June 2005
Not sure if this has come up before (if it has no doubt DD will confirm) but some friends of mine were on the verge of buying a new Mazda 3 last week. They'd done their homework, looked at several cars and had a test drive. Just before signing up and parting with their cash, however, they decided (for reasons they can't even explain) to take another test drive and bring the car home with them. Everything was fine until just prior to returning the car the lady of the household decided to try to park it on her drive only to discover that due to the sloping ground level their drive's odd contruction, the car grounded quite noticeably and the drive would have had to be dug up/relaid in order to accommodate it.
Even though they liked the 3, their preferred solution was to return it to the bemused dealer and buy a Honda CRV.
Has anyone else in the BR been in a similarly embarrassing situation when changing cars? Read more
Hi all
Is it possible to change the oil in ford focus gearbox (1.8TDi). When the cars cold gear changing is abit of a challenge but when the engines up to temperture gear changing is how it should be.
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If its the MTX75 'box then you need a very thin oil otherwise you will get terrible shift quality, especially in cold weather. You can buy Ford 'MT75' oil, or use an aftermarket alternative (e.g. Morris Lubricants Lodexol MT, suitable for these gearboxes - see the Morris Lubricants website).
Hello
Been offered a W Reg Mercedes 240
with 162000 0n the Clock car has full Mercedes Service History from new
belongs to a Chaufer Company.
Also is the 240 a Chain or Cambelt
if a Chain would the tensioners need to be looked at or replaced at this sort of
Mileage ?
Thanks for any advice
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Thanks for the replies
As regards to what type of journeys i would imagine Airports and long distance runs up and down the Country
It's a 240 Elegance model
and they were asking £7000.
I have knocked it down to £6500 and have more or less agreed to buy it.
The service history is up to date and all the Mot's are present.
So I think I will go for it
Hi,
Can anyone tell me if a diesel Citroen Berlingo (Y reg) will have an electric in-tank fuel lift pump or will it still have a good old mechanical lift pump?
Many thanks in advance for any info.
cheers, Gia Read more
There will only be an electric fuel pump if it's an HDi. If it's a 1.9D, then it will have the old mechanical fuel pump (with a few electronic bells and whistle to go wrong) only - and a primer under the bonnet to pump the fuel up if you run out / when you change the filter. Electric lift pumps on early HDis are a well known weak point, and generally pack up at about 60k miles - they seem to have sorted this out now, as I haven't heard of one packing up for a while. Usually results in a no-start situation, but without any fault codes!
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RichardW
Is it illogical? It must be Citroen....
I've been looking out for another little runabout since the theft of my Nova. Now SWMBO thinks that we should buy a "sporty" car for her and I can use the "main" car. I managed to put her off an MGF, but there are many alternatives. Favorite at the moment is a 1.4 Ford Puma. Do any Backroomers have a view on this choice or suggest an alternative with similar running costs? Read more
You're safe!
I do, however, know exactly how much it costs to have the camcover oil seals and the spark plugs changed on the Jag. It ain't pretty!
O
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Jaguar XJS V12 - comes with free personalised oil tanker.
I wonder if anyone knows what happens to car registrations in 2010 - In March does '59'become '10' and come Sept. 2010 we get '60'?
On a related point, what was the rationale in commencing the new registrations with '51' back in 2001? Read more
What happens after September 2049?
We'll all be using a reliable public transport system long before then.
::Oink oink and wings spring to mind::
Despite my wife's usual efficiency in all things paper based she has lost the paper part of her photocard licence - she hasn't needed it until now when she needs to hire a car. The silver lining is that in looking for it all our paperwork has now been sorted out, all I need now is an industrial shredder!
I looked on the DVLA website and was encouraged to see you can order replacement licences over the phone with nothing more than a debit card. I sent her the link and she rang them up. She explained she has lost the paper part and was told she needed to fill in a form and apply by post. She queried the information given on the website that she could order a replacement over the phone she was told that this only applied where you had lost BOTH parts of the licence! She put the phone down and she immediately 'lost' her photocard so she called back, a new photocard and supplementary paperwork are on the way!
Is life really so complicated, or do the DVLA enjoy making it so?
PS The irony is the car hire company don't need to see the paper part, just another form of ID! Read more
Why is it necessary for the driver to carry around the information on how many demerit points he has? This is held on a central computer system and is available to any police officer who has the licence in his hand. If the points accumulated are over the statutory limit, then the licence is retained by the officer, and the driver walks home. (This happened recently to my son here in New Zealand, he exceeded the demerits within a certain time, so it was three months loss of licence.)
Perhaps when the system was introduced in the UK, there wasn't a central licensing computer, so the driver had to look after his own demerit points. Surely now the system is computerised (it is in the UK too now isn't it?) the paper part can just be discarded. I know that for the five years I lived and drove in the UK, I never carried the paper part. Mind you, I was never stopped or ticketed. In fact, I never spoke to a policeman in any capacity while I was there. I came back here and had about three speeding tickets in two years, grrr.
I have still over a 1 year off payments due on my vauxhall vectra, but want to get a new car. I have £2000 of savings which I could use to pay off car finance or put towards new car. It was suggested that I could hand my car back to finance company as i've paid more than half. Has anyone done this? Does to go against my credit rating? Whats the down falls? Can anyone help? Read more
Hi
Thanks for the Info. I suspected their might be more to it than a Regular HP agreement.
May have to keep it till the end of Contract
Thanks again
Ian.H
I've recently acquired a replacement Inlet manifold for my audi, a golf part but supplier assured me all the same it would fit. I'm having trouble aligning it to join does anyone have any suggestions?
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Hi everyone
I have a CG125 and would be interested to know the best place for me to get a screen and fairing for this bike. I am based in London (SW6) and would like to either buy online or from a store in the area.
Also, where is a good place to get protective clothing at a reasonable price.
Many thanks for all your help
GREG Read more
www.busters-accessories.co.uk has a decent range of screens and top fairings. Protective clothing isn't protective if it doesn't fit, any built in armour will be in the wrong place so the only way to buy that is go to a shop and try it on.
Browse
Correct Steve.o - lived here for 20 years now.
Don't think it's the same people (will check) but do think there's a possible problem with the 3. Checked out their drive yesterday and it doesn't look too bad really (might be deceptive though). I can't help thinking there's going to be a lot of scraped road humps around. Do you know what part of the car grounds?
Well done on checking out HF's car BTW. I'd be happy to help her but know very little about cars and although I could point out the more obvious faults I wouldn't want anyone to rely on my knowledge.