October 2007
It comes to the end of October and both mine and my wifes car require an MOT, both booked in for this week, and new tax disc.
Having received from the DVLA the V11 form, I thought I'd try and renew my tax disc on line. It was so easy and saved so much queuing at the now, not so local post office.
What surprised me was that my wifes Mot, which was done last Nov, was accepted on line.
This means that though it is still likely to be roadworthy, there must be plenty of cars out there that were more roadworthy 11 months ago than it is now.
I think there should be a limit, that the Mot certificate should be no older than 6 monthsi
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What I mean by this every time I open my bonnet I get covered in oil, every part seems to be covered in it. My old Fiesta I would never get oil on my hands just bits of dirt.
Could this be that mahcnaics hands have bene all over it? Or is due to for a vallet?
This just something I am pondering on hence its not in technical. Read more
........ every time I open my bonnet I get covered in
oil every part seems to be covered in it.
Why not just clean it and then see what happens?
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L\'escargot.
Just swapped elderly Fiesta for 2001 1.6 Focus but the visibility on dipped headlights is worse - this can't be right! Have adjusted for load and garage says OK for MOT so why does there seem to be an area in the middle of road in shadow while near and off side well lit? Any ideas appreciated! Read more
Darwin
Passing the MOT doesn't mean perfectly adjusted - just not too high or right.
Five minutes on a good beamsetter might make a considerable difference.
What are the truly hassle-free engines out there at the moment - the ones which are nice and simple and idiot-proof, where there is little to go wrong?
I would envisage engines with:
no turbos,
no complex fuel injection systems (such as in CR diesels),
no timing belts,
which are happy to run on basic grades of fuel,
which do not use much oil between services,
which don't have any major reliability problems or faults,
and which are easy for mechanics to work on.
(And perhaps there are one or two other qualities that I have not thought of.)
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As one of the poor unfortunates who has had a Ford diesel fail in a big way my view is that diesels are too technically complicated for their own good. I shall not be buying another. The garage technicians seems totally confounded by the technology. I have sought second opinion from an independent diesel repairer and even he is telling me that these engines are prone to be unreliable and difficult to repair. Had I known all of this at the time of purchase then I would have opted for a petrol engine instead. Much is made of the potential 50mpg economy, which I have never actually achieved, but little is said of the astronomical repair costs associated with this claimed economy. I am surprised that motoring journalists are not highlighting this issue because I am sure many buyers are ignorant of the potential costs and like me they see diesels as "economy cars".
I have no doubt that many owners have a good long-term relationship with a trouble-free example of the breed, but please spare a thought for those few percent of us who find themselves with a nightmare on four wheels.
My problem my front windscreen washer jets keep getting blocked by tree sap they have been recently unblocked by my local garage as part of the service which have worked great until today . They did seem to think it was tree sap blocking the tubes up . I just wondered if their was anything I could perhaps put in the screen washer tank apart from screen wash to prevent them from becoming blocked .
Thanks in advance.
Shouting amended in subject line.
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No real substitute for having the bottle out and giving it a really good clean out. Quarter fill with clean water and flush out the pipes. Then fill with your chosen washer fluid to about 33% concentration at this time of the year. Most cars benefit from this every two years or so.
Hi
I have had my CRTD CDX 6 speed Tucson about a year now and covered 14,000 miles. I first had a problem after about 4,000 miles . without warning the car would give out lots of blue smoke. The engine had plenty of time to warm up and their was no significant loss of power . The blue smoke was that bad i had to switch the engine off. Along with the smoke was a smell of burning , i personally think it was oil . I checked the oil level which was normal . I started the engine after about 10 minutes and once any residual smoke had gone ,the car would be smoke free for possibly 1,000 miles . This same scenario happened about six times . Eventually the car went to the dealers . they could not reproduce the problem and it took some convincing that the problem existed . they said they found two of the four injectors were low which they replaced . The car behaved for about 3,000 miles but has started to return .
I was wondering if any of your members have suffered a similar problem . I don't think it was anything to do with injectors or fuel at all ,i have always believed blue smoke to be associated with oil . I can see this going on a while so i am trying to do some research myself before contacting the dealers again, like many people i don't have much faith in them..
