May 2007
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
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?.
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Are tyres soft targets for police FPN's ? Only if they're under-inflated!
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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!!!
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My foot-pump broke, and I'm thinking of getting one of these 12V inflators. The problem is none of them seem to have any comparable rating. I would've thought something along the lines of: nn cubic feet/min at 30PSI.
A couple claim to be able to inflate from flat in three or four minutes, but still not really subjective.
So what's the opinion out there?
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I rarely used my 12 tyre pump and it has now stopped inflating. It was always noisy and slow and now defunct.
Worrying if you looked inside the case there was an occasional small spark! It was a Halfords one I think.
Useful for space in the boot though, it was also a bright 12v light.
I am thinking of buying a toyota hilux 4wd from one of the auction houses like BCA. In their specs of the vehicle they list the vehicle as "TOYOTA HI-LUX 270 102BHP EX 4WD". Does anyone know what the EX means? Is it a 4wd that has been modified to 2wd perhaps? Read more
If I saw that description I'd have first thought of EX-WD - i.e. ex forces.
Motorpoint are doing 2.2 Diesel Aventura (Near top of the range spec) @ £16,000 + £400 to get it on the road.
2nd hand car 2.5 Petrol SVE (top of the range in 2004) on sale locally @ £9K with 22,000 mls on the clock.
My mileage will be less than 12K per year and I probably will buy a caravan in the near future.
£7K extra for a new car does not sound a lot but is it worth the extra Read more
Hello
My Primera 2.2DCi (different car but same engine and thankfully now gone) suffered turbo failure
My Primera suffered turbo failure - and took the whole engine with it. Thankfully covered by warranty, but boy what a fright. Kind of sobering watching your car revving its knackers off by the side of the road - while you have the ignition key in your hand.
ive got an old fiesta with an old radio in it, everytime i switch the ig off for more than a couple of mins the radio programme i was tuned into has gone, ie reset , i assume it needs a live wire connected to it to keep the memory alive whilst the ignition is switched off, what colour wire is it and which one do i connect to the radio wiring? thanks Read more
i belive that the yellow is the ignition and the red is constant live but i would check that with a multimeter first just to make sure
Hi,
I have about 6-8k to spend on a used car, maybe up to 3 years old and 50k miles. I currently have a Peugeot 306 which is now very old and needs a financially-nonviable repair, but is still excellent on twisty roads with good handling and steering feedback. I need something fairly practical (say Focus sized or bigger) although rear seat comfort is not very important (so a coupe with fold-down seats is fine, just so I can take four people or a longish load occasionally).
A Focus seems an obvious choice but a little bit "common", I'd have to choose between a 1.8 petrol, TDCi 115bhp or perhaps an ST170! I really like the look of the Hyundai Coupe but am not convinced they're very good to drive. I'm not keen on the new MINI and don't see myself as a BMW driver, but would still like plenty of toys for the money (choice between a high-spec Mondeo and a poverty-spec BMW or Audi and I'd go for the Mondeo straight away; likewise I'd tend to go for a Seat Leon rather than VW Golf). I could consider an Alfa but concerned about reliability. I would definitely consider a diesel as I prefer the low/mid range torque to high revs driving style (which puts me off the 1.8 Focus).
Insurance not too much of an issue - I can get a quote for £500 for a brand new Focus ST but I know some cars have an unusually high insurance group. Running costs need to be reasonable, as does reliability. Most likely to buy from a car supermarket like Car Giant but wouldn't buy privately or blindly over the internet.
So I was wondering if anyone can give me any further suggestions or ideas!
Many thanks,
Keith Read more
Having had a 1.8T petrol Leon Cupra for the past year I'd highly recommend it as an all rounder. Great value and it's a hoot to drive. That said, whilst it's plenty quick enough for me, it's heavyish and not the sharpest car I've driven on twisty roads.
The earlier models had a better spec - leather etc - but the later facelift one still has Climate control, 6CD changer and looks much better IMO. The Cupra R is much more in your face looks wise and has better brakes and steering than standard cupra.
I often think about what I'd replace it with and I honestly can't think of anything else!
I have a mixed bag of electronic faults on my Peugeot 406 sedan. It's a 2.0L petrol from 2003. Here is a brief summary of the faults:
1. Speedometer stops working intermittently. It will stop working while driving and start again of its own accord. The odometer also drops off while this happens and won't read any mileage until the speedomter starts working again. Also the speedometer sometimes will be reading like the car is moving when I'm stationary and the car is idling. Weird, uh?
2.The air bag warning light will come on for no reason. It happens soon after the speedometer drops off. Interestingly, most times, that light has to come on before the speedometer starts working again. Coincidence?
3.When starting the car sometimes, the engine won't turn over and the dash clock resets itself, like it's a battery failure. If I try again it starts fine but the clock goes to all zeros and has to be reset. It usually happens after trying to restart the car after driving a considerable distance. Doesn't ever happen when trying to start the car first thing in the morning so I don't think it's the battery. The frequeuncy of this happening is increasing. At first it was just annoying, now I'm starting to get worried.
I think they all may be related. Like a busted relay, or a short or whatever. Can someone please give me a clue. Read more
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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