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• Reliable, cheap French car - possible? 3 Aug 2006 (Forum)
  I'd make sure I took a clutch cable too. I would use it for airport trips, taking rubbish to the dump and towing a trailer for the bigger items of rubbish. I imagine it would be pressed into carrying building materials as well. I am prepared to spend a couple of thousand pounds to get me a pretty reasonable run-about.
• Roadside Recovery Woes 27 Jul 2006 (Forum)
  Having waited 45 mins for the AA I was told it would need a recovery truck as the standard AA van could not tow me off. It was stuck in gear and disengaging gear proved near impossible... 2 hours from the initial call the truck turns up (not an AA vehicle, but a third party garage), excellent i thought especially at 2am!
• Switching to Petrol from Diesel 1 May 2006 (Forum)
  I've had diesel previously thanks to initially being a student, and then getting a job which meant travelling over 400 miles just tow ork, without weekend activities. I've got an old 1.8 TD mondeo and am likely to switch to a 1.8 petrol mondeo from around v/w/x reg, as I am now only driving 200 miles to week to work (and gettiing paid more!).
• 'Wet' Skoda Superb 10 Apr 2006 (Forum)
  Naturally, I switched it off PDQ and got the extinguisher from the boot, No fire, but obviously, I'm not going to try starting it again!! Rang AA & got it towed to the dealer who had just fixed the airbag problem. Now I'm being told this is a further warranty fault which will involve removing the dash again and then waiting for the Skoda 'thermal engineer' to inspect the car.
• What happened here then? 28 Dec 2005 (Forum)
  m quite surprised it lasted as long, since they seemed to blow quite early. But the next one: DATE: 26/08/98 MILES: 57785 JOB INSTRUCTIONS: Attend breakdown tow in - Strip bottom end of engine - Replace bearings + oil pickup strainer - Service engine So what happened there? The only thing I can come up with is, when the head gasket was changed, some of the swarf from when the head/block was skimmed ended up in the sump, and blocked the oil pick up strainer.
• Off Road Antics 5 Dec 2005 (Forum)
  Upon hearing the noise, my father in law ran out and tried to stop the driver, who reversed out, nearly hitting my father in law, before driving off. Thankfully, no-one was hurt. Before the impact, the trailer being towed by the Discovery overturned in the road outside. Using the number plate on the trailer, the police traced the driver. When apprehended by the police, who to their credit acted very quickly, the driver of the Discovery was found to be 3 times over the limit.
• BP Ultimate fueling Error 2 Dec 2005 (Forum)
  I finally succumbed to the marketing blurb and pulled my A6 TDI 2.5 Quattro alongside the BP Ultimate fuel pumps, 14 litres into the transaction I smelt petrol! The first time in 19 years of driving had I made the mistake of mixing fuels. A tow, £200 later and two days later I was refueled with the correct diesel grade and on my way, then I began chatting to friends etc. it seems there is a growing army of poor unfortunates like myself that have made an error at the BP Ultimate pump.
• New moderator alert! Smokie 27 Aug 2005 (Forum)
  According to his profile he's been a member for quite some time now; drives a Vauxhall (which is a good thing); admits to towing a caravan occasionally (not such a good thing) and as far as I recall has never needed to be moderated by any of us before - which is most unusual. Although new to moderating here, he's already familiar with the role elsewhere, so it shouldn't take him long to put his new buttons (yes, he gets more than one) to good use.
• A64 accident brings life to a halt. 23 Apr 2005 (Forum)
  ND Today, the A64 was closed for (at the last count 3 hours) because of a fatal accident. Clearing the road would have taken all of 5 minutes once a tow truck arrived...but no...the plod have to 'investigate' and while they do the road ceases to be our right of way while they slowly, carefully make sure that someone is to blame and that it will hold up in court.
• What Pickup? 13 Jul 2004 (Forum)
  Are there any other tax issues to consider (the business will be a partnership). 2 What is the most car like pick up (Nissan Navara, Toyota Hilux, Mitsubishi L200, Ford Ranger, etc). The nature of the business means that traditional issues such as towing capacity and load handling are less important than road refinement and handling. We will be keeping it a long time so longevity and low maintenance costs are key. I am interested in the Navara and there appear a lot of keen deals at the moment - although I heard that they were not all to UK specification?
