December 2004
While paying for my petrol yesterday, the lady at the till asked me to help someone who was having trouble with the air pump (the attendant was alone at the time and could not leave the till). I walked around to the air pump to find an exasperated woman struggling with the machine: she had managed to deflate both front tires while trying to inflate them. In twenty years of driving, she said, she had never added air to a tire and had no idea how to do so. Who knows what possessed her to give it a go yesterday, but it made me think about the very basic things one should know about a car before getting a license. I know there has been some plan to add a basic maintenance component to the driving test and I seem to recall some discusison about it on this forum. Let me propose something. As part of the driving test, applicants will be taken into a garage with a row of test vehicles, all of which are low in various fluids and have under or over inflated tires. Applicants will be handed latex gloves and a hair covering of some sort. They must then figure out how to open the bonnet, check and top up fluid levels, check air and inflate/deflate tires as necessary. Feel free to add to this list, since my point is simply that the practical licensing test is not practical enough. Am I being grossly unfair or unreasonably demanding? I guess I could have told the lady to phone the AA, rather than ponder with disbelief that a driver of twenty years standing can't inflate a tire. Read more
I've previously posted on here regarding my wife's Fiat Punto and the fact that the revs seem to hold very high between gear changes. I've been advised that this is to ensure that emissions regs regarding unburnt fuel are met. The dealer has looked at the car noticed the 'fault' and that's about it.
On Friday I received a call from the dealer, however, to tell me that Fiat Technical are sending a 'flash disc' out to all dealers to cure the known problem. Any ldea what this is and how this works please? Read more
Thanks
The air recirculation flap on my V40 has recently jammed when switching from recyled air to fresh, causing the servo motor to click loudly until switched back to recyled air. It's not a problem with only one person in the car, but my wife and I have three children under 4 years old and when we're all in the car it fogs up.
To fix the problem properly is an expensive procedure involving the removal of the facia. Has anyone else else experienced this problem and, if so, are there any shortcuts to opening the flap on the fresh air and disconnecting the motor, or at least stopping the clicking?
Thanks Read more
Thanks for the update, hope I dont need to use this though!
Just for info, what year and model V40?
cheers
StarGazer
(V40 2000 1.8XS)
Last Wednesday, I was unfortunate to break down on the way home from watching Top Gear being filmed.
Phoned the AA, and gave location as "on A11 Trunk road between Attleborough and Wymondham, approx 2 miles N of Besthorpe Services."
Apparantly, these details were insufficient for the fengibbon at the other end of the phone. "I need to know the last juction you passed so we can find you"
"Well, we're the ONLY yellow punto sporting on the side of the road with hazards on"
"I said I need to know the junction you last passed"
I happened to be testing out a friends RoadAngel, and therefore could pinpoint my position to within 5 m on the earths surface, however this was no good.
"That's no good to me"
So,
did I receive service from Hell, or can Britains premier motoring organization relaly not use 21st Century technology. Their website says their vans all have Sat Nav, so why can they not use this.
Do I therefore have to resort to mediaevel systems, and give map junctions, compass bearings, sextant readings and the position of the stars?
From just that one phone call my perception of the AA has been tarnished. Come renewal, I shall be looking around.
Read more
Interesting, I have a car which has no spare, and I always carry one of those aersols. Idea being to allow me to get to a place of safety, before calling the RAC, although it would depend how far I was from home as I'd risk 20 mph for the back, or 30mph for the front (a flat rear in a Morgan trike is a killer). After dark forget it - place of safety!
Few tyre repair places have any idea about vintage tyres and I fit my own with tyre levers, elbow grease and rude words (it's not that easy).
When accelerating through/away from tight slow (20mph)left hand turn corners the front end keeps breaking away from me (very suddenly) . I havent noticed the same problem with right hand turning eg roundabouts and I am starting to loose confidence in this 'ultimate driving machine'. I am not doing anything that my 1.8t Golf Gti wasnt more than capable of and I'm not being stupid - maybe enthusiastic !
Car: BMW120d, RWD, Sports suspension, Run flat tyres.
