My heated screens come on automatically on starting the car when temperature is below 4 degrees. Is this correct? I thought they only came on like this at 0 degrees but i have just had front end repaired (snow problem!) & wondered if the sensor or wiring had been upset. Read more

hi all hope some one can help me i hope my car is up for m,o,t and the emissions are at 4.5 and i can not get them down under 3.5 for my m,o,t i have fitted a new co control screw with a new one from the main dealer and it did not do any thing fitted new plugs plug leads air filter full filter new cam shalft and tappets all new!! check cam belt timeing the engine had new big end bearings piston rings fitted and seems to be runnig great its just the emissions is driveing me mad!!! i did get told ecu can go faulty that stops you from resetting the emissions is this true?.

can any one help me please and let me no!!

many thanks

ian Read more

I called into my local, trusted, garage today and found the proprietor doing a general service on a P reg. Honda (quite ancient). He had replaced both of the front coil springs, one of which was broken at one end and the other broken at both ends. He said that although he replaces springs frequently, it is generally on European cars, particularly French.
The proprietor pointed out that the springs most commonly broke where the coils were rusty. He thought that the breakage was initiated by corrosion and that manufacturers are beginning to attempt to provide better protection.
Can NC comment on this and say whether a liberal coating of Waxoyl would help ?
Read more

I need to get some new front pads for our Focus. There is the option of pads with wear indicators or without. Would my car (1.6 Zetec manual) need the ones with wear indicators ?

The only other way to check is to take the wheels of and check before I order them, so can anyone advise please ? Read more

Well I've had a few fingers of vodka and I'm just waiting for that warm glow to kick in but today has been horrific for me. I'm an o.c.d. "sufferer" since my earliest memory but I'm also slightly agoraphobic. I'm not frightened of leaving the house or anything, it's more subtle than that - I have to drive to particular places or go by particular routes when I'm on my own. I can do the school run but I can't go to a certain Tesco for example or down a certain road or over a certain bridge (unless my wife with me, then everything's ok). I even have to walk around shopping malls in a particular way, and then another particular way back to the car park. One way this manifests itself as a problem is I really need to use the right petrol station if I'm alone.

So last week I was driving back from the mountains after skiing and about 100km from home the fuel light came on but the trip comp said I had enough for 160km so no problem. My wife was asleep, it was 2 am or something so I thought I'd hang on till I was on familiar ground or get it the next day. Anyway, the kids were off school for another week and I didn't leave the house until today at which point it said 20km remaining and my round trip school run is about 20 km. I still wasn't worried, even though my station is a bit out of my way, I knew there would always be a safety margin. But in the last two days we've had three heavy snow falls so today, traffic was thick and slow and much of it was crunching and bulldozing through fresh snow especially where oncoming cars are passing on the narrow roads around the schools. My "20k to fill" was quickly eaten up by the conditions and by the time I'd dropped off my lad, the indicator was flashing a warning. I still knew that I'd make it, my station was on a long, clear dual carriageway going out of town and completely clear. However, as I pulled onto the slip road I saw that the station exit was barricaded due to construction work. I was instantly filled with dread, partly because of the petrol situation but mainly because i knew I'd have to find an unfamiliar station and i made the logical decision (for me) to hit the gas and smash the car over a wide grass, snow covered verge to get off the dual carriage way and onto the local roads to try and work my way to my petrol station.

Thanks to a stonking set of snow tyres, I got away with it but could I find another way to the station? - No, I got hopelessly lost, I knew I was only a few hundred metres away but just couldn't get there and then I got the dreaded fuel starvation vibrations. It was like a bank of cylinders was being starved of fuel and it felt like I had a pneumatic drill running in the boot. I was panicking by now and holding the car on the brakes while keeping it at 2000 rpm in the hope that it wouldn't stall. And it didn't, the vibrations passed and I continued to search for another station. Then began a 15 minute test of nerves as I frantically tried to find a petrol station in thick rush-hour traffic with these vibrations becoming more and more frequent and more and more severe. And suddenly I was on a road that i knew and about 4 km from a petrol station that I'd used before and it became a game of trying to bully my way through traffic whilst staying as much as possible in the inside lane incase I had to ditch. To say that the language in the cabin was foul would be an understatement, my poor wife had to endure several calls that would have made a marine blush, but I eventually skidded into a petrol station, pump on the wrong side, car vibrating like crazy and me sweating and shaking.

So I filled up, and paid and set off and after 100 metres the vibrations had gone and it was back to its silky smooth self and I tried to compose myself before walking into the house (by shoveling snow for an hour) and of course my wife went on and on about how I brought it on myself but people like me find it easier to lie and make convoluted excuses than admit we're a couple of marbles short.

Forward a few hours and my wife is with me to do the second leg of the school run, chaos in the carpark because the snow is piling everywhere and spaces are short. That doesn't stress me at all, wife is with me and I helped dig out a yummy mummy in a stranded 207 and just before getting home we made the decision to nip to the local mini mart place for essentials. There is a main entrance on the main road and a secondary entrance from a side road which also serves for lorries to load and unload. I took the secondary road and drove round the back of the building only to find that as the road leads in to the car park, some idiot had just stopped there, left his Kangoo and gone shopping. I couldn't believe it - two cars behind me, getting impatient and a selfish, moronic cretin blocking me in front. Had there not been a mountain of snow I could have passed but even on full lock the car was pushed sideways by snow into the offending vehicle. I got the red-mist. I nudge up to the bumper and floored it - nothing but wheelspin and a smell of burning, the Kangoo wouldn't move. By this time I was hammering the steering wheel and in a total rage. If the guy had come at that point, I would have killed him and enjoyed it. A crowd was starting to form and I made a final attempt to flatten the snow mountain to get past and after a minute or so and more foul burning smells I was passed. I immediately reversed right up to his front bumper and well and truly blocked him and everybody else using that road. What else could I do? I got out and shouted some abuse at the gathering crowd about Poles and driving licenses, heaven knows what they thought of some foreigner mouthing off at them.

So we were pushing this trolley around and all the time I was desperate to get outside and confront the idiot who would no doubt be waiting but at the same time, trying to do things as slowly as possible. Of course we got outside and guess what - yup, the driver was a hot chick and there was a huge line of angry drivers behind her - the rest of it just degenerated into verbal abuse of which I'm not proud, but at least I didn't punch her in the face or worse, get punched the face by a girl in front of the kids. She was very feisty, she used a shopping trolley to block me and push her way in front and then do a series of brake tests and slow manouevres. Good for her.

So I'm sitting here, trying to calm down, glass in hand, I just thought i'd relay the sorry tale of my driving day, perhaps as some form of therapy. The glow from the (several shots of) vodka has kicked in (and eased the pain of breaking a headlight in my adventures, and possibly the exhaust which is now growling). Thanks for listening and thanks to my beautiful wife who thinks I am strong and silent and will probably never know what a fundamental pillar of strength she is for me. Read more