March 2007
My Almera's indicators have now decided not to work. Symptoms are flick the stalk and nothing happens. The hazards don't work either.
I've swapped the fuse and it changes nothing.
Any ideas please??? Read more
Hello all, the time has come where it looks like I'm going to have to buy another car, and I'm finding myself torn between a few options. I always value the advice I find on here, so I've come back for more.
I don't drive much - really just a few long-distance trips a year and the supermarket once a fortnight - so I don't want to spend too much. Up to £1,500 or so.
There's only a year or so before I'm likely to become a family man, so I quite fancy a coupé - of which there's quite a choice in the 10-year-old plus category I'm looking at.
I'm currently considering the last shape Honda Prelude, the Fiat Coupe (non-turbo - but still scared by possible unreliability), the Audi Coupe (possibly early 20v or late V6) and maybe the Nissan 200sx (though they seem to be too much in demand among boy racers).
Another consideration is that my wife is likely to be driving when she passes her test, and she's only 5' 3" - so she needs to be able to reach the pedals.
Non-coupe options I've been looking at include the late old-shape Mondeo V6, the Mitsubishi Galant V6, Mazda Xedos and the top-end late old-shape Nissan Primeras.
Any thoughts on the above choices are most welcome - and of course any other suggestions.
Cheers in advance! Read more
Of course buying a second hand car is a risk, and
it gets riskier the less you pay.
Noooooooooooo!
It gets riskier the more you pay. Aprilia will give you examples of BMWs or MBs requiring 5k of repair... on a car worth less than that. Your risk is therefore in excess of 100% of your initial investment. Strangely, he drives a QX, not the Germanobiles he buys and sells.
£150 for a MK ii Polo, and it will probably do you 2 years. If it doesn't... scrap it.
£5k for an elderly-ish BMW. It too will probably do you 2 years... but if it doesn't, you might be faced with a 5k bill. At which point... scrap it.
the saga continues:
see
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;?xml=/news/200...l
"...
A police officer "with unusual driving skills" has won his High Court bid to overturn his conviction for dangerous driving after reaching speeds of up to 159mph in an unmarked patrol car. .. "
Read more
It seems to me that if the other officers on the
unit were prepared to grass on one of their collegues this
indicates that this officer overstepped the mark beyond all reason,
I would guess that coppers might overlook a minor indiscretion (since we are only human) but would report something serious as they must live with their consciounces.
We have a six month old 5 which is a superb car apart from its voracious appetite for front tyres. At 4900 miles there is a band of wear of 25mm width for the full circumference on the inside shoulder of each front tyre, the offside being the worse. A four wheel laser laignment check at Kwikfit confirmed that the car was set up within tolerance. A visit to the dealer confirmed this, so, I and the dealer contacted Mazda Motors UK to lodge a call. Mazda's first action was to refuse to replace the tyres under warranty as the warranty period for tracking is three months (why should it be a tracking issue if the car is within tolerance? Surely the point of a tolerance is to proved a limit of non detrimental adjustment or acceptability). Mazda do say that hey are investigating but have no record of this "problem". A quick trawl around the web has revealed a few other cases, meanwhile the tyres are just becoming more consumed (but still legal). I would be interested to hear from anyone else who may have experienced, or has only just found this "problem". Also any thoughts out there as to what he issue may be?
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Have a look at reader reviews of this vehicle on the whatcar website. I think you'll find you are not alone, with the finger of suspicion pointing at suspension problems causing excessive tyre wear.
In the Bracknell office today for a performance review, lots of praise... good job pat pat. So a good day, coming down the A322 from Bracknell towards the A30/M3 road works so we're all queuing. Just as we get to the cones, I let someone across into my lane & a Polish lorry driver decides he can go as well & thumps the back of the Jag
I pull over, a little way on having got his number, he speaks not a word of English, German & Polish yes. I ask for insurance he's not having any of it. So 999 & after 20 minutes a very nice Traf plod from Surrey comes out in & he tries to get details. 40 minutes later after he has struggled we have a form filled out!
Mr. Pole reckons he was in the right & couldn't see me, for gods sake he's hit the NSR wheel arch & bumper on the Jag with the front 3ft of his truck, is he blind.
Sorry to share this but had to have a rant, real pain is I've had it 6 weeks or so, the garages prep was poor so they had it back in & made a cracking job of the dings & chips, now it's molested. *^*&^*&^ foreign lorry drivers
Then spoke to insurers they said fine you have £200 excess & Protected NCB. The spoke to Legal bit of insurers & they said they do have success with foreign insurers but it takes a looong loooong time.
