dave21478

Unfortunately it is pant-sh1ttingly expensive and of very mediocre quality compared to what you get from the UK. Last time I looked in bricodepot theirs was not exterior grade ply.

I use AMV legende. No complaints from me, but I have never had to claim from them.

To save further money, look for Falken Ziex tyres - significantly cheaper than the premium brands like Michelin but with wet grip ratings (the most important) comparable or even higher than the big names. Even the cheapest of Chinese sh1te will grip ok on dry roads, but can be lethal in the wet. The Falkens are the highest rated wet grip tyres in the midrange price sector, second only to Uniroyal Rainsports which offer even better grip but in my experience a shorter lifespan.

I was over to UK last week for a couple of days and spent the first day on public transport where the number of fatties was significantly higher than I see on the streets of France. In the supermarkets you can generally tell the state of someones shopping by the overall colour of the packaging.... Mostly reds and oranges for the unhealthy stuff. Im not one to criticise though, I am a fatty myself and despite having worked as a chef, exist entirely on a diet of valu brand ramen noodles, toast, Pringles crisps and CocaCola, spiced up with a weekly bout of either McDonalds or "chinese" buffet. Why? I like it.

There is no one better than the other. In fact I think most of the online suppliers are just sub brands of the same Germany company. quelpneu.com is a useful price comparison site. What makes or breaks the experience is the fitting which is done at local garages, where quality of work and attitude vary massively. Check for reviews before deciding on a fitting centre.

Yes. ask for a CT non obligatoire. Same price as the normal test. However, you might as well just get the CT done. If it passes you have 6 months to register it and even if it fails you have 2 months to register it and can keep using it during this time.

No, its ok to mix oil types - not ok to mix pink and blue/green antifreeze, which is what can turn to jelly. Pink stuff is found in more modern vehicles.

Condensation emulsifies with the oil. In minor cases you get a bit of creamy white goo on the dipstick or under the filler cap which disappears during a long run, if it gets too bad it can clog breathers leading to crankcase pressure problems like the dipstick popping out or even blowing oil seals, and it can cause corrosion of internal parts if it sits unused for a long time. Not oil related, but condensation in exhaust gases can also build up in the exhaust where the water will collect in the silencers and rot them out unless the system gets hot enough on a run to evaporate and expell it.

old banger / average car - dont bother. something you care about - change it anyway. For the sake of 30 euros it does no harm. Short runs (or worse just starting the car and letting it tick over which people mistakenly believe is good for cars that dont get used much) can cause condensation to build up in the engine and it wont evaporate if it doesnt get to full temperature, so changing the oil can remove some of this contamination.

The decrassage is to try to remove soot particles from the exhaust system. They collect in the silencers and the revving for the test can dislodge them and give false results. There is very little that can stay in the actual engine or turbo that could affect emissions, the buildup is always further downstream. Someone I know with a Megane Scenic (old style mechanical pump) has the driving habit of changing gears just as the turbo starts to spool up, so its permanantly labouring off boost. Every CT was an emissions hassle and the last failure resulted in me taking the exhaust off and power washing it out, which really killed off a patch of lawn! Now when I take it down it gets a severe Italian tune-up on the way to the test centre and I try to time it so that its still spanking hot when tested rather than cooling down in the carpark first, although thats more to do with catalytic efficiency. Worn injectors will give poorer combustion and more soot, but generally its beyond DIY to repair fully. I have used Diesel Bob in the Uk several times for injector and pump rebuilds at a tiny fraction of the costs of local places. Also, modern diesel isnt great. All the soaps added mean lower lubrification of the components. 100ml of low ash mineral twostroke oil added to a full tank of fuel will help. I get noticeably smoother running after a couple of fillups, although if you have auxilliary heating like a webasto, they dont like that. On LeBonCoin I see adverts popping up for "decaliminage" treatments offered by garages or mobile mechanics. Apparently this is the TerraClean system thats been in UK for a couple of years where they disconnect the fuel lines and run the engine on a "special" fuel delivered by their machine which .....does...something. People rave about it anecdotally but I suspect its the new snake oil, myself. Hang onto that car as long as you can -modern diesels are a complete sh1t-show, to say nothing of the massively complex electronics stuffed into the rest of the car. Personally I will be sticking to petrol as much as possible for the future and either running older cars or keeping on buying moderns around the 500 quid or less mark so it can just be dumped at the first sign of imploding DMF/coded injector failure/FAP problems and all the other joys that will see cars scrapped earlier and earlier.

