September 2001
HJ wrote:
"Again, you can have a new one with the autobox for £15,999 from Trade Sales (www.trade-sales.co.uk), so why pay £12,600 for a rough looking 70,000 mile two year old? "
Trade Sales don't seem to have Lexus on their web site or any listed under Toyota...? Read more
I am trying to set the resting position for the airflow meter plate on my 1987 Scirocco GTX. I did try to perform this adjustment some months ago, so I can?t remember the exact dimension that was quoted in the Haynes manual (0.6mm??). However, on dismantling the AFM, there was a label attached to the plate, but this quoted a different figure for the setting (1.9mm??). Does anyone know the correct setting for this calibration?
The car produces popping noises from the exhaust on the overrun, so I thought this may be related to the problem.
Cheers,
Colin J Read more
It helps to run the engine up to temperature before trying to remove the injectors as well.
Make sure you get the right seals. Best to go to a VAG dealer, as there are a number of injector variants on the 8v engine.
Ben
Thanks to all those who commented to my initial query (26 Feb). Before the engine on the 1500TC was rebuilt and then the twin carbs overhauled , there was terrible misfiring, over choking when the choke was pulled out and the 3rd cylinder plug, counting from the front, sooted up almost immediately. When the engine was warmed up, however, everything improved considerably.
The carbs are SUs and I do keep them topped up with the "seasonal grade" of oil, although the engineer says to use lubricating oil eg 3in1. (ps how far up the cylinder should the oil go?) The distributor is not an original but off a Triumph Acclaim which seems to perform adequately: the vacuum tube is new, so should be OK. I will ask him whether he replaced the diaphragms.
The car always seems to fire better if newly filled with petrol. Today everything was smooth and seemed ok. I will take advice re the plugs and buy some NGKs.
One last thing, his data for the parts may not be 100% - the firing sequence diagram was evidently printed upside down! Read more
I had a similar problem with a Mini years ago. No amount of tuning would get it to run smoothly. Eventually I took it to an old bloke my dad knew and after about 10 minutes of sticking his ear as close to the engine as he dare, anounced that the inlet manifold was sucking air where it mated on to the head. Took it off and after much head scratching discovered quite by accident, that the thing was badly warped and no matter how much goo was lathered on the gaskets, it would not seal on the 2 end joints. 2 pots ran ok, the other 2 were over rich and if you altered the mixture, pots 2 & 3 were ok but 1 & 4 ran over lean. New inlet fitted and the problem disappeared.
Another problem I recall with the SU was a ridged main jet needle.
With bad weather looming, we've had a lot of threads about tyres...makes, pressures and so on.
Can anyone give the benefits, or otherwise, of directional tyres, are they better?
Presumably the spare must be non-directional (or whatever the term is!)
S. Read more
I had directionals on my TWR Jaguar, the tyre roar was quite incredible.
Also the rear tyres were much fatter than the fronts, the spare matched the rears so a flat front left me stranded ... slight problem with non matching tyre sizes front and rear.
My colleague runs a Volvo 340 G Reg with 130,000 on the clock. He is having considerable problems with a leaking cooling system which a main Volvo dealer has been trying to resolve over 2 months - so far unsuccessfully. They have various ideas as to what may be wrong including a cracked cylinder head and a leaking bore liner (gasket). Apart from anyone's observation, would the cracked cylinder head be noticeable before or when they changed the head gasket? The engine has been pressure tested. Read more
i had my volvo 340 clutch done at a main dealer, he fitted a none original part, and one week after he fitted it, it broke, so after about a month of complaining he finally fitted an original part, but i had bought a citroen bx to replace the volvo, so i now have both cars. i never use a main dealer now :-(
I recently had a new windscreen fitted to my car. £50 from myself the rest I thought was to be met by my insurance. I got a verbal quote for the work of £170, when the work was completed they left a recipt saying £288.
My insurance company have refused to pay up (Im not covered, my fault) and I have just recieved a bill from autoglass for over £400 for the same work as knocked back by my insurance company.
I have spoken to autoglass and they will lower the bill to the verbal quote, but for all you wanted to know why your insurance premium is rocketing this must be the tip of the iceburg!!, just how do insurance companies get ripped off in otherways. Read more
I had the misfortune to have the van broken into via the passenger door window. Excess was £50. Auto Windscreens wanted £30 = vat cash and carry, Autoglass wanted a staggering £85 + VAT!!!!
Would someone be kind enough to explain how slip angles, tyre pressures and the driven axle affect the handling of a car?
Thanks
Rob Read more
To add to Mike's excellent description above, I think tyre pressures affect the handling only in so far as by adjustments you can affect the degree of grip at either end so balancing the car out, or maybe deliberately unbalancing it if that is what you want to do.
As for effects of driven axle, to keep it simple the tyres have only so much grip and the more you ask them to do, ie in terms of applying force to the road surface by cornering, braking or accelerating, then the more chance there is of the adhesion being lost.
Therefore with a fwd car the front axle has to drive, steer and most of the braking, so this type is likely to understeer first when the limit is reached. Very often the back wheels do not do a lot more than stop the back end from dragging along the road, an exaggeration I know but I think it's fair comment.
So with rear drive the task of all the tyres is more balanced and the car will either naturally oversteer or understeer dependant upon the suspension set up, unless a deliberate attempt is made to unbalance it into oversteer by using excess power or upping the tyre pressures, playing about with the brake balance whatever.
Four wheel drive in my experience, which I admit is limited, I find reacts inherently like a fwd car but more balanced if thats any help. Plus dependant upon the power split front to rear can be made to give power oversteer, but you are usually going a bit quick when that happens.
My personal preference for quick driving is for a rwd car which is set up to give slight understeer, then if you do go sideways it is an inherently more stable situation than a determined oversteerer.
As Mike said I wrote it so I know what I mean hope you do too.
Why are renaults so crap?, is it 'coz their French. And Why do Renault constantly try to rip us of. They want £600 + vat just to strip my head, then another £800 to replace it. wank*rs. Read more
There's a place on Canvey Island that I used to use - they do second hand Renault parts and do repairs etc.
If you know Canvey they're near the Camping & General shop on the Charfleets industrial estate. I can't for the life of me remember their name though.
Where, in Essex, can i have minor scratches and stone chips repaired at a reasonable cost? Read more
Check the FAQ answer on this site.
HJ
Where in Essex can i buy a new head for a Renault 19 16v? Read more
There's a place on Canvey Island that I used to use - they do second hand Renault parts and do repairs etc.
If you know Canvey they're near the Camping & General shop on the Charfleets industrial estate. I can't for the life of me remember their name though.
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They were advertised in Wednesday's Auto Express, inside back cover.
HJ