August 2006
Hi,
I recently broke down and it turned out my coil had almost caught fire but luckily it only burnt out. I had this replaced but ever since, I have had other problems. The main one is my electric hood won't work. We have tried to find a fuse for this but there isn't one! Can anyone help?
The other problem is that although the stereo is still working is no longer turns on when you put the key in the ignition and doesn't turn off when you take the key out, you have to literally turn the stereo off???? Can anyone help??
Thanks alot everyone!!! Read more
Hello everyone!
It's been a long time since I last posted on here!
My missus/ex-missus (it's always a bit on & off) drives about 60-70k per annum in her trusty Ford Focus 1800 TDCi and has been steadily clocking up the points for speeding! 9 so far with far too many pending.......
So - adding to the risk of her losing her licence and job plus the fact that my licence is clean and has been ever since I got it in 1992 (smug) - I don't want to be taking her points (illegal I know but sometimes necessary).
What is the best value Sat-Nav and speed camera locator device? Are there any combined devices or is it a case of having to buy them separately?
Hope you can help.
Many thanks,
Guy (now a Passat TDI Sport Geek I'm afraid.....)
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I use Co Pilot which I like for its capability to pre-plan ans save complicated journeys with multiple way-points(No strange suprises down back roads). It is starting to look outdated on other facilities (eg showing speed limit as mentioned before). I like the look of the Garmin Nuvi SiRF III but it lacks multiple waypoints. Are there any other newer satnavs (SiRF III & small) that have the journey prep facility?
citroen ax 1.5 dieslel (as in pug 106).engine starts first time and cuts out after 4 seconds-every time.
Help? Read more
Hi,
Got a similar problem except mine stalls after 4 minutes and wont start. After waiting a few more minutes it starts and the whole process starts over again.
Have you got any further with your problem? Might give me a clue!
To avoid naming and shaming I won't specify the region I live in or the particular car I was looking for, but let's just say I've been looking out for a certain diesel warm hatch for a few weeks now. With bank loan finalised and cash burning a hole in my bank account, I spotted a promising example at a car hypermarket (not a HJ advertiser I might add) some 30 miles down the road and thought I would go and take a look.
The price was competitive, but not exceptionally low. The car was just out of warranty with 50K on the clock. All started well - I phoned up to check the car was still available - it was, the sales manager offered to move it round the front in case I should want a test drive.
On arrival the car still looked promising. The exterior condition wasn?t brilliant, but it was consistent with age/mileage and the few minor scratches and chips could probably have been put up with. It has FSH and ?a full RAC inspection? which the salesman assured me was ?extremely thorough? and had come out "completely clear".
Off we went on a test drive. The predefined route was only around the block (no roads faster than 30) but it was obvious that something wasn't right. This is not the most refined car at the best of times, (I'd already driven several) but this one sounded very, very rough - the engine boomed and rattled and in a very conspicuous way. The clutch was heavy, the gear change notchy and upon driving back into the hypermarket I noted an odd sound from the front suspension.
By this point I obviously wasn't going to buy, so I told the salesman of my concerns and began my usual exit strategy. Not so fast - he went inside to fetch that RAC report - if anything were genuinely wrong, they would have picked it up. Stupidly, I indulged him.
That suspension problem must be - "nearside droplink worn". Hardly serious, except the noise I was hearing (and able to reproduce by lightly leaning slightly on the corner of the car) was on the offside! At this point, salesman handed me the RAC report, which also noted "engine management light on". "What did you do to rectify that?" I asked. "We've sorted that", came the reply. "How?" "if anything was wrong it would have been sorted. If you put a deposit down today, everything else will be sorted by the time you collect the car".
I wondered out loud why everything couldn't be 'sorted' before I put a deposit on the car (big mistake): "Look mate, at the end of the day it's a business - we're not gong to spend thousands on a car if no one's going to buy it - we'll just end up putting it through auction."
At that point, I did what I should've done 10 minutes earlier and headed rapidly for the exit. This point of reciting this story is not to denigrate all car supermarkets, merely to remind anyone who is perhaps not mechanically minded that it is perfectly possible to pick up a bag of spanners from a supposedly reputable dealer, RAC inspected or not. I wouldn?t want to be the one testing if their after sales service was as convincing as their salesmanship.
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i think that aprilias answer is so spot on even down to the "smarmy man" at your local auctions buying everything up with a "i know my job better than you attitude" and then seeing the same cars a few months later coming back through but glistening.
