May 2005
Need a bit of help please.
Have to move contents for a three bedroomed house from just outside Swindon to South west France, and I wonder if anyone in the haulage trade can answer me some questions.
Firstly I have approx 24 cubic metres of stuff - according to some spreadhseet I downloaded yesterday, thus I'm going to need a bigger van than a LWB sprinter (capacity 13 cubic metres), what's the biggest van I can hire on a car licence (I've been told 7.5 tonne box van) and if so anybody got any idea of their loading capacity?
If it's less than 25m3 I'm going to have to hire 2 LWB sprinters and the BIL and me will have to go in convoy. Priced this option up yesterday (hiring the vans for a week) and it will cost about £1k, Norfolk Line only £88 per van return in the middle of August. Cheapest anybody has quoted for someone else to do it is £1.5k, but have to add on flights/car hire if three of us don't travel down in the vans(s), which means an all up cost of about £2.3k.
Would really appreciate any good advice on this subject - thanks Read more
As per directory:-
Thames Auto Electrical, 6 Ravenscourt Avenue, Hammersmith, London W6 0SL. Tel: 020 8741 8787. (Most impressive. Attentive and low-priced service of auto-electrics.)
Has Thames Auto Electrical changed telephone number or address? I try to call them to fix auto electrics for a friend's car and the number don't work and they are not listed on yellow pages.
Is there any auto-electrician you can recommend for central London?
Many thanks, Gazza Read more
london.citikey.com/action/business/10069994/catego...0
As you say, the number doesn't work. If you do find out more, then we would appreciate knowing.
I have a 1990 golf driver (63,000 miles), which has the following problems that I think are stemming from the carburettor.
1. Car fires fine but after a few seconds starts to run like a bag of hammers for anything up to a couple of minutes, this problem is almost unnoticeable on a hot day
2. On longish drives at a constant speed of about 80mph the car will start to misfire, getting worse until I stop and let it magically fix it?s self, if this happens it really eats fuel.
3. engine tends to idle to fast sometimes
I know some people will say bin the pierburg and get a weber but they are very hard to get hold of at the minute due to production problems, so if anyone has a second hand 32/34 DMTL let me know. jcne09950 at blueyonder dot co.uk
Read more
James,
You may have all the info you need now, but I had a 1990 Jetta
with the carb icing problem (took me a long time to work it out though!). After discussions with my helpful local workshop we tried a few things and sorted the problem. It appeared that a clear plastic hose (perhaps 3mm dia.) from under the air filter housing to the inlet flap was blocked/crimped causing the flap to stay open and cause the icing conditions. 10 pence fix if it's the same problem! Good luck.
I'm going to view two cars privately this week.
Being an ignorant girl I am wary of being taken for a mug.
What are the tell-tale signs of dodginess, the give-aways for neglect and misuse?
What are the things I should watch out for, that are pretty easy to spot and don't need a mechanic's eye to identify?
Being only a named driver I will be unable to testdrive these vehicles. What is my best course of action?
Thank you Read more
Thanks for all your advice - you are a clever lot aren't you!
That's a brilliant idea David Horn, think I might do that. Suppose if they were kosher and had nothing to hide they wouldn't squirm at the suggestion. Have been in touch with some local garages, and one has agreed to accompany me to see the cars, for about £25.
Know what you mean about don't fall in love; I have a thing about black cars, but think I have my head on my shoulders. When it's your first car, bought with your savings, you want it to tick every box. They're both Puntos, and after a lot of research came to the conclusion that the Punto is pretty good.
Thinking it's a bad omen though that my best mate crashed hers yesterday - was from an auction, pulled over to the left and engine was loose. My dad had to stick in back on with one of those elastic things with hooks on the end. The name escapes me.
Have to make a decision but feel as though I'm jumping off the edge of a cliff, and really don't want to be ripped off.
All you two wheel lovers should enjoy this...
www.boreme.com/boreme/funny-2005/onboard-tt.php?go...p
Copy/paste the link into your URL address bar to view as clickable links to video clips soak up HJ's bandwidth. DD
Read more
Also it means HJ gets to pick up the bill for
the bandwidth on his server.
Thats why I was asking ND - I can understand the possible problem of the link holding a 'connection' open, but the actual data appears to go direct from the destination site, to the user and not via HJ's server. Ah well, never mind.
Martin
I have just bought a second hand 405,I new it had a problem with steering when I bought it.It is stiff to steer both ways,when turning to theleft a slight clunk is heard,and it seems to get assistance until returning to the central position,where it beccomes stiff both ways again.We have replaced the entire rack with s/hand off car that only did 80-000 miles.Unsure what to replace next.Have noticed other owner had same problem back in 2002 but cannot find replies anywhere.any suggestions greatly appreciated, cheers Ev/ Read more
It sounds to me more like a broken(jammed) road spring, or possibly a seized or broken strut top mount. It might be worth jacking the car up and SAFELY supporting it on axle stands with both front wheels off the ground. If the steering is easier then it points to the top mount broken, broken spring. If not, it may be seized top mount bearing or bottom balljoint or track rod end.
Whatever you do, make sure that the car is SAFELY supported, it won't feel a thing if it falls on you, but you will.
At the weekend I took my old engine oil to the council waste site, and as I was disposing of it into the very large container, I wondered what happend to all this waste oil, is it recycled and if so used for what?? Anyone?? Read more
Used engine lube was often mixed with ships bunker fuel and burnt in the main engines.
Hello All,
I'll shortly be getting a 2002 Vauxhall Astra, 1.7dti, with 81K on the clock. It's been 'properly' serviced at 20,000 mile intervals.
Now HJ says that these intervals are too long for durability. So what should I do initially when I get the car, and then how often should I have it serviced?
Thanks in advance Read more
Hi all, I've been away for months and now back to the backroom :-) Having had the QX as the main car for a long while and the car just refuse to die to give me an excuse to change, I am now looking for a second car as my main car while my girlfriend takes custody of my QX.
My main concern is low/no depreciation, reliability and reasonably maintenance (~£1-1.5k p.a.). What's come to mine is an mid-80s Porsche 911 coupe for £6-8k. What's there to look for on these cars other than in the c-by-c breakdown? My main worry is that everything will be welded/rusted together on a 20 year-old car and, as I will be working on the car myself, I will be blow-touching when comes to replacing parts. I don't like to work with heat as I don't have such equipment and considered too dangerous for home use.
Any other ideas? Or would anyone put out my stupid idea? Or should I get a 2001 year-old Ford Cougar for £4k instead?
Many thanks, Gazza Read more
Gazza - The money you mention would buy you an M-reg VW Corrado VR6 or Storm. Very fast,well built,(by Karmann),large boot and hatchback practicality.
Servicing and parts are not cheap but less than Porsche!
Regards DougB.
Hi all,
Not seen this elsewhere on the site, but the Sunday times is giving away tickets for the festival of speed (Friday) - these tickets are usually £20 each.
Visit the online pages of The Times to book.
You'll need to register - be careful to use your correct address, the'll send the tickets there!
"Tickets are subject to availability"
See y'all there!
-- Lee Having a Fabialous time. Read more
.jpg)
"if you want to move your house..."
Illiterate as well as spam. Most of us move the contents rather than the house.