Mark Heckels

My flat is smaller than that exhaust!! Do you check it for wildlife before setting off in the morning, you know for small rabbits the odd nesting bird, deer, grizzley bears......

Top drawer that... brilliant find mate, top marks.

cheers chaps - much appreciated for your help. I've got the car in next weekend for the elec windows breaking & a funny metalic crunch when I start it, so i'll see about the cam belt as well. Again, many thanks.

"in the voice of Troy McClure" Hi my name is Mark - you may remember me from previous threads such as 'How do you lower a car' and 'Can I change the windscreen wipers myself?'. I've got another mechanically inept question to ask regarding this thread. What is a cambelt - what does it do - and what happens if it breaks??? Can't tell if mine has ever been changed from the service book & I'm on 73k currently. style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":confused:" border="0" alt="confused.gif" />

Yes that includes all parts, labour and everything - good stuff, I'll book that in at the weekend then. Cheers,

Hello, My drivers side elec window is fecked - also my starter motor is intermitantly sticking on and making a metalic crunch sometimes when I turn the car over (as I say not everytime, maybe 1 in 5). I've got a mate who works for a main dealer (not VW - Honda) he had a listen to the noise the SM makes and said his mechanic at the dealership will sort out the window and the starter motor in his spare time (they are just going to replace the motor I think), and they quoted me £200. Is this a reasonable amount - baring in mind it's a franchised dealer sorting it - or could I get it done cheaper at VW paying the normal going rate?? Any help greatly appreciated.

I've just been reading this on Piston Heads - there are some mixed stories coming out. Not sure about the cover up by Gumball, but the drivers apparantly waited at the accident until the ambulance turned up then left. Others are saying they went straight away. These guys are buying 100k cars 1 week before a pan euro point to point race - hammering them on foreign roads with zero driving tallent. How obvious was it that someone was going to die before long.

Go on the Autoglym website and buy "how clean is your car". Presented by Mark Evens, he gets BMW 5 series (value £375) shows you how to wash it & valet it PROPERLY - most importantly, how to restore the paintwork - and adds £2k in value to the car. I'm an autoglym fanatic - so I'd use the bodywork shampoo (follow Adam's two bucket method) then AG colour restorer, super resin polish then deep shine. If that doesn't work it must be proper f*cked! When it's really hot outside I find it best to wash, rinse then dry each panel at a time. This stops any streaking and also you hardly ever miss a spot. Then attack it with the polish. I LOVE CLEANING CARS ME (in the style of Frank, from Frank's factory flooring - i hate that c0ck).

I love everyone of those ... brilliant Except:- I've never been in the situation where I needed to simulate the sound a pigmi horse makes. But if I am ever in that situation going forward, I will know exactly what type of shell to use to recreate that noise. A public service indeed.

Traveling into Manchester City Centre from Newcastle tomorrow. I've never driven it and always been passanger - I need the post code of an NCP car park for my satnav (I've been on the NCP car park web site but there are about 9 NCPs in Manc and I don't know which one I want.) As you come in from J17 of M60 I'm following the road straight all the way in. I pass Harvey Nics on the left - at the next traffic lights I turn right, there is a hotel on my right and an NCP right next to it. If someone could tell me either the name of this hotel, the name of the street or name of the NCP that would be absolutly brilliant. kind regards in anticipation (nice sign off i thought) style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":confused:" border="0" alt="confused.gif" />

When i was younger and I would pull a sicky off school and was alone inthe house i used to make a killer snack. Mix flour - milk - suger in a bowl until the mixture is stiff and throw the lot in a large fying pan (depth circa 1 1/2 inch) cook until the texture of play dough. Fancy some now - I also invented the McFlurry!!! About 2 years before the McFlurry came out - me and the lads used to have a snooker competitions at my house. We would buy a large tub of lux icecream, and loads of gummy bears and chock bars. Melt the icecream a little and put it in my mam's Kenwood mixer with all the snacks. Blast it up - re-freeze it. Lush - Obviously one of the lads must have sold the idea to McD's - or they have a spy in my house. B&stards!

Are you having a f-u-cking laugh - a shitter in the boot! You locco - but I think I like it.... Top marks for originality. Just missing one thing - a pipe rack on the dash board and a couple of briars. Wierd! style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":wacko:" border="0" alt="wacko.gif" />

Just been reading on and there is a 2p increase in fuel duty planned but will not take effect until Oct 07. 2p in the £ off the income tax is very nice - and I've just switched drinking beer to scotch on the rocks so it all seems to be working out not too bad.

Fuel Tax frozen at current level for another 6 months. Cost of driving the little Loop per mile not increasing - may as well get some miles in before they bring in the road pricing! style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":swerve:" border="0" alt="swerve.gif" />

Good stuff mate - now I now. Who'd have thought a monkey hanger would be so usefull!!!! (just kidding bud)

I'm showing myself as a complete dunce here but having read the thread I was wondering why you strech your tyres? Is it soley for styling reasons or does it give some handling advantages?

After installing all the stuff - you'll have a drop a 3.2l engine in there just to move the car!!

Thanks for your help mate, I'll have another good look under the bonnet and maybe pull at a few things and see if anything opens/drops off. style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

Not trying to hijack the thread but as there is a discussion on bulbs can someone help me out too please? I wanted to put high intensity bulbs in the front - but on reading the VW owners manual it said not to change the bulbs as other parts needed to be removed before I could get out the bulbs. I had a look under the bonnet but was none the wiser. Is it as simple as grabbing something and pulling; or is the manual correct and things need moving?

I think in some of the villages in rural Germany a lot of house are those wooden shack style things. Pure genius though - "You want half of everthing do you - well there's you're half love ... I'm off". I liked the guy who demolished half the house with a bulldozer - ha ha/.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1255042,00.html style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":coffee:" border="0" alt="coffee.gif" />

Sorry mate, not sure if I understand that - are you saying that she will have to pay £1500 a year buildings maintance? If so, you must have a sod of a landlord - I've never known a landlord pass a maintaince charge onto a tenant. It's not normal practice.

Moving into a rented apartment is not that much of headache really - I forgot to mention the admin charge that the letting agents will charge - could be a couple of 100. Plus you will have to put down a month and 1/2 rent deposit (which you get back at the end of your contract) and pay a month rent in advance. If you have any troubles with anything nearer the time give me a PM - I've got some property management & letting contacts in Leeds we also have an office down there - so if you get stuck with anything, I'm sure we can sort it out between us. All the best with it.

That's correct - your landlord always pays the management costs for the apartment, becuase they own the property. Same with water rates and any gound rent payable for the leasehold (or rather it's built into your rent). So all you pay is the PCM amount quoted plus utility bills and contents insurance. Hope the move all goes well.

Council Tax - Band B/C/D (which will be city centre) will be about £110-£120 per month TV Licence - think that's about £15 now - deffo no more than £20 Water rates & Managing costs will be included in your rent (I assume you are renting for the web site) Your will apartment will probably be electricity only (most new ones are) so you'll be looking at about £40 per month - unless you go crazy with appliances. Sky/Cable - you'll need that - about £20 pcm and you'll need broadband. Should be about it. Plus don't forget food - when I moved into my first apartment I completly forgot to budget for food.