Scorpiorefugee

Sory boss, don't like it. I'm a simple soul who likes things that work without frills. To be totally honest, I'm not at all impressed with any of the recent changes either. Maybe, there's something about Picasso owners I not too comfortable with either. Since I have both, I did join the Picasso site and felt decidedly unhappy with the sort of comments and conversations I picked up on. The Picasso is fine, not as good as the Gal, but OK in it's way, so it must be just the Picasso types that I don't fit in with. Back to this site, IMHO it was much better a year ago, but if you've been forced to make changes because of abuse, ease of control, or requests for improvement, so be it. The most important thing about any such site is the folks who use it and you cannot improve that. The only other comment I have is that it seems a lot quieter her than it used to be or, again, is that just me. All in all, great site, good management, no need for change. Regards, Ron.

A little late on this but re. the query on water pump.... The simple answer is 'Yes, do change it'. I bought my 52 ghia at 69K and gat the dealer to change the Cam belt under warranty at 72K as, despite being supplied by them and maintained from new, the cam belt had never been changed!!! Water pump failed about 5K later. I took it to my local 'Corner shop' garage who I trust implicitly and they fixed it and advised me that Ford had left the cam belt fitting in such a state that it would have failed again very soon, but that is another story. They do advise water pump change with cam belt on a lot of newer models now, but then they do care about their customers. Just incase anyone gets stuck, I made it 200 miles home with no water pump by keeping the speed below 55 and using the heater for engine cooling and watching the thermometer like a hawk. Tey do seem to cope with tick over indefinitely, even with a shot pump. Ron.

I think that for aquaplaning the two essentials are point the steering wheel in direction of travel as far as possible and either dip the clutch or, better, try to set the trottle to give an indicated speed close to what you are doing. The only other thing is, if you have the inclination and presence of mind, pray. :D It has only happened to me once, 1967, doing about 110 in the pouring rain at about 4:00 am in an old Humber Super Snipe on the old A18 Doncaster/Scunthorpe road. The first thing I knew was that the speedo shot off the scale at 125+ and the steering went slack. Thankfully, it was on a straight stretch and I throttled back to the right speed (I knew it did 115 flat out) and after what seemed to be about 10 minutes there was a bit of a squeel and I free wheeled the rest of the way. My passenger's only comment was "Where do you keep the toilet paper?" :ph34r: For anyone who doesn't know the road, there used to be 15 foot dykes full of water close in on either side of the road. :D

I had similar message on mine, supposedly serviced just before I got it and I started getting messages after only 4K miles. I honestly don't know how or why but my advise is simply - 'Trust only what you know for sure!' Ignore everything you have been told about the car, take it to someone you trust and ask them to give it a full service, after that take it back after 12K or a little bit earlier if you are a low mileage user. One other piece of advice, if it's a TDI, do check when the cam belt was last changed and if in doubt, get it changed. I got mine from a Ford dealer at 69K with full Ford service history at the same garage and was told it had been fully serviced before delivery. I doubted the latter instinctively and, when I realised that the salesman had been telling porkies, trotted round to the service dept to check. Guess what, they had never changed the cam belt because no-one had asked them!!!!!!! Fair do's, they did change it when I pointed out that the had supplied a liability but I later found out that the job had been less than well done and was lucke to have escaped a belt failure within the next 5000 miles. Summary, don't ignore it. Take it to someone you trust and get it checked out. Ron.

Hi Phil, I had almost exactly the same experiaemce a few months ago. The rear tyres had done (guessing a little) in excess of 60K and looked at first sight as if they would go on for ever. Only thing I had noticed was a steady increase of road noise over 10K or more so didn't pay too much attention to it until by pure chance I noticed the one part of the NS rear tread completely shot, the rest otf the tyre looked good. The other rear was still very usable with no trouble spots. Hot footed to the local tyre place and popped a couple of cheap Avons on to match the ones on the front (45K and going strong) and so far, no real signs of problems apart from a trace of feathering on both rears after about 10K. Hopefully, you have the same experience. Good luck, Ron.

All very worrying. The sooner we can kick that lot out and get all the future ex-government employees back to doing something useful the better. The main problem is that, the more people treat driving laws with utter contempt, the more the rest of us have to put up with the inconvenience of these sort of measures. Does anyone out there feel at all guilty? We have speed bumps. We have 30mph limits where 40 is safe, mainly because the authotities think that a 30 limit will keep speeds down to 45 ish. Isn't it time that the reasonable and downtrodden majority (I do mean majority) stood up against the obscene measures being imposed to allow the selfish and antisocial or criminal set their 'human rights' and stop the government squandering shedloads of taxpayers money to penalise the very people are alread being over-taxed. Aaaggghhh! More pills please.

