November 2003
I have a Rover 416i (97 R) for my sins and the problem is the heating controls. The dial is numbered from 1 to 4 but it only works on 4 and i dont know why. I have tried to listen to the fan when the engine is off but nothing until number 4 and its annoying as i dont want the air blasting out all the time but it would be good if there was some air fanned out as this would help to keep the windscreen clear.
Any suggestions would be helpful (except get a new car!!!)
Thanks. Read more
Thanks to peterb for the list.
How many of these cars have you owned ?
2004 Fiat Panda
2003 Renault Megane II
2002 Peugeot 307
2001 Alfa Romeo 147
2000 Toyota Yaris
1999 Ford Focus
1998 Alfa Romeo 156
1997 Renault Scenic
1996 Fiat Brava / Bravo
1995 Fiat Punto
1994 Ford Mondeo
1993 Volks Wagen Golf
1992 Nissan Micra
1991 Renault Clio
1990 Citroen XM
1989 Fiat Tipo
1988 Peugeot 405
1987 Opel Omega
1986 Ford Granada
1985 Opel Kadett
1984 Fiat Uno
1983 Audi 100
1982 Renault 9
1981 Ford Escort
1980 Lancia Delta
1979 Simca-Chrysler Horizon
1978 Porsche 928
1977 Rover 3500
1975 - 76 Simca 1307-1308 ( Chrysler Alpine )
1974 Citroen CX
1973 Mercedes 450
1972 Audi 80
1971 Fiat 127
1970 Citroen GS
1969 Fiat 128
1968 Peugeot 504
1967 NSU Ro80
1966 Fiat 124
1965 Renault 16
1964 Austin 1800
1963 Rover 2000
I'll start
1999 Ford Focus .... what i drive now
1984 Fiat Uno .... 10 years good serice in family
1975 - 76 Simca 1307-1308 ( Chrysler Alpine ) .... cheap run about
1970 Citroen GS .... my first car, GS X2, dodgy hydraulics
1964 Austin 1800 .... 20 quid 'disposable' car
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Last Year, Andrew English refused to award the 307 any points because he thought the pedals were too close together.
Would like to hear an owners view on this...
Do alloys make any improvement to perfornce, handling, ride or mpg on a 1.8 LX Focus estate? Read more
Many thanks for the range of replys overall the opinion appears to lean towards alloys being of only marginal benefit apart from cosmetic which is a personal call, which was HJ's opinion. I'll stick with my steels at this time.
After a few miles in my 1998-Daewoo Lanos (30,000 miles) a noise starts, getting louder and louder, seemingly coming from my o/s front wheel. It is very loud at 30/40 mph (enough to hear it with tape recorder playing loud music) but the faster I go the less noise it makes.
It's as if someone was shaking a giant baby rattle somewhere near the front wheel/under the bonnet. I thought it might be the gearbox but I'd say it's more likely to be one of the wheel bearings although I've never experienced either problem before with other cars. It had been intermittent in the last few weeks but is now permanent after 10 minutes.
If it is the wheel bearings, it is preferable to change both sets at the same time ? (o/s and n/s wheels). Is this noise consistent with the one of worn out wheel bearings ? Is it urgent and what sort of bill should I expect ?
Thanks for your help, Catalyst Read more
Well, I was totally stunned with the garage's findings but they seem to be right as there hasn't been any funny noise since they checked it yesterday. After doing a full VCR (everything OK) they realised through driving the car that the noise came from inside the dashboard and was caused by something flapping loudly against some metallic casing, possibly ashtray casing or sthg similar. The creaking was due to too much movement from the console when driving. They padded the whole thing, charged me £50 (cheap considering the time they spent over it) and all seems fine now. I still can't believe it, it was so loud at times. Anyhow thanks for your help
I noticed that the temperature gauge on a friends Zafira has a very slow reaction time. However, I don?t want to check Thermostat operation unless the situation is abnormal.
Can any 2.0 Litre Diesel users comment on the following experience?
