February 2006
Can cruise control be retropectively fitted and adopted by the ECU to a 2002 VW Passat. Who and at what sort of cost. It was about £185 as a factory fit. Regards Peter Read more
Has anyone noticed the recent Subaru advertisment comparing equipment with BMW and Mercedes ?
The advert points out that a lot of features are standard on the Subaru, but either incredibly expensive or not available on the others.
Does anybody have views, partisan or otherwise, on the relative merits of the three marques ? Read more
Lack of diesel and poor economy is a problem for Subarus v/s BMW & Merc.
We recently drove to Switzerland in our Merc E320CDI with our in-laws in convoy in their Forester. I don't know the difference in the fuel tank sizes but I do know that they had to refuel twice as frequently as us. Pretty poor when comparing their fairly light 2-litre 4-cylinder car with our heavy 6-cylinder diesel.
Does anyone have any recent experience of this package from TrafficMaster, it's been installed in my new motor (yesterday) so not had much chance to play yet.
Would be interested in experiences/comments etc.
I saw the threads going back a couple of years on here, but would like to hear anything more up to date.....
Cheers Read more
Well, it looks like the 306 is only going to return 580 miles to a tank this time, which is unacceptable. This is after driving at 60 when on the A3, not revving hard, and giving it a good 'blow out' every now and then. The quoted 650 miles I was achieving at one point, I was happy with. The fuel consumption leads me onto my next point...
The whole common rail '££££' scenario has left me feeling a little cautious.
But what next? The 306 was to all intents my 'perfect' car.
I'm a little out of ideas, so just throw some my way. Anything at all; I just wonder if I've missed anything. Read more
OFFS. Anything between 20 and 70 mpg is acceptable depending >> on footweight. Stop quibbling.
That's my bad.
Hello Again,
I have recently got myself a 2003 Primera 2.2DCi estate to use a a family car and a commuter. It was cheap and available etc..
Its now done 75k miles and just had a new turbo (as some of you know!)
Anyway my commute is about 35miles, mainly DC and motorway with a mile or so of stop and start at each end. I travel at <=80MPH in 6th gear most of the way and there are always 3 or 4 blokes in the car.
Trip computer, which I reset when I filled it up is saying almost exactly 40mpg which I reckon is simply poor. Not measured it manually yet but I will when I fill it up. Was hoping to see 45mpg on this run tbh.
Question is, is this the going rate for this engine? If its abnormally low, what sort of things are common faults with ths engine to cause it? Car has had the recall work done apparently..
Thanks everyone Read more
I was going to suggest - maybe a good idea to get the ecu remapped by the likes of superchips. Not only do you get more power / torque - normally becomes a sweeter drive, often improving mpg too.
Hi All
Yes it's my 51 plate 39k 406 HDI 2.2L 136BBHP estate again. The one from here:
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?f=4&t=39...1
Rather than go into colossal detail at this stage I am comparing it with my recollection of my older V plate 110BHP model. I don't think the newer one is as smooth, pulls from as far down or for that matter shows much evidence of the extra 26BHP. The 'in & out' power delivery reminds quite a lot of my even older 205 Turbodiesel. By gaw-I'd have one of those again! Seriously, if anyone has a goodie. Perhaps it's one of those things about these-they are 16Valve units.
But it did occur to me that it might not be set up correctly, or may have had some rubbish fettling from the previous owner. I did post some time ago about looking into tuning options for it, but really I don't need an 'Our Lady of ballistic acceleration.' Seems to me money better spent getting it sorted, but what do I know?
So who/where might you suggest? I'm off the main dealers-they don't seem to care if it isn't a regular operation-I'd rather have a really good indi with specialist knowledge-particularly since I've poked about on here & seen all sorts of non-obvious variables that can have impacts on these HDI common frail units. BTW it will need a service quite soon, so prob best to combine the two.
I'm based near Camberley Hampshire, visit Newquay in Cornwall regularly & also nearish Mansfield (well, Ollerton actually) once a month too. Camberley would be most convenient, but for the right outfit I'd travel a fair distance. What/ who might you suggest, if indeed I am barking up the right tree?
Thank you all.
I'll be nice & quiet for a bit if I crack this one!
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www.bayingbasset.com
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most willingly!!
Come on dieselheads, I thought this was one of the easiest Q's I've asked here! Virtual drink incentive....promise to shut up....email me direct if you don't want to go public(see signature below)....SL?...thank you...
