August 2006
Observations from France just in case anyone is interested ;-)
1. The road surfaces are atrocious out of Dunkirk, which is the most depressing entry into France I have seen. Can recommend Norfolk Line, though. The Kids like Buffalo Grill.
2. The front and rear number plates never match on Dutch vehicles pulling caravans. Are we British in the minority here ?
3. If you wonder where all the Petrol stations have gone, you'll find them on the roads leading from Switzerland into France.
4. I have only ever seen two Renault Megane Estates - did they just not make many ?
5. er thats it, although I did see a Studebaker in Nyon
no.. I thought not.
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London now. In your town soon?
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/5251526.stm
21 cameras now in use but 150 planned Read more
boxterboy, most areas are covered by decriminalised parking, so the RTA isn't what they use.
However this raises the question of whether the penalty can be enforced by a court, after the courts decided in a judicial review last month that such penalties are not fines. Councils and other public bodies are a law unto themselves these days, as they have so much of our money to spend on fighting us.
Just a reminder to anyone that drives with Children in the car.
The law changes in Spetember (18th I think) and will state that the child MUST be carried ONLY in the appropriate car seat.
I think it used to say "appropriate car seat if available" previously so it looks like they are tightening up.
What happened to the days of laying flat on the rear window shelf like I did in my dad's car.
Scarey to think how daft we were compared to today. Read more
These new laws should not make anyone buy a new car. I fitted 2 baby seats and a booster seat into a nova, and before we had our own car we got our newborn daughter in a proper seat, our 3 year old in a big seat with full harness and me in the back of a relatives corsa.
hi. I have a 1977 4.2 daimler coupe which a sticker under the bonnet says 8" btc timing at idle. Idle speed on the same sticker quoted @ 750RPM. However, i remember seeing a different angle at a different speed somewhere (maybe in the Haynes manual i have now lost?!). Can anyone confirm / advise what it should be set to? Also what grade of oil for the SU dashpots? I have tried various oils and settings and had various degrees of success as well as some comedy backfires when accelereating hard. Regards Phil Read more
Would be better if you did though. The lower resistance primary
windings of an electronic ignition coil means the magnetic field would
build up and collapse quicker than on a conventional ignition coil,
thus maintaining correct plug firing voltage and far reducing the possibility
of misfire at high speed.....
Correction. The Lumention Optronic unit must not be used with an electronic ignition coil as the low resistance windings would draw more current than the module is designed for, and cause damage to it. So clearly not the ideal system to use.
The Lumenition Performance unit however is designed for use with electronic ignition coils, but at £250 seems quite expensive.
Hello All,
Got a little problem with my 97 A4 2.4 V6, when cold the engine etc is fine and smooth but after a minute of driving the engine idle bounces for a while and sometimes stalls when using the steering and brakes at low speeds. It is like it is trying to find the correct idle speed but takes a while doing it. Also noticed a slight judder at around 70 mph, performance seems unaffected though. First port of call ( and cheapest ) was to use the free VAG com software to look for engine error codes but I found none. Then I used some injector cleaner for a couple of tank loads of fuel and had a long motorway blast which also proved fruitless. I know that there are loads of sensors that could effect the running of the car but before I start to change anything at great expense thought I'd try you guys incase anyone has had a similar problem and fixed it,
look forward to your response with baited breath !!
