November 2004
Whilst buying some steel from the local stockest, who is also the local scrap dealer, I noticed something I thought I'd never see again.
Money was being PAID for scrap cars!
Cars with tyres and all were coming in and the chap was paying for them. I don't know how much per tonne but he took a phone call and said that if the punter could get the car to him he would pay them for it. Meanwhile another lady appeared with an old Volvo 340 and put it on the weighbridge. The transaction didn't take place until after I had gone but again the chap mentioned that he would sort the money out in a bit.
This is coupled with a few wrecks disappearing from the fronts of peoples houses. Obviously people have finally got around to getting rid of them or some people have been doing a roaring trade and removing them FOC with the owners' permission - why not?
In addition, I don't see the usual catalogue of cars being abandoned by the roadside anymore.
I know steel prices have gone up but it's good to see the benefit being passed onto the motorists.
This has got to be good.
Hugo Read more
ive recently renewed the brake servo vacume pipe, HT leads, air intake pipe, airfilter & airfilter housing on the vehicle. Ive noticed the vehicle doesnt idle as smoothly as it used too. Ive have thorougly checked over the work many times to make sure everything is tight and secure. I cant see where i have gone wrong. Someone did mention whether i had left the engine running while any of the parts i.e. airfilter/air intake were removed & replaced. As far as i can remmeber, the engine was accidently left running for approx 5mins without the airfilter & air intake connected. There is no spluttering or the rev needle moving erraticly, but there is a frequent "bump...bump" sound when the engine idles. Any help appreciated. Read more
sorry!
The lumpy idling is not present when i start the engine from cold but becomes obvious to me at normal operating temperatures.
**** Poll now closed. Results here:-
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=27203&...e
This weeks poll, as suggested by Avant is now available.
Would you prefer to have....
1. a full-sized spare wheel
2. a space-saver wheel
3. no spare wheel, but have a can of foam to get home with
4. nothing, because I have run-flat tyres
5. I have no preference to any of the above
Read more
Many thanks for taking up my suggestion; delighted that other backroomers feel the same as I do, strongly enough to vote.
This started with my daring to suggest that the BMW 1-series, with no spare wheel, was less than perfect - and being roundly condemned by HJ for it. RWD shouldn't make a full-size spare impossible - plenty of other makers manage.
Has anyone with a spare-less car had a puncture where the hole is too big for the can of goo, or even for the tyre to run flat? OK, you call out the AA, RAC or whomever, but what can they do? Perhaps I'm missing something.
I thought that was a craking buy even if it wasn't a runner. I could have broken it up and stuck it on ebay and made hundreds. Read more
Would have bought that car if I was at the auction, drove it for maybe 2 weeks and then given it away!Much cheaper even than renting a car.
Are there any electricians that can help me sort one or two gliches out please?
Thanks
MM Read more
Hi Crinkly.
You might be right with what you said about the new battery. I let Simon Bailes (main dealer) have a crack at finding the problem. They had it for 4 days, couldn't find a thing although it did go flat on them. They reckoned it was the battery. I went back to the place i got it from, bloke checked the charging rate with engine running, all was fine. I switched engine off and he checked all the cells, he reckoned they were all dead so guy put me another new battery on. I'm pleased to tell you so far all is good.
Made me smile.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/4039083.stm Read more
BBC1's North West Today and North West Tonight programmes ran a piece yesterday on the shopkeepers' online purchase of the siren for £200 and the telephone call system used to warn when a traffic warden is approaching.
The shopkeeper who looks after the siren immediately takes it outside and twirls the handle for a couple of minutes - enough to waken the dead...:-)
Mind you, if they are all male traffic wardens, nominating a siren of a different type might prove just as effective.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
The car conked out on me the other day and after 2 days in a garage with them changing filters and cleaning bits and pieces they still can't work out what's wrong. It turns over but just doesn't catch. Someone else mentioned that it could be something to do with the immobiliser, does anyone have any ideas? Other than this it's going to have to be transported to a Vauxhall garage, the nearest one being around 90 miles away.
Thanks.
Angiet. Read more
As the car is only 4yrs old, and providing it hasn't done a mega amount of miles, it might be worth contacting Vauxhall to see if they'll foot some of the cost of the repair.
