September 2008
i have a problem with my co% being .6 too high for german standards the lambda and the oxygen pump has been changed can someone help me please as i need to get it through its roadworthyness test Read more
I have spied locally a 2006(well registered anyway) MG ZR 105+.
It has full electric pack, air con, leather, FSH and 20K miles for £3600. I think the dealer is closing down.
I already have a TF and this will replace our ageing 214, so no stranger to MGR.
Is it worth a chance on it? Will only be a stop gap until we get a MINI in 18 months or so? Read more
I have decided to take Marc and Duncans advice and let the 200 soldier on for another year or so - its MOT time next month but i am going to do a full service this weekend and check any failuire points but its pretty solid I think.
With prices falling the way they are I expect the MINI may be in reach sooner than the 18 months and the ZR might loose maybe another 1K or so as a trade in against it.
I am doing something brave and putting the money saved on the ZR into boat (well that and an awful lot more) but at least it wont depreciate!
i recently bought a used 1.3 toyota yaris, mileage 52k, i find i have to use quite a lot of force to get it into 1st and 2nd gears and its rather noisy. compared to other cars .
Is this common problem with the yaris and is there anything i should do to correct it? Read more
Agreed with Andy.
Try changing into 1st when the car is stationary. Does it baulk?
Now switch the engine off, while *lightly* pushing the lever toward 1st gear. Does it slip in nicely just after the engine stops?
If so, there's your problem -- clutch drag. Probably caused by a worn diaphragm.
Please don't force the gear -- get it seen to. If you continue to put stress on the synchromesh like that you'll end up with a gearbox overhaul bill on top of the clutch.
Clutch = £250. Gearbox = more like £1000.
Hi I'd be grateful for some thougts. I recently rebuilt a 1.2 Clio D7F which had a broken cambelt. 4 Valves had obviously hit the pistins although the damage to the crowns was light. The engine runs and passed the MOT ok. However it stutters a bit, is jerky at tick over, it appears a bit down on power and seems to stutter right through the rev range. I replaced 4 valves & ground them in. problem occurred so I did a compression test one cylinder (4) was slightly low so off came the head again (deep joy!) redid the no.4 and replaced the inlet and reground both. .....Same problem. Replaced leads (86k on originals) no change. The cat makes a noticible ringing rattle. New air filter fitted. New plugs NGK BKR 5 EK. Don't think it's the valves. Could it be the core pack or even the cat?. Anyone know of a way of testing it? Thanks
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Hi thanks. Belt fitted fine timing is righttoo. Vac hose on and secure. I took it to a small garage who put it on their machine and reckon 1 & 4 are miss-firing. Changed the coil pack no difference.Argh I reckon it is the ECU.
Following attentions of a nice East European AA chap in the West End a week or so back, my car's immobiliser has behaved OK, turning itself off when the driver's door was opened.
Today it wouldn't start, and I started it by taking the fuse out of the relay board that controls (apparently) central locking and starter-immobiliser. With that out, the car will start, and the alarm led glows continuously to tell plod the car has been stolen. You can drive the car like that, everything works in the running gear. But the oil warning light glows faintly while the car is running.
Just in case anyone knows, is that faint glow a sign of trouble storing itself up? Is something burning out? Might the battery go flat? Does the continuous glow of the alarm LED in the car run the electrics down faster than the brief flashes when it it behaving properly, or does an LED use too little juice to matter?
It's a hassle putting the fuse back because you have to unscrew a facia panel to get at it. I can fit two wires from it and another fuse socket in a place easier to get at if necessary. But is it really necessary? I don't mind manual door locks. I've lived with them most of my motoring life. Read more
It started all right today, no problem. I suppose the glowing oil light is a weird electronic bleed or short, harmless in itself. But I don't like things like that in a car. I think the answer is to take extension wires and fit the fuse (20amp) in a place that is discreet but easy to get at. The chances are that the immobiliser will reset itself if it is left on. It always has in the past.
I said I was used to manual door locks. I lied. I believe I left a rear door unlocked when taking a granddaughter home from school.
