October 2008
Whatever happened to over-riders? Those on my Phase 1 Vanguard were a joy to behold. And the front bumper was strong enough for me to be able to stand on it to work on the engine. Ah, the good old days. Not! Read more
other than built in alarm/immobilizer?
I find that some people still use steering lock, gear lock etc. Is it necessary even when you have immobilizer?
How easy for a determined (and professional) thieves to break those devices?
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Driving a young TWOC-er to Court in the early 90`s in my Maestro Clubman D.
" we nicked one of these last week" (pause) "we didn`t know it was a diesel until it started- we dumped it after 100 yards"
Hi,
I'm about to look at a couple of 05 Diesel Xsara Picassos which are both listed at £5k in 2 local dealers. I have cash and no part exchange so it'd be a straightforward deal.
Ideally I'd want to pay no more than £4.5k for either of them. Is this realistic or too high/low? I'm not really sure at which price I should be starting my negotiations!
Any advice much appreciated.
Cheers Read more
I'm on the other side, I've got an '05 1.6 Hdi Exclusive that I really want to P/X and I'll be lucky to get 3K. IT has got 100K on the clock mind.
I bought a mondeo yesterday drove it home fine.. got in it today and it stopped run out of diesel on the way to the garage, shoved a gallon in and it started after a cloud of smoke.. drove it to the garage put fuel in it, on the way home it stopped and now wont pick up? accelerate? any ideas, the one glow plug was bubbling at the base and ive tightened that up but i think its leaking diesel, think its coming off the back side of the engine when i look underneath. Any ideas..?? HELP..! Read more
I can't recall any fuelling components on the exhaust side of the engine?
Is it maybe coming from the aneroid unit on the pump and someone has unplugged the boost-sensing pipe to the turbo? Disconnect the rubber hose from the round tin unit on the front of the pump and see if fuel is dripping from the unit at idle - it shouldn't be.
Alternatively; check the fuel return line for leaks.
Please Help.
I have a Fiesta Flight Reg 2001. recently I discovered rainwater was getting into the back passenger footwell. Left hand side. My garage have done evereything they can and they still have not found the source of the leak. Last week they change the se al around the sunroof. This proved to be useless. The thing is if I park the car with the front on a slight slope there is no leak. But if I park it in the opposite direction the rain comes in. The cloth on the roof gets wet as well as the front passenger seat belt.
Thank you ,
Regards
NCARR Read more
i'm sure Watchdog had the fiestas on when they where new, ford even changed there owners manual to state that you had a be parked a cetain way round on a hill!!!
turned out the sunroof drain channels where to blaim....
we had a fiesta mk4 for a few days once when our mk3 was being fixed and the footwell filled up with 1inch....(yeh really) of water, we contacted the main dealer and was told to park the other way round,,,the car had only covered a few 000 miles and was told all there new mk4 fiestas did the same...
we sponged out all the water and parked as told and all was ok.....
a few month later Watchdog did a piece called the leaky ford owners club....
Had front tyres replaced recently and now the steering wheel is off line. Any idea how this could have happened and how can it be fixed? Of all the things on cars this is the one I find most annoying.
Many thanks
willyb Read more
Sounds like a fast fit place has adjusted just one track rod end...
(wonder why I think that....)
Snowing here in Cheshire at the mo'. It's only wimpy English snow and won't last but I wonder how many businesses will close early and how many rear end shunts there will be this PM ?
If it gets down to the South East it'll make the six o'clock news....."arctic conditions on the North Circular etc...."
luv 'em.....
;-) Read more
According to that august organ the BBC - the Chinese snow was brought about by the "Office for Weather Control" >>
According to the link I posted earlier
www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/02/china-snow-be...g
the Office for Weather Control gave nature a helping hand. Nature was responsible for this part
" .... The temperature in the capital reached 13.5C on Saturday but plummeted overnight, remaining below zero for the whole of Sunday morning. Elsewhere, the cold snap was even starker, with state newspapers reporting that temperatures had fallen by 20C in some places overnight. In Yanji, in the north-eastern Jilin province, storms closed the airport and damaged farmland, local media said. ... "
Then the scientists intervened to do this:
" ... Although the plummeting temperature was solely due to an advancing cold front, the deluge of snow owed much to the city's weather modification office.
Its workers fired 186 doses of silver iodide into the air between 8pm on Saturday and 11.25am yesterday to prompt precipitation, causing an extra 16m cubic metres of snow to fall on the city. Zhang Qiang, the deputy director of the weather modification office, told state media: "We won't miss any opportunity of artificial precipitation since Beijing is suffering from the lingering drought." .... "
www.parkers.co.uk/news/Road-tax/Guide-to-tax-chang.../ {made non clickable - rival site, etc}
According to Parkers site, cars with >225g/km will join band K from next year before moving up to L or M in 2010.
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Mine's going up from £205-£300.
So that's £95 less a year I'll be spending in the economy, or saving for my future.
Cheers, Alastair. I look forward to playing my part in putting you and your cronies out of a job at the next election. The others might be no better, but it will be so satisfying to sack you that I'm prepared to take the chance.
I'd like some advice on brake disks for my mondy.
The Ford original disks are pricey enough and only seem to last about 15-20K before they warp.
I have recently started buying cheap ones from the local motor factor, for about £15 per disk. These are fine but warp after about 15K miles like the Ford ones. At least with the cheap ones they are a bit cheaper to replace!
My question is this. Would it be worthwhile buying a good quality set of disks from a respected brand such as Brembo in the hope that they'll last longer, or should I just keep throwing in the cheap ones every 15k? Bear in mind that it now has 125,000 on the clock - but no indications that it's going to give up any time soon!
I usually fit them myself, so no labour to take into account. Would be nice not to have to fit them quite so often though! Also any tips that could help to stop them warping? Each time I have been scrupulous in making sure all of the mating surfaces are clean and free from debris and ensured that the wheel nuts are evenly torqued to 90nm.
A real workhorse of a car, but I must admit the juddering brakes are starting to annoy me.
{No need to repeat car make/model/age/engine details in the subject header as the pull down menus and compulsory boxes do this for you - see the sticky post at the top of the page for reference}
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I would recommend buying a set of second hand parts to switch to all discs with ABS. I did this because soon after buying a 2000 estate my other half had a serious near miss on a country lane.
I had never been happy with the brake feel of the car and having had Renaults, Peugeots and VWs with rear discs for last 25 years I decided it was well worth a go.
The result was very impressive as the front to back balance is very good. This in turn diminished the feel of overloaded front brakes working hard to stop the car. The setup was the best since my old Renault 12/17 days when I could actually setup the balance by adjusting the rear pressure regulator under the car.
My conclusion was that the Mondeo estate ABS setup was the optimum and the non ABS was just a cheap alternative to save Ford money when they did not reach the world wide sales figure. However I cannot be sure this would work so well on a saloon as the estate brake setup is that also used on the 4 x 4 whereas the saloons use different calipers and discs.
i just purchased seconhand hard top for streetka the car is not the winter addition and i can not find a connection behind passenger seat to connect up to work heated screen ,can i get a cable for this from hard top to fuse box or in to wiring loom,ford seem to surrgest i buy a complete harness at £800 can you help me cheers $20004
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I have posted this before, but in the seventies I knew a gloomy New York artist whose car was a Porsche 356 cabriolet - long past its best - fitted with horrible looking, large bumpers and overriders made from scaffolding, complete with clamps. When I asked if they protected the poor little Porsche from the behemoths around it, he said morosely that they didn't, but they discouraged people with new cars from coming too close.