October 2004
Well, I've taken the plunge and just bought my wife a car on e-bay. 2002 '02' new shape Fiesta 1.4 Zetec 5dr, 29k, FSH for £4500. The car was comprehensively pictured with a detailed description. I think that's an excellent price, a few went through the auction on wednesday for considerably more. Picking it up tomorrow, so fingers crossed.
(Managed to sell the R25 through e-bay as well, very painless) Read more
Well, last night the idiot on the corner decided it would be a good wheeze to block me in such that the only way I could get out was to drive up on to the pavement. Naturally, this resulted in much scraping of wheeltrims and eventually when I got out one had come off. Pushed it back on tonight but the fit didn't seem all that secure - possibly a combination of this and the fact it got scraped and half pushed off last year when someone decided to reverse down the side of the car. Driving along tonight and there is a nice bouncy plasticy noise and yes, you guessed it, when I stop I find the trim missing.
Rant aside, this means I now need a new set of trims. (You could argue that as it was damaged by the woman who scraped along the car it should have been changed as part of the claim, but they said they couldn't change it as it wasn't a standard Toyota one....)
To get to the question, where is the best place to go for decent trims at a decent price? Halfords? Motorworld? My local car spares shop? I really have no idea on this one. Also, what is reasonable to pay? The wheels are 14" if that makes much difference. I'm not after really flashy ones, but neither am I after the cheapest, nastiest ones on the market. Read more
If you have a card, then both Makro and Costco usually do good quality sets at a decent price, usually less than a tenner.
Can anyone please advise the recommended minimum number of miles between cam belt changes for the Rover 600SLDi?
Thanks in advance
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JH Read more
84,000 miles or 7 years.
It's a reliable belt (Never seen a failure to date)
The injection pump belt is replaced at the same time.
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groups.msn.com/honestjohn - Pictures say a thousand words.....
How about some more realistic slogans for bus users then:
My other car is full and I will have to wait in the rain for another other car.
My other car has worrying stains on the seat
My other car is late again
My other car doesn't seem to work after 5:00 pm, bank holidays and Sundays
I used to commute in buses for 9 years; every morning I go out and hug my car. Read more
Ignoring differences in opinion on the value of time, I'd be
interested to know what your journey would be that you cannot
buy some sort of period ticket that would bring the bus
cost down considerably. Certainly within Greater Manchester you can get weekly
tickets on all the major operators...
Conurbations like Greater Manchester are fortunate in that they have a reasonably comprehensive bus network and a passenger transport executive that provides some degree of regulation, information, and through ticketing.
Smaller towns and cities are less fortunate. Here in Leicester, you have to buy single tickets for each leg of a journey, even if they are with the same operator. It is possible to buy daily and weekly tickets but these are only valid on one operator's buses. When I travel by bus I don't even bother to buy a return ticket because doing so will restrict my choice for the return journey. Most bus routes are from an outlying area to the city centre. Where the routes do cross the city, the operators split the two legs on the evening services so that they are served by two separate buses with no co-ordination of the timetable. I've no idea why they do this but I'd have thought evening travellers would have more reason to cross the city centre (visiting friends and family across town) than those making journeys during the day (going to work in the city centre).
Returning to Manchester, I was a student there after spending my first 18 years in rural Lincolnshire, which has virtually no buses. I therefore discovered the delights of public transport at the age when most people are itching to get their first set of wheels. I'm sure that experience caused me to delay getting my first car until I was well into my thirties.
It's that time of year again and I read with interest the note in FAQ's about the different types of antifreeze. Having acquired a used Mitsubishi towards the end of last year the reference to low silicate mixtures was noted and I went looking for such an animal. None of the antifreeze mixtures in the local motor factors mentioned silicates, only that they were "suitable for all engines". Fine, I went down to the local Mazda dealership's parts dept. "Low silicates? Never heard of them. We just stock Unipart." I described what I'd read and he phoned the service dept. "What antifreeze do we use? Just the usual stuff? OK." "Sorry, mate. Just Unipart". So, what now?
