Beex, Yo.
pointless expenses and cars
Grim... wrote:
Is the car overheating? Or cold?
Cold - although the engine was off :-) (key was only in position to get the display up)
Having heard nightmare stories of the difficulties people go through replacing the headlight bulbs in their cars, when one of mine went last night I went straight down to Halfrauds and ponied up for a new bulb and someone to fit it for me.
I then watched as a spotty youth took all of three seconds to change the bulb over. Seriously, it looked no more difficult than changing a light bulb at home.
Ah well, live and learn I suppose. At least I now know that I'll be able to do it myself when the time comes again.
I then watched as a spotty youth took all of three seconds to change the bulb over. Seriously, it looked no more difficult than changing a light bulb at home.
Ah well, live and learn I suppose. At least I now know that I'll be able to do it myself when the time comes again.
Yeah some are really easy to change. Might have been an idea to take a look first 
You're brave letting a Halfrauds mouthbreather touch your car. Better go check it hasn't caught fire.
Suicide Turkeys wrote:
You're brave letting a Halfrauds mouthbreather touch your car. Better go check it hasn't caught fire.
Heh, it's very seriously on my 'list of things to do this lunchtime' to go and check that he installed it and put the headlight cover back on properly (couldn't really do that in the dark last night).
Driving home, all ready to overtake, foot down, wait for the boost and..... nothing.
The car had suddenly gone into some kind of limp mode. Nothing on the dash but no power to speak of. Like someone had taken my turbo away from me. Got it up into a side road, rebooted it, and it was all fine again.
It had been sounding a little throaty so as I needed fuel anyway I stuck a tank of V-Power in it. Amazing the difference it makes to the running. By the time I was 30 miles down the road it was running as sweet as a nut. Makes a massive amount of difference to how smoothly the engine is and how quietly it runs.
I can only assume the problem was some kind of blockage and the ECU decided to cut back on power to prevent damage. In the old days the car would have just blown a load of smoke out the back, recovered, and carried on.
The car had suddenly gone into some kind of limp mode. Nothing on the dash but no power to speak of. Like someone had taken my turbo away from me. Got it up into a side road, rebooted it, and it was all fine again.
It had been sounding a little throaty so as I needed fuel anyway I stuck a tank of V-Power in it. Amazing the difference it makes to the running. By the time I was 30 miles down the road it was running as sweet as a nut. Makes a massive amount of difference to how smoothly the engine is and how quietly it runs.
I can only assume the problem was some kind of blockage and the ECU decided to cut back on power to prevent damage. In the old days the car would have just blown a load of smoke out the back, recovered, and carried on.
Christmas Tsara wrote:
Suicide Turkeys wrote:
What car and engine?
L-LOL
Suicide Turkeys wrote:
I don't read this thread regularly so get fucked, the lot of you.
It's not just this thead, mind.
Also I think maybe you were on a flounce during the most intense period of Golf-related chinny postings.
markg wrote:
Also I think maybe you were on a flounce during the most intense period of Golf-related chinny postings.
I was starting to think he was some sotr of "brand ambassador" and on a per-mention commission.
GoodKingWrongceslas wrote:
markg wrote:
Also I think maybe you were on a flounce during the most intense period of Golf-related chinny postings.
I was starting to think he was some sotr of "brand ambassador" and on a per-mention commission.
I thought it was rather sweet.
GoodKingWrongceslas wrote:
markg wrote:
Also I think maybe you were on a flounce during the most intense period of Golf-related chinny postings.
I was starting to think he was some sotr of "brand ambassador" and on a per-mention commission.
I just thought he was stoked about his new car, you awful, world-weary cynic.
markg wrote:
GoodKingWrongceslas wrote:
markg wrote:
Also I think maybe you were on a flounce during the most intense period of Golf-related chinny postings.
I was starting to think he was some sotr of "brand ambassador" and on a per-mention commission.
I just thought he was stoked about his new car, you awful, world-weary cynic.
Tis the season, and all that.
Done some research. Possibly it was the overboost protection kicking in. That can happen for a number of reasons including the engines air intake getting clogged or the dump thing getting sticky and not opening. Will keep an eye on it.
markg wrote:
Also I think maybe you were on a flounce during the most intense period of Golf-related chinny postings.
You can't actually flounce from a thread without actually flouncing. So GTFF.
Anyway my planned forum rage quit isn't happening until May 2011.
GoodKingWrongceslas wrote:
markg wrote:
Also I think maybe you were on a flounce during the most intense period of Golf-related chinny postings.
