Heading South on the M1 last week, I was moving at a fair speed in the second lane overtaking an Artic.
Suddenly a Golf blasted past doing about 90MPH, cut in front of me, then making as though to move into the right lane.

Nothing exceptional about that. But his right rear tyre was a miss shaped blur, with smoke pouring off it. I flashed him a few times as he accelerated away and he almost lost it as he moved into the right lane, then swerved across my front, between two artics and onto the hard shoulder.
It made me wonder how long he had been losing pressure in that tyre, not noticing the different feel, or for that matter the smoke.

Are some people now driving without awareness of tyres, punctures, pressure loss etc?

A few years ago, I also saw someone in the city driving slowly on the wheel rim, (flat tyre flapping) looking unaware and unconcerned.


Read more

For several years I have watched the antics of a man who regularly follows and overtakes me on my journey to work. He leaves his headlights on full beam, tailgates until he gets an opportunity to overtake, and then cuts in, all done without indicators.
It's not just me - he works his way up a line of traffic all going at a reasonable speed on a single carriageway A-road. He cuts people up, gets flashed by oncoming drivers, but seems not to notice anyone else.

Well today I passed the scene of an accident that must have happened about 5 minutes after he passed me. He had clearly run into the back of someone. Both cars looked slightly crumpled. He and the other driver were standing, unhurt.
A few minutes on I passed an ambulance, and then a police car, with lights on, presumably going to the scene.

I sincerely hope no one was seriously injured. But I can't help the feeling of I told you so, because he really was a man looking for an accident. Read more

My Altea is a 2.0 (FSI) Sport automatic, I have had it from new, there is 52000 miles on the clock, and it is 3.5 years old. {so approx 2004 then? I'll add it to the subject header, as per the requests mentioned here and there}

In February this year, 2008, I had a major fault with the coils to the engine (sorry I have the error code somewhere but could not find it this evening), which when checked at my SEAT dealer was identified as a problem only applicable to the 2.0 petrol automatic engines used in the first three months of the model being launched (my engine fell into this category) that required the engine coils to be replaced free of charge. The coils were replaced at the beginning of March 2008.

I had reported this problem to my dealer at least 3 times in the previous years but they always said, no trace of fault on computer printout. After the major problem occurred I developed a water loss, on average .25 ltr/500 miles. My dealer pressure tested the engine at the beginning March when the coils were replaced, but advised me that there was no trace of a leak. The problem of water loss continued, and today the car was left at the dealer and they have phoned me to say that the head gasket has blown and gave me an estimate of the likely repair cost.

I have told them that I am not happy with this.

I told them that I suspected that the coils failure, which caused very erratic misfire on three cylinders, was the cause of the head gasket blowing.

Am I correct? Any guidance would be appreciated.

I have asked my dealer to contact SEAT and ask that they accept an out of warranty repair.
Read more

Hello again,
I failed my MOT the other day with a report saying that

'(both front)brake disc excessively pitted [3.5.1h]'

What does this exactly mean, as i have had a look at the disc's with a friend of mine who know a lot about cars, and he seems to think that they are fine.

can some one explain what that means?

(would a picture help?)

Tom Read more

can anyone please confirm which side windscreen wiper ford part no. F1124510 is? Read more