March 2009
I've just bought a 2004 (54 plate) renault clio and it's only got 1 key. I obviously want a spare but have heard that getting it from renault will be expensive. I want one that works the remote central locking and does everything, is a renault dealer the only place i can get one? Read more
When I were a lad, the VW polo was a small car, the Micra was pretty small and a Fiat 500 was tiny. Now the Polo is bigger than the MK1 Golf was, which is next car size up. The Micra has middle-age spread and is an enormous bloated blob and across the board, they all seem to be getting bigger. My example of the Polo, now 3.9m long - the Golf was 3.7m and is now 4.2m.
Is this because the Nation is getting fatter & need to be told that "you can get a whole family in a Golf" in the same way that people will assert that they are still a 34" waist? ;-)
That doesn't explain why they are getting taller as well - surely, despite aerodynamic improvements, it still amounts to a greater frontal area and air displacement requirement? I know we are getting taller, but this is cm over generations, not nearly a foot in a decade!
My recollection that the 2CV was tall so that the French farmer could wear his hat, but people don't wear hats anymore. I've never hit my head on the roof of my Carina & I'm average height - there is about a hand's width above me. The current cars would allow one to wear one of Brunel's Stovepipe hats without suffering any damage - why is there a need for this space? I sometimes carry washing machines or a chest of drawers, whic can usually be accommodated in the back - sometimes without making the children walk behind. Given that we haven't suddenly become a nation of Lovejoys transporting Welsh Dressers around, it all seems a bit pointless.
Perhaps someone in the know could tell me what I am obviously missing?
Cheers
Jono. Read more
But garages don't get bigger ;-)
Essex County Council has issued draft guidelines for garage sizes for new properties.
"Garages will have to be at least 7 metres by 3 metres (23ft by 10ft), as opposed to the existing guidance of 5 metres by 2.5 metres. Any garage smaller than the new dimensions will be treated as a storeroom and not counted towards the minimum number of parking spaces. Any home with two or more bedrooms will require at least two spaces."
More power to their elbow, I say.
Hello readers,
I am new to this forum and the reason I have registered is that after reading this page it looks that people here are really friendly and helpful. I wonder if you could help us...we decided to buy a new car and have numerous test drives and so far the best cars we tested are VW Jetta 1.4 tsi and Seat Leon 1.4. Which one would you go for?
Or any other? We are not really fussy about equipment, climate control, multi cd and so on, these are only little things and we can live without it. Sat nav also doesn't interest us as we can use the road atlas without problems (hihihi). We don't want to change the car every 3 years, we want to keep it for years but we want a car we can rely on and which will not cost a fortune in repairs. I know that diesel might be an answer but after so many problems with our previous car - Peugeot (new dual mass fly-wheel, diesel particulat filter and so on, you name it)we don't want to have another diesel car.
What do you think? Can you please help?
Thank you,
Jana Read more
Jana, as an owner of a 1.4 tsi I can only pass on what I know, plus some opinion.
As I've mentioned earlier, the engine is generally smooth & peaceful, at normal A & B road speeds and on the mways. Top gear ( 7th in my dsg Golf ) is geared at about 30 mph / 1000 revs which means you can cruise ( legally ) on the mway at about 2300 revs. This is low for a small petrol engine but the engines good torque ( pull ) makes this possible. Mine, the 122 hp version does about 45 mpg on average.
The engine has chain driven cams, the inlet having variable timing. Also direct sequential fuel injection running at around 1400 bar ( that's high ) The block is cast iron, the crank is steel.
The engine is not a Honda style "screamer" needing to rev before it makes much power. The turbo ( which is water cooled ) giving a flat torque curve. It pulls well at low revs, but not as strongly as a diesel.
I think it is the right choice, and I have no real fears about reliability or longlevity, unless I am proved wrong at some time in the future!
I hope this helps. MM
The intake manifold switch over valve is not working on this vehicle,
By way of no vacuum going to manifold switch over valve, I found
solonoid valve not being switched on by ECU, checked earth return
to ECU multi-plug, found it to be satisfactory auto data lists earthing
points for ECU, as 50B 52B 54B 56B but i find three of these earth pins
multi plug non existent ECU Earths? ECU?
Any feed back greatly accepted: Paul 8 Read more
i can't seem to make head nor tail of what exactly your problem is and if you have any symptoms i will try to help but need full history of whats been happening and what exactly what you are trying to achieve,Regards TB
Recently took delivery of my new Citroen Crosser 2.2 HDI. (2 yr lease) Initial impressions have are very positive.
I was under the impression that the first major service interval was 20,000-00 miles or 2 yrs. I checked several third party web sites & they told the same story.
When I turn on the ignition the display flashes up 19,500 miles until next service.
Whilst flicking through the rather poor handbook I found a hastily added single page. In fact so hastliy addeed it was loose in the document folder. It states that the first major service is 12,500 or 1 year. I rang Citroen UK customer services they have kindly left a message on my answerphone confirming that it is 12,500 or 1 year.
Have to say I'ma little annoyed as I had factored into the 2 year cost the fact that I wouldn't need to pay for a major service. Looks like I will now. Read more
Thanks for the advice and benefit of your collective knowledge.
