January 2005
I would like to thank the following for making my journey from Ayelsbury via A41 -M25 this morning, so informative and enjoyable
- Guy in bronze 3 series who, dissatisfied with how fast the guy before him was joining the A41 from Hemel slip road , overtook him as he did , while giving him the Italian one finger sign , only then reserving precious finger for texting use on his phone from there to M25 junction; clearly a busy chap
- Guy in M reg Metro on M25 whose devotion to lane 1 was so great that he would return to it after every manoeuvre , even though 50 yards later he would have to come back out again; through some telepathy the rest of us figured out his plan, saving him putting his indicators to unnecessary use;
- On return journey guy at J21 who executed a magnificent exit to the slip directly from lane 2 , crossing the path of a van in Lane 1 who must have been within 3 feet of him at one point ; I haven't seen such fine judgement in a long time
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Hi, I started my 2000 V reg BMW 520i SE this morning and noticed that the speedo, tacho, fuel gauge and LCD readout where the mileage and trip computer should be wasnt working. It was fine last night but it now seems the complete control panel has stopped working.
The warning lights and service indicator lights still work as normal.
Could anyone kindly shed any light on this - I'm hoping it could be a fuse although I guess the speedo, tacho and fuel gauge all registering zero on the move may suggest a faulty cable??
Greatly appreciate opinions Read more
Try www.unixnerd.demon.co.uk . Helpful band of BMW owners.
{url link amended. DD}
It's SWMBO's birthday coming up, and I'm struggling for ideas for a present (why are women so awkward to buy for? ;) ). One idea is that she needs driving lessons, as she wants to learn to drive. She did actually have some lessons about a year ago, and passed the theory test, but due to work and money had to stop. Are there driving lesson vouchers out there, that I could give her? Not knowing the good driving schools in the area is one problem, plus her finding regular time to them is the other. So I'm not keen on buying a block set of lessons with a particular timescale on them. Any ideas, or recommendations?
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I learned with the AA and I had a cracking instructor and a brand new Focus to learn in.
Mr R was very impressed with his Aldi SatNav Christmas present.
Has anyone else used this on the A34 near Oxford? Did it work OK? The poor lady must have told us about 15 times to bear left in the space of 2-3 miles where the road is dead straight. Also navigating through Oxford she seemd to have her lefts and rights mixed up. (Typical - this was the first time we decided to 'trust' the system - what a disaster!)
I wonder whether our software is OK. We've noticed minor problems and of course recent road changes (A34/M4 for example) don't show yet, but this was a different league.
I looked on the pocketgps site forum and couldn't see anyone else reporting a problem (and it's probabaly a more appropriate place to post other satnav glitches you have encountered than here)
Hope someone can help!
Rebecca Read more
Rebecca,
There is quite a lenghty discussion on the Aldi Sat nav here:-
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=26709
Some info extracted from that thread.
Medion website is www.medion.co.uk/
Some info on the previous Aldi offer here:- www.pocketgps.co.uk/medion-review.php
The url for Navigon is www.navigon.com
I am looking at a 3 year old car (Picasso) from a small trader - what are my 'rights' under the sale of goods act if there is a major fault?
Should I buy a warranty? If so, which one? Or can I rely on consumer protection law?
Thanks for your comments
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A used vehicle from a deal should carry a minimum of three months or 3,000 miles warranty.
Try persuading the dealer to throw in a 12 month warranty in the price. They get them for far less than you would pay and if it clinches a sale it will be worthwhile for the salesman.
But read the small print carefully - not all warranties are what they seem.
Personally, despite having bought a succession of used cars over many years, some coming with a 12 month warranty as part of the deal, I've never needed to use a warranty's benefits.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
My bonnet release cables snapped and I cant get the bonnet open, even after messing about under the car for ages trying to find a release catch. Does anyone know where exactly the release catch is on the 1998 Punto 60? There is some sort of catch in the centre but its loose. Oh and I cant get it to a garage because I had taken the battery out to charge it.
{swearing deleted. Please see our policy on this for future reference. DD} Read more
Check to see if the cable has frayed/snapped under dash. ie at lever. If it has snapped at that point. you may be able to get a pair of pliers on it and pull to release..Not certain of setup on punto so may be wrong?
