Quote :

Diesels eat miles much better than petrols - I certainly wouldn't really want a petrol with over 120k on the clock.

Sorry but you're talking out your arse here, diesel engines have very high fuel pressures and forced induction as standard. Diesel engines cost a lot more to manufacture than an equivalent petrol engine, both in terms of complexity and the amount of material used so a manufacturer will have to work with larger tolerances and generally lower quality. All cars have a design life, usually 5-8 years, of course cars can out live their design life by a long time if they are well cared for and well maintained. Diesels tend to be bought by those on a cost saving mission anyway, who will not service them properly adding to the problem. When major parts do fail on a diesel engine (and they will on any engine at some stage) they are generally not cost effective to repair and end up getting scraped. The cost of parts is high and the engines are complex, in comparison to a typical petrol engine which any DIY enthusiast can rebuild in the shed.

Just take your hubcaps off and throw them in the bin. Steel wheels always look best/least obvious for the style consious when they aren't a cause for embarrassment.

Quote from TiJay :

Another approach is declare the mods but specifically say you don't want them insured.

Most insurance policies don't have scope to do this, wording a clear policy for what is and is not included isn't easy, so most normal policies cover everything, including all modifications so long as they don't invalidate the policy.

It seems calling Environmental Health has done the trick. As we arranged it on Monday they were going to agree with the letting agent what was going to be done to fix our boiler and request copies of the gas safety and electrical safety certificate within 7 days.

Calling the EHO does seem to kick them into gear, and get the manager wound up. The latest thing I've had was a missed call from the managers personal number. I phoned back 10 minutes later and he completely denied calling me, though that story sort of fell apart when I pointed out this wasn't the normal office line, so how would I have his number? I would love to know what he was obviously going to say but has now decided against.

We got a copy of the latest gas safety certificate (issued 3 hours before it was declared unsafe), and no wonder they tried to hide it from us. It lists:

Flue guard STILL not fitted
Needs a service
Corrosion in the bottom of the bolier

We had a phonecall yesterday arranging for an electrical safety check next Friday, I think that is a fairly sure sign all the paperwork is not in date and in order. Will have to dig a bit harder and back them into a corner over it.

After calling the EHO this morning we agreed they would contact the letting agent to sort out an appropriate plan of action. Due to the time that would be taken to register a complaint to the gas safety board we agreed with the EHO that it would be better to get the boiler fixed by the contracted engineer and have an inspection at a later date.

The engineer has just been round and guess what, he found nothing wrong with it! As well as also rubbishing the emergency gas report as 'what they always say' (maybe he is experienced with this kind of compliant!). Obviously there was a problem with the boiler, which was observed and recorded by the emergency engineer and contrary to what the landlords engineer said, we were classed as 'at risk' and the boiler 'unsafe', and not just 'cause for concern', which is what they stick on it if the emergency engineer doesn't observe the problem.

So we're holding our breath (literally) to find out whether he has fixed it and is trying to cover up or if he genuinely hasn't found the problem. Time for a nice hot shower and then we'll have to see if we need to call 0800111999 again and return to the dark ages

Last edited by ajp71, Mon, 8 Feb 2010 17:41.

Quote from bunder9999 :

i had an experience with a bad landlord myself... but over here we have some sort of tribunal who is supposed to take care of landlord/tenant beefs...

if they have something similar over there, document everything, take lots of pictures, and present it to them. pay your rent normally and don't do anything to piss off your landlord, and let the civil matter go through.

Yes we don't actually have any contact with our landlord, we just have an address that we right letters to, they get signed for but we never hear back from him. This is particularly irritating because the letting agent do all the day to day issues/maintenance, but have no legal obligation to do so. This meas when they don't like what we're saying they can just say write to the landlord and hang the phone up. The letting agent just seems to act like a bully and shield for the landlord. If things start going in writing the landlord usually has 30 days from receipt of the letter to do something then 14 days to actually rectify the problem. We can't wait 2 months to get the heating and hot water back so have to go through the incredibly unprofessional letting agent to actually get anything done.

There are court options but they don't get anything done quickly, we've only got 4 months left in the house and probably won't achieve anything in court for at least a year. Although some compensation probably will be available by doing so it isn't a lot of help right now and if the house burns down tonight it isn't going to be much use.

Quote from 5haz :

Surely you have some kind of agreement with them that obliges them to maintain the place to some standard? So surely you could take legal action over this?

Thats mad, they're taking the michael.

Yes they do, regarding the electrical side of things they're insisting it is safe and try and send us invoices for unnecessary call outs, I think their definition of safe is it hasn't killed you yet...

