April 2006
Fuel prices are going to hit an all time high next week ;reports BBC and others this morning
Where will it end ,will we see half litres being shown on price boards instead of litres just to make our fuel seem cheaper than a pound!
or are heading for £2 a litre as some predict ?
Read more
Got back off hols late last night. Picked up car from car park, left wife and v tired kids with bags at arivals. Pulled into a layby outside where they were waiting, jobsworth arrives and says 'you've just been fined £100, it will arrive within 7 days we'll get your details off DVLA'. Lay-by had double yellows and was partially coned off.
A) watch out for this - I would n't want anyone else to have the feelings of anger I expereicned last night
b) Legal?
c) Can DVLA divulge this info to enforce what I assume would be a civil action?
No obvious signs or I wouldn't have done it. Presumably private land. Read more
This is a similar situation to what a friend of mine experienced near Reading railway station recently. He stopped for less than 60 secs to let a passenger, get out of the car and leaving the engine running etc. Some privately employed jobsworth took a digital pic of this and he got a letter (with picture) asking him to pay a substantial fine.
What he actually did was send them a digital picture of a cheque for the said amount, and I dont think it went any further. There is a quirk with the approaches to Reading station where some of the land belongs to Prudential Assurance etc which I think caused this.
The bottom line - donk give in to these jerks.
Hi Is there anywhere on the web I can look up Co2 emission levels for slightly older cars ie 2001-2006? The governnment site only allows me to look up new cars.
Thanks Read more
Hate to answer my own question but found what I was looking for on the SMMT website.
Can you settle a pub argument. iirc In the good old days, driving without an MOT was a fairly irrelevant offence. Fine only.
Now it seems to invalidate your insurance and they might do you for that instead?
True, or false? Read more
In my neck of the woods, court fines for having no MOT are far, far higher than having no insurance, careless or even dangerous driving and numerous other offences, judging by local newspaper coverage.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
Our 2001 Punto has an ECU problem. Quite common I am told. Can this be repaired anywhere or do we have to buy a new one? If so any advice for the best value? Its a 1.2 Mia (12valve?) by the way. Thanks Read more
would it be a good idea to get him to replace the coil(s) at the same time elekie&a/c doctor? in case this caused the meltdown
I was thinking of putting my car through the MOT early, just to get it checked over. (I could do with new shocks but it's pointless replacing them if I'm getting rid of it).
Anyway, if my car fails the test will it invalidate the remainder of my current MOT, which is about 6 months? Read more
Just musing but....
Not every member of the black hand gang at an authorised MOT Garage can test and those that do are such as to be authorised to conduct the test with VOSA (Sec of State).
Now under the Road Traffic Act 1988 power is given to an authorised examiner to prohibit the use on a road of a defective vehicle either immediate or partial.......
dvd
Could be technical, but applied to any (petrol) engine.
What should the oil in a hot engine of a petrol car smell like.
Unused, cold oil is fairly innocuous.
I ask because after a 30 mile trip when I check under the oil filler cap, the smell is quite aromatic. I wouldn't say petrol-like, but certainly more than I would expect. The oil (OE recommended Selenia) has been in the engine for 11 months and 8,000 miles.
Could I be right in guessing that some petrol is finding its way into the oil? Read more
Hot oil smells - There is no problem
------------------------------
TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
Just noticed over last month a increase in camera locations being install around main routes
A3 has new tower cameras at every turn up to Guildford from Tolworth and the M4 all the way into wales
Is this the end of speeding ?
Is this also because we were told Gps would be possible by 2007?
(For those that dont know ,we were told five years ago that a box would be fitted to every car and the car would go no faster than the speed limit in that area,goverment press agent at the time said would be law by 2007 )
Anyone know any different ?
Read more
Its not just your car that could then be subsequently tracked,
you yourself via your clothes can be tracked at each and
every store you walk into and out of.
Well the answer to that is obvious - streaking!
Hi Guys,
Maybe someone can throw some light on this one:
I own a 2001 Mitsubishi Galant 2.0 TD, this afternoon I set off and went up the gears as normal, however on trying to change down from 3rd to 2nd (and 2nd to 1st) I found that I could not engage the gear that I wanted.
There is no crunching, it is just physicallly impossible to select the gear. Once I come to a stop (or dip the clutch a number of times) I can get the gear I was looking for.
The car has a hydraulic clutch so I bled that, however this did not solve the problem.
Has anybody experienced this, any suggestions would be welcome.
Thanks, Stephen Read more
Mitsi synchro is well-known for being a little 'weak' - the synchro units themselves are quite small diameter. IIRC they use double-cone synchro's on 1st and 2nd. They are not great even when brand new (rather 'notchy').
A big improvement can be obtained by changing the gearbox oil to a 70W-80 GL-4 (rather than the 75W-90 that's in there now). Redline Oils MTL will do the job, Morris Lubricants also make a suitably thin oil.
Mitsi's are usually much worse when cold (first few miles) and in cold weather. Also synchro usually feels worse on the upshift than the downshift for some reason.
They are an easy gearbox to rebuild - all held together by snap rings. They synchro's IIRC are around £70 for the components per gear.
Just seen an AA van in the Guildford,surrey area this week that says AA in big white and red livery ,are the AA being rebranded?
Read more
Ps Does anybody know who makes the new wafer thin lightbar
fitted to these new vans
I was also wondering this after seeing these new lightbars, after a bit of Googling I found that they're 'Streetlazer' LED lightbars manufactured by American firm ECCO www.eccolink.com and supplied in the UK by Vision Alert, although the Vision Alert website is well out of date and makes no mention of the product.
www.emergencyequipmentshop.co.uk sell them online.
Browse
>>>David, perhaps you weren't about when petrol first went over £1 a GALLON. That too happened fairly quickly IIRC and the pumps weren't able to show above 99.9p, the garages got round it simply by setting the pumps to 51p a gallon and putting sigmns up everywhere saying that the price charged was double the indicated price on the pump i.e. £1.02 a gallon.
Bear in mind that was back in 1979 I don't know how changes in consumer law would affect such a practice but don't be surprised if they find a way round it.
Brings back memories. I remember driving down to Cornwall for a holiday with my fiance in 1985/6 in an old MK1 fiesta ghia.
On running low of petrol we stopped in a village in the middle of nowhere and found a served pump that was set to display half the gallons dispenced as the price could not be set any higher.
I recall the "right" amount of pounds filled the tank though.