August 2006
Was interested in a letter in HJ's column on Saturday with regard to an owner who had been driving around with the delivery suspension blocks still in for, IIRC, 22k miles and over 2 years. Apparently this had been discovered when the car went in for its first service. HJ was rightly damning of the PDI from the dealer and highlighted the dangerous condition this had put the vehicle in.
This got me thinking that with the manufacturers' ever increasing service intervals perhaps the time has come to make MOT's yearly for all vehicles and end the 3 year grace for new vehicles. The argument that new vehicles get better servicing from main dealers in the first 3 years of life is surely being given the lie by these increased intervals imposed by the self same manufacturers, it is quite possible that a vehicle with a 24k service interval could be driven for 8k a year and only see the inside of a garage on its 3rd birthday for an MOT. I accept the argument that PDI's should deal with anything inherently dangerous but obviously some defects slip through. As an example, my brother had a new car a few years back that had the headlights set high, it was only when I commented when he followed me home one night that he should get his lights checked that the garage owned up that they didn't check because light heights were 'factory set, sir.' Only a minor thing, I know, but it could have been something worse. I realise that some will argue that new cars are inherently more reliable but are the potential long periods between checks becoming a hazard? Read more
I have a mondeo 99(v) with the hydraulic clutch .The problem i have is the clutch pedal bites at the top of it`s stroke ,I haven`t had one like this before so i don`t know if this is ok or goosed ,if i try the old handbrake on and try first it stalls,if it was a cable i would assume it needs replacing or the csc bearing needs replacing but am not sure with this and it`s driving me cuckooPLEASE SOME ONE TELL ME WHAT IS WRONG (IF ANYTHING) .hoping to go abroad in it soon.. Read more
I don't think you can establish the condition of a Mundano clutch by pedal position and action. It's not worth replacing the clutch on a 1999 car with 188000 miles. If it does go, throw it way and put the money towards another Mundano. IMHO.
Today upon entering the M25, Southbound from Junc 10, on the opposite carriageway was a small 2 car shunt in a congested jam. There looked like there was no damage to either car and yet both parties in the 3rd lane had got out and were discussing the situation.
Got me thinking what should happen if no party is injured,and the vehicles are moveable, what is the correct procedure.?
Do you stay until the cops arrive( not necessary if no damage to people?), move to the hard shoulder and exchange details, or do as they did check all ok, then carry on??
Fortunately never been close to having to worry about this, but I'm sure others have and in many situations it must be extremely frightening
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Small shunt on A-road:
in the early 70s, when you could still overtake on single carriageway A roads in the South East, I was overtaking a line of 40mph mimsers in my Citroen Dyane on a straight bit of the A29 in Sussex when the second car from the front, a Renault R4, pulled out suddenly to overtake the front car. I was only doing about 55 but saw the smoke from my tyres in the rearview mirror and eventually had to put two wheels on the right-hand grass verge. At that moment a car came over the crest ahead in the opposite direction. Just squeezed past the R4, cursing a bit, and continued my journey.
I thought I had missed the R4 but on arrival discovered a slightly bent ns bumper and front wing. I had been braking so heavily at the moment of gentle impact that I didn't feel it at all, although the family in the R4 looked round in some alarm. At least they knew it had been their fault because they never complained.
Closer than close.
Car breakdown woes.
Afternoon all.
I had a nightmare in France. Below is my letter to the manufacturers of my beloved car, hopefully edited so DD can sleep at night. Lets just say I?d have expected said vehicle to be reliable!
I?d be interested in any comments.
Gord.
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21st August 2006
Dear [Manufacturer],
I am writing to express my extreme disappointment and dissatisfaction at the handling if the breakdown of my car. My [Estate car], registration F*55 **V, was bought new on the 14th January this year, and had it?s 12.5k mile service on the 6th of June this year.
This is a long letter, as the series of failings take some effort to reproduce as they are extensive. You may wish to skip to the section where I outline the steps you will take to correct them.
I took my car down to France, leaving on the Saturday 5th August. Once most of the way there, we noticed a strange smell, something like sulphur, and by the time we had reached our destination, having talked to the [BREAKDOWN SERVICE] who could offer no advice on route, the smell was very strong and we all felt ill. On opening the bonnet, I could see that the battery was steaming. I rang the [BREAKDOWN SERVICE] again, and they dispatched a tow truck.
