HJT

AFAIK that engines' cambelt change interval was 60,000 but Ford now recommend 40,000 on the mk2 version as they were having failures before the 60,000 miles were up. Had mine done recently I think it was about

The trouble is, not everyone has the knowledge, tools, ability or time to do the work themselves. It's about time the OFT and the DTI started slapping some heavy fines about. That might make the industry sit up and take notice. Howard

They may look like Lockheed and have all the markings and boxes but cheap chinese copies can look very convincing until the first time you put your foot on the brakes! Howard

To be honest, I wouldn't trust any safety essential parts from anywhere other than a reputable dealer. These could be cheap foreign copies. Save a few quid now and regret it for the rest of your life if you kill someone because the brakes didn't perform properly. Howard

Bet she won't let you post a pic of that one :unsure: :lol: :lol: Howard

Yep it's condensation from the aircon does the same on mine. The roof vents you have are the dual aircon vents. Howard

Jeez that is expensive. Guys, get yourself a Tomtom setup and an off the shelf dvd player with 2 headrest screens and save yourself a fortune. Plus you can swap them both to different cars if you need to. Sounds to me like this guy is getting some free advertising. Howard

Or Tomtom on a PDA, about

Yes they do. I think they fold out from the centre console near the floor, but be careful as they are easily snapped off with a misplaced boot. Also don't buy replacement speaker grills from Ebay they go for silly money on there and are cheaper from your local Ford dealer. You will get through these as they are quite thin and easily cracked but cheap and easy to replace apparently. Good luck and enjoy your car they are great motors and I wouldn't be without mine. Howard

From the cracked speaker grill, Ford logo on the strip and no parking sensors, it sounds like a MK1 to me. Howard

I can vouch for County Garage, I have used them for years. Very friendly and seem to know what they are talking about and they have never crushed my sills. Mind you they have never cleaned my car, probably took one look at it and thought "I'm not cleaning that it's filty!" :) :) Howard

I would hold on if your going for Tomtom, as they are bringing out version 5 any day now and won't do a free upgrade for anyone. Galaxychap, that is a very basic cutdown PDA which is fine just for running Tomtom but it won't do a lot more. I got Tomtom 3 + a Dell Axim X5 new for

Great aren't they? I wouldn't be without mine. Took me a while to trust it, a couple of times I thought "thats not right, it's the other way" and Tomtom proved to be right. They can't beat local knowledge though but if you have local knowledge you don't need sat nav. Howard

The guys will probably need a bit more detail. What colour was the smoke? Was it accompanied by any noise? Was the smoke continual or just one plume? Was there any loss of power? Did the car overheat? etc. Howard

With Tomtom it depends how you are doing it. With the UK Postcode software you just start up UK Postcode, type in the postcode, hit "Navigate to" and the program starts Tomtom and calculates the route. If you are just using Tomtom then you go "Navigate to" then you have various options like "Home" which is the first entry in your "Favourites" list, "Address" (which is where you go through the various screens for "City", "Street", "House Number", etc), "Recent Location", "Favourites", "POI" and "Itinery Destination". A 4 digit postcode will only get you to the area. Howard

Not sure if it's the same on Navman but on Tomtom you can have loads of POI's installed but it's only when you activate them that it slows things down. On Tomtom you can activate individual layers (i.e. Car Park layer, Petrol Station layer etc), I guess thats the same with Navman. Howard

...That also bothers me, it will go in, and they will either break something :( , or say i need to pay a lot of money :( , and they will throw in crushed sills, free of charge :ph34r: . MATT :( I love a born optimist :D :D :lol: :lol: Mind you, having read the Fraud horror stories here maybe that should read realist :huh: Good luck Howard

My Tomtom is running on a Dell Axim X5 PDA which is 400mhz but as yours is dedicated and optimized purely to the Navman GPS software it may well run quicker than Tomtom on my PDA so you might be able to run more POI layers before any noticable slowdown. (blimey that was a long sentence, I think I need a lie down now :( ) Howard

Do bear in mind that the more POI layers you have running, the slower the application will run, at least thats how it is with Tomtom, not sure about Navman though. Howard

Unfortunately it's only for Tomtom and even that has now been pulled as the Ordnance Survey people threatened the author for using their copyrighted material, but this still available in various places on the net. It's a shame because it really is so simple, type in the postcode and hit "Navigate To" and it gets Tomtom to work out a route. Howard

I'm running a Dell Axim X5 with a compact flash receiver and an extended battery with Tomtom 3 for complete wireless use for upto 10 hours. It is definately the best gadget I have bought. I have also downloaded the UK Postcode software so I can just type in a full UK postcode (Tomtom 3 only uses the first 4 digits, Tomtom 5 will use all 7) and it will navigate me there (useful if your destination only has a name and not a number). Howard

Thanks guys. I'm not a local leadfoot so treat my engine with respect and don't ever redline it. I will still get my servicing done at my small local main dealer in Herne Bay as they seem to know what they are doing (no crushed sills, wheels off at service, right oil used and not overfilled etc), so the proper parts will be used. So it seems that a 12,000 mile interval is not unreasonable. Howard

I do about 12,000 miles a year and would like to have the service as an annual thing. Now the car is out of warranty is there any major reason why I couldn't change from a 10,000 to a 12,000 mile interval? Would that extra 2000 miles make all that much difference? Howard

The database works brilliantly, especially if you use it with Checkpoint. It's not complete by any means as it relies on contributions from the public but it is still very comprehensive. If your worried about breaking it, backup everything using Activesync or get hold of Sprite backup then it doesn't matter if it goes pear-shaped. It's a little fiddly to install but once you've done it, you'll feel more confident doing the monthly updates. Howard