May 2009
Looking at buying a new or nearly new BMW 5 series, either a 525d or 525i SE.
BMW main dealers are quite pricey but looking on autotrader etc there seems to be lots of 525i petrols for sale. Motorprovider had this cracking offer for a nearly new one at £22k. The website says the car has now been sold and at that price i can see why - but why so cheap?
Regarding the two cars has anyone here got one and can they offer any advice. The MPG between the petrol and diesel is 8MPG. How true this will be in real world driving im not sure.
I no the model is about to be replaced but im thinking that I will be able to get a good deal from the current run, instead of opting for a new model where no discount will be available.
thanks Read more
hi, my sisters rang last week to say she lost the ability to change gear on the motorway. the car has since been recovered i looked at it and found the clutch release arm to be seized i understand this is fairly common and this week have had the gearbox off and replaced it, i left the clutch as it appeared ok and has only covered 50k. now ive reassembled it all she still can't select gear with the engine running. the new release arm moves freely. ive had the slave cylinder apart and there are no signs of leaking there, although it only has 1 seal and the mg parts catalogue appears to show 2.
i have bleed the clutch system using a pressurised easy bleed system i get a good flow of fluid from the top union on the master cylinder aswell as from the slave cylinder, the pedal feels good too but still i can't select any gear when the engine is running. there does seem to be alot of flex in the slave cylinder mounting bracket but im not sure if this would cause an issue. im at a bit of a loss as to where to go next? do i replace the slave or master cylinders or do i look towards the release bearing or clutch components. the car showed no sign of clutch failure before this, i can be sure of this as i took it for a hard drive shortly before it broke down.
the only other point of note i can see is if you hold the clutch pedal down then open the slave cylinder bleed nipple to bleed it the pedal fails to return when the nipple is closed, if you pull the pedal back up manually then it operates fine after that until you open the nipple with it depressed again.
cheers
chris Read more
Glad it's fixed. Regards Peter
tinyurl.com/ktjfwy
Looking at the damage to road surfaces in my area today, it quickly became obvious how much of the damage has been caused by the various Utility Companies. Most of the ruts are due to those trenches they dig and fill in before topping off with a bit of thin tarmac.
Is there no way of grabbing these people by the shovel and insisting they reinstate the roads they damage? Read more
pity we cant have more pictures posted btw... that one brightened up the forum!
At the moment a small minority cannot be trusted to post topics and replies let alone images. So this is not yet possible and unlikely to be ever.
The image is actually provided elsewhere. Nothing to do with this site so I've slowed down browsing members in this thread. Sorry.
I remember watching coverage of a big international motorshow a short while back where the designer of some concept car was being interviewed. He was stating that the car in question was aimed at the youth market and how difficult it was to satisify their demands as the latest generation 'are no longer in love with the motor-car'.
Is this statement indicitive of the general attitude todays youth have towards motoring? Was it true that in days gone by, more people had a genuine interest in motoring? I suppose with eco-mentalism being drilled into school kids from day 1, any notions of enthusiasm for cars and motoring will be quashed early on.
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>>But appliances are not interesting by definition...
Perhaps it's just that appliance enthusiasts are a bit rarer than car enthusiasts? (I'm quite sure they exist!, and doubtlessly have a well policed forum too!)
It could be argued that becoming at all interested in a hunk of metal, plastic, and glass places one well on the way to the Autisitic end of the personality spectrum. I'm not sure if it's particularly healthy or something to be encouraged.
To my dismay, Number_Nipper seems to prefer to upturn his push along brick truck, and play with the wheels - despite my attempting not to bias him toward such deviance.
Watched an episode of Emmerdale tonight, ( it's the only fresh air I get now ! )
A brief scene showed the village bus arriving. It seemed to have a Daewoo grille on the front.
I know Navistar are developing new diesel engines for Daewoo 5 ton and 5.5 ton buses for use in Korea but are they actually running in servicec in the UK, perhaps under the Chrysler badge ?
Ted Read more
Interesting....I thought it was a chrome grille...obviously not so.
Looked like a Wrightbus, comparing the two.
