January 2007
Trying to remove the front discs on my Mondeo, the nearside one has siezed on solid. There are no retaining washers and according to haynes the thing should pull off, but it seems to have rusted on. I have WD40'd it and given it the treatment with a rubber mallet, but no joy.
Any tips, perhaps a puller of some sort? Advice would be appreciated as it is starting to p down with rain and I am stuck.
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Not sure if we're allowed to 'name & praise', but anyway. {Yes, no problem with that - DD}
My car 'flat-lined' yesterday, no electrics or brain function at all, except for , curiously running lights & headlights. After going through all the permutations of turning this off , back on, trying to lock unlock, different ignition key (which, btw, are electronic & need to sync with the car's ECU) so on & so forth, I decided to call the Warranty/Mobilo number for Mercedes.
12:45pm
So, got through on the number quickly, no queue. The chap took the car details & suggested it was better covered under the Mercedes Mobilo scheme than ApprovedWarranty - better benefits/provision etc
13:15pm
The initial technician/mechanic arrived at premises about 25mins. after my call & quickly confirmed only solution was flat-bed to main dealer (about 40 miles distant) - he called up a suitable vehicle, which arrived about....
13:45pm
The car was in my garage & (being auto) left in 'park', this posed a bit of a problem as it meant the 'handbrake' was effectively on. After hitching car via tow-hook & using wooden blocks under the rear wheels to 'slip' the car backwards, it was loaded by about...
14:25pm
Then taken to the dealership. Meanwhile, Mobilo rang a national car rental firm to arrange a replacement car., who then rang me to confirm status/driving licence details & get CC number. I wasn't particularly bothered what type of car really, just a family saloon would be ok, but I believe it's policy to do like-for-like.So,
17:50pm: A new Merc C-class is delivered from the nearest rental location with these,whichis in Chester ( 90-95 miles away from me!) , 2 people arrive in 2 cars, take details/get signature & leave.
Now, I'm sure if I had just suggested that a Mondeo or Vauxhall was fine, then it could have been delivered with the hour (there are 2-3 of their outlets with 40mins drive), so could have been done-and-dusted within 2hours of 1st call, but as it turned it was no problem to me.
Nice to see the the system working well & I duly praised the Mobilo call centre representative later, on their service. The Mercedes main dealer rang anout 16:00pm & got full details of the problems, and another couple of items I flagged & said they'd ring back this morning with initial estimate of car downtime etc.
Fair do's to Mercedes I say.
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It would have been nice if it hadn't conked out in the first place.
Dang it! I knew there was something I should have got annoyed about - thanks Dave N!
First off I am a regular [daily] user of this excellent site since November last year.
Secondly I work in marketing [for an independant agency] and am interested in your thoughts/opions on buying car insurance.
What I would like to hear from users of this site is how they would like buy car insurance? Do you prefer to do this over the phone, internet, by post or in person?
Do you contact each company seperately, use an aggregator site (e.g. confused.com, moneysupermarket.co.uk etc) or other?
Would you prefer to search for the best insurance yourself or prefer to be contacted by insurance compaines (by phone, email, post)?
Do you stick with the same company year after year or always look for the best deal?
What is most important to you - lowest price or level of cover?
What would be the best way of buying car insurance in your opinion? Any suggestions appreciated!
Many thanks and I look forward to hearing from you. Read more
I agree about some form of satisfaction rating against each insurer. It can be done - Uswitch does this for electricity and gas switch information. I'd like to balance the quality against the price - not easy today.
I took my 306 hdi 2.0l back to the garage for the 2nd code reading. The only code now there is a faulty throttle position sensor. Previously the 1st code included faulty injectors.
The problem with the car is a ticking noise when using revs up to 3200rpm. I concluded this was the injectors but the ecu doesnt recognise this now.
I was wondering what sort of problems a faulty TPS might cause? The car is idling fine but just has the engine noise problem. Is it worth getting one of a breakers year or get a new one?
cheers Read more
scfc
Constant false APP codes [P0/1-220/1?] are common on these; there's a MAF wiring modification to [try!] and cure it. Apart from putting the light on, it rarely has any noticable effect.
