October 2012
The wife is expecting our first child and having decided that we wanted an isofix car base for our car seat we set off for a large nationwide store that specialises in these.
We were slightly shocked to find out that they would not sell us a base because the base manufacturer had not crashed tested our car with the base in place.
Both of our cars have been tested by euro ncap with isofix bases and received satisfactory results.
To me this seems like madness and I'm inclined to get a base by ordering via the Internet, and potentially taking advantage of better prices.
Am I missing something or is this purely h and s madness? Read more
A week or so ago the speedo needle just suddenly dropped whilst I was driving at 70mph on the motorway. I felt a slight loss of power and the radio volume dropped. At the same time my heart came up in my mouth and my legs turned to jelly!
I do the same journey 5 days a week, 10 mins on the motorway and 10 mins either side on side roads from home to work. The needle appears to drop when I've been on the motorway for a couple of minutes. As the days have gone on it is dropping regularly 3 or 4 times on both journeys to and from work sometimes only for a couple of seconds, other times for longer. I have tried avoiding the motorway but when I did this the speedo dropped just as I was approaching a roundabout and then the dashboard was like Blackpool illuminations, although the car stalled it did start again straight away.... Read more
Yes - this is almost certainly the vehicle speed sensor so get it changed ASAP, as a loss of power means that both the steering and brakes can fail to function properly.
I've posted a fairly detailed 'how-to' if you search this forum for 'vss'. Some can be fairly easy to remove if you're DIYing it but some, like mine, can be an absolute nighmare !...
Hi Everyone,
I need help, I need a second hand car for between £4000 - £5500. I am female & no absolutely nothing about cars, other than how to drive them.... Read more
How about, if you like this class of car, a nearly new Kia Picanto, or last of the old shape Rios, 7 year warrtanty, very low prices, decent running costs and generally reliable. I would always say a Fiesta, as they are cheap to buy( esp last of the old shape), parts and serciving are very cheap and reliability is usually good.
Does anyone know the capacity of the Eolys tank on a C3 Picasso? I will need top top up/refill mine soon and need to know how much to buy. Read more
As someone has pointed out, unless you have access to the Citroën Lexia computer or equivilant you are wasting your time, the car calculates how much Eolys it has used and then throws an emission fault when it thinks it has run out. Citroën are going to charge you an hour's labour so it's going to cost £100 before you've bought the fluid.
Brand new to the forum - so I hope I'm doing this right.
Anyway are there any old (and I mean old) Casal Moped riders out there. I started on a Honda PC50 on my 16th birthday, but within 6 months has swapped it in for a Casal K190 (Fizzy killer!!).... Read more
The bike shop in Sunderland was called Isaac Henderson’s, I got my Suzuki ap50 from there. I believe the road was called Holmeside and the famous Josephs toys and sports shop was on there too.
I have recently noticed a squeaking noise coming from the engine on my 2011 Ford Focus Zetec 1.8 Litre Petrol on start up/when engine is cold. It appears to be coming from the area of the belts and pulleys. The sound goes away after five to ten minutes of driving. I thought it might be one of the belts or pulleys/bearing, but am not totally sure about this as the engine has only done 14,000 miles
... Read more
A fool-proof way to diagnose a noisy belt is to spray a little water over it whilst ticking over. If it temporarily cures the noise you know the cause.
I rarely see the battery driving the engine by itself, in particular if I brake the car gently in the garage the engine continues to use petrol. If I brake the car with sufficient force then the "Auto Stop" kicks in and the engine stops until I take my foot off the brake, then it restarts but again using petrol ! The battery is always at least 3/4 charged so I would have thought under these circumstances if no other I should not be using petrol? Read more
Many thanks for the explanation unthrottled, even a muppet like me can understand pumping losses now!
Sorry, I don't understand how the honda ima system works either....
I get a wooshing noise when changing up on first starting the car.It disappears after a short distance.Is this the start of a problem? Read more
Thanks for the replies.Service due shortly so I will get your suggestions checked.
Wondered if anyone had any ideas on this. Couple of weeks ago I went to my car and tried to start it, the engine malfunction light was on and nothing happened apart from a click noise. I went back to the car later and it started fine. Mechanic said it was the starter motor so he replaced it (costing nearly £200) 5 days later the same thing has happend again so it obviously wasn't the starter motor in the first place. He now says he thinks it could be the starter motor ring gear???? Apparently it will be a major stripping down the car job to replace this but he says he isn't 100% certain its this so I don't want to go down that route unless really necessary some people are suggesting it could be an electrical problem as sometimes its perfectly fine then others nothing. The battery has been tested and is fine. Any suggestions welcome.
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The starter motor was brand new one and yes it is a diesel.
Thanks for the advise
Thank you for the reply, what terminals do you want me to test, and where I do not understand the #1 thank you in advance for the reply
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Just off to do some more research on this subject but it strikes me as one of the maddest business plans I've heard. We won't sell you a car seat until we ve tested your car, and we need to sell seats to cover these costs...... Im no business guru but there s a flaw here!