August 2004
Hi all. My wifes R25 Has recently started to emit blue smoke when it's driven off first thing in the morning. It only seems to do it when the engine is stone cold and been left for a considerable period of time.
I once had a Sierra that did this and the valve stem oil seals were replaced.
The cars a 1.4 and I'm wondering what the likely cause is and the probable cost to fix. Read more
Just returned (safely thankfully) from a hospital appointment in Lewisham (Sarf Lundun for any of you norveners). Despite it being a general hospital the available parking area was about the size of a tennis court and was already full when we arived at about 09.15. No problem I thought, the place of my birth has many convenient side roads in which to park so I dropped Mrs V. off and went off to park with the kids. WHAT A NIGHTMARE! Cars, everywhere, no entry signs, one way streets, speed cameras, road humps, bus lane cameras, worst of all, street after street of residents only parking zones, temptingly devoid of all but a few vehicles. Not being a wanton lawbreaker though, I drove around for about 20 minutes searching for somewhere to park. In the end I found a recently vacated Pay & Display spot about half a mile from the hospital and paid my money. Whilst waiting for my wife what I then saw was a plague of parking attendants constantly combing the area obviously hoping to pick off anyone unfortunate enough to be 30 seconds late. We later went into the adjacent park and I watched as one of them noted my car down with about 20 mins of time left. Then another came and did the same thing. I then got in the car with my boys and waited. Sure enough, just before my time was up they both returned from different directions ready to write yet another ticket. You could see the disappointment as I drove off with about a minute left :(
Once upon a time this sort of thing only went on in inner London (and of course other town centres) but now it's like a creeping cancer just waiting to swallow us all up. At the rate they're going in Lewisham there'll be nowhere left to park soon and it'll become a ghost town. Where's all this going to stop? Read more
The hospitals in my area have introduced an exclusion zone so that staff who live within a mile of their workplace cannot park at the hospitals.
There are exclusions if they have to travel as part of their work or are registered disabled.
Took car for MOT yesterday , noticed A/B warning light was on . Car needed tyres for MOT . Customer phones this morning saying A/B light is on . There's me assuming she knew ! The law of sod in full flow . Anyone know any reason and or fixes , apparently key / alarm fob have been playing up recently .
Cheers in advance Read more
Thankyou Renault family {P}. That apparently did the trick .
Well, Mrs P's tax disc expires at the end of this month and the reminder arrived early this week. Wow thinks patently - efficiency from Swansea! They've given me an extra week's warning! How kind of them.
Ha.
I have just spent my lunchtime going to the Post Office, giving them a cheque, getting a tax disc, coming back to the office, walking to the office door, stopping, turning round, going back to the Post Office, giving them the tax disc back, taking my cheque back, and coming back to the office sans any form of new tax disc. Why? Because tax discs expiring 31 August 2005 are not available until Monday, so on autopilot the PO lady gave me one expiring in July. Of course, I only noticed this while looking at it once I'd got back.
SO WHY REMIND ME THIS WEEK????????
Thank you, DVLA, for wasting one of my lunch breaks.
Of course, a week tomorrow I will be on hols til the end of August. Next week I will be doing a fair impersonation of the fly with a blue behind trying to clear things ready to go*. So, do I drop a client in it, cancel the holiday, or take the fine?
Votes please.
*though I doubt this will affect BR attendance. Priorities, priorities, Read more
I HATE getting my tax disc and agree with most of the above about how annoying it is and how theres soooo much hassle.
Its not suprising some people dont bother. I do by the way
just so you know!!
We have been away in scotland or wales and its happens to be the same time each year when our Volvo needs taxing, its neat getting it stamped in a new place each time and also makes you look more like a local, as climbers who carry lots of expensive kit about its nice to have a local disc, we were told thiefs are less likely to target local cars!
Why do there seem to be so many K reg red Astras around, or is it just me? Read more
>>DESASTAR (wordplay - anagram)
But not a very good one. You have one too many "s" and one too few "r".
I'm in the market for a mid-sized diesel MPV for about £12k. I plan to keep it for at least 6 years. Looking at the supermarkets, I've narrowed my choice down to the Renault Scenic 1.5dci(80), Focus C-Max 1.6tdci and Vauxhall Zafira 2.0dti. I could get the Scenic new and the others nearly-new.
We've driven the Scenic and love the interior and looks but have a nagging fear about the build quality/reliability a few years down the line. Is it worth the risk?? Are Renault likely to have solved their quality problems?
The C-max is nice inside though smaller. The Zafira looks OK and has 7 seats (occasionally handy) but even the Elegance model is very drab inside. There are also concerns about the dti engine.
