April 2003
Can anyone help please! I could hear water sloshing around in the passenger footwell of my Renault Megane (1.6, 4 yrs old). I could hear this for a few weeks, then I noticed that every time I pressed the accelerator the water seemed to churn, again in the passenger footwell & even if the car was stationary.
The engine started shuddering when I was stationary e.g. waiting at traffic lights, so I took it to a garage and was told that the head gasket needed replacing urgently & that the coolant was leaking. So I shelled out hundreds of pounds for the head gasket to be fixed, picked up the car tonight, and on the way home could hear the water as much as ever. When I opened the bonnet, I could see that the coolant reservoir had drops of water on the cap and sounded as if it was hissing/bubbling & it was still quite hot about half an hour after I'd parked at home. I've been told that the radiator cap could need replacing but can't find the radiator cap. There's no mention of the radiator in my manual so can't even find it to check if it's okay.
If anyone can help, I will be very grateful. It's very frustrating to be without my car for a week and pay out a fortune only to find there's still a problem.
Any explanations please in layman's terms!! Read more
The car is a 97R Mondeo Ghia 2.0 Estate - 85,000 miles. Some time ago, I asked if backroomers had experienced a squawk from under the bonnet (when starting off, after braking sharply, or latterly when going over a bump). The suggestions of incorrect belt tension and worn bearings proved negative. Recently the car started pulling badly to the left on braking and sometimes there was evidence of a spasmodically binding disc.
My local car man made the correct diagnosis and replaced the ABS control unit (eye-wateringly expensive). With 20/20 hindsight, the failing ABS unit was probably also responsible for the uneven wear which had occurred on the front discs. And ... the squawking noise, which was probably a failing valve, was cured.
Judging by the lack of replies to my earlier posting, this is hopefully a very rare problem!
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I have been to London a few times, the last time about 5 years ago.
What was always evident on those visits was how polluted the air was in the city, proof of this was how dirty the collars on my shirts were at the end of the day plus the muck that ended up in my handkerchief.
I live in the North and have never experienced anything like that up here.
So was it all the traffic especially the diesel taxis that caused the pollution and is it any better today?. Read more
In general 'air conditioning' means that incoming air can be cooled down as well as heated up; 'climate control' means that there is a closed loop system which tries to maintain a constant temperature.
Reading HJ's auction report, there was a mention of a V plate Octavia TDi estate with 180k on it going for £2200.
In Autotrader, there is a white, W plate hatch with 181k on it. Somebody wants £4995 for it. I thought that was more than a little optimistic when I first saw it, and even if this one is somehow not an ex taxi, there must be an incredible profit margin for a dealer who comes even slightly close to this figure. Read more
That was why, because the front discs get much hotter in use - so if you applied the parking brake only just enough to hold the car on a hill, and then the discs cooled down and contracted...
I have a Vectra 1.8 1997P with a similar fault to that described on the archive dated Sept 01 by Peter Bowman.
A couple of miles into a run, the engine hesitates and the rev counter dips to zero. Afterwards the engine management light comes on and remains on. When this first happened, switching the engine off and restarting would clear the fault, but in the past few days it refuses to restart. It can be restarted after cranking for about eight seconds, after which the engine coughs and splutters, then runs reasonably but with the engine management light on.
The HJ archive leads me to suspect either the camshaft sensor or crankshaft sensor, though it has been suggested to me that the difficulty in restarting points to the crankshaft sensor as the most probable cause. Before I start buying sensors on a trial and error basis, would anyone have an opinion? Also, is there any way of doing an electrical test on the sensors?
Incidentally when I first examined the crank sensor, it wasn’t even bolted in but just pushed into place, not fully home and at 90 degrees to its correct orientation. The 6mm thread in the block was dry and rusty and I expect had been so since it left the factory. I cleaned and refitted it properly, but still have the problem.
I’ll be grateful for any guidance.
