November 2007
I have a Passat 2.5 V6 TDi (model '01-'05). and am interested in upgrading the headlights to xenons. VW cannot do this because, so they said at the time, the bodywork would need modifying (presumably under the bonnet) because of the extra heat generated by xenons. I thought no more about it until I happened across www.vwdiesels.co.uk who offer a xenon upgrade. A quick phone call to VW UK Service Line, and they now say the wiring loom won't support it because of the higher voltage (no mention of heat or bodywork mods). I spoke with vwdiesels who say the kit comes with a voltage converter and to date, they're not aware of any overheating problems. This sounds ok but isn't exactly a cast-iron guarantee that the front of the car won't burst into flames as I drive overnight from Land's End to John O'Groats. The cost looks very reasonable, so I'm tempted. But I'd like to know if anyone has an opinion to the contrary?
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Ihave just bought a low mileage manual Turbo D Xantia on an M plate with 69K on the clock. Full service but only used for 2,000 miles a year over the last 3 years by the old boy who had it. When I start up and drive off, I find that the power steering sometimes doesn't work and/or is intermittent for the first couple of miles. After that it is fine. Can also hear a hissing noise when I turn the wheel. I had a diesel citroen zx before that I did 149K without this noise or issue. Does anyone have any ideas?
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"This is also symptoms of a possible fault with hte Flow Distributor valve which sits behind the "extra" reservoir sphere in front of the engine."
Not on this car - I asked the question about the air bag, as the introduction of this coincided with moving to a dual output hydraulic pump (one for suspension and one for steering) and doing away with the (troublesome in later life) flow diverter.
"SO GET IT LOOKED AT QUICKLY !!!!"
Yes, I'd agree - the OP's comment about lots of clicking suggests that the accumulator is flat, and this could have an adverse affect on brake reserve pressure if the pump did go right down.....
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RichardW
Is it illogical? It must be Citroen....
You see a lot of cars with personal registrations fitted with number plates that are shorter in length than the norm. I just wondered if this was legal. I know that size and style of lettering needs to comply with regulations but am not sure about these cut down plates. Read more
The following site has very clear tables of number plate sizes and which ones it says are legal.
www.carplates4u.com/size.htm
But it does say
"THE LAW SAYS YOU MUST HAVE 11MM OF BACKING SHOWING UNDER ABOVE AND TO THE EDGES OF NUMBERS
SO YOU CAN HAVE A SMALLER SIZE PLATE AND STILL BE LEGAL DEPENDING ON THE AMOUNT OF LETTERS AND NUMBERS"
(Please ignore the shouting from the site)
So if they are correct then I bow to the earlier posters who said that normal modern cars can have smaller plates if there are a minimal number of characters.
Some further info on fonts
www.classic-number-plate.com/
Road Legal Number Plates
There are only four fonts that are permitted on road legal number plates.
The first was introduced in 1894 which was the hand painted font, this was from 1894 - 1919.
Then in the 1920's - 1964 the 3-1/2" digit was used; this was first made on solid cast aluminium, then went on to be die pressed plates from 1930's, using 5" high plates.
This then got changed in 1964 to the standard OLD font (Charles Wright) which was used up to September 2001, and had a digit height of (3-1/8").
With our European laws that came into effect Britain decided to change to our current font (New Charles Wright) which complies to BSAU145d. This was introduced because most registrations consisted of 7 characters, and this left no room on a number plate for a European flag (or Country of choice).
Hi,
I have an annoying knock coming from what appears to be the steering column of my 2000 1.6 zetec. It is only apparent while the clutch is depressed and is most evident when cornering or on uneven road surfaces. It never happens when the clutch pedal is up, only when some pressure is applied to the pedal.
I can feel the knocking through the pedal and steering wheel and sounds like something has come loose and is knocking against something, but extensive poking around in the footwell, engine bay and steering column has come up with nothing obvious.
Any ideas as to why this only happens when the clutch is pressed, and what might be causing it?
Many thanks. Read more
Embarrassingly enough, I can't remember as it was so long ago !
It was definitely out of the warranty when it started, so I remember thinking I would have probably needed to prove it was a design fault (far easier these days, thanks to useful forums like this and the odd TSB knocking about online)
I think I might have just left it and the problem gradually went away as the car got older - either that or I just got used to it over time - it certainly doesn't 'clunk' like it used to.
The reinforcement bar was supposed to stop the bulkhead flexing (which is what causes the clunk), but they did alter the design of the pedal box too.
I think there was a useful 'How To' on the FFOC site (which involved packing the pedal box securing bolts with grease as a quick-fix IIRC) but you'll need to pay to join to access those sections these days unforntunately. (Check focusowners.com forums too, in case I'm wrong and it was on there instead)
Check out these old threads for more clues :
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=1439
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=1052&v...f
Hello all.
My dad's thinking of changing his Toyota Corolla for a new Nissan Quashqai. Does anyone know if the 1.6litre petrol engine is a Nissan or a Renault engine and whether it has any known problems? I know it's still very new but are there any other known problems with this vehicle?
I have read HJ's CBC breakdown. I'm hoping the horror story told there is down to pre-production / early production quality control issues that are now sorted out.
Thanks in advance.
slt Read more
How strange to move away from a top ranking manufacturer to another, say ,lesser one, especially as the resale of the 'other' do not seem so high as Toyota.
Still, it is wonderful to have choice- but costly to make mistakes.
...you could do worse than be driving a Fiesta at the time:
//tinyurl.com/yousxz
(link to Daily Mail article)
Link not longer clickable in accordance with policies Read more
Sorry to be a pedant but its actulaly a MK4 Fiesta Ghia :) They have
a stronger chasis than the MK3.