Please help. Thanks Read more
"and (IMHO) nice styling"
got any of that smoke left over for me? must be
strong stuff.
It's the same stuff Renault designers were using when they were working on their current generation of cars (Avantime, Vel Satis.. anyone?).
I'm currently looking for a second hand Saab 93 for upto £6500 but have noticied that there are a few nice 95's in the same price bracket. Anyone have any advice or opinions on which model to go for (93 or 95)? I'm not intending to do a lot of mileage (10000 max pa) and most of it urban with the occasional weekend excursion. Having checked consumption rates, insurance and servicing the overall running costs for both the 93 and 95 look to be the same. Are there any (less than obvious) pros/cons in going for the larger car?
Many thanks Read more
No contest unless you need the hatch. More room and more comfort in the 9-5. 9-5s are a bargain, for some obscure reason they seem to be totally undervalued. Mine is the 2.0 eco manual with the Saab performance upgrade (to 192bhp from 150), and Eibach suspension. 35mpg at 100mph (in Germany - got back today). Quietest car I've owned. Go for it!
Hello all,
Has anyone got experience of either of the above cars?
They both seem to be good value used.
I'm interested in getting one as a second car to replace my 106.
Any convertible would do, but it must be cheap!
Read more
As the EGG advert says; there's one born every minute.
The budget deficit is going through the roof. Banning Filipino contract workers from going to Iraq will cost the Gov't $100m in lost homeward remittances a year. A newly confident re-elected President negotiates with terrorists in Iraq holding a truck driver hostage and pulls her troops out of the country to get him back, thus understandably at a stroke inflaming the coalition and coddling the hostage-takers, yet did little or nothing about the Western hostages held by the Abu Sayyaf, who were bought out, with the local Army commander taking allegedly 20% of the several million $. He's still got his job.
A strongly Catholic country with 84m people already and growing at 2-3% a year yet the Church frustrates any attempts at birth control, with bishops and cardinals meddling in politics at every turn. No divorce, thus abandoned wives and illegimate offspring keep on rising in numbers.
Uncollected customs duties run into billions. Try bringing a motor vehicle into this country (we just brought a bike). Money under the table at every stage. Even when you get as far as the gate to leave the Customs yard, the guard requires a "consideration" to let you out. Companies and individuals routinely under- or fail to declare income for tax purposes with impunity. Congressmen have annual pork barrels. Many use these wisely and well, many just pocket them. Most declare assets (as they have to annually) as a modest few thousand dollars, yet somehow manage to live in $20m homes in Forbes Park, have about 6 Landcruisers and an army of retainers and bodyguards. Our best doctors (and they are very good) re-train as nurses and you'll find them in the NHS earning 15 times what they get here.
Well that's all a bit contenttious to address so to boost revenue our good Lady President decides on tax increases: a new tax on text messages in a country which has the world largest text message volume, an increase in transportation fares, taxes on cheap alcohol. The necessities and comforts of the chap in tthe street. Needless to say in a poor country the rich keep the goldmine but as usual Juan de la Cruz gets the shaft. So considerable discontent. Yes, I'm getting to the motoring bit........
And the Philippine Daily Inquirer's huge banner headline today in reaction to all this surely out-Suns The Sun for arrant tripe:
GOV'T TO ISSUE VANITY PLATES.
Rationale: (sic) reduce the tax burden on the individual.
Well at $800 a throw I'm sure that's really going to impress both the IMF and that little shop girl on $3.50 a day minimum wage and no pay if she gets sick waiting out there in the rain trying to find a bus to get home.
And no, I won't be buying one.
Ah well, the women are beautiful, the weather's warm and the beer's cold......
Read more
"with bishops and cardinals meddling"
As the great Earl Butz (US senator brought down by his own plain speaking) said of His Holiness: "he no playa the game, he no maka the rules!"
Sorry mods - OT and non-PC, but still worth repeating, IMHO.
Ok, my 306 diesel has no glow lamp light on the dash! It takes 2-3 cranks to start so i assume the lamps are not heating. However, i've changed the glow lamps and still no light! Whats causing this? a loose connection? can anyone shed any light?!! Thanks :( Read more
Cheers Guys, worked like a treat! Its perfect now!
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I would suggest getting valve seals replaced. Not certain about 25 but 414 cat is around £200 to replace min. Also as someone mentioned. (It is usual for rovers to burn oil on startup and not to worry). this isnt the case and first signs of this should be rectified.
Sorry I didnt reply before but have been on holiday
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Was mech1