November 2005
for enabling me to travel from Blackburn, Lancashire to High Wycombe in 3hrs yesterday afternoon, spend a couple of hours seeing my cousin in hospital there, then 3hrs to get back.
No drama, no worries or fuss. Straight clean run both ways and came back just after 10pm pretty relaxed.
The time taken for the journey was exactly what the AA traffic route planner had said.
Thank you to all concerned!
Stu
PS. Of course, I would not have attempted this on a Friday Read more
The brake pedal on my 95 Passat 1.9 TDI has always needed to be pushed down quite a way before there is any real response from the brakes. Otherwise, the brakes are effective. Recently the pedal travel has got worse. Bleeding the brakes improves the situation but it soon deteriorates again. The front pads and rear shoes are OK.
The actual free travel in the pedal mechanism is only slight (as can be felt when engine, and therefore servo, is off). The long travel is between when the pedal begins to apply the brakes and when they give effective stopping power. I'm wondering if the flexible brake hose sections are expanding, absorbing much of fluid displacement that should be applying the brakes (they look OK to te eye). There are no apparent leaks in the hydraulic system.
Any thoughts?
Cheers, Sofa Spud Read more
quite true sierraman but if you read the Sofa Spud question very carefully he says pads and shoes are "okay" (his words) so i was circumnavigating this so he got down and got under,weve all given pads a cursory glance and thought they were ok only to take wheel off and find a pad worn down due to a sticking calipot/slide?i have.
Thinking of making my next purchase a second-hand car with some power and maybe luxury. Will spend up to £10k.
Currently my Civic Type-R doesn't cost much (say £400pa) in servicing and maintenance but about £2k in depreciation, so total ownership costs of £2,400. The next car would need to cost less than this, combining depreciation (if any) and maintenance.
Am open to any ideas, but here are desires:
Powerful, say minimum 200bhp
Rear wheel drive
Some luxury/toys, e.g. leather, climate, cruise
6+ cylinders
Reasonable reliability record
Nothing liable to bankrupt me, e.g. old 7-series
Discreet and able to surprise Civic Type-R owners!
What do you reckon?
--
Mattster
Boycott shoddy build and reliability. Read more
Right, having looked at all the suggestions and considering others, I
looked up a load of stats for several cars, including power,
torque, weight, cost, JD Power rating and my own sanity check.
My shortlist is:
Mitsubishi Galant VR4 - high on performance, but don't know a
lot about it. Probably the more risky choice.
Almost everyone doesn't know a lot about it (if that makes sense). That's what makes it such a great Q car. Japanese reliability and build quality makes it a less risky choice. If you can get past the 'brand name' factor, they make a lot of sense. A short note on www.clubvr4.com will almost certainly produce a proud club member willing to take you for a test drive.
Hi there,
First post - and needing some advice. We've got our third child on the way (two already aged 9 months and 2.5 yrs respectively) and a change of car is reluctantly necessary.
I've got a WRX at the moment and both kids are in rear ISOFIX seats - and I was thinking of something big, used/nearly new - saloon or estate shaped and probably a diesel.
Currently on the shortlist is...
Mondeo TDCI 130 Ghia or Zetec
Mazda6 2.0D 136 TS2
What else would you recommend?
Does any car come with 3 rear ISOFIX points?
Is the future unavoidably MPV shaped?
All the best, DBB Read more
I didn't think I was that old but when working as a service engineer I was issued with a Mk II Astra van with unlimited private use. I made a folding wooden seat to put in the back ( only managers were given estates ) to accommodate the kids as well as my tools. I am sure it was quite legal then though my son, now 30, has never let me forget it.
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One mans junk is another mans treasure
Hi
Could someone point me in the right direction to find the address and telephone numbers for the highway departments of the local authority for Brighton and Hammersmith & Fulham (London)?
I would like to report some pot holes to them, and hopefully they will get repaired if they are reported,.
Thanks in advance
Greg Read more
>The council will love me!
They will. A fresh new pot hole does not cost much to repair. The longer its left the deeper and longer it gets, if left too long it starts to break up the road foundation. The longer its left the more expensive it gets to fix.
A lot of councils are very quick to fix potholes while they are easy to patch.
--
RF - currently 1 Renault short of a family
My old banger failed an MOT a couple of months ago and I declared it sorn as I was in no rush to fix it. Anyway, Now I've got it done, but don't want to go back to the same tester as I had a disagreement with him.
I'm wondering if it is ever common for other MOT testers to look over the same car and come up with a different failure points or something the previous MOT tester might have missed?
I would go to Kwik Fit and get it done for 25 quid, but I have heard they are always looking to create work and that puts the whole thing of finding different faults between testing stations on my mind. Read more
Many MoT'able items are very subjective (e.g. play in suspension components or cracking of rubber bushes) so there will be legitimate differences of opinion. I think with computerisation it is very very important to find a good tester (go on a recommendation) becaue of the data logging feature. If you think you have been scammed then go for a VOSA appeal. Mind you, it can be tricky, a garage round my way (now thankfully gone bust) used to get work by putting a screwdriver through CV boots and such like. Difficult to prove that the tester did it..
Bought a Honda scooter back end of Summer,will not be using it in the winter and need to keep the battery charged,the battery is 12V but only 5Ah capacity,am afraid to use my normal charger which says its suitable for 36to75Ah batteries,have found a Draper Batt.Master on the web looks like a phone charger in the picture and says its designed to maintain batt.on laid up vehicles,any one out there have any experience or suggestions please.
ndbw Read more
Many thanks to all for your help,can now get myself sorted charger wise.
ndbw
When at the local garage a few weeks ago I noticed that they were not busy in the slightest.
Having worked for a main dealership many years ago ISTR that there were lean times every year for the workshop, as opposed to the showroom.
Question, do these annual quiet times exist and do they fall in the same weeks of every year? Read more
I've just been sent a 10% servicing/repair work voucher by my main dealer, valid until end Dec - work is obviously a bit light.
I am wanting to purchase a reasonably priced security device and have seen one called 'Moto Lock' at a local car accessories shop...it looks like an imitation 'Disklok'
I was put off by it being only £19.99...my reaction was 'cheap and probably useless'!!
However...on line the going rate for this device is £59.99 so perhaps it is not such rubbish after all.
What do you think? Is there anyone out there who has got one? Is it reasonably quick and easy to fit? Read more
Someone in the past recommended fitting any security device which used a key upside down where it was possible;stopped the use of a puller.
I have had to replace the thermostat in my 1995 rover 416 (Twin overhead cam, the new body shape). It's a damn fiddly job, and I have just about managed it, but when I separated the housing , the old thermostat fell out before I could check which way round it goes. Any ideas how I sould fit the new unit?
Its on the right hand side of the car, and the unit has a cone shaped actuator on one side and a big spring on the other. Should the spring be facing toward the engine block or toward the wing ?
Ta very much
chris Read more
Engine will overheat as the thermostat won't open. The heater will work beautifully though until the engine stops.
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I suppose [it depends on] where in Blackburn you are starting from.
Regards,
John R @ Home