January 2010
I'm looking to fit a towbar for a small caravan.
The Citroën dealer offers the full package of fitting the towball and electrics. I'm told the fitting includes reconfiguring the car's ESP so that when a trailer/caravan is present, the stability programme switches to trailer mode. However, this is expensive.
A local towbar specialist will to the job for a third of the price, but he tells he will fit a relay to by-pass the car's CANBus and everything will be fine.
Whom do I believe?
I assume Citroën have actually gone to the trouble of recognising that a car behaves differently when towing a 5m trailer weighing a tonne plus, and if/when the driver has to brake hard or swerve, have worked out the safest way for the the car to respond, which will different from when without a trailer. And consequently by-passing this safety feature is irresponsible and could upset insurers in event of a big claim.
Or is this just safety being taken to unnecessarily extreme levels, and all that's really needed is the towball and a link for the lighting?
I expect this applies to other cars with similar electronic stability programmes.
(BTW, it is not possible to permanently switch off the C4's ESP without serious tinkering.) Read more
Came up to the top of a hill locally on a dual carriageway where there's a roundabout, road splits into two main roads, one goes right and other goes straight on... right hand lane goes right, left straight one... its well signposted both by roads signs and markings on the tarmac...
So we got to within about 50 yards of the top and my (right hand lane) stopped for about a minute whilst some unobservant driver tried (not very successfully) to force their way into the left hand lane to go straight on...
Now I know we all make mistakes, especially where we don't know the area (giving them the benefit of the doubt here), but why on earth can't people just carry on up to the roundabout and just do a full circuit on it instead of annoying the rest of us by either forcing themselves into another lane and delaying everyone...
Whatever happenned to common sense?! Read more
Going 270 degrees around a roundabout
I think you mean 450 degrees. Going 270 degrees will only take you ¾ of the way around the roundabout. 90 degrees will be the 1st exit, 180 the 2nd, etc.
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But a PCI USB2 card might cost between £5 and £10 max. And ten minutes to fit it and no need to copy files to another machine. >>
By the time he has got PC World to fit it for him, it may be £50 or more.
We have been over this ground in the last volume. Remember that L'escargot by his own admission is a complete computer duffer, and takes his PC to the shop for things the "helpers" on here consider easy stuff.
I have bought my wife another car which I am due to collect on Monday. We both have policies that allow us to drive 'any vehicle not belonging to us etc etc'. Does this mean that I can legally drive the car home even if the former owner has cancelled her insurance on the car so there is no actual insurance for the vehicle? I know that such cover is third party only and that the car will ping up on any anpr cameras as uninsured but providing I have my cover note that shows I am covered for other vehicles will I be legal? I dont want to get caught on a technicality. (The reason I dont want to insure it individually straight away is that it will sorned for a couple of months). Thanks, Stuart Read more
Just a thought.
I've just run an HPI check on a car that I'm looking at and hopefully buying tomorrow.
HPI are offering free 7 day insurance with Aviva when you do the check - details on their website. You simply phone up Aviva with the HPI check reference number, I think they will want to give you a quote but you get 7 days free.
The HPI check cost me £20 - probably less than the insurance would have cost me!
Alternitively, I know that More Than will swap your policy to the new vehicle, and give your old one 7 days free cover, at least that's what they told me. This cover can then be renewed for a futher 7 days twice, for an admin fee.
Hi guys,
Anyone who read the Smart ForTwo thread will know I am soon to receive a Smart ForTwo CDi Coupe.
I was just looking at the figures on Parkers and noticed that the Smart's 0.8 diesel engine has better torque than our 1.4 Fiesta petrol.
I'm a bit mystified though how that doesn't relate to better 0-60 times (that probably sounds an incredibly stupid thing to say) and wondered if anyone could explain to a mechanophobe (is that a word?)
For info:
Smart =
Engine Size 799 cc
Cylinders 3
0-60 mph 16.3 s
Power Output 54 bhp
Valves 6
Torque 130 Nm 96 lb-ft
Top Speed 84 mph
Fiesta =
Engine Size 1388 cc
Cylinders 4
0-60 mph 12.3 s
Power Output 78 bhp
Valves 16
Torque 124 Nm 91 lb-ft
Top Speed 103 mph Read more
No mines more relating to the car itself.
that ones Sha**y on an MGF
Mines the same as having MG** ZST on an MGZS
In most cars I drove, I observed following trend with fuel gauge.
When full tank, the needle moves very slowly from F mark.
Once near half-way mark, it moves much faster.
At a quarter tank full level, it movest to E at a very fast pace!
So, the movement is not linear all the way from F to E.
Nowadays if distance to empty value can be shown, why not the "Litre remaining in tank" not be shown??
