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• Volkswagen - Dealer right arm unaware of existance of left arm 23 Nov 2009 (Forum)
  Then, of course, I remind service man that I have reserved a courtesy car. Ah. Could be a problem. 10 minutes of running around and a reasonably nice, clean VW Polo is produced. That'll do the job nicely, thank you. "OK, Mr B****, the invoice will be £150.00 on collection. See you later", they say. "We'll call you when it's ready."
• Volkswagen Passat (2001 - 2005) - 02 1.9 Oil from boost pipe.Imminent turbo failure? 21 Oct 2009 (Forum)
  Sorry for the long winded post but I'm a little worried and don't want to be faced with an engine running away and me having to try and stall it to stop it exploding. Any thoughts or opinions greatly recieved. Steven
• LDV CONVOY 400 - fix, recon engine or buy another? 14 Oct 2009 (Forum)
  money very much an issue as will have to borrow whichever option go for and i'm pretty much on the limit of what i can borrow so i need the van to not cost much for next couple of years so need to decide which option will be most reliable as well as taking cost of that option into account. it's our only vehicle and we have 6 children and it's pretty much for school run etc with occasional longer trips for days out or holiday so doesn't get a lot of use. if go for recon engine does anyone know where can get one that would have a decent warranty? can anyone recommend anyone to fit engine or do the fix?
• Ford KA, KA2, KA3 (1996 - 2008) - 01 Snapped spark plugs 9 Oct 2009 (Forum)
  I noticed on a previous post by Ray Irving that he had the same problem that we are experiencing with our Ford Ka at the minute. We took it for a service yesterday and when we got it back it was running like a bag of hammers. I contacted the garage who service it and the mechanic came to our house and said it was our spark plugs. He said he couldn't change them as they had rusted in but told us to bring the car back on Monday and he would to fix this problem by way of lubricating the spark plugs and gently removing them.
• Winter storage of my convertible - Advice please! 30 Sep 2009 (Forum)
  Could I insulate the normal up and over metal garage door with anything? What? Is there any point? I would stress that I still plan to run the car on and off through the autumn and winter although only on dry days where possible as I know every car lasts better for being driven. The car is being waxoyled as we speak and two small areas of rust on the wheel arches (that turned out to be a lot bigger than we thought) are being cut out and replaced with two new rear wings and resprayed.
• Toyota Prius III (2009 - ) - Impressions of the new Prius 29 Sep 2009 (Forum)
  When ordering my elder daughter's fourth Toyota Yaris, I was looking over the new Prius and was offered a test run in one - a fine example of long-term thinking by the salesman at the excellent Octagon Toyota in Bracknell, as he knew I have a new Skoda. His reward is that I'm happy to tell anyone how impressive the new Prius is.
• Limited info to choose a new car for Mrs H 29 Aug 2009 (Forum)
  I had thought that Mrs H was coping with mid-life stuff very well until a run of rough night shifts in the midwifery unit immediately after our holiday, and a simultaneous visit from her unemployed brother and his idle wife made her unusually irritable at the weekend. I paraphrase our conversation as follows; Mrs H, " I want a new car, my C3's nearly 10 years old now."
• Mazda 626 (1997 - 1999) - 98 2.0 Failed MOT, testing sensors 15 Aug 2009 (Forum)
  This car runs lovely, no problems whatsoever, but failed MOT due to slightly high CO, HC and Lambda. It read Fast Idle 3.3% CO, 233ppm HC and 0.90 Lambda. Last year and year before it showed similar problems, and on second measuring it would suddenly pass with all green, like a switch was turned on.
• My dad is back to buying a car, so... 6 Aug 2009 (Forum)
  In short, he has decided he wants to change it while the scrappage scheme is in force as his car more than qualifies and he is fearful of more running repairs, but more over, he cant be bothered to think about it anymore and wants a totally hassle-free ownership experience now. So, what to buy? His criteria are: spacious, long warranty, easy to get in and out of, automatic ( proper box not auto-manual ) and comfortable seats.
• Citroen Xantia (1993 - 2000) - 96 19td Urgent maintenance advice 6 Jul 2009 (Forum)
  Even though full clutch pressed the second gear always engage with uncomfortable engaging. Engine automatically off during morning sometimes. 1. In the morning time, While car runs when I give more gas automatically the engine like off or get decreasing the throttle, the more I press the less the throttle and like engine wants to give up. But after sometimes it can be normal and I can use like normal.
• Ford Mondeo II (1996 - 2000) - 02 2.5 v6 no fuel pump no crank = no start 23 Jun 2009 (Forum)
  (Well up to the other day that is) after waitin i rtn to the car hear the fuel pump going I know the car will start and has never missed a beat when running!! (seems to be the longer I leave it the longer I wait ie; long wait in morn, drive to paper shop 500yards away car starts on the button leave in car park all day long wait,,use it at dinner time short wait???)
