Hello,
A couple more questions about my speedo -
1) when I have my head lights on in the morning when the sun is starting to come out - my speedo and head lights are on and then the back light of my speedo goes off and on again - not so much a flicker but every now again - is it light sensitive or is it broken ?
2) Also, I got in my car yesterday and my speedo mileage number was flashing - nothing else was, just the number ? Please could someone tell me why its doing that and how to fix it? as the next time I got in the car it didn't do it but I have only driven it once after doing it...

I only brought this car last week - 37K miles and a 57 plate, 1.4 sport ... starting to think I've made a bad choice or picked a bad one to buy - as I also need all 4 coil springs redoing too when I have the money ! If anyone knows how much that will be roughly to fix, I'd be grateful
My other things to do are -
- fix the rip in my seat
- fix the paint work which someone has touched up very badly with a wrong colour pen
- get 2 front tyres
- 4 coil springs
- and fix my speedo if its broken
and I think that's it for now... until I find more things haha.
Thank you.

The speedo lighting is light sensitive (and IIRC the hysteresis is not brilliantly set, hence the regular coming on and off).

Why 4 new springs?

Sounds dodgy to me on a car of that mileage/age!

Is flashing mileage something to do with needing a proxy alignment or along those lines ?? I'm sure I've read something on here about it, which would also say to me that the battery could be on its last legs.
Coil springs do weaken with age, but an MOT station will also pull coil springs for " excessive corrosion" where the protective layer has come off and the metal of the spring has started to rust.
A good auto trimmer or even furniture trimmer could repair or replace the ripped seat panel, depending on location and size/ type of tear.
Paint could be done by someone like chips away, depending on how good a finish is required and workmanship of the actual guy. I've seen some excellent and also shocking ones, search around and get a few quotes.
If the tyres are original they have done well at 8 years old and 37K, go for the best you can afford.
I wouldn't say you've bought a bad car, just one that needs a few bits of work to make it top notch again. 37K over 8 years isn't even 5K a year, normal average is 10K a year so it should be more like 80K.
Work through the important stuff like tyres, springs and possible battery first, the rest sounds like just cosmetic which can be sorted when funds permit.
Good luck and let us know how you get on.