I was starting to think he was some sotr of "brand ambassador" and on a per-mention commission.
He has the same car as me
chinnyhill10 wrote:
markg wrote:
Also I think maybe you were on a flounce during the most intense period of Golf-related chinny postings.
You can't actually flounce from a thread without actually flouncing. So GTFF.
Anyway my planned forum rage quit isn't happening until May 2011.
I think he means Perkies flounced. THE WORLD DOESN'T REVOLVE AROUND AMSTRADS GOLFS YOU!
Anyway, Golf TDi owners, do you know about your auxiliary heater and how to make sure it activates? It's an extra 1KW heater that warms the car up quicker on cold mornings.
VW:
Basically ensure "econ" is off. Then if you have climatic you don't need to do anything, if you only have a standard heater then you need to turn it up to full whack.
VW:
Quote:
An electrical auxiliary air heater is installed in diesel vehicles. The electrical auxiliary air heater is a combination of a PTC heater element with an integrated control unit. It is installed downstream of the heat exchanger and provides additional heating of the vehicle interior after cold-starting the engine. The electrical auxiliary air heater directly heats the air which enters the vehicle interior. It acquires all information needed for operation via the convenience CAN data bus.
Activation conditions
The electrical auxiliary air heater is activated:
- in the case of the 2C-Climatronic and Climatic: automatically via the CAN data bus; in the case of the heating system: if the occupants set the heating output to over 90% at the operating unit (analog signal),- if the water temperature is below 75°C,
- if the engine speed is higher than 500 rpm,
- if no load management system is active and
- if the ECON button is not pressed.
Activation conditions
The electrical auxiliary air heater is activated:
- in the case of the 2C-Climatronic and Climatic: automatically via the CAN data bus; in the case of the heating system: if the occupants set the heating output to over 90% at the operating unit (analog signal),- if the water temperature is below 75°C,
- if the engine speed is higher than 500 rpm,
- if no load management system is active and
- if the ECON button is not pressed.
Basically ensure "econ" is off. Then if you have climatic you don't need to do anything, if you only have a standard heater then you need to turn it up to full whack.
I'm sure if you search you'll find me talking about my Octavia TDI and the various, very similar problems I had with it. I won't say more than that or ask more than that because I apparently should know it all already.
I can't seem to make it want to repeat it so hopefully it was just a one off. The usual test is to drive it at 3500 rpm for a couple of minutes in third. No problem at all.
Probably moisture frozen in the air filter. Problem solves itself once it thaws / dries out.
Guys, a quick query.
Basically, something I don't believe I've ever mentioned on this forum (out of sheer embarrassment more than anything), is that I'm actually in quite bad debt. So lately I've been thinking about selling my car, getting something quite a bit cheaper and using the difference to help pay off some of my debt. The thing is, for all the problems I've had with it, I damn well luffs my car, so it's not been something I'd wanted to consider before.
Anyway, what I basically need is a non-shit family car that won't be a total shit tip. If it could possibly be reasonably nice to offset the blow of having to get rid of my lovely Civic, so be it. Not really any point in it being diesel, since I now work in the same town in which I live, just slightly out of comfortable walking range. So I'd only be interested in diesel if there was no real average price difference between that and the petrol version.
Any ideas of the sort of thing I should be looking for? I appreciate it's quite a broad remit.
Basically, something I don't believe I've ever mentioned on this forum (out of sheer embarrassment more than anything), is that I'm actually in quite bad debt. So lately I've been thinking about selling my car, getting something quite a bit cheaper and using the difference to help pay off some of my debt. The thing is, for all the problems I've had with it, I damn well luffs my car, so it's not been something I'd wanted to consider before.
Anyway, what I basically need is a non-shit family car that won't be a total shit tip. If it could possibly be reasonably nice to offset the blow of having to get rid of my lovely Civic, so be it. Not really any point in it being diesel, since I now work in the same town in which I live, just slightly out of comfortable walking range. So I'd only be interested in diesel if there was no real average price difference between that and the petrol version.
Any ideas of the sort of thing I should be looking for? I appreciate it's quite a broad remit.
Also, any tips on selling the existing motor? I presume a private sale would be best. A quick perusal on Auto Trader suggests I could be looking to sell mine for anything between £6000 - £7500. I've never sold a car before (this one is actually the first car I've ever owned myself), so would I be liable in a private sale if someone bought it and three weeks later had the engine blow up on them or something?
No, in a private sale people have no comeback if the car turns out to be faulty, unless you say something silly like "I guarantee the car's got nothing wrong with it."
