June 2009
a mate has a alfa 156 2.0ts selecaspeed with a failed head gasket
hes found some date for the head bolts saying 2.0 , 4.0 + 90 DEGS +90 DEGS + 90 DEGS , now we understand the 90 deg bit but what does the 2.0 and 4.0 mean? no mention of ft lbs or such
anyone able to help? Read more
"In three years time drivers with a clean record will have as many as 15 points on their licence [Spanish system works in reverse to UK - you start with 12 points, and deductions made for an offence]
The DGT traffic authority in Spain is to hand out 40 million extra licence points to some 21 million good drivers from next month. Those with a clean record since the points system was introduced [in 2006] will get two extra points, taking them to 14, and if they continue for another three years they will get an extra point to reach 15"
Good idea? Provides an incentive? Adaptable to UK?
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Well, I think it's a great idea! I can build up a shed load of points then go and get ratted down at the 'Old Cannon', drive home and Mrs W won't have the bother of picking me up.
I was wondering if there is a web site or some sort of give away clue on the cars chassis plate that could indicate when a vehicle was assembled ?
The chassis plate on my car states 'date of manufacture' but unfortunately my Korean is not that good. Read more
Bagpuss if its a just in time component like an ashtray the sticker underneath
is the best way to find a date
It depends. The sticker is not necessarily the JIT delivery date of the ashtray to the car manufacturer, it could well be the manufacturing date. It's not uncommon for suppliers, especially in Asia, to build these cheap things in batches, store them in a warehouse and ship them JIT to the manufacturer.
My Merc was built in January 1994 but some of the plastic bits have build dates from mid 1993.
Hi guys,
I have found a second hand car I would like to buy, however when I checked its history I discovered that its year of manufacture was 1999, but the date of its first registration wasn't until 2004...what could be the reason for this?
Thanks
Ben Read more
Could be an import?
A neighbour is selling a '95 318SE manual. I haven't looked at it closely but it's described as mint with fsh and just 2 owners including my neighbour - who I've only ever known to say hello to but is retired and seems pretty respectable.
The car certainly appears to be very very clean inside and out (noting that I've only really glanced at it so far and if i take this further will obvioulsy scrutinise carefully); the car has been garaged by him for at least the last 3 years.
Here's the thing; it's only done 36k miles. Is this to be taken as a good point or might there be underlying problems with low miles? - possibly lots of short runs....
Okay - lets assume that I can be persuaded that the car's low mileage is a good thing i.e. that most of it's miles have been motorway miles, and lets assume that the paperwork all adds up, it's as clean as it sounds and my local friendly mechanic says he can't find any hidden nasties.....
Am I going to be dissappointed going from my 1999 Octavia 2.0 petrol (which is also pretty clean and drives okay if a little heavy) to a 1995 BMW 318? I'm really referring to ownership as well as driving experience. [note that my expectations are realistic - this is entering bangernomics territory afterall]
Finally, if the answer to the above question is "No" what would you advise me to pay? - I haven't told you his asking price yet to see what you think might be a fair price.
Many thanks - I'll let you know what happens.
Duncan.
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btw how does one check for a corroded column? (please no smutty responses)
Its the bit under the bonnet with the universal joints on it, if you look at Ebay item 250403152504 you will see one....
they have a habit of rusting away on the part with the hills and valleys. the problem only really occurs on RHD, because it runs close to the exhaust manifold, so gets hot, then cooled with water in wet conditions. (LHD its on the other side!)
hi
we have a citroen 1.6 16v 2003,for some strange reason,when we turn the radio on there is a beeping noise which beeps constantly( like a heart monitor beep ),it is the original radio fitted to the car and it was bought secondhand like that.
any help would be great
thanks Read more
Hello guys, long time no see :o)
Disaster struck the BMW 320D Auto (03 reg) late yesterday afternoon on the way home from a weekend away. The AA man suspects the Turbo...I suspect huge hole in bank balance imminent.
Anyway 6 1/2 hours after calling the AA at the roadside in Moreton-in-Marsh, and two broken down tow trucks later, we were finally taken 100-odd miles home by taxi, and the car was taken to the local main dealer (where it was bought 2nd hand 2 years ago) about 4am this morning.
