May 2007
Do you have to have a front passenger seat fitted to a car in order for it to pass the test?
The frame on the front passenger seat of a friend's car is broken and therefore, I would guess, is an MoT fail. If he were to remove the seat altogether, would it be a failure?
At the moment, he can't locate a replacement seat from a breakers, so fixing it is not an option. Read more
Just taken a look a 1999 xsara estate diesel, 1.9 Turbo. Mileage 64K.
Started first time from cold, but clouds of white and black smoke from the exhaust for several seconds afterwards, then cleared.
The car has been unused for a little while.
Is this something to worry about, or is it likely to clear once the car is used regularly? Read more
This link might help understand the problems associated with different coloured smoke emitted by a diesel.
tinyurl.com/y6zl9p
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Roger
A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.
Hi all, a friend of mine is looking to buy a used Toyota Celica in the near future, her budget is about as low as you can go for the new model at £6K.
For this money I would prefer her to get the car inspected before purchase by a competent mechanic. As we may end up looking at a car a long way from home I thought a firm like the AA or RAC may be best as if she's sure she's found the right car, she can send them out to do the inspection without travelling hundreds of miles herself only to go and view a lemon! (this is the voice of experience talking)
Has anybody used such a service before or does anybody have any recommendations? She may also be looking at a private sale and as such is even more wary of the prospect of buying a dudd car so before she splashes out on a £150 inspection I'd like to know that they're worth the money.
I can offer some limited help to her myself but as I've recently proven to myself, even I am taken in by shiny paint when viewing cars for my own use, the last BMW Ibought had as much filer as it did bodywork but I failed to notice until long after I drove off in her, and I most certainly don't want to repeat the performance when helping a less knowledgeable friend buy one! On a more positive note, I doubt I will get rose-tinted glasses when viewing a car for somebody else, I never have before.
Blue Read more
Thanks for the comments everyone, I would prefer an independant garage but sadly most of the cars we are looking at are almost 200 miles away, so a check doesn't seem like such bad value when you take into account the considerable cost of trekking across the country only to find that the car is no good, if we travel that far we wanted to try and make one trip if possible. Maybe we should just accept we'll have to make two!
Blue
A certain garage which did my wife's MOT was listed as winning an industry award (Guess I am not allowed to name the exact one) as "best independent garage". Yet they seemed to have charged us a large amount of labours (5 hours for 3 small welds, oil change, flexible pipe change and adjustment to brake pedal - by my reckoning that is 3 - 3.5 hours just for welding).
Then becuase they had changed the oil (to get through MOT) owner wanted to charge us extra £100 for a service (Oil, filter and labour already charged), despite the fact we said e did not want one. The car was returned with the oil overfilled by 250cc (checked on level ground) and white powder (from welding) all over body work.
Looked up the award site in question and it seemed to by awarded by garages to garages, rather than by public vote. Naturally their website encouraged all garages to enter for a "Fee".
I just wonder what annual awards for garages can actually be trusted?
The main car mags just seem to award Manufacturers, are there any genuine non industry biased awards for garages? Read more
Just browsing through this week's 'latest deals' section, I noticed Seat offering:
Leon 2.0 TDI Reference Sport with styling kit: £2,500 worth of aerodynamic styling kit ready-fitted for £16,995 RRP. Highlights include aggressive-looking bumpers, 18" BBS alloy wheels and twin chrome exhaust pipes.
"Aggressive-looking bumpers" - what the hell are they? As if there's too little testosterone-fuelled aggression on the road already.... :-(
What next - 'aggressive looking' indicators? Read more
Sounds like a Ford Focus advert where they stated the car had "sporty front fog lights". If it's foggy I wouldn't want to be driving sporty and I wouldn't describe lights as sporty per se.
Hi,
I've got a 1.9D Expert that has been idle for ~3 months. Tried to start it today and got no luck, it used to start first time everytime.
The starter motor turns over but there is nothing from the engine. I tried a jumpstart and the same happened there too.
I then tried a bumpstart and that did nothing either.
Whats my next course of action? THanks in advance. Read more
Or a quick blast of Easy Start might do the trick,but don't squirt it too much.
If used regularly,diesel engines get hooked on it,and it won't start without it.
it looks like chrysler may be sold to a private equity firm. value rumoured to be $30bn down in 9 years (worth $6bn now, was $36bn in 1998) !
www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/20...l
.... It is reported that DaimlerChrysler, which paid $36bn for Chrysler in 1998, may announce the sale as soon as today. Chrysler may not fetch any more than $6bn, according to a recent estimate from analysts at Goldman Sachs. ...
Read more
2002
June 6: Resolution passed at the annual general meeting changing the name of Steyr-Daimler-Puch Fahrzeugtechnik AG & Co KG to MAGNA STEYR Fahrzeugtechnik AG & Co KG and STEYR Powertrain AG & Co KG to MAGNA STEYR Powertrain AG & Co KG.
Maybe this misled me.
Morning,
I posted recently on discussion about the tyre on my Mondeo. They were Conti Sport contact 2 that needed replacing sooner than I had hoped.
The tyres had worn unevenly- both the front tyres had worn on the inner edges far more than the outer and so I asked the garage to check the tracking. They came back and said the tracking seemed fine.
When driving the car seems quite 'jittery' when going over bumps, manhole covers etc, and I am sure there is a problem somewhere. It doesn't drive like other Mondeos I have driven before, and I find myself trying to avoid bumps etc that I can't feel in our other car.
Would it be worth getting another garage (maybe a Ford Dealer) to do a tracking check, wheel alignment as well?
Would there be anything else that could make the tyre wear incorrectly other than tyre pressure?
Cheers All.
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it depends what age mondeo you have mate, they were very prone to front lower arm bushes splitting which would wear tyres on the front, later models were prone to rear subframe bushes wearing. a well done 4 wheel alignment can take a couple of hours, can be quite awkward to get a car spot on, and services are made to reasonably cheap for what you get people wouldnt want to pay for an extra 2 hours work every 2 years on top of service costs, they cost enough anyway. hope that helps.
Hi to everyone,
Has anyone had minor car park dents/creases removed from body panels by a mobile service like 'Chips Away' in the Horsham, West Sussex?
I would really appreicate hearing forum members who have used this service, the results and costs.
The damage to my car is a small 10mm ding and a 40mm crease paint appears not to be damaged.
Both are on the same rear quater panel.
Many thanks
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Thanks for your reply Frank, just wanted a quote really, I'm almost resigned to leaving them at least until I sell the car in a year or two.
SWMBO's Fiesta is covered in parking damage, even the roof is dented, I didn't ask!
I notice that the 3 points on my licence are laboriously handwritten by someone in the Traffic Office that awarded them. I suppose that there is some central record in Swansea and that if one's licence is renewed on age gounds (due for me shortly) the points will appear on the new paper counterpart, on the basis that central records are held on the Swansea database? Put another way - to get points removed from your licence do they see them on the licence that you send in to get them removed from and compare this with their records or is the only record of your points on the licence that you send in for amendement? DVLA Site does not explain SFAIK
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Many thanks for the information and helpful links posted, which clarified the situation. AS
Thanks for the helpfull replies - I'll pass them on.