Halfpenny

Our experience is that skipped oil changes causes the belts to start shedding fibres. I guess contaminants build up in the oil and attack the belt. Once the belt starts shedding it bungs up the pickup mesh and gets into the oilways. Be wary of any BIO engine without evidence of oil changes...

Totally agree. We do sales, service and MoTs. Big investment in diagnostic equipment and tools for BMW and MB. But I love these older Jap cars like CRV, RAV4, Accord and Avensis. Very sound cars provided you check for rust. The engineering is not ancient, its actually better than a lot of the more modern crap which is all 'value engineered' to within an inch of its life. See a lot of BIO (belt in oil) problems - its a bloody stupid idea and the chickens are coming home to roost on those. I was disappointed to see Honda go the BIO route on their 1.0 triple - now recommending a 5 year change and we don't want to touch them. Its £1350 menu priced at the main dealer....

Quite quiet...

Did a change of address and, yes, it was very fast, just a few days.

Higher prices mean more worthwhile to repair......

The CRA 2015 doesn't work quite like that though. Within six months after selling the car, it’s up to the selling dealer to prove that it was of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose and as described when sold. Now a gearbox could function perfectly at three months (and the customer confirm that in writing) and then blow up at three months and one week. The dealer would be liable. The CRA is not about faults as such, its about 'satisfactory quality' - and that's a very broad concept. I've been there and got the T-shirt on this. It was a painful and costly experience. Luckily most customers don't fully understand the CRA, otherwise there would be even more comebacks.

You can't take the car back under false pretences and then simply 'reverse the deal'. Name on the V5 is irrelevant. If your customer has bought and paid for the car then it belongs to them (and presumably there is a paper trail to prove it). If I've understood your post correctly then what you're proposing is basically theft and can land you in deep trouble. You would not stand a cat in hell's chance at SCC. The mis-description is down to you. You are supposed to be the 'professional' and should check your listings carefully. If you make a mistake you have to take it on the chin. The broken door handle is down to them. A seven year old 500 auto is a grenade with the pin out. Those robotised manual boxes are a nightmare. Many didn't even work properly from the factory. I wouldn't want it back and I'd be keeping my fingers crossed for 6 months. My advice is try to negotiate some sort of deal with the customer. Say £250 compensation for no CC and send them a handle to be fitted at their expense.

Recent pricing levels are not sustainable, its as simple as that. People have only got so much money to spend, its not rocket science. Looking at my own bills and already starting to feel the squeeze. Its going to be all about the timing, don't get stuck with a load of ugly stock.

There are various different part numbers for these diffs. I don't know how they vary, probably best to consult a specialist. I must say that JLR are one of the brands on my 'no buy' list. Too many problems.

The diff is basically a sealed unit. Your mechanic will remove propshaft, driveshafts etc and various rear suspension and subframe components. Unbolt the old diff. Bolt in the new diff and refit all the external parts. It 'relatively' straightfoward. Assuming you can get hold of a servicable diff then it will have no impact at all on power delivery.

You don't need a diff specialist to fit it. Its not a technically difficult job, just a lot of work. I reckon it would be 4-5 hours labour on an XF.

Agreed. Mechanic says cables fine but they are difficult to check. Often feel smooth when disconnected but drag when under load. Its fairly cheap and easy to change so try it first.

Diff issues are quite common on the Jags. The problem is that most dealer/repairer mechanics don't have the knowledge and experience to repair diffs - you need a specialist diff rebuilder. I am an old-school mechanic and have rebuilt plenty of diffs in the past. Its a black art to get them quiet. Mostly the dealers will replace the oil seal and just torque the pinion nut up to factory spec. That is NOT the way to do it, because it takes no account of the fact that the collapsible spacer (which sits between the pinion bearings and provides preload) has already been crushed when originally tightened. Re-tightening to factory spec actually crushes the spacer a bit more and puts too much preload on the bearings. They make noise, and furthermore the gear teeth get out alignment and also make a noise. Eventually the bearings fail. The best way to replace the seal is to use the original nut and mark it. On reassembly use so Loctite and return it to the exact same marked position. The tightening torque will be way below factory spec. In your case the damage is already done. The diff will need stripping, new collapsible spacer, then tooth contact setting with new shims. It will be expensive (labour). If you find a good used diff then go that route. But you won't know how good it is until its installed and been driven. You could be back to square one. Inadequate spec on the original seals in the problem here. Bloody JLR lack of development/testing/QC !

