January 2006
From BBC today:
"A Bristol woman is driving her neighbours to distraction by setting their doorbell off with her car keys. Every time Debra Hanson, 41, from Bedminster, locks or unlocks her car's doors, the bells on both her neighbours' homes chime. Car-maker Vauxhall says the problem lies with the bells, not the key.
The company says all of its car fobs use microwaves which are of an industry-standard frequency, and believes the doorbells must be set to the wrong frequency."
I understand the car is an Astra. Anyone else had similar problems? Must be great fun at midnight!
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IanS
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I am somewhat dismayed or disappointed, one might say, that my new Golf MK V 1.6 SE takes rather a long time to warm up during the very cold weather that we've had recently. The car is left outside but still seems slow to give warm air from the heater by comparison to previous cars that I have owned under similar circumstances.
I would say that on the cold mornings such as we have had recently, it takes at least 2 miles for the heater to output
reasonably warm/hot air through the air vents and it is at this stage that the temperature gauge shows the needle to be just reaching the central 'normal' position i.e. 90 degrees celcius. (This, is with the aircon 'off' of course).
This is in marked contrast to my partner's new Fiesta (garaged, admittedly) which has noticeable warm output from the air vents in less that 1 mile!
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FSI petrols seem to take longer than "normal" ones to warm up. This may be due to their supposedly improved efficiency. Still better than diesels though!
Joe
My Renault is no longer starting. For the past two weeks it has been cutting out whilst I've been driving. To start with it would re-start staright away. Then it would take a couple of minutes before it re-started. Then it was pot luck whether it starts before the AA man arrives.
The AA man has been checking the electrics. First suggestion was a new remix(?) box so he re-wired around it to get a charge through. It cut-out the following day so he (the same AA man) created a new link from a charge he found from something not being used. This week the AA man (a new one) couldn't find any charge by the coil at all so ran a lead from the battery to get me home and there my Renault sits. This AA man suggests it is the ignition switch. But is it? They've asked me if there is something that disables the charge and both of them tried hitting various parts of the car (quite amusing methodology).
The man in the garage I use says he probably can't help without charging a fortune to diagnose. I don't mind paying to get something fixed, I'm just worried about spending a lot of money on diagnosis that leads to mounting expenses when the car is worth so little (it has 70,000 on the clock). So if anyone out there can offer their ideas it would really help.
Thank you
JJJ Read more
Hi Peter D
Yes the lights do come on, on the dash.
Thanks for your help.
JJJ
The airbag warning light on my recently acquired 3 year old Prodder Kelisa auto has started to come on at odd times.
Does any one know of a recall about airbags on these cars or can advise what may be going on?
Thanks Read more
Took it to the Perodua dealer in the end.
Turned out to be a broken clock spring behind the steering wheel.This cost £133 Ouch!Total £270.I got the car v. cheap and it is still cheap in spite of this unexpected cost. The part is g'teed for 1year.
Thanks for advice.
Friend of mine was rear ended in his R reg Frontera the other day. Took to approved repairer and ws given...a brand new, top of the range VW Touerag. Beats a corsa anyday. Read more
>>Bill Payer-
If you took away the toys from the x5 (tv, satnav
etc) it was a very average car, it wasn't a 4x4.
it was also quite small inside. The turning circle was poor,
making parking slightly embarrassing!! Also no handles to help the wife
get on board (shes only 5'3, bless her!!)
Thanks. I just always thought it would a perfect all-round (ie able to fulfil lots of functions) vehicle.
Just found this thread:
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=35582&...f
because the engine warning light on my 99V 57k Accord is on. This first happened 2 years ago, but then the local Honda dealer said it was just a faulty sensor, charged about £30 to fix it and the light went off.
I was expecting the same this time, but after coming back from the dealer, the light is still on. The invoice states 'trace fault to O2 sensor 2' (£44), and they told me it will need replacing at a cost of £336 otherwise it will fail the MOT.