Tim-spam, Sounds like you've got it in one. Your descriotion matches what my mechanic tried to tell me. I shall pass the info on. Very many thanks. Ron.

Mine went at 75K. I had a BMW 525 that lost one at 170K but that was probably brought on when I had to go to 7000 rpm in 1st to get out of the way of a lunatic that came round an island at me at about 70mph. :wub: :16: :16: I have no information on the others but I am told that it is quite common and my garage is getting close to routinely changing them with the cam belt. As far as the pulley is concerned, I think that it is outside of the timing belt cover but cannot be sure and it is held on with bolts 'co they have already got replacements for them. I think the important message relating to the water pump failure is to slow down and set the heater on full to get you home while watching the temp.

Back to main topic on this one again. The good news is that my overheating problem was fixed quickly, thoroughly and cheaply (

PS I wouldn't use it on the inside 'cos it's difficult to remove smears unless you apply water immediately after application, but it,s grat on side windows and door mirrors. Done now. ^_^

There are others but I always use rainex. You do need to clean your screen well and apply it in dry conditions. 3 or more coats to start with and, from then on, it depends how much you use your wipers. It can be a bit annoying on cool damp mornings because the condensation always produces microscopic drops which can be annoying, but only for a short while. It's fantastic in the rain when it's dark and I find that I only ever need to use intermittent wipe , even in torrential downpours unless you are moving very slowly - and I did get that right. It works best at speed, depending on the aerodynamics of your vehicle - brilliant on old Mercs, sadly not so good on Gals.

We took the kids there 20 years ago. We queued to get in in the morning and they had to throw us out in the evening. I think that says it all - If it hasn't changed for the worse. Sadly, all I can remember is that we still hadn't seen it all before closing time and, I suppose, it all depends on your interests but we all enjoyed it.

Perhaps they will offer you all a place in the new MOD office, complete with chairs at

Reading between the lines, it seems likely that your one extension lead caused the problem. I had assumed that there was nothing actually plugged in to the socket that exploded. It now seems likely that the condition of your electrical installation is no worse or better than it has been for a good many years so relax and hope that the promised 2 months isn't a euphamism for 20 years. Roll on Summer. Ron.

My concern is that the sparks could fly again during the night so the intent was to isolate that circuit. All of you sockets should be in one or two rings. It is possible that the central heating is tapped into one of them. To be safe you should knock off anything that is not essential over night and to do that you need to identify what each trip does. Lights should be 5/6A(White), leave on. Immersion heater, if separate, 15,16 or 20 A. If separate leave on. Fridge/freezer probably on your power (sockets) ring on 30 or 32 A (Red) Best off, but use while you are awake. don't use any high current (heaters) devices. Elecric cooker on 45A - Leave on. I don't really think that there is too much risk but, without seeing it I can only recommend playing safe. Make sure your smoke detectors have batteries! I think the most probable cause is a loose connection that gave up. Have you been using any high power devices? Good luck, Ron.

Gregers is absolutely right, this IS an emergency. Sparks and charing with nothing plugged in could be downright dangerous. At best it could be a loose connection and the fireworks were caused as it finally gave up, the load could be anywhere else in the house. Either way you cannot be expected to have any way of knowing how to isolate the circuit without switching everything off. If you want to play reasonably safe, switch off everything but lights and essential power, cooker, heating(may not be possible), immersion heater (Should be possible to isolate - check for indicator light or sounds of kettleing in the tank). do it one at a time. In all probability, all of your sockets will be on one or,at most, 2 circuits. However, to be really safe, rule 1 is treat it as a potentially dangerous situation. Rule 2 is, inexception to rule 1, apply rule 1!

Just to clear one point, Analogue and digital ITV only have the same program material in common. Other than that, there is no connection. Just noticed that someone mentioned Emley Moor a few posts ago. Back in the late '60s I was stripping someones tuner down one filthy evening in Scunthorpe when the old Emley moor transmitter fell over. Net result, I spent a very long evening trying to get that so&&ing tuner to work only to find out the next day that the mast had fallen down just about the time I stripped it out!!!! Happy days :lol: :lol: Back to the reception. TV aerials are a black art and a lot of funny things can happen. Even moving the pole to the other side of the chimney can change things. I remember once........ Perhaps another time. It is well worth checking what your neighbors are getting and if they are ok, ask nicely if you can share their chimney. :lol: There is a definite stage where science ends and trial and error is the only way forward but do keep your cables straight and your connections tight.

