katman

Metal Coathangers.... now theres a blast from the past. When did you last see a metal one ? All the modern ones seem to be plastic. Not only do they break VERY easily but you cant use them as replacement radio aerials or unwind them to create a useful drain poking tool. I darent even think about the fire risk when using plastic coathangers for the "Blue Peter Advent (candle thingy)" Sorry, cant remember the proper word :huh:

I have a 97 2.0 GLX and a few weeks ago took all the seats out to go to the tip with some rubbish. Wieghed on the way in and out. My car with just Driver and Passenger seat (plus me sitting in the car) was 1700kg I am about 110kg so I suppose 1700kg could be about right for an empty 2.0 Galaxy. If you put 7 people like me in there though you would be upto 2500kg before you hooked anything to the back :angry: :blink:

Another thought.... are the vacuum servo hoses OK. Many years ago I had a transit and that kept dying for seemingly unexplained reasons. Did al the logical things, plugs, points, condensor, plug leads. Would go for a really long drive with no problems then just as I got almost home it cut out. Finally out of sheer desparation I took it to a Ford dealer who sorted in it under 30 minutes. Cracked servo hose that was letting air into the manifold when I pressed the brakes. When I thought back to all the times it cut out, they were all when I was braking. Was going to mention this in my previous reply but I saw no mention of you pressing the brake pedal so discounted it but if a hose was cracked then any slight movement of the engine may cause the crack to open up and weaken the mixture so stalling the engine.

Is the engine properly earthed ? If there was a problem with the earth strap beign a bad connection then that would limit the amount of current that could flow from the alternator which could explain why your battery is going flat. Likewise, a poor ground for the engine could affect the readings from some of the sensors and cause them to give readings that get misinterpreted by the ECU. If you have a multimeter, put it on a very low volt range and connect one lead to Battery -ve and the other lead to the engine block. There will almost certainly be a few millivolts difference but anything higher or wildly fluctuating would indicate a bad connection. At idle the alternator output is very low but just above idle it can output quite a lot more current. With a poor connection on the earth strap this would cause a significant difference in ground potential. It may not have anything to do with your problem but possibly worth a try :o

Everyone except those who dont have a birthday in April :( :( I wonder if the cause of all the April birthdays is the fact that 9 months earlier it is July and people are on their holidays and probably have more time for "relaxation" :ph34r: My kids BOTH have the same birthday (but 7 years apart) in Mid December. Im trying to work out what happened in Mid March as it is 10 weeks after Christmas and a whole month before my birthday :D :D Happy Birthday Teresa

Because the renewal notices are printed upto 3 months in advance. When SWMBO smasher her Peugeot up (actually just a bent bumber and headlight but due to the age of the car they wrote it off) we had a problem with the tax renewal form. The tax disc expired at the end of September but we had bought the Galaxy to replace it at the begining of August. I put the private plate on retention and the car (still drivable and taxed and MOTed) was left on the road awaiting the insurance company. They somehow got their paperwork in a muddle and didnt collect the car before the end of September when the tax and MOT ran out so I had to store the car in my garage. The problem I had was that I couldnt declare the car as SORN because the renewal form had the Private Plate number on it but the car had been restored to its original registration some 7 or 8 weeks earlier :( I also didnt have the registration document as that was somewhere in the bowels of the insurance company. I rang Swansea to explain and was told not to worry. When the fine for non renewal/SORN came through I started to worry and rang up again. I had to write in enclosing copies of all the correspondence with the insurance company before they agreed it wasnt my fault. Thats when they told me that the renewal notices were printed so far in advance. IF they hadnt been printed so early it would have saved me a lot of hassle :o

Now I can see a use for the swivelling front seats :ph34r:

Ah! but.... Is the spare wheel A. attatched to a fully functioning spare wheel carrier. B. permanently stuck underneath the vehicle on a knackered spare wheel carrier. C. Stuffed behind one of the rear seats D. Laying on the floor of the garage :rolleyes: :P

Perhaps someone accidently deleted it :angry: :D :D

Thanks All :angry: Just got back from taking my 2 yr old son to Tumble Tots. Just as we were about to leave the woman who runs it got everyone to sing happy birthday. I could feel me cheeks getting redder and redder !! Thankfully as you get older people stop giving you the bumps. Thinking back to school days when you used to get kicked on every bump I dont think I would survive now. I would be kicked to a pulp !!!

