July 2006
A warning to those of two-wheel persuassion, is to beware of the road sanders. As is my want and tootling along the country back roads from work to home yesterday, a particularly sweeping bend was interrupted by a swathe of sand/grit in the middle of it. More by luck than judgement, I made it round.
Further on, same again. It looks like the Highway boys in E.Suffolk are attempting to save the roads from melting by the application of sand. IMHO, it will take more then that to save them. And another thing, there was (past tense) a freshly re-surfaced road. Well I think it was, hard to tell with all that tar sloshing around!!
Grump over. Read more
Just out of curiosity, I wondered which VVC Rover people think is best?
The ones I could think of were the 218Vi, 218 VVC Coupe and the MGF VVC...maybe ive missed one out?
I think the Vi is the best of the lot - very chuckable and virtually as fast as the MGF but far more practical. The coupe is nice too, but a little heavy to drive for my liking.
This is just a random question and yes I know some people dont like the K-Series so this is not about if you like the engines, but which application you think is best of a bad bunch!
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I had to sell up when I was out cornered on a Dual
Carriageway side by side with a Mark 4 Golf GTi ->>
It must have been really carp then!
Seriously the later 25 / ZS were much better handling that the 200.
Hi,
Woner if anyone could give me any pointers for the condition a friend is having on thier P Reg 1.25 Zetec Fiesta.
Symptom: If driving along and you depress the clutch the revs stay high and take some time to reduce. Alternatively, you can be at standstill, rev the engine and it will continue to rev say at 3000rpm before finally dropping down to idle.
Any hints would be welcome
Carse. Read more
Thanks for the information I will take a look.
Carse.
For those out there what want a cheap but functional meter try this www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?C=Newsletter&U=06P8-2...3
On offer at Maplins for £9.99 Regards Peter Read more
I,m collecting an Avis car from Barcelona airport (BCN)Friday evening.Does anyone know where the reception desk is,the collection area and is it worth me getting straight thru to the desk to avoid getting caught in a line with other passengers from the same flight? Read more
Forgot to say,£224 all in for Astra 5 door sized car with 600 euro excess.Thats good enough for me.
hi everyone
had a problem with the car this morning put it into drive and it was very slow setting off thought the handbrake was on. once it moved off it was still slow and kick down not working,then I noticed on the computer display it said AUTOMATIC GEARBOX , turned off when I got to school and set off again the warning light had gone off and it drove as it always does, got home and checked the fluid level and it is about 2 cmm above max Any ideas please
dave
sorry car is a vectra cdx 2.5 auto r reg Read more
Changing the fluid should always be the very first step when diagnosing autobox problems. It's the cheapest and eliminates many "faults".
Look at the colour of the fluid on the dipstick. When fresh it's translucent red. As it ages and gets contaminated it changes to brown and gets darker. If it's black the fluid change is long overdue and may be too late.
Vauxhall state that autobox fluid changes aren't needed in normal driving, EVER! Their list of operating conditions which constitute "extreme" is quite long though and not really extreme in most drivers' eyes.
In these "extreme" conditions the fluid should be changed every 40,000 miles. I tow a trailer with my auto Astra (one of the extreme conditions!) so I change the fluid every 20,000.
Be wary of overfilling any autobox as only about half of the nominal capacity drains out, the rest is retained in the torque converter but soon mixes with the fresh oil.
Lets hear it for Air Conditioning! We often take it for granted these days or see it as yet another thing to go wrong, but on a day like today, can you think of anything you'd rather have on your car? ........ (other than a drop down roof)
_______
IanS
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One of the problems about "global warming" - and I remain to be totally convinced - is that Mother Nature's own defence is being gradually eroded; this includes, for instance, the destruction of the Amazon Rain Forest especially in recent years to help boost food production.
Hence the recent decision to stop importing soya from areas which have been hacked down to increase production.
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What's for you won't pass you by
{Thread locked due to lack of motoring content in the latter part of this thread - DD}
Hi,
Has any other forum users seen this video on the Auto Express site?
The basic gist of it for those that haven't seen it is that tyres with 3mm of tread depth will on average stop a car on a simulated wet motorway 37.5 metres 'sooner' from 70mph than the same cars in the same conditions using tyres at the legal tread depth limit of 1.6mm.
After watching the video I couldn't help but wonder what effect the tread depth markers have on wet road braking at these sorts of speeds. I'm aware that there's tread between the said markers but they must have some effect. It seems to me that they are like having mini bald patches on your tyres. It would be interesting to conduct the same tests with these removed to prove/disprove their effects. Yes they're convenient but are they a liability?
Any thoughts?
Steve.
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Xantia HDi Exclusive. Read more
I don't know why anyone should see this as surprising. Obviously a deeper tread will shift more water. A limit has to be set somewhere. It is why 30 mph is OK and 31 mph is illegal. All limits are a mix of cost benifit analysis. Otherwise we would replace new tyres every 6k. I do agree that buying a decent brand seems a better bet than budget tyres.
can anyone offer any logic as to why i appear to be losing less/if any coolant when climate control is switched off. when switched on i lost 2 Litres over 4 days, 58 miles last week.
no external/internal signs of any loss. have replaced water pump and expansion cap. it could be thermostat housing but i don't want to strip half the engine to access it without some evidence of it leaking.
i have been losing coolant ever since i bought the car 3 years ago. any help would be appreciated. Read more
ford had the car for 24 hours last year but couldn't find any leak. i am assuming that they pressurised the system? the problem is access, there is no room to see/do anything on this car. when i lost 2.5 litres recently i thought i would be able to spot the leak as i thought that the part was about to break.
next step is to get a pressure test and a test for exhaust gas in the expansion tank.
Some of you besides being knowledgeable about cars ride motorbikes as well. I wonder if anyone has any ideas of good scooter tyres. The rear tyre a 12 inch, does tend to wear rather rapidly. I have a vespa GTS 250 ie. which is fiited with sava Monsum tyres. I think the tyre is called MC 20. The sava tyres made in Slovenia appear to perform well. Cheers, Mike. Read more
I've not had a close look at their stock list but have a look at:
www.vintagetyres.com/vts/default.asp
www.longstonetyres.co.uk/
Browse
It's amazing why they bother doing it at harvesting time
This amazed me until a meeting with my own LA over a school issue and re-painting. Apparantly mine has a department that has the paint, another department to apply it and another to do the Risk Ass. This true and have it minuted !