This job will never change ,if everyone knew about cars then we would all go down the auctions ,the main thing is if something doesnt feel right then it usually isnt........ so 10/10 to brommers for running away
We all buy lemons ive got 5 at the moment but i wouldnt try and retail them thats what auctions are for at the end of the day removing the pain and allowing you to move on to worse tragedies .......
The night before last was a company party whilst I was in Linkoping, Sweden. It finished at 03:00am, but I had good reason to stay sober as good friend Magnus had offered me a ride on his new GS1200R; as we're of similar stature - and in the event his riding kit fitted pretty well perfectly - I took him up on the offer yesterday morning.
What a bonkers good fun bike for such an ugly brute!
With a shortish inside leg similar to my 28" he's had the seat lowered, but even so I was on absolute tiptoes when stationary with both feet down. Start up, and the characteristinc BMW flat twin wobble mildly oscillates the bike. Tweak in the brake lever and the servo pump spins up to speed; yes servo assisted brakes, and I loved them though thankfully didn't have reason to sample the ABS. Light (one finger) but with stacks of feedback and feel. Pull in clutch, depress gear lever, and first gear engages with a ker-lunk. Arms reached out to wide, wide, bars, clutch engaging at tickover, and the bike trundles off without revs dropping a jot. Immediately (and I mean immediately!) the huge bulk and considerable weight is shed like a cloak. Just incredible; the whole bike is instantly fleet of foot and oh-so composed.
A couple of hundred yard later, trundle up to a T-junction, brain remembering to stay on the right side of the road post-junction. Down to first gear, roll to an aaaaaaalmost complete halt, wobble-free with feet up and sitting upright feeling like a copper, check all is clear from the lofty perch, then roll on. Remember I only have that couple of hundred yards worth of machine familiarity at this point and yet it felt so natural; so damned easy, so damned stable, and yet the same bike was to eat up the curves with abandon just a few minutes later. I enjoy exactly the same paradoxical benefits with my Hornet (superb low speed stability and fantastic curve carving agility), but impressive to find them so quickly on such a physically large machine. I also soon learned that twist the throttle a decent amount and the pickup from tickover is like being hit from behind; pup-pup-pup-pup-brrrr-AAAAAAAAH! Wheelies would be an on-demand affair devoid of inducement by clutch trickery if so required.
Friend Magnus had mapped out a route for me that took in main roads largely devoid of traffic and sweeping minor roads that cut through the Linkoping Kommun countryside. On one hand the riding position and engine torque made zap zap overtaking a no nonsense doddle; gear changes were rarely required and squeeze-release gave a great glob of acceleration followed by strong engine braking. On the other hand, this engine torque together with the wide bars made tipping the bike on it's ear, surfing through a corner, and lunging out the other side a breeze. The bars are so wide that as well as giving great leverage, with my 5'10 frame, counter steering naturally helped twist half a cheek off the inside of the seat, aiding the fantastic manner with which the bike ate up the sweepies. With corner after corner unfolding in front to learn on, perfect visibility, and good Swedish blacktop, never has a bike been so easy to master. I was actually laughing I was enjoying it so much.
The Telelever front suspension felt odd when braking hardish for the first time as the bike was devoid of pitch, but soon felt natural, and ended up feeling "why don't all bikes have such effective anti-dive?". The rear suspension on my Hornet is however more compliant over choppy bumps especially under power; the GS felt a little over-stiff and with excessive rebound control but then I only weigh 76Kg and the bike wasn't carrying any heavy luggage such as it would on a touring holiday.
The only thing I found lacking was a nice top-end rush, instead getting a flat delivery that didn't reward revs. If the bike could banish the occasional flat twin vibes and combine its unreal bottom and mid range torque with the higher rev poke of something like a Duke 999 (let alone the unfair comparison with the horizon grabbing rush I enjoy from a sports four) it would be pretty well the perfect bike.
As documented in the TTFN thread, I had a cracking four days holiday in Scotland on the Hornet last week (mostly rain but what a blast) in the company of six friends; I would love to repeat it on a GS.
Links to two photos, one of which is a library shot to give an idea of the imposing height of the machine for those unfamiliar with what it is:
tinyurl.com/preview.php?num=nrlw4
The grin is post-ride.
Sorry for the large size; I chose "standard" which normally resizes, but it didn't in this case.
www.bmwmotos.com/galeria/bmw/albums/gali/brh.sized...g
To sum up:
PU - I can see why you love yours! :-)
Look past the ugliness of the front end and one of the world's best road going motorcycles is to be found. Read more
>>> Wear baggy trousers when we meet for that beer won't you.
LOL! ;-)
Yeah!
