August 2006
POlo 3-4 yrs old New model.
I have undone the plastic locking device inside the boot, but the exterior cover still seems very tight. As yet I have not taken the oblong shape containing all the wires out. , (it looks asif it has a push fitting). Do I need to?
Is there another locking device holding in the light unit exterior cover or a push in locator that I havent found? Obviously I dont want to use brute force and break something.
Advice please. Read more
Hi
My borther-in-law -(wifes' bro) has bought the above car - brand new and to be regd as 06 on or about the 20th of this month - paid 43k - colour black and extars are piping and tv - goo or bad price?
What really shocked me was the insurance - he is just over 50, driving 30 odd years, one accident last yeear, his fault and full no claims - fully insured for 6k miles per annum, wife on ins and garage, lives in a nice part of Kent, 2 miles from London - 3350 fully comp!!!!
I pay £800 for my merc, C class and live in SE3 and clear licence since 18, abot 25 years, no tickets or accidents.
:(
BTW - I could not find the thread re when i thought i was booked by one of those mobile speed cam vans in Bexleyheath on way back from MB, Dartford - I was doing ABOUT 33/34 - THIS WAS JUST OVER 3 WEEKS AGO - no ticket yet. Must remeber the ticket would have gone to MB as i had their loan car - do you think i'm safe now?
Thanks! Read more
Hi
I was at the dealers last week and they said nothing and as yet received nothing - so I'm confident that it will be ok.
MB had my full details and all they had to do is check their computer.
Bro got the Jag TDVi 2:7 I think - never been in the new one of the new ones and really like it. - creamy leather with piping an tv and fridge - and xeon lights are standard - piping and tv/fridge were extra. The boot for the size of car compared with my C class is small, still but better than the older jags.
Bro had trouble paring her in the garage and has to close the door mirrors and is going to widen door :)
He will kep the car for many years and stated he test drove a merc E class sports and felt the jag was better but know he feels it a bit to long.
Hypothetically, someone who has a 3 door Coupe could, hypothetically, in the next couple of years find himself needing something a bit more practical. This hypothetical person is hypothetically not quite willing to get himself a Toyota and a tartan rug quite yet though.
So (and I'm fed up of typing hypotheticallly by now, so just sprinkle it liberally throughout the rest of this post when reading please)
my thoughts so far have been of an Alfa 156 GTA or a Mitsubishi Galant VR4.
I don't know all that much about the VR4 though. I know it uses a lot of the same technology as the Lancer EVO's, does it also require the 3 monthly servicing?
Anyone have any thoughts on either of these, or other alternatives in the same vein?
Basically, when I say practical, I mean it's got 5 doors, aside from that little point, I want it to be as fun as possible.
Price to buy is a question I don't really know the answer to yet, but I'd be surprised if I'm willing to spend more than £10k, and probably less than that. Price to run on the other hand isn't quite as important, I'm not made of money but I'm currently driving a group 19 car which does an average of 25mpg, and I can accept that. Read more
Another alternative has caught my eye in the last couple of days, the Volvo S60R.
Another one which is currently a bit too pricey for my liking, but within the next year or so, when I might be thinking seriously about changing, should have crept down enough.
Also saw a 1993 Lancia Delta Integrale for sale at £11k, but I think that might be pushing it a bit with the missus :D
A friend's got a XK8 which will need a service soon. Can anyone reccomend anywhere to take it to in the Sheffield are?
Thanks, grafen... Read more
Not a Jag specialist, but my father has used www.whiteleagarage.com/ for his servicing needs for the last 20 years. They are located not too far from Sheffield.
My Jag monthly magazine has an article in it saying that Ford are going to go down the aluminium route for a lot of their models........ to save weight........ and assist their green credentials........ and that they are looking at the Jaguar technology from the current XJ series and future Jag projects........ to assist them in the process.
If this is correct they'd be pretty silly to sell Jag to someone else wouldn't they?.........as some rumours have suggested is a possibility...... Read more
I have an '04 Zetec S mondeo which, pretty much since new has had one problem or another. These include:
Air temp sensor failure
Fuel Presure Sensor Failure
ECU replacement and various program updates
Stalling and cutting out at any speed or gear
Hesitation and labouring at 50MPH ish
Engine mounts have been replaced
Battery failed at 20k miles
Serpantine belt and tensioner replaced
Rear brake calipers locking on
Hand brake cable failure
Front and rear disks needing replacing after less than 30K (seems a bit soon!)
Clutch failure
clutch hydraulics failure
Ingition barrell collapse
Suspension bolts had worked their way loose (after less than 5000 miles)
Bonnet not correcly aligned
I also thought I would add that I seem to eat front tyres (10-12000 miles), just glad I am under a maintenance plan so I don't have to pay for them. I also had one of the metal valves blow out at motorway speeds, not pleasant.
I thought I would list the faults as I am interested to know if other Mondeo drivers had experienced similar problems. Some of these faults may just be down to wear and tear however some parts such as brakes and clutch seem to have worn out a lot sooner thanI would have expected.
I have had the car back now for about four or five weeks after a two month stay at a main dealer to resolve some of the problems listed and so far so good. In fact I actually really like the car, I am just interested if I have a friday afternoon car or if other owners have had numerous problems too.
