September 2007
Have a VW camper that is spitting water from the expansion bottle, it sits and runs lovely, you can drive it sometimes with no problems, other times you drive a couple of miles the temp guage goes to just over the middle and then it start spitting water out of the expansion bottle. I have wired the fan so I can put it on all the time, but it still can do the same thing. any ideas? water is circulating, all pipes are getting hot, runs well, does not overheat per se, just spits water. Is there a thermostat? could not find one.
s
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SWMBO has been obsessed with Beetles all her life. Always promised herself one and now she has finished her Nursing College and got herself a job I fear the time may be looming.....
I sat in one in a showroom the other day and I just thought what a waste of space it was! The dashboard was bigger than my Scenic, it seemed miles from steering wheel to base of windscreen, no idea where end of bonnet was!
Boot would be hard pushed to take a week's groceries!
Is Beetle ownership all about the exterior and the "fun" and "cult" or is it actually a practical car? the one I saw had 30k miles but the bonnet was covered in stone chips - is this normal due to the shape?
Anyone got real life economy figures for 1.6 compared to 1.9 diesel? why is the diesel 100bhp whereas the rest of VAG group is 105?
Any comments good or bad would be much appreciated.
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2007 Seat Altea XL 2.0 TDI (140) Stylance
2005 Skoda Fabia vrS Read more
They are great. My dad bought one in 1965.....1300E I think. Loved it.
VBR..................MD.
What contributes most to road safety, skill aquired through training, or experience, or drivers attitude? Read more
Experience hones skills but only in drivers with the right attitude. Most drivers underestimate the necessary level of conscious intellectual activity involved in driving. They switch on an unsophisticated autopilot far too early in their driving careers, and far too early in every journey.
Just look at the pink fluffies all around you next time you go out on the road.
Stop Press- PU likes the look of a Ford....
www.carmagazine.co.uk/first_official_picture.php?s...1 Read more
>> Dont like the pug grin otherwise looks good.
not sure about the drug dealer wheels either
I now have a mental picture of a 4007 with a spliff hanging out of it's "teeth" ;-)
Out of deference to our dial up readers Volume 1 locked and can be found here :-
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?f=2&t=55...0
You are welcome to carry on discussing here. Read more
"nobody is convinced it will have much of an effect"
That's probably because only those who don't want it are making a fuss. The restricted licence idea sounds sensible, but (as you imply) doesn't work so well in practice, and as for voluntary insurance, what's that about?!
Strange how governments and authorities rarely take any lessons from practice elsewhere. A quick survey of road policy and casualty rates in other countries would yield a whole raft of useful information, but NIH (not invented here) trumps it every time. Of course, it's not just motoring - the same applies to medicine, economics, housing, etc...
My 2002 Renault Espace Race 2.2 DCI is 4 & 1/2 years old with 45K and has been owned by me from new. 2 months ago the air conditioning (with climate control) stopped working. I took it to Kwik Fit who offer a re gasssing service at £44.95.
They confirmed there was little or no gas left in the system and set about re-charging it - a process that took about 1 hour. The airconditioning was now working (albeit not as stong when the car was new) . The air-conditioning then worked for the next six weeks and now has stopped operating all together. Kwik Fit were very good and gave a complete refund although they did offer to recharge the system again, an option I felt was pointless since it appears I have a leak.
Has any other Espace owner experience a similar problem? what was the solution and how much did it cost to fix ????
s Read more
I have a 2002 Espace Dci. I have an air con leak. It could be coming from anywhere . I had Renault top mine up and profess there were no leaks either, even after pressure testing th system on th car. Yet two monhts later, all the gas had gone.
I took it to a specialist air con company who told me that most air con systems on cars over 3 years old develop leaks, mostly in pipe seals and so forth and can be fairly easily traced by any comptent air con repairer using proper testing gear and tell-tale dye. If it was a seal, they could put a substance into the sytm that would plug the leak and offer a seal for at least a year.
In my case they pressure tested it and said that while there was not one whiff of gas, their system was not showing up any leaks on the car - and they have £8,000 quids worth of very expensive vacuum computer controlled stuff to check things like this, unlike I'll bet, Kwik Fit.
