May 2007
Should I have had to pay on the road charges and compulsary europa £89 breakdown cover which added £174 to the price of my car.
It says on the invoice "customer ordered extras and accessories":
Prep, HPI and PCI Charge 62.13
Euoplates 25
Europ assistance 89
Seems confusing to me!
Anyone else had this?
Thanks!
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Hi all,
We have finally purchased a VW golf TDi.
Its a 2000 W reg 1.9 tdi 110bhp.We paid £4000 for it. Has 56k on the clock and one owner from new. Lovely dark green colour.
I am aware its good to drain the diesel fuel filter periodically via the screw tap/bung at the bottom of the filter.
My question is how does one restart the car after draining the filter and surely the car will not have any diesel in the filter to run on?
Is there any tips for easy starting?
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You don't have to do anything, the water drips out of the trap and diesel takes it's place, air doesn't come into it.
My Astra 1.8 sxi which has disc brakes all round has a terrible brake squeal which is more pronounced at slow speeds and light braking. I can physically see the pads through the alloy wheels and there appears to be plenty of wear left on each pad. The squeal doesnt happen all the time but more often than not. The braking efficiency does not seem effected. I have given them a blast with the hosepipe thinking there might have been a build up of dust. Any suggestiions greatfully received Read more
I had an identical problem ealier in the year with my Astra SRi. A local mechanic told me it was common on the Astra especially at the rear. He removed all the pads and but fresh copper grease on them and plenty of it. 30 minutes work. The problem has gone and has not reoccured.
I often use a power washer on the car and I was told that this is probably what has caused the squeal as I will have washed off all the old lubrication, I now dont use this on the alloys.
I have recently had some serious maladies with XP Pro (Rule 1 - keep kids off the comuter - no chance!) Anyway it was hanging, crashing, locking and Updates refusing to load. Have spent some time and reinstalled XP (didnt do a full system clear and rebuild but ran the disc back through and a fresh download of IE7 .
Anyway everything seems to be running ok. However when I go to shutdown and press 'Switch Off' I am told that it is now safe to switch off manually which I have to do; where as previously the switch off would be automatic. Have had a look under Power management etc but cant find anything. Also have noticed that some of the graphics eg 'Find' are different - Cant remember that pooch being there before????. Is this all to do with SP2? I thought I had it installed already?
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Thanks Cheddar!
was travelling south down the a46 today ( dual carrigeway) and there where two lorries neck n neck for about 5 miles blocking the outside lane , these people are suppose to be professional drivers , every car driver including me were bunched up waiting for the cretin to pull over, if he aint got the power to overtake the other lorry why does he bother... anyway good luck all for the bank holiday im doing the garden!!!! Read more
About a year ago I was on a two lane arterial road that was congested and moving slowly on both lanes. A guy in a car came roaring up the gravel verge overtaking us all. About a kilometre later I came up on him. He was stuck on the verge which had ended at a culvert and was trying to push his way into the line of crawling traffic. No one would let him in. He was red in the face and you could see him shouting and screaming. I didn't let him in either.
I have a N reg renault clio 1.4 RT that will not start, the fuel pump relay cuts in on initial cranking but then cuts out, sometimes the engine attempts to start up but then stops. I removed the air box, cranked the vehicle and shorted the relay and found no fuel to be injecting in. Vehicle is sparking ok so this is not an immobiliser problem. ANY ideas would be appreciated . Read more
ok cheers for that, i checked fuel supply to the throttle housing seemed plentyful, the car isnt at my house which makes it a bit more awkward. iv swapped the fuel pump relay, so i dont think thats at fault. on initial crnking the relay clicks in then shortly after cuts out. iv tried shorting the relay and had someone crank the engine it obviously wouldnt start. the injector does fire a very small amount of fuel to start with, but thats all. could it still be an injector fault if it does this? cheers for your time and help mate, you sound pretty clued up. im a technicien but hate electrics hahahaha, doesnt help i cant get hold of some wiring diagrams.
