May 2008
No, that's not a typo.
British police are looking into acquiring the new Caparo T1 (£250,000) as a quick response unit.
Yes, this is the car that recently burnt Jason Plato whn he tested it on 5th Gear, and was plagued with problems when Jeremy Clarkson tested it on Top Gear.
tinyurl.com/5daz8z (links to bleacherreport.com)
Going on its reliability to date, I don't think joyriders will have much to worry about.
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My Brother dropped his car round saying it had a rattle. I soon found out what it was when the Aux drive belt fell off.
The Crankshaft pully! He Chose a new economy one from GSF £49.50+ Vat. GSF's other one was £84.50 + vat
The problem is that I'm not quite sure on the correct positioning or routing of the new belt.
Best ask a silly question if it prevents a silly mistake.
Has anyone out there got a picture of the correct routing or positioning of the Aux Drive belt Please.
Many thanks in anticipation.
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Hi Whisky,
I'll let my brother know and I'm sure he'll feel better knowing that your GSF Crankshaft Pulley is still up & running after 60k.
The Auxilary belt was a bit of a pain to fit but it's up and running now, purring like a pussycat.
Thanks for everyones input.
All the best
Steve
Hi, a couple of months ago, i brought a used car from a used car dealer, the car did come with waranty but this doesnt cover the cost of the repair.
I had the car for just over 3 weeks when it developed fault and its now been over 6 weeks now since first left the vehicle with them to repair it.
My question is i know the bill will come to more than what is covered by waranty which came with vehicle, how do i stand in regards to payment. do i have to pay ie like the difference or do the garage pay??
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thank you for the info.
Hey all,
I hope someone can help me with this. I am looking to buy a car from a garage, so please no advice on getting a better deal by going private!!! (hee hee!!)
I have been searching for a few weeks on autotrader online and after viewing a few lemons i think i have found the car i am looking for. However, on autotrader website, you can normally click a link that takes you to the dealers website, and others all you see is just a mobile number. The car i have seen is listed as been sold by Priory Direct in Doncaster, but i cannot find a website, nor does a goole search show their garage. A search for their postcode brings up a residential estate, yet they are listed as traders on autotrader.
They have offered me 3 month warranty as oppose to their standard 1 month and when you call you are greeted by "Priory Direct".
Can someone eplain this, as i was hoping to turn up to a garage with a forecourt.
Thanks!! Read more
heh heh. :-)
No, I can't work out why you'd protect the personal information of a car either. If you were asking for the name and address of the person they invoiced, then perhaps.
Cheers
DP
Makes that car sound pretty delectable, unfortunately not just to those with the income to sustain one. No one rich needs to feel guilty about 25 mpg, or nearly.
The thing is handsome too although fairly Euro-anonymous.
But isn't that knob-controlled transmission similar to something BMW brought out a couple of years ago and that people complained about? Read more
shopping mall in the US last week
- a Maserati Quattroporte was also on display.
Of course the contemporary Maseratis - the coupe too - are the most beautiful cars being made just now. So beautiful that they might make one feel a bit self-conscious, although perhaps one could force oneself to get used to it. I find myself becoming more retiring as I get older. There's something comfortable about more or less total anonymity. It doesn't incense passers-by as much as the other thing.
It would be interesting to see how they would compare with the Ford-made Jaguars for general reliability and economy in use. I would expect the Maseratis perhaps to be thirstier, and perhaps harder work to drive and live with (not that that would be a problem really).
On Jaguar aesthetics: the pushrod-engined pre-XK Mk V, and before that the 3.5 and 2.5 litre models, were indeed sort of poor man's - or anyway bookies' - Bentleys, and rather looked it. The Mk VII to IX cars always looked a bit too porky and roly-poly to me and the Mk X was indeed a bit of a dog aesthetically. The twin-cam engines were hearty and tweakable but Jaguar brakes were always regarded as distinctly iffy (really effective drum brakes being very expensive to make and finicky to maintain). But Jaguar made up for it by developing disc brakes for automotive use.
Hi all,
I've got a 92 Corrado with the 16v lump. It broke down last night after a bit of kangerooing. Turns over fine and produces an excellent spark. The RAC towed me home and the patrolman said it sounded like the in tank pump had just about had it. Is this an easy job to do and does anyone know of a repair/maintenance manual for it.
Cheers Read more
It was reported on BBC Look North West today that Roger Jones, the champion of the congestion charge for Greater Manchester, who lost his seat in the recent local elections, is to ask the Police to investigate Peel Holdings. He alleges that they spent thousands of pounds on a survey about congestion charging and villified him.
Here's a link to the election results. tinyurl.com/6782hw
He must think that voters were in favour of such a charge until Peel Holdings exercised their minds.
