April 2005
A colleague owns a widely available sports car from the far east with a very high reputation for reliability [No, it's not me. Honestly. I went for the British competitor with the less than shining record!]
Owned from new, he has had the car religiously serviced at the same main dealer (albeit not the supplying dealer). At four years of age and 60k miles he recently bought an extended warranty from the servicing dealer.
Last week, he cooked the engine. The main dealer to which it was towed (*not* the servicing dealer) has delivered its verdict. The radiator had apparently corroded to such a degree that the cooling was impeded leading to terminal overheating. They say his warranty does not cover this, the engine is wrecked and would he mind stumping up the multi-thousands required to replace it?
Today, he is due to visit the servicing dealer for a cozy chat. Whilst he has had a good relationship with them he expects this may change when faced with rectifying what looks like negligent servicing. He also faces costs for a hire car (which would have been underwritten by the warranty, should it have been a warranty claim) and diagnosis costs at the other dealer.
He will obviously open the bidding by asking them to sort out the lot - hire car, diagnosis and all but what should he concede, if anything? Contribute towards the new for old replacement?
What would you do?
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Hello All.
The Air recirculation motor has apparently packed up on the fiesta.
She claims it is stuck closed as the windows steam up and wont clear properly.
Is this an expensive fix ?
You are probably wondering but i don't seem to ever have any complaints about the mondeo is it really a Ford.
--
(iam not a mechanic)
Martin Winters Read more
Alternately, if you can get to the flap behind the dash and manually open it, this'll stop the windows from misting up.
This follows on from the Rover Cars thread, vol 3, which can be found here:-
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=30853
This thread is now closed and you should seek out volume 5....
One interesting bit of math that jumped out at me today. Gov are prepared to bung 6.5 million at MGRover to keep the workforce paid for a week. MGRover is, according to multiple media sources, losing 25 million a month. It strikes me that a company that can only break even by building its product without workers might not be on the soundest footing.
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>>Look at Italy - they have fiats - for years they have built dodgy cars but Italians buy them in droves - why - patriotism
The same can be said for France, Germany, Spain...infact anywhere that has a car industy other than here. Asl well, all ministerial cars/police cars etc in France are Renault/Citroen/Pug, Germany theyre Audi/BMW/Mercedes, Spain theyre Seat, Italy theyre Fiat/Alfa/Lancia here - well a combination of them all. The government should support our own economy as priority number 1 and maybe manufacturing in this country wouldnt be in such a mess.
>>I know the K series can go through head gaskets but its the same with any car
Again Pegeout, the XUD/TU diesel derivitives also have a headgasket appetite - only need to look on technical matters to see that...but somehow these engines are scene as reliable!!
which engine oil to use?
MGF Handbook states 'any 10W/40'
BMW Handbook states PREFERRED 'ACEA:A2-96 or A3-96 or B2-96' etc.
Also Permitted 'CCMC-G4 or G5 or G4/PD2' etc. Also states different Viscosities dependant on Ambient Temperatures.
Looking at Halfords Oils, the range was from Fully Synthetic, Part Synthetic, Mineral Oil, each with differing viscosity ranges. The Magnatec and Castrol brands did not specify their Synthetic, but qouted SAE codes, plus a range for high mileage engines.
Confusing, so is there a definative chart or method that gives a cross reference between the different specifications / temps. rather than relining on well known brands and their adverts.
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Morrisons the supermarket are selling in their petrol stations, Havoline Extra 10/40 SL @ £9.99/gallon. This is a Texaco oil and I believe it might also be sold as a Ford oil as well. If you change your oil and filters at ~6K miles then for most cars it will be satisfactory.
Or the administrators have decided there are insufficient funds to cover the cost of reimbursing the dealers. They recommend buying a third party warranty. Someone is going to do a roaring trade as there are around 150,000 people affected. I suppose someone like warranty direct could do a rover/mg specific warranty for a special price to win new customers and positive publicity :-)
teabelly Read more
>> As a matter of interest, has anyone got figures for
total
>> Rover sales, in the UK, in the last ten years?
