May 2005
Just thought I'd share this with you and to see whether others have had a catalytic converter fail at a young age.
My car was registered in Jan 2004 and I bought it last July as an ex-dealer show car - just been standing in the showroom etc.
A couple of weeks ago, it started rattling underneath and I assumed it was a heatshield working loose. So I popped it to the dealer and asked them to have a look. Less than a minute later, it was down off the ramp and I was told that the Cat has broken up and that was the rattling.
End result of course is a new one.
I'm kind of reluctant to tell what car it is, because you will laugh at me. Oh OK, I tried to do my bit for Longbridge, alright. (ZT-T)
Naturally the dealer gave me the story that the warranty is no longer valid but anyway, even if it was, the CAT would not have been covered.
But, I would have thought that a Cat, whatever the make of car, should not fail after only just over a year and 11,000 miles. Car serviced to schedule, only ever use Shell/proper petrol.
End result - £350 plus fitting and a real feeling of caveat emptor. Still like the car though.
I may write to the dealer principal and mention small claims against the seller, but somehow, i don't think it will be worth the hassle. Read more
just bought a second hand vauxhaul zafria at the weekend from a vauxhaul dealer was wondering if any one knows weather buying as used car from vauxhaul you get the network q check or not Read more
They'll also put a small NetworkQ sticker in the window as well if it's been done.
As well as giving you a NetworkQ warranty book, and then a few days later a sticky label will arrive through the post with your, and the car's details on to put in the front of the book.
Does the VW 2.0 140ps GTI TDi come with at "GT TDI" Badge or is it just the 200ps ones? Read more
My brochure shows "2.0 TDI" (and it's upper case "I", not lower case)- but this is a Spanish publication with pictures of cars with German number plates! Also we get Conceptline/Trendline - Sportline - Highline, instead of UK designations.
Has anybody taken up the offer of the 3 day test drive Vauxhall are offering at the minute? Obviously there is no such thing as a free lunch and I know they ask you to fill out a questionnaire on the car when you are finished which will obviously then be used in a sales pitch to you at the end. I am wondering is it worth the hassle of being badgered by a sales guy for the next couple of months if I decide not to buy a Vauxhall.
So far I know there are limitations on only 1 driver got to be over 25 and less than 100miles a day which are all fair enough in my book.
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A £1,000 excess sounds a bit steep, but the Vauxhall dealer (part of a big chain no doubt) is no doubt a slave to their insurance company.
I've had quite a few unaccompanied test drives in the last couple of months: they do vary quite a lot. They all took copies of my driving licence; some used the DVLA code which I brought with me but most didn't. Again some didn't bother to get me to sign an insurance form; most did, with excesses as far as I can remember for £250 or £500....
I bought my car at the end of Jan this year. Today I have put it in for its first service (ford garage) and been given a long list of defaults.
When I bought the car I was sold it on the basis that it had a 2 year guarantee - Not a waranty. I was told that everything was covered and that if anything went wrong then it would be covered. The warranty company do not agree and will not cover anything which ford have found to be defective. The problems which ford have spotted were on there when I bought the car since they are due to excessive wear and tear.
The faults are Alternator belt cracking - The guy stated at the point of sale that all belts were covered in the warranty. To the point that if the cam belt failed, they would be responsible for fixing the resulting damage. £96.79
The handbrake mechanism has ceased. I always park in gear and so this only became obvious once I didn't - £190
The rear sub frame bushes are severely worn and need replacing. £514.30 How long to these take to wear out and should a car with 46k miles be suffering from this.
Is there likely to be any comeback on the seller via the European directive relating to second hand cars. The car was bought on Jan 30th from a major car supermarket. It also seems to me that the warranty was mis sold to me.
Any comments greatly appreciated.
{Subject header amended in an attempt to make it less vague!. DD} Read more
Tony, I had a customer once that ran a small print shop. It never took long to get his money. Regards Tony
I know this is an old thread, but the above reminds me of my Mrs.
When she had an unbreakable pair of glasses, which broke, the shop were not very forthcoming, but they changed their mind when she stood outside the shop telling anyone who was about to enter what they could expect regarding service, she got a new pair of glasses....