• Mondeo 1.8TD oil pressure problem 8 May 2004 (Forum)
  After its service last year, they noticed that the oil pressure light came on (flickering) when the car was sitting in traffic (especially when towing a small caravan). They took it back to the garage who added some sort of viscosity improver to the oil (???) and all was fine afterwards. They have just got the car back from this years service (same garage) and it is doing the same thing (but more regularly).
• is this true????parking tickets 6 Jan 2004 (Forum)
  friend of mine from school,whom i met after 10 years ,kept getting parking tickets from a certain tory local gov ,i said to him ,you better pay them otherwise youll get your car towed,he sat down wrote out chq,s for bout 10 tickets all were for 80 pounds,he wrote the chq at 80 pounds and one pence,i asked whats the one pence for,listen to this bit,he said that when you write a chq for a parking ticket for this certain local gov,they send you a computer written (chq for one pence )back for over payment,then what you do is never cash the chq,ala the parking ticket which was issued gets stuck in the computer system as payed but never cashed...i.e. your chq for 80 pounds and one pence never gets cashed,until you cash your chq for one pence,hope this makes sense. ive tryed this and never heard nothing back of my local council ,the person who told me (my friend)is a computer programmer and wrote the program that alot of local councils use for parking ,so as anybody else tryed this????
• 4 x 4 Brakes 5 Jul 2003 (Forum)
  They are original after 131K. Is there a rule of thumb for maximum loss of thickness? As this truck regularly tows 2000K up and down motorways, I am erring on the side of caution by replacing, but would welcome listmembers comments to make me feel better for spending £120 for the set!! These are replacements from Milner Offroad, Matlock.
• Seized Clio Water Pump 24 Jan 2003 (Forum)
  I should have kept quiet! Last night he called me out because the car had come to a sudden stop. I towed it to a garage mechanic friend's place who today told us the extent of the damage. The water pump had seized which had made the timing belt snap and broken the camshaft sprocket and the camshaft itself.
• Top tip 21 Jan 2003 (Forum)
  I fitted another belt I had floating around in the back, jacked up a rear wheel, put the car in gear and placed my toolbox on the accelerator (as you need to give it a half throttle to start it when it is hot). I then wound an old length of seatbelt-type webbing I had as a tow strap round the circumference of the tyre and pulled it like a lawnmower, being VERY careful not to pull the whole car off the jack. (Images of the thing driving down the road without me - heavy toolbox keeping the throttle open nicely.)
• Games people play (warning laddish post) 23 Mar 2002 (Forum)
  To pass the time we invented a new game. It got me wondering what other games people play with and without the family in tow. In the absence of pub signs we had to invent our own version of cricket. Here are the rules. Totty Cricket (1) Driver banned from taking part before anyone starts getting on high horse. Runs scored whenever you overtake or are overtaken by vehicle containing personable totty.
• Stalling Ford Galaxy TDi 115 PD 30 Jan 2002 (Forum)
  Unfortunately our car spent 4 weeks over Xmas and New Year with Ford Dealers trying to work out why it cut out soon after starting and would then not restart and needed to be towed away by the RAC. Our local Ford dealer was baffled and insisted it was because there was less than 1/4 tank of diesel. After much begging and pleading, they finally contacted a Ford Engineer by mobile phone, who suggested that the fault was due to interference between the Engine Management System and Immobiliser systems, related to dirty contacts on the Power Hold Relay (whatever that is).
• Mazda 2 - Insurance claim: what would you do? 15 Dec 2024 (Forum)
  - Tell the insurer and garage that I've had enough and get quotes from other garages and have it towed elsewhere for a repair - cancelling my claim with the insurer? (Is this even possible now?) - Some other option? The car means a lot - it's my first and I literally drove it twice - so whatever happens I want to keep it.
• Vauxhall vectra cdti 2008 - Vectra cam sensor 20 Aug 2015 (Forum)
  I pulled off at the next exit and called the recovery. They came out and diagnosed the water pump, towed me back to my local garage. They said they could do this and the timing belt fine. Once they had had it apart they said timing belt water pump and a pulley. They could do this for £400, ok let’s do it, it needs doing.
• fabia mpi - Rear-ended another car, it's totaled...now scared 17 May 2012 (Forum)
    I've just remembered I left stuff in the boot of the car...the police dropped me off at home and I was too shaken up to think about it beforehand. It's been towed to the nearest garage to the incident, which is 10 miles from where I live. Should I get a hire car or something to get my stuff?