February 2006
Car MoT'd using the new on-line system - apparently a pain for the garage owner but easier for the car owner.
Last Wednesday renewed RFL on-line.
Painless apart from the £165.
Tax Disc arrived Friday
What a contrast from rolling up to the Post Office and getting in-line with 30+ others trying to get anything from stamps to Foreign Currency.
A Government computer system that works - next thing you know there will be cars coming out of Longbridge. Well may be not. Read more
Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock has put his weight behind a report which says Britain could go metric with its road signs within five years.
Lord Kinnock says in an introduction to the report by the UK Metric Association (UKMA) that the continued use of miles in Britain was the "most obvious example of the muddle of measurement units" in the country.
The report says there would be many benefits from converting road signs to show kilometres, metres and km/h (kilometres per hour).
These would include drivers getting consistent information, easier calculation of fuel consumption and speed limits more finely tuned to local road conditions, it says.
But the AA said a changeover would take far longer than five years and the Department of Transport said it had no plans to convert.
Lord Kinnock says in the report: "Our imperial road signs are perhaps the most obvious example of the muddle of measurement units in the United Kingdom.
"If the recommendations of this report are followed, Britain can join the modern metric world - and do so by the time that the all-metric Olympic Games open in London in 2012."
In its report, the UKMA calls on the Government to name an early date for making the change, which it says can be done economically and safely.
The UKMA says that the conversion of road signs was originally intended to be part of metrication when it started in 1965 and should have been completed by 1973. However, it was put on hold in 1970 and then never reinstated.
The Association argues that this has left a system where most of Britain is officially metric leaving road signs as a "confusing" exception.
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"40 gallons"
Per barrel, that is - not hat.
Hi all,
Over the last week, my car has been behaving in a not so well fashion.
The problem first came up on the M25 cruising at 70mph, 5th gear, 3500rpm. All of a sudden, the engine felt like it was braking, then as quickly as it happend, it went back to normal. Made it back to Brighton from there no problems - temperatures fine, water level fine, oil fine.
Then last night driving along Brighton sea front, 30mph, 3rd gear, about 2800rpm, and the same thing happend.
Any ideas what it could be? The brakes are due a change, but I would be seriously suspicious if they have some kind of warning system on them that activates them for a millisecond (which is the feeling it gives).
Thanks in advance. Read more
Hello
It might be worth checking the Servo pipe as VW had a safety recall to repair this on the Polo. The ends of the plastic pipe were replaced with short pieces of rubber hose,due to cracks appearing.
I'm sure your local dealer may be able to advise if this needs doing.
golf mk 2. any idea where i can get carb heater hose that runs from air intake box to carb stove that is inexpensive? Read more
You could try:
www.carburettorspecialists.com/
Like most people here I am careful not to exceed cambelt age or mileage limits, for example changing my wife's 306 1.8 belt on buying the car at only 15k miles because it was already eight years old.
However, a quick check with Dad confirms that my Mother's Volvo 440 GLi with Renault 1.7 lump, owned by her since new in 1989 is still on its original cambelt 80k miles and sixteen and a half years later! Recommended change interval is 40k miles or 5 years.
Am tempted to whip the cover off and look at the condition of belt and teeth.
Made me wonder though how much other BRers have exceeded cambelt design life by and got away with it?
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Thats a bit different To the focus(ffoc)forums experiance with cambelts.Plenty on there breaking at 60,70000.
Nobody on there seems to listen to the 10years 100,000 miles that ford say.I know i certainly didnt?
Hi,
I was just offered :
Ford Focus TDDI 1.8 7800 euro
Alfa Romeo 156 1.9jtd 63000 euro
Lancia Lybra 1.8 7000euro
Opel Astra G 1.6 6500euro
What would you choose for comfort and joy ride with less maintenance problems and costs?
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The Lancia looks like a cross between a Mark 1 Mondeo estate and something by Daewoo. If you're in a country with a reasonable number of Alfa dealers, the Alfa may be the best of this bunch, assuming it's 6,300 euros.
If it's an estate you're after, remeber that the Alfa isn't exactly caoacious, as style was allowed to prevail over practicality.
I went to look at a 1999 Galant V6 last night, it all looked good, had 99,000 on the clock and stamped up book to 70k. After that it had been done by an independent garage.
