January 2007

kja96

Car broke down, recovery chap said it was the throttle body. Mechanic said thought it was fuel starvation, has blown the fuel line through, and I think changed the fuel pump but still not working. It starts but there's no real revs and it won't idle. Mechanic now saying it's the ECU, but my brother says if it was the ECU it wouldn't spark so at a total loss. anyone had this problem that can offer some advise? Read more

kja96

Cool, I've been told about £60-£70 so that's great.

Thanks v much,
kja96

milkyjoe

why is it that a car can gush oil from evry seal and thus covering the engine, fan belt ,alternator, road, driveway, et al, but they dont bat an eyelid at the mot station, seems strange in these pc,enviromental,tree hugging save the whale times we live in? Read more

Number_Cruncher

>>Do commercial vehicles still have automatic chassis lubrication

Not usually as standard. My father used to have the Interlube system retro-fitted on the multi-wheel rigid trucks he used to run - the number of grease nipples on an eight wheeler is enough to keep someone busy for an hour or two, just cleaning them off, and getting some grease into them. He didn't bother with tractor units, because they were more managable. The systems ran off a central pump, which was electronically controlled (pulsed every so often), we would tend to up the pulse rate after the trucks had been pressure washed/steam cleaned, to make sure any water was driven back out of the bearing surfaces.

Number_Cruncher

Chad.R

All of a sudden the remote central locking on our (2001) Yaris stopped working last night. It was fine all day (several trips) then literally just stopped working.

The battery is OK, I changed it for a new one and still the same result. The light on fob flashes but car doesn't respond even when very close. I can open and start the car but the alarm is going off continously - so not practical to drive. I haven't had time to take a proper look ......

Any ideas would be appreciated.

TIA.

P.S. The Yaris' remote sensors are usually very sensitive - I can activate the central locking from over 50 yards away.



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Chad.R

Well just as suddenly as it stopped working on Sunday night - it's started; I tried it again tonight (first time since ) and it works. By habit I plipped the keyfob from some distance away and it just unlocked in the usual fashion !

Bizarre - and whilst I'm glad it seems OK, I hope it doesn't start to play up from now on!!!

Thanks anyway.

Oakley

Whilst driving my car in slow moving traffic, my husband was hit up the rear (on the corner) by an ambulance on a call. My insurers have deemed my car uneconomical to repair and offered me a settlement figure.

Should I scrap the car or buy it back and fix it myself? I?ve been offered £2,500 minus excess of £200 and savage charge £375. Ideally I want to buy it back but what if I fix it then find there is further structural damage? Would a bent chassis show up in an MOT? I?m thinking of getting it MOT?ed to check. Should it pass and I tell my insurers will they accept this and allow it to be reinsured without having the work done?

I?m concerned that the £1,900 I have left won?t be enough to fix it properly. We got a copy of the report by the engineer who looked at the car for my insurers and he said it would cost me £2,900 so I would be £1,000 out of pocket if I went with them. Should I challenge the insurers and ask for a better settlement figure or just shop around?

Will I have difficulties insuring it in the future? Would it attract higher insurance premiums because it has been written off? Will I have problems selling it?

Finally my insurers agreed the ambulance was at fault so why do I have to pursue the claim on my policy? The ambulance driver told my husband he didn?t have personal insurance so my husband would have to claim on ours. But since talking to the Citizens Advice they don?t agree with that statement and told me the following taken from a legal website.
?As a general rule, the driver of a vehicle which runs into the back of another vehicle will be held liable for the accident.? ?Emergency vehicles have no special exemption from liability for accidents that they are involved in or cause. The same rules apply as with any other accident.?
My insurers couldn?t give me a straight answer on this and I got fed up being passed from departments etc. Help
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colino

Classes A and B will never be back on the road. Money can be made on C,D, F and X's but only if you are doing the work yourself or have an impoverished bodyshop in your favour or if it is really something special. As garages are rarely able to finance "recorded" cars, they wont take them as a trade-in, private buyers who do an HPi check will run a mile. By all means fix it cheap and run it yourself, but be prepared to keep it for a very long time.

On another tack, all of my insurances explicitly exclude loss of value as a claimable item.

Stu406HDi

Hello, got 406 hdi 110bhp 1999 reg, kicks out a fair bit white/grey smoke when accelerating, smoke appears around 2000rpm when the turbo starts. i'm not accelerating really hard - just driving normally. is it a big deal to get the turbo serviced and is it expensive? Also, mpg getting worse (air con is off). is this related?
thanks Read more

Stu406HDi

Thanks Richard, do you know if the fault codes are read as part of general service?
cheers

Happy Blue!

