Hi,

With the possibility of my girlfriend moving down south, and us needing another car I am considering a high mileage Leon Cupra.

A fellow SEAT owners club member has a 2001 X-reg Cupra in Flash red, it is his company car, but the company has about 4 months to go before it goes under. By this time the car will have 8 months finance owing at £500 per month, i.e, £4000. It has been suggested I maybe able to buy the car, which would amount to just paying the remaining £4000 off.

Now the downside, it will have done about 100,000 - 110,000 miles by the end of this year, although it has spent most of that on Motorways. In my eyes, a car that has done this mileage in less than 2 years has probably had less engine running time than a 30k miles town car. Insurance costs are not a problem, and we would still have the Leon TDi for longer trips...... would this be a good buy for a 2nd car?


Neil T
SEAT Leon TDi 150 Read more

Driving along the M40 at 7.30pm on Saturday and came to the 4 lane section.

Lane 1 - empty
Lane 2 - empty
Lane 3 - 2 cars doing about 70 mph
Lane 4 - a car overtaking those in lane 3 at about 70.5 mph and ½-mile queue of traffic

What is the point of building new roads when we do not know how to use the existing roads properly. I read in the paper that there are plans to have 12 lane stretches of the M25 - what's the point when 10 of the lanes will be empty!

Unless the driving test has changed, there should definitly include m-way driving as part of the test. Even SWMBO gets animated seeing people stuck in the wrong lane and quite rightly thinks that the government should do something about it. Read more

Was out on my TRIUMPH motorcycle yesterday and came up behind a vehicle I had to follow for some way. In the rear window is a big sign. JUST SAY NON! and in smaller letters Daily Mail Buy British Campaign, and the vehicle was... a Mitsubishi. Read more

Dear all,

I've started this as a new thread - the previous thread is shown below, but basically talks about a "clacking" sound from V6 Omegas - but only from a stone cold start - this also has a slightly lumpy idle associated with it. Hot starts are fine.


www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=6957&v...t


As you will see, my car (also a 3.0 V6 Omega) does the same thing as the one in the thread, and we thought that the culprit might be either:

1) A problem with the aux drive belt or one of its ancillaries warming up
2) A problem with cambelt related things warming up - but note that in all cases cambelts & idlers had been changed within say 10k miles
3) A rumoured exhaust related problem


I've managed to pin it down to the later. I've fitted a Kenlowe engine preheater in advance of winter coming. If you arn't aware, this is a mains operated electric water heater/pump that is plumbed into the cooling circuit and heats/circulates the cold water in the system upto 80 degrees - giving you a warm engine before you start it.

On starting the engine immediately after the Kenlowe had done its stuff, the clacking just didn't happen at all - and a nice smooth tickover resulted. So, I think I've elimininated the ancilliary drive belt and its dependants - and the cambelt etc.

The exhaust issue seems to be a slight leak which only impacts things when cold - when "something" warms up, it expands and stops the clacking noise - which is actually caused by a leak releasing the pressure from the the 6, actually probably only 3 of the cylinders exhaust rhythm.

Now then - this is where my detective trail ends - apparently Vx are aware of the problem, but I could do with a bit of help in pooling ideas as to what the exact reason/cause is. It could be the EGR valve, or one of the exhaust manifolds. As our vehicles are all well outside warranty - I'm keen to narrow the exact resolution down. So, if anyone has access to Vx tech support bulletins we would be very interested to hear what they contain.

Comments welcome chaps.

Regards .......

Robert

PS Further info on Kenlowe is available via their website:

www.kenlowe.co.uk/pre-heaters/cars/whatwill.html
Read more

I am writing this thread as away of letting off some steam. My wife has just come back from our local supermarket with a dent the size of the Grand Canyon in her door and missing the corresponding area of paint. The cause? Some mindless moron who cannot acomplish the simple task of opening a car door, without smashing it into the adjacent car. This is more than your average scuff, it's actually creased the door skin. How I would love to find the person responsible. They would probably wonder what all the fuss was about.
I feel better already. Read more