italiastar

Thank for the detailed reply. If anyone has a copy of the TIS relating to this, I'd love to get my hands on a copy - as usual it appears that SEAT customer services have not investigated the issue I raised and just fed me some "information" This should be interesting, as so far, the only satisfactory response I've had is when they sent me a 130 sticker for my car - even the customer service "breakdown book" took 2 months to arrive.

We are soon approaching the ticking season and I've finally got an answer from SEAT (lack of) customer services - apparantly the heater should tick! the noise is from the operation of a solenoid within the heater and is normal - I'd be grateful if you could please confirm whether this is the case from your experiences and what dealers have told you about this "feature". Does anyone know what this heater does (apart from tick and sometimes belch out white smoke) and whether it's fitted to other diesel cars such as my wife's fabia?

Apparently, I'm the ONLY person in the world who has reported this problem according to SEAT (lack of) customer services could all you SEAT (or for that matter non-SEAT) owners please check their cars to see if this is true.

;) :D :D

Thanks for the tip Ivor. I must admit, I'm with you Marky - this is just poor customer service - we shouldn't put up with it!

A few weeks ago (in France) I noticed white marks on the outer "chrome" edge of the SEAT badge on my wheel trims. I was on all 4 wheels and my first thoughts were that they had been pecked by the peacocks in the B&B we'd stayed in. On further investigation I saw that the white areas were slightly raise - peacocks proved innocent. During a separate ruck with SEAT lack of customer services I mentioned this problem and Thjey said that they not come across it before and to me to take my car to the dealer so that theyu may examine it and decide on rectification. The dealer was very helpful and happy to order replacements without me having to take the car to them, the only issue was worjking out which ones I needed. I popped into the dealer today and looked at their used car stock - every Alhambra ( of differing ages) had the same problem to varying degrees. Interestingly, the non-Alhambras appeared to be OK. I appreciate that this is all my fault! - my fault for buying the car in the first place - my fault for noticing the problem - my fault for expecting the badges on a 20 grand car to last more than 12 months. I accept that Ford have decided to dissassociate themselves from their cars after 3 years, if the rear badges are anything to go by, but is this really what we should expect from our cars?

My cousin runs a Ferrari garage in Italy and charges less than the

I'd recommend Thule bars and a Halfords ABS (the silver ones - not black) box - the larger the better as you can never have too much space - I think mine is 560 litres - I bought it last December around chistmas and the box was half price when I bought a set of bars - not bad considering the box was originally

Anyone driving to Italy should note that you must have dippped headlights on a ALL TIMES outside built-up areas (including motorways) - this is ludicrous in a sunny country! - as one Italian said to me, the only benefit of this, is to increase income from fines and spending on replacement bulbs.

What do you expect - it's a mass produced car that comes off the production line every 5 minutes !!!! Not my comment, but the quote from my dealer when I told them that one of the rear doors needed slamming to close it. I played with the adjustment and "improved" it after about spending 5 minutes on it.

Whats a or have I missed something?

I had the same problem with my (petrol) Spacewagon - as soon as I checked the oil after having it serviced, it was black(ish), however, when ever I changed the oil in my wifes Golf, which incidentally had covered 4 times the mileage, the oil was a perfect straw colour, even after a few days driving. I put this down to the fact that I was untrained and therefore did unecessary silly things like only change the oil after I heated up the engine, leave it draining for an hour after ensuring that the drain hole was the lowest point. After the hour had passed I was even foolish enough to pour some new oil in to "clean" the resedue out - I'm now pleased to say that I'm far happier paying

I had the same problem in a dustbin (the italians call them Punto's which I hired in Italy last week. I managed to get rid of it for a Mazda 2 :D which worked perfectly. Why a dustbin - my kids said it was the only useful thing you could do with it! - fill it with rubbish.

1 metre !!! - count yourself lucky - I've just returned from Italy where the normal distance from ones bottom is 1 cm - My children said that this was because Italian drivers are like dogs - they like to sniff your ar**

I also stalled mine many times when I first got it - usually just after changing down to say 2nd on a roundabout. As you say you get a VERY large thud!! when this occurs. It still happens sometimes, but I have never stalled my wife's Fabia which has the same 130bhp engine. Glad to see I'm not alone, however is it something we should get looked at?

Thanks Ivor, I've checked mine and in inner ring of writing (the one closest to the rim) has 95H REINFORCED on it.

Looking at mine, I think it will be easier to remove then engine to gain access to a blown bulb. I've heard that some car bulbs (Rover) can only be changed by main dealers - methinks we are going backwards!

When I queried this with SEAT, they got the dealer to send me a 130 sticker for the back - in fact the dealer even offered to fit it!

:unsure: :unsure: :unsure:

What storage bins under the seats - have I missed something?

I know I keep asking this question , but how can I tell if my tyres are reinforced? My car has the factory fitted Continental Eco-Contact CP with no reference to being reinforced - does that mean that they are not or are all Ecocontact CPs reinforced as standard? - I only ask as how could I tell if I'm buying the correct tyre.

I totally agree. On odd occassions let let someone with a brain out, but that is a very rare occurance - rarer than hens teeth. I'd demand more than that - get them to pay for a SEAT dealer to fix it.

Here Here - I totally agree - I'd go as far to say that this applies on any car. Some people would spend more money on shoes or trainers than tyres. "****-***" - hint - first word starts with K - second word ends with T

How can you tell whether they are re-inforced - I know you can ask the fitter, but would your average ****-*** fitter know?