• Renault Laguna (1994 - 2001) - HGF and what next ? 26 May 2009 (Forum)
  Once the bonnet had been popped, I spun the rad. fan to show it wasn't seized and disconnected the temp. sender and shorted it with a paper clip. The fan whirred even though the keys weren't in the ignition. Leaving the fan running all day seemed like a cue for another breakdown so I replaced the plug. The expansion tank was barely damp so I topped it up and started the engine. A steady stream of bubbles came down the thin pipe from the cylinder head.
• Happy memories of motoring Bank Holidays 25 May 2009 (Forum)
  It`s 1955 and the crack troops that defeated Rommel in the western desert are again heading towards the coast - radiators boiling in old pre war cars, some with mastic oozing from cracked cast iron water jackets.. Kindly click the utube link below and let the music run in the background as you visualize the steady clop clop of these side valve metal donkeys creeping slowly in long lines towards the coast. http://tinyurl.com/28fwrj Kids peered into other cars as risky overtaking was the order of the day.
• Is there any wonder we are suspicious of dealers? 20 May 2009 (Forum)
  Regulars will have recently picked up that I have traded in my gas guzzling 4x4 for something a bit more environmentally friendly (in white). Let me run my experience past you. I will try to keep it simple but as far as I am concerned something has not been transparent. When I made the first telephone call to the dealer the salesman quoted me the manufacturers advertised RRP 'on the road' and an approximate valuation of my own trade in which was significantly more than I was offered back end of last year.
• Rover - 99 "L" series vacuum pump hose failure 12 Jan 2009 (Forum)
  Overall a pain of a job that cost me £3 to fix vice the price of an arm and leg garage fix or a new engine/ scrapping eventuality if you run out of lube oil. If you need to remove the vacuum pump (as I did due to the poor fitting of the clip) you will need to drop the aux belt and swing the washer bottle filler hose out of the way. I recommend that you also renew the connector clips for the vacuum servo pipe with jubilee clips for piece of mind.
• Road signs to come under review 26 Sep 2008 (Forum)
  How about the local council using hedge shears to reveal local traffic signs, road names etc. Ask for interested road users ( IAM maybe to start with?) to provide a running commentary on the lack of, badly positioned, inconsistent, missing, grafittied road signs. Fix the above first before any wizzy latest tecky stuff. An example: Unless things have recently changed.
• Ford Mondeo III (2000 - 2007) - 04 2.0 TDCi Split pipe 22 Sep 2008 (Forum)
  underneath the fuel rail on the left hand side of the engine, more or less level with the glow plugs.... is this the EGR? Do I need to run off the coolant to clean it out (the EGR and is it hard to do)? 5 weeks ago some divvy at Nationwide Autocentre sent it for a diagnostic at some diesel specialist who remapped the sensors and the ecu...
• Vauxhall Vectra C (2002 - 2008) - 07 1.8 Wheel Balancing 26 Jul 2008 (Forum)
  Or is this normal and I am just too fussy? The vibration is similar in severity to perhaps an electric toothbrush where the batteries are running out. From past exerience an weight free wheel with this kind of vibration needs 15 to 25 grams to sort it out. Thats about how far out of balance I think it is, but as I said I saw the guy get 0 - 0 on the machine.
• Ford Escort (1993 - 2000) - '97 1.8 Seatbelt pretensioner wiring- Airbag light 3 Jul 2008 (Forum)
  I have tried all the possibilities (I think) but I'm not sure if the fault code "locks on" until a certain number of fault-free starts have been made or the fault has been erased by plugging in a computer. I don't want to get into the ethical ins and outs of running without an operative passenger seatbelt pretensioner, I use the car solely for commuting by myself and would fix the problem before its next MoT if it were to last that long, and besides there are plenty of Escorts without pretensioners fitted which are in perfectly happy use by their owners.
• Ford KA, KA2, KA3 (1996 - 2008) - Possibly dying engine! What to do or buy next? 22 Apr 2008 (Forum)
  Bearing in mind I am coming up to the end of my trial in my new job and the car is due it's MOT very soon after: -Fix the valve stem seals, keep it a bit longer, hope that it doesn't cost much to get through the MOT in July and then run it to the ground -Ignore it, stop driving from Mid Wales to North West England every other week for the time being, keep putting oil in (I only do 100 a week locally, its the longer journeys that rack the mileage up) and flog it at a car supermarket when my trial is up in June, using it as a deposit against a newish car, probably a base 207 at a push, but I'd be happy with a nearly new Ka with the better 70bhp engine (guessing these don't have the problems of the old one?)