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www.bayingbasset.com
i have just brought a 2001 freelander, this weekend and have a problem already. last night 1.30am the alarm goes off for what we thought was someone touching car. nope we unlocked and relocked and the alarm started again straight away. after reading the book about the car it says if when locking the freelander the alarm beeps once then the car has been mislocked and that a door muct be open. i checked and no doors were open. the interior light will also not turn off! so two problems the car mislocking because it thinks a door is unlocked and the interior light stating. anyone else had this problem or has anyone got any ideas. i dont have a clue. HELP Read more
I would suspect that a switch in one of the door latches has failed. Check the taildoor first - these have a problem with a burr on the latch base plate which causes the switch lever to stick.
On Monday my wife picked up a 4 month old Kia Rio with 2,500 mile on the clock from a Kia dealer. They offered the usual paint and fabric protection package for £299, which we declined.
I have been thinking of using Autoglym resin polish as it has a UV protection built in. The car is in bright red, non-metallic, and I am worried about it going pink. The car has been waxed and water droplets are beading nicely at present. Should I remove this polish before using the resin polish and what should I use?
I am intending to do 2 or 3 coats of resin polish. This may possibly followed by several coats of Extra Gloss Wax, or would it be better to increase the number of coats of resin polish.
Also would it be best to use an electric polisher or do it all by hand?
Any comments would be appreciated as we intend to keep this car for 6 to 8 years.
PS My wife has only let me move the car 20 feet so far, so I cannot judge what it is truly like but she is very impressed.
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Roger
I read frequently, but only post when I have something useful to say.
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if the paint work is in good condition you should not need to keep useing polish. You should only need to use a wax to seal the paint.If it were my car i would wash,clay,polish,wax.Then just keep topping the wax!!
Any body have any experience of these companies?
Just got into the carpark in time to see someone bash my car with their door as they got out, so fortunately was able to get her name/phone number etc although her manner suggested that I ought to just forget it
Damage is a 15 x 10 mm chip, no dent but chipped down to the metal. Right on the wheelarch - car is silver BMW 3 series.
Both above companies quote £80 or £85 + VAT over the phone
which seems reasonable to me.............I told the lady who damaged the car I would get the cheapest quote and ring her with it, hopefully she finds it reasonable but maybe she is expecting me to say someone will touch it in for a tenner? Read more
We had a guy who did my Dad's previous car's wing retouched (Rover 400), we got in touch with him via my sister who does his VAT books for him.
When he arrived it was young chap who was employed by the guy, he started the job off ok, but half way through the job he had to ring his boss to help him out because he got stuck on somethng, he had came along to help him out.
Overall he (or his boss) did an excellent job, if not the metallic paint looked slightly dimmer then the rest of the paintwork.
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Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
Hi,
I was wondering if anyone knew of a way of persuading Tomtom 5 to stick to more major roads unless absolutely necessary? Unlike previous versions, it has an annoying tendency to try and be too clever, and takes you down tiny backroads when there would be a much more sensible (and only slightly longer) major road available.
You used to be able to partially get around this by changing speed preferences for different types of road, but this option is not avaialable on v5. It's driving me mad, as the traffic function has been transformed recently, so otherwise it's pretty good. (And yes, I know that just using a map is a good option, and one that I frequently use, but the combination of routing with traffic is invaluable while I'm stuck down in SE London and needing to get to the Midlands a lot).
Gord. Read more
I upgraded, and while I do get annoyed with TT5, I wouldn't go back. Why? You can navigate by postcode for one (I know you could before using UKPostCode, but this is more integrated and easier to use). The avoid areas on the map has been removed, which is annoying, but they've replaced it with avoid part of the route where you just get a list of major orads and places on the planned route, and you can just punch them out. Much easier to use in practice. The interface is better, and having street names on the driving map is useful as well.
Overall, they've taken a few steps back, but more steps forward. Probably.
Gord.
Browse
Will JBS do this for a Passat diesel as well?
Yes, any VAG car apparently. I'm waiting for a price for my Fabia - they need to know your car and model year.
>>BTW will they do routine servicing?
Yes mine is in for the 10K service next month - £119 inc VW factory fill PD oil (Fuchs Titan I think), inspection and VAG-COM check.
Check out www.jbsautodesigns.co.uk/mechanical.htm