January 2006
Can anyone recommend a good Vauxhall dealer in Hertfordshire.
Thankd in advance Read more
Hi all, i'm thinking of buying one of these readers to read the codes and reset the lights on my Vauxhall astra club 2002
52 reg.
It say's it's for use on vehicles with OBD compliant engines.
Can someone tell me what OBD stands for and will i be able to use it on my car.Has anyone used one and are they any good.
The Draper part No is 11972-79143.
Thanks in advance.
tomboy Read more
Thanks for the replys all. I'm still not sure about this machine so i've written to draper and given them my car details.
I'll post their reply as soon as i get it as it may be usfull to others.
The coil that I fitted to my Laguna 10 months ago failed yesterday morning, this was a genuine part purchased from a dealer (no pattern part available for this apparently). I rang them to say can they order a new one in and I will go in when they have it to swap them over and give them the faulty one back ? they then said ?You will need to bring the car into us sir so we can verify the fault?.
Now as the coil was dead the car could not be moved, they were expecting me to pay to have it recovered to them so they could look at a part they supplied only. This to me is totally illegal under consumer law ? isn?t it!
They point blankly refused to move on the subject and would not recover the car at their expense. Now I know I have RAC cover and could have used that, but that would have meant loosing my NCD next year, so there would have been a financial loss to me.
After contacting Renault UK they were also adamant that they were not going to budge and that this is their normal terms under their warranty, I pointed out that I was returning the item under consumer law not their warranty. To cut a long story short, after 5 hours on the phone yesterday (glad I work from home) they finally agreed to send a replacement to the dealers for me to collect today. I have now fitted the coil and car runs as normal again. The dealer in question was useless and carried out illegal practises (in my view) and were happy for me to take them to court (or so it seemed).
Moral of this story is avoid dealer parts at all costs (which I would have done if I had been able ? similar part is less then half the price at motor factors!!), and what ever you do don?t buy a genuine Renault part!!!!
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Have not heard/was not made aware of that. Is that for all Renaults? mine is a '95 model so getting on a bit now.
Has anybody experienced problems with the Vauxhall Signum parking brake releasing it's hold on the car? I am presently looking at a case where the handbrake lever assembly had been replaced by a main dealer and shortly afterwards it had allowed the car to roll back off a driveway. Lever assembly is apparently the same on the Vectra. Read more
clearly there is a problem with the mechanism used
If this were the case then why is it only happening to a very small percentage of Vectra / Signum cars? Compare the amount of cars sold to the people having problems, and it's easy to see why Vauxhall aren't willing to do anything about it.
and as mentioned above, they've pretty well covered themselves by the advice given in the handbook - ie, select first gear or reverse if you have manual transmission, and select "P" with an auto transmission.
My rover diesel has stopped altogther. I had it looked at and the fuel primer was changed and she worked fine for a couple of days but will not start at all. The same guy suggested that their may be air in the system. Any hints on where to start. Read more
What is it with road repairs/fixing pipes. From what I have seen driving about they never seem to fix the problem first time. Driving to work this morning joined nice long traffic jam. Only to discover that there is a set of temporary lights again at the same junction to fix the same bit of road/pipes. They have now been trying to fix this same issue for a year now and this is there fourth attempt. I am sure there must be the appropriate people on this forum to answer these questions.
1. Why cannot road repairs be fixed first time?
2. Is it because the materials that are used are sub standard?
3. Why do they dig a hole put traffic cones round about it then leave it for weeks?
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I'll give it a go
1. Why cannot road repairs be fixed first time?
They're not all repairs. Some roadworks will be connections to new developments and have to fit in with the development programme (although from bitter experience trying to get Transco on site in time is like pulling teeth).
Other roadworks will be enhancement of the infrastructure: if 100 new homes are built up the road, the old water main will need upgrading.
Other roadworks will be straight forward failure or leaks.
Some other ones will be repairing faults in newly laid lines e.g. i had a case where some drains were relaid on a private estate, but we had two joints dropped through settlement. It happens. You get the contractor back to fix f.o.c and hang on to his retention until he does.
And of course some will be tired out roads.
2. Is it because the materials that are used are sub
standard?
Unlikely. Type 1 is type 1 is type 1. That's stone or hardcore to you. As long as it's compacted at the correct intervals. And the tarmac would need to be the correct mix and thickness. Otherwise, the contractor will be back and be picking up the tab.