I'll pay the local dealers a visit in order to clear things up. Fortunately I know a really good independant who can carry out the servicing as it does not have to be done by Citroen.
We have a Nissan Almera 1.5SE 5 door which has been faultless to drive and run over the last 4 years of ownership.
BUT the doors on the nearside have recently started playing up, by that I mean staying locked even when unlocked by central locking, and refusing to open. This has now happened on the front passenger door, which is proving to be a pain, as I could live with the back sticking locked.
The only other thing that is worse which also happens to both nearside doors in the last 4 months is that they also stick UNLOCKED.
Anyone else experienced this, or can anyone offer advice? (I've checked the main car battery, and the remote RCL works perfectly on all other doors.)
Thank you. Read more
Hi,
I've got exactly the same problem, but with the drivers door....
Hello folks,
I'm planning to buy an ex-fleet car from a local dealer (car trader). This car comes with no V5 and no service-history. I had a look at the HPI report for that car and it says it has no previous keepers (which means that the dealer has repossessed it, but not a registered keeper).
Is it ok if for me to buy the car given it as no service-history nor logbook (given he says he'll fill V62)?
I'll be getting MOT, Tax-disc (valid) and two sets of keys along with the car. Is there anything else I should be getting? (like a copy of V62?)
Since I'm quite new to cars, I'm not sure if I should pay lot less for this fleet-car (with no service history) than the valuation i found on whatcar.co.uk.
Thank you Read more
I think I would walk away. However a few years ago I bought a Citroen Xsara, 13 months old, no log book or history, but the price was cheap and they ofered £500 for a clapped out Rover that belonged to my friend - so did the deal. Two weeks later the paper work arrived - the car had been leased to a company who had gone bust and the bank/administrators took possession of the car and the dealer had bought it. Fully serviced at a main dealer near to the company that had folded - so I got a fully maintained vehicle at knock down price - but I took a risk. Car ran great for 3 more years clocking up 60,000 miles before p/e against my new Megan. However yours is older and something doesn't stack up... walk away
And do you use it in day-to-day driving?
A vehicle handbook I read described the red line as 'not suitable for extended periods of operation'.
I'm inclined to put the car through the gears now and again, and the CC3 has already seen the start of the red line, if only for a second.
There's little other point in redlining most of the cars I've driven, as the engine is past both peak power and torque by then.
I suppose this may not apply to high-revving engines/Japanese multi-cylinder motorcycles.
And just to complicate matters, don't some cars have an orange zone on the rev counter as well?
Read more
'chronometric' printed on the face.
Some of my old motorbikes have Chronometric speedometers. One has the rev counter and speedo dials going in opposite directions - at about 70 MPH the speedo. needle points straight up, the rev. counter needle straight down. AFAIK rev. counters have always properly been called tachometers (see also odometer, altimeter, etc.).
A friend of mine is a driving instructor and mentioned that within the next 4 weeks he was looking to change his vehicle...an '06 Golf GT Tdi 3dr in black, with 140k on the clock. It is immaculate, obviously FSH, no accidents, and has to date been faultless. It has a leather interior, but lacks a sunroof and two extra doors which I always prefer! He will be replacing it with a similar model Mk6 Golf.
We both know that the only cost that matters is the 'cost to change'...p/ex values are worthless if you end up paying full list price.So, if he buys from a web based dealer (any recommendations please?) what would be a fair price for me to pay? I only drive 5k pa, but fancy a change after 18 months with my utterly reliable Mazda 626 2.0 SE petrol...I shall only be keeping the car until mid 2010 when my fiance and I wed, when we shall then buy a convertible as a joint wedding present to ourselves, and I would hate to lose too much value in depreciation! Read more
No......all those kangaroo starts and emergency stops etc etc.
Hi I'm new to the forum and hoping that somebody can offer some advice.
I've had my 55 reg 307 2.0 HDI for 2 years now. In that time I've had two replacement EGR valves, the last was 4 months ago on the last day of the car's PUG warranty. However, I'm still having problems. At low revs (<3.000) the car is very unresponsive and feels like if it back fired it would clear the problem. I'm sure it's linked to the EGR valve but the dealer is no longer interested and wants to charge me to diagnose the problem.
Is there an additive I can add to the fuel to try to solve the problem or is it easy enough to clean the EGR valve?
Thanks, Rob Read more
Good point about the MAF. As far as I understand it, the ECU has some default look-up table values that it uses if the MAF is unplugged, so you can unplug it and take the car for a drive. If performance is better with the MAF unplugged, then you can be fairly sure your MAF is faulty. Don't leave it disconnected for long periods though as the ECU reads incoming air temperature from it and this will cause other problems, but I think its OK for a short time to do this.
The MAF can sometimes be cleaned with solvents but it is very delicate . Only sure way of testing is by replacing with a known good one.
Browse
Rachel - a good automotive locksmith might be able to help. Keys for all makes have been officially "dealer only" for years, but these guys do good business and can be very ingenious in my experience, and for significantly less than a dealer will charge.
Try yell.com in your local area.