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just to let you know have just done 97 vecta 1.8 with good driveabilty but stalling and misfire at high revs. engine management light on. found breathers blocked rocker cover gasket leaking oil on to plugs and camshaft speed sensor. sensor and gasket replaced ecu interrogated fault was only intermitant so was not logging in fault memory just when running car with sykes acr on car. also found exhaust manifold gasket split. local vauxhall dealer caffyns said sell loads of these gaskets. replaced breather pipes also as all rot. and this was main dealer serviced only one year ago! granted a lot could of happened since then but it shouldnt deterioate this quick.
Was in my wife\'s Honda Jazz today and was nearly hit twice in 2 minutes by the same dim motorist.
First time was when she did not see that I had the right of way at a junction and then later she decided to change her direction and cross my path at the next junction.
On both occasions I gave her a blast on the horn, well it was not exactly a blast, more like a \"p***\".
Has anybody else heard the horn on the Jazz, it sounds more like the horns the clowns amuse us with at the circus, instead of feeling better after giving her a blast I was more embarrassed by the \"p***\" sound it made.
******IT HAS GOT TO GO*******
Will go to the \"scrappers\" and pick one up and see if it harmonises with the existing horn, if not I will just yank the silly sounding thing off the car
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Go to Halfords, they do a fantastic ser of Ring Twin tone horns (the legal kind, like BMWs have) for about £15.
We fitted them to my dad's Micra after realising that the factory fit horn was virtually silent. Anyway, it now makes a noise that puts most other cars to shame and rivals the BMW. It really makes the suicidal pedestrians jump :)
Blue
My Vauxhall Calibra V6 is only running on 4 cylinder. My local
garage advise me to change the Distributor but that did not solve the
problem. Also had the Control unit tested and it has no fault. Could this
be some kind of wiring or knock sensor fault? Please advise...
The leads are ok.. Read more
Thought as much. As per Andrew heck all the wiring out and the coil pack compare the resistance of the coil pack suspect primary against a working one to ensure it is not the coil that has failed. Regards Peter
I'm the owner of a '97 ka which is pinking slightly.Local garage states it could be due to a build up of carbon.As they couldn't be sure about this without taking the head off, they suggested I try something like Redex poured into each cylinder.Is it worth giving this a try,and whats the best product to use and how.
ps. diagnostic check showed no problems. Read more
Not sure where to get the holts stuff Cyd.I've just being using normal unleaded until recently Peter,then tried Optimax,which I must admit helps,but still does not eliminate the pinking completely.
Have bought a set of plugs for a 92 Honda Civic 1.5 Lsi.
According to the haynes manual they should be Champion RC9YCC4, which I have in at present.
According to the supplying motor factors they should be
RC8YCC4 which is what their Champion application chart states it
to be.
The plugs look the same from the washer down but above the washer they are different. One has more metal above the washer than the other.
What is the difference between them and should I fit them ?.
Regards Mal.
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Well, I took the plugs back today and they still insisted they were the correct ones so to prevent what was nearly turning into an argument over who was right I asked if they had the NGK plugs as stated in the handbook.
Result, they had the NGK plugs, they got 50p more out of me, and I went away happy.
Plugs now fitted and car is still running well after 169000 miles.
Thanks and regards Mal.
Just watching TV while browsing and I began to wonder (given indemnity from prosecution) what weapon from Robot Wars would backroomers choose to have fitted to their car? Read more
Motoring rather than fantasies please.
Browse
Thanks everyone. I took my car to a local garage and they said that there is air in the heating/cooling system that needs to be bled. I\'d assumed that it was all connected with the damaged head gasket and that once that was sorted, the sloshing noise would stop. One of the hoses is damaged, which is annoying because the garage that fixed it said they\'d checked all the hoses for splits etc (the work cost £320 by the way, Baz. The Renault garage wanted to charge me £650!). I\'ve checked the oil filler cap and it\'s clean.
I\'m going to take it back to the garage that did the original work but unfortunately they can\'t look at it until Tuesday and may well charge me for further work. I\'ll let you know how I get on.