Rich666

only problem with spry adhesive is it can go tacky again with heat - so in summer you get bubbles/ wrinkles in the panel...

too true - I had to pay for a new screen on my 5 series... (WARNING - check the fine print when you buy insurance online!) and it went down from over £1200 "we can only fit oem screens" to about £300 when they realised I was paying for it!!

Well that's a can of worms...

I had a newer c180... it was ok, boring to drive and riddled with electrical faults... that said, the older mercs (and newer ones now they've sorted their reliability quite a lot) are pretty decent cars... years ago had a 2.6 190e which was pretty good in an old school way! wouldn;t say good on fuel though! i'd get low 30's from mine, although I never drove it particularly easy.

NOT a good idea! And it's not the same - wastegates vent the excess pressure, what you're hearing is the full pressure of one turbo,,,

they are different... somewhere on here there's a picture, with dimensions & thread etc... I think it was danny @ DTA who posted the info: I got mine from a mate who works at a fabrication place... may be worth dropping dan a pm...

They shouldn't! You sure your car's not been chipped? After you've changed the clocks, the ecu still receives the same number of pulses per given speed whether you've got jap, uk, us or no clocks in it! It's the ECU not the clocks which limit the car.

get someone to help and hold the belt - it's going to move! If you're really worried, you can count the teeth round the belt... there's an FAQ somewhere if you do a search... good luck!

well done on walking away... very difficult! temp gauge is notoriously crap, but usually sits bang on half way... whether it's overheating or not! SEnder for the gauge is on the front water pipe - worth pulling off and cleaning - gauge would prob spring back into life! Shroud is left on as it's a bit of a pain to refit... and we're all a bit lazy! Should actually reduce cooling, but many (myself included) have run without it no probs... Orange will be rust - insufficient/ incorrect coolant can cause corrosion - most noticeable on the water pipes in/ out of the block but you will only see these when you swap belt or otherwise strip down the front... Gurgleing on acceleration Not really - unless it's something to do with auto boxes... wouldn't know! Oh, was it an import?? If so, and for any future ones, forget what mileage it's showing - esp if it's got a UK speedo in!! Very easy to clock several different ways... check for pedal wear, service stickers - main service @ 60k, worn seat bolsters etc etc... although to be honest buy on condition & service history (if any) rather than mileage - there are plenty of 100,000 + excellent cars on here... and plenty of so-called 60-odd,000 shitters too!! Good luck! Rich

Really? I thought any difference in picture would be due to the HD-TV (as in 'filtering' the image)? Not trying to pull you up, just interested as i'm about to buy a screen and can't decide whether to go for sky HD or not!!

as said - use the resistors on the relevant wires from ecu... the code just means theres a fault in the circuit so could be a broken wire anwhere...

you've not opened the PTU! it's on the driver's side - front of engine... have you taken the crank angle sensor off??

my parent's last boxer managed to get stuck in the downstairs toilet while they were out (it was by where she slept and someone hadn't closed the door properly) - she decided she wanted to get back to her bed... solution: bash, scratch and eat(!) her way through the door... luckily it wasn;t a solid wood one!!

squeeling's prob just a slipping belt - check and tighten all the belts... petrol smell: tighten up all the jubilee clips (there;s a hidden hose though - do a search plenty of info), leaks... try getting cleaning them and re-treating - most car places will have the stuff (I used some I got from BMW which seemed pretty good)... other people have used crack sealer etc to varying degrees of success...

put heaters on full inside the car... tbh, I'd drain, flush and re-fill the coolant - for all you know it's been in there years... having seen the state of some of the coolant pipes on my old car (in particular the 2 short pipes off the front of the engine) old coolant can allow a massive amount of corrosion to occur... Even better, remove the radiator and fluch that properly - you'll be amazed how silted up it is!!

yeah, but you also get engines going bang! Just remove it and tune your car properly!!

ignore me - it says solenoid in the question!

I know what you mean - stubby ratchet helps though... I think my problem is the last time I took my bumper off I scratched the wing and got myself so pissed off I vowed not to do it again unless I had to!! I know... if you need your lights off, I'll come and do them - and if I need my bumper off you can come and do it! haha - perfect!

it's honestly a piece of piss one you've done it the first time! Much much easier than removing the bumper...

Have you not got instructions with the HIDS? If you do a search, there's quite a bit of info, including a wiring modification which keeps the dip beam (which will be HIDS) from going off when you flash - they don't take kindly to being rapidly turned on and off! You can remove the headlights without removing the bumper - and the ballasts will mount under the headlights, where they would be on a 99 spec car... but you can also mount them under the nose panel... Again, if you want to remove headlights there's a write up somewhere on here, basically there's 2 bolts and 2 nuts (i think, from memory) under each unit - you can get to some by removing the indicators and the others from the nose panel - a small ratchet spanner is a god-send! Good luck!

here's a good place to start: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/parking-traffic-offences/ if they've not actually clamped your vehicle they're going to have to do a lot of legwork to actually get the money... as said it's a civil case so the police won't be interested in the slightest!

no picture message support either - my main dislike about mine!

maybe if you agree to pay an increased excess for not storing in a garage - but not if your policy stated it must be garaged between certain hours, which is what was asked ;)

they wouldn't pay!

you can buy new oem cores for £200-odd each... but they're obviously not stagger-gap seals...