December 2004
Hi
Can you help??
Our son phoned from Connecticut/USA yesterday - which is smack bang in the middle of Boston and NY, USA.
He went there on the 22nd and hoped to hire a car - but has been advised locally that he can't hire a car/suv as hereuires an international driver's licence.
We know that in some states you have to be 25 yrs old or over and he is 24 - but that is not the issue.
He will phone me later today with his cc details/etc and i will try and book a local suv pick up - will this work - and does anyone else know of this situation??
We went to florida 3 yrs ago and last year - rented a suv from UK - no probs!
All help appreciated!!
Thanks in advance!
LD
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MY Mondeo (2004 130 TDCi) was suffering from poor performance, a lot of black smoke when trying to accelerate away at low engine speeds (up to about 2000 rpm, but fine after that) and high consumption. The replacement of the EGR valve has cured the problem completely and has also transformed the performance at low engine speeds. I know the EGR is something to do with exhaust gas recirculation, but what is this for, where is the valve to be found, and why the smoke and poor acceleration when it goes wrong? And why was mine said to be 'coked up' and is there anything I can do to avoid this happening in future? (No supermarket diesel used, Shell and BP only, Millers Diesel Plus.) I'm hoping that one of those expert BRs out there can explain!!
Many thanks.
CG Read more
Its where the exhaust and inlet manifolds are close together. Sometimes a right so-and-so to get at. Under 'certain circumstances' it lets exhaust gasses into the inlet. Mainly for emission regulations. ISTR that it was opened on the overrun, but I'm not 100% on that.
Martin
What was your best motoring related christmas present this year?
I'll start off. Mine was a brand new MINI Cooper. It's a nippy little thing at just 10cm long, but you have to wind it back a bit to get it going. Read more
Focus, the DIY store were selling minature electric track racing sets (cheap copy of scalectric) for £25 before Christmas. Today they were down to half price so out came the CC and I spent all afternoon making sure the children could play with it without any problems, only the batteries were running flat when their turn came:)
It's actually very good, apart from the battery compartment being a little too big for the standard size C batteries, nothing that a bit of silver foil can't handle though. This is the one where the cars have to jump over a 6 inch gap in the track so the speed has to be just right. We found that if one car leaves the track the power going to the other one increases so it too generally leaves the track as well!
H
Hi all.
the boot on the megane tourer is very large
I have managed to just about fill it with my kids xmas pressie's and nearly done my back in putting them under xmas tree
has everyone else been tiptoeing around tonight.
nite nite and hope all your kids are thinking wonderful xmas thoughts tonight as they sleep :-)
got to go and eat that mince pie and drink the wine, and do something imaginantive with the carrot !!!!!!!
(to look like rudolf has had a bite.!) Read more
HJ,
that link was disapointing. I was hoping to see the "something imaginative" done with VTiredeyes' carrot!
In June this year I PX'd my BMW Compact for another new car. I took a few weeks to make a decision, deciding what I fancied in exchange and trying to get the best possible PX.
One dealer told me that my car was getting a reputation because dealers put the px car into a database for other dealers to see who may be interested in putting in a bid for it. This, allegedly, helps them to come up with a px price if I wanted to deal. In the event, I did get a decent deal.
Is there such a dealer on-line database? Read more
some dealers are like that.
general rule of thumb.
if your car is pacific - goes striaght the auction
japanese - depending on model (for example, civic ype r's , accords, yaris ) and mileage below 50k - we will offer it around.
european cars - generally offered around up to 3 years or 60k.
anymore, and straight to auction again.
any import cars go striaght to auction.
SWMBO & I met up with group of schoolage boys (5th form?) tonight on a side road in Bollington. As I drove up they formed a line accross the street to make me stop. I was only doing about 10 mph, so I kept going at the same speed. they realised that I wouldn't stop, and parted as I approached. then one threww beer on the car from his can, and they all took courage and chased after us. I was struck by the speed at which one of them ran. It was at least 18 mph and 200 yards before he broke off.
One year I was driving up the main street in New Mills, half past midnight on Xmas day. A young man pressed the button on the crossing, and stood in the middle to stop me while a young girl stood on the pavement, looking nervous. I slowed right down to walking pace on the approach, and carried on at the same pace as the lights changed back to green.
At the very last moment he realised that I was not going to stop, and I realised the he wasn't going to step aside. We both panicked. He thrust himself off the bonnet and smashed his fists all along the car as I went past. If I had been driving any other car than the old Wolseley it would have meant a visit to the body shop.
I stopped and reversed to give him my greetings, only to see him performing that well understood gesture of taking off his coat & handing it to the now thoroughly frightened girl. I thought, '00.30 hrs on Xmas day, getting creamed!', so I did the sensible thing and accelerated off home.
Stay off the roads at Xmas.!! Read more
Actually, it is also a good idea to stay off the roads on Halloween night too.
Round the corner to me, young men had strung a line of cones across a side road, my neighbour got out of car to move them, they came hurtling out of a dark alley and pelted the car with stones. They then ran down the road, laughing and kicking wing mirrors off, or putting in windows with rocks.
I followed a trail of damage for 1/2 mile!. According to Ilford Police (whom I called) it had been like it all evening and they had been running from locus to locus trying to catch them as calls came in.