It occurs to me I am now driving a RWD car with a heavier engine upfront along with run flat tyres which, to use a racing analogy feel like a very hard compound. So I'm wondering if I should take it back to the dealer to get the offside front checked out or do you guys/gals reckon that maybe it is just that a different driving style is required and that its just because there is a bigger lump upfront now (apart from me !). Read more
Ok yes there are differences in FWD and RWD handling. Someone who is used to driving in a spirited manner will notice the differences. Someone who is driving in a very spirited manner may wish to change/learn/adapt new tecniques between the two.
However, if in the course of *normal* driving you have noticed a marked difference then you may have a problem.
Come across this on Fred's TDI web site;
have'nt seen any UK info yet
Volskwagen Recalls 290,000 Diesel Vehicles 2003 - 2004??
Volkswagen said today it is recalling 290,000 diesel vehicles worldwide to carry out checks on their fuel pumps.
The carmaker said it was contacting owners of vehicles with three? or four-cylinder diesel engines that were built between March and August of this year. The recall affects the Volkswagen, Audi, Seat and Skoda brands, the company said.
Volkswagen said a defect during the manufacturing process of a bolt on the cover of the fuel pump could, ?in isolated cases,? lead to the bolt breaking ? possibly resulting in a leakage of diesel fuel.
K2 Read more
This was on Teletext news yesterday.
I have a Vauxhall Astra 1.6 (2001). I am wanting to change the anti-freeze and wanted to know how to go about this. Is it as simple as removing the bottom hose of the radiator? It has air-conditioning as well, will this affect anything. Any advice would be helpful or would it be best to leave it to the professionals? Read more
I have a Vauxhall Astra 1.6 2001 which I think may need a Coolant change. However, the Vauxhall manual states that it is a long life coolant and only needs to be checked and topped-up if required. Is this correct and how long will the coolant last?
If I do have to change the coolant how do I go about doing this? Even getting the pipes off seems difficult, it doesn't have the old jubilee clips as my old car did. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Nigel
My wifes 1996 Polo D appears to have an oil leak from the gear box selector shaft. Is this an easy job to replace the oil seal by removing the selector fingere from the selector shaft or does the mounting bracket/linkage need to be disconnected? The gearbox is a cable gear linkage type Read more
Hello all.
A friend at work has an L registered mondeo (the one with the boot not hatch) (1.8)
The speedo has gone for a holiday.
It does not clock up mileage nor does it show the speed the car is doing.
He cannot afford garage prices so he will do it himself.
What things should he check.
--
(iam not a mechanic)
Martin Winters Read more
Hello.
Update.
I have spoken to my friend about the speedometer.
He says that one day last week it was wobbly (the speedo)
Then a few days later it would register 10mph when he was obviosly going faster.
All the other gauges work fine.
I doubt the speedo would be at fault so we will go ahead and change the cable.
--
(iam not a mechanic)
Martin Winters
There are firms in the UK, such as www.gsfcarparts.com/ which offer genuine spare parts for much, much less than at franchised dealerships.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by Read more
Do you have any figures to support this? .. is a net exporter
of stirling to the tune of about £1 bilion a year.
>>
buzbee
you can find all the figures you need at
www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=199
the uk economy is bleeding at the rate of £40 billion a year, i.e. about £110 million a day. which sector contributes the most/least should be availbale from the stats.
aprilia - re. your reference to germany in the post below. have you considered that perhaps that explains why the german economy is doing so badly compared to the uk.
Browse
LOL, I'll raise my glass to the day they make software as reliable as motorcars! As an erstwhile organiser and runner of conferences and meetings all over the world, there was always one constant: if anything went wrong it would be the techy bits, not the human ones.
Amazing that 30+ years ago man walked on the moon, can put a bomb down a Baghdad chimney from an aircraft carrier 600 miles away but "he" still can't (or doesn't want to) make a car that doesn't need its tyres and oil checking between services......which is how my totally car maintenance-free sister explains it.
Happy Saturday afternoons getting skinned knuckles and greased-up fingernails are increasingly a thing of the past, when necessity was the mother of invention and basic maintenance knowledge was acquired through painful experience in rainy wind-swept laybys in the dark, while the object of one's desires sat moodily examining her fingernails and plotting ways to make one's evening miserable.
Such is progress.
There's no real need to learn any more, so people don't.