August 2004
I have a 2 year old Company Mondeo Ghia X TDCi which has suffered a multitude of problems from new.Last month the rear brakes caught fire whilst my wife was driving my two boys to a party.The problem was sliders/caliper related and repaired under warranty.I wrote to Ford pointing out that for a car costing circa £21k the build quality was poor.Ford responded by offering to pay for the next service as a good will gesture.As a Company owned vehicle I get no benefit from this so I asked Ford if I could transfer the free service to my wife's Focus. Ford agreed (over the phone) and asked I should arrange with the main dealer.The Focus was duly serviced yesterday and Ford then refused to pay, saying they have no record of the agreement to swop the service and it is not Company policy to do so.They have refused to change their mind today and the main agent who is wholly on my side has got nowhere with Ford.I am now a VERY annoyed customer.Do any of you wise people have any suggestions as to how I should proceed as I am not letting go of this issue.
Mutley Read more
My company selling a BMW 316 SE W reg with 75,000 on the clock.
Full BMW Service record. AC etc..
For Sale at £7000. Is it woth it do you think?
I haven't seen many on autotrader at below 8,000
Thanks Read more
Glass\'s says:
BMW 3 Series 316i SE
1.9 Petrol 4-door Saloon
5 Speed Manual Rear Wheel Drive
Year: 2000 W
Mileage: 75,000
Part-exchange Price:
Excellent condition:
£7650
Average condition:
£6810
Below average condition:
£5930
If you want to see Glass\'s take on retail values, click on the link to the left. A couple of quid will give you the trade\'s view on forecourt prices for this car.
After much ?uming and ahing? I?m getting close to a final decision on a new (second hand) car ? thanks to some help from this forum! The current favourite is a bit of a high miler, 150K on a W plate although I?m assured that this is mainly motorway miles. It has a full service history and is an ex-lease car (so I assume would have had all essential repairs ? suspension etc, made at the appropriate time).
In addition to checking the service history and asking question of the vendor to allay any fears I have about any major work that may be forthcoming, I?ve been thinking about buying a warranty. Has anyone any advice on:
- whether they are worth the money (circa £250 pa)?
- are they more essential for higher mileage cars?
- the best places to start looking
- who to avoid?
Many thanks once more for any help/advice
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You can get warranties on any age car with any mileage - If you look on the autotrader website there is one which does it I think. If not I have definitely looked at a company that would do it today as I have been considering getting a warranty.
Recently I have had to put a lot of oil in my 00/W BMW 523 Touring but it doesn't seem to leak from anywhere. There is also a clattering noise on start-up which disappears after a few seconds.
Now I discover that on unscrewing the coolant filler cap OIL comes out. My immediate thought is the cylinder head gasket, are there any other likely causes?
If this is the problem, am I better off going to a BMW dealer, a non-franchised BMW specialist or an engine rebuilder, and does anyone have any recommendations in the Cambridge/Huntingon area?
TIA Read more
My local ind BMW specialist also told me that there have been broken bolts on this engine and BMW have changed the spec to ones that stretch more.
Plastic failure or creep in the aluminium would to me suggest that the threads were undersize in dia or length. They seem to have cut out too much weight when they introduced the M52 engine! Shades also of the Nikasil cylinder bores and plastic water pump impeller.
I have just re-read some of the earlier comments, surely caustic soda is not a good idea for cleaning an aluminium cooling system? As I recall Al dissolves in NaOH to form sodium aluminate. I was doubtful about dishwasher tablets also but their caustic action comes from the silicates in them so is presumably not as alkaline, they don't seem to do any damage to (comparatively pure) Al saucepans although I'm not sure what it would do to castings with their higher alloy content.
BTW Sainsbury's seem to have changed their supplier this year and the surface finish you get is now much less dull and tarnished (not entirely sure this is a good idea, depends what is being removed, if it is the oxide layer it will re-form each time so it is taking some Al with it)
ChrisJ
The small red/white light on the bottom of the passenger door on my 01Y Leon 1.4 has given up coming on when the door is opened, as has the Interior light. Can anybody throw any light as to where the switch is so i can replace it? Also my Dash illumination (lovely though the red is!) is on all the time, and appears to be complety unconnected to whether the headlights are on or not. Is this a usual feature or do i have a problem somewhere?
Thanks in advance! Read more
PS - you may find a squirt of WD40 will do the trick - most of the trouble I've had with this sort of switch in the past has been caused by dirt getting in and causing it to stick, and WD40 has sorted it in every case.
