justind

I have been told that this can happen. They put a levy of $x dollars to your premium for x years even though your rating stays the same. The other thing I have heard of is they increase your excess for x years and sometimes both. I have not experienced these first hand this is just what I have been told by friends and family who have had these experiences

The calipers should stay at the same position as before you remove them unless you touch the brake pedal while off the rotor. This should be an easy slide off then back on. No need to bleed the brakes after.

mine didn't do it till they reflashed with the so called overboost fix into the ecu. Bloody annoying taking it back next week it obviously is connected in my case anyway.

Freeway Ford Cranbourne. They have been very good to me in regards to any Warrenty claims never had any complaints, arguments or back chat from them just a genuine we will try to fix this issue and most of the time they have first time. I have even had "While we were servicing your car we have found this problem and fixed it under warrenty" Not many dealers go to that extent. I have found in the past most will not fix anything not reported by the customer.

I would say they invoiced you wrong as a 15k service should never cost that much in the first place. Did they invoice you for an Explorer? My Ford dealer has standard "A" service for $159 for the non Turbo models and Approx $220 for the Turbo models to allow extra time for the retensioning of the manifolds which is standard for the T models. 4WD Models range from $300+ depending on exact model. When they select the model in the invoice computer a standard list of items come up automatically and then they add warrenty issues at the end of the standard list. Therefore if the computer is told you have an XR6T the oil grade will automatically come up on the invoice correctly irrespective if they put that oil in or not. Personally I would question this and the price charged and demand a refund. I have paid from my dealer the following 15k service $189 30k service $176 45k service $160 60k service $211 75k service $220 (last week) All done at the same dealership and all have the correct grade of oil and standard service items listed automatically when invoiced followed by any warrenty issues.

15k service $189 30k Service $176 45k service $172 60k service $320 included a new fuel filter and new driving light and handbrake adjust which they charged me $40 for. Anyone who pays more than $220 for an "A" listed service is getting ripped off. All warantee work has been done at no cost (handbrake adjust at 60k is not considered warantee as this is only apparently only covered for 50k if you read the fine print) Location Melb area (Cranbourne) Take that back to your dealer and see what he has to say.

Had the same on my "Standard brakes" Took it to the dealer 3 times eventually they had to replace the pads. I had to pay for them. The cause according to them is the amount of build up in the grooves of your pads. They tried cleaning out the grooves the first two times with little success. Each pad consists of two or three smaller pads on a metal backing plate. The gap between these approx 5mm needs to be cleaned out. It does not take long to fill up again especially if your pads are more than 50% worn. Mine were approx 75% worn so I didn't mind paying for the replacemnets.

I am assuming you mean the main belt at the front of the car. Air Con compressor/power steering etc. If so I had mine changed for similar wear at no cost under warente due to noise and wear at 55,000kms. Earlier I had a bearing replaced in one of the tensioners so maybe that is why they did it at no cost to me?????

Had the same till about 7500kms then it stopped and hasen't used a drop since. Currently 60,000kms. Some motors seem to do this more than others. There are too many variables to pinpoint exactly why this is the case.

Someone once said to me "if there wern't so many d!ckhe@ds on the road ther would be no need for speed limits" He was quite correct. If we could trust everyone to drive according to conditions of road, car, upkeep of car, weather, zone, etc, etc there would indeed be no need for a limit. Unfortunatly this is not the case. I have seen many a young driver on a mountain road see the 100km signpost and try to do exactly that 100km/h up the mountain. Realistically this is not possible but they still try and this is where many come off second best. As to road condition I would have to agree that Great Britain has faboulous roads but this is not indicative of the whole of europe. As a general rule the lanes are slightly more narrow and certainly places like Spain and Italy do not have the same good conditions we experience here and yet they have higher speed limits. I can't argue with the likes of Switzerland who have even better roads than Britain but I can assure you Holland does not have any significant improvement on us and the vast majority of Europe has worse weather conditions than us. Go figure. I still maintain it is more to do with the driver education and upkeep of their cars. To repeat myself some of Europe has a minimum of 20 lessons required(4 on a skid pan) before even being able to try to get their license. Even then some fail the first try. Narrow lanes comparable road condition(with some exceptions) far worse weather conditions(and they still drive at 130+) Better compolsory driver education better maintained cars Hmmmm mayby this is the real key?????? Really if everyone stopped thinking they were such great drivers and looked at the bigger picture then maybe we could start to change towards a better set of rules and speed limits by implimenting some of the educational techniques they adhere to over there. Trouble is no one wants to admit they are crap drivers in comparison to the average driver there.

Fair points in you reply but I still don't think it would work as much as I would like the idea. As to curfews for "p" platers I personally think saving a life todays in the 18-21 age bracket might be oonsidered a success but if the same driver aged 25 due to lack of experience has a fatal accident you are just moving the problem to the next age group. Where is the success in that?

