July 2004
What are the pitfalls of selling your car privately if it is worth a lot of money i.e. £7000 or so ? and what is the best/safest method of payment to accept ? Read more
This Spring I'll becoming to London to begin 6 months of travel. Any suggestions on where to buy a camper van in London for touring Britain and the Continent? Reliability is an important consideration (don't want to be hanging around garages). Price, as always, also important. Hints for re-selling it when return to London? TIA Read more
There are also a number of free newspaper aimed at young expatriates in London, at least one for each nationality.
For example Australian Times.
You will see then in heaps all over central London.
All have free add sections with campers for sale.
My mate has driven less than 1000 miles in his car over 18 months because he has use of a company vehicle.
He drives it at least once a week, to normal temperature, on a 12-15 mile round trip.
He's not changed the oil (10/40 mineral) in this period. How urgent would you say an oil change is? Read more
>>Most cheap oil on the market is merely recycled oil from all those recycling centres plus additives
Really? (Astonishment, rather than disbelief of your statement!)
I've always idly imagined that the reason that oil that's overdue an oil change looks like tar is that it has polymerised - into heavier hydrocarbons, as well as picking up soot & other rubbish, as well as having broken down into smaller hydrocarbons.
Whatever, I've always idly doubted that the oil that comes out of an engine contains much of the original length hydrocarbons? And so is unsuitable for recycling in that fashion. Am I completely wrong? (Or is it fairly straightforward to get out whatever is still the correct fraction?)
A Ford Explorer, that is may be 10 or so years old, has just had it's faulty automatic gearbox replaced with a brand new one. On a test drive it worked fine until the box got warmed up and then it stayed in drive and had to be braked to a halt juddering. Next day, it did the same again.
The garage that fitted it talked of it needing a sensor and said they had taken it to a Ford garage to be sorted out "because it is a Ford part".
As a relative of mine (some distance away)is spending about £1800 on this repair, I am keen to find out as much as I can on this. What does the sensor do?
Any info will be gratefully received.
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Is the sensor story likely to be true? .... Or, as a more general question, why does any automatic gearbox behave like this when it gets hot?
Hi,
I want to get shot of our petrol estate and replace it with somthing diesel.
Would i tbe cheaper to get for instance a astra van instead of a estate astra, i'm thinking initial cost aswell as insurance.
Ian Read more
depending on your budget, these models are showing up in reasonable numbers, at auction, from Motability.
You'll get a low miles, or VERY low miles one if you click Auction View, link to our left.
Watch out for BAD repairs from the, more often than not, minor accident (car park & garden wall) damage, this fleet attracts.
& take a good look inside the car.Some have carried passengers for regular hospital treatments & people with mobilty diffuculties, can wreck pretty trim.
Also, check if it's had a wheelchair crane in the back, lots of holes & mounting brackets removed.
VB
hi have 1993 2.016v calibra 92,000 from new.
has failed mot on exessive play in steering column.
have been told its a loose bolt but needs dash out to change?
have spoke to vaux dealer and told me its failey common and need a new column at £300 plus special order.
they also told me it used to be a prob on mk3 cav.
has anybody had this and found a cost effective way of repairing it ?
many thnaks
spud Read more
You don\'t need to remove the dash to access the column bolts. All you need do is remove the cowling around the upper part of the column, and the flimsy cardboard tray underneath the dashboard that is held on by 5 or 6 twist clips that are easily removed by turning 90 degrees with a flat bladed screwdriver.
The problem you might have is that depending on which bolt is loose, the upper mount is held in place by two bolts, one of which is a sheer bolt (the RH side one) that needs drilling out. The LH bolt on the \"U\" clamp is standard Hex.
If you haven\'t a Haynes manual to hand, I can scan the relevant pages and email them to you. It\'s for a Cavalier, but as it\'s only the bodywork that\'s different to a Calibra, there *shouldn\'t* be any difference in the proceedure.
This is a 1988 sierra ghia automatic which I have owned from new.It has been a fantastic car and has never let me down and passes the MOT 1st time every time. Recently the abs warning light came on so I had the sensors checked.One or two looked a bit grotty so I had all four replaced. The light now goes out on tickover but lights up as soon as I reach 40mph. Have had the ECU interrogated by a Ford dealer who couldnt find anything wrong after 1 hours work so they advised that the cost of finding the fault was more than the car is worth.I take their point but as I am in my early 70s dearly wish to retain the car.Can anyone suggest where the fault lies.I obviously do not want to go to the expense of a new ECU -that would be a bit OTT as the work so far has cost over £500. Any advise would be appreciated.
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thanks to everyone who responded to my query-certainly lots to check out!!
Hi all,
I recently developed a new fault with my golf tdi,mk4. Whenever i brake sharply / go over speed bumps etc the car makes a creaking sound. If i press down on the front of the car whilst stationary it makes the noise. It doesnt seem to be coming from near the suspension but below the engine, any ideas? I\'m selling the car, hopefully, and would like rid of the noise before the aa inspector comes to check over the vehicle.
Thanx for reading this, jay.
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Has anyone used this outfit before? I saw an advertisement in a magazine and checeked out their website (www.allnewcars.co.uk) and they appear to have some good deals.
Richan
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The head gasket on my 1998 Neon failed a couple of months ago.
My regular repair man has replaced the gasket and the car ran for 15-20 minutes then stopped whilst they were flushing out the cooling system. I understand the compression dropped because the hydraulic tappets over presurised.
Since then it has resisted all attempts to get it running.
The car has been taken to a main dealer who reckoned no problems were showing up on their computer diagnostics - they offered to remove the head again but were talking very large sums of money.
I am assured the timing has not slipped during re-asembly. Both the crank sensor and the cam sensor have been replaced but still the car fails to run. Read more
You say they were flushing out the cooling system, do you mean they were using a flushing agaent or running a hose pipe through the system on a hot engine. If so there is your problem, the cold water in the hot head has cracked it may be in several places. If you crank it do you have a spark and fuel if so and the bely timing is correct then it does not sound good. Regards Peter
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Kith - look to your left under HJ's mugshot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?