A lot of eBay sellers trade on the ignorance of the buyer. They know that many buyers won't check the price of a new part and will make the assumption that a used part must be cheaper. A lot of parts sourced from the EU are now more expensive because tax and import charges are being added. We used to order MB and BMW parts from a supplier in Germany. They offered 24 hour shipping and were significantly cheaper than UK suppliers with great availability - especially on electrical/electronic parts. Prior to Brexit there were no extra taxes to pay - but then last year we got hit with £80 of import taxes and 'collection fee' on a £150 part! So that put an end to that option...

Been with HSBC for many years but getting more and more difficult. Recently went to pay in £1000 cash and got questioned 'is it your account, is it your money'!!! Unbelieveable. This was a bank found guilty of moving billions for Mexican drug dealers..

Yes, you should always challenge a chargeback. A well-prepared response takes time but can be successful. The thing is, a lot of sellers are reluctant to take credit cards because of S75, not realising that a debit card is not much better and in some ways worse. I had one chargeback attempt TWO YEARS after I sold the car! Was successfully dismissed. But banks always take the customers side!

I can 100% assure you that debit cards and pre-paid credit cards are not covered by Section 75 of the CCA. Only credit cards. Debit cards are provided by Mastercard, Visa and AmEx. These companies run the payment system. The cards are then issued to customers by the banks and 'linked' to the customer's bank account. Debit card chargeback has no backing in law. Its a voluntary scheme. If a customer has a problem with a car then they can complain to the card issuer (bank) who pass this through to the provider (e.g. MC). If MC agree with the customer then they will make a chargeback. But as a seller you can challenge this. Customer has 120 days after noticing a problem in which to make a chargeback claim. Unfortunately MC, visa etc are so powerful that there is not much you can do about a chargeback in practise. In reality a debit card payment offers you, the seller, no more protection against clawback than a credit card. The only advantage is that a lot of customers know about S75 protection, but not many know about debit card chargeback.

Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act only covers credit cards - nothing to do with debit cards. Debit cards fall under the banks' voluntary 'chargeback' scheme which has no legal backing......

Normally this would mean difficulty selecting gears with engine running and vehicle static. Most likely a clutch issue - clutch failing to fully disengage (could be a problem with release mechanism, centre plate or pressure plate).

On the service side we have the facilities and experience to fix most things - but not these Dualogic nightmares!! Dualogics are basically a manual gearbox with a 'robot' bolted on to select gears and operate the clutch. Now some years ago both Toyota and Honda tried this approach and neither could get it to work reliably and gave up - they went to CVT. So if the Japs couldn't do it, do you think the Italians can? Almost any fault puts them into neutral (to protect the gearbox) unfortunately. Scan often doesn't show anything. From what you have described it could possibly be a faulty selector position sensor. But I think this could turn into a bit of a saga for you....

In your price range you will not get a professional level tool - it will be top end consumer level. Look at products from Topdon and Foxwell - both do a range of devices around your budget.

Good thing about AutoAid is it includes cover for your partner. My daughter got some kind of discount coupon for RAC - personal cover only cost her £35 for the year.

BCA are an absolute bunch of pirates, a dreadful company and a perfect example of what is going wrong with big business in this country. Speak to some of their staff and you get horror stories about how they are treated by head office. BCA are owned by TDR, who own 50% of Asda, also own Stonegate pubs (Slug and Lettuce etc), David Lloyd gym and fingers in lots of other pies like Euro Garages and LeasePlan. Now with purchase of MMG its time there was a govt investigation into their activities - but no doubt they are paying off lots of MPs as consultants so it won't happen.

Pirates...

Its not a 'new normal', its a 'blip' caused by a mismatch between supply and demand. Once the chip shortage is resolved (which WILL happen sometime next year) then things will start to settle. In the long term I think we will go back to oversupply of new cars. Europe still has too much production capacity (much of it on short time working now due to chip problem) and the Chinese have barely started to export cars yet..