I would agree to that excepting a few points that need to be considered. 1.apart from pulling you over how could the police identify which cars are or are not approved. 2.Insurance companies will love to put an aditional primium on such a thing. 3.what about the other d!ckhe@ds on the road ? Nothing worse than rounding a corner at 110 to find little old pensioner doing 50. If you were doing 130+ it would be worse. 4.Not that I am of this opinion but many would see it as another form of segragation where the rich(those who can afford it) get more privalage than the poor(those who can't afford it) As far as driver education goes it is a real joke here. Many places in europe it is compolsory to have a minimum of 20 lessons and 4 of which are in a skid pan. Only after this may you even attempt to go for you license. Even then many fail. Compolsory roadworthy every year to ensure all cars are maintained to an acceptable level and the list goes on. I have spent many years driving in europe at speeds exceeding 240km/h and I would consider myself quite capable of doing so here but the other road users make it too risky to do so especially looking at point 3 above. Forgive my spelling I am sure some words are wrong but it is past my bedtime. (Shift worker)

I am sorry but I disagree as well. I do in excess of 65,000kms a year spread over my T and a motorcycle. I am by far no stranger to speed and yet I have not recieved a fine in over 5 years. Sensible driving also means you have to choose wisely when and where you speed. I am also no stranger to the odd sideways action around corners and yet I still have not been caught. With the amount of km I do by your agrument I would need 6 more points than everyone else. I don't think that sounds fair or right to the person who also follows every road rule and only does 5,000km a year. Look at it like an insurance policy. Make enough claims and they cancel your policy as you are a higher risk. I don't see anything wrong with the current system in fact in some instances like the good behavior period they are too generous and people take advantage and rely on it.

I'm with netspace 69.95 a month for 512/128 32gig a month before shaping free uploads etc etc etc. I am quite pleased with them. I am going to upgrade to the 1500/128 plan for 79.95 a month with 8 gig download. Only ever exceed 10gig when I download free stuff which I would still get for free so extra speed for $10 is good if you ask me.

Exactly as I was saying but you have more comeback with a larger service centre. I think you will also find that most dealers pay above award wages to their staff compared to places like Midas, K-Mart Auto and Joe Bloggs Automotive they are highly paid and one would hope this means a slightly better quality of machanics as a gerneral rule. I think the biggest problem in ALL workplaces is there seems to be a lack of pride in a Job well done and no focus on doing the best you can all the time by certain individuals within the organisation. This is where these problems come from and not specifically one place is better than the next. I think it is up to the individual person doing the job if he/she takes this pride in their work or not. If the organisation in question chooses to support that individual's behavior or chooses to disipline or sack that individual shows the strength of the organisation. In a customer related business I know I would be taking serious action towards any individual that caused complaint or displayed poor workmanship on a customers property but not all people at managment level would and put it in the "too hard" basket and just keep on sending out poor service to the customers. Maybe the Managment level are the ones displaying this lack of pride and it is rubbing off onto the staff below.

Further on that note any service centre of any name can do log book services including K-Mart Auto. But really would you trust them? For that matter can you trust anyone? who knows but with the bigger service departmants and dealers included you tend to have more comeback if anything were to go wrong like the horrible stories of cars being damaged by service staff. Joe Bloggs machnics would be very reluctant to fix damage caused by the apprentice and you have more chance with the dealer. Even then some have had difficulties but eventually most have won the battle and had the problem fixed.

I used to be a proud supporter of Ultra Tune untill I got ripped off to the MAX by them and this was after 4 1/2 years of loyalty to them and more than $20,000 worth of work done to multiple cars. I find that for the sake of maybe $20 -$40 dollars difference in service cost I don't have to book the car into two different service departments to get it all done. For instance if UltraTune found a fault with the car that was covered by warranty you would then have to make a booking at the dealer to have it repaired. Two days without the car instead of one for the sake of $20 I think it's not worth the hassle. I don't know how anyone can sell the argument to take your car anywhere else for the sake of a few $$. If we were talking about hundreds then it might be worth considering.

freeway ford cranbourne. Always willing to discuss the real problems at hand. For instance I have to get the throttle body replaced but they have told me that they don't think this is the real cause for the problem I am experiencing. They have told me of a list of check items they wish to perform after replacing the throttle body in order to make sure they find and rectify the real fault.

I have heard many complain about the dealerships lack of commitment to the customer. This disgusts me and reminds me of how lucky I have been. My dealer has been nothing but great towards me and any claims I have had to make. I even belive they have fixed many items free of charge that probably wouldn't be covered and whenever it has been in for service or claims they have also taken the time to inspect the car for other defects and rectified them as well. Recently I had an oil leak repaired and they noticed a small leak from the water pump and replaced that as well. When I say small I didn't even notice the level go down in the overflow bottle which I check regularly. They could have not told me or not fixed it and it would have gone on undetected for moths to come but they just fixed it straight away at no charge. Change dealers this is unacceptable there are some really good ones out there you just have to look.

Definatly upgrading. I have had my T since Jan 03 and the amount of Km's I travel would put me at about 75-80,000kms by Jan 05. I will be looking at upgrading early next year to a MkII. Still waiting to see some of the new colors in the flesh before I decide on final colors/options but thinking of going all out on options this time with the Lux pack and sat nav. Just love those toys.

Date depending I'm sure my kids will love it.

Just change down through the gears (4th to 3rd, 3rd to 2nd etc..) and the car will slow down all by itself. It means you don't have to use the brakes very much at all, if you starting shifting early enough. Easily done in manual and, thanks to the SSS, auto. exactly! thanks for replying on my behalf. Shift worker and not always reading/posting at normal hours.

I have had the dredded shudder issue many times. I have a manual and use engine breaking and don't actually use my brakes that often unless needed. First instance approx 9,000kms 3 other instances before shimed at 35,000 and now second time since at 53,000kms. I don't belive the shims fix this problem.