Had error code 3 and 4 flashing on dash. This equates to Passenger side front Safety belt pretensioner circuit fault. Purchased a second hand Passenger side front pretensioner from a quality seller on ebay 100% positive feedback.

So disconnected battery and waited 5 minutes (Jaguar manual states 1 minute). Pushed seat back and Removed the two front bolts holding down the front passenger side seat, then pulled seat forward to show back cover covering the 4 front passenger side seat bolts, removed this cover, and then removed these bolts, From front of seat tipped seat backwards to I could see the two pretensioner wire that go into the connector at the front of the seat. then got my new pretensioner out of the box, and compared it to the one I had in my car, I had ordered the wrong colour, my car has a black one, the one I had ordered was sable in colour. So I decided to disconnect the two pretensioner cables from the front connector, just incase there was a faulty connection, did this then put everything back in reverse order. Connected the battery and switched on the ignition. To my amazement the error code changed from 34 to 33, this indicates that the Front drivers side safety belt pretensioner circuit was at fault. So did exactly the same with the front seat, disconnecting the battery and waiting 5 minutes then removing bolts and then discounnecting the two pretensioners from the front connector, put everything back in reverse order. connected the battery again, and to my amazement I did not have any codes flashing, so it was just a loose connection under both seats. Hope this helps some one. Read more

I test drove a used 1.4 petrol example at an Audi dealership once. The car drove well enough, but even before we'd started moving, the car's major flaw had revealed itself - vast blind spots caused by squashing thick A-pillars into a small car design.

Combined with the narrowing upward rake of the windscreen meant this was a car where whole vans could hide behind the A-pillars, never mind motorbikes or pedestrians. Its absurd that some see this as a design classic. There's a reason small cars continue to be made from high strength steel. Read more

A couple of weks ago I was looking out of a pub window at the two rows of cars in the car park. On the left were four Audis and one Skoda. On the right were three BMWs, one Yaris and one Focus. At least not an MPV nor SUV in sight. Not so many years ago the majority would have been Vauxhall, Ford, Austin, Morris and Rover. Read more

Classic ! rubbish new rubbish now Read more

In today’s Ask HJ, Graham C was asking for help regarding the history of his Shadow. In answer, Keith Moody rightly suggested contacting the RR Owners Club. However, another useful contact is John Baker at the Royce Foundation ( www.henryroyce.org.uk). The Foundation (based in rural Northamptonshire near to Silverstone, has an extensive archive of all RR (and Bentley) factory vehicle build records. They also have an extensive collection of memorabilia associated with Sir Henry. Read more