May 2009
My Vectra 2.0 LSd it won't start without jump starting it and when it's running i have very heavy steering, it sounds as if it has a slight misfire and it has a steering wheel icon with an exclamation mark in the control indicator.
Can you help me PLZ??
Thank you
Rob Read more
I was at a local independent service/repair/MOt garage this week getting my son's car MOT'd when a young woman came in to pick her Citroen C2. I got chatting to the guy who runs the garage and he told me the lady had taken the C2 (57 plate 10,000 mileage) into the main dealer for a service. The dealer had rang her at home to say the front pads were "80% worn" and needed changing urgently. The lady had checked with her husband who didn't think the pads were worn, and told her to decline their offer, but to take it into the said independent the next day for a second opinion.
The Citroen dealer had then rang the lady again (the day after the service) at home to request that she book the car in for pads as it was a safety item, and that the car could be dangerous to drive.
Needless to say the independent had taken the wheels off, checked the pads, discs, road tested the car and found absolutely nothing wrong. Pads having plenty of life left.
The woman was really jumpy and nervous about driving the car (she had a baby with her as well) and the independent garage guy had to spend quite a lot of time reassuring her that the car really was safe.
I was quite disgusted how low the dealer had sunk just to try and get another £60 or so out of their customer.
J Read more
Don't need your likes round 'ere.... never heard of plod and builders getting on!!
>>
Dad was in the Met' for 28 years. Got on with them all. Great upbringing and the tales I could tell!! Had lots of fun etc. You guys get bad press today. Damned if you do/don't, but too be very fair I blame almost all of our ills on the Politically correct brainwashed folk. If the 'Dog' bites you give it a slap. If it bites you again, give it a whack. 3rd time unlucky dear 'Dog'. You get my drift. Did me no end of good.
Very best regards,
Martin.
Mention of the Bedford CF van in another hread reminded me of one of the most obscure and difficult to fix breakdowns I ever came across.
The garage I worked for was called out to a CF and I got the job.
The instructions were to check if it was anything obvious, if not, drag it back to the garage.
On arrival, you always checked for fuel and sparks first, which I did.
Both present, and the van would run, but not well.
I managed to get it running better by retarding the ignition, but it was still not right.
Towed it back to the garage, and the job was solved after a lot of head scratching by people far more expert than me.
Turned out the timing belt had jumped one tooth.
The valves were opening a fraction of a second too early or too late, but it would still run - just.
Anyone else come across a far from obvious cause of a breakdown?
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Presumably you both had to know what you were doing.
Well the breakdown fella knew what he was doing..;)
The air held up just long enough, but proper truck breakdown motors have a long airline to plug into the broken trucks air system, so it wouldn't have mattered i'd still have had full brakes, and a very loud hooter to let him know when to stop, but i'm certain he used a bar anyway.
It only needed a couple of yards pull to get it to bump start anyway.
Hmm...another thought, that's something else we won't be doing any more now most trucks have automated manual boxes of one sort or another, apparently its called progress.
I recall another one with a dodgy starter...articulated car transporter this time, starter had died...i kept it running all day (bump started meself on a hill) and took the vehicle loaded into the main dealer for the make that evening at home.
Had a chat with the young man who was going to do the job, i asked him if he'd like me to 'jack knife' the truck so he could get the cab up...''no just turn it off, i'll get it going with jump leads''...i suggested he wouldn't as it was the starter.
''Just turn it off and leave it''...so i did as i was told , he connected the jump pack to show me i was wrong and it was really the batteries.
The truck wouldn't start strangely enough as apparently the starter had died...result the lad had to squeeze under the unable to be tilted cab through the wheelarch and do it the hard way.
Some knowing smiles from older mechanics there who i knew from the past.
You just can't help some people..;)
Why did a lot of countries allow themselves to be led into converting from driving on the left to driving on the right? Why shouldn't all countries drive on the left? I seem to recall that we originally adopted the "driving on the left" system for a logical reason. I think we should try to persuade the "right hand" countries to fall in line with us and help to put the Great back into Great Britain. Read more
Larger more powerful locomotives needed to work the sinuous mountain routes, which inevitably required wider tracks ...
But Bilboman, if your mountain routes are sinuous, your tracks have to be narrower to negotiate the curves. Have a look at the Darjeeling Himalaya, one of the classic mountain narrow-gauge lines, still running (some) steam.
But there are some pretty large locos on narrow gauge - just go to the Welsh Highland and see the giants from South Africa. Quite out of character.
Motoring connection - you'll have to drive to get there ...
hi avin problems with my engine heres the symtoms...lots of blue smoke ,high oil consumption,oil in intercooler and intake pipes,sometimes revs its head off and wont stop only way to stop when this happens is to stall the engine!! thinking turbo? need some freindly advice what you think?car has just had new head gasket,timing belt,and re-con injectors ???? Read more
I was wondering if there was any homegrown car production on the African continent aside from SA?
I was pondering why it was that none of the big car companies has made a factory in one of these terribly poor countries as Im sure the wage cost relative to the rest of the world would be very low, but still very good for the employees.
I mean they send lots of aid there and thats all very well, but in the same way its better to help people become farmers rather than just send food, wouldnt it be even better to send some production capacity there and give them a chance to earn some real money?
Just an idea, I did a search and I couldnt find anything that immediately answered the question. I imagine there is a good reason, but what is it? Read more
When I worked in Kenya 10 years ago, I had a choice between a Subaru AWD estate and a Peugeot 504 - both assembled locally.
An old topic, perhaps, but it would be interesting to hear backroomers theories on why this country has no home grown car industry to speak of, despite such having such an illustrious history in car manufacturing.
Surely Britain could have had a car industry as strong as those in Germany and Japan (were.......), we had the engineering nous to produce some great designs, so why did it have to die?
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Simple really: more reliable and better built foreign competition. That James Ruppert guy wrote a "bestselling" book on this subject: news to me as i have never seen it on the shelves but may buy it it I see it.
hello everyone.
my peugeot 406 2.0 HDi seems to smell of fuel whenever i drive it,i can normally smell it either inside the car or outside the car once i get out of it.
has anyone had the same problems as me because i want to get it sorted but need good advice before i take it to a garage as i dont want to get ripped off.
thanks for looking.
Andy Read more
thanks for your reply mate.
if by brimming you mean filling my tank up full then that may well indeed rule that one out as i only ever really fill up to half of tank of fuel.
someone said it may be an injector pipe would that sound right ? i honestly appreicaiate replies from here as you guys have helped me in the past and the advice has been spot on.
many thanks
Andy
I'm looking to replace a broken bumper grille on my Focus, but without removing the bumper completely, i'm struggling to find how It can be changed.
Any tips would be helpful,
thanks Read more
Yeah the bottom grille, thanks for the help though
Thank you
ill go and test it now