Verbal contracts don't mean anything of course, but if they have a witness or whatever it could be used against you.
Put simply, let the buyer inspect the car and haggle on price. If you're happy with what they offer, go for it, otherwise tell them where to stick it.
Make sure any potential buyers have insurance to drive the car if they want to test drive.
Could you buy a bicycle instead?
Verbal contracts don't mean anything of course, but if they have a witness or whatever it could be used against you.
Put simply, let the buyer inspect the car and haggle on price. If you're happy with what they offer, go for it, otherwise tell them where to stick it.
Make sure any potential buyers have insurance to drive the car if they want to test drive.
Could you buy a bicycle instead?
Zio Ho Ho wrote:
Anyway, what I basically need is a non-shit family car that won't be a total shit tip. If it could possibly be reasonably nice to offset the blow of having to get rid of my lovely Civic, so be it.
Mrs Chinny's Audi A3 is quite nice. Bigger than my Golf, excellent build quality and looks quite good. Having driven it, I had no cause for complaints other than its a 1.6.
Zio Ho Ho wrote:
Any ideas of the sort of thing I should be looking for? I appreciate it's quite a broad remit.
Depends how much you want to spend. A Focus looks smart still, costs pennies, reliable and parts are cheap too.
And yeah, seriously, have you thought of doing without one for a while? Save Lots of money that way, plus a bit of a challenge.
Zio Ho Ho wrote:
Basically, something I don't believe I've ever mentioned on this forum (out of sheer embarrassment more than anything), is that I'm actually in quite bad debt.
Been there when we purchased our first house, after a few months I had worked up quite a bit of debt on cards
A lot of self control & 2 jobs for 6 months cleared it off.
On the car front I have always stuck with Japanese. Can't beat them for reliability which is most important to me. So maybe a Corolla Verso?
kalmyrrh wrote:
Zio Ho Ho wrote:
Any ideas of the sort of thing I should be looking for? I appreciate it's quite a broad remit.
Depends how much you want to spend. A Focus looks smart still, costs pennies, reliable and parts are cheap too.
And yeah, seriously, have you thought of doing without one for a while? Save Lots of money that way, plus a bit of a challenge.
Thought about it, as work is now only a bus ride or even a walk away, but I need to be able to transport my little girl. My gf even offered to put me on the insurance of her car for those purposes, but it's a 206cc, so the babyseat would have to go in the front passenger seat. Not exactly ideal. Plus my right foot always ends up on both the accelerator and brake at the same time in that bloody thing. And it's a girl's car.
I was thinking of looking at spending no more than about £1,500. I'm able to make minimum payments on stuff, so I can spend a little time looking into this, but I do think it's time I stop pretending that my current car isn't an expensive luxury that I can do without. Besides, it's a 3-door, so getting my daughter in and out of that has always been a pain in the arse. My back will thank me for getting a 5-door car if nothing else.
I do love it though. My car has always been my most favouritist material possession.
gospvg wrote:
Zio Ho Ho wrote:
Basically, something I don't believe I've ever mentioned on this forum (out of sheer embarrassment more than anything), is that I'm actually in quite bad debt.
Been there when we purchased our first house, after a few months I had worked up quite a bit of debt on cards
A lot of self control & 2 jobs for 6 months cleared it off.
On the car front I have always stuck with Japanese. Can't beat them for reliability which is most important to me. So maybe a Corolla Verso?
Spoilered, since this has nothing to do with cars:
ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!
So yeah, I think the car ought to go.
As a epilogue to all this, if I had a time machine and the 31 year old me could go back in time to meet the 26 year old me, the first thing I'd do, without uttering a single word, is beat the living shit out of the idiotic twat.
And snap his credit card.
Zio Ho Ho wrote:
gospvg wrote:
Zio Ho Ho wrote:
Basically, something I don't believe I've ever mentioned on this forum (out of sheer embarrassment more than anything), is that I'm actually in quite bad debt.
Been there when we purchased our first house, after a few months I had worked up quite a bit of debt on cards
A lot of self control & 2 jobs for 6 months cleared it off.
On the car front I have always stuck with Japanese. Can't beat them for reliability which is most important to me. So maybe a Corolla Verso?
Spoilered, since this has nothing to do with cars:
ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!
So yeah, I think the car ought to go.
As a epilogue to all this, if I had a time machine and the 31 year old me could go back in time to meet the 26 year old me, the first thing I'd do, without uttering a single word, is beat the living shit out of the idiotic twat.
And snap his credit card.
