For the last couple of years I have regassed the aircon in my Mazda 626 only for the aircon to stop working after a few months presumably because there's a leak. This year I thought I would see if I can get the underlying issue fixed. Tonight I spoke to an aircon specialist who said that he would charge me £20 to tell me what's the cause of the leak. He said that he didn't need to charge the system to find the problem.

From speaking to garages in the past I thought it was difficult to identify aircon leaks. They talked about having to regas the system with some fluorescing dye to find the leak.

So is it possible to diagnose an aircon fault without charging the system or is this aircon specialist simply going to charge me £20 to tell me the condenser has gone, which I suspect is the most likely reason for the gas leaking anyway?

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Thinking of buying a 02 plate Laguna 2.2dci sportswagon 74000miles full Renault history,
I have read of problems with turbos/ERG vavles blow engines on the 1.5and 1.9 dci engines does the same apply to the 2.2 engine, Is there any other probs to look out for or should i steer well clear?
Thanks
Tony Read more

Was driving along yesterday when the gear lever suddenly became very loose, even when in gear. Gears are difficult to find, though do at least work, and reverse is particularly tricky. Clutch feels okay, though, and it is drivable provided one is careful in gear placement.

Moving it around in neutral reveals some clunky noises - particularly at the extremities.

Any idea what the problem might be and more important, is it likely to be expensive? Got a cam-belt service coming up in a couple of weeks. Car only cost £500, so if it's going to be major problem might think twice in having the work done. Any thoughts welcome. Read more

We wanted to see the faded grandeur of Cuba before Fidel Castro pops his clogs and there?s soon a MacDonalds on every corner. So, after doing fair amount of research (thanks HJ forum) SWMBO and I booked a flydrive holiday to Cuba.

If you haven?t got time to read further I?ll summarise my feelings here and now by saying DON?T DO IT.

We had learned that road signs were few and far between, sat navs banned and maps very difficult to source locally ? undeterred we bought maps here in London and bought a compass (thanks HJ forum again). We had just about every guidebook ever published including 3 editions of Lonely Planet ! I bought some Learn Spanish CDs and spent maybe 20 hours trying to learn the basics, as my knowledge of Spanish prior to this was limited to only the usual ?2 beers per favor?. The Virgin flight to Havana was very pleasant even though it was full (451 souls on board according to the purser) and we had 3 car free days in Havana itself. At check?in to the hotel we were told our floor in the hotel had had a water leak and we were upgraded to a better place for the night. We learned later that in fact one whole floor of our hotel was out of use and had been for weeks. No work was going on and I got the impression they needed to cannibalise that floor?s fittings for other rooms leading eventually I suppose to the closing-down of the place in years to come owing to the never ending shortage of materials and supplies. It goes without saying that in the 35 C heat the air conditioning didn?t work. We found this sort of dilapidated state in hotels time and time again all over the country.

The number and assorted types of old cars in the streets were far better and varied than I?d expected and the smell and dense fumes coming out of most of them was pretty bad. I guess they make up around 30% of all traffic in the country and are typically American 1950s and 1960s with a few Moskvitches and European makes represented too. The newer cars were Ladas, stretch limo Lada taxis and VW group modern ones. I?m no expert on old US cars but I guess they were all represented ? the problem was that usually where the original name had been spelt out in individual letters in chrome on the bonnet the letters had since fallen off and not been replaced. So you?d see a CHE - - - L - T , a HUD - ON, and a D- - GE. I drooled over one immaculate red Chevrolet Impala but its condition was the exception. There were plenty of 1950?s station wagons used as MPVs and they were usually crammed full with families. All the wood trim had usually gone and the cars re-sprayed all over in one colour. I didn?t see a single intact windscreen and a lot of quarter lights where replaced with solid plywood panels. Most tyres were bald and I picked up a thing or two about tyre construction too.

English cars were represented with a Ford Zephyr 6, 105E Ford Anglia, Austin Devon and a few Hillmans.