Back to basics for a possible cause. If your final connection to your TV is a bit dodgy you can get all sorts of silly problems. I had a similar problem to start with. TV analogue signals fine but very scrappy digital so, as an ex TV technician instructor I ripped the box off the wall, remade the connection and replaced the connector lead but no change. Tried the box on the input to the distribution system in the loft - fine, so I baught two more leads from different sources and still no good. Finally, in desperation, I used a short lenght of low loss coax and a couple of plugs to make up a new lead and problem solved. The difference was in effect a total transformation. The lesson is - dont trust those 'orrible thin white leads that most outlets will sell you. Incidentally, opinion only, but a good analogue picture is miles better than even the best terestial digital and who wants that other

If you want to be accurate, fill it up, run it to nearly empty and fill it up again. Divide mile by litres and if you're getting less than 9 or 10, you've got a problem. 10 MPL is near as dammit to 45mpg.

Hi Philip, Just two things, or one really. Make sure you hide everything that gives an indication that you have one or you run a real risk of finding a brick and a lot of broken glass on your front seats when you come back. I find the best place is either on the small side window between the screen and driver's door or in the bottom front corner of the driver's door glass. It works better in the first one and both put it in a position where you can use it without taking your eyes too far off the road. I find that in the second position the reception is not as good resuting in sometimes being a bit slow which can cause confusion on multi exit roundabouts. Both positions make it very easy to lift it off and hide EVERYTHING under the seat. I forgot to hide my first one just once and it took just 10 minutes to disappear. Only a fortnight old too, and in a private carpark with surveillance cameras. Ron.

Relax, they are all the same! I've got 2 of them and they both do it. If you park on a 1 in 4 slope you can expect errors of 1/4 tank either way. Uphill they read high and vice versa. Unfortunately, when the gauge reads low, you can be effectively "empty" until you get it back on level ground. I've been caught twice coming home after a long day with about 1/4 tank and parked face down on my 1 in 4 drive, next morning - no go, fuel gauge on zero. Push it down to level ground and after an hour or so, back to normal, can take some starting though!

Oh Dear! What have I done? Well folks, It seems that all of the idiotic manufacturers got together and deceided to use the same damned fog light switch some years ago so we're stuck with it. I suspect that the oroginators were French because the majority of French cars have the similarly idiotic and criminally insane idea of using a headlamp dip switch that makes it almost impossible to have a quick flash ;) without putting the lights on full head permanently and then you have to remember to swich the damned things back to dip. Thankfully, the MKII Gal reverted to the sensible version. As far as MrT's comment, I cannot see the point of making life difficult for every driver who is behind you. Rear fog lights at night hide just about everything else, including the all important stop lights and other vehicles in the near vicinity, and surely there can be no point in using them when the driver behind can obviously see you clearly and, in all but very extreme circumstances, ordinary rear lights are visible for at least 200 yards ahead. However, if he's tailgating, hit him/her with everything, even rest your left foot on the brake pedal! Have you ever noticed how much easier it is to drive in fog if the driver behind reverts to side lights? In fact, subject to a minimum of ambient lighting, it is possible to see better in fog, the more lights you switch off. It's just a question of driving within what you can see and not adopt the attitude of many in that it is everybody elses responsibility to see me coming and get out of my way. I do it regularly on long foggy motorway drives when everyone is behaving sensibly. It would be handy to have something between dipped and side lights to make this more acceptable to the men in blue. Sadly, we have rules regulations and 'improvements' created and overseen by people with little experience but a great desire to cover their ar$es so, short of a consensus of opinion for good behaviour, we just have to make the best of things. Must go, My wife has decided to increase my medication....

The annoying thing about fog lights (AKA 'Iam a prat' lights) is that, quite apart from having no beneficial effect other than in very thick (down to 20mph) nightime fog, their use at all other times is BL00DY illegal. We had one enterprising local copper who actually stopped and fined one bloke who was using them and this, of course' was sympathetically reported in the local press and the culprit claiming 'It was an accident. I didn't realise they were on' :rolleyes: :excl: It did result in everyone switching them off for a very short period but they are all back on again now. What really puzzles me is, why, when they should only be used at night, and those even more annoying red things which really only have any value during daytime, do the manufacturers fit switches which make this sort of use impossible? :P :D That's it! Take my pills and back to sleep now and apologies for hijacking the topic. Nevertheless, Rainex is brilliant stuff! Ron.

Matt jr, Actually true. The rain clears so quickly that, with eyes focussed on the middle distance, it can be several seconds before a sudden downpour becomes evident. It does depend on the vehicle. The old Mercs seem to have the aerodynamics to make it work exceptionally well Mind, there might be something wrong with eyes because I have never seen the need for front facing fog lamps and just about everybody else seems to think that they are essential in all weathers and the only time in over a million miles that I have used the red ones was in thick daytime fog and I was the only one. ????? :rolleyes:

I fully support the use of rainex. Some don't like the effect but it leaves the glass crystal clear once you've had water on it. It always looks a bit smeary after the first application but stick with it and only use the wipers when necessary and then on intermittent. It's great in the dark. I've often driven along in poring rain totally unaware that it was raining.