*******Motors Chat - Round 7*******

Well, the ever frustrating search and "can everyone tell me about X model of car" questions have come to an end for another 6 months! Give yourselves a round of applause for putting up with me!








It's running fine (so far, anyway!). The head unit/radio is for the bin, but that's okay, as I have an aftermarket head unit that I wanted to put in anyway (I had it in the Rav4, but took it out when I was selling the Rav and put the normal one back in).

I got Justin from JDM Service Centre to look over the car, having seen his name mentioned on Boards. Have to say, my hat is in the air for that chap. Absolutely excellent service from him. For €35 he spent about half an hour looking over everything. From pressing all the buttons and opening all the doors, to putting it on a ramp, checking everything under it (and taking photos on his phone as he went, to show me afterwards what he was talking about) and putting on paper everything he found, and even being sound enough to send me on a price list to get everything fixed with him, via text. He even test drove the car for 10 minutes out the road and made sure it was going okay.

I gave him €40 and even felt embarrassed only giving him that. Really, thoroughly recommend him, for anyone in Dublin/Swords. His Facebook page is full of cars drifting and Honda Civics and such. That, along with his name "JDM", made me think he was probably a bit of a boy racer who happened to find a cheap spanner set in Halfords, so I was very hesitant to call him, but as soon as I said hello on the phone I could tell he was gonna be a good bet.


As I say, I don't know the chap, only ever met him once (today) but I know a lot of ye are in Dublin and I'm really just writing this cos he was so good that I feel he deserves a positive review (when people will invariably Google his name in future).



The car itself has a list of things that need doing. He (mechanic) was saying that it'd be 50/50 as to whether or not it'd go through the NCT at the moment. He said there's a few bits on it that need addressing. However,he said that he also has a 2001 Focus Estate, and his passed with the same issues mine has (mostly rust appearing, etc) but he said many people have come to him with similar issues that they failed on, so it's really down to the tester on the day.



My big question to ye guys is this:

Q. My car has a valid NCT until July. If I present my car for NCT tomorrow, and it fails, does this affect my current disc? (ie; will a fail tomorrow cause me to lose my six months of NCT, or will a fail tomorrow not affect my current NCT? (so if I fail tomorrow, I'll still have 6 months test anyway?).

(I haven't actually got the car booked in for tomorrow, but I'm thinking of chancing sending it through ASAP and hoping for the best).



Thanks again to everyone for all of their help with my car hunting, by the way. I know I can be a complete pain in the hole at times, but I really always do appreciate yer feedback.

Actually, a quick question for ye guys. On the dash board, the lights that are 'in' the dash, that turn on when you put on the cars lights, don't seem to work.


That is...






The lights that would normally illuminate the fan controls (below the radio in the image above) don't come on. Would this be something trivial like a fuse, or a more expensive/painful fix? (I dont really care if they never work, but if it's only a 5 minute job for a mechanic, then i'd rather get it done if it's handy).


In the same vein, would the 12v socket not working be a pain in the hole, or would that also be a simple fix (fuse?).


Not sure if anyone would know the answers there, but those are the only real problems I'm facing with it at the moment. I really want/need the 12v socket working, to power the ould Sat Nav, so have to get that sorted. But the lights around the fan would be a handy one to have too if it was quick and easy.

The focus I just bought could do with an oil change. As could the brothers Megane. I was gonna DIY the two of them.

I did my Toyota Rav4 with only the help of ye guys. Would changing the oil + oil filter on the Focus/Megane be the same as on the Rav4? I know the engines look different, but I presume an oil filter is always at the bottom facing downwards and the 'screw' to release the old oil is always relatively easy to find, too?


Or am i getting in over my head? I thought the Rav4 (1.8 petrol) oil change was very, very easy to do, and looking at Micksgarage, I can get 5litres of oil (5w30 for Focus, 5w40 for Megane) and 2 filters for ~€80. Which seems pretty fair.

Cheers Hal! Sure I'll take a mooch under the two cars in the morning, and order the Oil and Filters afterwards (I'll ring the local motor factors then, too, just incase they match or beat the Mick's Garage price).

Well I actually just seen that Mick's are doing a promo on Total oil, so I can get the two 5l oils (5/40 and 5/30) and two oil filters, for €64.27. Can't see anyone matching that to be honest.