The Car Thread

[booth83]

Well if i try start the engine the icons on the dash light up for a second as normal, and the wipers come on wierdly, but move very slowly, the radio works and the passenger window works but not the drivers side strangely, had the jump leads out to no avail so pretty sure it's not the battery, oh and the immobiliser light is flashing, not sure why it would be, or how to make it stop.

Luckily my brother was borrowing the car when this problem occured and has offered to pay the costs.

If I knew where the starter motor was I would definately give it a whack, i'm all for hitting things hard to make them work again! It's worked enough times in the past.

[Spatial]

Woke up last wednesday to go to work, went to my car only to find some cnut decided they didnt like the black paint work, so they repainted it in white emulsion for me.

Sorry to hear that - I've seen that done to other peoples cars and it looks terrible. TBH it's my fear that if the scratching continues then they'll escalate it and start doing this sort of **** instead.

Hope you can get it sorted.

[randombs]

@ booth83:

From the symptoms, it sounds more like an electrical fault than purely the starter motor.

Are you sure the immobiliser isn't actually activated?

My car did a similar thing a few months back, engine cut out while driving and that was that. All the electrics worked, though - lights, windows, radio, basically everything other than the engine - but absolutely no sounds, clicks or starter motor noise at all when turning the ignition. Every person who saw it gave a different explanation but the most recent is a deep electrical fault that would be too expensive to find. The engine management ECU was fine, apparently.

In your case, one window works but the other doesn't, so it sounds like more than just the starter motor. Maybe one of the circuits has been damaged, the one with the driver's window on it, and maybe that's also shared with the immobiliser's circuitry or a part of it. If you can check the fuses, that might be an idea but if you're taking it to the garage today anyway they'll probably do that.

[Spatial]

Well after a few hours I've managed to deal with the scratches on the car quite well - so much so that even I'm having a hard time finding them. If you didn't know they were there then you'd be none the wiser.

Cleaned the car down and used Meguiars Scratch X 2.0 (it was recommended on quite a few sites). Within a couple of applications it was all sorted - I even went round and did a couple of other scuffs and small scratches while I was there (it even took care of the stubborn marks where I managed to catch my wing mirror after having the car a few days and not being used to how jug eared it was). The stuff is made of pure magic as far as I'm concerned.

Waxed it all (and especially to protect the areas where the Scratch X was used) after it was done and overall I'm really happy that my car doesn't look like `Little Scrotums My First Chalk Board - ASBO Edition`.

Well worth checking out the stuff if you've got scratches on your car that aren't too deep.

[ChrisF]

BMW R8 anyone? http://www.autoblog.com/gallery/bmw-r8

[Richard.John]

Today I saw a couple on a sports bike lose their balance while parking and clunk into a parked Subaru Impreza. They acted rather sheepishly, and seemed to be of the view that if the owner didn't see it, then that's okay. Unfortunately for them, I saw them do it and informed the owner. Now, perhaps it was none of my business but I felt that it was the right thing to do as riders must take responsibility for their actions. Car drivers too of course. They probably thought I was a right **** for doing so, but as I have been on the receiving end of two hit and runs against my car in the past, it was payback to some degree.

Was I wrong to snitch? I am not sure but just felt that they shouldn't be able to get away with such.

[NW2013]

Definitely not wrong. Imagine it was your Impreza some oaf bumped into. You'd be very grateful if someone told you who did it.

[Pavey]

BMW R8 anyone? http://www.autoblog.com/gallery/bmw-r8

Don't really get that, is it just the owner trying to be clever? You can see on the engine where the Audi badges once were.

[randombs]

BMW R8 anyone? http://www.autoblog.com/gallery/bmw-r8

I bet there's a few BMWs nearby with missing badges

[ChrisF]

Odd isn't it! That'll be Russia for you.

[randombs]

What'd be funnier is if it turns out some kids did that to his car as a joke (and somehow got inside to nab the logos off the engine), so that there's a BMW around there with Audi badges

[NW2013]

What a wierd thing to do. Still love the R8, looks totally freaking sweet.

[charlesr]

I was on my way home down the dual carriageway this morning and the road was empty, save a car doing 65 on the inside lane. Just as I was about to go past, it pulled out as if to overtake an invisible car and then just sat there. Who knows sort of drugs there were on, but they didn't budge. It took a swarm of motorbikes undertaking them to make it pull over a few minutes later.

[ChrisF]

To be honest Charles, I'd have probably undertaken them as well! What stopped you?!?! I hate it when people do things like that.

[booth83]

Went on a driving experience yesterday, drova a Gallardo, an Aston Martin DB9, and a Porsche 911, in that order, the lambo was fantastic, the response from the gears, steering, power was amazing, then i drove the DB9 after and felt disappointed i'm sad to say, the gear changed a second after a pulled the paddle, the steering heavy and it wasn't nearly as rapid or nimble as the lambo, i wish i'd gone for the aston first as no doubt my disappointment was due to driving the lambo first, both of those were auto with paddle shift. I was supposed to drive the ariel atom after that but it was overbooked so they let me change to the 911, full manual, and that was without doubt the best drive of the day, the accelaration, speed, handling and overall feel easily topped both previous cars for me, it was immense. Would love to go back and do it again, the problem is you only get 3 laps, just enough time to get used to the track and whichever car you're driving, overall though, best day i've had in ages!