Hello.

I Taxed the midget on Saturday.

How long does it normally take for them to update the vehicle enquiry website that shows whether a car is taxed.

All help appreciated.

Martin Winters Read more

A friend is a member of a city car club, a scheme that enables people to hire a car by the hour). Recently, the club has started replacing some of its fleet with Honda Civic hybrids.

I was a passenger in the Civic earlier in the week and despite consulting the manual and looking for everything likely in the index, we couldn't work out where the rear washer switch is. Can anyone shed any light on this?

Also, despite the fact that the car was a hybrid and only being used in town, we weren't aware of the electric motor taking over from the petrol engine. In fact, apart from the engine cutting out when stationary in traffic, as a passenger, I wasn't aware of being in anything other than an ordinary automatic. Was this just a sign of the battery charge being low or is the change of power source not especially obvious? Read more

Can anyone with a automotive engineering background give a view on 'performance' brake discs and whether it is worth upgrading for the average motorist. I'm thinking of the discs that have grooves and/or holes in the discs.
Call my cynical but I can't see them improving braking performance by very much. I can appreciate that the discs might run cooler, but brake pads seem to be specified up to about 600 deg. C. so you would have to be seriously working your brakes to need this extra cooling. I can't see how they would reduce the stopping distance "by up to 40%" in normal, or even very fast, road driving.
I also wonder if the grooving/drilling weakens the disc and whether they also reduce the contact area? Read more

Car is 306 HDi X-reg. {needs to be put in the subject header, see 2 separate sticky posts for info}

A few days ago, while I was parked, some unspeakable person detached my n/s door mirror so it was hanging by its electrical cable when I returned to the vehicle.

I can see the way the mirror is attached to the plastic bit fixed to the door - there is a metal tube, presumably spring-loaded, which acts as a pivot when you want to fold in the mirror and which engages with the fixed part and is locked in place with its cams and lugs.

Temporarily I have reattached the mirror with duct tape; fortunately the electrics are OK.

Question 1: is it possible to reassemble the two parts and if so, how?

Question 2: is there any point in attempting to reassemble the two parts?

Question 3: if I need to get a new complete mirror assembly, is it a straightforward job to install?

Thanks for any advice. Read more

Hi All!

Had the HG done, as we were loosing 1/2lt in 300miles or so. No loss of performance, or water in oil, so not certain if this was REAL cause of coolant loss, as it needed 2 further attempts to fix 'other leaks' after the HG!

But that's hard to quantify, so ignoring that, really. What we do have is MPG prior to repair of 27ish, now lucky to get 21!!

I have been using climate control & max heating/lights during the journey of 30miles, each way, daily, in darkness, so expect some increase in consumption.

But on a run from filling up in Luton, resetting the computer readings & straight onto M1, to start of motorway, daytime, no delays, max 6omph & no heating used, it still only got 23mpg.

So any input welcomed!

Thanks in advance!

VB Read more