October 2002
I have just bought a 1995 Nissan Sunny from a dealer with a years warranty. It's going fine apart from a noise which I didn't pick up on the test drive but has been worrying me a little since.
When slowing down in 2nd or 3rd gear there is a highish-pitched whine coming from the gearbox, which changes pitch in-line with engine speed. It's not metallic, more a whistling noise and it isn't very loud (quite quiet actually). It also happens to a lesser extent when accelerating lightly in these two gears. When maintaining a constant speed, accelerating hard, accelerating above around 2000 revs or so or in 1st or 4th gear the noise is not there. The car only has around 60000 miles on the clock, and the engine (a 1.6) is very quiet so it might not even have been noticable on a noisier car....
I have noticed this noise on a newish Micra 1.0, but of course here the engine noise drowns it out to an extent.
Is there anything to worry about here or should I get it checked out? Gearbox oil maybe (the car was serviced before I took delivery)? Read more
Alongside Finsbury Park on the Seven Sisters Road, north London, the road was marked out with red surfacing for yet another bus lane a couple of months ago.
However, no start/finish notices or times of operation.
Regardless, everybody has been avoiding driving on it.
When I asked a bus driver when stopped in traffic whether it was operational, he replied "Yes, mate".
Being a natural born cynic I e-mailed Transport for London and eventually got a reply to say that it was NOT yet in force, pending signage.
I have suggested to TfL that marked lanes which are not in force should be signed to that effect.
I wonder whether they mark these things out and apply for permission to set it up in retrospect?
As an aside, there have been three fatal accidents on this stretch in the last three months. I wonder whether anyone has collated accident figures for roads before and after bus lane installation. It seems too much of a coincidence as I cannot remember any other serious accidents on this stretch in the nine years I have been using it on a daily basis. Read more
I think most xantia estate owners have come across this at some stage. Because the back door is plastic citroen didn't bother stopping water getting in because it won't rust.
So the plastic membrane is relied upon for stopping the water coming into the car.
I removed it in order to replace the lock, but now I can't find an adhesive to glue it back on.
The clear plastic has a slightly waxy feel and nothing will stick to it. I reckon that the original stuff will do the job, but I don't know what it is.
Any ideas? Read more
Try Evo-Stik impact adhesive. Lightly smear both surfaces, wait 10 mins, then press together.
After reading HJ car by car breakdown i have been enlightened to the fact that the petrol fumes I smell from time to time in the back of the car and boot, but with no leak evident, could be cracks in the petrol filler pipe. has anyone any experience of cost and difficulty of this job, either DIY or garage? any views on brake fluid changes and the extra performance this will bring would be appreciated,
thanks
Ellis Read more
Thanks Cyd, any idea what sortof money I'm looking at for the uprated fluid, Kwik Fit have quoted £6 for whatever they use, won't go to them just use them as a benchmark.
Ellis
Good morning!
My Mondeo blotted its copy book yesterday on the way home from work. A strange clicky clacky noise from under the bonnet, varying with engine revs, then smoke, turned out to be the power steering pump siezed solid - the smoke was from the drive belt slipping.
Got the AA to take the car to my local garage, who I think I trust.
Has anyone else experienced this problem (I don't see it listed in the C-B-C-B listing)?
What financial damage should I expect for the replacement?
Anything else I should be aware of?
Thanks
Andy
btw, the car is a 1999 1.6 with 45k miles.
Read more
Update!
The problem, almost thankfully, turned out to be the compressor clutch siezed solid, so no fear of the whole system being comtaminated.
With the regas, the system seems to run colder more quickly than before and the rancid smell from the system has also been cured by an antibacterial treatment.
All in all, apart from the bill for 500 quid, I am happy!
Andy
Unfortunately I had to sell my car last year to move up a size (for family reasons). Unfortunately as the diesel had only got about 78k under its belt and was going brilliantly.
Anyway, I recently got a letter/questionaire from a company called Vehicle Mileage Check Ltd asking me to fill in details of when I had sold it and how many miles it had done.
Got a letter yesterday saying "Please confirm or amend your sale mileage as the speedometer reading is currently showing only 44076 miles and there has been another keeper since you!"
I feel a little sorry for the new owner as over 30K miles + a years worth of driving have been taken off the clock. But more I feel a little angry that someone has tampered with my beloved ex!
Who are VMC Ltd? I suppose that they are an industry based company. I have never come across these guys before so am thinking that they should become much more high profile in order to stamp out the clockers. Read more
Isn't this caused by the buyer's inability to accept that vehicles
are capable of high mileages these days? If a car
looks as though it's done 60K, sounds like it, and drives
like it, what does it matter?
Probably because (s)he has paid £2-3k more than it "should" be.
I am about to change the backbox on my car. The tailpipe is a ball of rust due, I am told, to the sulpher content of petrol. Can anyone please advise some way I can treat the tailpipe of the new box, before fitting it, to prevent or at least delay, the formation of said rust ?
Thank you. Pete. Read more
So that's why my copper bottomed pans smell funny...
John R
Has anyone any experience of the quality of replacement cambelts from various makers? I have done a little work on this, and come up with the following:
Belt-breaker engines have 19 tooth crank sprockets (Ford CVH, Volvo B20 etc). The ?old? rectangular tooth profile is worse than the newer semicircle design. (but you have to fit the type for which the engine was designed). The best engines have 21 or 22 tooth sprockets with a 1? wide belt.
The worst pattern belts I have ever seen are made by Goodyear (almost guaranteed to fail extra prematurely on a CVH) and the best are Dayco. Dayco belts are supplied as OE replacements by Ford and PSA, but of course they can be bought much more cheaply elsewhere if you look around.
Read more
My Rover 218 'L' reg radio has lost it's frequency display. Anyone have experience of this failure - is it just a bulb that's died? How do I get at it to replace?
Or is the display terminal and I need a replacement radio! Aaaagh? Read more
Just some feedback - did the job only yesterday! The small bulb was eventually sourced locally (Exeter) for 80p. I got the radio out using some bent garden wire (!!) to release the catches and then pulled the front panel off by unclipping several small bits round it's edge.
The display came apart, again by pressing in several plastic retaining clips which released the ribbon strip that makes all the contacts with the LCD, and then the bulb was pulled out.
The replacement has two very thin contacts, so thin they would not push into the holes. So I bent the wires double and tinned them for strength. They then pushed in okay and all is now fine.
So thanks all for the tips; saved about £34 and had some fun.
Don't know if anyone heard the full version but I just caught the end of a discussion on radio 5 this afternoon where they were dicussing that we would "soon" be able to buy a new car at any shop including supermarkets. I was amused by a spokeswoman from the Consumers Assoc who said it would include "any car from a Merc down to a Skoda with Fords in between" and everyone seemed to think it was a wonderful idea that you could go in for a bag of spuds and come out with a spanking new car. Not so sure myself, there must be more to car sales and after sales service than this mustn't there? Mind you, I only ever buy second hand.....
PhilW Read more
Then again they could replace numberplates with bar codes...
And replace roadside speed cameras with check out girls with one of those red laser readers...
Browse
The Honda gearbox fitted to my MGZS180 does pretty much the same....leave it :-)
MG-Rover Questions? forums.mg-rover.org/