October 2007
tinyurl.com/2jejkn
Did you notice that they've also solved the bubble car problem (don't park close to the back wall of your garage)?
JH
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2003 Daihatsu Charade. This started immediately after the car was left at an airport for a week, a couple of months ago, and has been there continuously every since. There is a metallic-ish rubbing/scraping sound when turning the steering wheel to the left. It only takes a small turn of the wheel to trigger it (a few degrees), but the noise is continuous while the wheel is turned. Occurs at all speeds.
I'm not too good at pinpointing the source of noises, but it appears to be coming from the passenger side rear. That could be completely wrong though - sometimes I think it's coming from the front of the car, in the centre.
Any suggestions for what it might be? Car has been through the MOT since the noise started, if that helps rule out some possibilities. Read more
Dylan,
Sorry to hear that, and that it's out of warranty. If it's any consolation, my Charade needed a new exhaust a couple of months back. It was only available through Daihatsu and cost 220 quid including fitting. Ridiculous, and wholly unacceptable that the exhaust should fall off after less than 4 years of careful ownership. I continue to enjoy the car, but am of the opinion that this model was a rogue one, and a blight on Daihatsu's reputation. I notice it was quietly dropped from Daihatsu's webiste last year and the new Charade has yet to arrive. I am saving my pennies for a brand spanking new Toyota Aygo!
Boot (Hatch) will not open with the key or central locking. When pressing the button to open it there is no "click" or resistance.
Edit to Subject Line Read more
if you can crawl through and give the mechanism a good tap on the hook bit with a screwdriver then quite a few type of locks ping open
also try some wd39 in the lock tonight and try your keya again in the morning while under your umbrella ,umbrella,well it might rhiana
Hi All!
This concerns a Mazda 323 1.6 2001 model year.
I used to own this car but passed it to a friend.
Recently he's been having a few problems with the engine check lamp illuminating. At times it flashes (indicating a serious fault). When this happens the engine appears noisier than usual (call it a grinding noise if you like) and the performance is poor (limp-home mode presumably?).
He's been to a Mazda dealer, twice, and they cannot find any fault. By the time he's arrived at the dealer the light has stopped flashing and has gone off. Now, I was of the understanding that the ECU stored the fault code, but perhaps I wrong!
Has anyone had experience of this problem? Whilst I owned the car I had the engine check lamp come on and it was a defective knock sensor to blame (known 323 problem).
Any help greatly appreciated...he's ripping his hair out in frustration!
Subject line tweak Read more
An update!
A new ignition coil pack stopped the engine-check lamp flashing.
Hi
My car was in the garage a couple of weeks ago for a new petrol tank, new clutch and brake adjustors. When i got my car back there was no water in the window washer pipe and the engine cooler tank was low, therefore i topped up both these with cold water. Since then my heater has just been blowing out cold air, regardless of the fact that the dial is on maximum temp, Any ideas or suggestions would be much appreciated.
Thank You Read more
I had this problem on mine, fixed it by changing the heater control valve. It now only blows hot air but I suspected the heater control panal was faulty a while go when the voltage did not change. (I have a spare heater control panal but its too much of a big job for me to myself).
Make sure you get the modded valve (is the 98F I think) and it will cost you about £40 from Ford.
I have spotted the above welder on ebay which seems like a good deal. I was going for a Clarke Mig but is the Clarke worth the £50 extra than this one would cost? All info gratefully received!!!
Make/Model details 'de-classified' Read more
probably wont help but my current mig is a sealey with a 130 rating,i think its micky mouse and not a patch on my old clarke? 130tc
as i said no help really
i would rather buy a piece of kit like this locally so it can go back if it doesnt work
my mig came from brown brothers by the way,but obviously machine mart would be worth a look
Just noticed that Auto Trader has improved its search facility
tinyurl.com/2scug9 Read more
I wish they added extra search filters rather than just plonking about with trim variations which they will never ever be able to keep track of. It would be useful if you could search not only for trade and private cars but also subgroups of trade - like "Franchised and main dealers only" (it's already specifically marked on autotrader pages, so they do already have a field in their database) or if you could filter searches by "listings with more than 1 picture" (who wants to waste time on lazy sellers posting just catalogue picture).
It would also be useful if autotrader finally disallowed listing of cars less than 3 years old for less than £1000 (so you don't get two pages of "clever" traders advertising PCP for £250 and "£100 - Price is for deposit" etc etc).
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[ Anything I drive can and will be used against me ]
Hello,
I'm tired of the windscreen sucker for my TomTom One version2 falling of the windscreen and so I'm looking for a decent air vent mount.
There is a huge amount of choice out there (from TomTom's own models to the cheap Chinese imports on eBay).
Can someone suggest a decent mount that they have experience with?
Thanks in advance, Chris. Read more
Hi guys
Thanks for suggestions. I've decided to go the eBay route. I do believe that you get what you pay for so I'll keep my fingers crossed that this one's OK
Chris
I have decided which car I want next, but have no idea what I can expect to pay at auction!
I have looked carefully at the Vauxhall website which gives Glass's part exchange values, and the model I am after is not listed on www.smag.co.uk for sales/prices realised within the past month.
As a rule of thumb, could I expect to pay 10% less at auction than the above mentioned Vauxhall website part/ex values, plus of course commissions and fees?
Oh...its going to be a late model Civic type S circa 2004/04.
Thanks for any guidance
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Thanks for the info pd
I shall ring the two BCA sites and find out the year and colour. I am being a bit picky...then I shall try and find someone to bid for me!
Can anyone help me work out the best way to pay for a new Mini Cooper S convertible and how new compares to buying second hand?
Dealers PCP?
Personal Loan?
Leasing?
I'm trying to figure out the bottom line cost so I can make a valued decision.
A car is going to cost me money so I have been trying to put together a spreadsheet to work out what each option will cost when taking into account all the different variables, interest, depreciation, deposit etc.
The current deal our local dealer has put to us is the following (3 year PCP):
Mini Cooper S Sidewalk
Cost new: £21,000
Deposit: £ 5,000 (a Megan 1.4, either we sell it or trade it)
Remainder to finance: £16,000
Guaranteed value af £10,000 (after 3 years)
Amount left to finance: £ 6,000
Monthly amount: £ 250 (there abouts, got him down from £280)
We will have paid £ 9,000 for £6,000 of credit
For comparison a loan at current rates would be: £ 6,583
Should the dealer be doing better than this, especially if he making me pay £3000 to borrow £6000 over 3 years - should I be comparing that rate with current rates, the PCP "balloon" confuses the matter as this Guarenteed future value of £10,000 might be more?
Arrrrrg!
Cheers,
Ben. Read more
Lingscars.com offering Mini con for 199 PM +vat,seems cheap to me.
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Porsche gave up on the 911 after the first year. Right first time with that one.