April 2008
Does anyone else spend a couple of hours fettling / going over a new car when they get it home?
I put my hand up, I'm a fettling addict ... I'm not happy until I've had the bonnet up, engine cover off and gone round all the hoses, clips etc to make sure all joins and connections are snug, secure and properly joined.
Mind you, it has been worth it ... I've often found vacuum hoses and the like to be badly routed or kinked, or only half-pushed onto connection stubs.
In fact, the jubilee clip holding the inlet hose from airbox to turbo on my new Ford diesel was so badly fitted, that I wouldn't have been surprised if it was leaking.
What explorations do you all do? Read more
specials.uk.msn.com/autotrader
In 10 questions it claims to define what type of car you are.
Excuse me whilst I have a breakdown. Read more
I was an E-type.
hi,i have recently bought a 1996 1.8 petrol vectra,it has failed its mot on the exhaust seal at the front leaking gases,also told there in no middle box and cars emissions are too high,my engine management light is staying on and the engine revs are going up and down on idle. are these all normal symptoms for the exhaust fault or could there be another fault ? Read more
looks like i will have to get the diagnostics done any ideas ?
Paperclip trick, as previously mentioned.
I have a 1996 Xantia 1.9 TD. The clutch has 'gone' and the garage we use are advising that it might be better to write it off, as it could cost around £500 to fix - probably more than the car is worth. Any advice or thoughts?
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My dad had a Xantia like yours, it turned into an absolute money pit in the end.
It was literally one thing after another, and nothing simple either.
My advice would be to get rid.
I entered my own car into an auction this week for the very first time (a well known one I'd better not name but suffice to say its NOT BCA!) The first time it made a pretty good price although just short of the reserve, the second time it made £1500 less and the auction called to say that (I quote and I've recorded it as I record all phone calls since a bad experience with a bank a few years ago!) "The first entry was an auctioneer's bid to generate interest!!" I was quite alarmed by this as I thought the practise of auctioneers bouncing bids off the lightbulbs was something that disappeared a long time ago!
I can't say I was too chuffed as I took 2 days off work to get the car into the auction and collect it whereas if I knew the first bid was fake and the car had no hope of making anywhere near its reserve I would have driven it home after the first auction!
Is this practise still commonplace? I know one thing's for sure, I'd rather keep the car for ever than put it in that auction again, the car has also had its mirror damaged at the auction and as expected, I have no recourse! I shudder to think what happens if a driver damaged the car seriously at auction, I wouldn't be surprised if I'd have to foot the bill! Is it just me or do some auctions seem to have it totally their own way!
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Normal car insurance usually specifically excludes motor trade coverage. A car stored at an auction house is undoubtably a place of motor trade.
Besides, are you going to insure every car in the place in case you buy it?
In reality, cars do not get broken that often in a major way - but read the terms. At the fall of the hammer if you purchase a car it is your problem if they park it up by touch parking or a tree falls on it. Not worth keeping awake over but best to be aware.
Motor traders may (or may not) have specific insurance to cover cars stored at auction whether a vendor or purchaser.
Engine size:- 1800 Year:-2002
I just replaced my rover 75 car battery. I have a synphony radio installed and the unit has just come up with the code EP E02 for some reason...no matter what I try nothing seems to let me get to the code, so i can put the code for the radio in.
please, any suggestions?
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I have since rectified this problem. I disconnected the battery, re-connected and the radio just started without the code having to be re-entered. All is now well.
We are putting the 1.7 Isuzu diesel out of a cavalier into a Suzuki based off road special. We have the whole cavalier the engine came out of but need a wiring diagram to work out the alternator and other bits and bobs as they don't look straightforward, seems to be some kind of relay in the alternator circuit. we bought what claimed to be Vauxhall service manuals off of ebay for £5 (distinctly dodgy) and now know how to do all sorts of things we don't need to, but no wiring diagram.
Anyone any idea where we can get a wiring diag from?
Cheers
{tweak made to the subject line for a change} Read more
Graham
What external wiring does that one show on it's label? The rev info comes from a phase tap off one phase of the winding, pre-rectifier.
If you can see the three winding tails where they connect [soldered] to the rectifier pack; then solder on a tap there and see if that suffices.
This site has been set up to enable motorists to find decent garages in their area.
When looking through it most garages seem to have 5 stars on all aspects of customer feedbacks and I could find no negative comments on 5 garages selected at random.
I am very wary of garage listings sites which just list any garage who subscribes to them. I do not know if this website is one of these or not, but does anyone agree with comments / ratings of local garages listed on this site in their area?
