December 2006
Thanks for feedback. I am still stumped as to what to do re. the light coming on every 40 miles!! I can't just go for a long drive each time the filter bungs up.It bungs every 40 miles!!. I have given a letter to Audi saying that if it keeps going wrong I will have to have a refund. I am flabber gasted that there is no other way round this!?
Car is 7 months old..6000 miles
Any advice? Read more
I'm considering swapping the seats in my 2002 Focus tddi CL for some from a higher level Focus (ie LX,Zetec,Ghia etc) as the 'poverty' level CL seats are giving me backache over long journeys. I can't afford to change the car so this seems like a reasonable option as long as I can get a near colour match.
Pricing around I can find the full set for anything from £80 upwards, but is it a simple swap or is there anything else I should be aware of? I've looked at the Haynes manual ('refitting is the reversal of removal' etc!) but first hand experience would be more useful! Read more
You can buy seats with airbags in, just don't connect them up.
Interesting to read HJ's review of the C4 Picasso with the EGS (Electronic Gear Shift) gearbox. I believe this is the way to go with gearboxes in the future. One of my cars is a Smart with a similar gearbox and although it is a bit jerky when fully automated, I am sure that more modern 'boxes with improved software improve on this - as seems to be the case with Citroens EGS.
You can have either the control of a manual without the hassle of a clutch pedal in our ever more congested towns, or just go fully automated. Either way, you don't suffer the loss of inherent in conventional auto 'box torque converters, nor suffer the whines inherent in a CVT.
I see that in France you can get the C1/107/Aygo with an automated manual box. Why not here - it's the perfect 'box for city driving. Read more
"I see that in France you can get the C1/107/Aygo with
an automated manual box. Why not here"
You can its called MMT.
So you can! Or at least Peugeot and Toyota offer it, but not Citroen. No wonder the Citroen dealer didn't mention this when I had a test drive a couple of months ago. And there was me thinking these cars were the same!
The C4 1.6HDI with EGS is attractive because it only emits 120g CO2/km = low tax and possibly no Congestion Charge in the future.
Inspired by the Dundee cars thread, how often can you honestly say you check your car(s) over for defects or safety related problems?
I tend to check fluids, bulbs and have a cursory check of tyres at some point over a weekend on both cars, although I will admit I am not religious about this. With regard to brake pad material and the like, I just work on a "will it last to the next service?" basis when I'm servicing the car. If the pads or discs look even remotely like they will need attention before the next service time, they get replaced. I'm not proud to admit that I don't ever go under my cars between services unless there's a specific reason to. The odd glance underneath for puddles or stains, and a quick peer with the torch down the nether regions of the engine bay when I check the fluids. That's about it.
I am much more careful with the bike. Fluids, tyre pressures, chain tension and all lights checked before I ride it. But then I ride the bike less often, so it's not so time consuming.
What about everyone else?
Cheers
DP Read more
Generally detest ever having to open the bonnet but I seem to be going through a lot of screen wash at the moment, a squirt per mile.
However it will be getting serviced soon to prep it for the -30s it will have to endure in Jan/Feb
Just come out of the garage and the place has turned white. Silent rain. Roads are not salted. Regards Peter Read more
2 years ago, Christmas Day opened the curtains (hotel on peninsula NW Scotland...nearest town Fort william an hour away)...........and the silent rain was everywhere.........SWMBO thought it to be most romantic..........I of course was far too old and grumpy to think like that
mid morning we (I) decided to drive along the loch to the wildlife hide and watch the seals etc.........
what about the silent rain on the hotel's steep drive..........no problem to expert driver, just get a bit of momentum going..........er, no....not quite as simple as that....the slight kink in the drive at the bottom, and the low profile tyres, meant that i buried the car, totally, into a Rhodedendron bush, because it wouldn't turn at all.