You?d see plenty of abandoned and cannibalised wrecks just parked by the road side where the owners had presumably just given up trying to keep them going. A lot of ex-Canadian yellow school buses were in use, but the broken windows, rust perforated bodies and bald tyres scared me. If you wanted to risk your life further you could try a Coco taxi ? a motorbike engine 3 wheeler with the driver out front wearing a crash helmet and the unbelted passengers in a pod at the back.

The car we picked up on Day 4 was a Seat Altea XL 1.6 litre poverty spec but with heavenly air con. I noticed plastic blanking plates in place of the side indicator repeaters and then found that no cars in Cuba had repeaters. This was clearly no problem as I soon found out that nobody bothers to indicate anyway. Just as we pulled away from the hire place SWMBO read to me from the guide book that if a driver is involved in an accident involving an injury he gets locked up as a matter of course until proven innocent ? just what I wanted to hear as we edged into the surprisingly busy Havana traffic !

Driving though a tunnel we learned that headlights aren?t used but hazard-warning lights are ? bizarre. Apparently it?s illegal to have your lights on during the day.

We got lost after 10 minutes and couldn?t find the way to the Autopista (M-Way) going south-west, so decided to do a 360 turn at the next roundabout. There are police on nearly every street corner (no exaggeration) and we got stopped by one. His English was worse than my near non-existent Spanish but it was clear we had done an illegal manoeuvre. Apparently roundabouts are only for turning off and not going around. He demanded my licence, car hire contract and passport, and after an age he got out his little book and I wondered if an on-the-spot-fine or a week in the nick were coming next. Thinking quickly I thought I?d maybe momentarily distract him by saying how lost we were in his beautiful city bla, bla, bla. He turned over his notebook and drew directions for us on the back of it and we were away ? phew ! We were maybe 5 miles from the start of the Autopista in the middle of Havana and saw only one sign to it at around the half-way point which was reassuring. We found the slip road leading to it by going past it and wondering what those crowds of people were nearly blocking the way down it ? hitch-hikers (more on them later).

Clover leaf junctions are rare and so after we did a perfectly acceptable U-turn (must have been as we copied others) on the dual carriageway we drove past our slip road which was now on the wrong side. Another U-turn later and we were on the right road. No signs, 3 lanes each way, plenty of potholes and pretty much deserted until we came to an over-bridge, where again there were hordes of Cubans sheltering from the sun in its shadow looking for a lift. I slowed down from my 70kph to walking pace trying not to kill or maim anybody and caught sight of the government appointed yellow uniformed hitch-hiking marshal. Ours was a hire car with a tourist red numberplate and we weren?t stopped. The marshal, who I saw was equipped with a clipboard with destination lists, has the power to stop all state vehicles and force the drivers to give lifts. A lot were empty trucks with people standing in the back and the crowd happily gave help to the aged and infirm to get onto the trucks. On our travels we saw all sorts of vehicles crammed with hitchers.

The Autopista presented another difficulty ? it may have had 3 lanes, naturally with no lane markings ? so ?3 lane width? is more accurate, because the slow lane often had horses and carts, bicycles and pedestrians in it coming toward us going the wrong way. Sticking to the fast lane was not on either because we found it to be used as a hard shoulder more than once with vehicles stopped in it having wheels changed. U-turns through gaps in the central reservation hedge were often done too.

Turning off the Autopista was easier because there was always one sign, no countdown markers, no repeaters just one sign before the slip road. If it was a major turn off you?d know by the crowds hitching at that point, though you?d have to decide for yourself if you were going left or right afterwards.

In maybe 800 km ? 1000 km we got stopped maybe 3 or 4 times by police checks and I didn?t see a single sales or repair garage, only the odd filling station where petrol was 95c per litre (54p at 1.77 CUC to the £).

A small comfort was that even dual-band mobile phones worked and the signal strength was excellent absolutely everywhere.

I didn?t run over anybody, the car was returned in one piece, and we got our deposit back ? what a relief.

Never, ever again.

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Just returned from a couple of weeks touring around France and thought that you guys may appreciate a tip. Make sure that you have adjusted your headlights.
On two different motorway service areas we noticed that the French Police were pulling UK reg cars over and putting one of those headlight alignment machines onto the lights. Be warned ...

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