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• Parts for Older Japanese cars 30 Jun 2006 (Forum)
  I am also considering trading up to a Subaru Legacy or Forester (probably an earlier series) as I will need a car with large towing capacity for a caravan during the summer - can anyone advise on maintaining one of these ? I havea good independent guy, but obviously service parts/common spares will have to be sourced - what are they like to work on for the ordinary (non-main dealer) mechanic and what is independent spares availability ?
• Caravan Wheel Coming Off 23 May 2006 (Forum)
  Travelling 2 days ago on a motorway, towing folding caravan. Car seemed to be acting oddly. About 15/20miles further on, car started skidding and snaking - we thought we had a blowout. Got out car, the entire wheel had come off the caravan - we were staring at the brakedrum!!
• W reg Mondeo 1.8LXi - options 8 Apr 2006 (Forum)
  Driving along the Mway at 70 and suddenly the accelerator slows the car down!!. Limped to mates with no power. Called AA and he says blocked exhaust probably CAT gone. Towed us home. He said drive it carefully to garage and they'll fix exhaust. I tried to drive it onto my drive and it made a crunch and now won't even start. AA man says sounded like timing belt off. I've had someone else look at it since who says engine is not repairable and exhaust is broke.
• Volvo 850/V70 Diesel Auto - Good Buy? 2 Jan 2006 (Forum)
  Currently have a 12year old Toyota corolla which has 110K miles, no creaks or knocks so rather surprised with the Volvo.! I now need an economical large automatic estate car capable of occisionally towing a very large 4berth caravan during the summer - any other recommendations anyone ?
• Breakdown: 95(N) Rover 416i, 82k 27 Jun 2005 (Forum)
  Oil pressure light starts flickering just as we get to exit slip road. Bad news indeed thinks I, engine cuts out at top of slip road. Highways Agency towed us into service area. No coolant in system, radiator appears to have spontaneously disintegrated. Engine turns over but won't fire. RAC recovered vehicle to home address. I have not had a chance to look at it since, but I suspect the dreaded HGF.
• New engine - who pays? 13 Apr 2005 (Forum)
  At four years of age and 60k miles he recently bought an extended warranty from the servicing dealer. Last week, he cooked the engine. The main dealer to which it was towed (*not* the servicing dealer) has delivered its verdict. The radiator had apparently corroded to such a degree that the cooling was impeded leading to terminal overheating. They say his warranty does not cover this, the engine is wrecked and would he mind stumping up the multi-thousands required to replace it?
• Astra 1.4 H reg - fuel pipe cut 3 May 2004 (Forum)
  It is obviously a robbery of petrol from my car and I was completely flabbergasterred when I spotted petrol pouring out from underneath the car. I managed to get the car home with a friend towing me. As a temporary repair I cut a small length of lamp cable that was slightly larger in diametre to the piping that connects the petrol tank to the engine, I then removed the 3 electrical cables inside the lamp cable... and found that it was possible then to put both ends of the cut fuel piping into the lamp cables outer sheath to make a very tight fit.
• SEAT problems 11 Sep 2003 (Forum)
  After excellent response from the AA under the SEAT assistance scheme, I was also disappointed to find from the dealer the car was towed to that this breakdown is not treated as a priority, and they told me on Monday that they "wouldn't be able to look at it until Friday" (despite it being a fairly quick job). My AA-provided hire car had to go back on Monday, so I faced being without a car for most of the week (in the event, the dealer fixed it on Tuesday - they "had a cancellation").
• Civic Aerodeck immobiliser 7 Jan 2003 (Forum)
  I've tried reducing the number of keys I have on my key ring. On two occasions, I was on the brink of calling out the recovery service to tow my car to the nearest garage. This might be a conincidence, but the problem only started happening shortly after I had the rear box replaced on the exhaust, and I started using the car at weekends only about the same time too.
• Caravans are good news, apparently 12 Mar 2002 (Forum)
  Easter is coming, there will be more white boxes on the road, like it or not. Until Mr Byers in his last 20 minutes of holding office makes caravan towing illegal during daylight, you will come across ever increasing numbers of caravans. Keep your cool, live and let live. If you are in the car 4 or 5 minutes longer than you anticipated over a 20 mile journey through travelling at 50 rather than 60, is it really that important?