Thanks
Steve
SLT Read more
By any chance, is your Tucson fitted with a diesel particle filter? Just a thought, that it may be going through a regenerating/cleaning operation when you see the smoke...
The somewhat breathless 1.6 Golf to be replaced by 1.4, Turbo - more power, more torque, more MPG - less emissions and all for £200 more..........
Seems to be a lot for not a lot more so where is the catch?
SLT Read more
Well my ZR has a 1.4 twin cam engine which produces just over 100 bhp, it can do high miles if looked after properly.
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Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
What is the situation regarding driving a car without MOT as far as the insurance is concerned? I discovered today that the MOT for one of our cars has expired. The car has been driven for a week or so without MOT - had something unpleasant happened would we have been insured and would the insurance company paid out? What would the BiB have had to say if we had been caught? Would we have been done for driving without insurance? All hypothetical now as the car had an MOT this afternoon.
Moved from IHAQ as its legitimately motoring related. Read more
Well if Mark RBLS was around these days he'd tell you that no MoT didn't render an Insurance Policy void. Whatever arrogance Insurance companies purvey in their T&C and profound statements about whether a car is "not allowed" to be taken to a pre-arranged MoT tests, they are not legislators and have to bow to the law of the land like everyone else.
Months and months go by and the pleasure from owning & driving Arnie is as good as ever.
Also rather splendid is the residual values that the car is carrying.
This article tinyurl.com/2qlo8o makes mention that a 2 year old 300C CRD with 30000 miles on it is worth 67% of what the owner paid, which given the doom and gloom that the motoring trade / motoring press said when the car was launched, is one in the eye.
It also mentions that a 525D (the sensible choice) would only be worth 62% of its original value - and that the 525D is a lot dearer, and a lot lower specced.
time to go again
MTC
Split into two volumes due to the length of the other. Vol 1 Can be found here:-
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?v=e&t=47...9
Welcome back by the way Read more
I've never thought of it that way before !!
I saw a 300C in Midnight Blue for the first time on the road today, in completely untouched showroom condition, It looked really, really nice, but softer that a Black 300C in some way and less imposing.
MTC
Would anyone know which is the best cars to buy and sell,looking for a hobby and spare cash on the sideline too?
Say cars between £1000-£5000.
cheers.
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I would concurr with mapmaker.
I made a small loss on a car a few years ago. It seemed to be a reasonably well presented Xantia with a blown engine that I was given but had to fork out £70 to get it transported to my house.
I thought, from looking in Autotrader etc, that I could get around £900 for it. It was only around 6 years old at the time. Hence £300 for a new engine and some £100 to fix it seemed reasonable. Plus I needed to sort a minor ding in the nearside front out. Cost a mere £100.
However I also chose to put a new MOT on it, then I found the fault was not in the old engine that had blown, but somewhere else, that part cost some £40 plus vat.
Then came the crunch. Several ads in Autotrader failed to shift it. Cars that were advertised in autotader that I was comparing it with weren't selling. It was really worth around half what I thought it was worth. The most obvious problem was that it was a petrol Xantia Saloon. The fact that no trader would touch it was the biggest wakeup call.
In the end we put it on ebay and lost around £100 - cheap for a valuable lesson I suppose. Someone did get a good car out of it but as one forum member pointed out to me the price of these hulks had just gone through the floor.
If I had my time again, I would have broken it for spares. £70 initial investment, which could have probably been made on the gearbox alone. Plus it had 5 good tyres on rims. All the body parts and many of the mechanical bits would have fitted the diesel. What I couldn't sell would have probably been scrapped and generated more income.
You live and learn. I vowed I would never try and make a quick buck by buying and selling cars again. Other stuff is a different matter......
I would say to the OP if he really wants to give it a go, try one. If this doesn't work it will get it out of his system, but he should be careful not to turn a quick flutter into an expensive drawn out nightmare.
Browse
In the immortal words of Michael Flanders (c. 1960, when the tests first came in)
"There's even talk of having them tested before they leave the factory". :)