November 2007
As the title says,
Ive just had a very nice itinerant person in and he offered me £2 for every scrap battery i had,i told him i would settle for a plate or a balloon only,but what a sign of the times being offered money for them,it looks like as everyone now knows the true value of old cataclysmic converters the new word is lead
£200 a tonne now scrap batteries but how many batteries would make that tonne? anyone.
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I have a Forester S Turbo registered in June 2000 which has covered just 40,000 miles - the handbook shows the timing belt should be replaced at 4 yrs/48,000 altho' I have read elsewhere 3 yrs/36,000 miles - the original belt was replaced in Nov 03 at 25,500 miles so in theory is now due be replaced again. I really wonder if a belt needs to be changed after only 15,000 miles/48 months however a local Subaru dealer, the sort that also sells combine harvesters etc., has quoted £340 inclvse parts/vat for a 12,000 miles service and belt change which sounds fairly reasonable and a lot less than a blown engine but are there any other bits i.e pullies/tensioners that should be changed at the same time?
More generally I shall soon be needing some new tyres and as the Forester is not particularly heavy I would prefer to fit normal saloon road tyres than the stock 216/60/16V Yokohama Geolanders (Geosquealers) which a squidgy mild off-road tyre but there is a much bigger selection available in 225/55 which about same radius and no clearance problems but would fitting these count as a modification as far as my insurers are concerned?
Any opinions appreciated
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Many thanks re cambelt, I have heard before that unusual for Subarus to break a belt but on the Murray Walker principle I think I will change it sooner rather than later!
Caught up with an all too rarely seen petrolhead cousin at a family gathering yesterday. He's currently smoking around in a 1991 Celica GT-S Japanese import.
All history is fully documented and here are some staggering statistics:
244,000 miles on the clock (he bought it with 195,000)
Original engine, gearbox and clutch
In his ownership it has been serviced four times and has had the rear suspension rebushed and a pair of CV joints.
A quick blat round the block showed is drives absolutely superb. Steering taut and responsive, pulls like a train, and even the gearchange is tight.
How do they do it??
Cheers
DP
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04 Grand Scenic 1.9 dCi Dynamique
00 Mondeo 1.8TD LX
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Celica's are incredibly reliable.
I've had two; an '88 and the newer shape 1990 model.
The '88 was 10 years old when I got it and was mechanically perfect - everything worked and it pulled like a train. Dreaded tin worm was the reason for parting company - it was just too expensive to keep on top of the bodywork (the wheel arches and the sunroof are notoriously bad). I'd bought the newer shape Celica, so I sold it as I couldn't justify running two of them at the same time.
The 1990 was fully galvanised, and body wise was near perfect (it WAS perfect when we eventually parted company!). Mechanically it was fine, but I had the (noisy) gearbox reconditioned (known weakness), and a full stainless steel exhaust fitted. I'd intended to run it for a year, and sell it on, but ended up keeping if for 7 years!
In all those years, and over all those miles, neither car let me down. They would start first turn of the key, even when covered in ice and snow.
Servicing is critical though - I think its a maximum of 6000 miles or six months between visits to Mr Toyota (or preferably Mr Toyota-Expert-But-Not-Franchised-Dealer)
Back problems caused me to sell the Celica - access for someone 6'5" isn't easy, and a manual gearbox is now a real no-no. Saying that, once in the car, it had the most comfortable seats I have ever found, and loads of head and leg room (with seat in the lowest position, but not pushed back fully).
My dream garage has a 1992 Celica GT4 Carlos Sainz in it - even if I couldn't drive it!
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Colin-E
Morning All,
I am in the process if trying to sell my Mondeo and have advertised it on the autotrader website. I have had no response so far despite advertising it at what I thought was a reasonable price, but I wonder whether I have made things a bit more difficult for myself in another respect.
After I had bought the car it turned out that the trader had clocked the mileage (down from 88k to 58k) I was one of about 70 people he had done this to, so at least I wasn't alone and have learnt from it. I now have all the documentation from Lex, the previous owners, saying what their disposal mileage was, and also a full service history in the form of a printout. I do know, therefore, what the true mileage is to within about 400 miles.
Currently on the advert I have briefly written about the mileage issue, but I wonder if that has put people off ringing. I don't want there to be any comeback if, for example, I don't mention it in the ad, although I would be up front about everything with people when they ring/come to view, if I were to take out of the ad any mention of the 'history'.
I also used the autotrader telesafe phone number system- is that likely to put purchasers off, as it does cost a fair bit more than if they were to ring me direct?
For info, the car is an 02 Mondeo 2.0 Zetec Hatch with 111k, in pretty good condition with FSH, 6 mths tax and mot up at £2395.
Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.
Nick Read more
Thanks for the advice all. I reworded the advert on Monday just leaving the true mileage, and not mentioning the problems, had a few phone calls when I explained about the issue and didn't seem too much of an issue to the callers. Anyway, sold it yesterday so thank you!
2007 3.2 multitronic driven hard.
Love the car but recently there is the smell / taste of exhaust fumes in the cabin, its not pleasant and I am not sure if its general pollution (Sussex / Kent) or the car.
Any ideas before I go to the dealer? Read more
For what it's worth, we had exactly the same problem with our diesel Galaxy as the temperature dropped for the first time last winter - really serious stink of burnt diesel in the cabin.
Speaking to the dealer we discovered that the heater matrix is actually diesel fuelled so if you turn the engine on with the climate control set to anything above the ambient temperature it fires itself up with a burst of diesel to produce hot air in advance of the engine warming up.
The cure for this was to switch the climate control off at the first turn of the key and then to put it back on once the car was moving and the engine was warming up. Bizarre - but it works. Perhaps you have something similar going on?
hi,
have seen a 2003 53 Bora TDI PD 150bhp 6 speed for sale at a garage local to where I work.
The car is metallic black.
Mileage is 88k with full VWSH
Car is advertised at £6400.
Is this a good price for the car?
Does anyone have any advise on purchasing the above model?
Anything I should look out for?
Thanks Read more
Highline
Picture the scene today in Glasgow. Two lanes on an incline at traffic lights. Right hand lane goes on to become a slip road for the motorway. Lights don't stay on green for long.
Driver of a mobile crane is probably about 10 cars back from the traffic lights in the right lane. When the lights change green, all the vehicles in front of him go. By the time he has built up his revs and physically started moving, the lights have changed to red again. Meanwhile all the cars from the left hand lane move to the right in front of him as they are joining the motorway.
Repeat 5 times after which I gave up watching and he still hadn't reached the lights!
It cannae be fun driving one of these through a city centre!
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2007 Seat Altea XL 2.0 TDI (140) Stylance
2005 Skoda Fabia vrS Read more
yes I mean through the traffic.
Better than through my hedge!!
MD
Caught at 101 in a 50 and claims it was his son -
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/7075427.stm
Six weeks in prison should concentrate the mind!
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Although I do not for one minute condone it, the amount of people who do this on a daily basis (Name somebody else on a NIP) is huge. Most people, wrongly, dont see it as perjury, it's just pretending somebody else did it.
It's wrong and he should be punished but I can't help thinking that destroying his life is a particularly fair punishment.
100mph on a 3 lane dual carriageway is not the most dangerous thing in the world in a decent car, which I assume was driving, is it?
Again, its not right and he should be punished, but given he assumed he was under threat of his driving license for a single transgression of the law, you can see where he was coming from, especially if said son doesn't drive because he's at Uni or something.
Here's a useful idea. Throw away all the speed cameras (and lose all the income) and put in speed controlled traffic lights in accident areas of towns.
www.charentelibre.com/extranet_en/index.php?action...6 Read more
There are two problems I have found with these in Spain & Portugal.
The first is that you approach the lights under the speed limit, but the car behind you doesn't, and the lights change before you get there.
The second is that a fair number of the locals just drive through the red lights, so unless you put a red light camera on them...
Our 2005 1.9 Diesel Galaxy was hit at low speed by a motorcylist who was cut up while attempting to switch lanes in slow moving traffic on the M1 last weekend. He managed to lay the bike down and slid under our tow bar which seems to have taken most of the impact.
Two questions for the experts out there please: where are we best taking the car to for an inspection to ascertain whether or not there has been any hidden damage to the chassis, tow bar, running gear etc? Is our Ford dealer as good a place as any or do we need something more sophisticated than they can provide?
Secondly, when we had the car checked initially by ATS Tyres they pointed out that whoeveer replaced our tyres last ( actually a combination of said Ford dealer - front axle - and another well known tyre centre - rear axle - had managed to leave us with a mish mash of different speed gradings on the four tyres which ATS maintain is potentially dangerous. Internet searches to get to the truth of this have so far failed to provide any adequate answers. Can anyone help, do I have a come back against the companies that fitted the tyres without due regard to the speed gradings?
Thanks in anticipation. Read more
Its not 'ideal' to have different speed ratings on the same car, but provided that the tyres are the correct size and the speed ratings are AT LEAST as per the manufacturers spec for your model then its legal. There is nothing wrong or illegal with fitting a higher speed rating than spec'd by the vehicle manufacturer. Fitting a lower speed rating would be illegal though.
Browse
lol in the cause of political correctness we are not allowed to call a spade a spade.