December 2013
I recently received a Notice to Owner about a PCN from my local council, which I knew nothing about. The photos clearly showing my car in a disabled bay and a ticket on the windscreen and the sign alongside the bay. Slam dunk. On investigating it appears my daughter was using my car that day. She collected my mother, her grandmother who is 94 and disabled, from the sheltered accommodation to take her shopping and get her out and about for a while. My daughter thought she could use the disabled bay because my mother is disabled. Wrong, and I told her so. But she swears that there was no ticket on the car when she returned, and I believe her. She is 35, has driven for 18 years and knows tickets can't just be dismissed. I wrote to the local authority and explained all this and apologised for the mistake and requested to be put back into the position of being able to pay the fixed penalty of £35. I think that some wag has obviously thought it highly amusing to remove the ticket and cause us further trouble. I hope the authority have some sympathy with our situation and apply common sense to it. I will let you know the outcome. PS some time ago I did apply for a Blue Badge, but have you seen the hoops you need to jump through to get one to transport a relative? It's easier to park anywhere and push the wheelchair!!! Cheers Concrete. Read more
Hi was hoping for some advice, and opinions on my problem,
I have loss of power, black smoke, the car with spanner light on after checking forums seemingly common fault with vauxhall combo 1.3 vans, no one seems to have the answer map/maf sensor, turbo, ecu/egr all syptoms I think of DPF not doing what it should. I was wondering what you thought and if you think it's worth getting the dpf removed? Van went down hill fast now very bad I'm thinking it maybe to late for me and not salvageable even if I remove dpf, should I give it a go or cut my losses?
Thanks in advance,
Sarah :0) Read more
If youv'e got black smoke out of the exhaust I would say someone has already removed the DPF as its function is to trap 99%+ of the soot particles. Might just be the EGR stuck open, but as The Mechanic says, you need someone who knows how to read diagnostics for this engine. Take it to a diesel specialist rather than dealer or back street garage.
I have to drive along the A14 from Suffolk to commute to Cambridge. Some days I will come over a crest and find the outside lane has 0.5 to 1.0 mile packed with cars that are overtaking absolutely nothing apart from an HGV 0.5 to 1.0 ahead.
... Read more
The A14 is home turf for me too.
I tend to use the inside lane in the circumstances Trilogy describes, but I avoid rushing past the traffic in the outside lane, which is bound to p*** people off....
Love these. www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C439830 Read more
Personally I never hankered after a watered-down Yankee tub, but chacun etc. :-)
But it says it's been clocked .......
Hi all,
I've just started the process of renovating a 1994 e class coupe .
It suffers from the usual problem of rusty inner and outer front wings as well as rust in the bottom of the rear wings.
The front wings are an easy , bolt on and off fitting ,The question I have is what are the two cylinders that are fixed to the inner wings ,and what are their function .
The one on the off side ,drivers side is about 4 inches long shaped almost like a figure of eight and made from white plastic ,a narrow plastic pipe leads from it .
The one on the nearside is about 12 inches long rectangular in shape and made from pressed steel ,a hose runs from it to the inner wing .
Any ideas appreciated
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(Seeing the amount of issues and apparent cost attached to servicing the car have you ever considered just giving it up? And buy a better w124?) A good 124 coupe costs about £3000 ,it wouldn't be in the colour and specification that I wanted .To get the one I have into good condition would cost about £3000 and I enjoy working on cars . Does that answer your question ,or is the point of owning a car like this completely lost on you !
I cannot think of anything more thereaputic than working on an old car
A rare bit of good news;
It'd be worthless without the processors from Cambridge.
Who has the oldest car that is used as daily transport? mine has almost 14 years on it's birth certificate and 151k on the clock. Read more
My Xsara estate 2.0 HDi 2002 has now clocked 248k miles. This does not qualify as the oldest or the highest mileage, but it is used daily on the 57 mile (total) commute plus weekend jaunts. ...
Once again the UK is in the dunce's corner with stagnant education standards.
I'm no football fan, but in that world we would have seen a change of management, including the coach. In commerce the CEO and management might have to answer to the board, but it seems like no-one is being held to account. The kids are there to learn, the teachers to teach, where is the weak link? Are youngsters just not as bright as elsewhere (seems implausible to me) or are the teachers not as good as they would have us believe?... Read more
My partner is a teach and I can certainly say it's not the teachers fault. They are given some major restrictions and can't do what the outside would think as "the obvious" thing - such as remove a physically violent/abusive pupils or intervene if they clearly have a problem outside of school.
All I can add really is that teachers are doing as much as they can but that is limited.
I think that the doors look as though a bed headboard has been halved and glued on to them. Not so funky to me .
Denboy Read more
Too ugly
Im looking at possibly upgrading my estate car and really like the look of the a4 avant b7 model. I think this goes from 2005-2008. I definatly want a diesel and like the idea of a quattro.
I know that there is no DPF on the 140bhp model but there is on the 170bhp. Ideally I dont want a DPF on the car for the risk of it clogging up.
Are all the quattro models 170bhp or is there a 140bhp without the DPF?
Ill probably have around £6000 to spend so I dont know if this would be enough for a good model. If anyone else has any opions of other a4 avant models id appreciate it
Cheers Read more
We have owned an A4 Avant for the last 4.5 years and I have to say its one of the best cars I have owned (and I`ve owned a few.....). It`s a 2006 2.0tdi with 137k miles and has been very reliable with only servicing required during our ownership. I`ve have achieved 74mpg on one run up the A140 at 45mph average speed. It usually acheives between 50 and 64mpg, and I cannot see myself selling it! It has a very hard wearing leather interior and although it1s not the biggest estate car out there, its a very hard act to follow.
Hope you get what what you are looking for, but I cannot paraise our Audi enough!
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It used to be a 'get out' clause if ticket was not handed to driver or put on the vehicle at the time.
New Regs came out in 2007/8 that empowered authorities to serve PCN by post....