July 2003
Hi, my Son has cheap Cinquecento which recently required a new flexi exhaust section, no problem changed the section but on firing it up the ECU light came on and driving the car it is abruptly rev limited to about 3 K. The local agents want £65 to read the ecu not on for a 5 minute job so can anyone assist here, or does anyone know how to read or at least reset the ECU. He has searched around for the Lambda sensor connector but it appears to be hard wired. Is there a monitor point for this so I can get a scope on it. If it is the sensor and he changes it does the ECU reset itself. Thanks guys Read more
Sorry for starting off another "which car should I buy for £x" thread.
My son will shortly be looking for a smallish car but must be an automatic as he has been used to driving one after spending a few years in Japan. The car he was driving was a 600cc auto with air con which had to have the air con switched off before it could tackle even the slightest gradient!.
Well he grew to like the auto side of driving but would like something a little more powerfull, so what can he get for around £3000 of his money or a little more if I lend him the extra?
Regards Mal. Read more
If only I could convince him that the Civic is the best choice.
Being a Honda driver for the past 11 years I know only too well how reliable they are. I had 10 faultless years driving a Civic 1.5 LSI for 160000 miles which he eventually bacame the owner of but unfortunately he had some trouble with it including what he considered was a dangerous fuel leak and that has put him off.
Thanks for the replies and I think he is going to go for the Toyota Corolla (if he can find one) one of the reasons being that they are the most popular and reliable in Japan where he spent a few years working.
Regards and thanks,
Mal.
Just a quick question,
Will 185/55 R15 tyres fit on 7Jx15" alloys?
The alloys have 195/50 r15 tyres on at the moment, and I've looked everywhere for this info but nothing can confirm!
Can anyone help?
Thanks Read more
Thanks for the replies.
I've bought a set of 185/55 for my standard steel wheels a couple of months ago, and a old friend is now selling his 7"x15" alloys that come with 195/50 tyres. So just needed to know if they fitted.
Thanks again
Im am planning to chip my Golf MK3 VR6 highline, and havin an induction kit put in, but im really confused about where to go or which brand to go for. I know AMD tunning up in oxfordshire do a chip that should should push out approx 12-15 bhp for £250 +VAT (including rolling road) and London superchips say about 10-12 bhp for £250+ VAT (excluding rolling road). Secondly, i want an induction kit which will give the best gains. I was planning on having a VIPER INDUCTION KIT installed, but im worried about spending £250 on a filter and not archieving decent gains. I am new on the Golf VR6 scene, so i would appreciate any help from peeps who have suped up VR6's Read more
What if you bought your own rolling road and installed it in climate-controlled building, handed £400 over to yourself to do the installation and carry out the tests, put the chip in the car with a direct changeover switch on the Chip Select line, fully warmed up the engine for an hour, took some readings on the dyno, flicked the switch over, took the same readings immediately afterwards (taking care the car was in the same gear), flicked the switch over, took the same readings, taking care the environmental conditions hadn't changed, flicked the switch over etc etc etc. Would there be a difference in the readings between original chip and special chip? What if there was?! What if it was too big a difference to be meaningless? What if it couldn't be accounted for by the tyres having worn down a bit?
Heavens! when my car failed its MOT on the brake tester or emissions, the examiner might have been massaging the results to obtain a job of remedial work out of it. And when I was racing against that M3, its driver only thought he'd won - it must have actually been me, as the policeman had measured my speed but oh, wait a minute he might have been bending the reading a bit, just like he must have done on that breath test, so maybe the M3 did win after all. Hang on though, I was using Ploptimax petrol and Pirellyearchelin tyres, and don't they improve things? or am I just deluding myself? Yes that's it, it must all have been a dream, because I never race anybody else even slightly and I've never ever exceeded any speed limit anywhere for even one second and Whoa! What the? Who put that 1.4 engine in my VR6? Whaddaya mean it's just some badges you stuck on?!
Arrgh - I'm off to get some serious head work done
[silly note deleted, mostly because of the silly responses it generated] Read more
Is Kevin the only one with a grain of sense ?
Phoenicks & eMBe,
You may be trying to wind each other up, but you are winding me up. Stop bitching at each other.
Mark.
Hi all,
While since I last posted but what has prompted me this time is coming back to my car today and finding someone had lifted my wiperblade and left me a leaflet advertising full car valets for the not too small sum of £40 pounds.
Now I do not mind someone trying to make a living in this country rather than sponge off the State like some do, but I do object to someone "tresspasing" on my car.
I ask you what right has anyone to do this, can they not be stopped in some way, is there not some law, or local bylaws which can prevent this?.
Needless to say they were littered all over the place thrown down by equaly anonyed motorists.
What worries me is how I might react if I actually caught someone in the act of "tresspassing" on my car, which i might add in reference to another thread is allways parked away from other cars over 2 bays!
Rant over,
Cooling down time now.
Regards Mal. Read more
Mal,
It might be interesting to learn from one of our legal eagles if Bill Posters was ever prosecuted?
Matt35
Can anyone make sense of this jumble of (possibly un-related) symptoms?