Within two minutes of arriving, the recovery outfit had put a voltage meter on the battery, and diagnosed that the voltage regulator on the alternator had failed, explaining the battery boiling and venting sulphuric acid. Annoying, but these things happen and easily mended ? a steam clean of the engine bay, a new alternator and battery, and we would be sorted. The car was towed there and then, and I was told I would be collected to get a hire car in the morning until my car could be fixed on Monday.
From this point onward the service was a mixture of indifferent, confused, incompetent and contradictory, combining to ruin a good part of the holiday and to leave my girlfriend in tears over the whole affair.
The taxi arrived, and I was then taken on a 1.5 hour, nearly 200? trip from La Grave back into Grenoble to get a hire car. I had not been warned about the length of the trip, and had to field several calls from my friends wondering where I was. I also had to wait for nearly an hour for the [BREAKDOWN SERVICE] to authorise a car larger than a Corsa ? I pointed out that I had four passengers and enough luggage to fill the [Estate car] and a 350 litre roofbox! In the end, I was given a 307 SW, which was only just adequate as other friends joined us with a second car. I didn?t get back to my friends until nearly 3 pm ? one day ruined, as they could have spent time in Grenoble had we known where the car was coming from.
The next few days saw me having to contact the [BREAKDOWN SERVICE] to find out what was happening ? at 35p a minute every time. Finally they rang me on Thursday to give me the good news that it had taken them five days to find nothing wrong with the car. I corrected them that the alternator was putting out too many volts, boiling the battery, and that this had been confirmed and measured by the recovery agent. They hadn?t known this, and promised to ring him to confirm this and get onto it.
At this point, I was getting very worried about the effect of this simple breakdown on my holiday. I had pointed out to the [BREAKDOWN SERVICE] that we had not been planning on staying in one place for the holiday, and that once I had returned a friend to Grenoble station on Thursday, we had been planning on leaving the area. This didn?t happen ? we had heard nothing, and therefore had to stay put in La Grave, which in itself was a 2-hour drive from Grenoble once the traffic we encountered was taken into account.
By Saturday, seven days after the original breakdown, the [BREAKDOWN SERVICE] rang me to say that the garage had identified the fault. There was a problem with the alternator overcharging and boiling the battery! New parts had been ordered, and would be there by Wednesday, possibly Thursday. I confirmed with them that I could keep the hire car until then, and resolved to try and salvage what we could of the holiday by moving round to Ailefroid, on the south side of the Ecrin National Park, four hours from Grenoble. This was a safe move as we finally knew what was happening with the car.
Except we didn?t.
On Monday, I received another call from the [BREAKDOWN SERVICE]. The gentleman enquired if I still had the hire car as there was a ?problem? with it.
?Yes?, I replied, ?you have extended the hire until this Thursday as my car is not ready?.
The [BREAKDOWN SERVICE] man then proceeded to inform me that the policy they had with you only allowed for a maximum of three days car hire, and that I already owed for four days hire and would need to return the car by 11:30 the following morning if I was not to incur more charges. I told him that this was completely unacceptable, that I had been in daily contact with them (at my considerable expense) to confirm what was happening, and that my having to pay had never been mentioned. He promised to go and listen to the calls and call me back. When he did so, he agreed that payment was never mentioned, and said that as a result the [BREAKDOWN SERVICE] would pay up until the following morning, the Tuesday, when the car would have to be returned.
In fairness, the guy I spoke to seemed sympathetic, but indicated that poor service was the norm during the French holidays, and my predicament of having a simple problem take an age to fix was not unusual. He also offered to allow me to return the car locally, but did accept that leaving us stranded with 200 kg of luggage in the middle of the mountains was not really an option. Under protest, I agreed that I would have to pay for a further two days rental, as if my car was going to be ready on Thursday then we could return to Grenoble and swap back. Although the car would need to be returned by 11.30 am, necessitating getting up at about 5 am to get tents down and cars packed, this would at least minimise our out of pocket expenses.