Can the collective knowledsge give me some advice. Decided to treat myself to a 3 year old large exec for family use. Im very tall 6'4" and got 2 growing kids and need lots of room. Always been a car nut and like large capacity petrol engines.
Choices are new shape BMW745, Audi A8, or Merc S430/500.
Which is going to give best overall ownership pleasure and lifecycle costs.
Must admit preference is BMW but am I right? Read more
There's something about the mass and its distribution in a large car that makes the ride difficult to beat. Cut out the excess that's popular in North America and you have reasonable handling as well. There are luxurious 2+2 cars and the like, but the ride ain't the same. Having recently acquired a W126 MB (the 1980s S-class), I have been reminded of those facts; it's making my W124 Coupé feel taut and sporty for the first time.
Have decided to buy Honda FR-v 2.0 VTEC SE. Best deal I could find was from these brokers. Has anyone any experience with this particular broker??. Tks in advance for any info.(Suitably worded to avoid any difficulties with site policy)
Phil I Read more
As well as quoting me the best price, after a little arm twisting they found a spare car that was already on its way - much quicker than waiting for a factory build.
The fee (and IIRC the deposit) was sent to Motorlogix, but for the car I handed the cheque for the balance to the garage.
I recently made a post but previewed it on the preview-screen before finally posting it.
The preview screen seemed to cut off the last couple of paragraphs from my post. This is not surprising because many messageboards have system limits to the numbers of characters allowed in individual posts.
I therefore edited & reduced the post to what the preview screen would permit.
However, on re-reading the thread, I noticed that there seemed to be other posts which were much longer than the preview screen would permit.
I would like to ask the board moderators:
Is there is a system limit to the number of characters permitted in a (final) post?
Is there is a system limit to the number of characters permitted in a previewed post?
Are these limits the same?
If not, could they be made the same?
I have asked these questions in a public post rather than a private e-mail because I think they may be of general interest to board users and not particularly controversial or antagonistic.
I realise that brevity is a virtue!
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No
Yes
No
Not easily, sorry.
Viewed from the back on a level surface my 2 year old C Class appears to be sitting slightly higher on the right side than the left. A quick check with the tape measure confirms this to be about an inch or more from the top of the tyre to the wheel arch lip on the right compared to the left. The front of the car is dead level on both sides. Any ideas? Read more
Most of the cars that I have had seem to have been lower on one side than the other. I had put this down to always parking overnight up on the pavement on one side. The front being square and the back being slanted doesn't sound right to me. It hasn't been in a crash or anything has it? I know that this is the kind of reply where you read it and say - For pink fluffy dice sake if I had known it was in a crash I wouldn't be posting a thread about uneven suspension, but the idea about different tyre profiles/types/pressures makes sense.
Here?s a puzzling one.
The engine on my Peugeot 406 2.0 (1998/S) petrol runs fine when cold, and when very hot, but during the warm up period there is a nasty period when it stalls, falters when driving off, flat spots and is generally unhappy.
During this period, the orange ?check engine? light comes on (just before the bad behaviour in fact).
My local garage have cleaned out throttle housing etc, checked for loose or blocked pipes or breathers and added a specialist injector cleaner, but the fault is so temperature dependent that I don?t think any of these are the real cause of the fault.
I thought that the ECU is perhaps getting incorrect temperature information from the coolant temperature sensor, but when I trakced it down, there is a nice new shiny sensor already screwed into the housing, so someone has tried to fix this before (yep, we?ve just bought this car?.)
I might be in luck ? looks like this Pug has a flash code display via a green SD connector in the fuse box, so I should be able to interrogate stored error codes using a simple on/off switch wired to earth.
I?ll report back once I?ve interrogated, for the benefit of others with poor running during warmup. If anyone has any ideas before I do the test they will be gladly taken on board.
Cheers
Paul
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The fault with my 406 turned out to be a duff Manifold Absolute Pressure (MAP) sensor. Having been replaced, the car runs very well.
Not sure if this would fix your 406 Sanch?
Paul
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I've had Cat's replaced under w'tee on both a Mondeo and a 406 due to rattling.