April 2012
thinking of buying ford focus TDci sport, 2006 reg, does this have a timing belt or a chain belt. Read more
This article is all very well and good, but the cheapest Michelin tyres for my car are nearly £90 each dearer than a reasonable equivalent, and I dont mean an unknown Chinese brand either ! I know Michelins are good as we have them on our newish focus but they are too expensive. Read more
I'm not going to discuss tyres with anyone ever again.
Normally sensible people lose all reason when tyres are discussed....
I signed up for a new car insurance policy in the middle of March, to start on the 20th. They sent through all my details and they'd got a bunch of things wrong but they also said that they wanted photocopies of my driving licence as well as licences for my named drivers - my dad and sister. Now it took me ages to get my date of birth sorted out, which resulted in me having to up my premium with them by about £60 for the year I think it was in the end. I'm still not sure how it happened in the first place to be honest. But then my insurance certificate came through and it had the wrong date of birth still, the wrong post code and a couple of other things were wrong. I phoned about it all and they apologised, said they'd sort it and send me a new insurance policy - I didn't get anything.
So, now here's my problem. The licences. I've sent the licence for myself and my sister but my dad still hasn't got one of the new photocard licences because the DVLA keep sending back his form over tiny things. So I contacted the insurance people and they gave me an extra week extension because of the bank holiday to give us time to see if we could find that old paper licence but we can't and so can only assume that it's lost. I asked at the time what I would have to do if I couldn't find it and they basically said to just see if I can and then call back. So I've called them today to tell them I can't find it and they've said I have two options. Either take him off the policy, which will bring my premium up to £450 from £345 or, him I don't send it in, they'll cancel my policy and I'll have to pay a £110 cancellation fee. On the 14th I'll have had my policy with them for 25 days, I paid a £70 deposit and so they're wanting £180 for 25 days of insurance?! Ridiculous!... Read more
Here is a slight variation on what has been posted previously:
- I call for an insurance quote, answer their questions, receive a price, and make a payment.
- My insurance documents are received through the post.
- Two weeks after my initial call, I receive another letter requested a copy of my driving licence.
- I contact the insurance company and indicate that I am reluctant to provide a copy of my driving licence, as it it a government issued photo identification document, which I never allow to be copied.
- I ask what the requirement is for the insurance company to hold a copy of my licence, and am told that in the event of an accident the insurance company would have all the relevant details to hand.
- I offer to present my original (not photocopied) driving licence to any of the insurance company's offices where their personnel have satisfy themselves as to its authenticity, and, make a note of any relevant details the insurance company may require.
- The is unacceptable to the insurance company agent, the actual insurance company is headquartered outside of the EU.
- I ask how they would intend to store any copy of my licence, and who would have access to it. To which I am informed that it would be scanned and stored digitally (electronically) and that any representative and/or agent would have access to the document.
For me, there remain 6 key issues with what has transpired:...
Down at a friends garage today and young couple come in, "the car is making funny noises" . Workshop manager goes out, switches engine on, blips throttle, lots of mechanical noise,,, need to take a look... Car is a 2.0 litre diesel, turns out not serviced since purchase 21 months ago as only done a bit more than 9000 miles.. No prizes got guessing the rest of the conversation. Read more
2 years or how many miles?,IMO its far too long...
My neighbour has an old Punto (bought privately some years back - may be the third or fourth owner/ keeper ). She only has the one key (blue) and want's a second key in case the original breaks or gets lost etc.
When I had a Brava some years back IIRC I had a Red master key and was told by the dealer that under no circumstances lose the red one. Otherwise it would be an arm and three legs to get replacement keys. Don't know if thats actually true as my Brava is long gone and I passed on the full set of keys to the next owner.... Read more
I wonder if its possible to have the exsisting key hidden close to ignition and just have a blank cut to unlock doors etc.Im fairly sure this would be a cheap way to do it. Although there is the increased risk of it being hotwired
we have an 06 and a 59 plate couple of aygo's,both are used at least 6 days a week;both when they got to 20k failed their mot's due to severe corrosion of their discs and resulting imbalance of the brakes- I have always run fords before usually taking them up to 70k before new discs were needed is this the price you pay for economical cars! Read more
Depends on what you mean by last,ie rust or brake use,some failures are for rusty discs nothing to do with actual braking area of disc,also services as we all know are not done as they were 40 years ago,which is also becoming harder to recomend garages now
My Mazda 3 TS (diesel) died 2 weeks ago. They have stripped engine down to advise that this was caused due to wear on #1 and #4 big end bearings due to insufficient or poor quality oil - as such they will not cover under warranty as we were late in getting it serviced (by circa 3k miles).
The car was serviced in December 2011 (admittedly circa 5 weeks late) but at that time the Mazda garage did not flag any issues with low oil. The car was running like a dream and my husband checks oil every 2 weeks. It is always fine. ... Read more
Agree with Skidpan millions of these engines working as they should all over the world the problems only seem to affect Mazda and the only difference appears to be the emmission system.
Purchased this car in Nov 2010 and off/on it's been a pain in the back side.
Cut a long story short, a few months after purchase the car started to struggle to change it's gears (automatic transmission), and had a loss of power, uphill especially, the engine warning light appeared, and car had loss of power. NOTE, this only happens when the roads are wet.... Read more
Hello folks. I have recently sold my 320d e91 as it was too small for the wife, myself and two small children ( both below 2 years old......). I got hold of an Audi A6 Avant on a 57 plate 2.0 tfsi petrol instead. I had read about the assorted issues with the 2.0 tdi engine and so decided to avoid it. Now I would have liked the 2.7 tdi however this was 2k more than the car I got and I didn't think given our annual milage I could justify the extra initial outlay. So far so good, bags of space, lovely to drive ( so much smoother and refined than the bone shakingly hard BMW with its notchy gearbox and turbo lag ) then only thing is MPG.....Now I know its a petrol and maybe I have been spoilt with diesel mpg previously but I seem to average around 35 mpg. 28 -30 mpg around town if driven like a saint and 38 -40 mpg just driven at asteady 65-70 mph on an open road. Is this the norm.....BMW was getting 40 around town and 50+ on open road. I know Audi is a bigger heavier car.
Apart from tyre pressures, unloading it, switching off air con, driving habits,forcing wife and kids to walk ect ect is there anything I can do to improve MPG ie: will a re map do anything apart from improve performance? Read more
The trick is to accelerate briskly (go up to 4000-4500 if you need to) then when you hit your target speed drop straight into top-or the highest gear the engine will take. At 30 mph, 1200-1300 RPM is plenty, 1500 RPM is sufficient for 40 etc. Low engine speeds do make you feel that you're travelling slower than you are, but you'll get used to it and it will make a difference to your consumption.
I wish my wife knew this, she associates revs only with speed and cant get her head around my car pulling at 1600 revs and doing 80 at 2100 revs in top gear !
the fault is when the car is unlocked the rear wiper satarts wiping also it will start working when driving and only stops when the wiper settles in the centre of the screen instead of the rest position can anyone help Read more
Hi
Where do I find this recall? My C4 has this issue and citreon are refuting its existence....
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All Focus Diesels have a timing belt, no such thing as a "chain belt".
From memory they need changing every 10 years or 100,000 miles.