I promise!
Having the great good fortune to live on the route of the Notting Hill Carnival, and to enjoy the event - we have been here for more than 30 of them now and I am the grandly-titled trustee of a costume band - I have the annual task of having to remove my car from in front of the house and stash it down a side street out of the way.
One normally does this on the Saturday night, otherwise over-keen authorities may appear on Sunday morning before one is awake and lift the thing, which may then be hard to find.
The problem with the side streets on either side of the house is that one is a plod-designated emergency vehicle route, kept absolutely empty, and I am superstitious about the other having had one car robbed there and another stolen never to be seen again.
A couple of percussion groups passed early this morning, the first before 8 a.m. Now it is quiet, the weather clement, people gathering in the street for today's 'children's parade', a quieter dry run for tomorrow's real thing. That will pass in a miasma of rum, weed and glorious clamour. People will come to the house. On Tuesday the streets will be physically dirty but spiritually clean, evil spirits having been thrust back for another year. It will be my birthday, a third day of knees-up, hooray!
Just hope I'll be able to remember where I left the jalopy. Not that I'll care much, the state I hope to be in. Read more
It is fun stevied, although my duties are far from onerous. One does it by being in the right place at the right time.
Found the jalopy yesterday after the usual anxious wander around. It was further away than I remembered leaving it.
Carnival was its usual wonderful self. Seem to be a few more steel bands around. Takes a lot of work and practice, so the middle-aged always fear that the spoilt young aren't up for it any more. But they are, thank goodness, and it's definitely the best music to be heard at Carnival. The most danceable and downright bad, with the most soul. But that is not to say that the HGV-mounted sound systems aren't worth listening to. Carnival is a parade of leading-edge Afro-Caribbean schlock music, as the thousands of followers some of the systems pick up testify. You hear some of the weirdest noises on the planet put out at 1,000 decibels.
However the really big bass speakers featured a few years ago seem to have faded away. They were huge horns that were placed face down on flatbed trucks, liooked like supertanker mooring bollards. When they did their thing, fortunately for only a few bars at a time, you could put your hand on the inside of the front wall of our 1840s six-storey house and feel it pulsing. The bolts on the inside of the 3cwt. front door would rattle, and plaster and paint flakes would detach themselves from here and there and flutter down. Pity in a way, but probably best for the physical integrity of London's period housing stock.
Hope I'm still alive next year, provided Livingstone hasn't messed it up (he's trying).
With ford car t reg we have recently bought, when I change from first gear when pulling off it makes a funny noise sort of grating??? we were told dry thrust bearing? the clutch seems fine and all gear changes are smooth, it just makes this noise when changin up or down from 1st gear??? Read more
My Ka does make a whining sound whilst it crawls on 1st gear, but other then that, theres nothing wrong with it.
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Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
I decided to do throw caution to the wind, and changed the fiesta for an ST220 Mondeo. The car needs a service, and i just would like to check that the spec for the 3.0 Duratec is still 5w30 semi synth as opposed to anything else.
many thanks Read more
yep 5w30
lubricantadvisor.valvolineeurope.com/select.asp is useful
Hi,
sorry if this has been posted in the wrong forum.
I have a set of Audi roof bars, and am trying to fit my mate's roof box. The roof bars I have are the 'aero' type with a T-track. What I need to know is, where do I get the T-bolts from (halford don't stock them), and will 4 T-bolts be enough to hold a large roof box? Read more
Measure the size of the slot and get some standard plated bolts which will fit to fasten the box on with. Should only be a problem if the top of the T is unusually thin.
Have not seen the original bolts but don't feel they will be any different. After all aluminium trains have loads of equipment hung under them on t slots using standard bolts and the same method is used to hold the valley rafer im my conservatory down.
hi i have a r reg 20 ltr vectra ecoteck common rail engine its high millage the car has got no power pulls away slow at higher speeds the engine management light comes on at 70mph on the motor way and has even less power the car hasnt broken down allways starts on the button no knocks or bad rattles, just has got lack of power the fuel filter is clean, any other person with same probs Read more
vectra di,s always have engine management problemes, renowned for it, probley best getting it pluged in to a diagnostic to pinpoint it as there are that many sensors you could go on forever changing things, just hope its not the fuel pump as they go on the diesels and the car will still run but with a lot less power. good luck.
Browse
The failed ignition coil has nothing to do with the hood fault, but the problem with the stereo is related to the operation of the roof. The electric circuit to it is switched by the insertion of the key into the ignition barrel.I would suspect that the ignition switch is at fault.