Whwn I got back home, I found that my wifes car had been damaged as had a few other neighbours. The neighbour who had his car stoned had missed the original bout of mayhem, only to get caught further on.
Revs are dropping then rising even when idling and without putting any pressure on the accelerator. Any ideas please?
I've just amended the title to try to drawer out some more discussion on this one for you;)
Merry Christmas
Hugo BR Moderator Read more
Ahh, this sounds a bit familiar!
My Polo did this a small while back. Do the revs drop about 500rpm from the usual idle speed, but only momentarily, before bouncing back to somewhere around the normal again?
It turned out that the Engine breather pipe was split (in my case just off the cam cover), allowing 'un-metered' air into the air filter housing. Had the breather pipe network replaced which cured the problem immediately.
I Understand these engines are very different, but thought it was worth a try
Regards
Hi all Merry Xmas,
I need to remove the speedo pinion bearing which is located in the top of the transmission which supplies the information to control the speedo on the dash as it has been found to be faulty. I need to remove a retaining pin to the left of the transmission case which holds the speedo bearing in place, before the bearing will lift out, but it will not budge.
The haynes manual says to use pliers or non slip grips both I have tried. Has any one had any experience of this? It's a 1991 XR2i CVH engine with a 5 speed manual trans box.
Many Thanks
Steveo Read more
Its a roll pin, use a pair of mole grips and a punch or a good lever bar, they can be right sods sometimes.
Some of you will have read my intentions posted at www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?v=e&t=27...9
Well, here's the result:
Courtesy of a Czech wife, who celebrates Christmas on 24th, Santa Claus just arrived, and after a brief licence key glitch, the PPC tuning from BSR is now installed.
When I was tuning my 1275CC MG Metro from 72 to 90 something horsepower back in the mid Eighties, at great expense and with a lot of time and effort involved, I never would have believed that twenty years later I would plug in a small box, press a button, and two minutes later gain 52bhp and 125NM torque. Well, it really is that easy, now!
I've just taken the car for a run, and WOW, what a difference!
Always quick, there are now huge, huge, reserves of torque that just pick the car up and hurl it towards the horizon. Seriously prodigious acceleration in second gear gave a clue as to what was coming, even with electronically limited torque in this gear to prevent it being spun away. Third gear now delivers the same, if not more, catapult acceleration than second gear did before, but being a taller gear (ie each engine RPM increase gives a greater road speed increase), maintains it for much longer. Imagine second gear levels of acceleration all the way through third gear, and a huge, ever welling, invisible force holding you in your seat. That's what it's like. Seriously impressive, and even more so because it is totally effortless (the engine feels as if it is unburstable) and delivered with the usual Volvo refinement. It truly is now the only gear I actually need, as it will pull from tickover, wake up at 1500RPM, and then charge hard all the way to the limiter at 7200RPM. The thing is though, there are two more gears left to come, and when you grab fourth gear, it's off, again, just as hard, and fifth is a superb, ultra relaxed, overtaking gear.
Apart from being pinned in to the seat, the only driving giveaway of the tuning is a small amount of torque steer in second gear (previously there was none), some turbo whistle (also none, previously), and a change to the throttle pedal action.
The throttle pedal is 'drive by wire', and Volvo programme it so that something like 75% throttle at the pedal only gives 50% throttle at the engine. The idea here is to make the car easy to drive 90% of the time, but the downside is that it is trickier than it needs to be to launch from rest. Backing off the pedal a smidge as grip limits are felt removes a disproportionate amount of torque. Well, it appears that with BSR, the relationship is more 1:1, so a small push on the pedal gives a bigger reward at the engine. This is apparent even when just off boost from tickover, where the car already feels alive and eager, and launching it cleanly and efficiently, without need for DSTC intervention, is now a breeze.
Having had the expected fun and games, it will be interesting to see what it's like tonight when driven in chauffeur mode, which I take pride in, instead of poking it with a stick whilst alone. I expect it to have gone from effortless (which it was) to sublimely so.
No doubt the best 880 Euros I have ever spent.
May you have as happy a Christmas as I! :-)
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Warranty must be effected though where as a T5 would have full warranty?
No. I saved over six grand by personally importing from the Netherlands, the trade off to which was only receiving a two year warranty. This is just about to expire, hence waiting until now to install modified software.
Got plunged into a potentially interesting situation the other day.
Crossing a dual carriageway at traffic lights on a staggered junction there is a centre holding section, still light controlled, before you can cross the opposite carriageway.
Having been stationary there for 3-4 minutes, the traffic lights failed!
After a few more minutes stuck in this central reservation we began to cautiously edge out and, not wanting to die there, made our escape.
These lights have cameras - bet they hadn't failed! - so, can you be done for crossing a red light when there isn't one actually showing? Read more
Frostbite,
I wouldn't worry - especially over Christmas. The photo a Red Light Camera takes shows how long the light was on red for so this would back up your story if it ever did get as far as you needing to have a "story" if you get me.
--
Adam
Browse
Hi
Our son phoned us today (about two hours ago) - he had received info re Boston car hire - but eventally got one earlier today from Bridgeport, state of Cuneticut - an suv from today until Friday as most places close around 4pm for about 430 dollars.
He took his cc size licence and the paper that comes with it.
Thanks for all the help!!!!!!!
Lucian
PS: It snowed there last night as it did a few days back - but only about an inch or two.