Car Problems!!

[Owen Brannigan]

Owen - I promised you the name of a bodywork man on Antrim Rd - turns out he's closed!
I hope your son got sorted anyway.

Thanks Rois, he is getting prices from Kerrs in Omagh and VW in Belfast.  £400 cash is cost at present because the front door and back panel have to be included to 'blend' the new paint.

[Olly]

A squirrel has built its winter nest in the dashboard of my car and I'm not sure how to handle this - does anyone have any recommendations?

[macdanger2]

A squirrel has built its winter nest in the dashboard of my car and I'm not sure how to handle this - does anyone have any recommendations?

That's nuts

[Rois]

A squirrel has built its winter nest in the dashboard of my car and I'm not sure how to handle this - does anyone have any recommendations?

Is it Tufty? At least you'll be safe on the road.

[armaghniac]

A squirrel has built its winter nest in the dashboard of my car and I'm not sure how to handle this - does anyone have any recommendations?

If it is one of them American squirrels hit it a rap with a hammer.
If it is a proper Irish squirrel park the car up in a garage until April.

[supersarsfields]

Starter motor going in my mondeo. Is it a big job to change? Or better to leave into professionals?

[theskull1]

Professionals I'd say

[DickyRock]

Got an eFlow toll request form Euro Parking Collection Plc. Travelled through twice, I had forgotten and was a couple of days late with the payment (10 days late in fairness). Appealed as I have the payment receipt. Anyone been in the same position?

[Throw ball]

Starter motor going in my mondeo. Is it a big job to change? Or better to leave into professionals?

Had the same problem myself last year. Got a local fella to fix it. Bit awkward I was told.

[Owen Brannigan]

Starter motor going in my mondeo. Is it a big job to change? Or better to leave into professionals?

Looks like you might need access to a ramp or pit to get at it:

https://youtu.be/h12jHlF6q5I

https://youtu.be/q4ItPF1o8L0

[doodaa]

For the past 6 months or so i would randomly lose power in the car and couldnt get above 30/40, generally it rectified itself and it really only happened a few times so i paid no attention. Keep an eye though when you are doing higher speeds on motorway and that as i found it slower to get my speed up there.
Last week i overtook quickly going off the motorway and felt it nearly snap. Drove away at it back down the motorway until lost all power, every light flashed on and the smoke was mental. Roaring from the car was mad as well.  Turns out my turbo blew up. Point of that story was that few times i felt it lose power but go back on so maybe its a sign the turbo is going 

Good notice given the increasingly high number of petrol and diesel cars with turbos.

Turbos are susceptible to damage than we are led to believe because the oil pipes to them clog up when the turbo has not been allowed to cool down gradually after high speed driving.  This causes deposits to build up in small pipes and with no oil being pushed around the turbo it will blow up.  More of a problem with older cars that do not have overrun cooling fans which attempt to cool the engine after the car is switched off.  Best to allow an engine to cool down by leaving the engine on idle for several minutes immediately after high speed driving, e.g. motorway driving and then pulling in to a service station and switching off immediately.

Unless you live literally beside a motorway doing 70/80mph to turning the car off within a minute then the above shouldn't be a problem. Most people will have a bit of a slower speed journey from the motorway to their home to allow the engine to cool down enough.
A bigger reason for turbos shitting themselves is the longlife servicing schedules. No car should be running more than 10k before oil changes. But servicing now is generally 12k+. The oil coming out would be like treacle!
I tend to change the oil every 6-8k to keep the engine sweet.

[armaghniac]

Unless you live literally beside a motorway doing 70/80mph to turning the car off within a minute then the above shouldn't be a problem. Most people will have a bit of a slower speed journey from the motorway to their home to allow the engine to cool down enough.
A bigger reason for turbos shitting themselves is the longlife servicing schedules. No car should be running more than 10k before oil changes. But servicing now is generally 12k+. The oil coming out would be like treacle!

How about filling up at motorway service stations?

[doodaa]

Unless you live literally beside a motorway doing 70/80mph to turning the car off within a minute then the above shouldn't be a problem. Most people will have a bit of a slower speed journey from the motorway to their home to allow the engine to cool down enough.
A bigger reason for turbos shitting themselves is the longlife servicing schedules. No car should be running more than 10k before oil changes. But servicing now is generally 12k+. The oil coming out would be like treacle!

How about filling up at motorway service stations?

Unless you are doing 70/80mph then pulling into a service station and turning the car off every single day then I don't see it being an issue.

[general_lee]

Got an eFlow toll request form Euro Parking Collection Plc. Travelled through twice, I had forgotten and was a couple of days late with the payment (10 days late in fairness). Appealed as I have the payment receipt. Anyone been in the same position?

You have to go through some English crowd (if you're in a Northern reg car). I had a few issues with them but they're easy enough dealt with so long as you have proof you paid. Try tweeting them, they can be slow to reply though.

[DickyRock]

Cheers General lee. Got an email the other day.

Thank you for your communication regarding the above case.
On behalf of the relevant Issuing Organisation, we are pleased to confirm that due to the circumstances of this particular case, the Notice has been cancelled.
However, EPC reserves the right to re-issue the notice should it be proven that the representation was accepted in error, or evidence is presented which contradicts the facts stated in the original representation.

Will see if they come back with a late payment fine. It did answer my question I had though from a few months back 🙈

Has anyone in the North ever got a request for payment after not paying the M50 toll? If you did, what did you do?