May 2008
Fiat Punto ELX Automatic/Speedgear Experienced total instrument cluster failure. Watchdog ran a program in April 08 on Ford Focus cluster failure and Ford willingness to make good. Was wondering if anyone out there with Fiat Punto experienced similar fault and what they have done about it? Fiat dealers quote over £450.00 to repair. I thought this excessive, your opinions appreciated Read more
This evening I followed for some distance on a busy city road two cycles. The first ridden by Dad had a box like trailer affair and inside was a baby. The second bike ridden by Mum had a child seat on the back containing a child aged around three. On its head was a an oversized cycle helmet The child was leaning heavily to one side.
Is the absence of common sense is there any law against carrying children like this?.
typo in subject line corrected Read more
I was going to put an entry on this thread myself...but there's no need to. DP's entry sums up my thoughts entirely.
When i ride my m/c on a road, there's plenty of things i ought to be able to do...eg. ride down a main road with the right of way...but in reality i have to adjust to stay alive. It's the same principle with kids on bikes.
Off road..................................yes
Very quiet residential street......yes
Busy road...............................you must be stark raving bonkers
Hi there!
I have a question about fitting new oil filter. I heard that it is better to put some oil into a new oil filter before threading it to its' place after engine oil change. Is that true? Or it's fine fitting it as it is - fresh and clean without any oil?
Thanks in advance! Read more
Probably a good idea to fill your filter with oil but, as most filters are installed horizontally, the oil drips everywhere before you get to screw the filter in. Hence the advantage of filling it is lost, lots of mess and wasted oil.
OK, so when you start the engine the oil pressure is low for a couple of seconds but it hardly wrecks the motor. After all, you don't give it max revs at that point.
Hi all,
Am in the process of selling my car via autotrader. I've just received an offer for 100 more than asking price, which was a fair (and good) price which I'd have accepted. There hasn't been a bidding war or anything, or any other offers to compete against - just this offer out of the blue.
It's possible that there has been a mis-communication. But it seems very odd.
My nose tells me something is wrong: are there any BR'ers who know about this kind of thing?
Many thanks
Peanut. Read more
>>In the USA, apparently they take Nigerian scams seriously>>
Ah, but not the same when you read the story. That was about malware installed on a PC when email was clicked on. What we are talking about here are 419 scams and "money mule" scams where the unsuspecting are asked to part with money
Whilst it is right to say police here rarely respond to individual attempts or actual obtainings, they have made great efforts to stem the crime at source by close liaison with highly placed Nigerian police(who have had a modicum of success - Look up Fred Ajudua, king of the 419'ers on google)
In addition, a number of international courier type aircraft have been raided on arrival at London airports from Nigeria. These have contained scores of thousands of ready made out cheques (previously stolen in transit and expertly altered) ready for dispatch to "south east london addresses" to send to unsuspecting car/bike/toaster/table and chairs sellers advertising in Loot, E&M, local papers and Auto Express. That is far more cost effective and..........well.........effective.
It appears that the guy who predicted oil will hit $110 a barrell whilst it was priced at $55 is now saying it looks like reaching $200 which means £8 a gallon.
Still at least that will make Darling and Brown happy. Read more
4 weeks. approx... But if there is a petrol shortage, 0 weeks.
Hi All,
My 306 is giving me approx. 190 miles from 20 litres of diesel with nothing but urban driving/short journeys, this equates to 42mpg.
The problem is that i am getting the same mpg when i drive entirely on the motorway.
Parkers/Peugeots figures state that i should be getting about 25% more when driving on the motorway.
This is not a one off test, i have performed this comparison a number of times, even refuelling from an empty tank to ensure a fair test.
Does anyone know what could possibly be causing this?
Thanks in advance Read more
I'm not feather footed at all and in my Xsara with the 2.0/110 HDi , I never have a problem reaching 50mpg whatsoever on the M'way and easily 40mpg in the city (though i'm much nicer on the pedal then).
Lowest brim-to-brim with the majority of the tank going to city driving was 47mpg.
How are both of you measuring your fuel usage? Do you give it a italian tune each week?
