the end of the road. On the other hand, maybe the noise of all those 4x4s crashing over them without slowing down (and my brother-in-law) would keep me awake all night.
I, for one, don\'t get the Sunday Times...:-)
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"poking fun at his own grasp of technology"
I did wonder, but I'm not sure that works in an article where the technical content is key. After all, he goes on to discuss specific power output, although he wrongly identifies the Charade as the first 100hp/litre offering (decades out, I'm afraid), so maybe you're right, if that was a bluff as well!
For all that, I did enjoy it. I can see the canal boat reference coming in useful here...
I had a wheel bearing replaced by a Unipart garage. They said they had difficulties removing the old bearing. Ever since there has been a brake shudder from this side. I tried new disks, but there the rotation was still eccentric. What else can it be? A bent hub or misaligned bearing? Read more
It sounds like they haven't installed the new bearing correctly. I recently replaced the bearing on my 306, it wouldn't come out even with a 20 ton press on it. In the end we went to a garage and they told us to remove all the races until just the outer race was left in the hub. Then run a ring of weld around the inside of the race and let it cool. It then just pops out! The theory being that as the weld cools in contracts, pulling the race with it.
Anyway, perhaps they just kept pressing until it did come out or somehow damaged the hub pressing the new one in. Either way I'd take it back to them and kick up a fuss.
You say you have tried new discs and there is still run out on the hub, have you made sure that the hub face and the rear of the discs were spotless when you installed them?
Now I know this is just going to screw your Sunday morning up.
(and Mon, Tues, wed....polo firl and HF?????)
www.tinyurl.com/5e8ot
www.tinyurl.com/48vw5
Those timings...... they must be hellervah good drivers or whizz kid keyboard operators.
DVD Read more
I've seen that for real! It was an advert for some far east tyre company and there was a doddery driver attempting to parallel park into a space. Before the reversing lighsd were barely on, another car had slid sideways into the space just as in tinyurl.com/4oqm4
Ammazing.
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Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
Hi everyone
I've recently started driving my beloved Polo again after about 3 months of only using it every few weeks just to warm the engine up and make sure it was still running.
I drove it again till it was down to the red on the petrol guage, then filled it up - and then noticed that it was going down a lot quicker than before. I used to get about 360miles from a full tank. This time, I've only got about 280miles!!
I am going to give it a few more full tanks just to make sure, but is there anything else that i could be looking at in the mean time?
(I've checked the brakes etc and they're all fine)
Thanks in advance Read more
Binding brakes, dirty air filter, slight leak somewhere, faulty fuel regulator? Perhaps it will improve on its own with a bit more use, also a dose of fuel system cleaner wont hurt!
I am going abroad this summer with the car. Do i need a GB sticker aswell as the one incorporated within the number plate? Secondly whats the speed limit towing a trailer in France? Read more
Someone may be able to help you if you mention the car you're trying to do the job on!!
We've had a thread on ugly rears and ugly fronts. Following on from this what good-looking cars can you think of that are spoiled by one stylist's slip of the pen? Here are some I can think of:
Mercedes A-class - odd rear window/C-pillar shape (forthcoming replacment looks better.
Alfa Romeo 156 - offset number plate looks like a trade plate.
Citroen C2 - design spoiled by silly side window styling.
Early 90's BMW 3 series - (when BMW still made good looking cars!)- oddly sculpted sill panel looked like it has been dented by driving over a high kerb!
Cheers, Sofa Spud Read more
But who first thought of putting the number plate there? Saw
a Mitsubishi Evolution yesterday with the plate on the corner of
the front bumper.
I gather it's placed there to help get some air into
the radiator. Surely a design fault?
Far from it. It shows good engineering design in that they aren't letting a styling convention get in the way of providing the best engineering solution.
With the 156 there is an element of styling and an element of cooling need. With the 158 it would appear to be more of a styling exercise.
Let's face it, the 407 manages to mount the plate centrally AND have a grille that could swallow a small south american country, so if that's the alternative I'll settle for the asymetrical approach, ta.
I am going to use veg oil from a local fish and chip shop (filtered) if I get an old diesel car.
I was wondering if anyone knows what a non petroleum based white spirit is, what is the brand name and where to buy it? and how much to add?
Then the duty to pay will be about 15p a litre, (yes I am going to do it legally).
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"What pumps do peugeot 106,205,206 and 306 have?" - Haynes manual for 205 1982-90 describes Bosch and Lucas/RotoDiesel pumps.
Browse
Nope, it was brilliant. The day after I used it my car was on display at Beaulieu at the Southern Counties RS Owners' Club rally (they had invited a bunch of BMW, Alfa and Peugeot drivers along) and it won best car on stand, partly I'm sure due to the spotless interior.
The fact that it broke down on Monday is entirely unrelated.
Pleased to say that it's now fixed. Dodgy RPM sensor/sensor lead off the flywheel.