February 2007
Hi,
Sorry for the long post but here goes.
I?m just looking for a bit of advice regarding a new car that we have been offered by our employer. By way of background we work in a team of four and travel about 65 miles each way to work, on a four on four off shift system. We currently share the driving between three of us, with the other them member making his own way to work. All motoring costs are down to each individual and each uses their own cars.
Our employer has offered to give us a car to be shared between all four of us .They would buy the car but we would all be jointly responsible for all other costs e.g. tax, insurance, maintenance. At this stage I do not know how long we would have to keep the car but I would think it would be about two years.
It looks like the car will be a Ford Focus 1.6 Tdci, about 12 months old. We will jointly do about 30,000 miles pa, mainly on quiet motorways.
Coming to the point, can anyone see any pitfalls re insuring it or anything else? Three of us currently drive older cars e.g. 01 reg and one has a 56 plate.
Do you think it is a financialy worth it as we are thinking of agreeing as it will save our cars wear and tear etc.
Thanks
Read more
My 1998 1.4 106's coolant temperature warning light is coming on after 2 or 3 miles but there is no evidence of overheating. The coolant level is ok and when I let the car tickover for 10 mins or so the coolant warning light came on well before the cooling fans did suggesting that the car is not getting too hot.
So is my sender unit faulty or maybe an airlock? Any other suggestions?
Thanks. Read more
If its not getting to hot and the fans work correctly then the fault is either the sender unit ,gauge or the wiring inbetween.
This from Ananova - tinyurl.com/2kw4nn
Terrible thought, giving control back to the driver!
--
e Prof Read more
P 406 HDI (52) 96k I have a noise in the gearbox which may be caused by distortion in the fly wheel.
The garage has quoted £800 to strip out the clutch and replace parts. Is that a fair £? Read more
I had a 407 with random gearbox noise, they said it was the flywheel assembly, cost £800 on warranty but the noise was still there, turned out to be a driveshaft gaiter after 3 weeks and 2 gearboxes in pug!!
Check first!!
jon
Micra: My RH indicator light on my dash board has failed, how do you get behind it replace the bulb? Read more
One of the scariest movie clips I've ever seen.
206.124.144.137/oldfools/videos/russia_tunnel.wmv
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The ice is no doubt a factor in some of the crashes but in the video the clear cause of most of them is dreadfully unsafe driving (possibly a result of being drunk). Just look at the first crash as a perfect example.
For no apparent reason and with no warning my heater (2000 Audi A4 Avant 2.4 petrol engine) was hardly working yesterday. The air-con aspect seems fine in so far as cold air can be produced, but even on a high heat only a little warm air was forthcoming - to be precise plenty of air flow but only a little heat. Engine water temperatures showed completely normal, header tank at correct level so nothing out of the ordinary. Any suggestions? Is there a motorised valve or flap probably at fault? Can I fix it myself or is it a dash out/small fortune job! Helpful advice would be appreciated. Read more
Well today I had the diagnostic check, and no fault showed up . Also there is a bit more heat coming through now so maybe it is clearing itself? Doesn't seem to be a serious problem. Maybe it's leaf debris from the recent storms jamming the flap? Maybe slight clogging of the heater matrix? I'll keep a close eye on it.........
My battery light is flashing on my 1988 1.3 golf,
When driving normally my battery light is flashing, if I stop the car and give it gas for high revs the light goes out.
I took a voltage reading from the alternator (at idle is around 12volts) then again tested with lights and heaters on with engine at (high revs) voltage reads 13.85 volts, battery voltage at this time is above the 13 volts at high revs.
When I mean high revs I mean to high for normal driving.
What could be the problem?
Read more
Thanks to everyone for their help, it was the regulator/brush assembly, it is very worn, havent replaced it yet but gave it a good clean and it's done the trick.
Thanks again.
HonestJohn being no1 of course.
On the Dragons Den last night there was this cracking Chinese lady called Ling punting her contract hire company.
She has a Russian Nuclear missile launch truck as mobile advertising.
The web site is a scream - bet it'll be the number 1 website within a week.
I don't know if I'm allowed to mention the URL, but her name is Ling and the site is about cars. Read more
I love the way she promotes herself as 'The Ryanair of car leasing',and yes i'm sure the Dragons Den pitch was just for promotion.Well done Ling.
When checking the oil level on my 1997 Citroen ZX 1.4i recently, the dipstick was a bit scrapey to withdraw. Once it was out, I noticed a broken green plastic collar, for want of a better word, near the top of the dipstick tube. This collar has, or had, a narrow rectangular cross-sectioned bore for the dipstick to pass through. I don't remember seeing it there before and I think I would have noticed, as inserting the dipstick would have been more of a precision operation with that narrow bore there. I'm wondering whether it got dragged up from lower down the tube when I withdrew the dipstick. Is this something that needs seeing to?
Cheers,
Dave Read more
Thanks for the helpful reply.
This morning I took the car in for an oil change at Kwik-Fit. After 10 minutes of searching, the fitter told me he didn't have anything to fit the sump plug. And in the process of replacing the dip-stick, he managed to shove the remaining half of the collar (which wasn't all that loose, I'd checked it earlier) back down the dip-stick tube. Is it liable to do any damage?
Cheers,
Dave
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Hi,all.As can be seen I'm a bit of an infrequent poster but I thought I would give you all an update after all the advice I received.
Due to the rise in motoring costs my employer was looking at compensating us in some way.In the end(April 2008) they decided to give us all a pay rise of £1500 pa,fully pensionable and contractual.The overtime rate was frozen at last years rate though.
Not too bad a result though.