We are corrupted by things like electric windows and central locking, traction control and ABS, air conditioning, satnav and all the rest. Soon our limbs will atrophy, but it won't matter because we can graft on spare ones. The higher cognitive areas of the brain are already being neglected by whippersnappers who want to delegate all that, judgement and morality as well as raw calculation, to computers.
Soon all that is left of the human psyche will be sated pleasure centres and little inflamed nodules of infantile emotion: envy, hatred and so on.
Is it worth trying to get a cheap car that's been part exchanged and the dealer is only going to scrap or get rid of soon in auction?
Luke.
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Look for a main dealer who IS advertising a non franchised model and then batter him down on the price. Two reasons - the car is clearly a good one for him to put it on his forecourt, and second he will have put a greatly inflated price on it 'to give it a go'. You go in with a good idea of the trade value and offer a little more. He gets a sale, clears his forecourt of a non franchise vehicle and looks good for taking the chance on selling it rather than going to auction. You are also likely to get a better warranty deal since it will be prepped and sold the same as one of his franchise cars. Has worked for me twice now.
Some wise old car enthusiast once said in my presence that the outside appearance of a car was its least important feature. He proposed that it was how it felt and looked inside and indeed how well it drove that was the really important thing.
I have to admit that I have in the past, spent hours agonising over colour, trim and model choices to get to my ideal outward appearance when choosing cars. Logic, however, says that the majority of the time we all spend with our vehicles we are inside them, driving.
For example, there was a thread on here a couple of months back which revealed mixed emotions about the looks of the new Mini Clubman. I was complicit in teasing those who liked it about my opinion of their lack of taste. I am now prepared to eat a bit of humble pie.
Last week I had the opportunity to drive one in Germany for a while. What a nice wee car. Great fun and such a funky interior. I still don't think I would buy one but only because it's a bit small for my needs. I have completely revised my opinion by looking at it from the inside out and feeling how it drives.
I wonder if others have been similarly pleasantly surprised by cars they thought they wouldn't like because of their outward appearance, only to find that from a driver's point of view they were rather good ? Read more
>>Seriously I did exactly that as a youth, looking at my "70's permed hairstyle framed in the oh so pretty picture of a Mk1 capri door window" reflection in the windown of harry fenton>>
I was a Saturday boy in Harry Fentons. My boss had a yellow Capri with
a black vinyl roof.>>
So was AE your boss then eh Humph?
I worked in insurance years ago, so I'm out of date. Here's the (short) story.
63 year old man, violent, universally disliked, keeping his old Mondeo on the road out of spite towards his neighbours, even though he's banned. The car is legal at the moment and never moves. The ban expires in a few weeks (it was 2 years for drink driving).
So - if, to save the premiums, he says the car belongs to his daughter, for example, but he's really the main driver, how serious is that as an offence? It's called "fronting" I believe.
Can you still get "any driver" policies? Told you I was out of date.
And if you're wondering why I ask, no, I'm not a snitch, but there is a lot of local curiousity over whether he's going to lose face and scrap the car - it's a shed - or pour more of his meagre funds into keeping it legal.
I live in, er, Hull. Yes, that's it, Hull. (ahem)
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It doesn't really matter to anybody else - the insurance company is still required to stand behind its liability to third parties.
It may seek to recover from the policyholder anything it pays out.
Our (new to us) A150 is about to be one year old and has done 6,500 miles. According to the service indicator on board it does not need servicing until 13,500 miles. I rang the garage and they said that is right and just run the car until it tells us to get it serviced.
Ignoring the usual comments about getting a car looked at every 12 months come what may, does this sound right? We have done about 1,100 miles since we bought the car a couple of months ago and expect to do about 8,000 miles pa. Read more
Oh No ! - he said in a voice very similar to Ruth from the Archers.
Getting the codes read is the essential first step and nothing should have been changed until that had been done. That's virtually fraud.
If the garage hasn't got a code-reader, then they are not competent to work on modern cars - take it to one that has.
The temp on the test sheet would likely be the oil temp.