August 2009
ive been given a cdr 500 cd player for my astra but when ive plugged it in the only thing that lights up is the code button on the front of it and it wont let me do anything else.
is the cd player totally broke or is there something i can do with it? Read more
I have long been toying with the idea of having a fun 2nd car, mainly for weekend/evening blasts
I have a budget of around £5k, and would like to keep 4 seats and a bit of boot space for trips to France/Belgium etc. I have (I think) narrowed it down to either a Saab 9-3 Viggen convertible, or a volvo C70 2.3 T5 Cabriolet.....
Does anybody have any real world experience of these cars? They seem like cracking value for the money (esp. the Volvo), and £5k would buy me 02/03 example with reasonable miles.
Aside to this, does anybody have any other recommendations? I dont really want something as small as an MX5/Z3, more of a 4 seat GT car. Read more
When driving my Zafira it slowly came to a halt with smoke coming from the front left wheel. The wheel rim was too hot to touch. A mechanic collected car next day and replaced brake caliper, hose, disc and pads. It seemed fine but two days later my wife was driving home a short distance and the same problem occured. I contacted the mechanic and he told me to leave it for an hour and try to move car then. The car did move but I returned it to the mechanic next morning for him to check out. After running it at various times over a week he did not experience the problem and I took the car back.
When I returned home the car drove fine. However I left the left disc and it appeared much hotter than the right disc. I do not have the confidence to do a long journey in the car. Can anyone offer advice on this?
Bikemike Read more
Should have replied sooner but I replaced the master cylinder and all seems fine.
Thank you Simon
Hi
2002 Ford Modeo 2.0 TDCi. Air con has been working with no problems.All of a sudden A/C light is going out and A/C is not working when the fan speed is switched beyond the first position.On the first fan speed every thing working fine with cooled air trickling out of the vents.When the car is driven at speed the ram air effect is pushing cool air through the vents so can only assume the A/C is actually working OK. Read more
As with most Fords that suffer with this problem,take a look at the fan speed resistor and wiring plug .Situated in the heater air intake system,behind glove box.hth
Hi, I have lost the keycode for my 9000 radio/sat-nav, is there a simple way of finding it? Thanks. Eddie Read more
Thats GREAT, thank you bell.
eddie
Further to the excellent Private Parking Fines (Read Only) information Martin Lewis, of moneysavingexpert.com fame, has brought the topic up again in his weekly newsletter.
See:
www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/private-parking-...s
Used in combination, both items could prove invaluable in such cases.
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John Redwood was a Vulcan, from another planet! BBC Website says:-
"She later sealed her fame when she wrecked Michael Howard's leadership bid with her claim that he had 'something of the night' about him."
HI - I have been having problems with my micra K10.
It really doesn't like mornings. Most mornings it won't start at all - turns over perfectly but won't fire, then later in the day when it ha shad the sun on it's bonnet, it will start first time around.
I have replaced distributor cap, rotor arm, and leads which have made it sound a little less "rough" when it does start, but doesn't actually help with the problem. Yesterday I charged the battery fully (as I thought that I had been trying to start it so much I don't want to completely deaden the battery) and this mornign it did try to start.
I am sort of guessing that I have got some leaky wiring somewhere maybe?
Can anyone help with this please
OH - yes it is a pretty new problem, I have had the car abotu a year, and it started this in July.
Many thanks
hoggie Read more
OH ugh - Have just spent some time scratching my head over the Haynes manual and figured out why I can't find the points - it has an "integrated circuit ignition unit" in the place where the points should have been AAARRRGGGHHH. I am not happy - this was supposed to be a car I could learn to work on myself :( And the thing that is REALLY bugging me is that I had to go and get VI number to order parts for it in order (so they said) that they could check that the parts I was ordering were the right ones :(
Oh well - rant over - just thought I would add this piece of info in case it changes anything. Although according to the Haynes I still need to check the gap between the "reluctor" and the baseplate poles.
hoggie
After a recent accident with my bikes on the roof of my car, decided to eitehr buy a van or MPV to transport the bikes. It will also be used for camping equipment so do not want to move from carrying bikes on the roof to carrying on the rear.
Whilst Van would be most obvious with regard to carrying, was wondering if there was a Galaxy sized car that had fold flat seats into floor area. I know Vauxhall have that mid range MPV with fold flat seats, not sure if next size up, any cars have this. Would prefer a car as I wont feel I am taking a step back in the comfort levels.
Thanks Read more
Be aware that most fold-flat seat MPVs means no spare wheel, and reliance on a can of gunk to get you home!
Hello all,
I am looking at buying a 2005 1.4tdi VW Polo with 47,000 miles on the clock. According to the handbook it did 30,000 miles in 1 year with 1 lady keeper, then a following 17k with another female keeper.
It's only had 1 service though - done at 30,000 miles. The garage said they will service the car and MOT it if I want to buy the car. I assume the cambelt will need changing in approx 13k miles time?
Should I be wary of this service record or am I nitpicking? I thought a car needed a service at every 10k miles/1 year which ever comes first.
Many thanks in advance for any replies, they'll be greatly appreciated as I'm a bit of a beginner when it comes to cars.
:) Read more
I wouldn`t touch it with a bargepole Steve. There are plenty of cars..
You might find one where the owner has been caring enough to pay for an interim oil and filter change .
No evidence offered in support of my view that it`s better ;-)
It`s been a good move though for the first two owners, saving money on oil changes...
Evening/Morning all
Thinking about changing cars again and wanted some opinions and advice...
Due to illness, my better half is unlikely to be able to drive again. We currently have a 55 Citroen C4 Coupe and an 04 Mazda MX5. We bought an 08 Dog and as he's getting bigger he's getting too big for the boot of the c4. There's comedy value in having him sat next to me in the MX5 but that leaves my good lady at home.
Given the costs of insuring, taxing, servicing and maintaining two cars I've been thinking about replacing them both with one car. But what would fit the bill.
Well the subject line probably gives it away but I quite fancy chopping them both in for a V70 D5 SE auto around 05-06 plate. Huge, comfortable and something I've always quite liked after my dad's 760GLE way back in the day.
I've read what I can on the interwebs about the car and it seems pretty solid (CBC checked too).
The car I'm interested in is at a local independent which comes with a 90 full warranty that I can upgrade to two years RAC warranty - am tempted to do this, have got policy to read detail.
Soooooo. Am I nuts? should I stick to the two cars (won't use MX5 much and C4 no aircon is really getting on my nerves), what should I watch out for when buying and finally (deep breath) what else could I look at that has an equally nice interior (light leather) and isn't a mondeo.
Thanks as ever
Lee
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I spend 12hrs a day in the cars, sat in body armour and trousers out of the Victorian age. Without aircon, it can become very unpleasant...(the fan alone doesn't penetrate the body armour)
Around 13 years ago, the job paid EXTRA to disable/remove the air con from patrol cars. They decided that cars fitted with aircon were far too extravagant for mere uniform officers :)
Browse
Many thanks for your reply dynamicdave I had lost my radio after a flat battery,the radio manual I found very offputting with what could happen if you cocked it up,I was going to leave it until I had to visit the dealers,your instructions were so concise that I printed it out and this morning successfully recoded it.
Thanks again ndbw