Last Summer I bought a 1960 Morris Minor convertible. It is in pretty good condition - all things considered.

I have been advised to Waxoyl it, is it worth the time, trouble and expense?

I have done a forum search and a number of people have said 'don't bother', while others have said 'use Dinitrol/Supertrol?'

Is it worth it, do I need a garage type compressor? Is it going to involve me laying on my back for a weekend? Read more

Hi there,

I am thinking about going for a cheap as possible late vectra 1.8 vvt sri as a cheap family car. I know they are not the greatest to drive but as a car to run around in and do the occasional family holiday in I think it will suffice. Frees up money to have a more interesting second car! I am put off the 1.9 diesels due to the list of what can go wrong with them.

What are the 1.8s like reliability wise? There is no mention on the car by car review of a single problem on this engine. I know they are not nearly as fast as the diesels but I am not worried about that providing it is reliable. I only will do around 7-8k miles in it so the extra consumption over the diesel won't matter either.

What I want is a car which is refined on the motorway and everything I have read about the vectra says it is up there with the best. This is more important than ultimate handling give what it will be used for.

Views and experiences would be appreciated.



Read more

Knowing the width and depth of knowledge with you guys, I wonder if you can give me some advice.

I live at the end of a road I share ownership of (not posh I assure you!) and when we had the bad snow a couple of weeks ago a workman (sparky, not brickie sadly) who is doing some work on a neighboring property had his wife visit him. It turns out that when she left she just reversed straight into our (low) garden wall, demolishing it with her Shogun.

We were not in at the time, but because of the snow there were tyre tracks giving a clue to the offending vehicle. When we got back we went to see the workmen who (obviously) said it was not them and it was only when our neigbour remembered the wifes earlier arrival did this guy admit she had been, but he claimed she was a good driver and would not have caused this.

My wife photographed the tyre tread left in the snow (using cocoa powder of all things to make the tread clearly visible in the pic - ingenious I thought) and he said he would bring the Shogun the next day to prove it was not his wife that had caused the damage. Next day he turns up in his van and does not contact us before he leaves the property again.

Talking with our neighbour it turns out the electrician thinks his wife did cause it and (bless her) our neighbour has told him he will not get away with leaving us in the lurch. They have found out where he lives, etc and have told him that they will not pay his bill until they are sure we are being sorted out.

Finally we collared the guy (who does seem very odd) yesterday who says his wife did knock it down but asking for us to get a couple of quotes to avoid going down the insurance route due to the excess / higher premiums, etc. We said that we would think it will probably cost a grand to put right and is that really cheaper and he came back and said that we will have to go through his insurers.

The thing is that there are things he has said (like suggesting we might need to say the wall was knocked down on a later day than it really was) that make me suspect that his wife or the car was not insured. Also I have found out that he has fallen on hard times in the past year or so and is actually living in a caravan in a field, having lost his house
(no problem with that, poor chap, and I am not saying this must make him dodgy, but tied in with his unwillingness to proactively come and talk to us about this, relying on passing messages to us via our neighbour until my wife stopped his van yesterday leads me to speculate that he will stall us until he jumps ship and leaves us to sort out the mess.

The neighbour's work has been completed, he wants paying and as he has told her he is going through their car insurance she feels duty bound to pay him. Fair enough, but what are the right steps for me now?

Do I call my house insurer and give them the details of this guy's wifes insurance (he has promised to call us with the details today) or do I call this insurance company of theirs directly to see if it is legit and ask how to make a claim against their policy?

Do I at least register the accident with the police?

I do not want to just wait for this guy to do something (when he has demonstrated that he is unwilling even to have the courtesy to know on our door and admit fault), when I could get on and do something myself, I just have no idea where to start.

If a car crashes into a car it is clear what do do, but I have no experience of car crashing into a wall.

Can anyone advise the correct proceedure for me to follow now? Many thanks.
Gavin Read more

(Non-model-specific question)

Does the panel think it is good / bad / indifferent practice to use copper grease, or other anti-seize compound, on roadwheel bolts? Thank you Read more

I fitted the C3 with a new battery this morning. Very pleased with the simple plastic catch that locates the battery.

Hoping to save the radio stations and the date and time, I plugged in my home-made power supply which is a Nokia phone charger giving 11.7 volts and a fused cigarette lighter plug. This has worked OK in the past.

When I disconnected the battery a regular clonking sound was heard causing the interior light to dim in time with the noise as though a relay was trying to do something. I didn't like the noise and disconnected the power supply. Losing the volatile data was no big deal but I'm curious.

What might have been going on ?

Read more