But I digress. I called the dealer this morning and a friend has dropped the key to them. Apart from being told this morning they were very busy but they try to proritise recovery cases, I haven't heard from them again so of course I'm just about to chase them up.
My questions are - is a dead turbo a long job and how long do you think I'll be without my car?
And
If a main dealer service section is fully booked do you think recoveries can and do jump the queue?
And
I see the turbo is mentioned in the car by car breakdown on here. Mine was first registered in June 03. HJ's comments imply that BMW acknowledged there is a turbo problem, how can I find out if that was the case and whether that has any bearing on how much I end up paying for this repair?
Thanks for any insight. Please bear in mind my continued lack of mechanical knowledge in case your reply gets technical!
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Very heartwarming to hear that your employer is paying for you - no doubt you're a terrific employee!
I have a new chap going to join our company soon.
When it comes to company cars we tend to buy nearly new / 1 year old to miss out on the worst depreciation and get a nicer car for the guy sat in it for the next 100k miles plus.
Looking at 'the usual suspects' of cars such as Mondeo's, I have noticed that only one of the three main car supermarkets (Motorpoint) I normally look at have any 08/58 plate Mondeos, (Trade Sales and Car Giant are the others, our company is in the South East), but there are a lot of SAAB 93's. Most are Auto's (not good either for BiK or mpg) but there are a few 150hp diesel Linear SE's saloons at £11,800 and estates at £12,500.
This to me would put the guy in a nice 'premium' (note the small letters) car at a very affordable price. I know (imho) that the Mondeo is a far better car, and of course the guy driving it will have some input, but I wonder with the current state of GM whether I am mad in even thinking of this as a possible option. Are SAAB likely to be bought or just closed down?
I am thinking of servicing / parts cost and availability as he would probably have the car for 4 years or so and this is the more important factor over residual value. We tend to drive the cars until they die (my MD has a 51 plate V70 which is still going strong at 180k miles or so), but running costs are a consideration (one of the reasons why I changed my Volvo to a BMW when the Volvo was getting tired).
£12,500 seems a reasonable amount of money to buy a 1 year old / 10-15k mileage car and is roughly what we tend to spend. Better for the member of staff to have a bigger more comfy car for the mileage than a new Focus or similar. The other guys we have drive a Mondeo TDci Ghia X estate and a high-spec Bora TDi.
The other suspects are Passats at about the same price range, but at this price the engines are the lowly 1.9TDI which could be a bit small for him as he may well be doing some high miles on the continent.
To Saab or not to Saab?
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If you follow life treating other people as you would want to have them treat you then you can't go far wrong. If I do right by him, then in principle he should do right by us. It does not always work like that, with some people really taking advantage of such good nature, but we are lucky to have very few people like that.
Sorry, no other jobs going!
Interestingly we did not have a job going anyway. We just found a particularly interesting and talented person and thought that he would fit into our company well so we created a job for him. He was a customer of ours until last year and we have kept in touch. Before we knew it, when we started writing a job description we discovered that we really did have a need for an extra person!
As Gordon explains, sometimes the employee has a particular take on things that can be to the companies benefit too.
can someone tell me what the approx oil capacity(engine) should be on a 9 hp power washer......I think I may have overfilled it as dipstick was lost. Read more
Well, I have Googled for nearly an hour and cannot find more than I have for you Telecaster - hope you get it fixed mate.
The dipsticks on these types of engines usually just touch the bottom of the engine casing and have a half inch indicator on them - so using a clean stick, measure the depth of the oil that way. They usually hold no more than 1 to 1.5 litres too. 10w40 is the usual spec.
Overfill - you will take out the crankshaft seals - underfill, and you will damage the engine.
I have had to have a new catalytic convertor fitted to my Citroen Saxo since its replacement it sounds really rough especially when you start up, reverse and over rough surfaces the garage says that the cat has to be coated with soot ie driven for a while to quieten it does this make sense? Read more
as jc2 says
sounds like a cheap cat,not a good idea on a saxo as it will more than likely fail the emmisions test come mot time unfortunately (have the badge)
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They'll be kilogramme metres, and, being 9.81 or so Newtons per Kilogramme, multiplying by ten is near enough.