September 2008
I am having some gearbox problems with a Rover 200. It had started jumping out of reverse gear a couple of months ago and in the last week it is now very difficult to select second gear.
The gear change generally feels a bit clunky.
Any advice would be most welcome
Thanks Read more
was wondering if any one can help i have been having trouble starting my vaux zafria from cold put it in the garage they said it was the glow plugs change them still no better they also changed fuel filter but still no better was wondering if any one has had the same problems
many thanks Read more
hi,
i have a rover 115 sd with the peugot tud 5 diesel. the cambelt has just snapped which seems like an easy job but i am being told it will have knacked the valves and the head is going to need reconditioning. this seems a bit extreme any advice? Read more
I haven't seen a Volvo 760 with a compression ratio of 23:1.
The TUD 5 is a diesel - every belt failure causes impact damage.
659.
Next Saturday (13th) I need to travel from Lightwater to East Finchley for a wedding at 12:30. All the route planners and sat navs suggest going to Chiswick and then round the North Circular past Hanger Lane, Ikea etc. I've never attempted this on a Saturday morning. I would be grateful if somebody with local knowledge could comment on how busy it is likely to be and/or suggest an alternative route. Read more
Radar,
Pleased to have been in a position to help you mate!
The route from Barnet to Watford I could do in 10 to 12 mins on a good day (GSXR1100RW) and I am sure, if I ask nicely - someone will work out time distance & terminal velocity of that 11 to 12 miles distance for me!
Tron.
Hi can you please tell me whether the alternator clutch bolt is right or left hand thread as it is very tight ,I do not want to damage it .regards jack Read more
As far as I can recall; it's a conventional right-hand thread. You'll need a good hammer-gun to undo it.
Whilst on a visit to my parents last week a builder's van backed into my car (he was doing work for my dad!) .
He put an unsightly 3 inch gash in the painted front n/s plastic bumper.
I had it sorted on Tuesday at one of the franchise chip fix outlets, they rubbed it down & filled and re-sprayed the side of the bumper. The bumper is a metallic finish. I was pleased with the finish when I picked the car up later in the day.
Since then I have noticed that the finish has partly developed small craters which develop into small white bumps in wet weather (lots of that recently), these disappear when it drys out leaving the small craters!
Can anyone with paint experience tell me what has happened here so I can tell the paint firm when I ring them tomorrow, I live some distance away so any remedial work will have to be booked in for a couple of weeks time.
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Think it was on 5th Gear this week. Just a suggestion, but maybe not one for your daughter to watch !
;-)
Some reflections on modern continental travel.
Facilitators,
Mobile phones, laptops, booking on-line, Sat-nav, credit cards
Flexibility,
It all comes together now of course to allow hotel booking/cancelling/ re booking on the move and navigation even at night straight to the hotel.
But not that long ago you set off and were on your own, relying on public call boxes, even with a breakdown having to find a phone to ring the breakdown organisation.
Some memories of navigating in and out of Barcelona by observing the position of the Sun. Then across France, Belgium and Germany on a bike, with a roadmap held against my back and a hand coming out from behind to point out the route.
A lot of chance too. Finding that camp site or hotel by good luck at the end of an exhausting day.
Past ridgidity,
Even the ferries were much more expensive years ago, now so cheap as to be almost inconsequential (£63 for our next trip Sea France)
Improvement,
It seems that travelling by hotel, (with reference to the above facilitators) has now at least achieved the past independence and flexibility of caravanning, Motor-homes and so on..
Of course there are exceptions, but does anyone else marvel at how technology now allows you to flit across the Continent changing plans with ease as you go?
If you do this too, how did it come together for you? Surely the mobile phone was the first facilitator? Although the credit card perhaps had a role before that too.
When was the point that it suddenly occurred to you, how easy it had all become?
oilrag
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The `end of threads` for me at this point I think, while I get on with planning the next trip and reading Richard Holmes. See you all later ;)
Hi guys,
I supplied a local garage with a water pump from XXX car parts for my Golf TDi which they changed along with the cambelt. When it was put back together the water pump was leaking and they had to strip it all down again. Having checked the part number on the pump it seems it's the wrong part and fits a newer TDi engine. Called XXX who tell me the part is the one for my car but has been superseeded by another part now.
Either way, the pump is either wrong or defective. How likely is it that I will be able to claim compensation for the refitting of a new water pump. I suspect the garage will charge me another £200 for the extra work.
Cheers, Nick Read more
If it was leaking; then it would appear to be faulty - yet another of the, cheap, rubbish parts that bedevil the whole industry.
Did you ask the garage how much to supply and fit a genuine pump? You'd be surprised how cheap most dealer parts are to the trade - if you insist on supplying the part yourself, at your risk, the lost profit on the pump would just get bumped on to the labour.
You do have a legal right to recover consequential losses from the faulty part - but you'll probably have to issue a SCC summons before they'll take heed. Rubbish part sellers are experts at confusing the issue by blaming everyone else and know that 99% of their victims will just whinge a lot, then go away.
Topic,
What have you done regarding cars that required keeping your head down for a while after?
We were having a meal once in a camp-site restaurant just North of Grasse, pretending we could only speak English and listening to the Proprietor having a laugh about our car to a French couple.. anyway..
Walking back to the tent and car on this rather overgrown site we saw a family coming towards us with black grease on their lower legs. Sure enough it was all over the long late summer dried grass in the centre of the track leading to our tent at the far end of the site.
I must admit, my first concern was for my beauty having its belly wiped clean, but a quick head under revealed lots of black grease and semi-liquid ooze from the chassis.
1987 and Blue Citroen 2CV, D908 GWX (Is it still around) had received waxoil and full underbody grease slather + rag bungs into chassis end rails and several litres of engine oil mixed with waxoil into the chassis.
A trail of which now coated the wild flowers and grasses of fragrant Provence..
We saw more people with black lower legs in the morning at the shower block and shortly after moved on.
At least we thought, the proprietor would not be laughing at our 2CV and calling us "Greens and who would travel in such a thing in modern times?" (Burst of laughter to French families present)
Perhaps he would also cut the grass on the sites roadways too...
oilrag
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Well in my case I kept my head down out of embarrassment but I couldn't conceal my car!
I decided to camp on the cliff top at a secluded Welsh bay, Ceibwr near Cardigan. Probably not meant to camp there but there was nobody around. I drove my Panda 4x4 off the road to pitch the tent then decided to park it back on the road so as not to annoy the locals.
Due to extreme fatigue after a long hard day and working in the darkness, I took what looked like an easier route off the cliff top and drove into a bog, stranded.
The following morning I was amazed at how many walkers, horse riders and drivers passed this secluded spot. All stared at the bright blue Panda at a jaunty angle stuck in a bog by the roadside. I hid in my tent until I summonsed up the courage to ask a local farmer for a recovery.
Actually, he was absolutely fantastic and didn't want a penny from me for his help.
My apologies if this has been already mentioned, but I'm very surprised that Citroen advertise the new C5 as being "unmistakeably German". Whatever happened to French national pride and patriotism? I'd be appalled if any British manufacturer advertised one of its products in the manner. Read more
Surely the agency got it wrong.
They should be pushing it as "built in Japan"
Nope, they got it absolutely right. It's quite clear that people are prepared to pay a lot more money for the German-car attributes of soft-touch plastics and solid-clunk doors than for the Japanese-car attributes of reliability.
Long may this market preference continue, so that those of us who like reliability and couldn't give a fig about touching the plastic can continue to get secondhand bargains while the punters pay 50% more for their s/h German toys.
No engine details; but perished leak-off hoses are quite common on these.