Mike_B

I have exactly the same situation!! It comes about because at some point a dealer will have refurbished the 4 wheels on the car, and ignored the one in the boot. Then you go to change the wheel, and of course you then have 3 silver ones and a polished one. I don't think they are chrome as such, rather polished and then lacquered alloy. It lay therefore be possible to remove the paint and then buff them up with a polisher - would be a lot of effort though. You'd need to get them lacquered as well or they would corrode horribly in no time. My intention is just to have the chrome one sprayed up silver to match the others, it will cost a lot less that way!

Thank God there's only one of them!! Imagine having to set eyes on another one every time you walk round the corner!!

The other point is that during the recent war itself, much comment was made about how the BBC were concentrating on the shelling of schools etc, and ignoring the constant rocket attacks that had lead Israel to attack in the first place. The general tone of the comments was that the BBC (and others, of course) were being anti-Israel by constantly showing a moving wallpaper of injured kids etc which would whip up fury amongst Islamists everywhere. A week later, and suddenly the BBC are being anti-Palestinian by refusing to show the charity appeal. But they can't really be both, surely? For the record, I dislike Israel, or rather it's policies towards the Palestinians. But Hamas don't exactly help themselves either.

With all the effort that's gone into the rest of it, you'd think he would have bothered to jetwash the wheelarch liners...

Quick question in response to a comment by ManicMark up above: Is the water pump really driven by the cambelt? Is it not driven by the accessory belt?

Malwarebytes is the business for removing malware from your PC.... Worth keeping an up-to-date copy of the installer on a USB pen, then you can run it from Safe Mode which stops any malware which might be embedded in the registry from running when the system starts up. www.malwarebytes.org

What number did you ring? Chances are they (the scammers) will have posted a number of them out, which means the numbers printed on them should be stuck on the internet so people who think to check will be able to see it's a scam...

Just had a poke about on some Ford forums, seems a few people have much the same issue, and most of them have been related to the idle control valve. Looks like a good place to start, anyway! Incidentally people are coming up with problems both stalling AND over-revving, both related to that part.

I think the 1.25 is a completely different engine to the 1.3. The 1.3 is the older CVH unit, the 1.25 was a brand new Zetec-SE engine developed from scratch. Whether that makes a difference to your suggestion I don't know!

There are many people on here who could recommend a system from PC World that will fulfill your needs. You can then buy it online and go pick it up - no chance then for them to bamboozle you into buying something expensive you don't need. I just did that for my Mum, she needed a new base unit and I told her to search for and then order product code 004402 from PC World's website. She got a perfectly adequate spec Compaq machine for £279, ready to collect when she was next passing by... Saved £40 on the price as well. She had recently bought a new monitor though, so only needed a new tower unit...

That looks almost like an OEM engine install - some serious effort gone into that!!

Could be almost anything - TPS sounds plausible but if the dealer checked it and said it was OK then it probably is. I wonder why there aren't any diagnostic codes stored in the ECU? Intermittent or not, they should be logged by the ECU anyway and stored for retrieval later. One other option could be dirty fuel causing occasional blocks in the supply?

Tsch... schools today...

Before long we'll all be trundling about our Worker's Paradise in 800cc biscuit tins. At which point, the speed limits will become aspirational rather than maximums!!

I would assume Trudi meant laser sight correction; ie a cure or partial cure for short/long sight, astigmatism etc. A mate went to Optical Express and is pleased with what they did. Think I might get it done this year, too.

See what happens this evening... it might well go away and not come back. Since it's under warranty it would be a good plan to take it in if the light reappears though - unless it's warning you that some consumable part needs replacing (the ECU will be storing the error code, thus letting the dealer know why it came on) it should be covered.

Not necessarily. The only job of the aircon unit itself is to cool down the air. If you are drawing in fresh air which is cold, then the compressor will probably not run at all. But assuming you have the interior temperature set to something more comfortable than the outside air tempratures we've seen lately, then running it on recirc will mean the compressor will run more than on fresh. However in the summer, yes it will definitely run the compressor for longer as the outside air temp will likely be higher than the inside, thus needing more cooling.

On congested London and Surrey roads I find the Sport mode a bit too much, to be honest. The lightest touch on the throttle and you're immediately having to brake to avoid sending two tons of GS into the back of whatever's in front!

Yeah, it was mentioned fairly recently but it's a good idea to remind people. Also, when you get your new licence through, you need to check the category codes which show what you are allowed to drive - there was a spate of licences sent out a while ago which missed off the category A (full motorcycle) code even for people who had passed their tests years ago. DVLA, ever-helpful, refused to admit their mistake and made people take their tests again. Bike magazine reported that this had even happened to a serving bike copper - who then took his test on a full-livery police bike. :)

You've seen mine Aido, and that's pale green. Or grey, depending on the light. Chiltern Green is the official colour name.

I paid £389 for my 430, through Elephant. I *think* that's a group 17, and I really can't see the Aristo Vertex being lower than that! Getting older does have some compensations :)

I have an official sales brochure for mine at home, I'll have a look and see what colours were offered in 2001. But I don't think so...

If you want the Aristo for it's power, look out for 430 models too. Substantially quicker than the 300s, plus a few more of them about as well compared to the Aristos. And it's a V8, which is the main point :D

You may not be able to travel faster than 70mph, but you can certainly use the acceleration that higher power engines gives you. Technically, there is no point owning anything other than a 1100cc Metro, which has 5 seats, a boot and can easily travel at the motorway speed limit. Yet you choose to own a 4WD, 3 litre vehicle - presumably just 'because you want to'. And there's nothing wrong with that at all, be boring if we were all the same. If you rationally analyse almost anything people do apart from basic living essentials, you can say 'that's silly'. Personally, I agree with you that it's not necessary, but there are other factors at play. People like taking on challenges, pushing themselves and their skills etc just for the fun of it, I think that this is just part of that.

I had an unpleasant drive back from the gym tonight - the roads were well salted but the temp gauge was saying -4C. I don't think it was actually ice on the roads, but the steering was horribly light and the car felt like it was slipping all over the place. Really don't like the Eagle F1 GSD3 tyres in the cold!! Wonderful in the warm, wonderful in the wet, downright dangerous in the cold. :(