May 2005
Prior to replacing our rusty domestic heating oil tank yesterday, I drained off the 30 or so litres of liquid remaining in the very bottom. Bear with me, kind mods., a motoring link will emerge. Approximately, I got 5 litres of unuseable black sludge and water, which I took to the tip. I put about 5 litres of darkish filtered recognisable oil into my paraffin drum for use in oil lamps when the electricity takes a holiday. So I was left with about 20 litres of crystal clear heating oil which occuped every spare closeable vessel in the garage by the time I had finished. Did I wait until the new plastic domestic oil tank arrives? Er, no, I added it to the 40 litres of diesel already in my car's fuel tank. But, I have a feeling that I need to pay some fuel duty on this. Anyone know if there is a precedent for this? Or should I just forget about it, and take an extra Scotch at night to help me sleep?
Hawkeye
-----------------------------
Stranger in a strange land Read more
Hi,
I'm planning to look at buying an old 635csi this week down in Torquay. I'd love to get a second opinion on it though so I'm looking for a steer in the direction of either a localish garage who knows its classic bimmers or (preferably) a local 635 enthusiast who can help me give the car the once over.
the car is a 1981 E12 based 635 (E24) and so the big problem is predicably going to be rust spotting!!
ta
Drew Read more
Could be worthwhile posting this thread on one of the BMW forums such as www.bmwland.co.uk
I have recently changed over the brake pads on my Citroen ZX as the braking was becoming spongy. I pushed back the piston and inserted the new pads, retaining them with the clips, plate and pin, following the re-assembly instructions in the haynes manual to the letter. The braking is still very spongy despite spanking new pads. The car has done nearly 70k miles, do I need to change/do anything else or will they bed in? Read more
had the very same problem,put in brake fluid and bled it.helpd a bit but was bac to square one the next day.It was the master a cylinder that was causing it which i replaced.Bought one from the breakers.Immediatley there was a huge difference and have not had a problem since.
I am looking to buy a Ford Mondeo tdci 130bhp Ghia. I have found a garage that has a 54 plate 9500 miles for £11599. This is the cheapest that I have seen by far. But I was at another garage who said there is no way I could get this price for a ghia. I should him the companies web site and he said the reason that they can do them so cheaply is that they import them from Germany and the warranty and the spec are differant. I advised him that I have looked a few ghias and could not see any differance in the spec.
Is this just sour grapes, as he has put doubt in my mind about the warranty. I am satisfied that the spec is the same.
I have spoken to the other company and he has advised me that some cars are imported but the one that I am looking at is British. How do I go about checking that it is British and not an import or should I not worry. Read more
Apart from financial manipulations why would a right hand drive Ford be in Germany anyway? Nobody there would buy it for use in Germany, or would they? I often thought that, as all Mondeos are built at one factory, any given car coming off the line must have a notional Euros price on the company books. How is it then that a given Mondeo can be 50% less in Spain that in UK, apart from taxes imposed by the respective governments?
I have had this car for a couple of months now and on the hole it is great. I have noticed however that when the engine is cold the performance is noticeably better than when it warms up. When trying to accelerate hard suddenly when the engiine is warm, the car seems to hesitate and then feels restricted compared to when it's cold.
Another minor problem is that the car seems to have a stuck thermostat. The engine only heats up to normal temp when in traffic or slow town driving - the rest of the time the temp guage is just off cold. Are the stats in these engines easy to replace and could this be the cause of the performance issues?
Finally the gearbox has begun to whine (just a little) in fifth gear - is it worth changing the gearbox oil now or it is curtains - the car's done 144k miles...? Any experience with these 'boxes?
Any help much appreciated.
Matt Read more
Although the thermostats on VAG cars are a bit suspect, don't just change the thermostat as it could be the temp sender.
A diagnostic check will identify the cause.
I have had numerous VW Golfs with thermostat probs, but 2 of them were faults with temp sender.