Managed to get it back out with remarkably little damage and looked around sheepishly to see if anyone else had noticed......and yes they had. Stood in the warm in the hotel drawing room..was another hotel guest laughing his head off.
when I eventually traipsed back in there with my head down.......his booming West Country accent put me straight..
"don't worrrry about it ............lassst yearrrr i tipped my Laaand Roverrr on it's side trying to do thaat.
Can anyone suggest a good supplier of new wheel trims for a 1998 C240? Or are these main dealer only parts? Read more
I think Euro Car Parts do many of these, probably a bit cheaper. When I inquired recently, their computer had many models and types available, even if they are not in the catalogue.
This name keeps cropping up recently, with regard to poor spares and the fact they told people their spare parts were rubbish(?).
Any links etc? Read more
...Much of the problem was that Ratner described .... in the early evening when, during that particular period,
most of the population were viewing...
in reply to stuartli - it was a speech given earlier, that was picked up much later by the media, and then edited to suggest that ratner was referring to "all" his products when in fact he was referring to just one particular cheap item.
I heard he moved on to greater heights ..
in reply to big bad dave:
he certainly has. he has mounted a takeover bid for the chain of stores which used to be his but was forced to resign from after his infamous speech.
see news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5375332.stm
24 September 2006, Gerald Ratner, the businessman who called his products "crap" in the early 1990s, is set to table a bid of £350m for the UK's largest jeweller, Signet.
incidentally, in there was also this gaffe by another chief:
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3199822.stm
They call it 'doing a Ratner' - in memory of the famous gaffe committed by Gerald Ratner back in 1991, when he admitted selling "crap" in his High Street shops.
Now the boss of the UK's largest credit card company has done it in such a spectacular fashion that it left business observers open-mouthed.
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Thread locked - DD
What many of us oldens have long since suspected has been confirmed, to some extent, by a story hidden away in today's Daily Mail.
It reports that cows are responsible for generating more greenhouse gases than all forms of transport combined, according to its release by the United Nations.
See:
tinyurl.com/yfzbml
I wonder how the powers-that-be get around this one...:-)
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by Read more
Surely if the Daily Mail are involved, then it MUST be
an imminent drop in house prices that causes bovine flatulence?
Ah yes, but the drop in house prices will probably be caused by those pesky immigrants. It is, as you say, the Daily Mail after all.
Recently completed a "Speed awareness" workshop and the most surprising fact was that only 1/3 of those attending knew the NSL limits for a car.
A challenge for backroomers - without looking it up - post what you believe the speed limit is on an out of town dual carriageway and single carriageway for a car (White sign with black diagonal stripe). Read more
The idea of the post was to see if backroomer's were better informed than the cross section of society on the course (1/3 female, 1/15 French, 1 over 70, 1 under 30). I was in the third that knew!
Very few took the challenge so we still don't know if we are.
The answer is at www.highwaycode.gov.uk/09.htm#103 if you need to look it up.
Debate continues, and will doubtless never stop, about using copper slip on wheel bolts. The idea gives me the jitters, so I don't do it, but I know that others do, for their own reasons. Two things have reinforced my disinclination:
* The settings quoted in the official sources for my cars are for dry fixing.
* At this site
www.rockcrawler.com/techreports/fasteners_torque/i...#
it says "Notice that the torque required for a lubricated fastener is less than half that of an unlubricated fastener." The writer of this is not short of technical credibility: he's a rocket engineer.
Any other angles on this primary safety-critical issue? Read more
There might be a difference between bolts, and nuts on fixed studs.
Are bolts exposed or even projecting on the inside of the hub, and therefore vulnerable to wet and seizure? Nuts however are visible, and if greased one instinctively splodges any extrusion over the ends of the thread.
Are bolts more vulnerable to loosening? The strain would be directly and sideways on the threaded portion, whereas a nut merely has to resist longitudinal force.
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My Audi A6 (2.0l TDi) has just gone in to my local garage with this proble!
£937.37 for a new filter to be fitted!...