On the Wednesday afternoon, having heard nothing, I phoned the [BREAKDOWN SERVICE] to confirm that the parts were in and the car would be fixed. They instead confirmed that no parts had arrived but they would ?hopefully? arrive tomorrow. It was at this point I rang [Manufacturer] UK, as I was starting to get extremely worried that we would not have a car even in time to get home. In fairness to your offices, a lady called Jo called back fairly promptly despite the offices being ?closed for training?, and got onto the [BREAKDOWN SERVICE] and [Manufacturer] France quickly. She also extended the hire car past 11.30 am, meaning we could get up a little later.
On Thursday we still had an early start, but when we phoned at about 12:30, having heard nothing, the [BREAKDOWN SERVICE] ?hadn?t got around? to ringing the garage to find out what was happening. Moreover, the garage would be closed for lunch until 2, when they would then try and give them a ring. With a sense of astonishment, given that I thought they knew that this was the crunch day ? we had planned to try and get as far as Arras to at least try and rescue a day of holiday at the end given our enforced curtailment. The [BREAKDOWN SERVICE] guy was sympathetic, and said that they would organise a hotel for us as it would be far too late to be allowed onto a campsite by the time we?d got the car and made the five hour drive. He also agreed to ring and confirm that the hire car garage was open, as a text earlier in the week had indicated that they might not be. We left it that he would ring me back and let me know if it was not open.
I got the address of the [Manufacturer] garage from them and drove there to try and find out what was happening. When I finally spoke to them, they had had the part since that morning. They showed no idea or interest that we needed the car urgently, and said it would be ready by 6 pm. After much protest by us about our desperate need for the car, they agreed to have it done by 4.
At four, the car was indeed ready, albeit nothing had been done to clean up the stains left by the sulphuric acid steam. We moved all our kit back into the car and drove the two cars the five miles to the hire garage. Which was closed.
A further call to the [BREAKDOWN SERVICE] yielded sarcastic enquiries as to why I had not phoned the number they had supplied by text to check, to which I had pointed out that their guy had specifically said that they were and that he would ring me if they were not. They then said they would ring the garage and call me back. When they did, it was announced that we had to return the car to Grenoble station. I was furious at this, as we were already hours late and suffering from a catalogue of incompetence. I demanded to know if I could get a taxi back from the station to where we were now, as my girlfriend had only driven my car once before it broke down, and had never driven in France except for on the autoroute and was very nervous of driving a fully loaded car through Grenoble in rush hour.
After checking, the lady confirmed that I could have a taxi, but that as my car was now fixed, they were not after all going to organise a hotel, despite our travel plans being wrecked as a direct result of the problems caused by their lax incompetence. I have to admit I was incandescent, and eventually hung up after telling the lady (hopefully politely) exactly what I thought of the [BREAKDOWN SERVICE] and [Manufacturer] France.
A very stressful journey took us to the station, where I checked the hire car back in, although I got no receipt as they didn?t have the staff to check it in ? I have more than 30 photos showing all aspects of its condition interior and exterior. We finally left Grenoble at about 5.30 pm, with a six hour drive ahead of us. It took us another hour and a half to find our Ibis hotel that we had managed to book, as we had the wrong address for it. We got to bed around 2 am.
The following day we tried to salvage something, visiting tourist attractions around the Arras region. The [BREAKDOWN SERVICE] still managed to intrude, ringing to ask where exactly we had returned the hire car? I told them, and have not heard again so presumably they found it, but my lack of paperwork coupled with this question caused further huge stress, and finally actually got my girlfriend to cry rather than just look miserable.
We got back to the UK on Saturday as planned, but our trip was pretty much ruined from the Wednesday night onward, and certainly massively interfered with for the rest of the trip. This should not have happened. Small failures like this do happen occasionally, even on reliable cars ? I?m not quibbling that and the failure itself is actually not the point. The abysmal service and handling since is what ruined the holiday, and I mean ruined!
I want, at an absolute minimum, the following:
1. My car taken in by you ASAP, with a replacement [Estate car] supplied at no cost, for the following:
a. the engine bay to be steam cleaned, and you to provide a written warranty that all future paint or component damage caused by the acid steam will be upheld and remedied by [Manufacturer] at no cost
b. the work done by the [Manufacturer] technicians in France to be checked; in particular, I am not convinced that the alternator is aligned correctly with the drive pulley
c. the bonnet soundproofing that has been partially melted by the vapour to be replaced
d. all electrical systems to be checked for any damage for the over-volting
2. Reimbursement for all my out of pocket expenses, including phone calls to the [BREAKDOWN SERVICE] and yourselves, and the wretched night at the Ibis [no criticism of Ibis as such, just nasty circumstances].
