December 2005
I saw some posts on here about guys in their early 20s looking for flash motors worth about 10-15k. This is not a specific question directed at these particular cases, more a general curiosity. How do they afford it? Other than the odd dot com whizz kid, do most young guys get the money from their parents? When I was last back in the UK at Christmas, I saw loads of very young guys in BMWs, Golf turbos etc. Maybe this is the new found economic prosperity which has been occurring in my absence. When I was that age (which wasnt that long ago), the most expensive motor I had cost 800 quid!
BTW, I'm not trying to have a go at anyone-if you have the money, then enjoy it!
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y reg Clio 1.2 every time I come to a halt ie trafic lights etc the thing wont sit at idle ,it cuts out.Dealer says Throttle body and wireing must be replaced at a cost of one arm and one leg (£650.00).Help!If I run the car like this, will it damage anything or just shorten the starter and ignition switch life. Read more
We had this problem on my wife's '98 Clio 1.6, it too was dignosed as a throttle body issue though changing from Tesco to BP petrol made all the difference. It could also be the coolant temp sensor, if the ECU is not able to determine the engine temp it can run rich when hot therefore not running properly.
Hi all
I'm looking for some advice here. About 18 months back, the wife pranged her Polo. The insurance company insisted the repair was done by their tame guys rather than our local independant - usual practice I'm sure. We live in West Cumbria, bur the car was taken all the way to Durham for the repair which included a new bonnet which obviously had to be sprayed.
All seemed ok but after about 10 months I noticed a problem developing with the paint on the bonnet. To cut a long story short the insurance and repair company eventually accepted that there was a problem with the way the bonnet had been prepared for final spraying and agreed to take the car away and redo the paint job.
Wifey got the car back last week, but the delivery driver said that the petrol gauge was no longer working. Our local garage guy suspects that the instrument head has a problem because some other indicator lights (such as oil) have also stopped working. These were all previously ok before the car taken back to Durham.
Now to the point. Do we stand any chance of putting the blame on this repair company and getting it fixed FOC or is it a lost cause? Are they likely to have done anything which could have caused a short and damaged the instrument head?
Cheers for any advice,
Les Read more
You would have to find out the cause and then blame them if it is likely something they did.
If it is the instrument cluster itsself, I don't see how painting a bonnet could do this.
If they jetwashed teh engine bay to remove sanding/buffing dust and you find water ingress has caused the problem, then you may have a chance - you need to find the cause first, and then the root cause, and they need to be responsible for the root cause.
Where can I check a car registration details? It's for a friend and the car has a personal registration so the index mark does not tally with the prefix.
I was sure that this could be done on the DVLA website but I've ben unable to find it. Read more
Seems a bit fishy on personal plates. That on SWBO's Berlingo
shows not found, but car can be located on it's original 05 plate.
Cherished number was transferred from retention in April this year.
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IIRC it only works for the original registration.
All the cherished regs I have checked did not work.
Sadly not for me. You should know me better than that!
My mate is the complete opposite of me - he likes the smaller more flashy cars such as the Clio Sport etc.
Anyway, the jammy git's got 15 grand burning a hole in his pocket and is interested in a Boxster and an Audi TT primarily. Naturally, given his age (just turned 21 the other week), these choices could fall through so he's looking for other similar(ish) cars for ideas.
This is where you lot come in. It's a free for all on ideas please. Must be 15 grand or less and sub Group 17 insurance but the type of car you'd think he'd like. Completely crazy ideas are ok because you never know...
Oh - it's got to be flash too! And pretty quick.
Any suggestions most welcome gents.
Cheers,
Adam
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Don't know about Adam, but some of my best literary masterpieces have been knocked up in about 24 hours :-)
Blue
If cars need a test at three years old, and every year thereafter, why do drivers, including and particularly PSV/LGV, get to go for ever (unless they have a major driving conviction/medical condition) without a re-test? Read more
Imagine coming home on the bus after you'd failed, having to arrange for somenoe to collect your car and phoning your boss to hand in your resignation because your job involves driving or you can't get public transport to your work.
Then facing losing your home because you can't pay the mortgage and getting re-housed on a sink estate. Every body thinks regular re-testing is a good idea until the full implications are spelt out. You don't have to be a bad driver to fail, just unlucky or nervous on the day or draw an examiner who takes a dislike to you or who has had a rollicking because his pass rate is too high.
I saw it all at first hand for nearly twenty years, believe me you wouldn't want to go there.