The ECU doesn't easily detect mechanically worn injectors. Best fit new.
From the Thunderer earlier this week, an account of disgraceful (but legal) speeds attained on the Preston Bypass
">
1952 Vincent Black Lightning by Richard Thompson
Andy Kershaw apparently referred to Richard Thompson as the man who wrote the best song about a motorcycle, despite never having owned one. The song is about red-haired Molly and James, their love of the Vincent Black Lightning of the song?s title, James?s death from gunshot wounds and his gifting of the bike to Molly, as he lies dying and sees ?angels on Ariels in leather and chrome?. In 1959, my father bought a 1952 Vincent. Soon the bike was on the road, the sidecar was attached and the whole family set off, with me on the pillion, aged 13 and wearing a flat cap crammed on backwards, held in place by the elastic from my goggles. My father knew exactly where he was heading ? the Preston bypass. The first motorway-standard road in Britain had been opened the previous December. Once on the new road, he opened the throttle, and after a few moments he indicated for me to look over his shoulder, which I did, to see the speedometer needle reading 100mph. From that moment, I knew, as Thompson sings, that the Vincent has a soul.
Geoffrey Smith
<"
The rest of the article is gibberish.
(Link to The Times removed as per previous reasons which can be found via a forum search - DD}
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Not wishing to start another " rights and wrongs of road tax " debate ( there is already one running ) would just like to ask,
Can anyone please confirm the year ( when Winston Churchill was Chancellor of the Exchequer ) that they allowed the money collected as Road Fund Licence, to be hived off into general taxation?
Thank you. Read more
Thank you very much to all for the replies. I will take it as being 1928.
Much appreciated.
Is it ok to use Miller plus injector cleaner in my Passat 115 BHP tdi PD Engine------if not is there another brand which would do the job--?
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I'll create a new thread about Shell V power diesel to gather some feedback to keep this miller plus thread,
Here in the backroom we are constantly moaning about taxes. Congestion tax, fuel duty, road tax and the dreaded taxes for 4X4 etc are all included. It stuck me that we may be able to develop a consensus of what we should not tax, rather than complaining about the new taxes. I will tell you the behavours from car owners I think should not attract taxation.
1. Buying a car that does not intimidate other road users by its bulk.
2. Buying a car that protects people who are not inside the vehicle in the event of a crash.
3. Buying a car that has a small environmental footprint where its life cycle is concerned. That means we don't just concentrate on fuel consumption.
4. Buying a car that creates a demand for cleaner technology, or the possibility of cleaner technology.
5. Encourageing car sharing for journies. We could cut CO2 emitions by 75% if a car were to carry 4 people from A to B, rather 4 cars making the same trip. If we all did this we would not have so much congestion either.
6. Encourage people to drive on uncongested roads or at times where congestion is low, so they don't hold other people up.
I don't really wan't a long debate, only peoples list of motoring activities that they think should not attract tax.
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Torque means nothing without RPM Read more
I am vaguely familiar with how the urban and extra urban tests are carried out, but does anyone know if the conditions (temperature, windspeed etc) are specified? The fuel consumption of my Mitsubishi Colt 1.5 Di-D is very dependent on the ambient temperature (worse when cold) - it makes me wonder whether the "official figures" are done under optimum conditions - warm day, no wind, well loosened engine etc
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The official tests do not include a cold start and the lab. temp and vehicle temp. must be between 20 & 30 deg.C.at the start.The vehicle heater must be set in the "off" position.The road load used to carry out the test will have been observed by the same official certifying authority as the one doing the fuel tests.The road load will be recorded on a level road carrying out a series of runs in both directions-the load will be recorded either by "coastdown"-taking a vehicle upto a high speed and letting it freewheel to zero or by "wheel-torque"-using drive shafts fitted with strain-gauges.
Hi every-one, just wondered if anyone knows if spares for a daewoo matiz are easily available in india (Goa) and are they cheaper priced than the u.k. Every thing else is over there. I am going there for a month (lucky me ) in two weeks time and thought that a could purchase some parts, brake pads,ete.etc. while i was there. Thanks all. Graham.
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Thanks for the info on this, Graham.
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Angle grinder.