My daughter took her 6 month old Yaris into the local dealer for them to repair the rubber seals on the top of the door frame. She thought that the seals (which had come unstuck from the frame) was the cause of excessive wind noise.

Believe it or not, they told her it was the wing mirrors! and that they would order her a new pair, spray them the body colour and fit them under warranty. They will also repair the seals when she returns.

Apparently, noisy Yaris mirrors are recognised by Toyota as a problem and have been redesigned.

Now, what can they do about noisy daughters?

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I have just finished changing a head gasket on a 1996 Ford Fiesta 1.3 Endura E engine. Everything went ok until I tried to put the dipstick back in it's tube, It just will not go. It goes about 3/4 the way down then it feels something is blocking it. Am I missing something or any advise much appriciated.
Thanks
Steveo Read more

Today my wife and I went to look at a car we fancied buying. It was a 1 year old VW Passat at a VW dealership about 45 minutes from where we live. We had made an appointment to test drive a specific car and were both willing and able to buy it. We'd debated over a couple of weeks what to replace the current Passat with and had decided another Passat would do. We had even transferred enough money into the bank to be able to buy it on a debit card. Of course we didn't tell the sales girl about the cash in the bank but when she asked us when we anticipated buying we told her 'immediately'. We were not particularly impressed with the 'buying experience' at this particular dealer.

Frstly, she tried to get us to drive a different car so I could try the engine. She was not best pleased when we declined and said we'd test the car we wanted to buy. She then spent about 20 minutes getting fuel for it and trying to start it (complete with bonnet up - not very confidence boosting). Turns out the car had absolutely no fuel in it at all. Instant alarm bells since the manual for my Passat says never to let the fuel run out as this can damage the catalyst. When I eventually got behind the wheel, about 250 yards from the dealers, she said they had a standard test route, which would not include any dual carriageways or motorways. I requested a trip on the A1 to see how it drove at a decent speed. The A1 is about 15 minutes away. No way was the answer. Very fed up at this point, decide not to buy this car there and then so drive back to dealers. Why? We'd been kept waiting 20 minutes even though we'd made an appointment, the car was in a state my manual says to avoid for fear of causing serious damage and I was not going to be allowed to drive it properly. Salesgirl gobsmacked.

Out comes the sales manager, at my request, and there follows a patronsiing lesson in why the car was without fuel, how my Passat manual is wrong (!) and how they were too busy to give proper test drives. He didn't know that between us my wife and I have 3 degrees in Chemistry and so knew he was talking complete rubbish at times. Ha Ha. I might only be spending £11,000 but I don't really like being treated like someting VW have stepped in. Strong letter to Dealer Principal will be on its way soon and we are off to another dealer.

I feel better after that.
By the way: does the cat get damaged if the fuel runs out? Read more

Not that many of you were interested, but my 1993 335,000 mile Maestro van has finally gone. (To one of our mechanics - so not scrapped - yet!!)

& to prove the value you can get for just £1,600, try this..

97 R plate - soon to be VAN580Y reg.
117k
Omega 2.5 CDX Estate auto
Magic grey, totally original paintwork, a tiny rust scab below nearside rear door window, light crease in lower panel in this door too
2 careless tiny fag burns on drivers carpet-ashtray unused
All the toys - climate, traction control,elctric roof with 101 settings, too many other functions on the dash.Stack CD in the boot.
5 NEW Michelin Pilot Primacy (oversized) 225/65 16 on very clean alloys. Just priced them @ £152 each corner.

Direct Metropolitan Police - Ex senior officers transport, NOT blues n twos, job, none ever fitted. So it's also been driven professionally & properly maintained, too!

Looks like mid twenties for consumption, I'll get that improved, once I'm used to it.

It's strange enough driving a car - let alone a BIG petrol engine.

A proper valet/detail clean has been done, be myself, so looks showroom fresh.Service & belted, found no surprises, either.

So, I'll keep you informed as to what it's like running a bargain car!!

VB
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Help....

This winter has not been too kind to the electrics on the car... if anyone could help with the below problems i would be very grateful..

1) Intermittant wipers not working. They stop half way and dont return to normal position. Work fine on continuous, but again if turned off half way through sweep they dont return.

2) Blower speed on 1 and 2 does not work - 3 and 4 do but is like driving in a gale when trying to demist car. 1 hasnt worked for months and then driving along today 2 has broken as well

3) Strange misfire until car has warmed up. Seems like chugging and running on 3 cylinders (expect electrical but dont know where to start replacing things). As soon as normal operating temperature (about 1 mile) it goes away and engine purrs as usual.

BTW car is 1997 214si with 101,000 miles.

Thanks Read more