June 2016
According to the SMMT, British motorists spend £695 each every year looking after their cars – 12% more than the global average.
The SMMT turned this into a news item, headlined: "British cars among world’s best kept with £21.1 billion spent on service and repair every year." And numerous motor websites simply ran that, as it stood, without sitting back and thinking about it.... Read more
I suffer with a permanent damaged lumbar disc, which I live with and doesn't cause me too many problems apart from variable chronic pain. Sitting for long periods in any car gives me discomfort but our MK 2 Octavia seems to have particularly poor seats which make matters worse for me. For journeys of more than an hour I now use my wife's Focus or my son's Corolla, both of which have far more supportive, comfortable seats. I've tried all manner of adjusting, but no better.
Can anyone recommend a decent lumbar support that works, and for the future, are there any popular makes with particularly good seat reviews. I know from the Briskoda forum, the Octavia seats are a well known problem. Any others to avoid next time Cheers Read more
Interesting Skodalan and Avant-- yes it is exactly that, a pre-facelift 2008 Octavia Ambience. It appears quite a common problem on the forums for that particular model. I'm driving to Austria and Italy end of June, so will try a support cushion. Sounds like I should try a VRS, I needed an excuse to have one! And will bear in mind the Volvo range, the estates are rather nice.
I purchased a ford focus 1.6 tdci which has had a stupid amount of work done to it and now is time to get rid. The problem is the engine management light stays on and was going to purchase a code reader to save expense and dont know which one to buy off ebay as there are lots of different ones. Can anyone suggest which one to buy that will work on this model and will it eliminate the fault so i can sell the car. The car itself drives like new but i aint gonna sell it with this engine light on. thanks anyone who can help. Read more
The engine management light can be turned off for a cost between £10 and £20, but you are trying to hide a fault with a vehicle while up for sale. Like poor old me at the wrong end of the sale, turns out the seller also turned off the engine management fault light, hiding the fact that The Catalytic Converter was on its way out !!!!!!! £450-00 including MOT was the amount to put the vehicle right. There is a high risk after test driving the vehicle, and if the vehicle hits the 40 mph mark, there will be a kickback pull in power and the engine management light comes back on. Thanks a bunch to the seller !!!!!!!!
Hi all,
I just wanted to drop a post in the forum for a bit of assistance. I have recently bought a C4 BlueHDI100 new from a Citroen dealer simply because it was well equipped, comfortable and had exceedingly cheap finance after all the discounts (what can I say, cheapskate). After having a Peugeot, Citroen and Renault before I've never really had problems. The car has covered 2200 miles in about 1.5 months from new.... Read more
Recently had a power steering fault on a Ford Fiesta. Heavy steering usually means the power steering/transmission fluid is low in the reservoir. Check manual where it is situated around engine compartment. The level should be between two marked guages on the outside, min & max. Work collegue reported to me an unusual rainbow slick was comming from my Fiesta. It was raining and had great difficulty identifying it. Yes..transmission fluid gives a rainbow effect with no colour. When the Fiesta was raised in the garage, the seals of power steering sensor were starting to give way. £32 and only via Ford. No 3rd party I'm afraid, if it turns out your power steering sensor is leaking. 30 minutes labour, due to having to take other parts off to get to it. Hope this helps a little.
I have recently purchased a Jaguar XE, after a few minutes of driving the engine management light appeared, the car went back to the garage and 2 fault codes were recorded,firstly P208E-73,second one P0404-77. We were told the fault was simply an over fill of AdBlue. When the car returned to us we discovered it felt sluggish, once again the car went in but no fault was recorded. We started the car earlier this week and the only way we can describe the noise from the engine was like a million bolts turning inside, the red exclamation light appeared but once we started driving this disappeared but weve read this fault should be recorded within the computer/memory of the car.