cheers
Benno Read more
My 2.4 V6 behaved in more or less the fashion you described and in my case caused the following errors (visible in the full version of VAG-COM):
17833 - EVAP Purge Valve (N80): Short to Ground
P1425 - 35-00 - -
17938 - Camshaft Timing Adjustment: Short to Ground
P1530 - 35-00 - -
17923 - Intake Manifold Valve (N156): Short to Ground
P1515 - 35-00 - -
16486 - Mass Air Flow Sensor (G70): Signal too Low
P0102 - 35-00 - -
17523 - Oxygen (Lambda) Sensor Heating: B1 S1: Short to Ground
P1115 - 35-00 - -
17527 - Oxygen (Lambda) Sensor Heating Circuit: B2 S1: Short to Ground
P1119 - 35-00 - -
16518 - Oxygen (Lambda) Sensor B1 S1: No Activity
P0134 - 35-00 - -
16538 - Oxygen (Lambda) Sensor B2 S1: No Activity
P0154 - 35-00 - -
Fuse 34 (in the box at the end of the dash) kept blowing and it turned out to be one of the camshaft mecahnical positioners which was shorted, blowing the fuse and taking out all those other sensors which the engine needs to run properly.
Hopefully this isn't the case for you (the camshaft mechanical positioners are expensive and it's a big job to fit it), but Fuse 34 is worth checking, just in case.
Regards,
Toby
I'm sure I watched an article about the developement of a single pedal for driving so one movement accelerates and the opposite movement applies the brakes, all on the same pedal.
As someone who recently miss judged the distance between accelerator and brake, with near dire consequences, on a rarely used vehicle, why has this design not been developed and bought in as a standard design, it seems too obvious not to be a great idea Read more
I used to get 3d a bucket. Didn't like doing it though and soon learnt the art of negotiation, getting the price up to 6d.
JH
which brand of petrol (unleaded 95RON) has the highest concentration of detergents?
I do a lot of short journeys from cold starts and think that it would be a good idea to fill up with a high detergent petrol.
Thanks for your comments.
Ish Read more
The only advice I can offer is that, for two years, I ran the Punto five miles a day to the station and five miles home in the evening.
In that time, it ran on Esso, Texaco and petrol from a local franchise - each used exclusively for several months at a time depending on which filling station was cheapest and close to home. Filling to the neck, running to near-empty and refilling, I never noticed any repeatable difference in fuel economy between the three brands.
Texaco gave an average of 2mpg more than the others on the long distance trips I did every second or third weekend, though. I also tried Shell V-Power which gave no improvement in mpg but did seem to make the car feel more lively to drive (no idea why!)
- Gromit
My OH drives an R reg LT35. Twice now in 18 months the pin on the timing belt tensioner/backing plate has failed causing pretty major damage to engine. How do I go about finding out if there is a manufacturing fault responsible for this? A chap he knows who worked for VW suggested that there was a known problem with this particular part.
Have any other LT35 drivrs come across this problem? Read more
Hi, I have recently brought a 106 and failed to realise a little rust on the drivers door and I'm afraid of it spreading. Does anyone have any suggestions to remove it or cover it up? Cheers Read more
Can anyone remember those self adhesive coloured patches to stick on your stone chips and scratches
Yep. My dad bought some from Presto for our Mk1 Escort. They covered the rust ok, but the edges of the patch would not stick to the paint and always stuck out, making the mark more obvious.
That Escort was possible the worst company car dad had. Many a morn filled with bad language interspersed with 'Chug-a-chug---whrrrrr' noises as the starter failed to do its job.
For the first time ever foreign cars have outsold French cars in France.
Peugout, Citreon and Renault cars accounted for 48.7% of the market with foreign makes making up the rest.
Toyota had the biggest increase (and they do have a yaris factory in France I believe) in sales from last year and seem to continue their record of continully increasing sales in most countries.
Just for the record - Honda were not mentioned and VW were also up 5.7%.
Well done VW and boo-yah-sucks Honda.
(The last sentence is my attempt to balance my views between Honda and VW - as I keep being told to do)
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Blimey. Your Norfolk Line must have been a different ferry to mine, I drove from the docks at Dover a couple of weeks ago into....... 1982.
Cheap though.
Dunkerque is THE singular most horrible entrance into France. Add to that the unpleasant experience with a Belgian man at Jabbeke services who obviously thought I was not there to sleep, but there for his "entertainment", and you'll understand why I didn't cheer up until I got to Cologne.