December 2006

barchettaman

Can someone give me an idea of the price, fitted, of the back 2 sections of the exhaust for a 1999 Astra estate (1.8 16v petrol)?
Basically everything back of the Cat needs replacing, and as I´m in England next week, thought it might be cheaper in the UK. Best quote here has been 415 euro, seems a bit pricy.
Thanks in advance,
Barchettaman Read more

mfarrow

Try www.bypartsbuy.co.uk


Or even www.buypartsby.com

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Mike Farrow
graham woods

Hi Every-one. An 18 year old, who used to work for me delivering pizzas is in court tommmorow, at the crown court, for this offence. I beleive that he his pleading guilty. Apparently, he was racing some-one up an hill at 47 mph in a 30 mph speed zone. A 60 year old stepped out in front of his car, and was hit with such force, that he was killed instantly. The driver stopped for a moment, then drove off, up the road for about 1000 yards, before stopping, must have had second thoughts, and then drove back to the scene of the fatality. The second driver did not stop, he did not hit the person that had been hit by the first car. He is also being charged with causing death by dangerous driving, and pleading not guilty. What is the minimum sentence that is likely to be handed out by the court. Thank-you for your thoughts on this tragedy. p.s. No drugs or alcohol where involved by any of the drivers.
Thank-you. Graham Woods. Read more

graham woods

Hi there vin, Just saw this message, sorry for no reply earlier as i did not see it, and i have been in india for a while on hols. This case was adjourned until the 5th of may i believe, as one of the defence witnesses was ill and could not attend. This was the earliest time that the court had, as it is a 3 day trial. As soon as i have any news i will post an update on here, Thanks again, Graham.

{The outcome of this thread can be found HERE - DD}

tyro

The subject of wearing earplugs when driving came up on another thread.

Some people thought it a good idea, others thought it might be dangerous.

Having thought about it, the idea increasingly appeals to me. Earplugs come in different forms, and very few would block out loud noises. In fact, I reckon that even noises like road roar and rain hitting the windscreen would still be easily audiblewith most earplugs - though they would be pretty muffled.

I did a quick google and found a site in the US selling professional driver's earplugs. These earplugs had "Interchangeable attenuation filters that let you choose the level of attenuation you need in specific situations. Lower attenuation for city driving and higher attenuation to fight the wind noise on the highway." (However, I would have thought foam ones would be quite acceptable.)

Has anyone any evidence on the safety or otherwise of driving with earplugs? Read more

spikeyhead {p}

I found them essential in a Caterham if I was doing more than a few miles otherwise tinnitus would set in.
--
I read often, only post occasionally

Dulwich Estate

The Peugeot barely turned over on the starter and wouldn't start yesterday morning. The logical thing to do was to think about the battery and maybe charge it up. Before anything else I knew that one day I'd need the radio code if and when the battery was disconnected and unfortunately I didn't get it when I bought the car. The 10 year old car had always been serviced at the same main dealer before I bought it last August and I thought I might just call them hoping they might give me the code number after a visit and a few pounds changing hands.

Well, knock me down with a feather. On the phone they asked for the registration number, tapped away on a keyboard for a moment or two and said the code is * * * *.

Just like that - amazing. Read more

Hugo {P}

Citroen dealers can do this as wel. It is all good until you come across a car that has had another car's radio installed though......

This sort of thing can happen quite legitimately, for example radio/cassette player dies and owner/independent dealer sources another legit second hand one from a car that has died.

...or upgrades to CD player.

willyb

I've read a lot about water ingress to the interior causing all sorts of elecrical mayhem on the above vehicles. It seems to get in through the pollen filter is this correct?

Is there any preventative action I can take to avoid this happening?

Thanks
willyb Read more

willyb

many thanks for the help -ideal and much appreciated.

Petrol-Head

Anyone's thought's ?

I think to handle some of the bad driving these days (not saying i'm perfect) but what about a retest of sorts every 5/10 years ?, seems once you pass your test you can do what you want for the rest of you driving life. Read more

Cliff Pope

One pointer to the fact that compulsory blanket retesting would not have any effect is the attitude of insurance companies. Do they offer big premium reductions to anyone who voluntarily passes a retest of any kind? Do they insist on tests for anyone with a bad claim record? Do they ask for medical pyschological reports on bad claimants, or young people?
No - they clearly don't find apptitude in passing a test any measure at all of driving ability.

Question 2003 Almera 1.5
kingfisher

This morning the car was started from cold and moved to one side on my drive to allow another car to get out and then switched off. Five minutes later the wife went out and the car refused to start. The symptoms were the same as when a car floods and eventually started after a lot of turning over with the throttle wide open.
Anyone got any ideas or do I avoid 15 second cold starts?

My other question is ,why does an engine fail to start when there's too much petrol?
What stops the petrol igniting?
Thanks for any help. Read more

kingfisher

Thankyou gents. Funny enough we do always check for our fearless "cat "before we go out.

mal

Having had 40,000 miles out of a set of Dunlop sport 300e 195-60-15-88H on my Civic, any tips for a good replacement set as the 300E's are now no longer available. I do not want noisy tyres but would like good wear out of them.
Regards Mal Read more

659FBE

My towcar wouldn't do too well with a full load and trailer if it had a scooter wheel spare. A full sized spare wheel was part of the car's procurement spec., as were steel roadwheels. Thankfully, I managed to get the dealer to keep his alloy wheels and fit a set of nice, strong, damage-resistant steel wheels before selling it to me. (I knew that a tyre fitter would not re-fit the fairly worn front tyres, so I got 2 new tyres into the bargain).

My business is unconnected with motoring, but it was an education to see one of my customers having to 'phone for a low loader to remove his small BMW hatchback from my premeses. One tyre was shredded (run flat!?) and no spare was provided.

659.

arnold2

Had a quick lok this morning at replacing the main beam front headlamp bulb - manual suggests removing battery cover & pulling the lead out of the bulb socket - how is the lead attached the the connector - I couldn't see the usual 'push it with a screwdriver' plastic clip ... ? Read more

AR-CoolC

Unless you have very small hands you'll need to remove the battery and tray to get to the bulbs.

The connectors are just straigh push on spade type connectors.

StockportGerbil

Folks :-
My Mrs has decided she wants a Zafira, after someone wrote her vectra off and the insurance co gave her a Zafira to tootle around in until the claim is settled.

Unfortunately Zafira's and all MPVs seem to hold their value something chronic. The budget I've got is £4500 at most and for that I'd expect the car to hold together for at least 5 years. I've found an 03 one for £4500 but it's done 100000 miles, which I think is an awful lot for a petrol engine and auto gear box. (Got to be auto as the Mrs only has an auto license.) I have been told (at that centre of all knowledge - the pub) that modern cars should be able to take that sort of mileage quite happily providing they are regularly serviced. What's the opinion here? Am I being hopelessly optimistic in getting a good MPV for that price?

Thanks

Kevin Read more

DavidHM

Not sure about there being such a thing as 100,000 miles of wear for anything... 100k miles at a near-enough constant 2,500 revs on smooth straight motorway will be much kinder to gearbox, suspension and engine than the same around time (although you can do 100k miles in a minicab in three years easily).

That said, if you increased the budget somewhat you would have low mileage choices: tinyurl.com/utheu (distance based on SK1 1AA).