May 2007
Prompted by the hilarious comment about it being normal to replace Ford locks every two years.
What's the worst / most implausible / most outrageous nonsense you've been fed by a manufacturer, dealer or mechanic?
Mine has to be when I ran out of fuel in a 2001 406 2.0 HDi. The computer was still showing a range of 20 miles, and when I added a gallon of diesel, the thing went haywire, went into a sulk in ECO mode and then died completely. It ended up having to be recovered to the local Peugeot dealer.
They called me the next day, and I quote
"We've been working on it all day, and managed to get around it for you this time, but if you run it out of fuel again, it'll definitely need a new ECU"
Eh?
Cheers
DP
Read more
just been reading a link that someone posted on here the other week
heres the link
www.homeapproved.co.uk/comprehensive-car-insurance...m
it specifically says any car worth over £5000 has to be insured as fully comp by law
first ive heard of this
none of mine are, if i bend em im gonna mend em,am i an illegal then?
is this right, or a ripping yarn? Read more
Click on the "Senior Citizens" sub-heading of "Drivers" and it says "Senior Car Insurance ....................... Senior car insurance is a legal requirement in the UK ..." What is that supposed to mean?
--
L\'escargot.
I did see it and at first I thought it was being presented by Jo Brand (John Sargeant must be her brother as they look so similar to me!). Read more
I thought it was quite a well balaced programme. It certainly is the case that the anti 4x4 brush is indescriminate since there are many smaller versions (particularly diesel) that are about as economical as a car. Howerver, it was also quite good to witness the nauseating ignorance of some of the people that drive these wretched things entirely on tarmac.
And the woman driving for four hours a day. Only road pricing will stop this nonsense.
Hi
My 1998 1.4 petrol (distributorless ignition and injection) 106's head gasket went a while ago.
Had the head skimmed and new gasket. Also replaced Lambda sensor, plugs and HT leads.
Am now experiencing an uneven tickover, seems worse when engine is hot and I sometimes think it misses a little at slow speeds around town.
Any ideas what this could be?
It recently passed its MOT so emissions seem to be ok (they are not adjustable anyway as the computer chip controls all the settings?)
Thanks for any help. Read more
Posted the other day about poor idling/slight miss on 1998 1.4 injection 106.
Took plugs out yesterday and noticed black sooty one nearest to timing belt while the rest are light tan colour?
Does this suggest a faulty injector?
Thanks.
I am having problems with my choke on cold days which causes the car to cut out while I am slowing down. The problem is that to keep the car ticking over when I am stationary I need to pull the choke out quite far. However, if the choke is pulled out that far when I start driving the engine seems to get too much petrol and starts missing.
I can't win with this because the only way round it would be to keep my foot on the accelerator when I am stationary. Unfortunately this isn't possible when I am slowing down and hence the car is bound to cut out on me.
Is this a problem with the carb that can be adjusted or is there anything simple like a blocked hose or something that could be causing it. As soon as the engine warms up it runs lovely. Read more
Thanks guys. I thought I was not misusing the choke by trying to make it idle faster in cold weather, but that shows what I know. I thought the idle speed should be set for when the car is warm and assisted by the choke at other times. I've taken all comments on board and will give my carb a seeing to.
Whole Vehicle Type Approval comes a step closer
The European Parliament has just agreed, the " Recast Framework Directive" that paves the way for the wholesale extension of whole vehicle type approval.The way is now clear for this new law to apply to all those vehicles that weren"t included before,
Van and truck bodywork, trailers, buses, coaches and motor homes will all be affected, with far reaching implications for all who make, sell or buy them
If the manufacturers of these type of vehicles dont act quickly or fail get the right approvals then they WILL go bust.
The SMMT is already working with the DfT and its agencies to help firms understand what they need to do. this law wont bite immediately,but for those people who fail to plan the future shure aint bright
ive mentioned this before but look at the niche vehicles that are made that this will affect
ambulances
hearses
stretch limos
ice cream vans
kit cars ?built up
one off commercial vehicles
etc etc
i have just been in a struggle to get the dvla to accept a conversion on a transit as not needing single type approval and all i did was change the body configuration ,so frightening times ahead i think
comments welcome
Read more
Sex on wheels aka stretch limos indeed; during an extended 'boys only' trip to Crimea, a few years ago, a few of us rented a Lincoln stretch job that had part of the roof cut out and a dancers pole poking up through to a bracket attached to the boot- the rental came complete with a selection of 'ladies' ............the introduction of this new type approval may increase the availability of such vehicles here in Ukraine:- sounds ok to me
Anyone use anyone of these above before? These are sold on eBay ranging from £100 to £250. Does it work? Will it improve the fuel economy and provide extra power at the same time? How is this achieved?