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Hi and sorry for dragging this topic up again, I own a garage and was part of this last year, just recently I had a heated discussion with them and said I no longer wanted to be part of it.
Yes your right they are commercially backed by forte and because I offered my customer a choice of having forte or not having it as part of there service I was really told I wasnt wanted anymore? But I still gave every customer the correct standard service, admitting that since january I have been ill and not at garage much so my partner wasnt giving out feedback forms. But that should not have been an issue.
I also know of another garage and MOT station who have left the GGS as well. Giving me similar reasons.
One of my customers wrote to them as he was astonded at what had happened he sent me a copy of what he had sent as below
Hi,
First of all, sorry for the direct approach, but here goes!
I have been made aware that *************is no longer a member of the good garage scheme. I do actually know that the 'GGS' is basically pushed by Forte additives, but I was also led to belive that it was also backed by the government to find genuinely good garages?
I actually own quite a few cars, most of them older ones - some considered as classics. As you will probably be aware, older cars need attention to keep them in top shape, that is how I came to know of *********, highly recommended by other car enthusiasts (surely thats one sign of a good garage)
My cars are always being serviced there, and every service the mechanics or ******* have always suggested your forte products to be added (fuel treatment or oil flush etc...), and every service I have declined them. Personally I do not belive in additives that will be floating around in my engine or fuel system for the next few months. I do actually know the chemical 'make-up' of most of your products, and know that they will do little/nothing and possibly damage my older vehicles.
********* and it's employees have always been very good to me and my cars, and always honest and fair on pricing. I have never had any problems whilst using their services for the past 3+ years, on almost a weekly basis sometimes!
Surely this is the true sign of a Good Garage?
I find that your basically rubbishing their company because they wont force your products upon their loyal customers if they dont want them.
Thanks for reading this, i'm not quite sure what you will make of it, I just thought i'd put my point across to yourselves.
Mr. W. Byrne
So yes I thought by being part of this it would give yet another sign that we are a respectable company, but hey who needs that when you have good customers, loyal customers and new ones all the time. The customer is whats its all about.
:)
Posting on behalf of a colleague to try and offer him some advice.
Grand Voyager (Diesel) suffered breakdown - recovered by AA who suggested that it was likely to be an injector problem. Recovcered to main dealer as smaller outfits did not want to touch it - said they didnt want the job due to complexity etc.
Dealer removed 3 injectors and said they could be reconditioned, but No 4 needed replacing. Work completed, but problem (missing, loads of black smoke) still there. Dealer has siad that he must pay for the work they have done (17 hours labour plus parts) before they will again atempt to perform a fix.
Dosent really seem fair to me given they havent fixed the problem and bill is in 0000's not hundreds. Any advice as to where he stands? Read more
He said "There's a sucker born every minute and loads of them drive Chryslers!"
Friend of mine left his specs in an Alamo hire car at Limoges airport. We have now spent weeks trying to get them back but Alamo apparently only turn up at their desk when they have to hand over a car and there isn't even a phone there.
Needless to say, emails and phone calls to their UK operation (through whom the car was originally hired) result in no help except to say that, yes, they have the specs.
Anyone know whether Alamo is part of a bigger group so we can try another tack to get in touch with them, or have any ideas about how to achieve a response?
I guess cheap deals on the internet aren't always the cheapest... Read more
We shall see and I will report back. You never know, they might be ok.......
I had a hire car from Alamo at Heathrow recently, booked via Holidayautos (lastminute.com) for an all inclusive pack except for fuel and tyre/windscreen cover. It was a painless experience. The pick-up was "your car is in zone X - just go and take any car from there that you like". Chose a car which had a printout saying there was a minor chip on the windscreen, handed that in at the gate and off I went. On returning the car, there was just a quick check for new damage with a printed receipt given to me confirming everything was OK.
They also do not seem to have a good name in Florida,
As I said before, US operation has nothing to do with the UK. The link I posted earlier has their UK HQ details. Write to their CEO and your problem should be resolved "pronto". [I had recently been suffering bad service at the hands of Sky for weeks, in the end I wrote an email to James Murdoch and my problems were sorted the next day! ]
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Yes, I always give any new car a thorough going over and read the whole handbook several times over (which with a Merc is not disimilar to reading War & Peace!).
But modern car design conspires against us fettlers. Too many undertrays and engine covers to have a caual glance at things. The worst by far was my Boxster. To even see the engine required quite considerable disassembly - not the sort of thing you could do in an idle 5 minutes.