January 2002
When I start my astra first thing in the morning when its freezing cold, it doesnt idle any faster than when its at full temp. This makes it idle very lumpy and sounds like it struggles sometimes. It might idle slightly higher once in about every 50 starts. I normally try and hold my foot slightly on the accelerator to keep it just off idle. It starts fine, and idles fine once its warm, but I dont want it to do any damage because its idleing too low when its cold.
Every other car I have seen idles faster when it is started cold to get the engine going a bit better. Is this normal for my car? How do I turn up the cold idle speed? Could a thermistor or something have gone so the engine isnt detecting its cold?
My cars a 1989 Vauxhall Astra CD 1.8 injection.
Cheers,
Thanks in advance
Mark Read more
Anyone out there know how the name AUDI was derived?
I thought it was an acronym of Auto Union Deutche Industrie or some such.
Spoilt a good score on Carnet Triv quiz
Read more
Near enough! SAAB is an abbreviation for "Svenska Aeroplanaktiebolaget", roughly translates to "Swedish Airplane Ltd." The company started as a manufacturer of airplanes to the Royal Swedish Airforce.
Andy
heard a rumour that ford is dropping CVT's on the new Fiesta in favour of a more traditional mechanical box ?
Is this correct ?
Does this finally prove the stupidity of using bands thats break very often in a gear box ? Read more
I agree with T Lucas that Japanese auto gearboxes are very good but Japanese car brands are not the only ones to use them. Vauxhall, Opel and Saab all use Aisin-Warner front-wheel drive auto boxes and are very reliable.
IN CASE ANY OF YOU HAVE TROUBLE PRINTING THE CAR OF THE YEAR RESULTS FROM THE NEWS PAGE, HERE THEY ARE AGAIN:-
The results of the honestjohn.co.uk website Car of the Year poll are as follows:-
CAR OF THE YEAR
BMW MINI, by a substantial margin. Second came the MCC Smart. Third was the new Ford Mondeo. And equal fourth: BMW 320D, MGZS 180, MG ZT190, Rover 75 and Citroen C5.
SENSIBLE CAR OF THE YEAR
Was a runaway victory for the VW Golf TDI. Second came the new Ford Mondeo. Third equal were the Ford Focus and SEAT Leon. Fourth equal were the BMW MINI and Skoda Octavia.
The European Car of the Year, the Peugeot 307, got just one vote in the whole competition, in this category.
DREAM CAR OF THE YEAR
Was the New Porsche 911 Turbo, closely followed by the Aston Martin Vanquish, with the Lamborghini Murcielago and new Mercedes SL running equal third and the Bentley Arnage behind them.
USED CAR OF THE YEAR (£5K TO £15K)
(The cars we actually buy) was a joint victory shared between four cars: the VW Passat TDI, the Ford Focus, the Rover 75 and the VW Golf Mk IV. Second place went to the old-shape Mondeo and third place to the Vauxhall Vectra.
USED BANGER OF THE YEAR (UNDER £1K)
Was won by the VW Golf Mk II with three times the votes of anything else. Joint second place went to the Citroen ZX diesel and Peugeot 205 diesel. Joint third was shared between the Vauxhall Cavalier, VW Polo, SAAB 900 Classic and Citroen Xantia diesel.
WORST CAR OF THE YEAR CURRENTLY ON SALE NEW
Big surprise, the car honestjohn website visitors most love to hate was the same one which won honestjohn car of the year, the BMW MINI. Joint second, each with half the votes of the MINI were the MCC Smart and the TATA Safari x 3. Joint third were the KIA Rio, the Land Rover Freelander and the BMW X5.
Okay, these were your votes but lots of you are wondering where I would have come out.
For overall Car of the Year I'd have agreed on the MINI, even though I haven't even driven it. But if the Honda Jazz had been out in 2001 I'd have gone for that.
For Sensible Car of the Year, I'd agree on the VW Golf TDI PD 130 with sports suspension, followed by the new Mondeo.
For Dream Car, I'd have gone for the Ferrari 550 Maranello, but preferably the new one with the paddle shift gearchange as the old 550 gearchange really slows down what you can do with the car.
For Used Car of the Year it has to be the old-shape Mondeo because it's a good car and fantastic value at the moment.
For Used Banger under £1k I go along with the website visitors and vote for the VW Golf Mk II, which is fortunate because we're still running a 16 year old Mk II Jetta.
And finally, for Worst Car of the Year, I'd disagree with all of you and go along with the director of the Harry Potter movie who chose for the horrible Dursley family the most dreary, unreliable, over-rated car you can buy. That's right: The Vauxhall Vectra. Read more
When is the best time to replace filters. Should it be done once a year or twice. My motoring is short stop start Read more
Follow the manufacturers guidelines and be sure to use genuine filters
David
An interesting article in today?s Telegraph when ?Motormouth?(Mike Rutherford) resisted the advances of high powered Ford PR men and wrote a pretty damning article on the new Fiesta.
Admittedly a subjective view, but there seems to be a correlation between the amount of advertising manufacturers place in newspapers and the level of praise a new model gets given by the motoring correspondent.
I wonder how much advertising the Telegraph will get when the Fiesta is launched in UK later this year.
