June 2009
Went across to Hoxton the other evening for an opening (sixties photos by a friend). As always these days the Marylebone Road was hideously congested. I believe these days there's a sort of mini inverted rush hour as people queue to get into the West End after Congestion Charge time. Beyond Tottenham Court Rd/Hampstead Road underpass though everything was fine, light traffic flowing at a good clip all the way to Hoxton.
Hoxton is like a mixture of St Ives and the Latin Quarter in Paris these days. Tiny cobbled alleys in a confusing whirl of one-ways, crowded with dubious looking arty types. Parkers few and far between and very expensive; residents' bays banned till midnight; no friendly single yellow lines, they're all quadruple with exclamation marks every two feet. But there are business slots you can get into after 7 if you're lucky.
After a couple of agreeable hours yawping away with other doddring old hip London trash, made the mistake of going to nearby Brick Lane for a curry. Never again I think. It was great ten or fifteen years ago but now there must be 100 restaurants there, and touts line the pavements hustling you noisily to go into theirs. Reminded me of Lagos airport on a rough night. My curry was carp too when we eventually chose a place at random. It's back to Drummond Street next time, or maybe Southall or just round here. Read more
I have a sharan vr6 that I assume has an electrical problem. Even when the engine is cold the temperature guage states 3/4. The cooling fans constantly run even with the ignition off ( fans continue to run for approx 10 mins after ignition is turned off). Any idea what the problem is and how to cure it. Thanks Read more
Is that the yellow sensor that connects to the large water pipe near the front if the engine. Thankyou for your input
A correspondent in today's HJ Telegraph feature writes of the "normal" letter confirming the number of years NCB earned from one car insurer when switching to another. There is nothing "normal" about it in my experience, in fact I once had a long tussle trying to extract confirmation from an insurer. Presumably their idea was to discourage me from switching. Switching must be very frequent in these days of comparison websitesites What is the "normal" procedure please? Read more
Just been through this, ring the company you are leaving and ask for proof of NCB and then send you a letter out. Then just put it in the post to your new company. I believe that the reason some companies do this is to avoid paying the fee to access the insurance database, getting you to do it costs nothing.
I would be interested to see what you make of this. Let`s not call it an actual quiz - but there seems to be quite a few possibilities to consider.
What are they?
(Large (temporary) image files for your detailed investigations)
www.oilrag.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/cut2.jpg
www.oilrag.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/cut1.jpg
oilrag Read more
good post tst
My car's heater control valve packed up about a month ago, which means hot water never gets to the heater matrix but the blower and a/c work fine. I'll be replacing the valve soon, but that's not what this post is about.
I would expect the a/c would only come on when it needed to cool, but no - it comes on even when it's trying to heat. Normally I wouldn't notice this, but without any heat from the matrix it makes itself known because I get a blast of freezing air.
This is not a big problem because I just turn the a/c off, but it seems such a wasteful thing to do. Why would a car be designed to use a/c when it was trying to heat? I know the heat is effectively free, but the a/c compressor must put some load on the engine. I guess I should keep the a/c off when I don't need it in future.
This is on a Jag S-type, which maintains a specified cabin temperature when the heater controls are set to "auto".
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There has to be an override as the "idle" phase still forms part of the legal emission/economy drive cycle.You can advertize fuel savings with the idle cut-out but the legal figures must include idle.
Before commenting, take time to read the story.
tinyurl.com/n3x6xq
It is clear that due to wholly exceptional circumstances, this street was trying to carry on the best it could.
What where the residents supposed to do- rush out and sell their vehicles until such time as work had been completed ?
Reading the piece, it appears that even during the actual flooding, with fire brigade on the scene, the leaches of the parking company where still trying to extract money from people who put saving their valuables and homes before the question of whether they had over stayed their a lotted parking time or not parked in the right bay.
Clearly, indiscriminate parking can lead to safety issues and congestion but some times there are other matters that need attending to first.
