The heater control on my 98 Land Cruiser has jammed - it only moves round about half an inch. The main Toyota dealer have looked at it and said they need to take the dash off (fair enough) but it will take 2 hours labour to take off, say an hour to fix it and 2 hours to put back.....plus of course the costs of the parts (say £100 for a cable). Total price circa £500. HELP - does anyone know a Toyota and / or heating system specialist that could do the job ? I am based in Chichester and work in Hove (Sussex).

Thanks Read more

Door dings have cropped up many times on this website and a forum search gives so many hits that I'm not going to trawl through them, but after the driver's door on a Mercedes ML left a crease in my V70 front passenger door at Heathrow Pink Elephant parking I wondered how much steel properties varying with build date (age) and make has a part in susceptibility.

My wife's 306 Sedan is now eleven years old and is at high risk of door dings; it is frequently parked in hospital car parks (she is a midwife) with narrow slots, town centre car parks, and airport car parks. I have lost count of the number of times I have polished away paint from other car doors but despite all this contact it only has one actual dent (tiny) where a door was opened into it with great force (I watched it happen). Look down the gleaming polished flanks and they are beautifully ripple-free.

In comparison my V70 is 3 years old and spends most of its time sitting in the security of the home garage. It does not get left in hospital, town centre, or supermarket car parks though does get left at airports, which is where we come in. Every time contact is made, the ding is a dent. I have never polished someone else's paint off without seeing a crease left behind. The crease always propagates for some distance from the contact point, too; yesterday's dent is actually a small sharply radiused one from the corner of the Mercedes door moulding but the door is creased enough to show in oblique viewing for an inch vertically either side. I made one of the dings by letting the Pug door clatter in to the side of the Volvo on a moderately breezy day. No paint was swapped but the dent was made.

My father's S80 is similarly affected with dents and so was my brother's V70, recently sold.

These dents have nothing to do with increased showing of them due to body panel shape or shiny paintwork so it seems that the Pug's tinpot sheet metalwork is actually an advantage in the car park world (if not a collision!). In other words the Pug predating current side impact and other legislation and having thinner gauge steel that allows the whole panel to bend and absorb energy as well as metal composition perhaps with higher yield point or elastic limits.

Any metallurgists amongst us who can pass informed comment?

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At 55k I have been told that I need a new dual mass flywheel owing to starter motor failing to throw into the ring gear.
My queries are
1)Should the bell housing be full of carbon dust from the dmf pads.
2) Should I be seeing metal to metal scuff marks just to the inside of where the carbons pads are located in in component.
My dealership tells that the dmf is OK had it not marked the ring gear.
THis happened yesterday, Monday I had booked it in for vibration through the clutch pedal and poor in town running.

Hope somebody has an answer many thanks in anticipation.

LF Read more

.....operating on the A31 Hogs Back this pm.

Prison van style mobile station, camera van (covering both directions) and lots of pandas/traffic bikes pulling over the Beemers etc.
Camera vans are common visitors to this stretch but this is in another league.
Not sure why Surrey police are targeting this road though.

Dan Read more

is it just me or is everybody else plagued by these things

one was speeding around the other night, no helmet, no insurance,no tax.


well. i have some good news for you

last week one ran straight into the back of aparked car near me
broke his arm, leg and fractured his skull

the car didnt do to well either,
it was moved 4 or 5 feet from where it was parked anc damage is est at 4500gbp.

let that be a lesson to them.

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