February 2006
What would most surprise our motoring forebears about today's motoring scene.
Let's take a mythical motoring forebear common to all of us, Bill Burper (please no cartoon depictions, for Heaven's sake!!!). Born in, say, 1890 he had a long motoring career until he gave up driving in 1970, dying three years later. He served in the army during the first world war as a lorry driver and then worked as a mechanic before starting his own garage business. His last car was a 1966 Rover P6 2000.
Bill Burper lived long enough to ride in his son's early Range Rover and his daugher's Morris Marina. He was known to have worn a flat cap and string-backed driving gloves during the late 1950's when he owned a two-tone grey Jaguar Mk 9.
If Bill Burper were to return to life what would surprise him most about the vehicles / roads / drivers today?
Cheers, Sofa Spud Read more
Good afternoon,
A friend of mine has recently had an early mid life crisis and purchased a 'Y' reg Maserati 3200GT. A very very nice car, but unfortunately it comes with eye-wateringly expensive servicing charges. £120 per hour for labour in the Maserati main dealer in Manchester.
Anyway, do any of you know of any independent Maserati specialists in the north-west of England, preferably within a thirty miles radius of Southport?
Many thanks
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Thanks for your help guys. It looks like he's going to need the specialist sooner rather than later.
After filling up with oil (proper stuff from Stratstone Maserati in Manchester) the oil pressure gauge reads just below 2.5 bar and the 'oil level warning' light comes on the dash when the engine is revved. He's a little worried by this... Just hope he gets it fixed soon as he's put me on the insurance!!
bought a 52 plate 1.6sx last week been back in the garage twice for the two faults listed above.the c/lock would some times fail to lock the car and even using the key in the lock would still fail to lock the car.other times the car would lock but when i came back to the car the locks had opened again.the fuel gauge never shows a true reading,if i fill the tank up it only shows around 3/4 full after driving for 100 miles it is under 1/2 tank.anybody had these problems and if so what was the outcome.thanks. Read more
I had problems with the central locking on mine, fixed under warranty, the symtoms were different to yours though. However, I had real problems with the gauge after the last threatened fuel blockade. Basically, I filled it up every time it used a a gallon or so and the gauge ended up like yours. The garage tried the remedy of disconnecting and then reconnecting the battery (hi-tech stuff) that apparently reboots the ECU. That did not work. They then suggested running the tank down until it was almost empty and then filling it right up and trying not to put less than £15 worth of diesel in a time in future. This worked a treat.
Hope this helps
Big Norm
Whilst driving along engine decides to go bang, no smoke or nothing just stops. Recovered back home, car wont start or tickover, but when you turn the key it makes a whining noise, now not being technically gifted could somebody give me an idea to what it might be or where to start looking. Am I looking at engine replacement or something less expensive. Thanks in advance.
P.S it's a 2.0 ecotec. Read more
Sounds from what you've said like catastrophic failure caused by a broken cambelt.
Can anyone tell me. I have a Pug 2.1td. Xmas in the Alpes, V.cold, seems to have killed it.I read somewhere that the supposedly maintenance free are not really the best. Can you still get batteries that you top up. What do you need to look for in a heavy duty battery?
Thanks Read more
The OEM battery fitted at the factory is usually the longest lasting, most reliable. Same for exhausts and some other components. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
After a couple of days slower than usual starting, I took the i30 to my trusted indy, plugged in and diagnosed 'low battery'. Replaced it the same day, original battery, 11 years and one month old so not complaining.
Y Reg Mondeo 2.0 Diesel
During a long drive at night, momentary loss of electrics / headlights on several occasions. Guaranteed if I take it to the garage, it won't do it. Does this sound like an alternator problem? Read more
Unlikely to be alternator as battery would supply electrics for a while after an alternator failure.
Do the electrics come back on without any intervention on your part? Does it happen on rough surfaces? If so maybe loose connectors, relays, or corroded earth cables. If it's a partial blackout it's more likely to be the former, if total failure the latter
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One mans junk is another mans treasure
Hi,just wondering if any one knows who actually produces these branded engine oils,particularly the fully synthetic 5/30?
Also any one care to comment on the quality of these products? thanks in advance gusgeds Read more
Containers and/or labels just can't be used to identify who makes an oil for a particular retail brand.
Well there I was sitting back all smug about the condition of my cambelt until I read a recent post similar to this one on low mileage cars. I have a three and a half year old Polo 1.4 tdi pd that has only done 10,000 miles, nearly all in semi rural areas and hardly ever taken above 3000 rpm except for the occasional blast for a clean out.I know age deterioration and wear determine the life of a cambelt.The recommended change for mine was six years or 60,000 miles, now it is apparently down to four and forty. At 6 years old my car will in all probability have only done 16,000 miles and I was happy to leave the change till that age. What with new VW replacement changes and a train of thought that very low mileage use of cambelts can make them deteriorate quicker it has become a bit of a puzzle to me.If this was your car at what mileage would you change it.
Just curious, does any one know an answer to the following
The 1.4 tdi pd is a three cylinder version of the four cylinder tdi pd and I know the cambelt is slightly wider than normal to take up the load of extra pressure on the camshaft (because of the unit injectors).
Is the same cambelt used for the three and four cylinder engines ?.
Thanks
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Sounds like a 1950s Morris Minor David :)
I really, really, want to see this in the UK.
www.lemonzoo.com/search_results.php?search_query=G...n Truck Art
{Due to some of the "adult" content elsewhere on the above site, I've removed the automatic linking to it. Copy and paste if you wish to view. DD} Read more
Methinks they are all of the same truck, Photoshopped, including the background.
Driving up A46 dual carriageway north of Leicester at lunchtime today. Road not very busy but still a good few cars doing 70 or more, when up ahead of me, about 300 yards I spy a small vehicle occupying middle of the inside lane and I was gaining on it very quickly (doing about 60 having just come up a slip road). As I got closer I realised it was one of those invalid/shopping things driven by old bloke at about 5-10 mph. It was one of those little things with 6in grey tyres, maroon "bodywork" covering the batteries etc and steered with handlebars with a shopping basket on the front- the sort of thing you see IN Sainbury's. Is it illegal? Is it just a silly thing to do (no pavements or cycle tracks mind). Should I have rung the police? Did the old bloke survive? Did he cause an accident? Would you have done anything?
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Phil Read more
They should take these awful buggies away from the OAPs and .......... give them quadbikes! Let them have a bit of fun.
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IanS
Browse
Streets full of parked cars and garages full of junk.
Steve