Assuming their diagnosis is correct, judging by P 2501's experiences it looks like the only viable option I have is to find the £336, although if the warning light in itself isn't yet an MoT failure I could get the emissions checked to see if they really are going to cause a fail.
Please let me know if my interpretation is incorrect.
Cheers
John Read more
If you have no luck with Fuelparts, try NGK or BLUEPRINT, the first makes O2 sensors for manafacturers, & supplies them to the trade suppliers, and the latter specialises in Japanese & Korean vehicles. It's a must to know your engine code when purchasing engine parts for Honda's, there a lot of variations.
A colleague has just had his car written off in accident which is indisputably the fault of the other driver. (A post office van, turning right across his path into a minor road).
My understanding is that his claim should be settled in such a way that he is no worse off after the event, ie the amount that should be paid should purchase from a trade source a similar vehicle with a similar history. The initial offer is very low and has been made by his own insurer (under his comprehensive cover). Should not his insurer be acting in his interest in recovering a suitable amount from the 3rd party. Or will it necessitate taking legal action against the 3rd party. Nobody was injured, so police were (unfortunately) not involved, as this would have provided independent supporting evidence.
The difficulty in assessing the value is that it is relatively rare vehicle (details follow) and is 11 years old. Getting evidence of similar vehicle from Autotrader has yet to throw up a similar vehicle in the local area. This makes it very difficult to provide documentary evidence of value.
Mercedes C 280 Sport N 1996 Auto 97 k 1 previous owner (known) full service history, Fully loaded with every conceivable extra inc Alloys, Full Leather, A/c Climate, Sunroof......
Any suggestions please......
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pmh (was peter)
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ly
Thankyou for that one, I would swear it was not on that site yesterday! But that does seem a more realistic pricing. Depreciation at that age should be minimal? Condition must be all once this sort of car has reached 10 years.
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pmh (was peter)
HI all . I have a Xsara 2.0Hdi Estate 1999 model. Problem I have with it is Drivers side brakes sticking slightly .Seems that wheel gets alot hotter . I have replaced the caliper and still does the same . The caliper slides ok on slide bars . The wheel rotates by hand , but in comparsion it feels slightly tighter to rotate then the otherside.The car doesnt pull when braking and passes MOT ok. But the pads only last 5000 miles on this side . The other side is normal wear .I have also replaced the disc on the front but still the same , any ideas would be a great help.
many regards
Simon Read more
Cheers Richard , I will get the garage to change this at end of month . I did caliper myself , But unsure about bleeding whole system . I take it you mean the flexi hose.
Many regards
Simon
I went to look at an R reg fiesta 1.4 ghia last night which was being sold for £1250. Thought it was going to be too good to be true. Unfortunately it was.
The car has had its mileometer replaced at some point and so it only had 4000+ miles on the clock. The true mileage of the car wasnt known to the mechanic selling it nor did he know why it had been replaced. All we could tell from the service history was that it was replaced at some point between the 2003 MOT and the 2004 MOT but there was nothing in the service history or papers to say why. The garage thinks the mileage is somewhere around 80,000 but he cant be sure. Do any of you know why this would have been done? Was I right to walk away from it?
Also, the car has had 8 registered owners which concerned me slightly.
I dont think i'm going to be getting the car as there were too many other little problems with it which amounted to quite big problems really but just wondered why this would have happened as I've never come accross it before. Read more
Again on a different tack. Some years ago my Daughters Polo needed a new speedo. We found a replacement pod in the local breakers which had a mileage of 72000ish which was within 100 miles of the old one!
Has anyone used this web site to order a car? Read more
See forum search, right hand side.
Put "drive the deal" as your search then it will only search for the whole string.
Browse
A lady I knew bought her first mobile 'phone somewhat unwillingly, but was pleased she had one when some emergency happened. She took the mobile out of her handbag to ring her husband, only to find that she had actually taken the remote control for the VCR by mistake.