Hindsight is lovely & I'm sure we would all go back & change something. Back to the car front, maybe you should go for something small engine thus cheaper to run & insure? Like a 1.4 or less if you can cope with it? Leaving my love of Jap cars to one side for the moment how about a VW Polo?
If you want cheap to buy, cheap to run, cheap to fix, practical and moderately entertaining to drive, then go for a Focus. There us a reason that it won car of the year and there are so many around
Quote:
As a epilogue to all this, if I had a time machine and the 31 year old me could go back in time to meet the 26 year old me, the first thing I'd do, without uttering a single word, is beat the living shit out of the idiotic twat.
And snap his credit card.
And snap his credit card.
Ditto. Thankfully I stopped when I reached ~£6k and have lived on pittance for a couple of years while I pay it off. Pretty much all clear now, so I'm glad I manned up and started facing my problems head on.
Trooper wrote:
If you want cheap to buy, cheap to run, cheap to fix, practical and moderately entertaining to drive, then go for a Focus. There us a reason that it won car of the year and there are so many around
I'm very seriously thinking about going down the Focus route. My dad is going to give me a hand touching up the passenger side door where some UTTER CUNT decided to gouge the paintwork with some metal instrument just under the door handle.
The dent on the driver's side door where another UTTER CUNT slammed their door into it will just have to be something the next owner has to live with.
My dad helped soften the blow over all this when I was chatting to him about it last night. As he pointed out, if I sell this car and get something for cheaps, I'll be able to pay a sizeable chunk of my debt off and then be out of debt that much quicker. And once I am fully out of debt, I can then take a serious look at getting another nice car like what I have now, but without all the financial arseache. Sounds good to me.
The Focus is an excellent car. I'll go out on a limb and say that all modern Ford's are pretty good, the mainstream range anyway. We have a Fiesta 1.6d Titanium and as mentioned, it's averaged 55mpg over the last year even with my slightly lead footed style of driving taking over for the long trips. The In-Laws have a Focus with, weirdly, the same engine as our Fiesta and it runs very well indeed. Shockingly roomy boot too. Surprisingly so.
DavPaz wrote:
The Focus is an excellent car. I'll go out on a limb and say that all modern Ford's are pretty good, the mainstream range anyway. We have a Fiesta 1.6d Titanium and as mentioned, it's averaged 55mpg over the last year even with my slightly lead footed style of driving taking over for the long trips. The In-Laws have a Focus with, weirdly, the same engine as our Fiesta and it runs very well indeed. Shockingly roomy boot too. Surprisingly so.
That's comforting to know. My Civic has a colossal boot and it's more handy than you realise sometimes. Especially since my missus can barely get her handbag in the boot of her car.
As you go up the size scale, the Mondeo has a boot the size of a small country, and an old-shape, ex-rep vehicle will probably be cheaper, too.
Grim... wrote:
As you go up the size scale, the Mondeo has a boot the size of a small country, and an old-shape, ex-rep vehicle will probably be cheaper, too.
Out iof interest, why the fuck would one buy the saloon version of a mondeo rather than hatchback?
GoodKingWrongceslas wrote:
Grim... wrote:
As you go up the size scale, the Mondeo has a boot the size of a small country, and an old-shape, ex-rep vehicle will probably be cheaper, too.
Out iof interest, why the fuck would one buy the saloon version of a mondeo rather than hatchback?
Are you talking about a Focus?
GoodKingWrongceslas wrote:
Out of interest, why the fuck would one buy any version of a mondeo other than the Estate?
ftfy.
kalmyrrh wrote:
GoodKingWrongceslas wrote:
Out of interest, why the fuck would one buy any version of a mondeo other than the Estate?
ftfy.
Estate Cars are pro.
kalmyrrh wrote:
GoodKingWrongceslas wrote:
Out of interest, why the fuck would one buy any version of a mondeo other than the Estate?
ftfy.
Mrs Grim... wrote:
Because it's bigger.
MrsA complained about the size of the 306 for ages and how tricky it is to park and so on. now she laughs at me as I reverse it into walls and bollards, yet can park teh Ka perfectly everytime.
Boot size is constantly a surprise for me. Have you seen the boot in an old Ka?
The answer is no, you havent. Because there isn't one, merely a tiny cavity into which you may be able to cram a small bag. In the Ka, the back seat is the boot and the car is essentially 2 seater.
The answer is no, you havent. Because there isn't one, merely a tiny cavity into which you may be able to cram a small bag. In the Ka, the back seat is the boot and the car is essentially 2 seater.