Calling environmental health and getting them to inspect the electrical safety of the house seems like the next step. As I understand it they can put an injunction that the landlord either has to get work done or they will do the work and fine the landlord. Unfortunately this takes a long time though and we've got no hot water or heating at the minute and the list of problems grows by the day.

As for the gas side of things we will contact the Gas Safe Register on Monday and get them to do an inspection of the boiler to determine what was wrong with it. Unfortunately as I understand it there is no way to specify who the landlord gets to do the work so if he says the same cow boy who broke it (who is Gas Safe registered) will fix it then that is what we have to live with. We do intend to take the complaints procedure as far as possible. The same engineer has done the plumbing on the house as well that keeps breaking (we had a stuck valve that stopped the heating before that they tried to claim was burst pipes/frost damage). Having spoke to the emergency engineer and a couple of other gas engineers it looks like there may well be scope for criminal charges depending on what has actually been done. If it turns out the gas safety certificate was issued when the engineer knew full well it was dangerous we are not going to let it drop!

I'm currently renting a student house on an assured shorthold tenancy agreement.

The house is literally falling down, the front wall already has done!

The heating has worked for 3 days this year and we have now got no hot water either.

All sorts of things have gone wrong with the house, some serious others annoying. Our letting agent is rude and aggressive towards us, they literally hang the phone up when they don't like what you're saying and if you go into the office the manager just starts shouting. They seem to completely ignore anything that doesn't suit them and constantly change their story on reported issues. In the past they have come round, fixed a reported problem, then sent us an invoice for an unnecessary call out.

To cut to the chase we have major concerns about gas safety and electrical safety in the house.


Gas safety issues

This is the real biggie that reared its ugly head on Friday night!

I went to our students union advice centre to talk about our various on going issues and returned at about 3pm to find the gas engineer carrying out the annual gas safety check on the boiler. We saw that he had striped the boiler down and spent sometime fiddling with bits of it, we have since been advised by several people that this was not part of the gas safety checks. When he left he made a comment that we find disturbing "all is safe but I will get ****** to service it" (referring to the letting agent).

At 7.45pm we found the conservatory, where the boiler is, full of thick white smoke. We called the gas emergency line and an engineer came round to make the gas safe. He marked the boiler 'unsafe' and said he was confused as to why it had been taken apart in the first place and clearly put back together incorrectly. He also replaced a piece of pipe between the gas shut off valve and the meter, which he described as a "museum piece" (says it all really!) and felt was so unsafe he replaced it despite it not being the reason for the call out.

We contacted the letting agent on Saturday morning, who was very keen to get the engineer to come and fix it straight away. We insisted that we would get Gas Safe to inspect the boiler before any work was done, this upset him greatly and resulted in lots of shouting at us, but in the end he couldn't actually say no.



Electrical safety issues

Regarding the electrical side of things our main concerns are:

We have two conventional wall mounted light switches (one of which is ancient) in a downstairs shower room. Is this legal (remember this is a rented property so the rules are even stricter)?

The main trip switch and electricity meter is located in the shower room, admittedly it is high up and in a cupboard, but this still defies common sense and is it legal?

The house has a lot of fairly pre-historic looking light switches, some of which emit visible sparks when you turn them on and off. The letting agent has assured us they are safe, we don't think so. Are they also still legal?

One of these old light switches has a crack in the casing (see photo), the letting agent has assured us it is safe, again we are not convinced.

The kitchen has 6 downlights, the 250V 50W style ones, we have gone through 9 light bulbs since September, we used to buy Tesco Value 250V 50W bulbs, these would blow within a few days. We have now started buying the expensive 35W bulbs (the light fittings are marked 250V 50W) which last a bit longer. Surely bulb consumption like this is ridiculous, the letting agent again claims there is nothing wrong with the wiring.

We also have sockets that don't work in the house, the letting agents explanation is that these are disconnected and perfectly safe. This seems very unusual to us, why you would want to disconnect sockets seems hard to understand and we suspect they haven't been intentionally disconnected. In any case it seems incredibly pointless and sloppy workmanship to disconnect a power socket and leave it in the wall.

The smoke alarm doesn't work, even with a new battery the test button does nothing.

One of the less important but still irritating issues the kitchen tap constantly drips and the seal is so knackered (half of it is hanging out of the tap) when you turn it on more water pisses out the joint than actually out the tap (see picture!).

If anybody has got previous experiences like this or any idea on what laws and regulations could be being broken in our house I'd be very interested.

Our students union advice centre have been very helpful throughout and advised us on several occasions to call environmental health, we never have done because we have tried to avoid antagonising the letting agent/landlord more than we have too. Previously they've always fixed or at least botched up the problems before we've got to that stage. Now though we are considering whether it is worth doing so given that we have now been directly put at risk by the letting agent and their shady sub-contractors.