Read more
My final question is, does anyone have definitive answer
to why these cars have a greater tendancy to stall when
pulling away from stationary? Most of the guys in my company
with simalar cars have experienced this problem and we now just
live with it.
We have a Focus like this. As cheddar says, it's a characteristic of the TDCi. I've read that it's to do with the dynamics of the dual-mass flywheel being very poor at very low engine speeds, and so the engine (ECU?) cuts, though I'm not sure whether this is to prevent excess vibration or whether the flywheel stalls it by itself.
There's been an e-mail round about it at Fords, asking for personal experience from staff with leased cars. Apparantly it's causing quite a headache for the Ford engineers.
--------------
Mike Farrow
I'm asking on behalf of a mate who doesn't know I'm asking but any light shed on the situation would be helpful.
Rightly or wrongly, my mate bought a car on finance that was far too expensive for him and as such, he failed (apparently only once) to pay the monthly repayments, so the finance company came along and repossessed it.
Now throughout all this, he's been saying that they'll sell the car at auction, and he'll have to pay the shortfall - so if the car was 20 grand, and they sold it for 10, he'd owe them ten. Having not heard anything since the repossession some time ago, we'd both forgotten about it. However, he saw his car for sale on Autotrader at a garage for a price that would indicate they hadn't paid a million miles away from 10 grand at an auction. Now assuming this is the case, and what he said about owing them the shortfall is true, this would mean he would owe them the best part of 10 grand.
However, he's not heard a thing from them and has found a website saying that anything bought on hire purchase can only be repossessed and that's the worst that can happen. That doesn't sound right considering the finance company are down by a lot of money - apparently they can't take him to court to get it back. Like I said, it sounds laughable and if it's the case, I might just go out and buy cars, not repay them and then get them repossessed!
Can anyone shed some light on the situation? I'd have thought they could (and will) take him to court to get the money back if he doesn't pay it but this site says otherwise and he believes it. Add to that that the finance company haven't asked for their money back and maybe there's some truth in it.
Any help would, as always, be gratefully received.
Read more
He's certainly got himself into a mess - he's already got a credit card so I'm not sure what's happening with that.
He lives at home and I can see him doing so for a good while yet so hopefully there's scope for him to clear up this mess by then. Hopefully.
I'm gonna stir things up with this one!
According to a survey by confused.com a lot of prestigious cars are involved in a disproportionate numbers of accidents - see cars.uk.msn.com/news/car_news_article.aspx?cp-docu...1 . In this "top ten" you will notice Alfa, BMW and Audi are well represented.
The Managing Director of confused.com said, "...luxury and executive cars have among the highest accident rates because they are often used for long distance travel, with busy, stressed and tired executives behind the wheel."
Do I hear the sound of violins? Doesn't it basically mean these cars (as many of us have always suspected) are driven by plonkers who should know better? - Discuss!
Notice also the "bottom ten" of cars involved in the least number of accidents; surprise, surprise - the least street cred equals the fewest accidents! Read more
>I've got the biggest stone tent you ever saw.
Been there, done that, On 1,2 & 3. When I moved out 32 years later I cried. Was in the area couple of years ago could not believe my eyes when I saw the scaffolding and skips arrayed nearly cried again.
Takes all sorts :-((
Phil I
Time for some cheery, positive vibes !
We've seen the thread for the worst car. How about your best car ?
Mine was a Honda Integra Type R. I won't list the good points - the post would be too long. I'll just list the "sub-optimal" points :
1. Glovebox was a bit small.
2. It was a bit noisy on the motorway (but heh, what a great noise from that VTEC engine !)
3. I struggled to get more than 5000 miles out of a set of front tyres.....can't think why ?!
That's it. The rest was superb. Read more
fiat 132 2.0 litre twin cam
terrible car............but
lovely sounding engine when spun up..........i still miss it........but not the rot
Hello
I have just fitted a new clutch and have done something wrong. When I did the "slowly depress the pedal, wait ten seconds and slowly bring the pedal back up" routine recommended in Haynes, there was no pressure at all, but just before reaching the end of its' travel; it snatched the pedal to the floor, where I think it would have stayed had I not pulled it back up. I've had the slave cylinder back out to check if the bearing was properly snapped in and there seems to be only enough play for the arm to move between the two sets of lugs. During the work the push rod fell out when I accidently knocked it but at no time was the clutch pedal depressed. Any advice?
Regards Tom Read more
Hi Mate
Thanks for the input. Yes it's a master slave set up, one of the push types. I am trying for a pattern one but I wont see any results till tomorrow. How did I get air in the system? Well, I figured that if the system is sealed; as long as the clutch pedal wasn't depressed the rod would be held in by the hydraulic vacuum. So I put it to one side when I got it out and didn't bother to tie it in. But I knocked it while I was struggling to get the L.H. support bracket off the transmission housing (what a pig of a job that was) and the rod fell out. Either my theory about the hydraulics was wrong or I damaged the seal on removal. Perhaps because it has been on there for 197000 miles or perhaps because my hands are not strong enough for that particular job I had to use mole gripsto get it off.The cylinder didn't look to be distorted but Maybe it doesn't have to be in order to break the seal. Also, because of the awkward position it is in, I definitely knocked it against its' housing as I was removing it and so could have pulled it out of its' seal. Never having seen how far it should protrude from the cylinder I have no way of knowing.
Browse
Does it not say in the owners handbook how to change the bulb?