PS: Some cars do have a digital fuel gauge now but instead of actual value, it shows digital bars (like mobile phone battery level). Read more
Or you could do what a girl I know did with her bike, she took her girlfriend to the middle of nowhere then just before the return journey she decided to check how much fuel she's got - with her cigarette lighter as a source of light - luckily she only singed a bit of hair - although standing miles from anywhere watching her bike burn probably taught her a lesson - thank goodness she wasn't sitting on it when it went up.
my galaxy has also had probs starting and garage seem to think its an immobiliser problem, I'm not so sure. had probs starting for about a month most days 1st time others not at all, plenty of battery but doesnt seem to catch/ignite. got it serviced to see if that sorted it worked for a week then not 1 afternoon after a short run. then after 300 mile round trip it coughed and spluttered 10 miles from home then cut out completely, started again 2 mins later and got me 300yards from home occassionaly coughin and spluttering again then cuts out wont start and hasnt since. Garage say its showing no electrical faults on their machine and its probably an immobiliser problem. Is this possible/probable. If it is they are telling me its either the wiring or the key 50/50 and which do i want looked at 1st as they both will cost?? Read more
TB, you triggered the swearfilter big time. If it was an innocent word, email me and I'll take a look why.
dave_moderator@honestjohn.co.uk
Our Land Rover Freelander 2 GS Td4-e, registered November 2009 has covered less than 2000 miles and has suffered cold start problems since new. This comprises a serious misfire on 1 or more cylinders, followed by clouds of blue smoke and continuing misfire for up to 10 minutes. We find this to be totally unacceptable and as such we gave a well known LR dealer the opportunity to fix or replace the vehicle. After having the vehicle for 7 days and admitting that it was a fault they were unable to even identify the cause. We therefore escalated to a rejection of the vehicle, as a repair was apparently impossible.
Anyone with an F2, or considering purchasing one, will be interested in the following comments from the dealer and Land Rover. I quote from them "Having spoken to LR UK, they are of the opinion that this is a characteristic of the vehicle - because their diagnostic tool did not detect a fault." Isn't a characteristic something common to all vehicles of a type? Again, I quote from them "They have no other reports of similar symptoms." So you can't have it both ways - is it a 'characteristic' or not?! They are using this tack because a legal precedent was set with a rejected Audi, where pulling to the left was deemed to be a 'characteristic' of that car... (see rejection of a vehicle on Honest John).
Any help gratefully received. Why should the unwitting public be subjected to such contemptible treatment by the motor manufacturers and retailers? If it had been a TV we'd be watching a replacement set by now!
References to the dealer's details removed in accordance with T&C Read more
IF LR had collected the car, gave you a loaner and then made every effort to fix it, and then if they failed, offered a new replacement vehicle, you would have been quite happy and impressed with the service by a world leader of car manufacture and design.
Instead we all know that if we get problems with a LR vehicle we can expect similar treatment.
***** This thread is now closed, please CLICK HERE to go to Volume 344 *****
In this thread you may ask any question for which you need help, advice, suggestions or whatever.
It does not need to be motoring related. In fact, in this thread it should not be.
No Questions About PCs. Please use the current "computer Related Questions" thread instead.
No politics
No Speeding, speed cameras, traffic calming
No arguments or slanging matches
Nothing which we think is not following the spirit of the thread
Nothing that risks the future of this site (please see the small print for details -
www.honestjohn.co.uk/credits/index.htm )
Any of the above will be deleted. If the thread becomes difficult to maintain it will simply be removed.
However, as has been said a couple of times, there is a wealth of knowledge in here, much of which is not motoring related, but most of which is useful.
This is Volume 343. Previous Volumes will not be deleted.
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PLEASE NOTE:
When posting a NEW question, please "Reply to" the first message in this thread, i.e. this one. This keeps each question in it's own separate segment and stops each new question from getting mixed up in amongst existing questions. Also please remember to change the subject header.
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... select GetInfo and then on the options tab there will be an option for volume adjustment...
There certainly is.
I was a bit scared of a 'select all' change, but sometimes a man just has to be brave, and I have cranked up the top volume a couple of notches.
Only took about 10 minutes to sync my weedy collection of about 1,400 songs.
I'll continue with the 3.5mm lead for the time being because it's nice and simple.
Any further mods might depend on how long the battery lasts, which I'll not know until I've used the iPod for a week or two.
My mother-in-law's '03, 19,900 mile Getz, six full services behind it, has just been diagnosed with a broken crankshaft. Local main dealer identifies this as "a known fault". Crank part number now superceded with modified type. Oops... Result: that'll be a new short motor madam, two grand please! Read more
Did his parachute work ok?
Crash landed in a field in Ireland with no injuries, this was flying from England so most of the journey had been over water.
He won't fly anything with a single engine now.
Browse
That is a very informative video. Thumbs up to BigJohnD.