Ref. the MID, I wonder how I will get on with my Traders policy, as none of my vehicles are logged against the policy. I just tell them what I have at renewal time, but not the reg. numbers.

Ian, from what you describe, I am sure the LR engine was the 2.5 litre normally aspirated diesel which is not (usually) self-priming.

I only asked as the 200Tdi is self-priming (if memory serves me correctly) - all it needs is a few litres of diesel (I could quote the exact amount if I could be bothered to look it up), a bit of turning over on the starter and hey presto!

I once ran out of diesel on the M5 at midnight on a Sunday driving back to Solihull in a prototype 200Tdi Defender fitted with an automatic gearbox and towing a car-trailer. Luckily, I had stopped right by a junction and, once I had hitched several miles to and from an (open) fuel station, the car started first time (which was a relief).

"Oh, yes, I forgot to tell you the fuel gauge is out of calibration," came the response from the engineer running the assesment. Thanks, Mate!

cheers, CMark

Hi I have just aquired a 1.9 ltd 406 the speedo is sticking a lot at 40 mph and the revvy at 2k also the temp sensor doesnt work and the fuel guage seems a lot blower than what I put in, would you say that it is down to the box behind the glovey or maybe the actual clocks? Also if i have to change the clocks what do I do on the next mot if the clocks are significantly lower than the last mot?

Any help is much appreciated....

Many modern engines have a valve or other mechanism to maintain the idle speed selected by the engine management system. If there is a fault OR the valve is sticking then a stall can occur as a gear is engaged. Cleaning the idle valve and/or throttle valve should clear the problem but if the sticking is caused by excessive oil blow-by due to engine wear, the problem will simply re-occur.

I know this is a very old post but I'm having the same issue too on a 2005 Zafira A.

The back brakes on this car have always been really noisy, especially when they get wet and I first start driving (I guessed that the noise when they get wet is just the pads getting wet or something).

But for the past few days we've noticed that when reversing the rear brakes have started making a squeaking noise (it's so loud that dog has started barking at the car when I arrive home - so even the dog is noticing it!). A few weeks ago we had the brakes checked to ensure there was plenty of pad left, and the guy that checked them said the it was only the inner pad on the drivers side that was slightly worn but nothing that needed any immediate attention. He did also ask when was the last time we had the brakes serviced.

We had the car serviced back in October and the guy that serviced it then said that he only needed to change the oil and oil filter and charged us just under £100. I presume that when he serviced it he would have checked to see if the brakes needed servicing, I notice Vauxhall dealers have different levels of servicing but the guy we go to doesn't offer the different levels he just says he does what ever needs doing at the time - so does that mean he's doing a basic service or is he checking all the bits that would normally be checked on a full service and then just charging us for the bits he needs to replace? This is our first car since leaving the motability scheme so it's a bit confusing as to what a service actually is as on the motability scheme it was all taken care of for us (plus I have an autistic spectrum disorder and don't fully understand cars - my main interest is more computers than cars), and does a general service normally include servicing the brakes or is that a seperate service? When we used to have motability car serviced they came up with a tick sheet showing us a map of the car with all different information like tread depth, brake wear, etc but this guy didn't produce any type of map of the car to show me what he'd checked - somebody else told me that this is normal as it's only main dealers that do that, is that right?

Also the car was only MOT'd in October, the MOT was done a week before the service. We had the car MOT'd at the same place that asked if the brakes had been serviced (Gatechange Garage in Tenbury), but we had the service done at the garage we originally bought the car from (Overton Service Station in Ludlow) 'cos the place we bought the car from doesn't do MOT's and when we bought the car the garage owner sold it to us for what we considered an absolute bargain for a 2005 plate 7 seater vehicle, and so we like to use him regularly for things like servicing as he's a really nice person and it was so good of him to sell us the car so reasonably, and also he helped us rescue the car when we drove it into a flood and got it back to life which saved us a fortune on insurance premiums.