Ted
Hi, my parking sensors are constantly buzzing when in reverse but nothing is obscuring the sensors, I wish to locate the control box to unplug each sensor in turn to located the faulty sensor. I have removed all the carpeting and the arch trims in the boot, but can only locate the buzzer. Does anybody know for sure if it is located behind the bumper? and would I have to remove the bumper for access? There are no details in a well known car repair manual, any advice would be appreciated. Thank you. Read more
Hi,
Today I noticed a car advertised for sale parked in my village.
I'll spare you the details, suffice to say its 55' Plate, 80k miles and the owner budged £200 off the sale price to £4k when its really worth £6000ish.
Just to make it clear, no money has been exchanged and I have agreed to pick it up from her house tomorrow.
I have performed a HPI check which is clear and the last 4 digits of the VIN match up fine. Also the car has full main dealer history which I will confirm with the garage in the morning.
The car is in fantastic condition, just been serviced and has been taxed this week 18 miles away from where the seller lives.
Now here's where it gets interesting...
a) The seller came all the way from where they live (not a great area, slightly rough - 10 miles away) to my village to sell because "where I come people don't have this sort of money"
b) The seller wants to sell this bargain priced car desirable car, only to buy a bog standard £1800 Focus - seller demonstrated knowledge of Focus market value, yet seems oblivious to the market value of the car she and her partner are selling to me.. ?
c) Allegedly the seller is selling the car after just 4 weeks taking it as part exchange with cash on a another car they sold. As such there is no V5, but only the new keepers supplement which has been partially filled then tip-exed out.
d) Seller drove all the way over to meet me from her home to accompany me to inspect the car she left in my village, although she came prepared with driving license and a birth certificate which all seemed legit. Is this odd ?
So basically, too good to be true. ?
I was wondering whether it was worth the risk with a HPI check with a £5000 guarantee just in case ?
Thanks Read more
You'll probably find it's the same person Ted - I don't think we need be suspicious in this instance.
Having recently replaced a complete 10-year-old exhaust (with a noticeable improvement in noise above about 50mph) I started wondering what effects might have taken place as a result. Is the engine more 'choked' than before, and therefore a bit more thirsty? Will any parameters have changed measurably? Read more
I could be wrong but I would have thought that the ECU would have compensated for a blowing exhaust.
When I changed exhaust on previous cars I did notice a slight increase in economy (probably as I did not have to push the engine).
BBC News 24: tinyurl.com/rxyxow
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...rubbish BBC reporting....slow news day...
Steady on.
According to the local authority - not the BBC - some unauthorised person has put up road signs at road works and furthermore they are in Welsh and English.
Phantom road sign erector at work - perfectly decent little story.
Arguably, there's even a bit of public interest here.
Just say this idiot puts up a Keep Right sign that diverts drivers into oncoming traffic.
If you'd read the original story, you might be prepared for it.
Any criticism of the news organisation cannot be justified.
On a recent holiday, I noticed one of the front steel wheel rims of a hire car was badly bent. This was on day 2 of a holiday - I hadn't hit any potholes or curbs, so I am 100% sure the damage was present when I collected the car - I'll check more carefully next time I hire a car.
But what should I have done? Report the fault and risk having to pay for a new wheel and tyre. I deemed it too dangerous to continue driving at motorway speeds - when the wheel disk was removed, the damage looked pretty bad, and even distorted the tyre.
So I admit I changed the wheel for the full sized spare - when the damaged wheel was in the spare well the damage wasn't visible - and said nothing.
What would you have done? I don't see why I should have risked paying for damage done by some-one else, and I didn't leave the car in a dangerous state for the next hirer. Read more
There is a sheet with all recorded faults printed out along with the rental contract. >>
That's my experience too. You do have to spend a few minutes to examine the car because most hirers in holiday destinations will have just had a quick look, filled up the washer bottle and maybe checked the tyre pressures in an effort to turn the car around quickly.
I have noticed additional damage and never had any problem in it being added on to the form.
Sorry you're right. I'd assumed 520d and 525i.