February 2009
hi, I need to buy a cheap car, £350 max, to use in a charity race. Having never bought at either before what is the best place to buy. I've hunted around on ebay, but I live in the countryside and bangers are few and far between and I work weird shifts so it can be a bit of a problem getting to see them. An auction is obviously risky but I can buy it and be gone in a couple of hours. Oh I've also got my eye on 1990 325 with 170k anyone ever owned one, anything to watch out for?
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Hows this? I run two 05 galaxys, deisel within my cab company. Had an intermittent gear change problem and also dreadful clutch burn when in traffic, on one of them. Fitted x3 clutches, (some even free from Ford). Had Ford Tech look at gearbox. No problem says they. Master cylinders, etc., pipes etc. everything changed more than once! On going problem for over a year, difficulty sometimes selecting first and reverse. Struggling to get gears without the aid of a 10lb hammer was not a good look as far as customers concerned.
Fords technical help reply, no known problem. My sheer coincidence, overheard complaining by a Gearbox guy. He says, I KNOW WHAT IT IS. Turns out, although Fords know of no problem, there is a replacement modified gearbox housing produced, by Fords!
It has now cost me 1400 squid. Which I actually dont mind, as it gets my car back on the road, and working correctly.
What I do mind is that Fords know there is a problem, hence the modification but they will not offer any information on it. Is there not something we can do.
Also, I noticed several owners complaining of clutch burn, this is one of the early signs we had with this gearbox problem. Can we make people aware of this
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Or is it just me?
In the back room, the column on the right has three things - 1) the "Honest John's Back Room" block, with Log in/out, Forum search, etc. 2) Honest John's Road tests, and 3) News.
It used to be that they were always there.
But now it depends on the print-size I choose. In my preferred print size they go down to the bottom left of the page, and the centre block - the one that I am writing in and that you are reading in - moves to the right. If I drop down one print size, it switches back to the way it used to be. If I drop down 2 print sizes, the stuff in the right hand column is back down at the bottom left. If I go down yet another print size, they go back to the top right again.
I find this disconcerting.
I'm using Firefox 3.0 by the way. Read more
Not for me using the latest Firefox - don't worry about it, one of life's little changes, it happens.
the doors keep unlocking on thier own... very random no set pattern... tried different ways of locking doors etc. sometimes when doors are locked they unlock immediately and i stand there having a power struggle with my car, which i do when, but when my back is turned it unlocks itself.......heeeeeeelp Read more
Is there a fix to this I’ve tried absolutely everything
I followes a cirtroen for a while tonight. Strange backside, like an old Volvo estate stretched vertically by about a foot. Normal brake lamps, odd-looking lamps up the "pillars", and when the brakes applied a fat line of red along the whole roof line, side to side. Most 'orrible and distracting, complete overkill, hard to see anything else further in front. A Bad Thing IMO. What was it? Read more
Could be - bally horrible looking thing. Whoever designed the rear lights should be shot. Straight afterwards, whoever *accepted* the design should be shot as well.
engine runs perfect when in park and can be revved up, but as soon as a load is put on the engine it starts to mess around. travelling along the road it will sometimes run ok but then when acceleration occurs it will missfire until a cruising speed is reached and the throttle is eased off and then it runs ok. it only ever seems to be one cylinder. it's easy to determine this because the one that is misfiring is also the one that has a small leak from exhaust gasket which has been there for almost a year and ran perfect before........... Read more
yep it was the leads....as the engine rocked on mounting it was just enough for lead to short out.......
I have just bought a newish Toyota Avensis T-spirit with a navigation system with TNS310(Traffic)Plus, but I can't find the navigation unit in the car, I've had a look at the manual and the location of the unit is not in it!!! I don't want to go to the garage just incase they try and charge me for their time, can anybody help PLEASE!!
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Hi
I've got a 56 plate T4 and the Navigation system appears to be under the passenger seat. I've had Merc C Classes before and they are not as good - the diesel in the Toyota is much quieter. Good luck - I'm sure you will enjoy this car. CB
Sorry if this has been mentioned before.
But is there anything that we can all do to try and speed up the repair of the roads after the recent freeze?
The roads that I use to get to work on were once pretty reasonable, but now they are frankly highly dangerous! I guess due to the combination of snow, ice and salt, small potholes and cracks now resemble craters on the moon, and when it?s rained there?s no telling whether they are an inch deep or a foot deep. There are sections of road where it is only really safe to drive along at either a snails pace or to pass the potholes on the other side of the road.
My council have always been very good at requests to fill in potholes, they even have a facility to report them via their website, but I think at the moment there are far too many to be able to tackle them on their own.
Unless this is only in my neck of the woods then other BR?s must have experienced this, what?s the chance of the Government stepping in and implementing some kind of program to resurface the worst hit roads before we start putting in claims to our councils for damage to our cars (I know I?m dreaming).
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Be public-spirited and fill the local ones in yourself. Tarmac is readily available at any good DIY store.
I like my car accessories, and I like trying to protect my car from dents by parking as far away from other cars as I can but I just cannot see me ever deciding I want a set of these
tinyurl.com/dllws9
OK, maybe if car was to be parked up in an airport car park for 2 weeks but everyday use down Tesco? I don't think so?
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My idea is a couple of inflatable tubes, joined with ropes that you'd throw over the car on leaving it.
However 2 of our cars have nasty dents high up on the rear doors which must have been caused by 4x4 rear doors being flung open by kids - no idea how you could guard against that.
Just musing really. Maybe it's just me but I find cars can go from being contemporary to looking old fashioned really suddenly.
If you take some commonplace models such as Mondeo mk3s, Peugeot 406s, Previous model Passats etc. they all were and still are a daily sight on the road. So commonplace as to disappear against the roadscape. The latest one to look old fashioned in my opinion anyway, is the Mondeo Mk3. Strange thing is though, it has happened since Christmas. Before that they looked OK. Now they suddenly look old. Shame really.
Some cars stand the visual test of time better than others whereas others age very quickly when their production run stops.
For example, I think a Volvo 850 estate still looks reasonably modern where another maker's early 90s model might look positively antidiluvian.
It's the speed at which it happens I notice. One day a car looks OK or even modern, the next it's yesterday's child.
I suppose that's the good news for the canny second hand buyer really. Buy something which has lost its youthful looks and you might be getting a very good car for sweetie money.
I'll stop rambling now and give others a chance....... Read more
I again thought you could not get more modern
Reading these comments brings home to me how difficult it would be for makers to sell cars if so many people weren't sucked into buying the 'modern'. Nearly all of them know that in about 5 years the car will look stale, so they go out and repeat the cycle. A few models sell because they are really good cars (to drive, that is), but not many maintain that aura indefinitely.
The Astra comments illustrate that a car can look great but not be worth driving ...
Browse
went down to the auction last, it was hard at first to spot who was making the bids. Seemed a bit odd no-one wanted it be known they had made a bid. It was quite fun in the end, some cars were making very little saab 900 96 plate went for £250. Yes the race will take place on the road, I don't think there are that many races in S. England, we are only traveling through to europe.