Agreed. It doesn't have a passenger airbag either, despite the journalist saying that "both" airbags deployed. Who on earth gave them the version of events that they printed?
Oh my goodness . I've just realised that I've turned into a pedant too! :-)
Blue
Back in September SWMBO ordered a Corsa Design to replace her current EOS from the local Vauxhall Dealer. Long story.
She has a personal number and the dealer were advised of this and asked us to put it onto retention before the car arrived to make taxing the new one on the personal number easier. So far so good - they appear to know what they are doing.
Car arrived at the dealer last Monday (12th November) and we made arrangements to collect the car on Saturday. Dealer had the retention certificate and we made use of Vauxhall's 7 days free insurance with the insurance starting last Wednesday to give them a chance to tax the car.
Dealer called last Friday, "We cannot tax the car on your number, the on-line system won't let us do it"
I called DVLA helpline and they said they could do it at Shrewsbury but not on line. Called seller and told him this.
Another call from dealer "We don't have a paper V55 from Vauxhall" - Another call by me to DVLA and they said "no problem, Shrewsbury have blank forms they can fill in" - call dealer back aqnd ask to speak to principle who is not out. Speak to salesman and "ask" him to get someone to Shrewsbury to tax it.
Further call from salesman - Shrewsbury can do it but not "same day", will not be able to tax the car for Saturday! ! ! ! Accordingly SWMBO has to contact her insurer and incurs another admin charge arranging for her insurance switch on Saturday not to happen as planned. Collection was delayed until this coming Saturday (24th)
15 minutes later the dealer principal returns my call . . . . what had started off as a complaint that I was having to do the sorting out they promised to do had grown into something much bigger! He was not aware of the issue and promised to look into it. I reminded him that they only had seven days insurance from Vauxhall and that if they missed that window they would have to extend the seven days insurance.
Salesman called yesterday "Have you got an insurance certificate for the new car?"
I told him we had (the one that started at 14:00 last Saturday but that it was no longer valid (relaced by one for the current car when the pick up was delayed). I then reminded him that I had told the dealer principle that they were to sort it out if they missed the window. Aparently they still do not have a paper V55 from Vauxhall and they cannot use the blanks Shrewsbury have! They say the V55 was sent byu Vauxhall on Monday "Special Delivery" and it has not arrived - Must be with the child benefit discs! Looks like they will not be able to tax the car for this Saturday either.
Questions:
Can you tax a car with a personal number (on retention) using a handwritten V55 as DVLA helpline say or do you need the manufacturer produced one?
Is the dealer telling porkies? Read more
Correction to earlier post - it did have the value of the cheque on it. They tried to move trade in and new car prices down to suit themselves but in these days of RTI Gap it was not acceptable to us.
They have corrected the invoice and provided the mats.
Still have not told us about Vauxhall Assistance though! Blank card in handbook folder.
They won't be getting the servicing.
we seem to have reached a peak of perfection in this country
when i was a kid a car was a luxury that was molly coddled
if a door rotted your dad got one from the scrappy but it was green on a red body
then everyone seemed to get richer and that door was painted to the colour of the car
now i see cars with different coloured doors dents bald tyres etc
people in the lower brackets seem to have lost interest in standards
i see it a lot in the fact that asylum seekers etc will run anything
am i getting older with rosy tints or have standards really dropped Read more
I think sport should have some semblance of a level playing field
to be worth competing in
I'm sure Spyker used to think the same....
I was reading an article today that stated Toyota will be laying off the temporary contract staff, reducing overtime and adding 2 additional days to the normal summer shut down holiday as they need to cut back on production at Burnaston.
It seems that the credit crunch and weakening economy is making selling cars more difficult.
Are we about to see more better deals to attract us throughout next year I wonder.
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When choosing my new company car in July I was probably looking at the Mazda6 and the Avensis 2.2d T4. Why I got the Mazda6 before a proper test drive of the Avensis....
- There was a wait of over a month to get the Avensis for 48 hours
- I got the Mazda6 and liked it
- Short test drive of the Avensis... okay but really bland inside and out
- My wife liked the Mazda
- When an Avensis pointed out my wife did not like it
So even we both knew I'd be about £20pm better off in the Avensis based on my calculations I ordered the Mazda6 and cancelled the Avensis test drive and told them why.
Ironically the local Toyota business centre could lend me one straight away if they could supply the car (if ordered by me) but no it had to come from somewhere else. Then again the Mazda came from Leicester instead of Stockport.
Suppose I should have got British built.... but they are so boring to look at. And I used to have the Mondeo! The new one next year might be more exciting.... and maybe that's the other reason for a cut in staff.
Can anyone give me some pointers as to where I can go to buy a replacement exhaust for my Smart Roadster with twin exit ports placed centrally at the back of the car. Some advise on the best place to buy at a reasonable cost would be very much appreciated Read more
I concur with the above comment but don't rule out a call to one or two of your local branches of national chains. Some of the managers take their work seriously and would regard sourcing your exhaust at a reasonable price as a challenge. I took a Daihatsu YRV 4WD into HiQ in Banbury and found out that it has unique parts in the system which are not yet available off the shelf. However, the manager rang a company in Cheshire which apparently has patterns for all types of exhausts and they made the relevant box to order and sent it down within four or five days. A few years back I had one of just 70 or so RHD Volvo 164TEs and the manager of another chain knew someone who had bought up all of the old Quinton Hazell redundant exhausts and found me the unique exhaust at a not unreasonable price. Of course, you could be unlucky in your area and find someone who can't see beyond the catalogue in front of him but give it a try.
Browse
I agree with screwloose on this re Xenon headlights .My father has stopped driving a night because of these lights and I am now starting to have similar problems with glare and partial blindness from these lights, and before you say my eye sight needs attention I have had them checked and are ok.
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rustbucket (the original)