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• lMINI Cooper + Cooper S R56 - Buying a Mini - Choices 25 Jun 2010 (Forum)
  Due to a change in job internally it is highly likely SWMBO is going to have to hand back her company lease car she's had since last November (59 plate...
• Brainstorming the future - technology in 2020. 19 Jun 2010 (Forum)
  I`m thinking of how some changes seem to come out of nowhere (at least to the general public) For excample - when I saw the first `double housebrick` mobile phone with it`s WW2 style pull out  anntennae - it seemed very similar to past radio telephones and no way would I have predicted the modern, palm of the hand smartphone - with all of it`s features. When you reflect on the hundreds and thousands of years of our species dominance on the planet - it seems grasping possibilites has been difficult - with hundreds of generations being born, living and dying , ice ages coming and going - and bones piling up in caves.
• Motor Oil - names and brand attraction 28 May 2010 (Forum)
  You`re standing in Halfords and there are choices within the specs that your Motor requires for it`s engine oil. Halfords full synth - or Mobil 1............ BOGOF for own brand? Or 20% off Mobil 1 - if you hit Easter or August BH.. maybe. Free umbrella - with Mobil 1 around the edge......
• Writing about motoring 5 Feb 2010 (Forum)
  I`m having trouble thinking of a single new topic now - not really writers block, but more burnout on the subject. Perhaps it`s better if you`re more into debating. I was never really into that - it was more about attempts to create `stand alone content` - to generate a little good feeling. Mostly. Creating `content` here has been interesting - a slate on which to write - just for amusement with no deadlines to meet - unlike the professional writer, or Journalist.
• Chrysler PT Cruiser (2000 - ) - Parts not exactly free... 28 Jan 2010 (Forum)
  Had to abort a trip to Sussex last Sunday at Roehampton Vale, where I became very aware of a dragging brake. In the petrol station there, the o/s front wheel was nearly too hot to touch. The AA sent a local proxy with a get-you-home truck which got us back here. On Monday took the car to my fine Aussie indy near here. He said the o/s disc had taken some punishment and anyway had corrosion on the inside braking surface.
• Petrol v diesel conundrum 26 Sep 2009 (Forum)
  My Mondeo has averaged about 1.5mpg less than its official combined figure, on that basis - a couple of options because I am not sure on budget yet - a Golf GT DSG?s combined figure is 47.1 MPG, could I realistically expect to average, say, 45 MPG? And a 325i?s combined figure is 39.2 MPG, could I realistically expect to average, say, 37 MPG? By the way I have not ruled out a diesel by any means.
• On transient human motoring time - toads lost... 30 Jun 2009 (Forum)
  Able to spot a centipede several yards away - but impassive and a mirror to the Moon and internal tidal pull - as mass, metal and halogen light past by, an angel of death in it`s transient way. Transient... barely a blink of Earths, life time line. Now the hills are dark at night - a larger, nearer, Moon casts shadows as golden irises move down over the hills, still following the beat - the internal tune of amphibian calling..
• Adaptive cruise control 17 Feb 2009 (Forum)
  There?s little enough regard now for the principle of using lanes 2 and 3 for overtaking, not cruising, and I can?t see ACC making it any better.
• Peugeot 206 hatchback (1998 - 2006) - 2000 1.9diesel timing advance soleniod 6 Feb 2009 (Forum)
  Hi everyone, can anyone help, i have a 206 van 1.9 diesel non turbo 2000 x plate i bought the van 6mts ago and nae having mutch luck. first the imobiliser packed in so the garage bypassed it and put a standerd 12v stop solonoid in wirred to the egnition that sorted that problem. now the van sounds like it,s about to blow it chaps like made more so when it is cold and a nightmare to start. i put it into a diesel pump expert and they got back to me saying the timing advance solenoid was u/s so they put on a new one which made it go better but it still chapped so the got it back on the computer then tested wires and fuses and all the sensors and told me everything was in spec but the problem was the timing advance solenoid was getting power and sending a signal to the ecu BUT the ecu was,nt sending signal back to advance or retard timing they said the timing ADVANCE SOLENOID was sitting fully advanced, they said a ecu fault(LUCAS). now i found a other ecu with same numbers and was going to buy that but did,nt know if that would work the garage said it would work as the stop solonoid had been changed to work of the egnition instead of the imobiliser????
