October 2005
Word of warning - Castrol's marketing boys must have been given a budget increase and all their oils have been rebranded and renamed.
I needed a litre of Castrol SLX II longlife oil for topping up my A3. Went along to Halfords and searched and searched - none on the shelves. I asked the assistant and was informed all Castrol Synthetic now comes under the brand of 'Castrol Edge' - you need to choose the correct viscosity for the vehicle and servicing pattern you are using.
The bottles are all the same apart from the viscosity number and for a short time it will say on the bottle, in very small writing, 'Replaces Castrol XYZ'.
As all the bottles are placed next to each other be sure you pick up the correct one for your vehicle.
In four years of Audi ownership this is the third bottle of Castrol oil I have bought and each time it is been in a different bottle! Read more
Hi im interested in buying a very clean low mileage ( under 98k miles ) mk2 golf automatic, my question is are they any good i mean the auto boxes?? i did have a escort auto P reg a while ago and well frankly, ford ought to be lined up and shot because they are so shat in making them.
Anyway back to my original question like i said, any good and what should i look for?
ps its got a new mot.
thanks Read more
Golfs tend to wear pretty well,some friends have an 'A'reg that is still in good nick.A Webber will be around £200,an online search will find suppliers,simple to fit although you may need a garage to set it up for the emissions.
A friend is selling his S-reg, golf, 1.9 TDi SE, Mk4, 100,000 miles, 5 door, alloys etc.
He said he was open to offers! Honest John said trade price was £2995 (at that mileage)... BUT... did i really want it, as the Mk4 have been known to be more than a little problematic!!
So my next question to everyone is, whats the problem with them, it's been suggested that most the problems are with the 1.8T... would a offer of £2500 be about right?? Or am i going to get problems down the line that'll cost me dear!?!?!
Claire Read more
Mk4 Golfs have glitches all through their lives (as do most VWs). On the up side, the TDi is the best engine of the range. On the down-side, 100,000 miles means that the glitches become more expensive.
I had a GT-TDi which clocked up just over 100,000 miles. In the last few thousand miles it needed several hundred £££'s worth of repairs...
On the A27 near Eastbourne there are roadworks taking place with a temporary 40mph limit. A few yards after this sign is a national speed limit repeater that has not been covered up.
My question is: which limit applies?
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\"Nothing less than 8 cylinders will do\" Read more
I have flashed more gatso's traveling towards them than I have
had hot breakfasts. Never been done, not once.
>>
Those that go off as you travel towards them are not live. They have a lesser grade radar in them which isn't callibrated to determine whether you are travelling away from or towards it. It's used to scare people into slowing, in the belief that it is live.
I used to time my passing of one on the A556 so that I would make it flash a car coming the other way (ie from behind it). Grown out of that game now though.
Dear All,
I posted a while back about my SEAT Ibiza that had not been welded at the back and eventually got an identical replacement. I'm still not happy with the model, though, and am waiting for a new Launch Edition MX-5.
When I bought the Ibiza, I paid for 3 years' servicing with Arnold Clark (I haven't used this at all yet as the replacement came in February this year). Do you think I'm entitled to a refund or should I kiss the £ goodbye?
Cheers,
Rob. Read more
Is it really with Arnold Clarke? Seems a strange thing to do, what if they went bust?
My daughter pays £20/mth on a service deal for her Ibiza, but that's done with VAG Finance, so the car can be serviced at any VAG dealer.
What do the service deal's T's & C's say about cancellation? Have you tried asking the question?
Are you p/xing the Ibiza in for the MX-5? Perhaps the service deal has some value (assume it's transferable)? Are you buying the MX-5 from Arnold Clark?
Just been out ( well you have to sometimes)
I get pretty jaded about some of the driving I see but this morning...
I live near a village called Chinnor, between Wycombe and Oxford. On the main road out of Chinnor going east (30 limit) there is a stretch of about 300 metres which has 8 pairs of speed humps on it. This has been very controversial , though a local action group did their own speed measuring and found average speeds dropped from about 42 to about 30, tho still recorded somebody at 70!
I was one of a group of about 5 vehicles keaving Chinnor and a couple of cars ahead of me was a beige Passat .The driver tried twice to overtake the car ahead of him(or her) despite the bumps but couldn't do it .
When we got about a mile into open countryside there is a straight stretch probably about a kilometer long, but with a hidden dip about halfway along.
This idiot decided to make up for previous disappointments by pulling out with a view to passing the three vehicles in front. He/she was alongside the first when an oncoming car appeared out of the dip and for a moment I thought we would have a head-on at combined speed of 140+
Fortunately the guy he was overtaking, and the rest of us, grasped the situation and braked to create the space for him to him to get back in.
A minute or so later he finally passed everyone, but then just sat at the front of the queue.
What depresses me is(a) I doubt the driver had any idea of the risk he was causing for others; and(b) we still take lightly the fact that driving is probably the only activity most of us perform every day where we could potentially kill other people Read more
For safety I liked Holland best
Sweden seems nice with their 2+1 roads. Soooooo calm.
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I am the only Pole over here.
Very interested in the deal from buymynewcar.co.uk on the Nissan Almera Tino 1.8 Flare for £8000.
What are people's thoughts on this model and deal?
Seems ideal replacement for my 51 reg Scenic Read more
Could you please help.
I am sure a CV joint (perhaps joints) needs replacing as I am getting a distinct knocking noise on full lock whilst manoevering in the car park. Also a clattering/knocking noise on taking up drive and on the over run.
I have looked under the car and the cv joint covers are all intact and everything else - suspension, tie rods and ball joints look fine. Outer driveshaft bolt and inner joints bolts checked for tightness.
I cannot hear a clicking noise on either full lock with the windows down but something feels wrong.
Could you please advise me how I go about identifying which cv joint (or joints) need replacing. I could put the front end on axle stands and then turn the wheels by hand on full lock if this would help.
Thank you for your assistance.
Martin Read more
At the beginning of 2004 Vauxhall seemed to have dropped the rain sensor/auto dim rear view mirror unit as standard on the LS models. Having had a number of hire cars with this feature I quite liked it.
I have recently got a 2004 LS, which obviously does not have this feature. Is it something that could be retrofitted at it looks like it would be something that is simply stuck to the inside of the windscreen and connected to a power source.
If it ispossible, would it be something I could ask my Vauxhall dealer to do? Any idea of cost would be great if it is!
Many thanks in advance....... Read more
You can gladly have mine. I find both features on my 53 SRi a pain. The rain sensitive wipers have a mind of their own and I constantly have to manually flick wipe the screen instead of relying on them. With the auto dipping mirror, on an unlit motorway eg M4 you cannot see what is behind you, other than some dimmed lights and you cannot override this 'feature'.
Hi All
Sorry to duplicate my post in discussion, but no answer to this so far, & someone here's bound to know!
What I'm really upto is finding out whose mapping CD Roms can work in there.
Thanks all.
PS the www.navshop.com doesn't split out pugs by model & I spent half the night surfing around trying to anser this Q. More than happy if someone tells me where to start looking.
{To avoid repetition of answers, please reply to the thread in discussion. www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=35657 DD} Read more
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But IIRC its not on the list of oils tested and approved by VAG to 506.01 or the later 504/507 standards, even though Comma is owned by something big in this field. Use at your own risk.