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Steve
Just been chatting to a near neighbour about servicing costs and intervals. It turns out that his fully loaded Merc. tells him when it needs servicing via a nifty dashboard display that indicates what needs to be done. I gather that there are several display settings according to the nature of the problem:
"£££'s"
"££££'s" &
"£££££'s"! :)
Mind you it does look a great car. Read more
Inspired by Patently's comment that he would be afraid of his classic car not starting made me wonder: what stops cars from starting properly.
My pennyworth: Bad design, bad maintenance, or an over-complicated design.
Bad design: There's no doubt that some older cars have weaknesses in their design that makes them poor starters. Design dumping water on the electrical bits. Points that drift & need resetting every 500 miles (does that fall into maintenance?)
Bad maintenance: old plugs; worn leads; cracked distributor caps; rusted rotors; pitted points, old battery. Failure to replace the timing belt.
Over complicated design: My theory is that modern cars are more likely to give you a spectacular failure than simpler, older cars. With the number of computers on board a modern car, it only takes a couple of them to stop talking to each other for disaster to strike.
Is it just paranoia that leads Patently to think that if he drives a 20 year old car that it is less likely to start. I suggest that a simpler car is more likely to get you home when something starts to go wrong, rather than just having an electronic paddy & giving up. Read more
I generally agree with the sentiment of these posts, ie bad maintenance etc.
I pride myself in looking after my cars over the years, however I once had an old Ford Cortina MK1 1500 with the dreaded downdraught carb fitted as standard.
This is one car that no matter what I checked, maintained or replaced would not start on frosty mornings, even with a new engine fitted !
I'm looking at the Accord diesel, which comes with 16" wheels (205/55 tyres), but has the option of much better looking 17" wheels (I can't find the tyre size but presumeably they'll be wider and lower profile - maybe 215/45's?).
On some cars it's strongly recommended NOT to go for lower profile tyres as they mees up the ride & can be noisy. I've driven the car with the standard set-up, and thought the ride was firm-ish, with a bit of road-roar from the rear. Have any BackRoomers tried both wheel sizes, or failing that, does anyone here run an Accord with 17" wheels and have any feedback about it? Read more
Since we lost the tramlines, is now the wide low profile tyres on fairly stiff suspensions that do it. There is considerably less flexibility in low prifile tyres, and being wide have larger footprint. Hence the road can exercise more control over the wheels through the tyre.
Hi everybody. I've got a problem with my Peogeot 106 XND (N reg) and wondered if anybody else in here can confirm my suspicions.
Intermittantly the battery experiences rapid discharge when the vehicle has just been parked for 20 mins or so.
I've swapped out the battery (I own 2 106 XNDs!) and eliminated it as being the source of the problem.
Battery is a 65Ahr battery. Battery intermittently goes from fully charged to complete dead (not even enough power for the internal lights when door is opened) in about 20 mins. Note the term intermittantly! Battery is warm to the touch when this occurs - so something is causing a massive drain by means of a short... - using 20 mins as a dischage time and 65Ahr whatever is draining the battery is consuming at least 180A!!!
No fuses blow when the battery discharges - so I am certain the problem is before the fusebox.
Looking at the Haynes manual wiring diagrams the only components before the fuse box are the starter motor and the alternator.
I've visually checked the live wiring from the battery terminals to the above components - looks fine.
Since the problem is intermittant (can room fine for a cpl of weeks then the problem occurs) I am suspecting that either the starter motor or alternator is somehow positioning itself internally to cause a short.... (in terms of brushes in contact with each other ?)...
Can anyone confirm my thoughts above or suggest anything else that it could be? Like I said - I know that the battery is defo OK.
Look forward to some replies (I hope!!)
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Yes I've seen it before but it was a Mondeo TD that had a faulty glow plug relay. As you are aware something is pulling a lot of current from the battery and flattening it pretty quickly but clearly not a short cct. The glow plugs (4) pull 50 to 70 amps and do not go via the ignition switch so an inspection of the relay essentual. Look at the tread on the Merc fuel pump relay and possible causes. Regards Peter
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I would like to thank the elderly gentleman driving a Ford Puma the other week who took exception to anyone following him.
So much so that when anyone (the transit in front of me) caught up with him, he slowed up to about 20mph from about 40mph, until the transit tried to overtake ... then suddenly he could do 70mph!
I'm unsure as to how the gentlemen in question has survived long enough to become so elderly.
My second vote of thanks, goes to all the drivers who drive at night, and are only able to find their main beam switch, after you've overtaken them!