I suspect the (somewhat) lightweight Xsara chassis is helping a bit, along with what I suspect is a better than usual drag co-efficient.
Could i run my vw sharan AFN 1.9 110 BHP on bio diesal. Would it sludge up im my tank and filter. Does it need servicing more frequently.
{Typo in header corrected} Read more
That's the 64,000 dollar question. What exactly is "bio-diesel?" It seems to mean many different things to different people.
Some awful concoctions are already wreaking havoc; on most diesel problems now, one of the first things to establish is what's in the tank.
Goo-clogged filters are common; the longer-term effects may make any savings look very poor value.
The month's Bike (June) comes with a reprint of the 1971 first issue, which makes fascinating reading for old rockers like me. In those days, it was a spin-off from Car magazine and had similar editorial standards (i.e. high) and I wonder if the current publishers will come to regret reminding their readers how much better written it was back then! There is a 6000-word (!) article on the relative merits of the BSA Rocket-3 and the Norton Commando and an excellent piece on stagnant m/c design by the peerless LJK Setright. In fact, it's a fascinating window on an industry about to commit suicide, floundering round for ideas too late (although there is a lovely Carl Vetter design based on the Rocket-3 that might have helped, if BSA hadn't ignored it).
Good nostalgia trip, anyway, and a reminder about inflation - the cover price was 30p! Read more
Wad that the magazine known as the "blue 'un" ?
Well before my time ( being a '59 model year)
Just got back from Devon using the M5 from Birmingham. I noticed in both directions small signs at the side of the carriageway every 1/2 Km countig up in 1/2 Kms. Does anyone know what purpose these signs serve or what it costs to put signs up every 1/2 Km that doesn't seem to serve a purpose. Read more
The number is the distance in kms from the datum point, or start, of the road (except the M6 which uses the M1s). The A denotes the carriageway going away from the datum point, B the converse.
The number is on the small white and blue marker posts which are placed every 100m. These posts don't have the A or B on them.
These marker boards / posts are essential for finding exact locations on the roads for anyone who works on them. The boards have recently been introduced to be help in finding locations in the dark (try reading the numbers on one of the small marker posts from the nearside lane at 50mph at night) and to make it easier for Joe Public to tell breakdown agencies, for example, where they are.
Getting the wrong carriageway is a real problem, (not helped by the fact that the marker posts don't have this information), to the extent that if the Fire Brigade are called to an incident on a Motrway, they will always dispatch at least 2 tenders, one in each direction.
Getting the number wrong by just 1 digit can cause real problems sending the emergency services to completely the wrong junction. And just a couple of hundred metres difference in marker post can make the difference between getting to a location from a particular junction or having to go up or down to the next junction to turn which can sometimes be a considerable distance and take tens of minutes even on blues and twos.
The Emergency Roadside Telephones (ERTs) have a number on them which relates to their location + an arbitrary number. For example an ERTs on the M1 at marker post 64.5 A is numbered 2645A (2000 + 645).
I recently found a tiny leak in my reciever drier on my sharan air con. Would this stop the pump on the engine working or is there a differant problem. Is there any way of testing the pump. The fans do kick in when activate air con switch. Read more
The component you are referring to is a compressor, not a pump. The leak will not stop the system working immediately until the low pressure switch activates. The only way of testing the compressor is to re-gas the car and then observe the pressure gauges on the re-charging equipment.
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES TRY TO WORK ON AN A/C SYSTEM UNLESS YOU ARE QUALIFIED AND WEARING SAFETY EQUIPMENT. PENALTY FOR IGNORING=SEVERE INJURY INCLUDING EYESIGHT DAMAGE/PERMANENT BLINDNESS
I, too, have a Fiat Punto (5years old) and the instrument cluster failed. I paid £500 to have it replaced! After seeing the Watchdog programme, I contacted Fiat using the letter format on the Watchdog site. Fiat's response was that there was 'no intrinsic problem that they were aware of', end of story. I replied indicating my disgust and comparing their response with Ford's. Ford offered to reimburse customers their costs over £99. I suggest you contact Fiat. The more customers who make them aware of the problem the better chance of a more positive response. Good luck.