• Now the salt lays round about deep & crisp & even 3 Nov 2008 (Forum)
  Top speed, chunks of salt like bullets, whole piles of it in the gutter on bends as though waiting to accommodate a load of Cod. Salt flung out so hard, it`s up your drive and waiting to come in. Now back to modern times... no salt on the road. (good no corrosion) but the local shopping centre car park gleams like a salt lake.. You just know, that even next May, with your car clean of salt, the salt lake will persist, even to the point of causing flamingo`s to pause in mid flight for a nest site assessment...
• BMW 3-Series E36 (1991 - 1998) - 1997 2.5 vibration from rear 13 Jun 2008 (Forum)
  About 3 weeks ago I replaced both rear tyres on my BMW 323i touring with a new set of Avon ZV3's. When I drove down my local dual carriageway there was a vibration from the back, pervading the whole car and through the feet. I took the car back to the tyre dealer and had them rebalanced. Still vibrating so had them rebalanced another 2 times.
• Would you stop for anyone these days? 27 Dec 2007 (Forum)
  It just seems appreciation of the effort, at best, is worse. Used to carry a big toolkit and spares, from the 60`s to the late 90`s. In the early years helped lots of folk out, with punctures, points etc. Once rewired a blokes trailer board at a motorway services in 85, then fixed a Suzuki jeep with a thread blown out of a plug hole.
• A bargain,am I missing something? 20 Jun 2007 (Forum)
  I realise a Focus would give a better drive and look nicer, that is clear, but as my wife does only 3,000 miles a year, driving pleasure takes a back seat against value and safety. Also the most savage depreciation has passed and it is likely only to lose 100's £ per year rather than 000's. If I can get £1,500 for the Fiesta (only 30k miles and well equiped) then the cost to change is less than £4k Have the last Almera's been proving to be reliable? Am I misguided and failing to take into account something blindingly obvious?
• Corolla vibration 30 May 2007 (Forum)
  s a sealed unit. Underneath I realised the exhaust heat shields all twang & vibrate, so I damped these using high temperature silicone and damping blocks. Quieter it was, but the root cause is still there.
• Saab 95 Aero estate airbag deployment 19 Apr 2007 (Forum)
  On 1st April 2007 the driver?s airbag suddenly deployed when I turned on the ignition while parked. In taking this up with Saab I was told that there was no evidence of a manufacturing defect or any other subsequent cause and that as the car was well out of warranty, it was my problem, not theirs.
• 1952 Vincent on the Preston Bypass 13 Jan 2007 (Forum)
  The song is about red-haired Molly and James, their love of the Vincent Black Lightning of the song?s title, James?s death from gunshot wounds and his gifting of the bike to Molly, as he lies dying and sees ?angels on Ariels in leather and chrome?. In 1959, my father bought a 1952 Vincent. Soon the bike was on the road, the sidecar was attached and the whole family set off, with me on the pillion, aged 13 and wearing a flat cap crammed on backwards, held in place by the elastic from my goggles.
• ABS fault - VW LT28 van 20 Aug 2006 (Forum)
  If the ABS is disabled, the brakes work normally, but without the thud. I've replaced the ABS unit, (with a known good one), bled the brakes, and adjusted the n/s/r sensor to ring clearance. The problem persists. The local VW dealer has been helpful, but - like me - have run out of suggestions and opinions. Can anyone help ? {vehicle details added to subject header - DD}
• Peugeot 406 stalling during warmup 20 Jun 2005 (Forum)
  Here?s a puzzling one. The engine on my Peugeot 406 2.0 (1998/S) petrol runs fine when cold, and when very hot, but during the warm up period there is a nasty period when it stalls, falters when driving off, flat spots and is generally unhappy.
• Thanks, you saved me £s 30 May 2005 (Forum)
  I read a few threads on insurance recently and took up the advice when my wife's insurance renewal hit the door mat, from Direct Line. First stop was the...
• By Car to India 2 May 2005 (Forum)
  It's about his trip from Leeds to India in 1924 in a 14hp Wolseley. The book itself seems to date from the late 1920's I would think judging by some of the terminology used, although as Persia changed to Iran after WW2 possibly the 1940's. Anyway there's one paragraph that made me smile: 'On our way down (from Beirut) we counted four hundred cars coming up to the hills, but alas, only one car in that four hundred was British.