December 2007
Hi,
Just purchased a 2003 Astra Elegance estate (Petrol/dual fuel LPG). 1598cc 5 speed manual.
Can the air conditioning system be the sole cause (as suggested by my GP) of the nausea, headaches, cold/flu like symptoms that my partner and I have started to jointly encounter since using this vehicle?
Can the whole of the air intake including the air conditioning system be disinfected in anyway?
If so ? how?
Even after just short journeys I am leaving the vehicle ?not feeling as well as I did? when I first got in.
When used for extended periods with the ECO [this means the air con is disabled] displayed the whole system is leaving us with exceptionally dry skin (even worse when you use the air con) and is causing us both to have breathing difficulties.
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Hi,,, i bought a Masai Mara 2003 1.8 Free lander 56546 miles, my problem is this i bought the car 5 months ago from a secondhand dealership, before buying the Freelander my husband and i asked about Headgasket problems ect with Land Rover, the dealers response was that it wasn't to big a deal and that he would put a fluid into the engine which was effective in preventing this happening,,, however a month after my 3month warranty ran out i have no car, im told the Headgasket has gone and it would be cheaper to just replace the whole engine,,,, i feel done, have i a leg to stand on??? within the first 3months of warranty i had to take the car back because of the TC and HDC light kept going on when i braked, i was advised it was a loose connection,,,,, any ideas would be appreciated, so what you all think do i have a leg to stand on here?? Read more
Thanks for the reply guys,, hmmmm Radweld seems to be coming up quite a bit, however it was through mouth rather than on paper he stated he would put this fluid into the engine,, so we are going to see what he says and hopefully he will have a bit of compassion and help with the costs if not fix it himself,,, if we knew what we knew now we certainly would have given this hunk of junk a wide birth!!!!!!!!!!!
It was announced in "The Sunderland Echo" that The Qashqai has reached 100,000 sales in 9 months. The largest markets are U.K. Russia and Italy
Some interesting facts are an average of 850 are built a day at the Wearside Plant.
920 different combinations have been manufactured.
It takes 10.5 man hours to build
Hope this information is of interest to backroomers.
Hoseman Read more
Seems to be part of standard car manufacturers' marketing to announce that new cars are beating all sales targets and factories can't cope.
See:
Nissan Qashqai
Fiat 500
VW Tiguan
this guy was in such a hurry he thought he'd try a short-cut, Atlanta style...
www.wsbtv.com/slideshow/14843790/detail.html?taf=a...l
looks like the airbag had gone off when he went through the railings so it's just as well it didn't go the whole way :) Read more
That's one effective cable barrier. Judging by the depth that the cables have cut into the car, it must have been going at quite a speed when it hit them. Accidentally?
The local police may have some interesting questions for the driver. Maybe he was trying a tribute to Evel....
Seems to be the current vogue in road tests (all types of media, so this isn't anti-HJ) to comment on the inclusion of "soft touch" plastics.
I'm trying to recall any occasions in the last 40+ years that I've actually touched a dashboard apart from infrequent cleaning. Whilst steering wheel, gearstick, handbrake need a decent feel (I'm reminded of this with the plastics on the steering wheel of the Hyundai Getz hire car I'm usng currently), I think the remaining areas are of little concern. Presumably these soft touch plastics cost extra, which is passed on.
Is it the marketing men at work? Read more
Torque is cheap...:-)
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
Hi,
I purchased a BMW 320d from a BMW main dealer last year and the 1 year warranty that came with the Car is running out shortly. The Car is approaching 4 years old and has done 27000 miles.
Can anyone recommend any third party warranty cover providers? and are there any specific areas of the Car that I should be looking for to be covered?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions! Read more
Quite a bit cheaper than a grand though !
As it's the party season and most of us will end up going to a party somewhere and deciding who we are going to chat to, I thought it might be interesting to find out who BR's would gravitate towards if there were a BR drinks party.
Personally, I think I would seek out Lud, his posts nearly always bring a bit of a smile and a laugh - Maybe even Altea Ego to dispel his myths about fat hairy truckers, oh, maybe not then!! ;o)
Over to you > Read more
Midnights a long stretch, when you`re biologically programmed to be up at 5.30 every morning :0)
Dear All,
I am buying a car this weekend and looking for urgent advice. I currently have a nearly non-working Mitsubishi Galant (which has done me well) and it WILL be replaced this weekend.