When I started it up all the lights came on as normal and then went off, but on the test drive the engine warning light kept flashing. I had a look for vital fluid levels but the only thing I could find was it was very very low on petrol. According to the book, that light means a fault in the emissions system, does anyone know the likely cause and the cost to have it fixed?
Basically I want to know if the car is worth buying!
Thanks for any help
Gareth Read more
Hey, lots of us love the styling, especially the VR-4 with body kit etc. Don't forget to check out Club VR-4, there's lots of friendly help and advice available. The Legnum (Galant estate) version of the VR-4 is particularly good looking. Perhaps I'm biased, as my wife owns one! She saw it and liked the white pearl paint, black leather interior and privacy glass (steady on!). I looked and opened the bonnet, and I was hooked.
Good choice of car, I hope it goes well for you.
I'm pretty sure that the battery is kaput......dos anyone know of a good place to get a new one in Hampshire, preferably south, Portsmouth, Southampton ish....
Cheers Read more
Yep, thats who I would try, Have used them a number of times in the last year and are very good (and cheap), they are just off of the A35/dockgate 20 roundabout (well thats how you get to them), they have a website as well so you can order direct.
I spend about half my time in Budapest where cars are much more expensive than in the UK.Import duties are very high and it is quite a complicated procedure.
I am currently exploring many options but keep running into the same questions and can't find the answers to them-
1)Is there any insurance company that insures a UK car abroad for more than a three month period? I heard a long time ago about something like a "trippers" one year insurance used by, for example people driving around europe on an extended trip (Aussie or Kiwi style) but no internet search comes up with anything
2)If the answer to 1 is yes, (so I do not need to drive it back to the UK 4 or more times a year,) what happens with a UK car over three years old regarding the MOT?
3)Are there any countries where their equivalent to the MOT is accepted by the authorities in the UK?
I see many ads for UK registered cars (on ebay for example) which are in Spain or France- do their owners really drive them back to the UK several times per year or is there another solution?
Thanks in anticpation
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Thanks for all your replies !
I think the person who wrote "ask 50 people and you get 50 replies" seems to have summed up the situation correctly.
It seems perverse if you can buy an insurance policy to use outside the UK for 364 days per year but the car can't remain outside the UK for that long !
I have sent a quote request to Stuart Collins and co on my current car to see what they come back with.
If the situation is really that the " 6 months in one country" does start again then I could drive the car out of Hungary for a weekend- Hungary is bordered by 7 other countries, 3 in the EU and 4 not- and then back to the UK once a year for its MOT.As this is due in early January and I am usually in the UK for Christmas, this could be the best/cheapest/easiest solution.
Having spent a lot of time on foreign websites looking for cars I feel Germany, Holland and the UK semm to be the cheapest for second hand cars, depending on what you are looking for.
Hungary is horrendously expensive for small second hand cars.The locally made Suzuki Swift (old model)which you can not really give a way in the UK can still cost the equivalent of £1000 for a 10 year old one in Hungary.Big BMWs and Audis tend to be relatively the cheapest due to high servicing and parts costs but there is nothing like a Glasses or Parkers Guide so it is not so easy finding what is value or not.
The new Suzuki Swift (still made in Hungary) is about the only car that is cheaper to buy in Hungary than in the UK and that is only by a small percentage.
If I find further clarification on any of the points raised I will of course post them.
Thanks again
Anyone know exactly where the side air bags are fitted in a 406?
The side air bag warning light has come on and I've been checking the connections under the seat and can see no exterior signs of where the bags are fitted. Are they in the seats or the B pillars?
The connection waggling appears to have done the trick - for now!
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Fullchat Read more
Thanks for that. Light still off. Must have been the under seat wiring.
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Fullchat
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I think it is an efficient service too, although I managed to screw it up myself ! I phoned them to ask why my tax disc hadn't arrived after 6 or 7 working days and very near to the start of the new month, they said they were sorry and immediately dispatched a duplicate disc by special delivery. However 45 seconds later I realised that we had some post which had dropped through the letter-box art a strange angle, and as I walked past I couldnt see it. I immediately phoned the DVLA back but they said even after 2 minutes they couldn't stop the process of sending out the duplicate.