Is it me or are garages incapable of tracking/aligning your wheels without making the steering wheel off centre? Everytime I have my tracking done even though they 'centre' the steeriong wheel and 'lock it' with the special lock, the steering wheel still goes off centre. This drives me insane, so I did a search on the interwebnet and found this product www.toolsinstock.com/index.php?act=viewProd&produc...7
I would like peoples opinions and experiences of tracking and steering wheel off centre adventures, and also on the above product. Based on the last time I had my tracking done, £30, £70 for an actual tool doesnt seem much, given that I will be able to get my steering wheel straight. In the past Ihave actually attempted to 'fix' the tracking, and a couple of time I've been very succesful and re-centred my steering wheel, but there was once that I got it disastrously wrong:-) Read more
... Anything to do with handling and spreading cattle manure by any chance?
lud - you nearly got it. it is knowing how to do muckraking without geting caught at it. but more important, it is knowing how to avoid getting caught by that when a lot of that hits the fan.
oh yes, and make sure your tyre treads don't get full of it either.
I had my MOT done at the weekend which the car passed with no problems, however within 100 miles the catalytic converter section fell off from under the car at quite high speed.
I took the issue up with the garage who advised that because I only asked for an MOT they are not obliged to tell me if something like that is hanging off if its passable at the time, however had i asked for a service aswell they would have recommended i get it fixed.
you can appreciate my annoyance with them as i thought it wasin ok condition, where do i stand? Read more
Paraphrasing now but "This certificate should not be taken as an indication of the vehicle's mechanical condition" or words to that effect.
I think your only claim is on the professionalism of the tester, and even that is not given.
If the car was being serviced then, demending on the type of service you may have had a prayer.
You may "win" your arguement but you'll definitely not get a prize.
Thread title says it all really!
My wife's picasso (X reg diesel) has developed a bizarre fault, in that the windscreen wipers are on the whole time. They can only be disabled by removing the fuse.
My local garage has admitted defeat in trying to identify the problem. They suspect that the answer may involve the replacement of an expensive black box of some type.
Before placing myself in the hands of the main dealer, and exposing my wallet to some eye watering treatment, does anyone have any idea as to what the problem might be? Read more
When I first met my wife to be she purchased a Citroen Xsara without driving it first. About the only thing that didn't go wrong with it were the wipers. After we got married and faced with ongoing and mounting bills for that lemon she traded it in for a Focus, end of problems.
I?d be interested, as usual, to seek the counsel of the BR.
Yesterday, I plucked up the courage to seek permission from the Household Financial Committee (ie SWMBO) to replace the family W reg petrol Vectra (105k miles, clutch possibly coming to end of life, brake disks thinning, MOT in September and a new cam belt at 120k) with a newer means of diesel transport. Much to my surprise, the request was granted in principle! Wohoo! So, here?s the issue.
As a commuter knocking up 480 miles per week, we need a diesel car which will waft me in comfort and safety and will double up as the family car for weekends and holidays for the two of us, a nutty 4 year old boy and a more sedate 1 year old girl.
I?m currently thinking of a 12 month old 150 bhp Vectra or Signum Elite, but can?t figure out the practical differences between the two. From the research undertaken thus far, they appear to have the same chassis, engine and interior? Is it this very reason that has led to the Signum to be considered a rather odd placed car in the market place?
I?d like to try out a 1-2 year old Volvo S60 D (SWMBO likes Volvos too), but this is probably outside of my budget of £13kish plus px ? isn?t it? I have also thought about a TDCi Mondeo, but the 155 bhp versions may, again, be outside of the budget. Any others that I should be considering?
As usual, many comments on the above.
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Top Turkey - the fastest hands in Brum Read more
I've seen the light - material quality and finish wasn't the best, but who cares? That 300C has grin factor through and through. Looking at it: :D, sittiing in it: :D, driving it: :D. What a wonderful beast!
This one was in silver, so I only looked like a part-time drug dealer!! LOL!
I've started saving up for one already! :)
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In terms of stock, most supermarkets will have a buyer (one or more) to do sourcing. Lots come from fleets, but this is also true of franchised dealer nearly-new stock. Franchised dealers will also try to add on 'stoopidglaze' paint protection, GAP insurance, tyre insurance etc etc. - selling these is by no means unique to supermarkets. Similarly dealers will offer higher APR's on used cars (low interest loans on new cars are often subsidised). Bascially there is not much difference I would say, assuming you are looking at 'non-specialist' cars and a supermarket is as good a place as any.