My sister took her son shopping a couple of weeks back and I went along too for the ride and I was shocked by the school requirements. This many notebooks of that type of paper with this many pages in....this many sheets of graph paper... that many sheets of this type of drawing paper and this many sheets of this type of drawing paper.....this many folder with that many dividers....this type of pen.....these colours of highlighters....this range of paints and a brush.....plus he now needs a scientific calculator....All in for nigh on 150 Euros! All the time as we traipsed up and down the supermarket aisle scoring things off his list a dozen other parents were doing the same, exchanging tutts and sighs and "isnt this ridiculous" comments. Meanwhile, the boy was huffing along behind us practically tripping over his own bottom lip because his mother wont buy him a smartphone despite apparently all his friends having them.....11 years old! I remember my back to school requirements were a roll of brown paper to recover our school-supplied jotters and textbooks with.

Do schools not teach some kind of Green Cross Code or anything? I see folk walking or jogging with the traffic flow every single day. Almost as annoying are the chumps walking in a group on a narrow road who scatter to BOTH sides of the road when a car approaches.

Aye, I have seen a spate of kit cars registered locally....look like Dax Rushs to me. RHD and French registered, certainly not new builds. The one I saw up close was running a Vauxhall XE engine on what looked like motorbike carbs. I guess someone has a drinking buddy at the DRIRE.

Another ill thought out load of bollox then! Wooden shed on a concrete pad? well, I can move the shed but the base.......

My crazy neighbour....no really, she actually owns and wears a tinfoil hat...well, its a headscarf actually, but its apparently woven through with aluminium thread to keep the rays out......anyway, she was blabbering on today about a new garden shed tax where we are going to be taxed on the surface areas of garden sheds and outbuildings. Her usual lunacy, or another ill thought out imposition?

heh, thats an entirely different moan.... Gaping rust holes you can fit your fist through in the chassis and bodyshell? No problem, sir - thats just an advisory on the CT test. 4 perfectly good quality, new, matching tyres that are 10mm wider than the standard ones due to a better choice in that size, but fit perfectly with no protrusion or rubbing? FAIL. DANGEROUS. NOT LEGAL. CHANGE THEM IMMEDIATELY. Not exactly a "classic" but I recently bought an old MG Metro for some '80s nostalgia motoring. It must wear its original metric sized wheels and tyres for the CT test as they are the only homologated size. So I have to remove my brand new Goodyears in traditional size on 12" rims that are directly equivalent to the metrics and refit the metric wheels with their decades old, cracked and worn tyres for the test because thats "safer".

A CoC is linked to the car VIN. You have to request (buy) it from the manufacturer, so Ford will ask for the VIN and a few other details and then issue it accordingly - if it exists. You cant use one from a different vehicle or from Nissan. Try Ford and see, but be prepared for the worst. Whats likely to happen is they write back saying that a CoC cant be issued because your model wasnt homologated for France, regardless of what vehicle it is based on or how light or reversible the modifications are. Believe me, my Landrover was exactly this situation. Single vehicle approval is possible, but a lengthy pain in the ass. Your local DRIRE will need a dossier filled out and if they are anything like the Tarn branch, there will be one guy who deals with these requests and he only takes calls on a Thursday morning and appointments on a Thursday afternoon, everything takes weeks and nobody really knows what they are doing....the usual government agency ineptitudes... Your CT man doesnt get to choose what it gets tested as. He has to have either a Carte Gris, or a CoC and he enters the Type Mines listed on the paperwork. This is required so the CT computer can call up the relevant info for your model, namely tyre sizes, emissions levels and brake test procedures. Physically removing the cat will not fail CT on its own as long as the replacement pipe doesnt leak, but the effect on emissions is what counts. Without the Type Mines there is no way to know what emissions standards it is required to meet.

You edited your last post while I was typing that. Post a photo of the front if its so rare. I realy doubt they will have changed headlight type for units unique to a tiny production run. Besides, 80 examples? you are f ucked. Full stop. Nothing to do with headlights, there will not be a Type Mines. It will simply not be possible to register it without either single vehicle approval through the DRIRE or a false Certificate of Conformite.

You said its a 1996 Maverick in the first post; all those lights are for a 1996 Maverick or Terrano II. There is no earlier style of Maverick and the Terrano I is a completely different vehicle. terrano I... http://s1.cdn.autoevolution.com/images/gallery/NISSANTerrano3Doors-1000_4.jpg TerranoII / Maverick phase 1.... http://all-fords.info/wp-content/uploads/Ford/Maverick/156362740/Ford_Maverick_1994_Grey%20metallic.JPG terranoII phase2.... https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Nissan_Terrano_II_front_20080303.jpg Maverick phase2... http://onegrandcars.com/wp-content/uploads/images/1996_Ford_Maverick.jpg

Once you have got everything finalised with sosh, you need to fill out this form.... https://formulaires.services.orange.fr/1070?dub=1 to get 5 euros per month off. If you have cancellation fees, you need to fill out this form.... https://formulaires.services.orange.fr/1062?dub=1 to get them refunded.

