February 2006
As per another thread I picked my Mondeo up yesterday and later on noticed I had a failed dipped beam bulb, the first bulb failure in 100k + miles. I bought a bulb from the local Ford dealer parts dept and asked the guy how easy it was to fit, "got to take the headlight out mate". Filled with trepidation fueled by stories about having to take VWs to dealers to have headlight bulbs changed I looked at the Haynes manual this morning, simple, pull out two pins, detach one electrical connector, the light unit comes out, put it on the bench, unclip the back of the unit, replace defective bulb, reverse procedure, 5 minute job.
Really a very logical design. Read more
Mother-inLaw's Mercedes E320CDi Auto. Five years old and 8,000 miles. Bought in December. Fully serviced at that time with all fluids changed apart from ATF (or Merc equivalent).
Been driving superbly since bought and been up and down the M1/M6 twice in one week. Last night started losing power and now will drive at very low speed only. Using main station fuel (Esso).
I'm 200 miles away, so this is the only description I can give. The car is waiting for a diagnotic test, but anyone any ideas?
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Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive? Read more
Espada
Any news?
Purchasing a used October 2004 Primera 2.2 dCi SX for £9500 with 5500 miles on it..
I have the option of paying the Nissan dealer £149 for Scotts "paint and upholstery protection" with a 6 year guarantee from date of application provided I apply their spray every 6 months.
The service includes a 12 item "vehicle care pack" (cockpit spray, glass cleaner, leather cleaner, tyre wall gloss,upholstery cleaner, wheel cleaner, paint shampoo and protector, paint polish and protector, jumbo sponge - for cleaning elephants :-) , chamois, bugshifter and cotton stockinette).
1) Anyone heard of used Scotts stuff ?
(they're based in Grimstone near Dorchester but I can't find a website for them).
2) Is this worth going for ?
Chris Muriel, Manchester
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There is not any time saving with these rip off lasts years waxes.Normally if somebody is daft enough to have paid the dealer for them they will see those lovely words written down on the bottle,to keep up protection apply every 6/12 months.Might as well apply your own ten quid bottle of wax every year.
I know this seems unlikely to some people but there are far better polishes and waxes than autoglym for around the same money.Most nowdays are wipe on wipe off products that to do not dust(use autoglymm you will no what i mean)and do not stain trims or rubber.Have a look at detailingworld if you want car cleaning/appearance advice.
Anyone driven both? Have an A6 2.0Tdi now, but new job means I'll be leasing my own so engine size not an issue from a tax point of view. 5 series seems very pricey lease wise, so it looks like it's between a e-class 320 or a 3 litre Tdi quattro, and probably an auto version of both.
Be interested in anyone's experiences with the e-class - have read mixed reviews. I'm very happy with my A6, and I suspect the bigger engine and quattro would make a big difference, but I've never had a merc, and have always liked the look of the e-class. Read more
Do you know the A4 now has the 230 bhp 3.0 TDi? Reckon a 330d touring would be good on lease.
I have a problem with burning video DVDs on my pc and after trying everything it looks as if I might have to reinstall Windows. If I just re-run my Windows XP cd can I reinstall without losing everything?
I recall doing this with an old pc but with 98SE and I never lost anything. Read more
red x in place of images has many possible causes, icluding firewall and antivirus setings.
type "small red x image microsoft" in google to see some of the possible causes.
Hi,
I'm expecting some waving arms in response to this question so first can I please say that I do NOT want to compromise safety - but this is an exercise in bangernomics, so I want to know what I can do without compromising safety.
I need to replace a leaky rear wheel cylinder on a Mk2 Golf. I have heard that I "should" replace both wheel cylinders and also the brake shoes.
I can understand replacing both cylinders - if one's leaking, the other probably won't be too long. I don't usually replace central locking motors in sets of four, though. Is the other one really likely to fail next week? Do we know this by trying it (How? That's never done...) or do we just think it probably will?
Just as important, would it affect the brake balance (MOT testable), having one new one and one old one?
Then the shoes. Of course on one side they've been covered with brake fluid. I will clean up the drum with brake cleaner (and garages have done this for me with previous cars so I presume it's standard practice). Can this not be done with the (otherwise good-as-new) shoes? Do they absorb the fluid somehow? Or it it always done like that because it's better value for a garage to replace them while they're in there and now it's become folk lore?
