12 months ago my son used a comparison site for car insurance. He duly took out the insurance with one of the 6 cheapest quotes provided.

A year later he received his renewal and the premium had risen by 50% so he did another comparison search and managed to get a quote much cheaper. He contacted the original insurer to inform them that he would not be renewing with them. They asked whether they could try and find a cheaper quote with them and he said "yes". This is where the problem started. They went through his details for him to confirm and when they asked for driving licence type, he said "Full". They replied "That will be another £2000 you owe us". (Not going to give actual fugure for obvious reasons, but it was near the firure quoted). Apparently when he had entered his details in the original comparison search, he had accidently entered that he had a provisional licence rather than the Full one that he had held for 1 year. The original policy has now expired and he's on his new one. The previous insurer has since contacted him to say that he owes a smaller amount (still well in excess of £1000) as they were discounting the commission and service charge. On the day his new policy started he received a letter from the previous insurer stating that the adjustment premium (i.e. the amount he owed) had been paid in full. A week later another arrives saying that they still have not received the adjustment premium which must be paid in the next 7 days. I am of the opinion that, although he accidently entered incorrect details and he requested cover for a provisional driving licence, that is the cover that his insurer quoted for and was happy to provide. He did not set out to deceive anyone and should he have had to make a claim during those 12 months (thankfully he didn't), he would not have been covered. Anyone had a similar experience or can advise where we stand from a legal point? Thanks. Read more

Hi All,

I am really hopeful that someone can help with this strange issue I am having on my 2004 Corsa (Diesel, SRI).

It started a few weeks ago, I came out of the local shop, started the car and the battery light stayed on. Not being far from home I decided to drive the mile or so back made it and decided I would see how it was in the AM.

Next morning no issue on the way to or from work and so was the case for a few days until I next stopped for petrol. Upon leaving the petrol station I noticed the battery light remained on again. This time I attempted to make it back home but broke down and had to wait for a friend to come and get me going with jump leads.

I continued to monitor and soon found that this never happened when I started the car from cold (stood for approx 30 min or more) but whenever I attempt to start from warn having nipped to the shop, petrol, etc pretty much always happens. I then have to turn the engine off, wait 30 or so min and try again. Having allowed to car to stand and cool off I go again without issue.

I have not yet seen the light come on or go off while in transit so if you start the car and it's not on, you know the battery is being charged and your fine for the journey (just don't stop unless you are leaving it for an hour). If you start and the light comes on you know the battery isn't being charged and you had better either be close to home or fine somewhere to pull over.

Spoken to 4 garages and not one had seen this before. Some want me to change alternator, others pay for expensive diags with no promise of finding anything so I decided to try my luck asking online first.

Has anyone seen anything like this before? Any suggestions for further testing or what may fix it? I don't mind spending a few quid if I know I'll get a result I just don't want to throw money at this to find it makes no difference.

Any help and advise greatly appreciated.
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I am going to a Subaru dealer at the weekend to look at a Legacy 2.5SE(auto) 2005 model... hey are asking £6495 (84,000 mles)

I have read in various places the 2.5l engine was prone to head gasket issues.... Read more

This post is both for information to other owners but also to confirm my own interpreation of the problem.There are a number of posts all over the cobweb about water ingress in A4's and I have verified that none of them are causing my problem. Water gets in over the inner plastic trim. This trim is the one along the hinge side of the pasenger door sill and up the side of the footwell (not the longer piece of trim running back along the rest of the door sill). After some hefty investigative work it appears that the water comes out of the door seal at the hinge level and runs down uner the seal between the seal and door frame and eventualy leaps over the plastic trim on to the floor. The door seal trim has two holes in the bottom, which i ams sure we all know about, these were not blocked in my case but it seems that my door seal has a profile that is rather like one large and one small straw stuck together and the drain holes are only letting water out of the smaller straw. If you look at the seal around the door hinge area you will see a large hole in the seal. this hole is in the larger straw and if water gets into this then it backs up to overflow and can leak into the car as I have described. It might be a combination of my driveway slope and angle and the position of seals and trims etc but its a real problem. My conclusion is that the inner straw needs drain holes as well as there is no where for the water to go. I poked a sharp implement into the larger straw though the existing seal drain holes and squeezed all the water out and this seems to have solved the problem for now. I guess in a mjor downpour they could back up again until i can find a good way of making bigger holes without destroying the seal. I would like to know if anyone else has water in this part of the door seal after hosing their car down and whether your drain holes in the seal go right through both straws. Hopefully I have described this enough for sme sensible feedback. thanks Read more

Hiya, I recently picked up this Astra, a 1.8 coupe, its got good service history showing a recent engine overhaul and cambelt but its doing this:

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