Cheers
I need to get my bumper resprayed does anyone know of a cheap garage in the north west london area.
The car's metalic silver can I get away with re-spraying just the bumper or do other panels need to be sprayed.
The car is a Lexus IS200.
Thnak
Sunil Read more
I've just bought (2 months ago) a 53 plate Audi A3 2.0 FSI. It's been back to the dealer three times now under warranty to investigate a steering clunk. It happens at low speeds on full left lock - typically during parking. It's quite loud and I can feel it in the steering. The dealer - wait for it - replaced the REAR shockers as a fix. Needless to say this didn't work. Neither did a strip, lube and re-torque of the front end. I don't want to keep going back and forwards - any clues?
A second point on this - any other A3 owners feel their brake discs are scored? Mine feel ribbed, and they grind under braking as if they have surface rust (they don't). I've looked at other used A3s on the forecourt - all the same. Anyone any experience? How's the life of your pads and discs?
Thanks in advance for any answers! Read more
Clunk on full lock that you can feel through the steering sounds like a worn out CV joint (one of the drive couplings between the gearbox/diff and the wheels, usually but not exclusively the outer ones).
Let's hear it for the pink fluffy dice!
El Dingo.
Does anyone know if it is possible to convert my 2004 Megane digital display to read metric rather than imperial? I would rather see the fuel econpmy as Kilometres per litre rather than MPG etc.
But I would like to be able to switch it back for the future when I sell the car.
I wouldn't have thought Renault would fit a different computer for the UK market, I am certain it must be possible by a few strokes of a laptop. Read more
Well on the Laguna (and I think the CPU is very
similar to the Megane) the CPU that controls all the electrical bits can not be switched to Kilometres
Are you sure, suggest it is unlikely that Renault would source different CPUs for UK market, have you asked a dealer?
On the '95 on Vectra you hold the odometer reset in while turning the ignition on and it all goes metric, on my Mondeo the trip computer functions can be individualy changed from imperial to metric, i.e. I have the temp in metric as degC and consumption in imperial as MPG, could be visa versa if required. Not sure if the odomometer can be changed to KM as on the Vectra though.
Really would have though Renault would do the same, after all the Eire market is RHD as per the UK though KM/metric now, do they really fit different CPU's to cars that are for two different RHD markets?
Hi,
Im helping out a friend with a 97/98 Polo with central locking which is now no longer working.
The problem was originally a dead door, caused by a broken earth wire in the door loom. Earth wire was repaired, and electric windows/mirrors etc all work. However, the central locking is still not functioning. The wires in the door loom look okay, and the other dorr keyswitch does not operate locks either.
Fuse is okay. The central locking is vaccum pump operated. Does anybody know where the pump is located, and where the central locking control unit is?
Thanks
solara Read more
Solara,
It is normally to be found in the right had corner of the boot.
It will be mounted in a black stryofoam sound proofing casing. It may well be worth taking the pump out and seperating it, as it is very common for the circuit board inside it to suffer from water damage.
Regards Tony
There is a nice 1996 Nissan Almera for sale at my local paper really for buttons £300, we looked at it and apart from a noisy transmission everything is ok with 80k on the clock.
We have no idea how much will it cost to fit a 2nd hand gear box or how much the part should cost. Just wanted a basic idea befor we set ourself on parts hunting spree. does anyone can help? Read more
How come my Corolla repair job (bearings + 5th gear &
pinion) came to £1300... wouldn't a s/h box have made more
sense ?!
:-(
Blimey! Who did that? Sounds well over the top!
When I worked for a car delivery company some years ago the top mangaers used a helicopter to fly between depots. On one occasion the boss arrived in his Hughes chopper, the parrafin budgie we called it, the pilot came in to the traffic office and asked if we had any paraffin on site as he was low on fuel.
When he was told we did not he simply flew the copter as close as he could to the diesel pump and got a top up out of that.