August 2003
Have a 2000 1.7DTi Astra (isuzu lump). Lovely car but has a more often than not a flickering light problem. It affects all lights from headlights to interior light and dash lights and gets worse with load. Garage says alternator is within spec, but surely its not right. With a meter across the battery, with no load its charging at nearly 14.5v with a full load its about 12.2v. Whilst lights are flickering voltage oscillates about 0.6-0.8v. I suspect voltage regulator but any ideas? Or is the garage fobbing me off as its under warranty. Read more
I'm currently insured (or my 1.6s Ibiza is) with a well known supermarket. It's due for renewal on 1 September so last week I got a quote from their internet site of £267 fully comp - protected NCD.
This week they've automatically sent the renewal form thru' by post - £335.
So I can buy from the internet as if I'm a new customer again or pay the renewal at £68 more?! Mmmm
(I'm also considering (as I always am) changing the car it's now 3 yrs old - and there's nowt wrong wi'it but I just get the urge. I think I've narrowed it to 1 yera old Leon Cupra or Volvo s60 2.0SE - a curios pair but both a bit different and with 180bhp) Read more
Negotiations didn't get much further - £7600, a full tank of petrol, and a load liner for the boot to keep the carpet clean!
So anyway I've now got a canary yellow Leon - goes like stink - did think that the brakes faded a little after a series of hard braking into tight bends - but I won't be driving like that often, just went for a little play in my new toy.
Insurance was £485 from Tesco, it would have been a little cheaper but the wife had a claim 2.5 years ago when someone kindly decided to stick a screwdriver thru' the door of her car - and seems we're stilling paying for it.
Sorry for this real basic enquiry but my Passat's temp gauge seems to be dead. Sometime it'll come back to life and the needle moves to the halfway mark, as it should, but then almost as quickly it will drop back down to zero.
At first it was an intermittant problem but now it's hardly registering anything. The car's not overheating or anything, so I guess it must be a simple issue.
Anyone have any ideas as I am hoping it's a simple enough problem that I could remedy. Thx.
S. Read more
Forgot to say, no the gauge won't necessarily rise when idle in traffic.
S.
I have noticed an area of bubbled paint on the roof of our 52 plate berlingo. It has only developed recently ... what will the dealer do (and what should he do) if I try and take it back under warranty ? Read more
I have a similar problem on a 1997 Citroen AX. Unfortunately it is not under warranty anymore - is there something I can use to stop it deteriorating before I can get time to get it fixed?
Thx
I currently use my (integral) garage for the newer of my two cars, but I'm considering using it as a fitness room.
The area does not have a high car crime rate so I don't think security is a big issue (famous last words). I know that defrosting in the winter will be a pain ( I have to do the wife's car anyway!) but will leaving the car outside have any serious detrimental effects?
Pat Read more
I found that too, £15 would just about buy a good padlock for the garage door.
Pat, if you do change your insurance, could you update us on the increase in cost, because the cynic in me thinks it will be more than £15 when you park out, rather than in.
On the boot door of my Carisma, the lock has taken to acting like a normal car door lock. The car has central locking. It does not stay locked when the car doors are unlocked. This is now presenting a security problem. Any ideas.
TIA Read more
If the boot unlocks when the doors unlock then this suggests to me that the motor is *working* - I would think it more likely to be mechanical problem in that, when the lock barrel is horizontal it should be disengaging the lock motor from the lock mechanism.
If you put your ear to the boot lid and have someone operate the CL then you'll hear the motor operating.
Backroomers,
Sorry for the essay...
I've had this motor for 2 years. Always wondered why the cooling system works like it does, and whether something's knackered. Personally, I think it's just the way the jokers designed it. You really need to have the same exact car to be able to make comparative comments on this - Astra MkIII, 1.7TD (GM 'DTL' a.k.a 'Low Blow' engine, not the Isuzu engine.)
Haynes manual says that the thermostat opens at 92C, but is not fully open until something like 105C. Engine quickly warms up to gauge at 92C, and sits there with 'normal' (urban roads, not stuck in traffic) driving.
The fan on this thing is a 2-stage affair, with a low speed (provided by series resistor) kicking in when the gauge gets to 96C, when there's not enough airflow into the rad. This is also in agreeance with Haynes manual, so by now I believe the thermostats and gauge to be surprisingly accurate. The second fan stage comes on at about 102C, but only ever had that happen when the resistor was broken.
Motorway driving is something quite different. If the ambient temparature is more than about 20C, on a long motorway run at 70MPH or above, gauge temparature starts climbing higher and higher, eventually reaching the red (~103C), which is not really what I would expect. In winter, it doesn't even reach 95C for the same load/speed. Running at 100+C, the first stage fan is on (which is completely pointless, as there's a 70MPH wind blowing through the radiator!).