I have a Rover 416 Sli auto, and over the last couple of months Ive been getting a really bad rattling noise from underneath the car whilst driving. Infact the noise is kind of tin cans/metal being dragged along the road...difficult to describe properly. It appears once the car has warmed up after a mile or so, and only happens when pulling away at reasonable speed from a junction or lights etc. It also is present when driving between 50/60 mph, but weirdly dissapears over this speed, and is not audible when driving along at steady 30/40 mph...and also not audible when stood still ticking over, or even revving the engine whilst stood still. Its coming from outside the car, and sounds like its directly underneath the gear selector area, and is almost definately not an internal rattle, ie its not from inside the engine or inside the gearbox. The car drives exactly the same as before, with no effect on performance or handling or anything. Any help would be much appreciated if anyone has any ideas what it could be. Thanks in advance, Graeme. Read more
It is almost certainly the exhaust heat shield. I've run a Rover 416 like yours and now a 5 door Civic off the same production line. They've both done it.
Just as the downpipe / middle section of the exhaust turns through about 90deg to run towards to rear of the car, there is a 2-piece heat shield above and below the exhaust. (can't remember off-hand what it's shielding...)
Anyway, the shield is poorly designed and relies on 2 spot welds at each side to stay in one piece. To the best place to have spot welds, so close the vibration of the engine and subject to extreme heating and cooling.
My local exhaust fitter helpfully hacksawed off the bottom bit which was rattling, warning me to be careful of parking in long grass.
I'm 90% confident that you need to do the same.
96N reg. Just had head reconditioned after severe overheat.
When attempting to start the engine turns over and fires once but does not start. Changed distributor cap and rotor arm to eliminate. Sparks OK. Valve and Igniton Timing seems OK. Fuel appears OK.
Battery charged fully.All electrical connections appear OK.Compression check carried Out . All cylinders appear OK.
When attempting to start after initial attempt then engine does not fire at all and just turns over with no sign of life. If left for a while then it will fire again once only and then just turns over but again dead as dodo.
Any help would be appreciated.
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Steve,
It was the valve timing.
Re timed and it started immediately.
Many thanks to everybody. I am going to give the cooling system a good flush through and hopefully be back on the road soon.
TC
Decided to use spare key on my GS300 since main key was somewhere upstairs in the house.
Went to unlock the car by placing key in lock and alarm goes off. Got inside and somehow the alarm eventually went off.
Found main key again, but car would not start. Thought battery was dead, so called breakdown people. They came, said it was an immobiliser issue since the red security light kept flashing, even after unlocking the car. The bloke said it would have to be towed back to Lexus on Monday morning.
Eventually, someone told me to try disconnecting the battery, then reconnecting, and turning the key to ignition position and leaving it there for at least 6 minutes. Then take out and retry starting the car. This procedure helps the key learn the car again, whatever that means.
Voila! It worked! Still don't know what the issue was with the spare key, but just shows you how immobilisers can be too effective if you don't know enough about the car. Read more
I would say at least 100 quid is how much Lexus would have charged me to do the 6 minute thing!
the belt /pulley area has a very noisy vibration on tick over. disappears when engine speed increased. a new belt was fitted prior to my recent purchase. (allegedly). the noise goes when lots of power sources are turned on. ie lights, main beam, fog lights , air con etc. it comes back when they are turned off. this suggests a tensioner problem. how do you tighten the belt up or adjust the tension ?
cheers. mark. Read more
2nd hand alternator fitted . problem solved. Thank you
Browse
The world has changed a lot since I was a youngster. 20-30 years ago only about 5% of kids went to university. Nowadays its about 50%. Not being part of the small minority (the 5%) was no big deal. Not being part of the 50% is now a much bigger disadvantage. Many employers will not even shortlist someone who doesn't have a degree. Even basic admin jobs require a degree now. Employers are contstantly raising the bar. Low level jobs attract only the lowest pay and the market is flooded with unskilled immigrant labour. I recently stayed at a mid-range hotel in Cambridge - used it many times before. This time almost all the English staff were gone, replaced by East Europeans (mostly Poles I think). Nothing against the Polish, nice people, but the room rates hadn't been reduced and there was a notice in the room asking guests to note that staff may not have a very good command of English and may not understand English customs!
It all well and good talking about getting a job with inelastic demand - but things change quickly these days - its hard to predict the future. Everyone has been piling into property recently, but its not so long back that prices were falling. Ten years ago I had roofers and plumbers knocking on my door asking if I had any work for them and all the brickies were looking for work in Holland and Germany.