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about fuel duty & excise duty! It CAN be done: as in the case of Roger Jones!
Only by getting rid of the whole lot (of all colours) and replacing them with our own- I reckon we're stuck with it, the best we can do is try to influence the rate of increase (which I reckon is possible)... Our MPs are so protected from real life with the massive salary and added perks that they just don't appreciate how expensive things are - otherwise why on earh would they think that inflation is really below 3%!!!!!!!!!!
Hi all,
Need a bit of advice from anyone in the know please.
Have a strange problem with a VW Passat I just brought. Its got 83k on the clock, 1.9 tdi 130 on a 2002 plate.
I started up one morning and drove off. All seemed fine until I tried to overtake a car and found I had no acceleration left - the car had no pull, it felt like a 1000cc mini or something.
I did all the usual things, turning the engine off, waiting, restarting, etc. Nothing made any difference. It stayed that way until I spoke with a friend who said to take the petrol cap off and start the engine, so I did that and funnily enough it worked and all power came back to the engine.
About 400 miles later the same thing happened - I 'fixed' it in the same way.
I think the idea was that no air was getting into the tank and a vacuum was building. By opening the tank it was released.
I took the car into a VW garage and they ran the tests. Apparently one of the cylinders is misfiring and thats their reasoning for the loss of power. But I don't see why it would be resolved by opening hte fuel cap, and wouldn't it show power loss all the time with a mis fire??
I only question this as they told me the car may need a new turbo system, or injectors. They want to run a compression test at 2 hours labour and then depending on the results rebuild the head gasket (??) or replace the turbo system (ata cost of 1500!)
any thoughts anyone - I've seen a lot of talk about the mass air flow on these cars but have no idea if that might be relevant in this case...
thanks in advance
Richard
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Hi,
thanks for the reply. The garage stated they had done a diagnositic and it reported back a missfire. Next they need to do a compression test to confirm which one etc.
However I don't see how that would effect the power loss.
Still, in answer to your questions:
I was driving the car for around 30 mins. Stopped went into a shop for 10 mins or so and came back out. When I started it the car sounded different, but it was only when I tried to overtake did I notice the power loss. It struggled to reach 65mph, no grunt at all.
There was no warning lights were present. I pulled over and stopped, re started the car. (Various styles, ie turned off but left key in, turned off key out.turned off and sat there for a few minutes) the power was still gone. This happened unitl I spoke to my friend. maybe 80 miles or so... including a break of driving for a good few hours.
My friend advised to remove the fuel cap and it all worked from there. One point to note which I may have forgotten - I had to start the engine with the fuel cap off. It didn't work when taking the cap off and back on unless I started the engine with it off.
This has happened twice now and both times I've resolved it using this method.
Possibly unrelated - when I start the car for the first time each day I see a large amount of white smoke from the exhust - it has a diesel smell, I guess its just running a little rich, maybe the ECU needs tweaking - unless this means something else to you? It doesn't happen after the inital start each day.
thanks for all your help, I'll look up that fault in the meantime.
Richard
how difficult is it to change cam belt and water pump on s reg 2.0 mondeo. and what are the problems. Read more
I did my cam belt recently.
I would not say it was difficult but just more ackward than it should be. There is not that much space and no real thought has been given to making a belt change easier. My polybelt tensioner had nothing to turn it with, only the bolt through the pulley I am not sure
whether thats normal or someone had broken a piece off previously.
I bought the correct timing set with a pin for the cranshaft and a metal strip for the camshafts which made it easy to find and keep TDC on number one. This could be improvised if you have suitable bits lying around. The crankshaft bolt was very tight so even though one pin claimed to be for holding it I did it the old fashioned way in first gear with the wheels on the ground.
I jacked up the offside front and turned the engine using the road wheel. The block needs supporting as the middle cover is also the engine mount (if its a black top).
The tensioner is mechanical and a bit fiddly to set up. A new one is recommended and comes with the Ford OEM belt as a kit.
Took about five hours altogether but would expect to reduve it to three if I did it a second time.
Water pump should be around 30 minutes
Hello,
I've been reading a lot of information on turbo failures on cars like BMW 320D models.
Just wondering is there any maintenance that needs to be carried out on turbos besides the normal oil, oil filter & fuel & air filter change.
My passat has 170,000 miles on the clock and I'd like it to stay climbing gracefully without problems ;-)
Thank you,
Carlover
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My ancient (1995) 405 td still pulls very strongly after 121k. Most of my mileage is mway and I always idle before switch off. I dont claim to understand the technical side of this but it may well have helped the turbo last. I always change the oil every 5k without fail.
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Very little that's any use to the police. On the other hand a real car like an Impreza or Evo can do a lot of things that it can't. Like contain four or five people for example. And go down farm tracks and over speed bumps and through chicanes and so on.