Which is precisely why so many people are against speed cameras. Do they accurately measure speed ... YES Can they identify whether driving is good or bad .... NO Had the road been fitted with SPECS cameras then you almost certainly woulnt have had a ticket because your average speed would have been below the limit due to the 45mph holdup. You drove is a responsible manner using sufficient speed to safely overtake the vehicles and then returned to the limit. Had you continued at 69mph then yes you should probably have got a ticket. I think that Mr Plod was being a bit of a jobsworth because he saw that the speed was only used for overtaking. Did you see him behind you as you drove through the 30 etc ? Maybe he thought that you were taking the proverbial by sticking absolutely to the limit exactly :lol:

I tend to use this quite often. It can also be VERY interesting when you are just watching traffic. Look for a police car coming down the road and then use that to time the distance between the car the police are behind and the police car itself. I bet you wont get the chance to say the whole sentance !!! It works to a certain extent. It depends on the type of camera. With an ordinary GATSO people will just brake hard prior to the camera and then speed up once clear of the camera. I think the SPECS type cameras are far better for catching those intent on ignoring speed limits because unless they stop in the middle of the measured zone for a while they will have travelled the measured distance too quickly and will be caught. I think what upsets the public the most about speed cameras is the perception that they catch "innocent" people not the real speeders. It would be interesting to see a breakdown of how many cars are caught and at what speed for a range of speed camera limits. There was an item on the news about a speed camera on the M62 roadworks that caught 18000 motorists in a year through a temporary 40mph speed limit. On the rare occasions that I am actually on a motorway I have been through roadworks subject to the same 40mph limit and it can be hard to keep down to 40mph. You start to creep up to 43-45 without noticing but the one thing you are well aware of is those who have made no attempt to slow down as they fly past in the next lane. You can easily identify those people who always drive too fast. They have radar detectors stuck to the front screen and satnav units programmed with locations of all fixed cameras etc. I know that everyone is guilty of exceeding the speed limit at times but often not intentionally or excessively. Particularly round here where most main roads are single carriageway, if you are stuck behind someone travelling at (speed limit-10) then you have two choices. 1. Stay behind them and get increasingly frustrated 2. Overtake them and momentarily break the speed limit to pass them safely. I see no problem with option 2 provided you reduce your speed to the speed limit once you have passed them but there are those who will then continue accelerating until they come up against another slower vehicle. We have a long striaght road that is 8 miles long with only one bend (A47 Acle Straight) and there are drainage dykes on either side. Many people have been killed on this road either by the force of the collision or by drowning in the dykes. The road is single carriageway with the national 60mph speed limit. Some people are suggesting that it should be reduced to 50mph but this wont help as many of the accidents are caused by people considerably exceeding the existing 60 limit. A few years ago the local MP was prosecuted for speeding. The papers reported that he was charged with "Driving in excess of 60mph" which many people felt was a little rough as most people tended to drive at 65-70. However when the details of the case were reported he was actually clocked at 96 MPH in a 60mph limit which is a maniac speed givent hat the entire road is only 20 feet wide. Worst of all, being an MP he "got away" with just a fine and some points despite being 36mph over the limit. I have always been led to believe that >30 over the limit was an automatic ban :lol: Many modern cars have "Cruise Control" which I have only ever had on a couple of hire cars. I found that it was a complete waste of time as the roads were never clear enough to be able to use it. IMHO, a far more useful gizmo to fit to a car would be a user selectable speed limiter/warning. If it was a limiter so that you couldnt exceed the speed limit unitentionally then some sort of "kickdown" override similar to an automatic could be provided for an emergency. If it was a more simple speed warning then a "blip" at the speed limit with a short reminder blip every 10 or so seconds that you remain over the limit with the frequency of blips increasing as your speed increased similar to a parking sensor. Something like that would mean that you dont have to constantly look at the speedo and in the case of heavy traffic you wouldnt be a likely to get cught because your speed had crept up due to the flow of traffic.

The way this thread has degenerated into "Skip on Wheels" has made my day. I always felt ashamed when people got into my car (applies to any I have ever owned) because there was always rubbish on the floors etc and other peoples cars always looked pristine. Its nice to know there are other people who have cars as messy as mine :P :P

I assume this was a temporary 40mph limit. If everyone drove at a steady 38 and left a safe distance to the car in front there would be virtually no holdups but people drive far too close and as soon as someone touches the brake pedal for a second the whole line comes to standstill :(

Its Oxymoron Time :lol: :lol:

I have just started watching "Grumpy Old Men" on SKY+ :D :D

Which comes back to the previously mention items Lack of courtesy Driving too close Most people totally refuse to let anyone pull in even though the highway code says to give way to traffic from the right, they would rather bunch up and come to a complete standstill than possibly delay there journey by a few milliseconds allowing another vehicle to filter in by easing of the throttle and dropping back a few feet. In the case of the 800...600...400...200 markings for a lane closure I would try to position myself in the correct lane as soon as it was safest to do so and once I reached the 200 marker would then move across if I hadnt already done so. Your action fits in exactly with what should be done as you match your speed to slide in without any detrimental effects and you probably also indicate your intention to do so as well. I would have no problem with that whatsoever. But if the left and centre lanes were already slowed to a crawl and 99.9% of the people had obeyed the signs and you came hammering down the outside right up to the cones and they tried to barge your way in I would think to myself... OI !! No!!. That is not good driving you plonker and would do everything within my power not to let you in :angry: It never ceases to amaze me how blinkered many drivers are and how they ignore 800..600...400...200 signs or a slow moving vehicle with flashing beacon until the last second. You then have to anticipate whether they will just pull out in front of you, slam their brakes on, or pile into the back of it. Likewise when you try to let someone in from a slip road by adjusting your speed (when you cant move across to the next lane) and instead of them being aware of what you are doing they just keep slowing down until in the end you give up and carry on. Their loss not yours!!

