Hi all,

I bought the above a year and a half ago - and other than having to replace a battery up until the summer this year its been fine.

Now I know summer would make more of a demand on my air con, and at same time I got a stereo fitted at Halfords where I know they did make a bit of a meal out of it - and despite them faffing on, and fitting a new aerial wire thingy (technical term?) my radio stopped working where reception was fine before.

Since then I've had allsorts of electrical problems - my heater control panel is possessed - it is either dead to the world, pumping out heat in the dead of summer, or throwing "snow" and freezing cold. The panel itself lights up and then switches off as it pleases.

That was first thing I noticed. Then my radio (well actually - more of a CD player seeing as I've never been able to use radio function) started playing dead too - no amount of banging or jiggling could sort it - but then all of a sudden after a fortnight of not working the CD would pop out and it would work fine again.

Then the bulbs in my car seemed to be going left right and centre - by now I'm starting to get a bit annoyed with the thing. And then my entire dash stops lighting up and thats it - no more diy bulb replacements and it goes to a bmw dealer.

£152 later, they say 10 wires had chafed in the boot - they'd replaced them and the popped bulbs, and all was working fine EXCEPT I need a heater control panel - which is £360 for the part.

I've tried looking on ebay for the part and notice a lot of people offering a "send in and we'll repair" service - which to be honest I'm a bit worried about doing. Its just the idea of sending a part of my car off to some anonymous person and never seeing it again!

But makes me think well if theres so many people offering this repair service is this a regular fault? Does it cost everyone £360 for just the part without the labour? Or should I try find a back street garage who could do the job for cheaper?

My car isn't the newest in the world - but other than this fault I've been quite happy with it and I was hoping to keep it and enjoy relatively low cost motoring for some years to come (is that a contradiction in terms?).

Anyway - since the first quote of £360 the electrical problem with radio and headlights seems to have come back? Any ideas anyone so I can go into my dealer/local garage with a bit more of an idea of what I need fixing?

Thanks guys :) Read more

I read that the next Jazz has a "new" 1300cc Vtec engine.
Does anyone know if it will still have the completely daft tappet adjustment, whereby, at the third service,the inlet manifold has to be removed, at great expense, to check valve clearances, and then to shim if necessary?
I recently paid ca £573 for this service, which also included new front and rear brake pads.
I have had my Jazz CVT for just over 3 years, and it has been faultlessly reliable.
The gearbox is completely smooth in operation.
The practicality of the folding seats is unmatched.I use the facility frequently.
However,servicing at the dealer is expensive.
The valve clearance job is probably for specialists with small hands and many joints.
And finally, why is there no intermittent rear wipe, except on the Sport version?
Penny-pinching on what is a premium-priced supermini. If Daihatsu can include this on all the Sirions (cheaper cars) why can't Honda?
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Apologies for the stupid question, but I've forgotten.

My two front tyres could do with replacing before the winter really kicks in. The car's done around 25k and the only other new tyre it's had was a driver's side rear back in April due to a puncture (the bloke in the tyre place had a hard enough job persuading the lease company to replace it, let alone replace both rears to make a matching set in terms of wear - they've got the same pattern).

Bearing that in mind, do I still ask them to put the rears on the front and the new tyres on the rear, or just take the new ones on the front and leave the rears?

Or have I got completely confused?

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Anyone have any knowledge of these??. My car is an 05 model.
To try and cut a long story short. My car has a plastic rod that runs between the lock in the grill and the release mechanism. It appears self adjusting and spring loaded although mine does not have a spring.
The rod keeps dropping off at the grill end. Making bonnet opening very difficult!!
Have been to the dealership for a replacement and all they can find after inputing my reg no into the parts system is a kit which has a short cable between the lock and release mechanism. It is clearly different and shoulders are being shrugged. I even ordered the kit just in case the picture was not realistic. Completely different. I had to get the 'saturday' parts lady to have a word with the technicians but that did not produce any positive results. It really is frustrating as it must be a common problem.
Does anyone know if the part has been has been modified? If so does the new kit fit what appears to be an old system.

Here is a picture I have found of the kit I was offered:

tinyurl.com/2vm6au
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Fullchat Read more

Hi, hope someone can help with this problem.
The blower in my laguna II 2002 1.6l is zoned for driver side and passanger. the driver side stopped heating last week but the other side works fine. I dont think its the A/C unit, as this works normally on the passanger side also. The fans still work (although a bit slow to start up).
Hopefully someone out there could help PLEASE!!!!! I dont want to take it to a garage incase its something I could fix myself.. Read more