I had a call or letter this time last year from the RAC offering joint membership of the breakdown service for £38 (could have been £34, can't remember). As my son had recently passed his test, it sounded a good deal so I took it up.

I was a bit miffed to receive the renewal notice for £67 a couple of weeks ago. This is not the first time I've been stuffed on renewal after a good initial rate.

Can any backroomers recommend a basic (or better) cover at a more sensible price? It would preferably be car-based rather than personal, covering any driver, as my other two cars already have car-based cover. Read more

The other night I was waiting at a red traffic light when two police cars with lights a-flashing appeared behind. The road was a single-lane 'feeder' onto an urban one-way ring-road with absolutely no room for the police vehicles to pass. My natural instinct was to help the police by moving forward through the (still red) lights after checking as best I could for traffic on the ring road.

Looking back on the incident, I'd like to know how things would have worked out if:

a) I hadn't gauged traffic correctly and had been hit by someone on the ring-road, or;

b) I'd 'stuck my ground' and waited for the lights to change. Would this have been deemed 'obstructing the police' or some other such charge?

I seem to recall Roadcraft stating that the use of lights and/or sirens conveys no automatic right of way to emergency vehicles - maybe things have changed since then? Read more

There are some new traffic lights being fitted to a local major roundabout. The costs are, according to the local council spokesman, about five million pounds, and will take a couple of months.

It's easy to get silly and say good grief, it's a dozen lightbulbs on sticks, but seriously - WHY do roadworks cost so much?

Wages? Five million would buy a heck of a lot of staff for eight weeks.

Machinery? How much IS a JCB? How many would 5 million buy? Would you buy fifty and throw them away after eight weeks?

Materials? Tarmac isn't liquid gold. I know traffic lights are computer controlled of course - so that's fifteen quid worth of chips made in China and some light bulbs then.

Profit margins? Is some private company making four point nine million pounds of public money on this project?

All those will contribute but to add up to five million!?

I just can't see where it gets spent. I'm not looking for "it's all those faceless bureaucrats drawing a salary" type answer - I genuinely wonder if anyone knows where the bulk of money goes on roadworks projects?

It's no use asking the council. They just say "contractor's costs" or some such and you have no more idea. Read more

Hi, I have recently bought a 16V Vauxhall Vectra Estate 1.8 Expression... with a big, mysterious fault.

I have experienced a "cut out" 3 times. I thought at first it was simply my fault for poor clutch control but it's not. The latest time was dangerous - dying on motorway in 3rd lane so I must sort this out before using the car again.

Previously it happened at 20mph going round a roundabout, and at 60mph on the slip road off the motorway. Both times I restarted the engine - no warning light, and off I went without hitch.

In the latest episode the engine light came on, the revs dropped to zero, and dropping the clutch had no effect in restarting the engine. I came to a stop. Turned the engine off, 5 minutes later started her back up and almost immediately the engine light came on, and it cut out.

When running on petrol it idles poorly. Idle control valve possibly blocked? When running on LPG it runs smoothly.

I called out the RAC and half hour later when chap arrived restarted the engine, and no engine light, he checked the engine etc and tried to replicate fault - nothing!

I persuaded him to plug up his fault reader, and it did read faults: injectors 1-4 voltage high (?), incorrect RPM (expected but unrelated?), hall sensor or crankshaft sensor voltage high. He was of the opinion that none of these faults would have caused the cut out. His advice was continue on my way - and I did (in first lane the whole way!!... and for the remaining journey 300 miles ... nothing)

So what caused the phantom cut out? Is it related to the rough idle? Are the fault code readings relevant? Are there faults that don't get recorded?

Help!!


Read more

I've heard that some genuine vauxhall bits are remarkably cheap, whilst others aint - can anyone advise what to get from the GM dealer, and what to source elsewhere ( e.g belts, brakes, exhaust, wipers etc. ) (Zafira, btw.)
cheers Read more