Without the engine running, try connecting a multimeter across the battery and see if the voltage drops slightly when you try to close the window (compare with a working window). If the voltage drops slightly (maybe only a few millivolts) with either window then it is probably getting power and the problem could be mecahnical. If there is a drop with the good window but nothing with the faulty one then it isnt getting any power and could well be the wiring in the door or somewhere further back. Is there a connector accessable nearby where you can check for voltage on the appropriate wires ? If so, and you prove that power ISNT getting that far, then maybe you could feed a temporary supply to the motor just to close the window whilst you locate the fault. Regards Keith

Obviously you have an older vehicle that has the traditional "Self Cancelling Indicators" whereby straightening the steering wheel after turning the corner switches off the indicators. What you were behind was a more modern vehicle designed for those who cant be bothered to operate the indicators as they are too busy talking on their mobile phone. To overcome this problem, car manufacturers are now fitting "Self Activating Indicators" which come on as you turn the corner :angry:

Thanks Bigjeeze. You just reminded me about one more pet hate.... Parking Spaces for Prats I have no objection to parking spaces for Disabled, Parent and child etc. The ones I am refering to are diagonal yellow squares usually found at busy road junctions. Not only are the individual spaces too small even for a "Smart Car" but once three or four prats park there cars I find it has a seriously detrimental effect on the flow of other traffic resulting in the all too familiar gridlock. Just in case anyone hasnt figured out what I am ranting about I believe the Highway Code refers to these particular parking spaces as Box Junctions :angry:

I wish mine was a Mk2. I would love to mount a screen like that but the Mk1 dash is all curvy with nowhere to hide the screen when not in use :lol:

Have to say first that I dont have a great deal of experience on Motorways for the simple reason that our nearest ones are between 90 and 120 minutes away :lol: Having said that, my comments are equally applicable to dual carriageway (not that there is a great deal of that in Norfolk either!) 1. People who come down the slip road FASTER than the traffic on the main carriageway and shoot straight across all lanes until they are up against the crash barriers. ( I think this must be caused by the magnetic bumpers on certain German cars which also get attracted to your rear bumper if they cant pass you) 2. People who dont adjust their speed to slip into a gap in the traffic on the main carriageway and end up coming to a standstill at the end of the slip lane. 3. When a dual carriageway or Motorway is fairly clear but people in the left hand lane of the main carriageway dont move to the right to allow joining traffic to flow in easier. 4. People who *might* give a single flash of the indicator once their vehicle is 90% of the way through their lane changing manoevure. On the bit of the M25 with variable speed limits where it tells people to stay in lane the traffic does flow quite well until the plonkers start swapping lanes. The fact that everyone drives two close also clogs the roads as people over react to brake lights and the traffic comes to a standstill for no apparent reasononly to be belting along at 70 within a couple of miles. I seem to remember some road safety adverts on TV a loooong time ago, possibly mid to late 70s, aimed at motorway driving which said something along the lines of "one flash for each 10mph" so 7 flashes at 70mph. Perhaps thats why they dropped the adverts..... its bad enough getting a single flash out of a BMW (except headlights) never mind 11 or 12 :D Also, what happened to the adverts "Only a fool breaks the two second rule" It realls scares me when you try that with other people and only manage to say "Only a" especially when its raining!!!! I would like to amend that statement to People DELIBERATELY breaking the lower speed limits, i.e. 30, 40 & 50. There are times when we all inadvertantly travel on main roads at 35 in a 30 when traffic is flowing and we are concentrating on keeping the traffic moving but there are those who will always travel at 45-50 in a 30 if given half the chance. Personally I hate those who will drive at 30 because the speed limit is thirty irrespective of the conditions eg bad weather, heavy traffic, parked cars, kids playing in the street etc. Common sense *should* tell people that 15-20 is more appropriate but some people seem not to care. Another of my pet hates is the millions of pounds spent on safety railings and pedestrian crossings when most of the great unwashed are so ******* ignorant that they just ignore the lights or jump over the railings which would make things safe for them if used properly. Sods law says that in the event of an accident it would be the poor motorists fault :D I think I had better shut up now. I'm 46 in four days time. Is it coincidence that BBC2 has just started another series of "Grumpy Old Men" ??? :D :D