I do about 40k miles per year and my budget is £5k and am looking at three cars which seem good deal in one being a Honda 2002 CRV with 80K miles and the two- a 2001 Nissan Primera Sport with 36k miles and lastly 2001 Saab 9-5 with 71K miles.
I carry reasonable amount of stuff in the boot and reliability is crucial to me, though regarding the Honda above, I'm concerned about it's current 80k mileage and whether it can cope with myself pushing it to around 200K miles after three years (provided I service it of course).....please advice with whatever opinion you have ?
Thanks in Advance
Dlyricist Read more
Primera - I have just bought a 2002 Primera 1.8S from a Ford dealer for £4.5k with 43k miles, FSH, immaculate condition. Plus they gave a £200 over book price on my trade-in. Spacious car, plenty of kit, big boot (though reviews say it is narrow). Feels well-built and solid, but you sit quite high and seats are hard.
Saab 95 - we also have a 2001 estate, 120k miles on it, but had a new catalyser and DI cassette (paid by Saab) a year ago. Looks great, seats are really comfy - much better than the Primera for cruising on the motorway, and you feel like you are in an executive car (unlike the Primera). Down side is reliability - problems with sludge in oil sump on many 9-5's. MPG is poor and you need to find a good independant specialist to service it at a reasonable price. However, these are fantastic value second hand (compared to Merc, BMW, Audi - which also have their problems) and if you get a good one it will be a great car. 5 star ncap too, I think.
Honda CRV - my sister has a 2002 CRV, which has had no real faults since new (radio went a bit funny once). She finds boot space plenty big enough for gear from 3 kids. Comfy but poor mpg. 4x4's aren't for me, but if you need that kind of car it would probably be a good choice. Probably keep it's value the best of the three.
Of the three, I find the Saab the nicest place to be for long periods.
I'm now entering the third Winter running my Panda 4x4 with the 1.2 FIRE petrol engine. Whenever the temperature drops below 0C. the engine will not rev properly for the first few seconds running the car from cold. It's nothing more than a minor irritant. I've posted on the Fiat Forum and the best explanation there is that it's due to a mapping fault on the ECU,a design fault and not remediable.
Has anyone else experience of this on what is, after all, a very common engine in the Fiat range? I don't really need a cure, just interested in the cause, that's all. Read more
My Punto has what must be the same, or virtually identally tuned, 1.2 and it's feels "not quite right" on cold mornings - as you say it doesn't last any length of time.
It has had a proper 2 year service in the last couple of months, including plug change, and it isn't any different to last year when it was a year old.
It would appear to be a feature of the model.
The thing which really does confuse it is to drive a few hundred yards on a cold morning, stop for five minutes and then restart.
Once it gets a sniff of warm air off the exhaust manifold into the air intake it's OK, but before then it's probably a bit flooded.
My wife damaged our VW recently so guess who had to drive the hire car. At first, I wan't that impressed by the Toyota Yaris T-spirit as it is quite noisy on the motorway but I soon got to enjoy driving it.
This evening, after a hard day in the operating theatre, I went out to the car park to find the car would not open with the remote control. I had to call out the AA. The AA man stated that "nothing ever goes wrong with Toyotas - it must be a flat battery". I then remembered that I had used my headlights as it was dark and rainy on the morning drive to work and as I was a little late dashed out of the car the moment I got to the car park. The car started instantly with the AA booster battery.
On the drive home, I realised that the last time this happened to me was over 20 years ago, driving a 1975 Ford Escort Mark II. I have not been particularly assiduous since this, it is just the fact every car I have ever owned since, from my Mark III 1981 Ford Escort, Peugeot 405, Nissan Primera, Ford Galaxy etc has always turned off the headlights once the car was switched off. My current VW Touran and MINI both monitor any power drain on the battery and switch off headlights, side lights and interior lights if they are left on by mistake.
The Yaris does have a headlight-on beeper which I ignored in my haste but why does a 2007 car not prevent this most obvious of human errors.
Are there any other cars on the market like this?
Fortunately my wife's VW has now been repaired so I get to drive to work in the MINI Cooper D tomorrow whilst the disgraced Yaris gets to sit on the kerbside before going back to the car hire firm.
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My Dad's Meriva has a warning buzzer if leave any lights on, including the indicators & of course leaving the keys in the ignition.
Can be annoying at times!
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Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
Browse
DD & all,
That was spot on info you gave me - many thanks for the help!
My last Astra was the Swing Mk3 (1998 1.4 5 speed manual) - tomorrow I would have been in the engine compartment 'looking' for something that just was not there - need I say more?!