3. A written apology from the [BREAKDOWN SERVICE] for their vague, incompetent and stressful handling of this whole episode.
4. An explanation of how exactly a simple repair, instantly diagnosed in the dark by two engineers with headtorches and a volt meter, could have taken so long to diagnose.
I look forward to hearing from you. I would very much like to continue to recommend [Manufacturer], but at the moment I might struggle.
Sincerely,
Dr Gordon McKenzie
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Seems Honda in the UK are more interested in customer relations than Honda Germany. My Accord was in for repairing the electronic boot door under warranty (boot did not open or close, controller reset but as a precaution new controller fitted in line with a Honda circular) but no chance of being provided with a courtesy car - "see the Honda guarantee, sir". Know which manufacturer will not be on the list when replacement time comes.
BIG
question also asked in Technical Matters. Any replies here have been moved across and the question here has been deleted to avoid repetition of answers. DD
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Has anyone replaced any bulbs in their car with the new LED sort? I want to give it a go but I want to find some that have the resistors built in, I have looked but all the different websites lead to information overload after a while.
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I had no sidelights with ignition off as my car has dim dip.
That's odd. The Vauxhall implementation of dim dip used to put the sidelights on with the engine not running, and then, via a tee into the signal wire to the oil pressure switch, would sense the engine was running, and feed the headlamps at reduced power.
Is it possible that you had a fault with the dim-dip, or was this as Porsche meant it to be? i.e., are all 944 owners now rigging up alternative sidelamps?
Number_Cruncher
Hi,
My trusty Toyota Corolla M Reg has a hole in the engine sump approx 3mm wide which the engine oil has all drained out on to the floor. I first noticed this when changing the oil about 3 weeks ago. Tried ringing round for a second hand one but no joy and new one is 200 pound of which I am a bit reluctant to pay as the car isnt worth much more than that.
Any ideas for a quck fix or any reputable spares places you could put me in touch with please. Read more
jb kwik weld available halfords........£5 at maccess
drain oil
clean sump of rust with wire brush then with either brake cleaner or thinners
allow area to evaporate
the product will NOT work if any oil is allowed to dribble out (jack car up if hole at bottom and still dribling so oil is away from the hole)
mix jb and aply to an area covering a 2 p piece
leave 2 hours min at this time of year double in"t winter
replace oil
cover sump in old oil to stop further rotting
get on with life
I've seen both types on the roads round Chesterfield recently.
Are they the same things legally? One is car like with a roll cage and the other like a four wheeled motorcycle. Tyres look the same on both.
Hard to believe the little car-like buggy passes all the safety tests especially without the occupents wearing helmets..
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I wasna fu but just had plenty. Read more
Reckon the Quadski could be good if you lived in Ushuaia though as has been alluded to it is not made to rescue sheep or seals so is only a toy, in which case a Yamaha YZF 450 motorcycle and GP1300R wave runner would be both more fun and, I dare say cheaper, for info the latter has a 1300cc 3 cyl 2 stroke producing 170 bhp!
I have ridden quads and while they are enjoyable and useful on a farm two wheels are so much more fun off road.
does anyone know of a suitable programme or device to programme VAG transponder keys, currently use machine from advanced diagnostics but since all 7 digit codes have been encrypted am having problems extracting new 4 digit code. Read more
Just got back from a long wekend away in Berlin (i.e. early am Friday to late am Monday)
Was amazed that such a large city had such light traffic, even during the rush hour. Could it have been something to do with an efficient and easy to use public transport? Bus/train/tram services were excellent and clean. Several times, actually saw people swigging drinks (including beer) then leaping off train at next stop to dump bottle in waste bin, then jump on train again! Witnessed train platforms being mechanically cleaned. Paid 22 euros for a three day hop on and hop off ticket which took me on all trains, trams and buses in Berlin centre and suberbs whenever I wanted. What an excellent city! Read more
Amusing story off the Britboard:
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/5275866.stm
Not particularly motoring related, sorry Mods.
Browse
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Agree 100%, well put!