• BMW 320 Touring 22 Aug 2001 (Forum)
  of the rusting rear wheel arches, I was surprised to see this on a supposed premium car figuring even the italians had cracked it by this point, and I've seen older 3 series without this problem, anyone else had this problem on the E36. I'd expect the body to last a long time, think maybe this particular car had been towing something heavy..possible tyre to wheel arch contact!? Any views on the infamous high bore wear on 6 cylinder bm's, how big a problem is it? can't see BM having to rebuild the engine of every 6 cylinder in the country?
• 1.2 VW Polo - Hire Car Misfuelling Incident 27 May 2013 (Forum)
   I called the assistance number for the car hire company and within an hour they had sent a tow truck and taxi to take me to the airport. The last I saw of the car was when it was being putting on the tow truck. I then flew back to the UK. I contacted both Europcar and the hire agent when I returned to the UK, but until the car has had a garage report completed, nobody knows what I will be liable for.
• Hyundai Bayon - New car misfuel advice 16 Mar 2024 (Forum)
  Drove home 110 miles, left it a few days before travelling on holiday did another 150 miles, with no performance issues and very good mpg numbers... when the engine failed, got towed back to my local dealer, and they have diagnosed a misfuel (diesel in petrol tank). I have a receipt to say I filled up with petrol, dealer is saying they did not put any fuel in and suggest i contact Hyundai UK.
• Skoda Octavia Estate - A difficult decision to make 8 Apr 2021 (Forum)
    My commute is a 70 mile round trip and all motorway.  I am also considering buying a lightweight (1000kg) caravan so I want something to tow it. However, my big worry is that given the recent bad publicity around diesels, there is a risk of a massive hike in tax/duty on diesel any time soon to disincentivise it as a fuel over petrol.
• Renault scenic - MOT fine 25 Jan 2021 (Forum)
  I was driving and got pulled over by the police, who said it was overdue etc. Some people have said I was lucky as it can get towed away etc. But the police just said, don’t worry you may only get a warning, if not £100 fine. I wasn’t naive I was fully expecting the £100 fine within 28 days which I got a few days ago. Was my own fault so no issue.
• Vauxhall Astra - Battery Light Keeps Coming On 28 Nov 2020 (Forum)
    About a month ago, the car broke down completely - the alternator belt snapped, so I was towed home and the local garage fitted a new belt.   All seemed fine, however later that day the battery light started coming on intermittently.  I went back to the garage and the bloke said it was probably the alternator so he fitted a new one.
• Ford Focus - Ford Focus Mk1 - Throttle body/spring 22 Oct 2018 (Forum)
    I whacked it into neutral (at which point it started redlining) and was able to coast to the side of the road and then get towed home later.  Quite a hairy few moments - could've been much, much worse. Anyway the problem seems to be the spring that returns the accelerator pedal back to normal, and presumably returns the throttle valve to closed.
• Jaguar X-Type Estate (2004 - 2007) - 04 2.0D Engine cuts out..... 20 Oct 2017 (Forum)
  He left it for about 20 minutes and it started again and ran normally. He drove for about 3 miles and it cut out again. I went out to him and towed him back to my house where I had a look at it. It's a TDCi common rail system and no indication had lit up on the dash. I have VCDS, the VAG diagnostic software which also does OBDII on many other makes, but it will not communicate with this.
• Nissan Almera Tino - Car stalling out 1 Mar 2017 (Forum)
  On the 18th, it did the same again. But we'd only been on the road for 4 minutes. I parked it in town and had it towed to my garage on the 20th, and they held it there for me until it was booked in to be looked at.  They couldn't find anything wrong with it. Nothing looked rusted, loose, or worn enough to cause it to stall, nothing came up on diagnostics.
• Vauxhall Vectra C (2002 - 2008) - 2005 - Broken Suspension Coil and Misc Problems 10 Feb 2017 (Forum)
  I had a problem yesterday and the recovery driver said that the suspension coil had gone, front offside(the front had collapsed after a bang and smell of burning rubber/blue smoke). Cost me £175 to join AA + Relay, towed 40 miles to home dealer. Is it normal that a 2005 Vectra should experience this problem? I am a careful driver (old man of 55), owned the vehicle from new, seem to have regular problems, for example - July 05 - Car pulls to right - dealer reckons ok - I changed the wheels over, improved.