1999 Astra 1.6 SOHC (Single point injection 8v, 75BHP zzzzz!)
All was going well, despite the timing belt coming off 800 miles after being changed at 80k miles due to tensioner failure. (Repaired at no charge, apparently a non interference engine, & was running sweet afterwards).
Now done 83k ish & running rough. First symptom was increased rattling/tapping noise, worse when engine fully warmed up (or car had been driven for a bit) at first thought to be the tappets but in fact is certainly coming from the injector. (The injector itself has been replaced but this made no difference).
Then started running rough when fully warmed up/driven for about 1/2 hr.
ECU warning light started coming on sporadically, again when warm/driven >1/2hr, turned out to be EGR valve. Replaced. ECU light stopped coming on, but still tappy injector & rough running, now getting more noticable even from cold.
'Chuffing' noise noticable when listening to engine running with oil filler cap removed, allegedly sign of block crankcase breather, possibly due to over-oiling, but oil level certainly ok now & I can't find any crankcase hoses to check for blockages etc.
Rough running seems to be getting worse, but:
Not majorly down on pulling power/compression (just a bit unenthusiastic),
Spark Plugs replaced at 80k service
Fuel & air filters replaced at 80k
No noticable increase in fuel consumption
No noticable oil or water consumption
The above rules out various obvious things, I think.
Any help welcomed.
Thanks,
Al.
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Anybody know if this car still exists?
It is/was a T-bodied custom car built in the late 70s/early 80s by a hot rod wizard called Nick Butler.
Powered by a huge supercharged Chrysler V8 it was said to have 1000+BHP!
A car magazine tested it & were asked not to give it full throttle off the line otherwise, due to the enormous torque it produced, the wheels might disintegrate!
Driving moderately, they still reached 100mph in around 8secs...
Read more
www.1320pi.com
My occasional Sunday afternoon diversion. Mainly watching with a supply of cold ones.
Good fun and most of it done on a shoestring.
Thanks for the valuable advice that HN and you guys have provided me over the past few months.
Last weekend I sold my 10 year old, 165,000m BMW 525 TDS Estate - Left hand drive - to my local garage owner for £2K, who is taking it to Spain as the car for by the holiday home. I am sure that with proper care and attention that engine will be good for another 100,000 miles.
Thanks to this website I have now saved over £1,600 on a new Seat Alhambra SE TDi PD 130, listed as £20,700. I went to my local Seat dealer, told him I had an email from one of the online brokers that are listed on HN for £19K on this car, and he almost matched it. The fact that he could provide me with local service made the deal for me.
And thanks to this website I knew not to go for this Supagard offer (£350!)they were pushing hard on me, but to stick with Autoglym. In fact, this morning I went over to the dealer to drop of two bottles of Super Resin, as their valet guy did not have Autoglym.
I am sure that in the years to come I will be checking in regularly to find information about anything to do with this car. And I will let you know how I get on with the car.
Regards.
Read more
I have removed the factory fitted Ford 6 disc changer from under the front passenger my Escort prior to sale and will be installing it in my Mondeo. I have noticed that the unit has quite clear markings on either end stating which way up it should be mounted, in this case the markings show that the unit should be horizontal at all times.
Will I cause the unit problems if I fit it, say to the rear of the back seats where it will be almost vertical?
There seems to be some kind of pin arrangement where the 'this way up' arrow is located, almost as if there is the facility to alter something internally to accomodate for a different fitting angle.
Can anyone shed any light on this for me plz?
PP Read more
Ta chaps,
I'll need to go down to my local Ford parts place and get the lead and brackets ordered anyway so I'll sound them out as u suggest Nitro, although on past experience ,if you don't know exactly what you want, certain staff there are cluless to say the least.
I've consulted the owners manual as I've only just acquired the Mondeo and the CD changer is fitted under the front passenger seat on the relevant model so I'll aim for there and not have to mess around trying to change the angle of my dangle.
Many thanks for the feedback.
PP
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I'm not familiar with that engine with the Lambda sensor:
my current little FIAT has the FIRE engine -
but the wiring for that ( K plate Panda ) has the 'sensor' lead via a Lucar/spade connector inside a rubber boot, about 50cm of cable from the sensor.
I have inserted a thin piece of copper wire (one strand from a gash piece of multicore)inside that joint, and brought it out to a 'scope for test purposes, then removed it afterwards:
I had better than ten 0.2 to 0.8 volt crossings inside ten seconds.
That might be a bit on the slow side, but it passes the MOT, and goes well enough.
One thing which has just occured to me is the business with the earth on the 2 lead Lambda:
one lead is the switching signal.
the other is the pre-heater volts.
the earth is via the exhaust! - later installations have 3 or 4 wires:
signal earth and/or heater earth.
On mine there is an additional heavy guage multistrand (flexible) cable from a good earth point which is jubilee clipped to the body of the Lambda sensor. This has been added at some point in its chequered history.
I understand there have been problems in the past with poor earths.
Something for you to look at, if they've been a bit heavy handed with the exhaust joint sealant?
Regards
John H