April 2005
The RAC have offered MG-Rover owners their 5 star cover at heavily discounted rates (I'll find the details and post later). With the tens of thousands of cars on the road, I think there is a lot of scaremongering over parts. Read more
I have a 10 year old Micra with noisy (squeaky) wipers. I thought, ok, fit new wipers, result: noisy (squeaky) wipers. It doesn't matter how hard the rain they still squeak! Does anybody know of any sort of product on the market that can help? Or any tips on how to, if not cure, then lesson the problem?
I'll try anything, they're driving me crazy! Read more
success, it is indeed the bushes. one in particular, i've greased them in the short term but one will need replacing as it's falling to pieces.
problem with our 52 plate new shape Vectra. Its a 1.8 LS , and have had the rear shocks changed about 3 months ago but still the rear end seems to bang over bumps rather than glide over. Ive had all the rear bushes checked at a local garage (non Vauxhall) and they said everything looks OK. The car is now on 103,000 miles , Ive had one rear top stabiliser arm done the one thats shaped a bit like a boomerang .
Sorry for the long post , but I really cant justify paying our local Vauxhall main dealer £64 per hour plus VAT just to check the cars suspension for me . Did I understand that the earlier new shape Vectras like mine had rear suspension problems ? Read more
Thanks tho. Dave for your comments .
Can anyone tell me what years of Porsche 924/924S & 944 can run unleaded, tried combing the web and found nothing I trust!
Jim Read more
Foolow this link and post your question at the Porsche Club GB Forum:
www.porscheclubgb.com/frame.html
"Don't Hog The Middle Lane"
That was the message on the matrix signs on the M6 between 19 and 16 this morning. About time we had a sensible message, rather than one telling us to not drink and drive. Like you are going to think "oh, I'm drunk, better pull over"
Seemed to do the trick. Lane 1 was full of lorries, lane 3 was full of cars, and lane 2 had myself and a few others doing a nice steady 70, making more progress than the numpties in lane 3.
Checking the highways agency web site ( tinyurl.com/7hm5d ) the M1 message is "Keep left unless overtaking" Read more
I like the sign at the entrance to the Tyne tunnel - "Don't queue jump", a bit late really as you've already queued for 30 minutes to get to that point!
Please forgive my ignorance if this is a daft question!
I have noticed recently that my AVG virus scanner has been taking a long time to do a scan - about 30 mins. It seems to whip through a lot of areas then spend ages on shell.32.dll (in lower case - it checks SHELL32.dll v quickly.) I also notice that a couple of thousand of the files it is checking are C:\_RESTORE\TEMP|*CPY. 9Out of about 35000 scanned objects. Is this normal? Should I leave well alone - the computer works perfectly OK.
System is ME with a 20gig hard disc of which 11 gig is unused. 512mb of ram
Thanks in advance!
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I will have a rummage in my spares box as I'm
pretty certain I have some DIMM RAM from an old P3
kicking around.
I was thinking the same about some of my old junk but I reckon it's PC100, which may not work depending on bus speed.
Maybe a new website: www.give-pc.com?
:-)
Of course as Ford are cheapskates you only get one remote key, and the other you have to mess around with the door lock and start the engine or the horn goes beepy beepy!
Anyone know whether I can just get another similar key (ie from a scrap car or something), nick the remote bit and reprogramme it to work the central locking? Not worried about using the spare to start it etc, but my grandad doesnt understand that I have to start the engine before he can open the passenger door.................
I'm sure if I get one from Ford it's going to cost a couple of limbs inc the programming etc.
Cheers in advance.
Tony Read more
Mine is a 2003 model, and if I open the door
with the non-remote key it starts bleeping then the alarm sounds.
The handbook says you have to move the key to position
II but mine only stops the alarm if I start the
engine. Same applies to a friend's 2004 model.
The handbook is not very clear which model that particular instruction
refers to.
Not so my 2002 Ghia X which has std alarm, I wonder if the 00 - 02 models have a transponder to recieve the spare key in the door where on the 03 on models it is in the ignition barrel only?
I can't remember which thread but someone mentioned an old make of lorry called Norde, and how they'd seen one travelling at high speed on the M1 in the early 60's.
I was leafing through a magazine called (I think) Heritage Commercials at the newsagents. On the last page was an article about Norde. They built an articulted outfit in the late 50's that was capable of in excess of 70 mph. This had a cab similar to the ERF KV 'egg' cab. Norde also built a rigid 6-wheeler which used a Bedford TK cab, but mounted higher so it looked odd.
Altogether only a handful of Nordes were built, but Norde/Hendrickson rubber suspension was available for lorries and trailers for many years.
Cheers, Sofa Spud
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I've mentioned on here before that the Midland Red bus company, which built most of its own vehicles right up until the late 1960's, ran their C5 motorway coaches at 80 mph on the newly opened M1 in 1959. Some of these vehicles, when fitted with turbochargers, were reputed to be able to reach 100mph.
Cheers, SS
**** Thread closed. Discussion carries on here:- ****
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=36960
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Brilliant!
From VBH and her "mummy" driving the Lambo, to someone adding a Maserati to his collection of Ferraris and driving round a snow covered racetrack and skidding into a barrier!
Brilliant! Read more
Interesting feature tonight on how crashes are investigated. Now we know why the road is closed for so long, and how they can tell if a car is braking at the point of impact etc.
I have a Skoda Octavia 1.9tdi. Great until road performance became poor at 100,000 miles.
Skoda dealer used the analyser and diagnosed a faulty turbo- charger. That advice cost me £55. The new turbo would be £1,300. Trade in value? £1,000. Turbo probably not worth it.
I asked around and found a local garage to fit a turbo for £700.(12 month warranty, etc, recon unit from good trade source) Worth it,so I got it fitted, but then the turbo did not work. The local garage said it's OK, go back to Skoda it's something else. Skoda dealer said it's oil blowback as the turbo failed, cleaned up, etc etc. Back to Skoda frequently. On the analyser again. Advice is fit new genuine Skoda turbo for £1,300. And £225 for this opinion.
Back to local garage, who contact turbo supplier: old turbo removed still perfect, should not have been changed.Bad advice from Skoda dealer.
I think that the Skoda dealer is liable to refund the original £55, the £700, the £225. But asking them to put the turbo right is too much.
Any advice or opinions, please?
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I went to the turbo supplier today Thursday. The new turbo had been installed incorrectly by the highly recommended local garage, and secondly the air mass meter was faulty. PW'ssuggestion (below) was right, and it seems likely that this was the original, and probably the only original, fault which the Skoda dealer diagnosed as needing a new turbo.
Browse
Only as a hobby, but I worked for a few first tier suppliers in the automotive industry ;-)
As for repairing old cars, I've owned two Czech Tatras and the difference between getting parts for those versus something easy like an MGB or VW Beetle is a real eye opener. Adapting parts can be done, and almost anything mechanical can be made if you've got a milling machine but it's expensive and time consuming. Fine for a second car, but tricky when it's your main car.
The main difference is I wouldn't expect a warranty company to be interested for long as a business when the only options are find a second hand part or machine a new one from solid.