October 2006
Hi all, I am after a good independant Vauxhall specialist in the Hounslow / Heathrow area for a friend's '98 Corsa (Engine management light). I think it's either cam/crank position sensor, MAF sensor or plugs/leads - car cuts out occasionaly, can be hesitant. Need someone to read the CEL codes (he is on a shoestring budget - too low for poke and hope - and main dealers!!)
Thanks in advance! Read more
I have received a stone chip on my windscreen (bottom right hand corner on the very edge. It is a standard chip size 2mm diameter (oval/circular shape). It is not very deep (you can feel it with your fingernail) and there is no spiders web sort of effect). I got it from oncoming traffic - so it could not reall have been avoided.
Is this an MOT issue? If so I assume I can get one of these clever chaps who come and drill it out and fill it with a transparent filler?
Any experience on this mych appreciated Read more
How difficult is it to change the seats in a car?
Following on from the back pain thread it seems clear that some cars have very good seats and others are very poor. Is it easy to change over seats? Obviously after market seats such as Recaro would come with a fitting kit however they would be very pricey. Has anyone tried swapping seats from one make of car to another? Are all the seat runners different sizes and the fitting different or is it a fairly standard system? Read more
It is a Mazda 323. The seats are not very great but that seems to be normal for low end cheap hatch backs. It sounds as if changing would be too complicated so I will give it a miss unless I can get hold of more upmarket seats from a higher spec Mazda.
For a year now I have been using a 4-cycle Thule carrier mounted on the towball of my Scenic II.
My son is now looking for a new bike for Christmas and as we have been looking , I have been trying to find out the weights of any prospective bike (he wants all the suspension etc and I want him to get a light bike!)
Anyway this prompted me to do a check. My Scenic max towball weight is 75kg. The bike carrier itself weighs 19kg which leaves me 56kg for 4 bikes. The Thule website states that the carrier can take max 60kg.
I have weighed the 4 bikes we currently use (by standing on the scales with and without the bike - is this accurate?) and their combined total is 62kg!
So I have been driving about with too much weight on the towball, how critical will this extra 6kg be? And too much weight on the carrier as well!
Incidentally I have a relatively light bike at 14kg so the Thule is obviously built for only taking lightweight bikes and not mountain bikes with chunky tyres and suspension!
Beginning to think that one bike is going to need dismantled and put in the boot which kind of defeats the purpose? Read more
Whoever wrote that at the dealer should be sacked. I doubt he has a corresponding email from the manufacturer.
As it is, I imagine that the margins of design will ensure he'll be right.
I just wondered how good satellite reception is on a Tom Tom or similar sat nav, in fog?
I have an old school Garmin Etrex Vista GPS which I've had for years; from experience I know it doesn't find and lock onto satellites as well as a Tom Tom, but usually still works adequately in bad weather. But on Tuesday I was driving in thick fog, on Wednesday in less-thick fog, trying to find addresses in unfamiliar areas, and could get no satellite reception whatsoever. I managed without the GPS, but it would have been handy and made me wonder "is everyones Sat Nav bad in fog or is it just mine". Yesterday in clear weather it worked fine so there is no fault with the GPS.
From my point of view there are not enough foggy days per year for it to be a problem, I'm just curious...
Cheers,
Rich. Read more
I agree about the ships, but have to correct you on
the planes, the approach control and blind landing is all radar
controlled and GPS has nowt to do with it.
Precision approach radar is no longer available at most civilian airports. Blind landing is carried out using the aircraft's Instrument landing System (ILS) which locks on to radio beams for runway line up and glideslope broadcast from the ground. Controllers direct the aircraft to intercept the ILS beams using radar.
The planes are quite capable of self positioning to the ILS using GPS or other systems but radar allows tighter separation to optimise the traffic flow.
Does anyone know where MSN cars get their fuel economy figures from? I ask as their figures for the Accord Tourer correspond exactly to what I (and many others) actually get, i.e. 41 mpg combined. This seems in contrast with the official figures, which suggest you'll get 48 combined and 57 on the motorway.
Does anybody know? And can anyone else comment on how those figures compare to their 'official EU' figures and their own experience? Read more
Duplicate post removed and replies moved to the same thread in Technical Matters - DD Read more
Have checked HJs FAQs but not sure.
Does this engine have a cambelt or chain.
Anyone know ?. Read more
My wife has an automatic and I would recommend it.
I'm not to enthralled by the local dealer though, as we have had a couple of issues with the car, with which they were completely unhelpful. We still have the outstanding problem with the fuel gauge, which will say the tank is empty after about 240/250 miles, yet we can never get more than 36 litres in the tank, which has a capacity of 45 litres, if it is filled at that point. It is a devilishly difficult tank to fill too, as the nozzle has to be just the right amount in the tank, or it will keep cutting off the flow.
Hello to everyone.
This is my first post on this forum, petrol engines aren't my most fave. subject, rather have something with a diesel and don't have to bend my back or put on a ramp to work on - i.e. tractor, truck, excavator.
Anyway what I am looking for is information specific to standard [Exide] lead plate batteries in particular the text book correct way of initially charging prior to selling to a customer and the correct way to diagnose a battery failure.
Initial charge: From what I can gather first I need to fill the dry cells with 1.260 electrolyte [dil. H2SO4], let them stand for 15 mins, re-check the levels, then charge at a rate of 5 > 8 amperes for 4 hrs with the caps off.
Is that all or any other detail I need to bear in mind?
Customer comes to me with a flat battery wanting warranty, first I charge it up. Then take the surface charge off with a load tester, then check the voltage and gravity of each cell.....
O.K. so one cell is fizzing, so its gone down. How can I determine it is genuinely a fault with the battery and not that they've boiled it dry and thrown in more electrolyte?
What happens if all cells are down on gravity, is that just detrioration ?
thanks in advance for any pointers [or good web-links] on getting the text book procedure.
best regards
Jim
Read more
F3 in the article explains it-Computer Memory Saver.
are the cars listed on auctionview the only cars that turn up? or are there usually more cars than advertised? Read more
I'm no expert but I have access to Auctionview and have been to Blackbushe and others a few times. A days' auction is made up of a number of different sales - Auctionview shpows you all of those sales. The lists for each sale are populated anything up to two weeks in advance, and are not always fully populated when that sale first appears.
I.e. a placeholder for each sale will be put in place many weeks in advance of the sale, Two weeks before the sale (although it is not fixed) this list will start to be populated. Sometimes the list will vary in that two weeks, sometimes it will not change. It's possible to have last minute changes (presumably they add cars which have unexpectedly not sold in previous sales, or remove cars from sale) so really Auctionview could only be regarded as 95% accurate. However by the sale day minus one, it's a pretty good indication of what will be there.
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Has anyone used the DIY ones from Halfords and do they work?