Ask a Shiter

[Guest Hooli]

^^^
You only pass nose to nose if the road is marked as such, however most of the spastics with cars these days can't turn a steering wheel at the right time so cut every corner & try to do it everywhere.

[Alan_Green]

how is this right if the vehicle facing you is a bus/lorry then you won't see what is coming down on his inside lane of traffic..

 

This is true. Cyclists become invisible.

[HH-R]

Either way is acceptable according to the highway code, but I've never seen anyone do it right side to right side on the road before. I go for that as default but the other person never seems to want to.

[Matt]

Can a front wheel bearing on a FWD car go from not being an MOT advisory to this in nine months and 16k miles? Part of me quite strongly wants to call VOSA and tell them to check out whoever passed this but I'm not sure how bad they can get over that length of time. The whole wheel and brake assembly feels alarmingly loose. As in my sister was going to a memorial in Dundee tomorrow and I've told her that this car is going nowhere until it's been repaired kind of loose.

 

(Click for video)

"My car is making a funny noise" by MattLikesCars, on Flickr

[Richard]

Yes. The 850 did the same in much less. Once a bearing starts to fail the deterioration can be rapid.

[twosmoke300]

16 k - are you mental ! How many times do you reckon that wheel has gone round in that mileage .

Mot testers have an hour to check the basic roadworthyness of a vehicle AT THE TIME OF TEST .

You can only appeal a test one month after ( 3 months for corrosion ) anyway but I've known wheel bearings go dog in a week let alone that mileage . But hey why not try and fuck someone's job up !

[twosmoke300]

Gotta put a full test fee down first too !

[anonymous user]

I'm off drink, the alcoholic type, at the moment as I feel like I drink to much, my question is as follows, does shandy bass count as alcohol?

Not to me it doesn't, nor does white wine and soda, whisky and soda, brandy and ginger ale, vodka and tonic, tequila and orange once you put any sort of mixer in it ruins takes all the joy alcohol out.

I don't think I drink too much at all; my ebay account would, perhaps, testify otherwise.

[scaryoldcortina]

...and accept that the VOSA examiner will also find a LOT of stuff also wrong that they will want fixed before you see the road again. I know a taxi company that appealed a fail on a LDV convoy minibus and as well as upholding the tester's decision the AE condemned the seatbelt installation and gave them a VT9!

 

9 months is also too long to appeal on any grounds.

[twosmoke300]

Imagine if the tester had advised it - we would have had a thread on pointless advisories and how the mot is useless !

That must have been howling for months so it's the sister that needs a talking to !

[Matt]

Thanks guys, that's good to know. Maybe the VOSA thing is a bit extreme, I'm just not very happy that my dad and sister have been running about with it making this noise and only now has my sister mentioned it. I spoke to my dad (he bought it) and he said that it's been making that noise since picking it up in August last year. The garage he bought it from put the test on it after he paid the deposit.

 

For what it's worth this same garage used to be owned by someone that was using it for money laundering. He's currently serving six years at his majesties pleasure for aforementioned crime although he was already in for assault and danger to life. He smashed someone in a Clio off the road with them ending up wheels upwards using his Discovery (it took a few rams, apparently). Why? Because he was a rival car salesman and "a grass". Owes £380k in tax too. Same guy he ran off the road was left unconscious and nearly dead outside the guilty mans business. Had to learn how to walk again and police were treating it as attempted murder at the time. Top bloke eh?

 

Edit: Here a better video that shows the amount of play (click for video gain).

"My car is making a funny noise" 2 by MattLikesCars, on Flickr

[Rusty_Rocket]

I think I need to chill out a bit... if I detected play or noise in a hub bearing I'd be panicking every time I drove the bloody thing and change it in a week..

but 16,000 miles   !

[Jazoli]

For Euro data, I buy three sim (data only) £5 for 1gb for 30 days, £11 for 3gb lasting 90 days. I pair it with an unlocked mifi off eBay for £25 job done. Three include lots of Europe without roaming charges which is great - no contract just payg and the mifi means you can share multiple devices with just one sim

 

You can now get 12GB for £20 which is great if you like to watch videos

[HH-R]

I think I need to chill out a bit... if I detected play or noise in a hub bearing I'd be panicking every time I drove the bloody thing and change it in a week..

but 16,000 miles   !

Aye, same!

 

Just tell them that a good rule of thumb is that if something is making a noise that they think it shouldn't, it's usually for a reason.