Puzzled, they kept the car all day, filled it with fluorescent green dye (so they could se where it was laking from) and ran it until they eventually found the leak. It took them 3 hours - not by the way that they charged me for this - only the standard £39.95 top up fee. It was actually coming through the aluminium cast housing of the air con compressor itself, but was almost impossible to see, so small was the leak. There is no way to 'fix' the compresor housing - its just cracked and effectively scrap.
They contactd Renault Technical, who told them this had been an issue on a number of vehicles fitted with whatever type of air con compressor my Espace had. My dealer said this was rubbish.
I have not replaced it yet - about £400 for the part plus an hours labour, plus gas. As it tends to last about 2 months, I have been buying gas from halfords for £19 a cannister and periodically re-filling it myself - a five minute job.
Will get it fixed later in the year when I have some spare cash
I have been told by a number of people that :-
1. You have to regularly use air con, not just in summer, or the oil seals in the compressor (the thing hat pumps round the gas), will dry up and the gas will leak away.
2. Over time - 2 or 3 years, the gas will still very slowly find a ay out of most systems and if not, will degrade, so it should be periodically replacd anyway
Hi, I bought an 04 Vauxhall SXI 1.6 in October 2006 and have also experience the clutch judder. We took the car back to the dealers in Feb/March this year who also said that their was a design fault with this model clutch and they were waiting for the modified part to be delivered to them, then they would replace it. I am still waiting. But I now also have a problem with the gear box in that it grinds when you change from 1st to 2nd and sometimes jumps of out 2nd gear when you go round a right hand turn. And finally, the gears have even been known to lock completely. Has anybody else experienced these additional problems and if so, what did your dealer say? And what are they going to do about it?
Moved to Tech, tweaked subject line and filed it under make and model gubbins - PU Read more
Thanks for the reply. I have been back to the dealer and they have agreed that they will replace the clutch - this should have happened 3 weeks ago but hasnt. They are now driving my car to see what is wrong and have also confirmed that they will replace the gear box, fly wheel and engine mounts - this, unfortunately, will not happen for another 6-8 weeks. I presently have a courtesy car from them although dont know how long they will let me use it.
Had a warning in our parish magazine (!) about a new motoring related theft. Don't know if it's just round us, but the scrotes are nicking the cats from LR Discoveries, as it seems they're quite easy to unbolt & have it away with. Been a few, apparently. We've been advised to garage our disco's in our area (Petts Wood, Kent, nr Orpington). Not sure what you can do if you don't have a garage, or have a motorcycle/ classic car/ other car/ pile of junk in yours.
Anyone else heard of this?
Be interested to hear.
Cheers,
Alex.
PS hope no enterprising motor thieves are reading this...
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Dr Alex Mears
Volvo 940S estate 1993
Maxda MX5 1.8iS 1997
Yamaha RD350 YPVS 1992 Read more
The local Land-Rover dealer lost the entire transmission out of a brand-new one parked on the forecourt - which is directly opposite one of the last few remaining police stations.
The sad thing is that they are probably weighing-in a twin cat that once cost £2100 as scrap.
I notice there are a lot of entries in the Westbury Car Auction from Welcome Car Finance. Does anyone know this company is similar to the now defunct Yes Car Credit. I want to try and avoid a lemon! Read more
I thought it sounded similar setup to Yes Car Credit. As mentioned earlier if they are repossed cars then the owners would probably not be puting car maintenance at the top of there priorites and likewise if they are customer trade ins probaby not the same quality as franchised dealer trade ins
The only estate cars in the company's 104 year history have previously been hearses.
Might they have been better burying the BLS and keeping up with tradition?
Why are GM building a BLS when they have the other twin SAAB? Read more
2 years ago Cadillac announced their BLS estate
At the time I questioned GM's reasoning -odd car and no place in market (How many have you seen in the last 2 years!).
The answer seems to have arrived
Leasing Deal on HJ site
Cadillac BLS Estate 5dr 1.9 TDI 150 BHP
Metallic paint
3+35 Payments / 10,000 miles per annum from £269.99+VAT
Cash price £13,995.00 OTR- The price of range topping Fiesta.
stevie
Get the gases sniffed; that's the only effective way to be sure.