September 2008
some friends have just had the headgasket replaced by a trader that recently sold them the car
i had a quick look over it and notice theyve reused the old headbolts
should the 1100 k series have new bolts fitted or is it just a reccomendation? Read more
The time has come for me to stop looking at pictures on Autotrader and actually trade up the Getz for a Focus. Question is, which is the better value.
1/ 2005 05 Reg FORD FOCUS 1.6 ZETEC CLIMATE PACK -- '05' REG 38K FSH , £5475
2/ 2006 06 Reg Ford Focus 1.6 litre LX 17k £5,495
Assuming that both offer similar p/x for the Getz and both are in similar condition.
As a wild card, I saw this: 2006 06 CHEVROLET LACETTI 1.6 SX 5DR HATCH 5 Door
SILVER, 33700 Miles. Is the Focus £2000 better than the Focus, bearing in mind this will be a second car for 'er indoors to do the school run. Read more
2/ 2006 06 Reg Ford Focus 1.6 litre LX 17k £5,495 is the best value, assuming it has a FSH. Also it should still have warantee cover whereas the 05 Zetec will be out of warantee.
The additional features of the Zetec Climate are the quick clear windscreen and heated door mirrors, fog lights, alloys and stiffer spring settings, whereas the LX offers a slightly more comfortable ride & lower mileage & manufacturers warantee.
Also consider the colour of the cars, could you live with it or not.
Test drive them both to compare and then consider your options.
Forget the Chevy.
A colleague has a year-old car that yesterday lit up the DPF light. Colleague looked in handbook, which apparently says "you must drive at 50mph" but doesn't specify any duration (put yourself in the mind of a non-technical person here). She managed to touch 50 on the way home (there was traffic) but the light stayed on.
This morning it was joined by the engine management light. As it happened, the car was going in for service.
Dealer has effectively blamed driving style (car has done 15,000 miles in a year, does 2 x 20 mile commutes every day, and the owner doesn't hang about) and not following the procedure of "driving on the motorway for half an hour", which is not mentioned in the handbook. Dealer will charge £80 to "strip and clean" the DPF and effectively is telling the owner it is her fault.
IMO this is outrageous - the car is effectively not fit for purpose, is under warranty, and the owner is being charged for the 'fix' which won't of course 'repair' it in any way in that the feature remains.
How long can the industry sustain this nonsense?
Is it still possible to buy a non-DPF diesel? I think I'll hang on to mine.
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My last car was a EuroIV Mondeo TDCi. Slightly higher CO2 emmisions vs non EuroIV. Fuel economy not what I expected but not that bad.
Current car is a Mazda6 with DPF. It has shown one or twice symptoms of DPF regeneration. I tend to accelerate hard but do not speed* - so could save fuel but it's the fastest legal way from A-B. So maybe I'm being lucky. At times I can do a lot of town driving and short journeys and around 14000 miles since new almost a year ago.
* It amuses me those right behind you and then you accelerate and they're nowhere near. But then catch up and want to go faster. To have caught up they were speeding but did not accelerate.
Are these any good on this model for getting to within 6 inches of a garage door? Read more
What you do is hang a harmless, visible bob on a string so that it just touches the front (or rear if you want) screen when the distance is right. Don't specify cheapo toys. They're naff and always fail early. Just remembering the little headlight washers and wipers on my Renault 18, and the petrol stove to boost the heating in my VW 411. Just as well that didn't work actually.
I'm dog tired so my cheap pun making abilities are much diminished today, so perhaps someone else could do the honours with this rather embarrassing car crash.
I'm expecting a top performance here from AE, BBD Lud and the other BR wise-guys. Don't let me down lads
www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1069162_blo...r
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OK - I've now deleted the swear-word in the spammer's post.
I have a GOlf3 GL but its radio broke. I replaced it with a used one that goes into a Golf4 and it works (after I tied the pin 5 to pin 7 for the SAFE supply).