Talk about labouring the point, here. Anyway, literally 30 seconds with google showed the LHD headlight part numbers from Hella to be..... 1ED962060-121 for the right 1ED962060-111 for the left. Literally another 8 seconds led me to them being on sale on oscaro.com for 141ish each..... https://www.oscaro.com/projecteur-principal-hella-1ed-962-060-121-379018-259-p and https://www.oscaro.com/projecteur-principal-hella-1ed-962-060-111-379017-259-p Literally another 7 seconds showed them to come up every now and then on ebay.de at around 120 each plus a tenners postage. http://www.ebay.de/itm/HELLA-Hauptscheinwerfer-1ED962060-121-rechts-h4-w5w-NISSAN-FORD-/262595112457?hash=item3d23e36e09:g:ldQAAOSw6n5Xv9cT If thats too spendy, then 30 seconds on leboncoin turned up this breaker - the left one still looks ok https://www.leboncoin.fr/equipement_auto/1010363593.htm?ca=16_s here is a brand new right hand side one;;; https://www.leboncoin.fr/equipement_auto/1004461007.htm?ca=16_s here is someone selling a pair of brand new ones.... https://www.leboncoin.fr/equipement_auto/894639824.htm?ca=16_s and here is another breaker with both intact... https://www.leboncoin.fr/equipement_auto/1001372881.htm?ca=16_s frankly I got bored looking through them all after that. Or you could take Chancer up on his offer to tell you how to do without buying replacements. I assume he knows what I know about H4 bulb relocation, but frankly I really cant be bothered typing it out as you have shown remarkable reluctance this far to listen to what you are being told. As for the cat, you havent put up a pic so i can tell if yours is repairable or not. As I said previously, any decent small garage will be capable of repairing your old one unless there is literally nothing left. I cant spend 30 seconds or so googling for a new replacement for you as you havent given us the full vehicle details. I would have thought an ex Rolls apprentice, garage manager, dealership experienced, museam curator, nuclear sub tehnician, NASA engineer blah blah blah like yourself would have known things like that. So......how you getting on with that Type Mines? the one thing that is absolutely crucial to the whole endevour and without it renders all the above pointless?

Previous personal experience with Ryanair is that if everything goes well its fine, but once you get into changes, cancellations and refunds, its a frustrating nightmare and a pointless waste of time that just ends with you losing the money.

I was also with SFR since the Neuf days until last month when I too got fed up of the creeping price rises. I have also gone to Sosh with a basic internet, phone and mobile deal. It all went smoothly and my speed increased rom a pathetic 1.5mb to a slightly less pathetic 2mb. I elected to keep my old mobile number, but wanted a new landline number to avoid my 20+calls per day with interesting offers for solar panels and sh1te like that. This meant that Sosh take care of cancelling the mobile but I have to cancel the landline myself. I called them up to cancel and after much faffing got through to the right person who looked at my account and said "oh, I see you are paying a very high monthly rate that is a legacy from the Neuf contract....I can reduce that for you now." How about NO! You could have reduced it years ago, but continued to ream me at the higher price and no doubt would have kept on doing so indefinately if I hadnt called up, so I dont care what price you offer, Im cancelling it anyway. "Oh. " I then had to send a letter recommande stating my wish to cancel and SFR have just sent me a prepaid postage label to return my old modem. All I have to do is stick the sticker on the box and take it to the pickup point......oh wait, the nearest pickup point is 45 minutes drive away. Fantastic.

Also, put up a photo of the cat...;you say its beyond welding, but nothing cant be repaired with a little patience. I recently repaired the completely screwed silencer of a Mazda pickup truck, which had a fist-sized hole in it and the pipe snapped off where it entered the box. An hour later and it was fine.

"no rear side glass, no rear seats and a fitted load liner...." Thats all my Freelander is too, but it couldnt be registered as the car variant. Unless youre exact model, and I do mean EXACT, was previously sold here, it will not have a Type Mines which is unique to each vehicle model variant. No Type Mines = no registration without DRIRE involvement. Also, no, it wont be easy to CT it as no Type Mines = no CT test. The tester requires the Type Mines to enter into the computer system which spits out the vehicle spec for him to check....tyre size, emissions standards, brake test procedures etc. so you need a Certificate of Conformite or attestation from DRIRE before you get a CT. Beam deflectors wont pass a French CT either. It works the other way, you can pass a UK MOT with deflectors on a LHD car, but here it has to be the original headlights. I dunno where you are but a big breakers yard I know of had 3 or 4 mav/terranos in for parts so headlights should be fine and maybe the cat.