Last 5 years:
2000 103,663
2001 97,202
2002 99,108
2003 95,848
2004 76,768
Perhaps some one will be along in a minute with the
previous 5 years.
>>
Interesting to see that there was no really big fall until 2004.
This morning on the M40 a small BMW sports car was wedged under an artic between the wheels. I guess a foreign artic because I suppose it didn't have the side bars. I have no idea who was at fault, but there wasn't a whole bunch left of the BMW.
1) If you or yours were in the BMW, then you have my heartfelt sympathy
2) My Landcruiser, whatever else had happened to it, would never have been crushed under the wheels of an artic. I don't see me ever changing to a little car on the motorway, however many airbags or stars its got.
3) Presuming it was a foreign truck, hence the lack of side bars, what are we doing letting them onto our roads ? For goodness sakes, we're not allowed abroad without a warning triangle, never mind something as significant as side bars.
Surely cost is secondary ?
4) one slightly more light-hearted note was the plonker in the truck (plonky ?) being a traffic vigilante and preventing one lane proceeding - nice try - wrong lane ! 4 miles before the accident !! and what did you say to the police car with its blue lights on that you were blocking behind you when you eventually realised ? 8-) I hope he had time to mess with your day.
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Just because the trailer is telescopic does not mean that the side bars can't be telescopic as well.
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\"Nothing less than 8 cylinders will do\"
HELP!
I was driving my galaxy tdi 130 the other day and it suddenly lost the majority of its power. It will only rev up to 3000 rpm in all gears. I also take forever to start - before it was very quick at starting! It is a 2004 Ford Galaxy Ghia 1.9TDi PD 130ps VW engine.
Any help is appreciated! Thanks Read more
It has a fault and has dropped into "limp home mode". Its a year old, I assume its done less than 60,000 miles, so get the nearest ford dealer to diagnose and fix it under warranty.
Hi all
Came home from work today and tried to open the drivers side door and as I turned the key anticlockwise there was no/little resistance; the door didnt unlock. Baffled, I went to the passenger side and the door opened no problems... once inside I opened the driver side door but the central locking motor would immediately lock the door.
I managed to open the driver side door (by pulling on the interior handle and pushing the door open) and dismantled the door panel etc. and sourced the problem to a faulty latch that appears to have a broken spring (such that when the key is turned or when the exterior/interior handle is operated the latch doesnt spring back into the "open" position).
I was wondering if anyone has had a similar problem? I found half a sheared spring and was wondering if this was a common fault? It seemed an awfully small spring for such a major job...
Hopefully when I take it to a ford garage tomorrow I can ask them to dismantle the metal lump to insert a new spring, or whether they're likely to try and sell me a new one... :s
R.
resistance; the door didnt open. I went around to the passenger Read more
Hi there,
I'm new to newcastle, and was just wondering if anyone knew any good garages they could recommend? The directories list is quite vague - some of the addresses arent even correct.
Thanks in advance Read more
If you don't mind me asking smokescreen, what kind of car
do you have? I know the name of 2 garages which
I would recommend, one a VW specialist and one a Renault
specialist. BTW, the Renault specialist will service other makes, but the
VW specialist, I don't think, will.
Peugeot 306 Dturbo. I managed to get the garage who im purchasing the car from to Service, MOT and replace the cam belt for a good price in the end.
Thanks for the suggestions netherless, i'll keep them in mind for next time.
Mods please feel free to remove this if you think its too much.
Advert on classified section 'full service history mainly by me'. Err... not sure thats how these things work.
But motorway miles, one female owner and good reason for sale... Read more
Ah, I guess that's my cue to go back to sleep! ...
:-)
Browse
>>Now a holed radiator from a stone and not noticing the gauge - yes, that's possible.
But only if you dont look at the gauge.Says its driver error.Not a fault on car?
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Steve