Ask Honest John

Most recently answered technical issues questions
I bought a second-hand Mondeo TDCi reg 04 in December 2007 from a local main dealer with 46,000 mile on the clock. I bought a two-year guarantee with it just in case. Since then it has been serviced regularly...
I have had a report from my local VW Garage that the offside front outer CV boot on my Passat Sport is showing signs of splitting. I am not sure what this means even though they tried to explain it. Apparently...
In 2005 XXX fitted a runflat Bridgestone tyre to my SEAT Leon Cupra (can’t say a bad word about the car). I was sold it as a “special deal”. Having found the invoice it doesn’t appear to be special at...
We have a 53 plate 307 2.0HDI and recently every journey was enhanced by the ‘anti-pollution fault’ appearing - and an accompanying rev cut to 2,200rpm. This was tolerable because we found that switching...
Us cyclists see all the broken parts of cars as we cycle along. The rarely swept gutters have all sorts of bolts, rubber grommets and other pieces that have fallen off cars. I had wondered where these...
I have a 2002 Jaguar XJ8 3.2, automatic, which twice in the last 3 weeks has failed to engage the gears. The first time the car had been left standing for 4 weeks while we were away. When I went to back...
Can you clarify your recent point about European road springs, and does this affect all European car manufacturers. Your recommendation to replace a broken spring with a matching new pair has also been...
We have a 52 plate 61,000 mile RAV-4 D-4D. The car has been owned by us for the last two years. Earlier this year, at 55,000 miles, we lost the use of 5th gear and also the water pumped started to leak....
After reading your glowing review of the Peugeot 205 GTi we bought ourselves a Phase 1 205 CTi - a 1986, C plate car and we're really pleased with it; so thank you for the excellent recommendation. It's...
I now own my third BMW, a 525TD 2002 E39. Lovely car, the nicest I have owned and bought nine months ago at 38,000 miles, I am the second owner. I initially had a Full BMW service carried out and have...