Failing that, I would shop around to see if you can get a fuel pump cheaper elsewhere - autovaux.co.uk for example.
Can a battery conditioner be used on a Citroen Xsara 2.0HDi without disconnectiong the battery.
If the battery is disconnected to bring it indoors to use with the battery conditioner, is there likely to be any problem with the codes for the key, radio etc.? Read more
The general consensus seems to be OK to leave the battery connected if practical. I may need to take it out to get it near a mains socket. A change in duties is leaving the car underused with only 10 mile round trips in the now cold weather and I beleive honest john recommended a conditioner for such cases.
Thank you all for your contributions
Regards flathat
This from copy of British Weights and Measures newslette. Nov 04
"The Divisional Court Ruling"
A crack has appeared in the February 2002 ruling that convicted Steve Thoburn and fellow traders Peter Collins. Julian Harman, John Dove and Colin Hunt. A supporter "(of BMWA Idris) "who received an order by a local authority to pay a parking fine through the post has staved off collection of the fine by quoting the Bill of Rights Act 1689, "That all grants and promises of fines and forfeitures of particular persons before conviction are illegal and void." This means that no fines can be imposed unless and until a court of law finds the individual guilty and convicts accordingly.
Of course, under Constitutional law, the Bill of Rights Act 1689 is repealed by the Road Traffic Act 1991"
(comment by Idris In fact the Bill of Rights Act remains in place,as confirmed recently by the House of Lords Library. I take the sentence to mean that the effect of the Bill of Rights on traffic penalties was in effect repealed by the Road Traffic Act 1991)
"This is because the Road Traffic Act provides for fining outside a court of law. Under British law it is always the later Act which takes precedence.
However Lord Justice Laws said in the 'Metric Martyrs' judgement (sections 62 and 63, "We should recognise a hierarchy of Acts of Parliament: as it were "ordinary" statutes and "constitutional statutes". The special status of Constitutional statutes follows the special status of Constitutional rights. Examples are the Magna Carta, Bill of Rights 1689, The Act of Union........ ordinary statutes may be impliedly repealed. Constitutional statutes may not...." Thus, he said, the European Communities Act 1972, requring metric, could and must repeal the Weights and Measures Act 1985 (allowing lb/oz) because the former was "Constitutional" and the latter "ordinary."
Herein lies the conflict. If the Lord Justice Laws judgement is true, every local authority, Government agency and police force that fines people through the post, or on the spot,, is now acting illegally, since the Bill of Rights Act 1689 was specifically named by Laws as a "a constitutional Act." The Road Traffic Act 1991, by contrast, is an "ordinary" Act. Unless
the Road Traffic Act expressly refers to the Bill of Rights in its text (which it does not) it must fall by the wayside. So the question arises: why are public authorities still collecting revenue in this apparently illegal fashion?
BWMA in collaboration with the Metric Martyrs Defence Fund will be exploring means of bringing this uncertainty to the fore. We ask that any BWMA member who received a parking fine (or similar) please contact us for information on how to ask their local authority some very awkward questions."
BWMA PO Box 590 London WCIX OUB
0208 922 0089
Website www.bwmaonline.com
If this precedence is proven then all fpns ever given out without a court conviction could be null and void....
teabelly Read more
So would this also relate to cars that are parked on private property and are removed then a release fee is payable ? Is this the same as a fine ?
or alternativly a private company enforcing council (de-regulated) parking.
The windscreen on a friend's P-reg Citroen ZX has cracked in the same place for the third time in a year. Replacements have been fitted by Autoglass. Presumably its a structural flexing problem, but does anyone have any better ideas or experience of the same problem? Read more
Has it been in an accident and twisted? A colleague had an Astra that went through half a dozen screens before they put it on a jig and saw it was bent. - This was from new.
Martin
Browse
HJ
IIRC this was overcome when the large metal recyclers and breakers got together and stopped accepting cars, thereby putting pressure on the government to reclassify certain types of waste from Hazardous to Inert. I may be wrong, it has been known, ask PU!
I don't think a 36% rise in scrap steel prices would have overcome that particular problem.
Hugo