May 2011
Quoted £303 for the 2nd year service. Car covers about 8000 miles per year. Cost seems very high. What on earth do they change or do ? Pevious highest service charge was about £220 on a vauxhall and I thnk that included a mot ! Read more
My mum is just over 80 years old and had a substantial proposed premium for her car insurance sent through the post. Can anyone recommend an insurance company for this age group? Read more
Thanks for all the responses and suggestions. Mum's car last year was insured with Saga at just over £350. The renewal for next year a whopping £608! Earlier today I phoned Fish and Chartwell. The quote from Fish was £396 with breakdown cover. Chartwell's was £380 but didn't include breakdown cover. The guy from Chartwell thought Fish's quote was a very good one which we might find hard to beat.
Thanks turbo11 for your suggestion. I'll look on the Go compare website to see if M&S is any better.
Hello all, I'm here after ages but used to visit daily for a few years! Hope you're all well. Thought it best to come back to the experts.
I need to buy 4 tyres ( 205/55 R16 , 91V ) for my Ford Focus 2006 (1.6 petrol hatchback). Have been doing loads of research, including looking at Which? and tyre review websites. The best performing brands in the Which? tests are: 1st: Continental, 2nd: Michelin, 3rd: Bridgestone. They also do well in other tests, so I've been looking at the following tyres:
Continental Sport Contact 2
Continental Premium Contact 2
Michelin Primacy HP
Bridgestone Turanza ER300
I was going to order one of the Continentals, but then came across lots of customer reviews saying that they wear out quickly. It seems that many people think that Continentals wear out quickly in general. As it's expensive to buy 4 tyres fully-fitted, I would be grateful for your input about your experiences with these and any other tyres. Which of the Continentals would you buy, if any, or what else do you suggest? Plus is it worth buying wheel alignment?
Also, I was going to order them from blackcircles.com, but please let me know if you have any other recommendations! Many thanks in advance for your advice. Read more
The factory-fit Conti SportContacts on my Passat lasted 33K on the front, the replacement Vredesteins lasted less than 20K ... I believe longevity depends somewhat on the specific model of car they're fitted to, as well as tread pattern etc....
I have a 2007 MK4 Mondeo, and was suprised to see on Etis that the camshaft / auxiliary belt change interval is 62500 / 5 years.
This seems to apply to autos - manuals have a 125000 / 10 years interval.... Read more
Hi i have a 2003 Nissan xtrail diesel, i am trying to identify which part of the exhaust is the catalytic converter.
I need to change it and need to see if i can remove it myself.... Read more
Hi thanks to you both for replies,it has no other running faults,start first time,even when knocking it does not loose power or hesitate, it seems to be using more fuel but this maybe my imagination due to the price at the minute. I will try some quality cleaner directly into the filter as recommend.understand what you are saying about timing chain but it is an expensive job and I am a bit reluctant to spend alot, was going to replace it next year anyway
Herald
I've had this car about a month now and after checking all the tyres out I have decided to change all the tyres as they are all around 3mm tread and so I was checking teh tyre sizes from the tyres and they are listed as 145/80 R13 75T. Yes when I check online sites they recommend 165/70 R13 75T.
Would it make much difference between these two sizes and does anyone know which I should use?... Read more
Thought I would contact Vauxhall about this and they confirmed that the car was originally on 145/80 R13 75T tyres and I have been able to confirm all the wheel rims are the same - 5Jx13H2
Is there any advantage/disadvantage to putting on the 165/70 R13 tyres or should I stick to what the car came with originally?...
Hi,
... Read more
Hi,
Thanks - Yes, you're right, I took the gearbox out and thats where the problem was!...
Hi, hope this is the place to post this question. Basically I need some reliable advice regarding insurance.
Recently driving along main road when another car came straight out of side road without stopping and hit nearside rear of my 51 reg clio 1.5dci. 3 door. Other driver admitted liability both to myself and the police (I called police because he admitted to having a drink although breathalyser at scene read zero). There is a fair bit of damage to my rear quarter panel,slight dent on door and alloy has a small chunk chipped out of rim. Tyre damaged as well although car is still driveable.... Read more
Firstly if your fully comp it would be your Insurer's approved repairer. You do haveehi the option of using your own repairer but if any problems, your Insurer will not help as they don't have a contract with them. It's the same with most Insurers. If you don't need a credit hire vehicle then don't take one. The statements they get you to sign state that you need the replacement vehicle so signing this not wanting it could cause you problems. Although you are no longer insured with Saga, alot of Insurers have contracts with companies like Claimfast to pass you onto. Alot of the time these companies are regulated by the Association of British Insurers, which means they set the charges these companies can put onto the Third Party Insurer. The ABI is a board of Insurance governors who set out the rules. They created the General Terms of Agreement. You may find it cheaper to go to your own repairer should you have to claim again. If your vehicle was a previous total loss then this will decrease the value of your vehicle should it be involved in an accident. This is up to the Insurers engineers as to how much it is. You can also go to the Third Party Insurer directly for a hire vehicle and if they accept fault they will usually accommodate your needs. Should you ever have any questions about these kind of companies then google ABI, Credit Hire, etc... Hope this helps in future.
Hi i am looking for some help, This is the third time its happened now, the garage are at a loss,
Last time they said it was frozen diesel in winter but now the same problem has happened again.
What happens - when driving along it struggles to accelerate in any gear and slows down to below 1k revs cuts out abut 500rpm. the glowplug light flashes once just as the engine stalls out,
( sometimes when driving it stutters like its about to stall or there isnt enough fuel but then its fixes itself again and is fine for another few thousand miles)
1st call nov 2010- AA got it fixed after an hour to trying to start but could didnt know what the problem was.
2nd call dec 2010 - Advised AA to tow to garage without start from ford garage so they could see if any fault codes came up, no fault we detected and they couldnt fine any other problems, they thought it was frozen fuel so they checked fuel lines and replaced the battery,
Today - called AA out and being towed to garage as we speak, i know its not frozen fuel in this weather.
any help would be great as i cant drive it anywhere without the worry of it cutting out Read more
Almost a month later and still having problems, they has said the fuel sender unit needs to be replaced and would cost £470 plus vat. what does this unit do? also could this have been the problem ive had for the past year and would it cause the car
1- to stutter whilst driving like it wasnt getting fuel...
I am having a issue with my car, whilst driving yesterday, I lost power on acceleration and the car seemed to be making a hissing noise when I attempted to accelerate. Dark smoke was coming from the exhaust when I revved the engine. I called the AA who revved the engine and said I needed a new turbo. Now this is highly expensive and I wondered if anyone knows if there is something else it could be rather than the turbo. The car has doen just under 80k miles. if that is any help. If it is the turbo is it worth getting a refurbished turbo? Or does anyone know where I can get one that doesn't break the banK? Read more
Quite. Caterpillar, Scania, Volvo etc will have similar TBOs. To be strictly honest, my comparison wasn't entirely fair. Heavy duty diesels keep their AFRs above 21-22 and keep the EGTs down. Passenger cars tend to use tiny turbines compared to the compressors and ramp the fuelling right up to the smoke limit. However, this is usually only for very intermittant bursts.
But it does illustrate that turbos are, on the whole, pretty reliable.
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I just had the second service (at 18000 miles) on my i30, including brake fluid change, new spark plugs and a wheel balance check, total ( incl VAT) £256.15. Your dealer's rates must be more than mine here in West Yorkshire?