This is merely an observation rather than a discussion point , as it has been discussed to death before.

However, coming out of Coatbridge today, on the stretch of 30mph dual carriageway that is renowned for mobile speed trap, all the cars were crawling along at 29mph prompted by the flashes of headlights from the opposing cars.

Now as I approach the fluorescent copper with the hand held gun (noticed they have a red LED that lights up when in use), I realised that around me, without a a word of a lie, there were:

3 drivers not wearing seatbelts
2 cars with kids not strapped in to any seats
1 car with front foglights on (7.30pm, broad daylight)
1 guy on his phone, though he did put it down to below the steering wheel while he passed.
and 2 cars with illegal number plate font.

When I got to the roundabout at the end of the road, 3 cars had defective brakelights as well.

Not a single one of them got stopped by the police.. Read more

Do car adverts actually work on people or are we pre-conditioned with our own views anyway ??
The reason I ask is I like the C4 ice skating car etc and also the latest Honda impossible dreams ad where the guy riding/driving now has an England flag attached to everything including the f1 car and boat.
But I find the VW ads - Golf is £11995 - amazing but true etc - totally annoying and misleading.
Is it me - i.e. why should I be amazed at the price when the cars are actually nothing special and never score highly in an surveys.
Yet I also like Audi ads so I it's not VAG bashing.
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My timing belt is due to be replaced in 10,000 miles and about to travel from the midlands to norfolk
Theres no oil contamination on the belt
Ive got no time to change the belt
Is it worth the risk Read more

Just been putting a new radio in my sister's Mk3 Astra, only to discover that the prat that owned the car before her had been too lazy to buy a wiring adaptor and instead hacked his way through all the wires at the back of the harness, splicing together the ones he needed.

However, none of the colours correspond to standard radio wiring colours, and we can't find the 12V feed from the ignition. There are only two wires in the bunch that look capable of carrying sufficient current, and they're the ground (brown? WHY?!) and permanent live (red).

Not only that, he's hacked off at the base the wires that drive the external display, so we haven't got a hope of ever getting that to work with a Vauxhall radio. Thankfully we bought a cheap aftermarket one.

Does anyone have a guide showing what each colour corresponds to? Desperately needed, as we have no idea where the 12V feed from the ignition is. Previous owner simply put a 25A fuse in the permanent live and spliced the two wires together so the radio had permanent power.

ALSO - don't know if this should be in another thread - the 1.7TD engine has an irritating whine. Is this common with all Astra turbo-diesels of this vintage?

Cheers,

David. Read more

My R reg. Almera has a knocking from the drivetrain. It sounds just like a shot CV joint (I had one go on a Cavalier) but the symptoms occur when driving in a straight line as well as going around corners.
I have jacked up the car and can?t feel any play in the wheel bearings.
The knocking is audible at lower speeds when accelerating or under engine braking in the first two gears upto 2500 rpm. When over 2500 rpm the knocking starts to ?balance out? and becomes a rumble, in the higher gears there may be a rumble but road, wind and engine noise are more predominant.
In hot weather the problem seemed to clear up after 5 or 10 minutes driving, in cooler weather it might take 30 minutes the problem to go quiet.
I started to suspect a gearbox driveshaft bearing so removed the gearbox filler plug and a trickle of oil came out, so it wasn?t low on gearbox oil. I emptied the gearbox oil and the magnet on the drain plug had some swarf attached to it but it didn?t seem excessive (how much is excessive?). I refilled the gearbox with oil as described in the Haynes manual. No change.
The clutch works OK and gear changes are as good as all the front wheel drive cars that I?ve had.
Does anybody know what the problem might be?
If it is the gearbox, what should I expect to pay for a fitted recon job? I bought the car a couple of years ago for £900 and have so far been impressed with it?s economy and reliability.
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