Was having an idle trawl through e-bay and came across this...
cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=...1
It's almost tempting to ring him and ask for a viewing, and then ring the police to let them know where he'll be. Read more
Just received an e mail from Avon and Somerset police - they are going to investigate apparently.
it seems that those complete idiots that drive around without insurance, tax and MOT etc are also stupid enough to advertise the fact!
H
I`ve owned a Hyundai Coupe from new. It is a "W" reg year 2000 and it has done 75000 miles. No big problems with it ( it did have the rear suspension replaced at about 18 months old ) until a few months ago when I suspected a front wheel bearing problem.
After a few visits to the dealer, they replaced the front discs and pads but it did turn out to be the front offside wheel bearing which was then replaced ( total cost £330 ).
A few weeks later I noticed another vibration/noise which seemed to be coming from the rear of the car. Took it into the dealer and the rear nearside hub/wheelbearing was replaced ( cost £188 ).
That seemed okay until a week or so later when I was on the motorway. I know the speed limit is 70mph, however above 75mph there is a strange vibration. This vibration seems to start at the front of the car and feels like it travels through underneath the seats towards the back of the car.
Anyone have any ideas as to what might be causing this?
NIGEL
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strnage your hyundai coupe is having so many faults.
my accent has just hit 130k on a y plate and still trouble free.
btw - dont try and get parts for them - impossible.
tinyurl.com/55ldc
Local Mayor has had the idea to ban single occupancy cars from the outside lane on the A500. This is a dual carriageway with lots of slip roads. People will also be banned from overtaking slow moving vehicles in the left hand lane if they're only in single occupancy cars.
First morning when the inside lane is chocker block with vehicles how does he think people on the slip roads are going to get on the dual carriageway? Does he really think motorists are going to sit behind some slower moving vehicle and accept it? Anyone in a flat cap & rover is going to find themselves pushed along at 70 whether they wanted to go that fast or not! How can frustrating drivers help road safety? It is a well known fact that people drive more dangerously when they are stressed so causing people stress will just lead to more incidents of dangerous driving.
I also find it ironic as just as they are finally sorting out the A500 around Stoke so it doesn't have a couple of useless roundabouts in the middle and instead passes over a flyover; the mayor wants to discourage people from using it. The buses in the city are useless and a large amount of them have been removed from the roads as they are unroadworthy! Luckily he only has control over stoke itself so as soon as the road gets into newcastle borough sanity can prevail!
teabelly Read more
Why cant the champagne socialists just leave us to live our life's and drive our cars.
In the now locked thread about oil prices there was a general view that if oil prices rise the exchequer will benefit. Now I know VAT is levied on fuel at 17.5%, but isn't actual fuel duty a fixed amount (roughly 49p per litre ULSD/ULSP) and not related to the pump price? So apart from VAT, which is on most things, not just fuel, the exchequer won't actually gain a great deal from oil price rises. If we reduce the amount of fuel we use because of the price rises it's possible it will even lose revenue. Or am I missing something here? Read more
Always found the Catch 22 situation the government created for themselves a little amusing (until they rectified it by increasing duty).
Under EU law, car manufactures were obliged to improve the economy of their cars - I think that it might have been to do with Kyoto. As a result (and these figures may be way out) I think that there was a 20% increase in fuel efficiency (over the whole range of a manufacturers cars). As a result HMG lost 20% of its revenue through fuel therefore Duty goes up to cover the lost income.
now things have got so expensive at the pump, manufacturers are under increasing pressure from their customers to make ever more efficient cars, thus losing more money for HMG, resulting in increases in Duty, leading to manufacturers getting even more efficient, leading....... etc
what do people think?
havent driven one, they dont look brilliant but seem great value.
cheers. Read more
They do and it goes once on boost.
Browse
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I had exactly the same symptoms with squeeking brakes.This was identified by the agent as a faulty proportional valve but the brakes then caught fire.The main agent concluded the sliders were faulty and replaced these along with the damaged pads disks etc but not ther Caliper.Having had my wife and two sons nearly cooked I was then on high alert and noticed again that the o/s hub got hooter than the n/s.
The main agent was not too concerned but having " gone mad" in the showroom they doid agree to put the car on the hoist there and then.
It was then whooly apparent that the n/s wheel span freely but the o/s did not and it was agreed the caliper could only be at fault .This has been replaced and the problem is cured......except that I now appear to have a faulty wheel bearing and its going in again next week.
Apart from the problems I have no faith now in the agent as only by going mad with them did I eventually solve the problem.