Quote from Nathan_French_14 :

Instead of coming on here and asking us to diagnose a problem with your car OVER THE INTERNET, and then getting some "Audio Samples", why don't you just get underneath the car, and feel around the exhaust for any air escaping where it shouldn't....You know, like most car owners would?


:geezer:

Have to agree with this sentiment, it's not exactly rocket science. When you've found the leak then you may be able to put some exhaust sealant on it, otherwise it is a new exhaust, which you should be able to easily work out the cost of. If it is the back box then you can chop off the existing back box and install a cheap universal chav box in place.

Quote from blakehoo88 :

i say recreational go-karting

opinions...

True competitive karting on any level is more expensive than budget level motorsport with cars. Arrive and drive soon gets dull and boring, competition of any sort makes motorsport so exciting.

Quote from JO53PHS :

I don't know much about anything, but I think putting some copper grease on the back of the brake pads (not the braking surface ) should stop the squealing.

It's important to distinguish the difference between squealing (nothing to worry about normally solved by a bit of copper grease), clunking (normally nothing to worry about caused either by pads loose pads moving about or floating discs moving about) and grinding (metal on metal, a truly terrifying noise that sooner or later will kill you).

I think you've answered your own question, never ignore noises from or change in behaviour of the brakes! It's likely worn friction materials could be biting randomly if the surfaces are warped.

I have been tempted by looking into hillclimbs and sprints, but it seems rather expensive (well compared to road rallies, autosolos, PCTs and short circuit racing at least ).

What's the actual cost to get started? There's the cost of an MSA helmet and suit (currently I've got perfectly good ones but they're out of date) and a non-race license plus what are the entry fees like?

With Shelsley 20 minutes away and Prescott about 40 and some sprints organised by the OMC it does begin to sound tempting. The MSA does seem to create unintentional barriers to true low cost motorsport by not using common sense when it comes to the safety bits.

I'm interested in taking my car endurance rallying but for that I need harnesses and an extinguisher. I've got all of them to the correct spec in my car already, they're just all out of date, which really is a silly marketing con. I know the complete history of the harnesses and they've never been in an accident, so despite their age (7 years old) they're in far better a state than a lot of harnesses that are in date that get taken out of cars from significant accidents and reused. The extinguisher could be perfecty good, it just hasn't been sent off each year to get a sticker put on it, therefore I need to buy another one...

Looking at it that's going to be around £300 to replace and in no way give any safety advantage over the exsisting equipment in an old road car with only a rear rollcage, the purchase price of my car! That money could be better spent on a pair of bucket seats and upgrading to a full cage, which would make the car a lot safer.

Quote from Jakg :

Decided I could almost live with a focus (if it's meant to handle so well), drove 100 miles to find the perfect one which turned out to be a dog.

100 miles to look at a Focus? There are stacks of them for sale so there is really no need to travel more than a few miles to look at one, don't get hung up on saving the last penny on an everyday common car like a Focus. If it is advertised for a reasonable amount, very well listed and the buyer isn't interested in getting rid of it as soon as possible to the first person who will take it. Then you will be much more likely to be buying a car off someone who isn't either selling it because they can't afford to keep it, in which case it is a fair assumption it hasn't been looked after or they are selling a dodgy motor.

Quote :

Now my mind has wandered onto a Saloon Mondeo?!

Watch what you're buying, very variable can either be a very well looked after car (much more likely in estates or higher spec cars) or they can be a classic example of a generally well built and reliable car that has been ruined by a total lack of maintenance. Parts are expensive on the mk 3 Mondeo and with the large wheel sizes that a lot of them have a set of tyres is not cheap, what a Mondeo is wearing will tell you a lot about the recent history of the car. To be honest I don't think a Mondeo ticks any of your, rather demmanding boxes.

Compared to a Focus it will never be as fun to drive, will cost you more to insure (quite a lot more actually), be slower and get worse fuel economy being bigger and heavier, generally they're not as well maintained as a Focus and the good ones will set you back more.

Quote from hrtburnout :

If I were you I'd buy a Volvo 440. It's cheap, there's room for you and your mates, it isn't slow and it doesn't look old-fashioned either.

