July 2004
Lexus GS300 Read more
Mark,
As a moderator, I think you should get a distinctive car. This is for sale and located in RLBS - too good an opportunity to miss??
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I am suprised my eyes have not spontaneously combusted just from looking at the picture of the interior!
Hi
I'm looking to replace my front tyres. At the moment the two front tyres are at the indicator limit, the two rears have about 4mm on them. The spare is brand new. They are all Pirelli P6000's. I've read lots of negative comments on the Pirelli's about how difficult they are to balance and the noise they generate.
I've thought about Goodyear Eagle NCT5 ZR's or Michelin Pilot Exhalto's. So i'm a bit confused.
Any comments on what I should change to?
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306 2.0 SE Cabriolet Read more
Yep I think that's what they call the standard wheels.
I've just been down to the local tyre centre. They've offered me a Pirelli P6000 £59 all inc with tyre rotation.
I've heard Toyo's are very soft (not good on wear resistance) The Goodyear's appealed to me but I didn't fancy having two different tread patterns on the car (even when fitted on different axles).
I decided to plump for the Pirelli, no doubt I'll regret it later. Doh!
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306 2.0 SE Cabriolet
I notice that new Fords are often advertised as 2004.25 or 2004.5 etc 'Model Year'. A dealer told me that the cars are the same - it's more related to the special offers that are available. However, I would have thought it was the other way around - ie special offers on the older cars. I was offered a much better deal on .25 model year car than on a 2004.5 but wonder if I would lose out somewhere on the specification.
I checked the brochure, but that was way out of date.
Does anyone know how to tell the difference on the car - is it marked somewhere? Read more
A little bit more.
In the case of the 2004.25 Ford Mondeos in this link, it refers to new, reduced emissions engines which attract lower tax bands for company car drivers:
www.ringways.co.uk/refresh_mondeo.htm
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3905597.stm
This suggests that commuting times will increase by 10 minutes by 2021.
It also says that the average suburbanite travels 6,531 miles a year. Does this mean that the Govt's new charging plan will penalise anyone travelling more than 6,000 miles a year?
It blames people using main roads for short journeys, naming the M62. As we know, the M62 is mentioned every day on Radio 2's travel reports.
As I see it, the M62 problem is that Leeds, Bradford, Halifax, Wakefield, Hudds, Oldham and Manchester are all very close to each other, so close that they are all seen as commuter towns for each other.
Moving house to the town you work in isn't the answer because jobs move quicker nowadays and you will find yourself commuting again.
Anyone who has taken the train from Manchester to Leeds or Bradford will agree that it can (is) a nightmare journey. I found it to be 1/2 hour quicker by car from the far side of Bradford to Manchester compared to the train.
Is an extra lane on the M62 the answer, or is there enough space if we all kept to the rules of the road and moved back to the left lane? Read more
My commuting time has already increased by 10 minutes over the last ten years.
If they recon it will only increase by a further 10 minutes in the next 17 years, someone is deluding themselves, unless the powers that be are really going to get their finger out, or frighten everybody off the roads.
Hi
A while back i posted about my 1997 306 xtdt and how the 10 amp fuse for the dash lights,rheostat and heater blower kept blowing. ( www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=16034 )
well, yesterday i parked up at my house with the lights on,pulled the handbrake on and straight away the fuse popped.no lights.So i levered out the little recessed litter thingy in the center console and there lying under it was a coil of wires,perhaps 12 in total and 5 of them had been completely sheared through by the action of the handbrake! i would like to nominate this for worst design ever beacause these wires are routed right over the back of the handbrake arm, and failure must have happened very quickly. Anyway, my question is apart from the fuse popping every now and then,everything electrical in the car works and these wires seem to end with plastic block terminal thingies (two blocks have 5 very thick wires going to them) and are NOT attached to anything at all, so am i best just to insulate the bare wire ends as best i can, or solder and reattach?
Sorry for the long post, i hope this is of use to someone else with a similar problem. Read more
And so first post stands.unless the wires can be relocated away from handbrake without extending.??
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Was mech1
Peugeot 106XR Quiksilver - Engine cuts out
Help!
I purchased the above S Reg (Sept 98) in May 04. Whilst driving the car home from the garage, a distance of 6 miles, the engine cut out 4 times. The car started immediately on turning the ignition key. I immediately contacted the garage once I finally got home and the car was collected by the garage.
After 1 month I was told that the car was ready for me. During the period in the garage the ECU board was changed, the car was subjected to computer diagnostics at a Peugeot garage ( not the garage that I bought the car from) which showed no faults. The throttle sensor was also changed.