The cost of the job could vary between £4.50 and £40 depending on how much of it I do. Again, not going to break the bank, but it's bangernomics. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Thanks very much!
-Mark Read more
It's not that I can't afford £39, I just prefer spending it on other things than car bits. And yes, I change the brake fluid - every ten years or so. It doesn't seem to need changing more often than that.
If it works, don't mend it.
In my area the technique for filling in potholes at the side of narrow country roads is to just shovel in some tarmac and leave it to passing traffic to compact the tarmac. Does this happen elsewhere?
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L\'escargot. Read more
Friend of mine had a leak in the road outside his house,hmmmm,perhaps I should have put that differently,a pipe was burst and quickly pushed up the patching where repairs had been attempted previously.He informed the highways dept.who sent out their best moron to deal with it.When my friend spotted him shovelling tarmac into the hole,still with water gushing out of it,he enquired if it wouldn't be a good idea to fix the leak first the moron replied it was not his job.'Couldn't you contact someone whos job it is,waterboard perhaps?'Not his job either.Needless to say the 'repair'did not last the day.
Whilst doing a job on my 1996 Fiesta the other day I noticed a pressure switch (like a brake pedal / light switch) above the clutch pedal. I looked in my Haines manual and it says it is a clutch position switch, but doesn't say what it does. Could anyone elighten me as to what this little bit of kit is for please? TIA. Read more
Yes,you need to bend over to see one!!
Virtually all modern cars require these infernal ECUs' to be interogated using a diagnostic tool when the MIL illuminates on the dashboard. My questions are: what is the difference, if any, between a 'code reader' and a 'diagnostic tool'? I have read that in 2001, due to legislation in the USA aimed at reducing emissions, all codes had to be standardized, is this so? Are the codes universal to all manufacturers? Would a hand held tool costing £80ish be sufficient for the DIY mechanic like me? Would any diagnostic tool suffice? because the spread of prices seems bewildering. Basically, I wanna do it myself. Any comments guys? Read more
European On Board Diagnostic (EOBD) fault codes were standard on all new UK cars from 1st January 2001 for petrol models, and 1st January 2004 for diesels. Many cars however were EOBD compliant before these dates. This applies to engine emission data only. Any EOBD code reader should be able to read this data, and it's pretty useful to own one.
However, this must not be confused with manufacturer specific codes and data, and in any case carrying out checks on all vehicle modules other than engine emission data will require the use of more specific equipment. There will be lots of varying opinions as to what is best, but I have not yet found one single piece of equipment that truly does everything on every vehicle....
I have a Passat that is on the long life service. Why is their so much conflicting information as to when the best time to change the oil/get the car serviced. My car is 1 year and 3 months (13000 miles) old and I have no intention unless I get good reason to change it back to a yearly/10000 mile. It seems to me that everybody is so used to yearly/10000 miles service that they do not want to change away from this.
I check my car regularly for any visible problems and top the oil up if needed.
I would appreciate any valid reason why I should change back to yearly/10000 miles/
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So do we all agree that longer servicing especialy for oil
changes is not good? i certainly do
Errrrr... no!
I can remember when my dad had his shop, he had
a transit van. One of his mates was a vauxhall dealer,
& was trying to get him to buy a Bedford CF.
Ford had brought out a revamped transit in the late 70's,
with longer service intervals. Lo & behold Bedford a month later
anounced the same for the CF van. All they had done
was increased the sump capacity for the CF hoping the extra
capacity would not get the oil as dirty. So i think
this proves that this was a nod to the fleet managers.
Firstly, I think things have moved on a tad since the 1970's!. Secondly, I fail to see the link with Bedford responding to a feature that a competitor is offering in order to remain competetive being "a not to the fleet managers"!!!
Question/ how often do any of us this day and age
just check our oil
Well, every other week as it happens...
Next Question how many times have you ever had to top
up? Hardly ever i would think
Pretty much all modern diesels use oil in the first 20,000 miles or so, as well as many Petrol engines...
But that fact we as i do of just looking under
the bonnet is proof we have a interest but most of
joe public does not
huh?
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MoneyMart
Current car: 55-reg Audi A4 2.5 V6TDi Quattro flappy-paddle
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N/S headlight bulb on the VW Lupo involved removing the battery or moving it and propping it precariously on top of a few hoses (which I did).
It surely cannot be beyond the wit of designers to make a headlamp in which the bulb can be replaced in 15 seconds without tools.