Not a bad suggestion, I enjoyed my 440, not as well built as the 340 but still much better built than a lot of modern large hatchbacks. The later ones are sometimes very well equipped and though my 1.7 on carbs wasn't sluggish, the later fuel injected models would have much better fuel economy. I did an autosolo in it and found that at low speed it would reliably cock a wheelin the air just like the well setup FWD hot hatches, the only problem being it would be a front wheel in the air. Whilst it was completely useless on the autosolo and demonstrated collossal amounts of understeer it was actually quite nice to drive at speed and it actually quite neutral and fun to drive on old tyres and would happily get into a four wheel drift on roundabouts

Might be a silly question but you do realise that a lot of cars have got headlight height adjustment, used to lower the beam when towing. Even if you don't have an automatic adjustment control the lights will be on adjustable mountings, maladjusted headlights are completely useless.

Quote from BlueFlame :

That's not what I am saying, I am saying does each cylinder head BOLT, need to be torqued equally?

Not necessarily, the manufacturer will specify required bolt torque wrench values and tightening procedure (just as important). Sometimes the actual bolts need to be torqued differently, although normally most of the bolts do have the same specified torque more for simplicity and because the pattern tends to be symmetrical.

Yes the Lada is a laugh a minute as is the Volvo and pretty much any small old petrol engined rear wheel drive car with Oscars stuck on the front on a night rally. It's a pretty simple formula that doesn't involve diesels, front wheel drive, bodykits, silly LED day time lights or purple paint.

In case anyone who missed it wants a laugh.

http://www.centralvwaudi.com/

Quote from tristancliffe :

Some of us aren't that rich! Is that your Dad's garage in your homepage link?

Well spotted, where the world's leading diesel tuner has obviously honed his expertise. I'm not sure if being greeted by a badly photoshopped Skoda is really the best start, or the gratuitous use of stolen press pics. And has the van been photoshopped or just parked outside a much more impressive building?

Quote from Crashgate3 :

So 'rust, or lack of, when I go and view it' seems to be the most important thing then? (within reason of course - I'm not going to buy a dead car just because it's not rusty )

Rust is a lot less of an issue than it used to be on cars built in the last 10 years or so. The factory protective coatings are a lot better than they used to be so if you're looking at something like a Focus it is probably more noisy mechanicals and electronics that are the bigger worry.

Quote from Luke.S :

saying that though my dad's car 55 reg got it in 06. Mileage is less than 15k but his journey too and from work involved a 70mph road. The first part of the journey is 30mph roads. And one stretch of 60. Then there is the 70mph road. When he gets off that there are more 30mph roads. So it is given chance to warm up on the slow bits and then stretches it legs on the 70mph bit. And while it was less than 1000 miles on the clock it wasn't driven roughly. It also had a good stretch when we went to lego land in 2006. So AFAIK the engine is pretty much perfect. (condition wise)

Gripping stuff.

God only knows what the Focus 1.6 had in it then! I'm certain though that our 1.6 was a Zetec/Mondeo derived engine that didn't look like the one in the photo on that wiki page. It was the 110bhp model though so maybe the 100bhp 1.6 was based on the Yamaha/Puma/Fiesta engine?

Quote from robt :

Quote from wiki, but I know its been mentioned many other places.

You are correct. The Burton catalogue says the Duratec is in 'Mondeos from 2001 plus the current new Focus and Fiesta ST150'.

The various variants of the Zetec E were used in pre-2001 Mondeos and the mk1 Focus.

The screenshot you used has a glitch in it, look at the soldiers hat.

Quote from robt :

Similar thing to the first focus with a duratec that was actually a zetec SE i presume?

I think the Focus has always had the Duratec engine, certainly never had the Zetec SE engine, which is completely different and was only ever fitted to Puma/Fiesta.

Quote from JO53PHS :

IMO, 100000+ mileage cars are a bit of a minefield, although with a low budget, you often don't have much choice.

Modern engines and gearboxes are often so well built compared to older ones that they can go on forever without issue so long as basic things are done, like they have oil in them, and that oil is not bought from supermarkets, who knowingly sell oil that is the wrong grade for modern engines on the knowledge that some muppet will put it in anyway (normally when an engine has started consuming the stuff!). Problems on modern cars tend to be more electronics/trim related, rust and mechanical failure are much less of an issue.

As an example the Cougar has done over 160000 miles, and has clearly spent some of them as a beaten up cheap set of wheels that, if the guys fillering skills was anything to go by, hadn't been maintained well at all. After replacing the cambelt, that had been on the car for 100000 miles (again proving that stuff doesn't always break when it is meant to), it has been absolutely faultless mechanically for racing, the engine revving nicely to 6500rpm without issue.

Quote from Jakg :

Engine/Gearbox: Fast idling problems on some petrol models; occasional stalling or misfiring due to ECU faults.

Ours had this intermittently, we never managed to fix it, but it never caused anything more than a slight annoyance.