[taxi paul]

My daughter brought me her Kia last week cos its making a noise at the back. Yes dear that's because there's no brake pads left. At least she mentioned it cos last time , with her zafira. She drove 55 miles home with a silly red oil light on and cooked the car. Her Kia has scrapes down both sides on the doors. Last week she drove into a post and dinted the bonnet. But she has 7 years NCB so is an excellent driver.

[KruJoe]

A big ask but has anyone got a an A Frame I may borrow? Due to unforeseen circumstances I need to shift a car and may need to scrap two in. Thanks.

 

Yo Daz, just seen this! You still need it?

You can borrow mine, as Chompy has done a couple times, but we're maybe three hours from you. I wonder how far away Bo11ox or Lanky_Tim are...

 

But we must ask:

 

Bub2006 + A-frame = ???

 

[beko1987]

Could my 50mph+ noise, which isn't affected by steering braking or clutch be driveshaft issues?

 

Been googling all night, and its cropped up a few times as a cause...

[cobblers]

if accelerating makes it stop or start then maybe. 

[FakeConcern]

It's french

I already knew that!

 

Anyone?

Strange overheating issue with Mrs Concern's Clio Mk1 1.4. Noticed the gauge right near the top after a spell in a jam then a short dual carriageway blast. The rad fan didn't come on when we stopped in a jam again so put heater on hot with fan on. We turned around & drove normally on NSL roads, but temperature didn't drop despite keeping heater on.

Later checked fan by shorting with a paper clip & it works, but when the car left running it doesn't come on. To me this points to faulty rad fan switch, but does not explain why temp didn't come down with normal driving. I checked coolant level which was fine and when squeezing either the top or bottom hoses it moves the coolant in header tank. Any ideas?

[skattrd]

Water pump not working ... broken impeller not pushing enough fluid.

As well as the fan switch/wiring to fan switch.

 

Possibly airlock, there's a bleed screw on the top drivers side of rad on mk1 Clio (or there is on the one I got 2 weeks ago) and also one somewhere else, right hand side of engine looking from the front.

[Des]

In answer to my own question about mobile internet 4G dingdong simcards for Europe, Tesco are doing a sim deal which will work / charge the same as in UK for nearly all of odd smelling Foreignland from May 23, shall be throwing a score at one of those then.

[Richard]

Could my 50mph+ noise, which isn't affected by steering braking or clutch be driveshaft issues?

Been googling all night, and its cropped up a few times as a cause...

Could it be the middle bearing in the driveshaft?

[catsinthewelder]

Is the noise the same at 50mph in 4th?

[bub2006]

Yo Daz, just seen this! You still need it?

You can borrow mine, as Chompy has done a couple times, but we're maybe three hours from you. I wonder how far away Bo11ox or Lanky_Tim are...

 

But we must ask:

 

Bub2006 + A-frame = ???

 

Thank you very much. I need to get the god damn vectra home asap. Car in derby and I'm in Ripley. I wanted to get shut of it but can't find log book either. If someone closer that be good but I don't know?

[Dave_Q]

Yo Bub/KJ,

 

I'm meeting bub on Wednesday next week to drop off some shite, I'm in Bradford on the Tuesday so I could possibly meet you somewhere and pick up the A? Skipton or something?

 

PM me if this is of any use.

[oldcars]

Caravan indicator has stopped working. Checked bulb and it seems ok. Previous owner looks to have worn through the cable near the a frame and jointed the cable back together and taped it up. Would this botch be a good place to start trying to fix it?

Made a start on this and looked in the rover first. All the caravan electric stuff is at the side of the boot, where it leaks Guess i may have found the issue.

[bub2006]

Thanks Dave that would be great if krujoe is happy?

[beko1987]

If I were to take my aux belt off, would my car still start and idle? Want to see if the loud engine rattle is what they all do, or something else, and removing drive to all the turny bits would diagnose that easily.

 

Battery's good, wont drive it etc, will it fuck it up?

[twosmoke300]

She will be fine

[beko1987]

Is the noise the same at 50mph in 4th?

Yes, although not quite as pronounced. Light braking kills it too as I found on the m40 tonight, light braking at 60 knocked the drone right off, but I can't work out if that's cos the revs drop or if it's the brakes. Front pads and discs are a bit shit (slight warpage I think)

 

Bearing? Do they fail in this way then?