The Seasider

I think the CEL is only activated by emissions derived problems - some can be 1 off or transient - in which case you do a reset and it never comes on again, it'll be fine. Some will come back - which will indicate something that needs attention. In my experience it's usually MAF sensors (usually just need a clean) or O2 sensors (exhaust) which aren't usually an arm or leg. If it has stayed on - you'll need to get it read. Doesn't have to be a main dealer - many garages have the required equipment.

Mmm...I like it. If I thought that I could have 3 Zeds and keep my testicles - I'd be down there for it. Good luck with the sale - someone's going to get a nice car by the looks of it. You need to upload your photos to a cloud of some sort - like photobucket - and link to the pics rather than trying to upload them via the site. If they are still to big, you can resize them on there ;-) Good pics will help you get a sale.

This was the aftermarket wheels I've just had done (tyres on) This was the rays - these were done 3 years ago (tyres on) These were tyre off powder coated - from a mazda 6 mps

Thanks for all of those contributions - I'll start looking for some new rears. I'm sure that I will recover most of the money from the sale of my tyres - it's just hassle isn't it? I'll post when all is well again :-)

I'd say it was worth a go if you're not too fussy - will look better with paint on it than scuffed but I doubt you'll make it unnoticeable. It might be worth putting the £15.99 towards the £50-75 a smart repair company would charge to fix it - mind, if the other side is as bad it's probably worth getting the whole bumper sprayed at a Bodyshop - that should be £125-200 depending on location. (Then wait 3 days for the next scratch like I did :-) )

Around here - Hull - tyre on refurb is about £40-50 per corner - which is usually good enough for me, Tyres off dipping/blasting repair & powder coating is about the same but then you normally get charged a fortune for taking the tyres off the rims plus refitting and balancing. I'd make the call based upon how long you think you'll have the car - I had my badly corroded and battered rays done 3 years ago tyre on and apart from one small blemish they are still perfect. I'd probably only go for the tyre off if I was thinking of keeping the car for several years.

Repair should be £350 region for a good job - well it would be in the Principality of Yorkshire. I'd definitely be putting the owner of the RX8 on the spot and suggest that they 'do the right thing and we'll say no more about it' - use the power of peer pressure as unfortunately the constabulary will not have any interest (private land - nobody hurt). I feel for you though - it's happened to me several times over the years.

I wouldn't put a link up - at the moment he is anonymous, as soon as you put a link up you could open yourself up to all sorts of grief. Agree, trading standards is the place to pursue this - they are good in my experience. I once went to an auction with a relative who got outbid on a car by a local dealer - he regretted not carrying on bidding, so went the dealership to see what he could get it for after the event and it had miraculously shed 36 000 miles and had a 'new ' service history! It must be very tempting to do it, but it is a sh!te trick.

Any thoughts on solutions? ......anyone? (Apart from 'muppet!') í ½í¸ƒ

There's a certain comedy value in my tale of woe, but I could do with some help in coming out of it with a point! I did search all 21 pages first but no one had been quite as stupid as me up to now! I have collected 2 sets of new tyres for my zeds over the last few weeks - unfortunately, as a consequence of misnoting the tyre sizes or more accurately noting down the sizes from a completely different car - I've finished up with 2 sets of the wrong tyres! First time I became aware of it was on fitting the new tyres to my import automatic coupe - which now runs very interestingly with lots of slip light and overactive traction control! The set up is 235/40/18 front & 255/35/18 rear - I appreciate that these are all wrong relative to oem - but can somebody suggest the best resolution that will ease the tc and slip issues - involving buying the minimum number of new tyres! I've considered having the 235/40/18's moved to the back and putting something like 215/40/18 or 225/40/18 on the front or, alternatively keeping the 235/40/18 on the front and changing the rears to either 245/40/18 or 255/40/18. Could somebody help me with the maths :-) I am aware that the car will be lower - but it hasn't caught on anything yet - and that the speedo may misread and the odometer may click faster, but it can cope with all that! Oh, and if anybody owns a Mercedes e class coupe or convertible - I've got a couple of spare sets of tyres!

I rent cars about 10 times a year in Spain and Hertz standard rental is with a 900€ excess - which they want about 15€ a day to waive! On the basis I have a good record for not crashing hire cars too often - I've winged it up to now but I've now got an annual policy that I bought in the UK that covers the gaps in hire car cover and it costs about £50 per year.

There's a guy near me who has one on his Z - I won't name him and shame him on here though!

They are really nice wheels - I approve of those.

It's attached to the aerial just inside the wing. If you remove the inner trim behind the aerial all will be revealed. I'd try cleaning all the contacts and refitting. I'm sure zmanalex will have one if yours proves to be defective.

I buy and sell a few cars I don't normally reply to e mails unless they are very obviously individually written. Scammers prey on the fact that people are usually desperate to sell a car and will usually bend over backwards if they get a 'nibble'. Pistonheads is a shooting gallery for scammers as just about everyone has to display an email address. I never give my home address out until I've spoken to them and done some cross checks.

I put a stubby one on and had to go back to oem because the radio reception went right off. It could be a fault with your aerial amp though if you are on the standard aerial.

Jeez, we're you hit by asteroids on re-entry?

Don't know why they look small - they're the usual 18s ??? I tend to agree with the view that locking nuts won't stop anybody who's targeted the wheels.

It wouldn't be good for my arthritis I can barely get in and out of the thing as it is!

I'm not knocking the art - I've been known to spend a couple of days polishing a car with three or four pad / polish combinations on my machine. I was just highlighting that it must be a b@gger to try and sell to a customer - particularly, where I live in the Principality of Yorkshire.

Looking good - mind, I'm biased Would agree that you need some decent tyres - there's a lot riding on their ability to hang on!

I had them done a 'proper' colour - Ford Sea Grey - so they will be easy to touch up when I catch a kerb! I should probably think about LWNs.

Just had the wheels refurbed on my coupe and treated myself to some new nuts whilst I was at it. Also had the non contact areas on the rear disks sprayed with heat resistant silver paint. What do you think?

Thought you may like to see my newly detailed azure coupe with it's newly refurbished wheels - I'm really pleased with them

Mmmmm, glad I don't have to try and explain all this to punters.... 'Right, I can do what used to be a valet, but now we call it a detail and your car will be really clean but it won't be shiny. If you want it to be shiny, I can machine polish it and if you ask me nicely, I'll wax it and cover up all the little scratches til the next time. If you want me to really do a good job and remove all the scratches and swirls - even the ones that you can only see with white halogen light or a sun lamp - this is what we call paint correction now, I'll need to polish your car for a few days, which will be re-assuringly expensive, of course, also, just a suggestion but it will probably be better if you don't drive the car anymore, because otherwise you might get it dirty and that will start the scratching and swirls off again...'