So, what's the problem? Here are my thoughts. Either:
a) Something's knackered.
b) That's just the way they designed it, which breaks down into:
1) The radiator's too small for this weedy, ageing little diesel engine design that's had a turbocharger and intercooler strapped to it to get it up to a paltry 67BHP.
2) The temparature gauge is a Vauxhall 'universal' one, which would be more at home in the petrol engined version. (The gauge on my Isuzu-engined Cav 1.7TD doesn't concentrate on such a small portion of the scale; it goes from 70 to 110, instead of 80 to 105, and the red's not until the very top.)
3) Perhaps they designed it to run with the water hot, so that the thermostat on the air-oil cooler comes on earlier. That doesn't really figure, since they could have just put a lower temp. thermostat on the oil cooler. The oil cooler is working BTW, as it gets too hot to touch (but only comes on at all after summer motorway driving.)
IMHO, this engine set-up is pants, compared to the old 1.7TD Isuzu that they used to put in the Astra and Cavalier: You get another 15BHP, which makes all the difference, you get another 10% MPG, and it doesn't try to blow itself up!
Anyone experienced similar? Lots of these motors still about... Read more
I can try that. Thanks for the advice. If I could measure how hot each end of the radiator were getting whilst the car is running under these conditions, then I would have a better idea of what was happening.
I did change the thermostat when I first got the car, but that made little difference. All it did was make the gauge sit at 92C nominally, instead of only 90. I presumed the old thermostat was just a bit tired, and was opening a little earlier than it should.
I have noticed that this thermostat design has (in addition to the standard spring and wax-operated valve arrangement) a stainless steel disc on another spring, which sits proud of the narrow end of thermostat. This appears to sit in the bottom of the thermostat housing, in which is a small opening that comes from the cylinder head, I think. This arrangement would appear to be a non-return valve. I originally bought a thermostat from Halfords, but this didn't have the extra valve thing, so I took it back and got the proper one from a Vauxhall dealer. Anyone know what this extra valve thing is? Seen one before?
Anyone got one of these engines? Does yours get hot too?
Any ideas of the best way to protect paint on a new car? Specifically I will be using roof bars and a bike rack hung off the back of my new Audi A3 when it arrives. I?d always put some extra coats of polish around the contact areas on previous cars but I believe a new car shouldn?t be polished for a while to allow the paint to harden. I have a bottle of Halfords New Paint Sealer which claims to be safe on new cars but I?m not so sure or how much protection it will offer.
Am I best to just leave it alone and just make sure it?s clean before attaching said implements?
Read more
Hi
I'd leave it well alone with regard to any Sealer or similar. As long as the surface is totally clean before you clamp down the rubber pads on the roof rack feet that should be fine. The bike rack straps (if it is that type) might rub at the top of the boot lid so cover those areas with something that won't mark when you remove it or wrap pieces of foam around the straps at the contact points.
i have been given the job of getting a family friend\'s polo up to roadworthy condition, as it has been woefully neglected over the past year or so!
its had an MOT and failed, amongst other things, on an unbonded rear bush on o/s wishbone - my question is, can you just change the bushes or do you have the whole wishbone as it comes complete with bushes?
thanks
steve Read more
btt - any help gratefully recieved!
Just a short note, I happen to live in West Oxfordshire and over the past few weeks signs have been appearing for the 'mini in the Park' day, well last sunday was the day and lo and behold there were Minis everywhere. From a Austin Cooper S to the latest offering from BMW, rally prepped versions to fully customised, all in mint condition.
A sight to behold.....20 or 30 in a row on the small country lanes around where I live. Brought back memories of learning to drive in a Mini (WHW 474T where are you?). My 3.5 year old daughter loved watching and counting them.
I hope the 10000+ participants enjoyed it...I was simply a bystander and not involved at all. Any backroomers there?
Ian
ps the only car I saw stuck broken down at the side of the road was a brand new 03 reg BMW MINI! Read more
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Yes mate, sounds like your voltage reg. could be a bit flakey. Either that or a diode going. Maybe a dry joint somewhere in the alternator.
The alternator on my Cav 1.7TD (Isuzu engine) has packed in twice; first the bearings went at about 150k miles, then the voltage regulator a couple of weeks later. A geezer in a little workshop in my local town put a new one in for £28. It was another £28 for the bearings. A bargain, since a new alternator was to be £179 exchange from the Vauxhall dealer. The only problem is getting the thing off the car (2 drive belts and 2 oil pipes to disconnect), but it's pretty easy once you've done it a couple of times. Watch out for the vacuum pump; it's full of oil when you take it off!