However, now my central locking is confused. Before the installation it would give a short honk when I lock the car and all doors are closed and the door LED blinks very short. If a door was open, the LED would blink long and no honk. This is what is happening now, even when all door are closed, it does not honk. To make matters worse, last night at midnight the alarm actually went off with no apparent reason.
I know that the door sensors are working properly because the cabin light turns off after closing the last door and the light in the dash board for 'trunk open' is off.
Any ideas how to fix this?
thanks!
Chris
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Hi Andrew,
thanks for the reply. I have tried a few more things in the meantime. I put the old radio back in again and the problem remains. But if I pull the radio about 2cm back out and wiggle the cable trees a bit, the problem goes away, with both radios. That leads me to believe that I now have a lose connection somewhere in the dash.
By immobilizer you mean that you can't drive the car when the alarm is triggered? I don't think my car has that, just alarm when you open the door while locked.
I have for now disabled the hood-open contact so that the alarm never activates. At least now I don't wake up the neighbors.
chris
It's a fairly common occurance of bulk custard powder to explode. Quite a few powders that have tiny particles do the same. Powdered Milk, flour....They behave a bit like petrol fumes.
www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/oct/22/schools.education
(I know it seems overly PC, but I've had to snip the instructions for making custard bombs. HJ.
www.foodmanufacture.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/2...l
I have a Passat TDI Saloon 130 bhp Y reg.
My head lights will only work on full beam,so can only be rarely used.I have been advised that they should work in the dipped position when driving but the lights do not.I have been advised that the headlights could have been blanked off,can you advise what blanked off means?
Also can one have front driving/fog lights installed where the grilles are (on each side of the number plate) as I have seen in other cars and would this be legal ,would insurance companies accept?
Michael Read more
Both bulbs have probably blown at the same time. They did on my VW. You'll need little hands and patience to fit new ones particularly the driver's side.
Hi,
My emission's light keeps coming on regardless of replacing the lambda sensor. It's reading on the computer as saying fuel/oxygen too rich or words to that effect.
After checking under the bonnet I can see that whoever had it before me put in a non-standard fuel pressure regulator so I'm guessing that this is running too high? The regulator is adjustable.
Are there any other causes why the light and fault keep occurring?
Thanks Read more
Yes I've had the codes read and it's saying it's running too rich - unsurprisingly.
It's a new cat so it should be ok (i hope) getting it reset to factory standards is proving to be a nightmare as no garages so far will touch it - only opting to replace it with a normal regulator. Also, the secondary exhaust fan is connected to the air filter - Why??
How much does a regulator set you back anyway?
Also, had another problem - slightly more disturbing happen...
I was on the motorway when I had a sudden loss of power - it turned out the rear nearside brake had locked on and caught fire as a result!
The car was recovered but the wheel had freed up so it was put down to faulty/rubbish pads & discs what was left of them.
Since having them replaced - it locked on again but recognising the problem I stopped a lot more quickly before anything drastic happened. The RAC came out and surprise surprise it had freed up again! It's been in the garage a week and they cannot diagnose the fault - An independant VW garage - so they've not replaced anything. Despite jacking it up overnight with the handbrake on, running it around the fault has not returned. There has been mention of the caliper but this is just a guess. Also brake hoses could be corroded etc etc. All good ideas but don't help me.
Can anyone provide any help with either question please?
Greetings. I have just purchased an Oxford Green BMW 728i from a country house in Cambridgeshire. It has 1478 miles on the clock and has been covered up sinse 1997 when it was just a year old. It is in showroom condition but the reason it was stood up by folk with more money than sence was it was grounded on a high kerb and has a tiny leak on the seam of the tank. I've been offered £5k for it. Does anyone think this is a good deal? Read more
I would accept that offer of 5k and get rid of ASAP, too many potential problems await the owner of that car. It could be very good but if not it could be a moneypit.
If the rockers are still covered in Gloy and the coolant is filthy I wouldn't be surprised if the HG 'repair' was actually 3 or 4 bottles of Radweld....