June 2014
Are they serious? Just got my renewal letter from the AA. This year up from £160 to a whopping £349 ! ! ! Yes £349, not a typo. I rang them up and they gave a £60 discount. WOW. A huge increase and they didn't even pay for my breakdown repair to my turbo or even when cooler pipe blew. I think they are trying to get rid of cars older than 10 years old. I would not recommend the AA at all. Even the CEO of the AA is not interested. Total waste of space. Read more
Hi
I own a 55 plate, caddy tdi 104 on 71k. What has been happening is, whenever I am creeping in traffic,parking or pulling up to a junction, it is stalling (red battery light on dash), it starts up again no problem everytime but is very annoying. I spoke to a techician guy who told me it sounds like a crankshaft sensor but said it needs to get worse so the engine management light comes on then it will show him the fault. it had a cluth and flywheel around 6k ago and the problem started approx 1month after this. i have noticed it is alomost always as the clutch has gone down or is about to come up, it never does it whilst idling. my friend is a mechanic and plugged it in to his diagnostics at work and it showed a glowplug fault which he checked out and said was nothing to do with it. Also it will happen multiple times in a day and then not happen for a few days at all.... Read more
I have a Golf Mk6 which is two years old and has done about 8000 miles.
1. The dealer is suggesting it's time for an air-con service - debug, clean, de-gas and refill etc. Is that really necessary yet?... Read more
VAG use Mann or Valeo pollen filters. Try Eurocarparts - paid less than £7 delivered for the Octavia
Afternoon all.
... Read more
The French seem to drive little else, and I'm not aware of their roads being littered with ex-cars.
We build myths IMHO, built up on the back on tiny differences in the likes of JD Power surveys etc....
My husband and I both have back problems and now edging 70s My VW Golf GT Tdi is brilliant on fuel and was purchased second hand. We now need to get a replacement as we are both 'tumbling' out or finding back ache on long journeys so a more raised seat would be so good.
I would appreciate any advice on what has worked for some of you. Our first stumbling block or advantage? is my husband was a HGV mechanic so wants to do as much servicing/repairs as he can. Hence hates price of parts, etc, etc. but likes to find parts easy to obtain.... Read more
I asked the chap who runs a garage where I get mine serviced which cars were the least hassle to own and he said without doubt a Ford Focus. Providing the discs and pads are ok he reckoned it was the most sensible car on the road.
Hello,
I have a 2000 Ford Focus Mk1 model. ... Read more
Does it really need a complete new system?On these focus models ,you can usually get away with changing the centre and rear box sections.There is a large mark up on exhaust systems from some garages,so it could be their profit that is making this job expensive.
I am planning to replace the spark plugs as it has been 25k miles since last changed by previous owner. I have been told to use NGK spark plugs , now do the spark plugs need to be iridium coated, platinum or copper will do?also do the spark plugs need to be special type or brand just NGK plugs will do? And is any modification required such as altering the gap or do NGK already have this gap altered? Read more
the standard specified plugs for this engine are platinum with a 40k change interval (iirc). Just use these anyway - the same type of plugs (NGK) for my Saab only cost £20. Hardly bank breaking and a very small proportion of the running costs of any car!!! I've used NGK for years and have been very happy with them.
Just about to take delivery of a new Kia Sportage which will arrive with 225/60R17 alloy wheels.
My previous car was a Kia Venga and I have a set of winter tyres on rims from that. These are 195/65 R15 and have only done about 6500 miles so I am keen to reuse them on new car.... Read more
The 215/70R16 mentioned by GB have within <1% the same diameter as the 225/60/R17, so look the right size.
The handbook probably covers the tyre options in terms of load/speed rating of homologated tyres for your model....
Anyone know what the torque setting is for the steering wheel nut and the two nuts holding the steering column to the dash bar behind the steering cowling? Read more
Tight and tight, seriously though they aren't critical fastners as such just make sure that they are tight.
I note with some interest, that several popular leading european automobile manufacturers, such as Mercedes, VW, Nissan, Hyundai, Kia etc are making a big deal of their start/stop engine technologies and that the application of this, to something like a Honda 1.2 litre Jazz 'just' manages to move its annual VED down from around £120 to £30. By deploying this to just one 'mid price range' model with the smaller 1.2 litre VTEC engine, Honda have managed to sucessfully get an official European Test Cycle result of 120 gm per km - the 'magic' threshold, which all modern supermini and makers of quite large turbo-diesel limousines strive to achieve, in what is are very competitive but contrasting segments of the european car market.
My questions are as follows:... Read more
On my Yaris HSD the stop start feature works really well. With a co2 of 79 it saves me paying any road tax. So good thing.
Browse
I get the gist and no, the way he went about the claim was never going to work, what i don't understand is why he would consider renewing the policy at all including phoning them as he was obviously disappointed previously...unless that was just to add another dubious chapter to the previous lesson in how not to make a claim on your warranty.:-)
Won't make a scrap of difference to any of us, doubt more than a handful of us would consider buying any warranty that wasn't a genuine makers offering, such as our mate Skidpans choice above.