Steve Walker

I know that the one on a Ford Focus has a three pin plug which allow the ECU to control alternator output at different voltages for rapid charging and then energy efficiency - apparently pulling the plug causes the alternator to switch to its maximum set voltage, charging fine, but wasting engine power. The VW one may do something similar. SteveW

Oh thanks so much! Just what I needed. Mine is yellow, but the GRP has faded and I'm now in the middle of spraying it green!

You can often find belt driven vacuum pumps quite cheap on ebay. Mount on the opposite side of the engine to the alternator and use a double pulley, as used for the Sierras with air-con maybe?

I'm in Manchester too and when I had mine done, they did the BUI (at home) *before* I had the SVA. After the SVA, I went into the DVLA offices that afternoon and walked out with a tax disc, etc. Plates from the local supplier and on the road that night!

Last time I hired a 7.5 tonner, the rules on operators licences were in place and it had a tacho, but as it was for private, non-commercial use, the rules didn't apply and there was no need to use the tacho. Steve Walker

Don't feel too emabarrassed - I had an Astra as a company car some years ago. It had had a cambelt fail and the head had been rebuilt, but it didn't run right. After two weeks of driving round with a datalogger plugged in, the dealer couldn't find the problem, so sent the data off to Vauxhall and they diagnosed an EGR valve fault - it was replaced, but the fault remained. They looked again and decided that the engine bay wiring harness needed to be replaced (at £1200). An old school mechanic at the garage took one look, ignored Vauxhall and replaced the ignition leads - fault cured.

1995 Nissan Almera and 2006 Ford Focus both have an arrow (actually a triangle) pointing to the filler side - nothing on the Hood, but I can remember where that is!

I don't like the Halfords Pro Torx bits, as they appear to have a design fault. Whatever size they are, the connection between the bit and the permanently attached square drive base is the same size (a quarter inch hex if I remember right), which forms a weak point in the larger sizes. When torquing up my head bolts, the bit sheared at this point, fortunately I had another set of a different design available (and even more fortunately, my hand didn't drop onto the razor sharp remains sticking up from the head!) On the good side, the Pro range is guaranteed for life and they swapped it for a new one.

Since you have no heater fitted, have you looped the hoses together or blocked them off? Although I have heard that blocking them doesn't cause a problem, I'm suspicious of this, as a fair quantity of coolant normally flows this way and without it I'd suspect localised overheating and/or airlocks. SteveW

I've been looking for something for my eldest son recently - although as I have Cobra Roadster 7 seats and harnesses, it's almost like having child seats anyway! I think I really need a booster cushion type, but with more than the usual height, so that he can see over the dash properly! SteveW

Thermostatic switches should not switch over gradually, they usually contain a belville spring (thin, slightly conical, spring washer) or a spring strip with a curve across its length and these are stable in two positions - as they are forced to move, forces build, until they flip to the opposite position (cone inverts or curve of strip reverses) causing the contacts to "click" straight over. A relay should only be needed if the thermostatic switch is not rated for the current that the fan requires, but it'll do no harm to play safe and add one anyway.

Your confusion about the use of metal may be tenuously linked to the towball itself, although this is of course metal! The problem there is that the EU approved towbars have to have EU approved towballs as well to maintain their approved status. The approved ones are distinguished by being a gold colour - you are not allowed to refit the old silver ball from your old car if you have one.

Salty Monk, re the Punto Power steering: according to the Manchester Evening News the other day, nine (I think that was the figure) Puntos in the Altrincham area have had their entire steering wheels and columns nicked recently - probably as they are electric and are around £500 to replace!

I have the older type of speedo with the dip switches on the back. I calculated my settings and set the switches, but left the clamp off the back of the speedo (so it could easily be pulled out of the dash). I programmed a calculator to take actual speed, indicated speed and pulses per mile set figure and give me a corrected pulses per mile figure (purely to make recalculation as quick as possible and prevent me muddling things up in the heat of the moment). I calculated the corrected figure while it was on the rollers at the SVA station, whipped out the speedo and the lookup chart, reset the switches and bingo! If you plan to try this, it's probably worth asking will they let you before hand, as these days they may be more pushed for time (and also when mine was being tested, a Westy was also in for testing and that tester wouldn't let the owner stay with the vehicle.)

If you mean that the bonnet needs to be narrowed to make it pull tighter, then it should be possible. With my series 3, I used a hand nibbler (from Machine Mart) to cut right along the middle of the bonnet to fit a piano-hinge. It should be easy enough to cut out a slight V this way.

Looks like a revised version of an old idea. Some years ago (at least ten) a design for a wheel was shown in the Eureka periodical. The video seems to show the same "V" shaped spring spokes, but the rim seems more flexible and the hub is larger. The design in Eureka deliberately had a small hub, as the wheel was meant for off-road use and when hitting an obstacle the spokes would wind up and raise the bearing height within the wheel, as a wheel cannot climb over an obstacle higher than the bearing.

Ah, now we know why you're having problems getting 1st and second, you're too scared to put your foot down!

I don't know if they were put into production, but some years ago a cat was designed with a built-in spark-plug. The idea was that the engine was started very rich and the plug ignited the fuel in the cat (not recommended with a standard cat!), so as to bring the cat up to operating temperature in a few seconds, drastically reducing the emissions when starting from cold.

With my IIIa there is very little clearance between the fan and the radiator, so when I decided to go electric, I bought a very thin fan from Europa (only 55mm I seem to recollect) and one of their in-hose thermostats. I also fastened a plate over the rear of the radiator, with a cut-out the size of the fan. I've had no overheating problems since. I did however have a problem with the first fan, as it disintegrated after a week and put a fan blade through the radiator when I was in Bristol (I live in Manchester). The AA went to some trouble to get me a new radiator and I drove home using just the cooling effect of the vehicle movement. I found that at any speed between 30 and 80 the temperature was fine - it was a pity there were a few traffic jams on the way! I've had no problems at all since then.