So decided to get in touch with paint guy who did the door scrapes & chips for Guy Salmon when I bought it. He made a brilliant job, which I'm not so sure an insurance repairer would. He's come out, quoted £455 VAT & can take it in next week whilst I'm in Frankfurt! So with £200 excess & it'll nail at least £150 onto the next few renewals I've decided to cough the dosh myself & then ask the legal people to pursue the Poles insurers to get the money back.
The guys name for the Record is
Colin Lamb
Isle of Sheppey
Kent
01795 872374 or 07785703412
PS asked about him tidying up the 944 when he finishes the Jag & it turns out he used to be a 911 owner!
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I don't want to depress you too much.......but 3 years ago a British lorry clouted my S Type really hard, whilst it was parked.......clown was still parked around the corner when i got back to it......did over 5 grands worth of damage
because he denied it... and still does......despite some decent evidence (paint samples i took, which for long reasons went via a forensic science lab, paid for by police)....his ins co, via his company, wouldn't pay
to this date i'm out of pocket and have had higher premiums on my car,wife's car, bike and presumably classic car policy (didn't check)
I had 'legal protection' which was useless.......was given a decent Mercedes C Class courtesy car by a 3rd party company who set their lawyers on to it .....but eventually everyone, inc me, was too scared to initiate court action .......so he/they got away with it
still galls now, but you're stuck really......
i would imagine foreign ins co will be a right old hoo-hah
We have one of these and the engineer has complianed of loss of power and the exhaust has left a very sooty rear end. Mechanic has had a look and thinks it the turbo. Apparently it happens at 100k and will cost at least £700 for parts.
anyone any experience on this and any idea on a typical cost? Want to brace myself for more cost on these cars! I was going to replace it soon anyway with a lease car (im fed up of these unexpected costs)
Thanks Read more
update: was a spilt hose (a big split - about 3 inches long!). It was blowing nasty sooty stuff over the top of the engine under the plastic cover.
in the words of the guy who drives it - "its got its balls back".
which is nice.
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{Please don't report this as spam via the 'report message' button as HJ has given permission for this to be posted - DD} Read more
Can anyone work out what this is about?
Are they asking people to manage without their cars for a few days, or forcing them to drive white vans, or what?
I am too squeamish to register and find out, and am already inundated with cascades of spam.
SWMBO brother has left the country, but he has left behind a Triumph Spitfire (1300 with O/D I believe) in a lockup. He was in the process of restoring it before jetting off for pastures new. I am lead to believe that it is in pieces rather then complete and running, although the engine and gearbox are runners and the panels are all done!!!! The FIL and I are going to have a look at it in a couple of weeks time, but I am really after ideas of how to dispose of it. Will it be best advertised in classic car or such, or would ebay be better - or is there no real market for them and as such we would be better just to scrap it?
Ideas please. Read more
I think you might be underselling what you have got there, I reckon it would be worth your while worth getting someone who knows about spitfires to have a look - maybe post the pics on club messagebooard. It looks like theres a totally rust free - and possibly even new - chassis on the right, if it's a new galvanised one I wouldn't be surprised if it's worth over £500
Plus the bodyshell looks rust free.
Assuming the engine gearbox are in good nick I can't believe that someone wouldn't want to take it off your hands whether it be for spares or to complete the build.
It idles and runs on 3 cylinders, removing No.1 spark plug lead makes very little difference, (other 3 significant difference).
Removing all plugs 3 white & clean, No.1 a coppery colour but otherwise clean.
Compression is 12bar on all cylinders
No.1 has a good spark, and changing the lead did nothing.
I suspect the injector - Am I right?
Also the water is going down, and on removing the oil cap, the oil has a creamy scum appearance on the top.
My diagnosis head gasket gone between oil and coolant - but not into the piston - (yet)
I would say they are two seperate faults, one requiring injector cleaner/new injector the other requiring new head gasket.
Am I right or could the bad running be related to the oil problem? Read more
Take the plugs out and use a torch to look at the tops of the pistons, if the top of the piston on No.1 is clean and has no carbon build up the HG has blown to the cylinder.
If oil and water are mixing then the engine will be damaged if you continue to run it due to poor lubrication
Hello
As you may have seen from another post about sat navs Tom Tom are having problems with the RDS TMC module. (Traffic module for those who do not know)(They work with 510 710 and 910 models)
Some of you may have them. They may not work all the time or not at all.
If this is the case then you must tell them that it does not work. You must be strong worded or they will fob you off.
I will get a replacement as soon as they are available as i have complained.
Please let me know your thoughts on this matter.
--
(iam not a mechanic)
Martin Winters Read more
TomTom has a reasonable reputation within the motorocycling community. Riders (the satnavs not the human) develop a fault over time due to vibration, TomTom replace the kits with new untis with litle argument rather than repair.
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Sounds like a faulty indicator relay.