Digsy

Any more thoughts on this?

You haven't checked the fault codes yet have you? It takes about five minutes and all you need is short peice of wire. A search on here will give you the instructions how.

Speed sensor error. Usially causes the malfunction light to come on too, though. Do a search on here for how to check the fault codes and post up if any are stored.

Check for fault codes. Sometimes a code 42 can trigger a flashing OD OFF light.

I can't pick just one.

It could be the speed signal converter going bad or a dodgy installation but there is a common problem with Supras in that the circuit board that the speed signal goes to can develop dry joints which throw up the same fault code. This circuit board takes the speed signal from the sensor and buffers it, and then re-broadcasts it to all the speed-sensitive systems around the car. I did actually datalog the signals going in and out of the circuit board and it was clear that the signal going in was clean but the one coming out kept dropping out. Unfortunately I took the pics on a camera phone but lost them before I could post them up. I had the code 42 error for literally a couple of years and as you say it ran normally the whole time apart from occaisionally I would get an abrupt shift from the auto box (presumably because it could not work out what speed the engine was doing). Sometimes I would get a flashing OD/OFF light too, meaning the transmission had got confused. If this is the case then the simplest fix is to replace the circuit board. Finding on on here shouldn't be too hard. The downside is that your odometer reading will no longer match your car unless you have it clocked somehow (not sure if this is even possible). There is another workaround whereby you simply short circuit the speed sensor input direct to the output. Many people have said that this works fine but I was loth to try it in case it overloaded the current capability of the sensor output.

I think the "Blackberry" style layout (for want of a better term) probably matches Ian's requirements best but I'd go for a full touchscreen any day. Once I started using my phone for anything other than talking and texting the small screen size soon became a pain. Ok, the Nokia has real keys you can press but in reality its no smaller than a touchscreen phone. At least with a touchscreen the keyboard dissappears when you don't need it, plus you don't need the silly joystick which takes up even more space. In portrait mode I reckon the keys on my HD2 are about the same size as the ones on the e5 but in landscape mode they are much larger and easier to hit. As far as "durable" goes, I have had mine for over three years without a hitch. Its the only phone I've ever bothered with insurance for as at the time I got it it was cutting edge. As fate would have it, its also the most durable phone I've ever had.

It is, but its also a massive engine and a very old design by today's standards

On a more seious note I was going to suggest something on the Blackberry-type planform but I see that the Nokia 201 is exactly that. It sounds like you want one of the old style touch screen phones but with a portrait style slide out keyboard. I thought I had an old one kicking about that you could have tried out to see if you like it but I can't find it so it must have been traded in. How about an HTC Desire Z? Its still Android but it ticks some of your other boxes. No idea were you might get one, though. A couple of things I would point out, though: Surfing the net on anyhing with a candy bar sized screen will be a pain. Its not all that even on a 4" screen TBH. A big screen as you say will eat the battery, but now that most phones have USB style connectors for charging you can set yourself up with charging points all over the place for a few quid. I charge from my work PC and at home I keep the wall-wart charger on my bedside table for the weekends. Not sure how common this is, but when typing on my touchscreen only phone, the phone vibrates slightly each time you hit a key, providing some tactile feedback. Brian was showing me his new ANdroid table the other day and he told me that for some devices you can install custom keyboards to imporve the typing experience.

"iPhone FTW!!!" There, now that's got that out of the way, we can read Ian's requirements and suggest something else

I need to replace the drivers side door skin with as little cost as posisble. I can transfer everything over from one door to the other myself. What is most important is that the door skin has no major blemishes.

Would you be willing to sell the driver's side only?

Unless you are going to be doing suspension bolts and other large non-yield tightened fasteners every day I would get a low range one for doing stuff up to about 50Nm and then if you find you really need it get a second one for doing the bigger stuff. I can't see how a wrench can be accurate throughout such a big range. If you want to do head bolts. big ends and main bearings properly you will need one with an angle gauge.

103Nm is the stock figure (75ftlb). Don't f*** about. No one has calibrated arms. Use a torque wrench.

Does it do it when cornering? A shot wheel bearing would make the disc move in between the pads, too. When my rear nearside wheel bearing went I could hear the brake disc rubbing when I went around corners.

Can you imagine how much stick those guys are getting around the office? There's a sort-of explaination about the universe size / age paradox on the Universe Wikipedia page: So I guess as the distribution of mass around the universe changed as it expanded, the distribution of space-time throughout the universe also changed. The light barrier isn't broken but the space the light traveled through was warped to make it shorter. I also recently watched one of the appallingly named "Through the wormhole with Morgan Freeman" documentaries the other day which put forward the case for parallel universes leaking into our own as an explanation for cold spots in the background radiation map. The hypothesis was that the fact that the odds of only one universe existing with precisely our conditions and phyisical laws were so vanishingly small, and yet it does exist, suggests that in fact the odds of universe creation must be much higher than we think. The programme suggested that many universes with different conditions are being created all the time, all around us.

I've had the nose off before and although it was easy to get off as I recall loads of bits broke. It could be that I don't have to take those parts off again. I can't remember which parts caused the problems.

I've had a couple of goes at this and its driving me a bit barmy

I was hoping to be able to get them off without having to remove the bumper. Does this mean that might be possible?

Can any body tell me how hard it is to unbolt and remove the front wings? Doesn't look too hard from the "diagram" on EPC.

but it sounds like the damage has already been done!

I got shingles when I was going through my divorce, brought on by stress. Took about a month t clear up. This talk of antibiotics is interesting because I wasn't prescribed anything other than a cream to take some of the itching away. I always thought it was untreatable and you just had to let it run its course.

I used mine as my daily drive for 9 years, between 18000 and 13000 mies per year.

They did when I was there, but you just have to keep your wits about you and your valuables out of reach. The best one I saw was a woman with a baby in the crook of her left arm and a big shawl draped over it so you couldn't see her left hand. She came up tot he guy behind me in the queue holding her right hand out under his face asking for money and while he was distracted she brought her left arm around in front of him and over the bum-bag he was wearing on the front of his belt. You couldn't see what she was doing because the baby and shawl hid everything. I did a quick "Ahem, look out mate" to show him what was about to happen and she scarpered.

I went to Rome for a long weekend a few years back. As mentioned above I do recall that most of the major attractions could be done on foot pretty easily after a taxi ride (mental) from the hotel. IIRC there is a "dress code" of sorts for getting into the vatican. Something like no shorts for men and no skirts above the knee or revealing tops for girls? I certainly know that I saw some people being told to cover up when I was in there. Not sure if they still enforce it. I second the restaurant advice about finding where the locals eat. I stayed in a semi residential area away from the tourist attractions and most restaurants were local-y places. I do recall having more of a problem with language than Venice and Florence. Don't pose for a toursit photograph with the "gladiators" in from of the Coloseum. Total rip off!