December 2005
Recently as i was driving along my stereo suddenly cut off(which wont come back on) and the central locking stopped working. I thought must be electrical problem, however the horn, lights and electric windows still work. For the first time when i turn engine on and off both indicators flash once or twice which never happened before. Any ideas?? Can i solve this myself or does it sound like a more serious thing?? Read more
does anybody know the were abouts of a vauxhall vivaro dashboard display for a radio /cdplayer cdr500 ?
Read more
does anyone know if you can purchase a maintanance contract for a car. I'm looking to replace a small fleet, probably with mondeo diesels and am wondering if you can purchase a separate maintenace contract so as to have a monthly budget for servicing, repairs tyres etc. We've got 6 laguna's at the minute - never again, all less than 2 years old and we've gone through 3 gearboxes ( 2 out of wararnty) all six clutch servos, and bills that BMW would be ashamed of.
Dominic Read more
".......and you might lose your job."
Don't worry. If Dominic's sole responsibility was being fleet manager,
I don't think he would be asking us for this sort
of advice!
my job is sales and marketing but if leave to our company accountant the reps will end up with lemons like the laguna's
dominic
I have just received my renewal notice from Saga, for the C5, which is due for renewal next month. As I got a really good price on the Xantia from More Than in the summer, I got an online quote for the C5. It is about £90 less than the Saga quote, which is about £312. Read more
A Saga greencard covers you for multiple holidays(each upto 31 days)I believe for a year.As I usually go over at least 3 times,it saves me money over firms who charge for each one tho' their basic initial quote is less.
An item I read in this weeks Auto Express says that as of next month modified cars in Ireland will be refused MOT certificates making it illegal for them to be driven on public roads. They want to get rid of tinted windows, big exhausts & suchlike. Can't see it happening over here as it is big business & a huge fuss would be kicked up. Guaranteed to lose Blair young voters if it happened here. Read more
Me too oldman. Capri's with jack-up plates on the leaf springs and those GRP power-bulges on the bonnet?
I don't mind the mods, but I do think that safety-related stuff should be controlled (e.g. suspension and braking mods). Germany seems to have a thriving 'aftermarket' scene (there are lots of magazines devoted to the topic anyway) so I don't see why it should be any different here....
Has anyone any experience of the 4 speed auto boxes fitted to the 2001 model A3 & golf 1.6
My A3 has covered 38,000 miles without a problem but as I hopt cover at least another 20,000, I was wondering what sort of mileage thses boxes tend to give grief in normal use.
The A3 manual only mentions a fluid level check at 40,000 miles. Would life expectancy be increased by a fluid change soom perhaps to a specialist aftermarket oil.
Thanks
Charles Fox
South Croydon Read more
The box on many of these VW cars are sealed. I am a great believer in fluid and filter changes. Car always seems smoother afterwards, and the old fluid is always discoloured.
If it is a normal box get oil and filter changed. If it is a sealed box ask an auto gearbox specialist if they can suck out as much of the old fluid as possible and refil with new. Check with Audi if the box uses special fluid or the regular. Make sure the autospecialst uses the right fluid.
My L-reg Escort estate, with 90bhp Zetec engine, has started the habit of idling at 12-1500rpm for up to ten seconds after lifting the throttle, eventually slowing down to its normal idle rate. The centre section of the exhaust is blowing slightly. Could there be a connection?
The only way to start the car has always been (since I have had it): start car without touching accelerator, wait for 'hunting' to stabilize, then drive off. Any throttle while starting results in instant stall. Driving off before the idle speed stabilizes results in a stall at the next road junction or any other reason for stopping the car. Is all of this normal for this model? It has been very good otherwise.
Read more
Could be an air leak but see my thread on Ford V6 Idle problem. problem posted by Andy Bee. Same principles ,might apply to your problem
1998 Grand Cherokee 4.0 Auto
Ticking noise from auto box under load. Ticking gets faster as speed increases.
Any ideas if this is serious.
Thanks Read more
Thanks N_C
A google search seems to suggest this may be an exhaust manifold gasket problem. Although it definetly sounds like its coming from the gearbox.
I can confirm it makes the sound no matter what gear it is in.
I took the documents to the PO to tax our company van, and an eagle-eyed cashier spotted that the hand-written "U" on the registration number on the MOT certificate could, if read at the wrong angle, look a tiny bit like an "L", so she rejected the certificate and refused to issue the tax disk. I was told to get a new certificate - NOT get the garage to correct the original, or she would reject it again.
The certificate was an old-style one, and the garage can only now do new-style certificates. So officially, there was nothing the tester could do other than log-on and do a complete re-test.
In practice, he managed to trick the DVLA computer into running an entirely fictitious MOT retest.
I'm not sure how precisely he achieved this, but he said he could do any of the old tricks if he wanted, for favoured customers, and the new system was as wide open to abuse as the old. He could even fool the emissions section, simply by sticking the probe up the exhaust pipe of a known passable car rather than the one on test. Read more
cockle {P} i was being ironic :) ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,sorry
I realised that oldman, no need to be sorry.
I'm just amazed that they would even own up to a 6% error rate let alone trumpet it, let's face it that figure is pretty poor for a new database.
I'm posting this for a colleague- can anybody advise
"My dad was in a car accident last Friday when a truck made an illegal right turn and crashed into him. Thankfully, he is OK. The car has now been assessed by my father's insurance's garage but they have said it is borderline/write-off so they have to wait for the insurance's engineer to assess (although I don't know when this will be). In the mean time, my father's insurance refuses to give my father a courtesy car even though I have phoned numerous times and explained that they are both elderly and that my mother is disabled. The legal department for my father's insurers have said that they can get my father a hired car at the expense of the third party as long as my father's insurers agree. However, the insurance people will not authorise even this."
Are they entitled to a car prior to the assessment? And which insurer pays for the courtesy car?
Sigma Read more
No probs, pleased to help!
Blue
Browse
Could be weak battery/alternator. When I had a faulty alt (on a 306) the battery wasnt charging correctly so as you drove along gradually things stopped. The 1st to go was always the radio, followed by the dash lights, then the instruments themselves and then finally the lights. Recon alternator cured it.