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I do like the pretty pink colour in my wives Skoda.
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"Nothing less than 8 cylinders will do"
I'm fed up with driving a big car now I don't really need one and fancy a Fiat Panda 4x4 when it comes out next year. Anyone know if they will put the diesel engine in this model? Also, do the Panda engines have cambelts or chains? Read more
Acceleartion is not a real issue for cars used in town (SWMBO's Peugeot 106 1.4 diesel is 0-60 in around 20 secs) - but once going keeps up with traffic. It even took her +4 large teenagers to school regularly.
But hillclimbing (steep ones that is) is poooooor so 2/3rd gear used a lot.
My advice is : dislike gearchanges? Lots of steep hills?.. don't buy one. Otherwise.. yes if you are patient..
madf
Just going to give someone a lift to the doctors and there was a knock at the door. A woman asks if I own the 4x4 in the drive and would I mind answering a survey?
As I said no to the questionnaire and I needed to get out I forgot to ask who and why they are conducting the survey, anyone else had them call? Read more
Or was auditioning for "The Weakest Link". "What word beginning with
"s" means 4x4?"
Funnily enough, my mate was on the tv quiz 'fifteen to one' and was knocked out by the question 'what does SUV stand for?'
He said "Sub-Urban Vehicle". We still mock him about it. :-)
The aircon temperature display and the dashboard external ambient display started to count down this morning .
By the time I got to work it had reached -10C.
I know Buxton is cold but it is evidently not freezing.
Will this cause problems with the aircon and engine management?
I presume a sensor is defective?
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I wasna fu but just had plenty. Read more
Should have mentioned it is a 2001 PDI diesel.
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I wasna fu but just had plenty.
{Moved from Discussion. DD}
I have been having trouble with my passat 1.8 20V turbo 1997 R plate, about a week ago I was doing the home run from work stopped once, and when i started again the engine was juddering, rather like a mis-fire. I got home and took each plug off each coil to see which one it was. I found that it was piston 2 which was not firing, as a result i changed the spark plug, but it was still the same. I then changed around the two of the coils still the same. I have since call out a mobile tuning / diagnostics company, but he could not find the problem on his scanner. I have since checked the wiring from the coil plug back to the air flow module and from the module back to the ECU, the result being that i have good continuity through the wiring. Does this problem sound like ECU or air flow module. Can any body help?
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Thought i would give it a try, and it worked, done 700 miles down to cornwall and back, thacks for all your help.
i hope i will be able to help one of you guys some time
cheers
chris (telford)
My little brother has, perhaps naively, taken his A3 to Madrid, where he has recently moved. I feel justified in pointing out that he has done this without consulting me first!
The problem is that he is having great difficulty insuring the car. UK insurers don't seem interested because he's living away from the UK and Spanish ones will only deal with cars converted to driving on the right. So, he's decided to bring the car back to the UK to sell because the conversion costs are significant and he's decided he can probably actually live without the car. The car is currently uninsured in a garage, but I'm not even sure he'll be able to insure it for the journey back.
Any thoughts?
Andy
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I lived in Brussels for two years (seven years ago) with a UK car and it can be insured. Best try a UK based company that provides an annual green card (Guardian Insurance). Volvo insurance (look at Volvo web site) which is underwritten by Royal Sun Alliance do insurance with an annual green card (I have a policy with them). Local brokers are usually helpful. At worst, I believe EU law states that all car insurance policies must offer 3rd party protection in all EU countries; but I wouldn't take my word on this.
Browse
Picked the car up yesterday and it's in great condition. All the documentation was in order, with a fully stamped history. The 130 mile drive home was very comfortable and the wife is very pleased. I think I've got a real bargain and could probably make a quick profit, but we'll be keeping the car. The only downside to the day was the three and half hours on a train, a journey that should have taken less than two. No more trains for me, I'll stick to the car!