July 2006
I'm off for two weeks tomorrow, as I'm (motoring related ;o) doing John O Groats to Lands End.
Any of you see a heavily loaded Africa Twin with two people and a lot of luggage...give me a wave! Read more
A good idea to have a census on the A127 on one of the hottests days?
tinyurl.com/evkv5 Read more
Luckily I've only been stopped once by a traffic survey, and when I was it was not that hot, nor was there a queue worth talking about..
And from their point of view, absolutely completely unhelpful.
Q Purpose of journey?
A To buy the car on my trailer
Q How often do you use this road?
A Other than today, I don't.
And a few other questions that would have been answered by a re-iteration of the former. But as the survey was a checklist - were of course asked.
BMW 740i 98 model 4.4L
95000 miles full history with BMW servicing up to 65000 then specilaist.
no tv in car but everything eles. Very good condition 3 owners
What would be the trade in price please?
Thank you Read more
It "books" at about 4800 trade but I think it will struggle to obtain that. Nobody wants it for the same reason you're getting rid of it. I reckon about 4000 is roughly the going rate although not many dealers will be interested in it at any price.
Thanks for that PW; thankfully my teenage daughters are past the chucking up stage* ( unless they're in my Omega), but my 3 year old son isn't so that Val-ay could come in useful.
* they just try and kill eachother all the time they're in the car. I would definately pay good money for one of those glass partitions, preferably with a James Bond style gas dispenser to fill the rear of the car with some sedative gas, for when things get a bit out of hand.
Veering wildy off topic am I the only over 40 who can hear that 'teacher proof' ringtone that's doing the rounds at the moment? Just sounds flippin painful to me.
There's a roundabout near us in Southampton that consists of a small (6ft diameter?) roundabout surrounded by a large block paved area (25-30ft?), surrounded by normal tarmac. The joint between the block paved and tarmac area is made up of a circle of concrete (not a painted white line). The surface of the block paving is level with the tarmac.
I follow a route direct over the block paving - it straightens the roundabout completely - but plenty of people go round. Am I likely to be committing an offence? If there were a white line I could see I might be, but I'm by no means certain.
If it helps they (for there are two) are visible at: h ttp://tinyurl.com/fsqgg .
V
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Surely the block-paved area is to be considered as part central part of the roundabout and just paved so as to be harder wearing when trailer wheels on artics cross it.
This type of roundabout originated in Australia where road-trains cut across the roundabouts.
My 1998 Skoda Felicia 1.9D threw its Alternator Belt ......
I suppose I should have been suspicious when the dealer actually had a replacement IN Stock..
To cut to the chase....How does one go about releasing the tension on the roller to allow the new belt to be fitted....
I`m typing with my toes cos my fingers are skint from trying to pull the arm up and slip the belt on....... Read more
Thanks to all...
The updated situ.....Definitely NOT a Kerbside job.
Secret was in getting it up on a ramp....removing the drip tray and hey presto...the rear of the Tensioner Assembly is laid bare for all,including the flat machined onto the unit.
This allows the tension to be released while the belt can then be threaded onto the pulleys.
Being a diesel means the fuel pump obscures the thing from the top whilst the drippy keeps the secret from below..
Moral of story.....Kerbside is for crawling not Belt changing...get a ramp !!
hi folks can anyone help please i have a fault with my mondeo estate, my dash stays lit and brake lights stay on unless i take my bulbs out then dash is fine does anyone know how to fix this problem please thanks
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Or (as I suspect Oldman is getting at) remove them and put them in the right way round.
Would I be right in thinking that the bulbs actually go out when you brake?
This evening I was at a traffic light waiting to turn right. The green light to go straight-on came on, but the right-turn filter light didn't. Like an idiot I was daydreaming and drove over the line by a few feet, as I hadn't realised the right-turn filter light hadn't come on yet. However I quickly realised my mistake and stopped. The rear of my car was about 3 feet over the line but I hadn't driven far enough out for it to be dangerous. There was noone behind me so I reversed back over the line and waited for the filter light. The only problem with this (apart from the fact that I'm an idiot for daydreaming) is that there was a red-light camera!! Does anyone think I'll get a ticket? If so, do you think I'd be able to successfully appeal? Read more
Hmm - this thread isn't at all how I expected it to be!
Roger. (Costa del Sol, España)
9 months / 4000 miles ago I had a total brake failure on my 1997 Citroen ZX 1.4i, apparently due to fluid fade. The offside front got so hot that the disc turned blue and the insulation melted on the pad wear sensor wire. My local authorised Citroen independent diagnosed a faulty OSF calliper causing binding & consequent overheating, and fitted new front callipers, discs and pads both sides. (Also rear cylinders and shoes as these were poor.)
The other day I had a loss of braking efficiency and a smell of friction material after coming down a big hill. I'd used a low gear to control speed but still had to brake fairly firmly behind a slow caravan. After parking shortly afterwards, I found that the offside front was very hot, considerably hotter than the nearside. I inspected the brakes next day and found that the offside disc had a continuous band of grey discolouration, over about a quarter of the width of the disc surface. Turning the disc by hand, it was a little tight most of the way round but freer over say 60-90 degrees. The nearside disc had no discolouration and movement was freer and more even. A friend thought the discs looked slightly glazed. Plenty left on the pads, both sides. The plastic offside pad wear sensor connector block was partly melted away on the side facing the disc. I don't know whether this got replaced when the callipers were done.
The callipers are marked "REMAN", presumably remanufactured. I naively assumed I was getting new callipers, but AFAIR I wasn't explicitly asked or told. They have a Bendix logo and consecutive serial numbers.
I hadn't checked the wheel temperatures before this, but I now find that after every journey the offside is quite a lot hotter than the nearside.
My main worry is that I once again have an overheating offside front, which previously resulted in a scary brake failure. What might cause the same side to overheat despite having new callipers, discs & pads both sides? There's no temperature difference between the back wheels, which I imagine there might be if the cause was weakness in one circuit? Perhaps it's just co-incidence and I got a dodgy reconditioned offside calliper.
The previous work is under guarantee. I'd appreciate advice on what I should demand (nicely, of course!) from the garage.
Thanks,
Dave. Read more
autumnboy,Fair comment,But would think any garage worth there name should have sorted this problem out much quicker than they have.
also tend to agree with comment about the wheel bearing CV joint,I also suggested wheel bearing some posts ago
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Steve
My brother in law tried to jump start a 1999 Mazda 323 auto recently after is daughter left the interior light on and flattened the battery. It refused to start. Being a naive sort of fellow he got it to a Mazda main dealer, asked them if they knew what could be wrong. "Leave it with us" was the reply.
They subsequently and supposedly took 15 hours to find the fault as a defective ECU. In jump starting the auto box Mazda it damaged said ECU. The dealer 'genorously' reduced the cost of FINDING the fault to £700. They then quoted a further £2000 to fix it.
Horrified, he did a bit of digging and has found this to be a common problem when trying to jump start an auto box Mazda. He feels he's been well and truely taken for a ride.
Question is, does he have any redress. I personally think £700 is a complete rip-off in order to FIND a fault. Read more
Jump starting advice from an article in the Telegraph last September.
www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/main.jhtml?xml=/motor...l
Browse
For a bit of motoring trivia Gateshead was where Michael Caine threw Brumby off the multi-storey car park in Get Carter.
But otherwise grim.
www.getcartertour.co.uk/
Oi!!!! I come form Gateshead originally.
Home of the Metro Centre,The Baltic Centre,Angel of the North.........
Ken.