At MOT last month, had advisory note that front tyres wearing badly on inside edge. Took car to my local garage for other MOT work and mentioned this. They said looks like camber, which they do not have gear to adjust. Went back for re-test (thru' national tyre supplier) and they said no camber adjustment on an Astra, could be tracking. Been back to my original garage this morning, who checked tracking and said its spot on.

Tyres now almost illegal, wearing badly over inner edge for width of about 1". Rest of tyre has over 6mm tread. Any suggestions what could be causing this, any remedial work which could be done and an idea of cost would be appreciated. Can't afford to keep replacing perfectly good tyres because 1" is worn out!!!!

Thanks, Lesley Read more

I often see garages advertising that they test catalytic converters. Is there a way of testing the CAT, or do they just mean that they test the emissions levels, and then if they fail assume the CAT must be to blame?
Surely to properly test an individual component would require it to be isolated, and then in the case of a catalytic converter, pass gas of a known composition through it and measure the output? Is that what is done? Read more

I'm hoping that someone can help me with some sensible and realistic advice on the best way to handle the problem I have, so that I get a good outcome, for me.

At the weekend I went to franchised dealer and "bought" a 2004 plate car with delivery mileage. The reason bought is in inverted commas will become clear.

I paid a deposit (by credit card) of a few hundred pounds and signed (along with the dealer) the "Used Vehicle Order Form". This form gives the details of the car, including the registration number and mileage.

This morning I phoned the dealers and was stunned to be told there was a problem with the car as it had already been sold earlier in the month!

Once again, I was offered a similar car with a few thousand miles on the clock.

As you can imagine there have been a few phone calls back and forth.

My current position is as follows:

The dealers cannot supply the car I purchased (I guess this may be called fraud) and I am under no obligation to buy any other car they offer.
I am entitled to my deposit refunded.
Whether or not I purchase a car from this dealers, I should request they pay the admin charges for changing my insurance.

Any advice? Read more

Can anybody out there help me out. I bought the missus a 306 D Turbo (R reg facelift model) and was quite impressed that I got rid of my 205 1.9 GTi (why???) and got a D Turbo for myself, comsmetically enhanced. (p reg, mk1 body). My car looks quite impressive (I think) but lacks the power of the missus car (embarrassing).So my first question is where there any engine changes in the facelift model to the previous mk1? Also when i got the car the boy wonder who ownded it before me had a straight through stainless steel "performance" exhaust on it, I have changed this back to a normal exhaust(non-cat even though it had one originally, peugeot told me that!))and regained some power, but still not as much as the other 306. The maintenace was poor, the oil was practically non-exsistant and what was there resembled tar! and the air filter was just as black so I have changed the oil and air filters, oil and put cleaners through the air and fuel systems, but this is my first diesel and I'm struggling. Do you change your glowplugs like you would spark plugs? I have inspected them and they seem fine. In fact from what I can tell all seems fine, any ideas to what could be causing this terrible lack of power?
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Last nights Top Gear featured James May driving around in the new Honda Element and trying to prove the point that here was a Honda that could appeal to the younger end of the market(in terms of funkiness and styling).
Do other Back Roomers agree and if so should Honda bring it over here?

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