Bob H Read more
No. Why should it be? I went on the launch of the Honda Civic Type R and did not give that a completely clean bill of health (see my road test). On the same occasion I continued to criticise the rear seats of the Honda Stream. But I was knocked out by the cleverness of the seating design of the Jazz and said so. Fair do's. I really hope I won't be disappointed by the Jazz, but if I am I will put it in writing. The trouble is that Ford, VAG, PSA, Nissan and everyone else about to bring out a new contender in the Jazz class is seriously worried that they haven't come up with the goods and that their product will lose out as a result. Mike Rutherford made that clear. Quentin Willson alluded to it. And both should be commended for their honesty rather than for toeing the Ford company line that the new Fiesta is the only new small car worthy of consideration which, of course, is cobblers. I thought it was great that Mike Rutherford exposed the extent to which he had been leaned on.
A few years ago, Jeremy Clarkson had a go at the local press boys who don't own cars of their own and live on cars 'borrowed' for evaluation from the manufacturers. As far as I remember, he also had a pop at the junket press trips these guys go on. Unfortunately, the local press hounds were quick to bite Jezza's ankles with nasty rumours about who supplied Jezza's own family's cars and the so-called truth about his purchase of a Ferrari 355GTS. But, of course, Jezza won. After all, he's funnier than any of them. And his was the lone, brave voice that warned us all about the Vauxhall Vectra.
It's a pity he's moved on to bigger things because his courage against the corporate might of the manufacturers was very refreshing compared to the witless, toadying bullshit we see far too much of these days.
The trouble is, if you don't drive a car you can't have an opinion about the way it drives, feels and works. And the only way I'm going to find out how the Jazz drives, feels and works soon enough for it to be relevant is to go on the launch, in possibly snowbound Madrid.
HJ
Yes, opal not Op-el. Perhaps the cognoscenti of these columns will deride my ignorance and tell me it's nothing new, but I have just seen a 95/96 Corolla with a fascinating paint job. From one angle it sort of glows a pale blue, then upon moving to another angle it is a metallic creamy white, with one color fading into the other. It reminds me exactly of how an opal looks when moved around under bright light. Whoever has done it is a real pro, the preparation and effect are immaculate, with an inctedibly deep shine. This is a new one on me and a nice change from the dreary silvers and blues floating around. Anyone throw any light (ouch) on this type of paint? Read more
Headers = manifolds, so I guess this means some visible form of these eg Lake pipes.
(Think Beach Boys - 'Little deuce coupe')
regards
John
Seeing HJ's report on the Showroom4cars Top Ten and the prominence of BMW therein reminds me that the only BMW I have ever owned was a Dinky toy, given to me by a girlfriend in the late 1960s. At that time, I reckoned BMW were getting it dead right with lean, elegant, well engineered machines -- the 2002 par excellence.
Labouring under the spirit-numbing restrictions of company car policies for the subsequent 25 years kept BMWs out of reach -- VWs, Volvos, Fords, yes, but don't even think of dreaming about a BMW. But all the time their image was changing in my mind and was crystallized in the yuppie 1980s, by which time I wanted nothing to do with them -- me, the enthusiast for minority pursuits and causes, yuppie I was not (both age and money disqualified me).
The image has only been reinforced subsequently and, although I cannot deny the virtues of the range, as a current M-B and Golf owner I wouldn't dream of buying one now. Just goes to show how irrational the consumer can be, I guess. Read more
I'm like Roger - when I could not afford one I thought they were great but as time passed and you saw who was driving them my interest wained - even for the M3. Instead I bought a Fiat Coupe Turbo 4 years ago wich I have only just sadly soldand now have a Merc and VW - is that as I grow older or more sensible.
Hello folks,
This appears on ITV Teletext Page 147 today 5th Jan; letter no. 8 under the heading ?Fatal flaw in car curb moves?
Dear Editor,
Would readers who believe that speed cameras and traffic calming save lives please explain why, with a crackdown on speeding and rigid enforcement of speed limits in their areas, in the past year, Lincolnshire has seen a 16% rise in fatalities, Essex has a 49% rise and Suffolk has seen a 75% increase.
Yours faithfully
Alwyn Davies.
Another blow struck for the truth. Read more
Oops -forgot to refer you back to Alwyns post at the top of this thread - fatalities increased in areas with speed camera infestation.
I tried to print out HJ's Car of the Year page to show friends in the pub at lunchtime, but it printed one line per page until I switched the printer off to abort the job after 20+ pages had emerged. Curious? Martyn, can you explain? Read more
Got to the File Menu, select print from that, then, depending on your printer, you should get a lot of options for controlling what you print out. Meanwhile I'll try and cut and paste the news item in The Backroom, which is actually something any of you could do.
HJ
Browse
Mark
No, it's the idle speed control valve you need to clean, NOT the airflow meter.
I have to say that this is a common Vauxhall problem, and that cleaning doesn't often work. If it's done over about 50k miles you'll probably need a new one, and later versions are modified. They cost c£150 fitted, most of which is parts. One of the few things that went wrong on my Vectra.
This has been covered a few times on this site - try a search.
regards
john