Can I have some help from the London based boys, please.

Next Tuesday I have a meeting on Commercial Road (near the City) at about 2:30pm for an hour or so, and then I have a meeting at about 7pm in Temple Fortune, just off the Finchley Road (A598), before it meets the North Circular I think near to Finchley Synagogue.

I intend to drive down in the morning and drive back up later that evening.

How should I do this. Should I park near to Temple Fortune and get trains or what?

Thanks Read more

Happy Blue!

Yes, but being MoT (Member of the Tribe) I know which one is which!

Thanks for all your help.

tyro

Driving along lonely Highland roads at night, I often feel that full beam (on my Berlingo) is not full enough. I would like to be able to see further along the road, as well as a wider area beside the road, so that night driving was more like day driving. I guess this would mean brighter headlights, but probably also I would want a higher and wider beam. (The reason for this, by the way, is chiefly to see deer as early as possible.)

Is there any inexpensive, practical way of doing this? Read more

tyro

Oh, and by the way, with regard to the point made by Waino, how likely is it that a pair of spotlights would be nicked?

I'm sure they would be safe if I'm parked in one of the local villages, but if I were to park the car in some den of iniquity like Inverness or England, is there a substantial chance that a light-fingered gentleman might purloin them?

pmh

I presume it was the remains of the same incident that I saw at about 7.55. There were 3 or possibly 4 cars scattered over the carriageway only just north of the exit slip. One car ( the most northerly )had hit the central reservation armco . From the position of the most southerly I would hazard a guess (and its only a guess!) that a collision had occured with a car trying to make a late exit, and the subsequent avoiding actions had caused other impacts. At the time I could not understand why the wrecks had not been quickly removed unless a fatality had occurred. Although most vehicle damage looked survivable. Alternatively, how about a heart attack or similar?????

The queue must have been 3-4 miles and stationary towards the M40 junction.
--

pmh (was peter)


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boxsterboy

Obviously serious accidents/deaths etc. need investigation. I'm talking about, for example, complete closure of the M25 over 12 hours after a truck went off down the embankment (happened to me 2 years ago). Cab undamaged, and no other vehicles involved, by all accounts. Driver probably just fell asleep.

In Europe they seem perfectly capable of investigating crashes without the need to shut the road. I blame the dreaded 'ealth n safety.

Collos25


www.autobild.de/aktuell/meldungen/artikel.php?arti...5
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OldSkoOL

The more reviews i read the more they all see to say the same thing

1) The design is very average
2) The ineterior is nothing special
3) The car lacks sparkle

.... With an average of 3 out of 5 starts


I went car shopping today with an open mind. Honestly, i can't see where they get their 3 out of 5 stars from. Ok, its not radical like the civic but i want to drive a car not a cross breed spaceship/car. I was shocked by the golf, nothing special there at all. Yes its a very good car but nothing special and i wasn't keen on the large amount of black plastic and imitation silver buttons and that was on the GT model. The interior in most VW's just seems the same like they haven't made much effort. I climbed back into my new RAV4 XTR and it felt much nicer. The auris in the flesh looks much nicer than the pictures too. As i say it isn't radical like the civic but the new civic is too much for me. I find the design very sensible and appealing with no bad points like the horrendous black plastic on peugeots or other quirky bits you see. The diesel engines in the auris are good. The T180 easily stands out for me - i could get one very cheap (at cost) and thats great value. The eqivelant golf would have to be a year or 2 old and i easily prefer the t180. I'm going to have to drive it again before i buy it, i hope it is as quick as i remember.


The only thing that will throw a spanner in the works is the A3 that i will be seeing tomorrow.

Bambam22

Hi,
I'm new to this forum but was wondering if someone could help me. I Have recently bought a new motorbike in central london, but it doesnt have any tax and mot . i was just wondering if it was legal to drive this bike home so i can do the work on it to pass its mot? i am a bit worried that if i do drive it through central london the congestion charging cameras will pick me up and see theirs not mot and tax on their systems? any help or info that can be given would be great.
thanks Read more

horatio


tinyurl.com/2ugxxx {Link to tfl-cc.custhelp.com shortened as was screwing up the page width - DD}

That link should take you to a very badly worded answer (I voted it a 0 rating for having answered the question) but they seem to imply that towed vehicles are exempt if towed 100% of the time in the zone. I'd think the process is automatic and you would have to appeal the fine for non payment.