I suspect there will be side effects to the engine, i.e reducing the life of the engine?? Read more
Whatever your position on climate change, surely we are all driven by any opportunity to reduce costs, whether by buying cheaper fuel or runnig your car more efficiently. FYI I'ma chemical engineer with some understanding of the background and while I'm not wholly convinced by all the evidence there's enough there to make me think that the precautionary principle is a reasonable response at the moment.
For years I drove cheap second-hand petrol cars returning 25-30 mpg and the holy grail was always 30+ on a long run. Then an ex-boss forced a VW Passat diesel on me as a company car and I suddenly saw my motoring cosst dop by about 40%. I put up with the smoky, sluggish performance because of the economy but now it's possible to have both.
An extra 5% fuel economy would make a reasonable dent in my annual fuel bill, enough to justify a tuning device with a payback of around 18 months.
So, I return to my original question - has anyone got positive or negative feedback on any of the companies offering these units?
Thanks for listenting (can you listen in a chat-room?)
Ewan
PS I'm sure there are other threads where the climate change debate is more appropriately continued
My 19 year old son has been stopped recently and issued with a fixed penalty notice (endorsable offence) under offence code 115 stating that a tyre or tyres has a lump, bulge or tear in it. No indication has been given on the FPN as to which tyre or tyres were defective. In addition no qualification of tyre number was taken or given to prove which tyre was defective. Son was threatened with 9 penalty points if he was seen driving again and advised that it was not worth him contesting the FPN as he would never win and it would cost him more
When he came home I checked all tyres and only found some nicks in the tyre walls no greater than 20mm and no evidence of any bulging. I drove round to two Tyre suppliers for second opinions who both advised me they thought the tyres to be ok. I also went to an MOT garage nearby who said they would pass the car on an MOT but would also give an advisory notice that a couple of the tyres would need replacing in the next month or two due to tread wear. They advised that as they could not see any ply or cord the walls of the tyre were not illegal and they could not identify any bulges on the tyre as stated on the FPN.
I have since searched the web for information regarding definitions regarding an FPN 115 but to no avail. (If anybody can help ... thanks) But, I have come across the AA.com site where it specifies ones legal obligations on tyres as follows:
General requirements
Every tyre fitted to a motor vehicle or trailer must be fit for purpose and be free from any defects which might damage the road or endanger any person. This means the tyre:
must be compatible with the types of tyres fitted to the other wheels
must not have any lump, bulge or tear caused by separation or partial failure of the structure must not have a cut or tear in excess of 25mm or 10% of the sectional width of the tyre, whichever is the greater, and which is deep enough to reach the ply or cord
must not have any part of the ply or cord exposed
As evidenced by the Sunday Telegraph report on soft targets 29/4/07 it seems to me that this sort practice is beginning to become common in our police forces at the present time because some constables fear they will lose bonuses if they do not hit detection targets.
I am extremely annoyed that this constable appears to using the law inappropriately to gain either a pecuniary advantage for himself or has a misunderstanding of the offence ?or both and I will be contesting this FPN.
Has anybody had a similar experience and what are my chances?.
Read more
Are tyres soft targets for police FPN's ? Only if they're under-inflated!
--
L\'escargot.
Hi
We are going to Puerto Pollensa (North of the island) in July. Probably want to hire a car either to collect at the airport for the 2 weeks or in the resort for 5 days, haven't decided which yet. Has anybody any recommendations or 'stay clears'. Only need something like a Corsa/Polo although air-con would probably be nice. Thanks Read more
Thanks to all respondants. I think we'll probably wait until we're there. At least then we can see if there's something on somewhere that we want to see and can hire around the required day. Love Manorca so looking forward to first visit to Majorca
This comes from a French source and may not apply to British market cars, but it might save someone some hassle and money.
The standard radio fitted to some new Mazdas is supplied free of a security code and the owner can code it if he wishes. If the radio is left uncoded and the battery is disconnected (which will happen sooner or later in any vehicle's life) the radio becomes locked up with an UNKNOWN security code. Mazda France have confirmed this and the only known solution is to ...fit a new radio!!!
Read more
An Astra I once had had an intermittent starting problem, a click but the engine didn't spin. On the 4th visit to a local Vauxhall dealer I insisted they sort it out once and for all. They got "Brains" on the job and concluded the problem was due to someone incorrectly wiring the immobiliser to the starter motor circuiting which was causing just enough of a power drain when trying to start the car. Upon asking "When was the work done ?" About 6 months ago. "And how long have you had this problem ?" For about 6 months, counting the 2 months you've been trying to fix it. "And who did the immobiliser installation work ?" You did. "Gulp, oh, the man who did that job no longer works for us." Well at least they traced the problem and sorted it out eventually.