March 2006
Quick question. If I buy a car which does not have any tax but has an MOT and I have insured it, whats the legal position on driving the thing home?
Obviously in a perfect situation I would tax it straight away, but as you now have to have an MOT and insurance documents with you in order to buy a tax disc, this isn't always possible. (Insurance documents need to be sent from the insurance company).
Any ideas?
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Being a non-tech head, just a question I'm sure someone can answer for me. Is it possible to fit a 2.0 Peugeot cylinder head onto a 1.8 bottom end or must it be a 1.8 head also? Apologies if it is a daft question. TIA Read more
Put the question on www.bba-reman.com/forums/ and Cyril will be along shortly and answer your question. Regards Peter
Hello - I'd really welcome some opinions on my 'next car dilemma'. For the first time in my life I have a bit of cash and I'm looking to replace our current car - a SEAT Cordoba 1.8 GLX.
Budget is up to £6k. I want something reasonably fast which seats wife + 2 kids comfortably and has decent luggage space. Would love a few luxury extras, primarily leather seats! We only do about 8k miles/year, 3k around town the rest touring/social. Looking for a car that we will keep for 5 or 6 years so long term cost/reliability is a concern.
We've been really happy with current car and my head says get another SEAT. Either a Leon or Toledo, probably 1.9 diesel, with as low mileage as possible and drive it until it starts to get 'tired' like our current car has..
My heart though would love an Alfa - 156 saloon or sportwagon.
Any views on the pros and cons - and suggestions for other cars (quite like the Saab 9-3 but reliability issues put me off) would be very welcome.
cheers Read more
How old are the children? There is not much room in the back of the Alfa unless they are still small.
I reckon if you drive the Alfa, you will fall in love with it. They are getting better, the only real problem now are the dealers. If you can find a good independant dealer and the car is out of warranty, you will be able to run it cheaper than you think.
Last thing, if you buy an Alfa and it has alloys, replace the locking wheel nuts. Mine got seized on and took hours and several broken tools to remove.
Today I went to look at a 99/T Mondeo 1.8td glx estate with 103k at a small 2nd hand dealer. The car has had 2 owners, has a full-ish service history up to 87.5k and then nothing after that...am i right to be concerned about this as i thought these older diesels need regular (6k miles) servicing. Obviously the dealer is offering to do a service before it is sold and it also needs a new (re-con) alternator which will be done.
The sticker price is £1995 which I said was a little dear compared to what parkers guide says...£1995 for the same car with 60k miles.
So here are my questions....
1 - What price should I try to haggle for? He's shown signs of giving me a year warranty with lloyds but thats it.
2 - Is the service gap a worry?
3 - When I asked for the last owners phone number he said he didn't have them. Is this correct or is he hiding something from me?
I'd quite like to speak with the previous owner to discuss the servicing gap.
4 - Any minor/major problems with mondeo's of this age?
This will be the first car I've bought and I want to make sure I've covered everything.
Thanks in advance for any advice. Read more
Pour scorn an ridicule if you like but the Mondeo TD of this vintage is quite a relaxed and capable cruiser on a motorway around 70,80 mph.
I know this 'cos I used to own one.
The car in question is a mk4 polo. R reg.
I've recently noticed when I was hoovering the car that the drivers side ONLY is wet. Soaking.
Please tell me its not bad news! Read more
I am facing the front of the car, where I poured the water is at the far right and far left of the lowered section in front of the windscreen (near the corner tips of the wings, near the wing mirrors). On drivers side I can actually see a little pool of water that hasn't drained properly.
Can anyone help please? Changed the front offside wheel bearing last week and had to disconnect the ABS wheel sensor.Straight after the job was done the ABS light went off a few seconds after switching on the engine as it should. Further down the road the light came on and stayed on and now wont go off. Have fitted a new sensor as they are relatively cheap but this makes no difference. Any suggestions gratefully received.... Read more
Problem solved!Spot on - new bearing fitted the right way round - thanks everyone.
Hi,both front doors on my 5 door golf stick out ever so slightly i.e. the door is not flush with the rear door and you can clearly see it sticking out. Can it easily be adjusted? and if so how. Thank you. Read more
sussed it, T40, Thanks.
I've just bought a new passenger door mirror for my Megane. I can see that I need to remove the plastic interior trim on the door to get at the (presumably) nuts holding the mirror on. The Haynes oracle simply states "remove the trim". Do I just prise it off, or is there a knack in removing it without doing any damage? Read more
You just prise it off. Use a lever to prise it out gently and evenly taking care not to mark stuff.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
Hi All,
I quite fancy getting an MX5 especially with summer approaching, any ideas on the engine/general durability of these cars? Is high mileage an issue? I'd be looking at a 2000 model or earlier.
Thanks Ian. Read more
he back end can break away and this is sometimes the cause of some grief
Yes because its a real car with RWD !
About 6 months ago i was driving along the motorway and a dense griding/squelling noise started up and vibration that seems to be coming from front of car. The noise got worse when i took foot off accelerator (ie going down hill) and seemed to stop when I was either accelarating hard like going up hill, turning a corner or putting on brakes. The noise does not change at all when changing gear or when slowly pulling up handbrake.
Only ever started when going above say 50mph and when i'd slow down to about 30mph would stop. It also only started about half an hour in to a drive when car was warmed up.
It stopped doing it for a good few months and now noise and vibration is back again when driving at high speeds.
Has anyone got any ideas?? Read more
It's not unknown for these gearboxes to throw their diffs, but it usually only occurs at high mileage - failure of this part would not change with gear, as it is connected to the wheels. I guess this would be given away by heavy contamination of the oil, so worth getting that dropped to see if there's a lot of metal filings in it. The O/S driveshaft is long, and there is a bearing mounted on the back of the engine. This can get noisy, leading to the sort of noise you are hearing. Might be worth popping the shaft out whilst the box is drained and seeing if there's any play / roughness in the bearing.
It could equally be a wheel bearing, althogh these usually show signs of more /less noise as you go around corners, depending on the loading.
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RichardW
Is it illogical? It must be Citroen....
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Book it in for an M.O.T. at a testing station near your home and drive it there bonus if it passes full MOT still cheap enough to get it home if it fails and legal...cheers...Keo