3. Why do they dig a hole put traffic cones round
about it then leave it for weeks?
Pass, unless they're waiting for something to cure or a third party to do their bit.
There are some roads which you can't dig up in the day, e.g. the main raod in Burnham on Sea cannot be dug in daytime from March to October because it's the only road for tourists to access the caravan parks and Brean Park.
Are you sure in your case that it is the same body that have dug up the road all four times? Give them a call and find out what's going on. They don't know they're causing a problem unless you complain....
I had the dubious pleasure at the weekend of watching the films 'The Cat in the Hat' and 'Thunderbirds' (don't ask). I was amazed at the amount of Ford cars and logos appearing in both these films. Thunderbirds featured the Ford T'bird based pink FAB1 car, as well as loads of 4x4's and (i think) Fiestas, all with Ford stickers and badges on display. The Cat in the Hat featured a yellow T'bird and scores of old shape Focus's (Foci?) with aero boards covering the wheels, still with many Ford badges in prominence. IIRC Ford also supplied 4x4's for Jurassic Park.
Then of course there are the 'concepts' produced by Audi for I,Robot; and Lexus in Minority Report. Is this outlay by the manufacturers really worth it? It must cost mllions, but how do they quantify a return on their investment?
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let me be the last to let you down.... Read more
Apparently someone did a count up and Irobot is the most product placed film to date with Will Smith even referring to the products as in 'cool trainers' 'yeah there Converse vintage 2004'.
Also the producers of the Professionals were really patriotic and dead keen to promote BL cars but BL just didn't get it. They would not turn up, turn up with the wrong model, yank a car half way through shooting and replaced it with the same model but different spec or different colour or both completely missing the need for continuity. Meanwhile Ford were panting for a deal so they eventually went with Ford. Another example of BL management brilliance.
We all get frustrated at times by the unbelievably brainless actions of other people when they get behind the wheel of a killing machine. Sometimes it eases the pain to talk about it.
Like this morning, for example. I was walking through Ealing on my way to the Underground station when in the distance I heard a police siren. Turning around, I saw an Astra with its blues and twos on coming down the street that I was on.
Now the traffic that was travelling in the same direction as the police car (and me) pulled over to the side of the road to let it past, leaving the other side of the road clear. Until this moronic woman doing the school run in the other direction decided that the best course of action would be to stop completely adjascent to these cars, thereby blocking the road.
If she had just kept going as normal on her journey she would have been clear of the stopped cars before the police car had needed to pass, not holding the rozzers up at all. But her brain seemed to engage "nnnggghhhh" mode and she just stomped on the brake and sat there. It was only when the drivers who had pulled over previously realised what she was doing and pulled up onto the pavement that the cops could get past. As soon as the police were out of the way she just carried on her merry way blissfully unaware of her own stupidity.
Not fit to be on the road.
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AngryJonny (was E34kid) Read more
Good job he didn't flick the Vs at the camera, otherwise he would really be in trouble.
Hi, clutch is slipping on my pug 405td 1996, is replacing the clutch a diy job or best left to a garage? any tips?
Cheers.
Duggie Read more
Hi Richard, thanks for the reply, i finally fitted the clutch today, i decided to remove the subframe this gave more room, not sure if the gearbox would have came out if i hadnt, anyway the gearbox is back in situ and tomorrow everything else will be bolted back together (hopefully). The job isnt as bad as i first thought and its a nice feeling saving £200+!
Thanks again.
Duggie
Just noticed that for less than £13K you can get an 04 reg MG ZT with sat nav and on board TV etc.
What sort of value drop are these likely to take in the next 2 - 3 years? It just seems like a LOT of car for the money and I'm wondering what the catch is, apart from possible parts problems of course!
Blue Read more
£40000 depriciation in 2 years, that's the same as my first house cost me!
Browse
Not Herts, but if you can get to "relatively" nearby Bucks, I highly recommend the Knotty Green Vauxhall Dealership in Penn. Very small, very friendly and honest, very well run, and with excellent service. Having found them, I went out of my way to continue using them for about five years until I switched to Volvo. Some minor problems like a washer bottle gunged up with congealed fluid were sorted free of charge whilst I waited; though perfectly able to do it myself, on the cold and damp winters day in question I was glad I didn't have to!