When I finally got the car back it drove beautifully for about 150 miles, over a period of about 3 days, and then the same fault occured. I heard an audible click (like relay contacts opening or closing), the engine cut out but restarted immediately on ignition. Reading the handbook I am suspicious of the immobiliser, fuse or relay contacts, or possibly fuel pump.
Has anyone had a similar problem with this car. I still have a short time of my warrantee left.
Thanks in anticipation.
Romi
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I would reject the car - it doesn't work properly (not 'fit for purpose').
In my recent experience with Peugeot, once you start getting problems like this they can be impossible to fix. My 406 hasn't worked properly for 6 mths (engine misfire) - it goes into the dealer for their last chance to fix it later this month. The dealer told me they're stuffed with cars that have all sorts of unsolveable problems.
That lucky git (with the best job in the world) Mark Evans continues his \"born\" series on the satellite TV channel Discovery Home & Leisure this Tuesday (20th July) from 9pm through to 10:30pm over the next 5 weeks or so. This time he transforms an old rust-bucket Range Rover into the ultimate bolder-crawling beauty! Well that\'s what the website says - although to me the pictures on the website look more like a Land Rover than a Range Rover.
www.i2itelevision.com/4x4
All 4x4 haters are banned from posting in this thread, as well as also being banned from watching the show. Surely you have some trees you can go and hug instead?
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I agree with everything that is said about Mark and his shows, especially the new 4x4 Rebuild.
But one thing wished he or the producers would do, is come down to earth. Since when do you or anybody use brand new parts for every part during a rebuild. We try to use the existing parts if they are in good nick, we clean and rebuild.
If you watched the Cobra series, it started with a clapped out Sierra takeing all the parts off they wanted, then used new parts to build the Cobra.
But I still enjoy the shows, I've taped most of them.
Well, it's a Tourer to be more precise, but I ran out of letters! Car is a 1.6 litre K-series. Had the clutch replaced at the last service to see if this could resolve the problem. Did a bit but not much.
Now I'm thinking it's engine mounts. I notice there are 3, one each end (left and right) of the engine bay, and one from the sump to the chassis. Presumable this third one is what takes up the twisting torque of the engine and dampens natural frequencies of engine/clutch. Is this the one I should try to replace, or has anyone had this sort of problem and rectified it by replacing the other two? All look as easy to replace as each other, so it's just a matter of which one may help cure it.
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance.
Mike Farrow Read more
There are two on the drivers side.one on top.the other under the chassis member.my one was visibly cracked/broken.replaced it and was ok after that.not saying yours has but worth a look.?
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Was mech1
I see on the news that some body called the Institute of Public Policy Reserch has come up with a proposal That VED be abolished and replaced with blanket congestion charging, with drivers being charged for every mile they drive. This would mean that every road in the country would have vehicle recognition cameras, and charges would be weighted against those using busier areas, with high milage business drivers in London paying as much as £141 per month, and those in rural areas (such as myself) getting away with cheaper running costs.
It makes me wonder how the people who make up these publicly funded bodies think the economy works. People who drive high milages invariably do so because their business requires them to, and any increased costs would be passed back to the consumer by those who were not forced into bankrupcy by the charge. The cost would also effect those whose businesses export goods or services which must be difficult enough already with competition from far east countries who can already undercut in many areas. And all this to fund the god of public transport, which never seems to improve no matter how much is thrown at it.
I would not feel particularly comfortable about every officious busybody in the land having access to the full extent of my movements, either. If it ever does come in I could see the number of unregistered cars soaring. Read more
Loading the road tax burden onto fuel would have the same effect as congestion charging - the high milage drivers who are almost exclusively business users would shoulder the burden, with all the implications for the economy that would bring.
Better planning of road junctions and removal of the anti car obstructions beloved of local authorities would on there own have a massive impact on the free flow of traffic. Everyone who has lived in London and drives could name at least ten places where a bus lane has massively increased traffic congestion, not just for private traffic but also for the busses themselves who are ultimately caught in the same jam their lane has caused. A survey the other year reckoned that the average time saved per bus route was 30 seconds since the introduction of dedicated bus lanes.
It's time the powers that be reconciled to the fact that the private vehicle is of massive benifit to the economy. Not just in the freedom of movement it allows, but it's production and the thousands of spin off industries and services it spawns, without which our ecomomy would be on a par with such prosperous nations as Vietnam and Bolivia.
No one wants the whole country covered in tarmac, but leaving road and transport in the hands of those who believe in some sort of car free Utopia where the happy smiling workers have their movements dictated by a state run transport system is not the way to go.
Browse
The new Seat Toledo has a very ugly rear, very Renault like.