I have this vision of a town or city in the Uk being wiped out by a terrorist nuclear device but the remaining jobs worths still moving slowly around devastated streets, looking for cars who had over stayed their paid for parking times because their owners had been incinerated. Read more
Just after the Bishopsgate boming in 1993, we got a pass fro the City of London Police to take our van into the exclusion zone so that we could remove highly sensitive documents and bonds from a damaged building. The traffic wardens came along and booked us, asthey had not received any instructions to say that the yellow lines now meant nothing, as our police pass actually gave us permision to park on double yellows.
We took the ticket, went back to the Guild Hall to renew our pass for the next day - the guy at the desk just ripped up our ticket and told us to forget it. Apparently the wardens issued over 200 tickets that Monday! All were cancelled!
As i let out the clutch and at the top there is a rumbling noise (like bearings ratling ) is this the mass flywheel going ?
Welcome any advice thanks. Read more
My 02 Focus TDCi has what sounds to me like noisy bearings starting in the gearbox - when the same thing happened on my Corolla it ended up with a nasty gearbox rebuild, so I'm off to a gearbox specialist pronto!
Quick question though - looking online at sites such as Ace Gearboxes, I can get a reconditioned guaranteed replacement 'box for under £400 - is that a better bet than repairing the current one, presuming the repair cost is more than a couple of hundred ? Read more
I have a 95 XJ6 3.2, which I've owned for the last four years. It's always been utterly excellent, has never let me down, and I always keep it well serviced.
I live in Jersey, and walk to work, so it only does about 10 miles a week these days, except when I take it back to the UK. There's 130,000 miles on the clock, and it always gets a couple of long runs on the motorway each year.
It always uses quite a bit of oil in winter, but in summer is usually fine. The oil pressure sensor is apparently a bit weak and needs replacing (which was the case when I bought it), so that after hard acceleration (which I do often!), oil pressure at idle is shown as 0 and the light comes on - though I have been assured that the oil pressure is fine.
I took it over to the UK in April. Oil and fluid were fine beforehand, and I checked the oil once or twice when I was over (for a month).
It actually went into a Jaguar dealer (Rybrook in Conwy) when it was in the UK, as the brakes needed sorting. I don't know if they would have bothered to check oil and water etc?
Anyway, I'm fairly sure that I checked oil and water before returning to Jersey. Taking a circuitous route with an overnight stop to see my parents, the total journey from Conwy to Poole was about 500 - 600 miles, at high speed.
When I got back here, I noticed a strange whining sound at about 30, which whined down as the engine slowed. A little worried, I meant to check the oil levels etc. I did a few more jouneys after this, totalling about 30 miles, before I got round to checking the levels.
When I checked them, the dipstick was bone dry. It took 4 1/2 litres to fill it back up. There are no signs of oil leaks, or of black/blue smoke from the exhausts. There's no sign of mayonnaise, the oil light never came on, and the temperature gauge never went above normal (always fractionally on the cold side of dead ahead).
After filling it with oil, I took it for a drive, and the whining noise had gone.
Have I done any lasting damage? Is there anything I can do to help, or do I just cross my fingers and hope (and remember to check levels frequently)?
It's got another month in the UK coming up, followed by two weeks here and then a long drive through France.
Any suggestions?
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Remember that the basic design of that engine goes back to the 1940's.
w.e.f. 30 th June
An Order increases the fixed penalty from £30 to £60 for
the offences under section 14 (seat belts: adults),
15(2) and 15(4) (restrictions on carrying children not wearing seat belts in motor vehicles) of the Road Traffic Act 1988 and
under section 59 of the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 (failure to fix prescribed registration mark to a vehicle in accordance with regulations made under section 23(4)(a) of that Act).
dvd
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Many Moons ago, my parents had this Fiat (i dont remeber what type).
As a baby i used to lie in a carry cot on the back seat, no seatbelts where installed and it just was placed on the back free to slide up and down as the car moved.
Next week I shall be making the journey to Bristol/Bath and we will be taking a 3 year old with us.
I would not dream of letting her travel without the seat and belts in the back. it just goes to show how times change and the risks that we "got away" with when the technology or thinking wasnt around.
Browse
That sounds like the Nazrul when it was good bt.