Also has anyone had problems with the SD card for the navigation system? This flags up fequently as to contact our dealer,it calculates a route then disappears and we then have to restart the car to clear the fault. Thanks in advance for any advice given. Read more
Take it back to your dealer along with a letter highlighting your problems. Give them time (say 7 days) to look into the issues BUT make it clear that a recurrence of these & any other problems would immediately reject the car & return it to the dealer for a full refund of any monies spent.
Just for safety send a copy of your letter & concerns by recorded delivery as well! Keep the proof of posting.
Not sure whether I should buy new headlamps or try the 3M kit. I have seen good reviews, but it shows results for cloudy dirty headlamps. Mine are not like this. They seem to have formed a frosted cracked pattern. Here is a pic of mine. You will probably have to download the image to zoom in and actually see the frosting.
https://www.btcloud.bt.com/?shareObject=4a04d444-cbe7-3eb6-0df6-1236d5e8ec1d... Read more
I tried good old autosol with a cloth and elbow grease. Results are good, but it was very time consuming and hard work. I think it's going in the right direction, but maybe the 3M kit with drill attachments might be better. I think it needs something like the cutting power of autosol and a finer compound to finish. After washing, I noticed that water beads on the parts I worked at, but elsewhere the water just glides off. I think it certainly needs some kind of coating to stop the water beading and for UV protection.
Hi All, I've posted this question on another forum but it's gone way off topic and I still haven't had an answer, so am hoping someone on here can help.
I currently drive an 2009 Auris T3 1.4 diesel automatic and am looking to replace it with another newer and more economical car (budget about £8000 - has to be an automatic)... Read more
Well thank you all for the responses - very much appreciated and given me fuel for thought (no pun).
On the transmission, my current one has a "manual" mode (basically shoving a stick up or down) or ecomode but both are a nightmare, especially in slow traffic where the engine drops to first gear at about 18 mph with high revs and wont go back to 2nd unless I speed up a bit. I found out that I can start off in 2nd gear and keep it there even at 3 or 4 mph (with a bit of juddering). Works well unless you forget to put it back into first when you're entering a roundabout - not a lot of fun I can tell you, but I digress....
I'm in the market for a new used estate car, something sub-£10k with reasonable fuel consumption. I had ear-marked something Golf-based, like the Octavia or Leon with the new TSI engine which I can just about stretch to within budget.
I have disregarded diesels because a) I've had bad experiences in the past and b) I don't think it suits my situation.... Read more
Depends on the engine. My retired neighbour has a 13 year old Peugeot 307 2.0, Drives to 8 miles to Sainsburies and back every day and never changes the oil. I don't know if it has a DPF. It's done 137,000 miles.
Its probably the 90bhp model (there's a sticker on the driver's door pillar), those beasts are pretty bullet proof and suffer little problems from local trips, other than the EGR valve getting gummed up.
Week ago it was just hardly noticable but today its getting worse, basically, when you go over 5-10mph you can hear a scoring friction sound and also is pulling to the left if you let go of the steering wheel.
Its a 2005 mini one 1.6, i had the tracking done by the local garage thinking it will cure the pulling etc but no avail.... Read more
Is "pulling to the left and scoring" a euphemism for kerbcrawling?
OnFriday I will be driving up to Leeds leaving Bromley at around 2:30 pm. What is the best route backromers would suggest. I was thinking blackwall tunnel M11 A1M but if there are any better suggestions I'm open to them.
... Read more
Certainly when we go from Hemel to Leeds to visit my son and family, even though we're right by Junction 8 on the M1, we never go far up the M1 - perhaps to J13 to take the A421 to the Black Cat roundabout on the A1. Alternatively we go via the North Orbital to join the A1 at Hatfield. Same for the return journey.
Though nothing is guaranteed, in the past we've had more problems with traffic on the M1 than the A1.
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A lot of manufacturers have national fixed servicing and maintenance pricing. So thats blows your theory out the water.
Vag have recently hiked their national pricing. Independents will follow that lead....