johnb80

DO NOT GO FOR SONY, theyre too expensive and have absolutely dreadful after sales service. I run a computer business, the best laptop advice is:- 1) Stick to known makes - Toshiba, Acer, Compaq, IBM etc 2) If battery life is important head towards the 'mobile' chips 3) If possible and if not too expensive get extended warranty (esecially if its an expensive laptop eg Apple) 4) Double check the anti-reflective properties of the screen, some new acer's have a glass like finish.... don't wear a white shirt! Regards - J

Well I was going to order one, had it on trial for a day, couldn't get comfortable, crap choice of engines, no spare wheel (good idea! NOT) so I'm now looking at a TDi V6 Discovery or possibly a Merc. Ford have blown it on this one. Regards - J

Starting next month CM are running a series on the Gal! Regards - John

When air is warm it can carry more moisture than when it's cold (one of the driest areas of the globe is the polar areas). When chilled air enters the cabin and the air in the cabin has very high humidity the air has to give up the moisture because it can no longer carry it so a cloud is formed inside your gal. I have seen it many times on mine, nothing to worry about. Regards - J

Come on, be fair, get real..... they DON'T have a fancy box :rolleyes:

DONT DO THAT, negotiate first, get them to agree before work starts. Regards - JB

Initially they said

Forget warranties whats written on paper has no value as far as Europe is concerned. Under European law goods must be 'fit for purpose' and also be of 'merchantable quality'. Clearly a vehicle and it's systems are supposed to last more than 3 years / 50,000 miles and thus yours has failed because it must have been faulty from new. I had just the above argument regarding my alloys, don't let them bullshit you, stand firm, threaten court and you will get a response I'm sure, they know legally theyre on extremely thin ice. Regards - JB

Clean the throttle body and idle speed control valve with some carb cleaner and with a bit of luck you'll owe me a drink :16: Regards - JB

In many air conditioning systems the gas is compressed and becomes a liquid, expansion roughly 1000:1 occurs when pressure is released (not quite so much when it goes through the evaporator).

hi, I had the problem on my Gal, after much arguing and threatening court action all four were replaced with a token gesture from me. The new ones seem much better than the old ones and all of this was done when my car was about 30 months old. Give em hell. Regards - JB

I think you need to learn a little about ebay..... NEVER BID until the last 30 seconds or less and go in with your maximum bid. Don't look back until after the auction has finished, that way you get the item for the lowest possible price and you're not tempted into a bidding war. Regards - JB

Just pull the pipe off the diaphram at the top, theyre usually operated by vacuum. You should plug the pipe that you disconnect because it will induce an air leak when EGR is called. I doubt this will help, software rarely goes wrong, the valve is in horrendous working conditions i.e. hot exhaust on one side, cold inlet on the other. Regards - JB

If you really want some horror stories on PayPal have a look here http://www.paypalsucks.com/forums/showforum.php?fid=17 I have lost money with PayPal and I now only use it to purchase, selling is a definite no no. I lost payment twice and the goods, so far on one transaction I'm down

You can't shut it down via vag com, if the valve isn't working, physically broken, jammed etc how could it suddenly close under software control? You do as you suggest, blanks off the openings or block the pipe somehow. It wont stop or cause an engine to smoke though, it's usually done because of driveability and the theoretical slight increase in performance. Regards - JB

If it's happening at light throttle openings eg constant speed in top gear, have a look around the EGR (Exhaust as Recirculation) system. The valve admits exhaust gas into the inlet manifold (mad but true) to lower the combustion temperatures. Typical symptoms are it feels hesitant at constant speed, accelerating will stop the hesitancy and the car feels quite sluggish. The valves are able to stick closed or open or simply leak, renewal is the best solution. Regards - JB

R.T.F.M. ......... Read The Manual :wacko:

IIRC the tachometer on the diesel is driven from the alternator, armed with this info it means that if the message is on and the revs look right for the gear / speed that you're doing it means that mechanically the alternator is being driven correctly but there must be a problem on the electrical side of things. I have seen this problem before on my mates Gal, that was caused by a u/s fandbelt, it had been back to the dealer several times and always came back no fault found. Regards - JB

The 'Alternator Workshop' message appears when the engine is running and the alternator isn't charging, does the rev counter read correctly when this message is on? Regards - JB

I had this situation on a Scorpio, switch the aircon on and it would work once - nice cold air until the compressor switched off (normal operation) and then it would never restart until the next day. I eventually traced the fault to a temperature sensor (sometimes called ice detector) on the evaporator unit. Less than a fiver for the new sensor but took almost a day for me to fit it (dash out). Regards - JB

Sometimes it's easier and just as good to write to them along the lines of:- Dear Sales Manager, Further to our telephone conversation of dd/mm/yy I write to confirm I accept your offer of car specification" etc etc. Send it recorded delivery and send another one recorded delivery to yourself. Don't open yours when you get it back and it can then be used in evidence in court if need be (not concrete but credible). Good Luck - JB

Ouch, that looks nasty. I do hope you make a fully recovery very soon. Regards - JB

If you want to do a bit of belt and braces, when I did a similar job I froze the pipe, cut into it, fitted a 22mm gate valve which I then turned off. I could then let the pipe thaw and take as long to do the job as I wanted. The gate valve from memory was about

And the sort of price would be ?