May 2003
There has been the occasionl mention of the 306's airbag warning light staying on because of a break in the wiring to the seat belt pre-tensioner under the drivers seat. This seems to be true because moving the seat can cure/cause the problem, so I removed the seat and stripped out the wiring and put a circuit tester on it but could not find any breaks at all, not even in the 2 pin connector under the seat. Now it's all back together I still have the intermittent problem, but not as bad as before, so does any one out there know exactly where the break in the wiring is? I wonder if it is in the pre-tensioner and not the 2 core wire or connector. Why do I keep moving the seat I hear you ask, the reason is that we share the car and our legs are not the same size! Read more
Question for the Moderators - I posted a thread a day ago on Bluetooth headsets and are they safe and was getting plenty of useful replies but now the thread has gone and even a search for the exact title does not get me back to the thread.. Any ideas why???
Ian Read more
Ian, if you haven't found it yet, it's here
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=12796&...e
DD.
Having had my pride and joy for nearly six months now someone spotted what looked like oil streaks running away from underneath this morning.
I popped up to the dealers and they took it straight round put it on the ramps and said the fuel filter was leaking diesel and there was an oil leak that was dripping onto a coolant pipe and had damaged the pipe to the point where it was about to rupture.
They have given me another E-Class to get around in but I can't believe that if someone hadn't spotted the oil I may well have had a ruptured coolant pipe to deal with.
I know they have looked after me very well and that but surely in this day and age things like this really shouldn't happen or am I just unlucky.
Mind you after driving the older type E-Class around today it has shown me what a great car the new one is. Read more
Funny I should read this today.
A 51 reg E-Class went past me in the opposite direction yesterday, trailing so much white smoke that I had to stop for a few seconds, and wait for it to clear. The smoke also had the smell of burnt oil and burnt rubber, so goodness knows how much engine damage he's done. Rather more than a simple head gasket replacement, methinks.
On the subject of courtesy cars, a colleague has had a run in with the bodyshop repairing his new beemer (or rather not, as the workmanship is appalling). Yesterday, they offered him as a courtesy car 'A new Merc', or 'A new Vectra with a case of fine wine in the boot'.
He took the latter.
Sensible chap! ;-)
I`m attempting to remove the rear brake drum from a L reg Fiesta.
How do you release the brake shoes ( ratchet ?) to enable the drum to be pulled
off.
On the rear plate there is a lightly loaded spring / button...Is that something
to do with it?
Thanks
Read more
Undo the 4 bolts: the single nut holding on the drum/bearings is a pig to undo.....
madf
I bought a Xedos9 at Blackbushe today... great car but on the way back I noticed the steering seems to 'tramline' sometimes, equally in either direction. It's not really a problem but I wondered if this is normal in this car, or with others with low profile tyres?
PB. Read more
Thanks for the advice all. The tyre pressures were down all round and setting them properly has made quite a difference. The car handles superbly and looks great on 17" low profile tyres so I suppose it's a compromise. I'll put OE tyres on when it needs them.
PB.
Due to an ongoing case - we,ahem, borrowed a Laserlyte Hand Held
laser gun for some pre-trial research using one of our expert witnesses. This today has provided endless entertainment (in a suitable location of course - approved by local cops !). I have learnt such a lot today about how they are clibrated etc. This had a very serious side to it of course, but one myth was well and truely exploded - CDs in the windscreen have no effect..... I will tell you more once the case has been to Court. Read more
Maybe the ghost of Maurice :-)
ISTR he died a few years ago.
Came across a web site "Bull Dog" in the USA extoling the uses of liquid gas in Diesel engines up to 40% mix ratio - have lost the site.
Power increase is suposed to be quite something
Believe the UK has limited knowlege of this at the momment.
Any one heard of this method of power assisting diesels??
K2 Read more
Many thanls for the info, this American site was dealing with providing more grunt for Lorry size engines. One of the safety worries is ensuring gas shut off is secure and turbo cool down's after running
K2
Heyhey, hoho, guess what? Someone driving a car remarkably similar to one of mine (just 3 years older), and powered by the same stuff, has just won the Tour de Sol, an annual competition event in the States which aims to showcase vehicles using alternative fuels in a range of categories. To quote the homepage of the Tour de Sol (www.nesea.org/transportation/tour/) "If it reduces gasoline or oil use, you can see it at the Tour De Sol: The Great American Green Transportation Festival. Three festivals, an open house, and a road-rally competition will be held in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Washington, DC during National Transportation Week, May 10-14, 2003."
Some of the competitors were production petrol-electric hybrids such as the Prius, some were solar powered, some powered by straight vegetable oil (these also scored highly), and so on. You can read about it here:
forums.biodieselnow.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=865
Smug? Moi? ;) Read more
Congrats, Andy, seems your earlier thread has been justified ;)
I would welcome any suggestions for which new hot hatch or saloon I should consider. My budget is about £16,000. I intend to keep it for a long time & would not consider a manufacturer with a poor reputation for reliability. I would particularly welcome comments from owners of such cars with good & bad points about the cars.
Read more
I'm a big fan of the Audi S3. For your money, you should be able to pick up a 2000V with 30-40k.
Drive one, preferably in the wet, before you choose any other car. You will be impressed with the handling and Audi's build quality.
My sister has just broken down on the M25 and she isn\'t a member of any breakdown organisation.
What can she do?
Does she leave the car and get someone to pick her up or should she let the police know and how does she get her car recovered?
Any replies would be greatly appreciated. Read more
All,
The above seems to have missed the point.
The police are most unhappy about members of the public out of their cars on Motorways, even if they are fixing a towrope on their sister's car.
See the thread about '3 killed on M25' tragedy.
JohnR
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Of course all is well... it's what the Dealer is instructed to do from the manufacturer. As per the comments by others here, I offer advice based upon my expertise and ensure that what i say is sound. In This case, the instructions are taken from Peugeots technical bulletin on the subject. I would assume they know what they are talking about.
These are the views of Robin the Technician with 35 years in the trade. I fix, therefore I am...