CASE 1 - Outside temperature around 0 degrees, steady urban driving conditions, initially with full hot air blow to clear frost.
a) First temperature gauge movement noticed after 6 miles.
b) Normal temperature reading (88 degrees on the gauge) after 12 miles.
c) Full blast heating alone knocked the gauge reading down to about 70 degrees at a steady 40MPH. (just registering on the guage).
CASE 2 - - Outside temperature around 9 degrees, steady urban driving conditions, no fan required.
a) First temperature gauge movement noticed after 3 miles.
b) Normal temperature reading (88 degrees on the gauge) after 6 miles.
n.b. On my old fashioned Peugeot 405, the thermostat opening is visibly noticeable on the gauge, but this has never been the case on the Zafira.
Comments welcome.
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Well, after convincing myself that there must be a problem, I changed the thermostat. Result......no noticeable change in performance! With an outside temp of 0 deg this morning the gauge didn't register at all after 7 miles. However, the heater provided warm air relatively quickly.
It seems that the diesel engine just takes a fair while to warm up. However, I am still surprised that the temp gauge takes so long to register. It seems to work normally when full temp is eventually reached.
Anyway, thanks for the advice and full marks to the guy who suggested that situation was normal! The difference in temp gauge, and hose temp change characteristics when compared to a Renault Clio 1.9D had conviced me otherwise; to no avail.
As a follow up to euro car of the year choose the car you think was most deserving of the title from the following. Thanks to "peterb" for the list.
2004 Fiat Panda
2003 Renault Megane II
2002 Peugeot 307
2001 Alfa Romeo 147
2000 Toyota Yaris
1999 Ford Focus
1998 Alfa Romeo 156
1997 Renault Scenic
1996 Fiat Brava / Bravo
1995 Fiat Punto
1994 Ford Mondeo
1993 Volks Wagen Golf
1992 Nissan Micra
1991 Renault Clio
1990 Citroen XM
1989 Fiat Tipo
1988 Peugeot 405
1987 Opel Omega
1986 Ford Granada
1985 Opel Kadett
1984 Fiat Uno
1983 Audi 100
1982 Renault 9
1981 Ford Escort
1980 Lancia Delta
1979 Simca-Chrysler Horizon
1978 Porsche 928
1977 Rover 3500
1975 - 76 Simca 1307-1308 ( Chrysler Alpine )
1974 Citroen CX
1973 Mercedes 450
1972 Audi 80
1971 Fiat 127
1970 Citroen GS
1969 Fiat 128
1968 Peugeot 504
1967 NSU Ro80
1966 Fiat 124
1965 Renault 16
1964 Austin 1800
1963 Rover 2000
I would choose the Rover 2000. and what a superb car this was with the V8 3500cc engine
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As a variation on this theme, and given the vast amount of knowledge among the BR contributors, what was the most unworthy choice and what SHOULD have won in any particular year?
eg What should have won instead of the Renault 9?, Opel Kadett?, Chrysler Horizon? and Alpine?,any of the FIATs(!) Surely there must have been more inspiring cars in those years? Why is there no BMW on the list? If the Nissan Micra can make it to the list why no other Japanese cars? (Oops - except Yaris)Is it all down to the balance of voting panel - lots of French and Italians by the look of it!
Following on from my rant in the non - pursuit thread and not wishing to hi jack it , what does the team think of the report in todays Telegraph which says number of abandoned cars on the streets has soared by 27% in a year.293,000 cars,an increase of 63,000 over previous year at a cost to the taxpayer (thats you and me folks) of £14.6 million thats £49.83 per car.
What I want to know is why the any abandoned cars cannot be removed more quickly ie before they become the usual scorched lumps of metal on melted asphalt surrounded by broken glass.
It must be worth the saving in costs of fire engine, police time etc to remove them straight away. They can do a removal PDQ if you park on a yellow. Read more
Bigger problem relatively for Rover unless BMW took on these liabilities for all those high-volume 80's and 90's vehicles.
Hi,
I need to replace the front wishbone bushes on my Pug 306TD 1993.
Rather than replace the complete wishbone, I have bought the two replacement bushes (a "P-bush" and "O-bush" for each side).
Any tips on doing this job much appreciated.
Cheers
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Thats exactly what I did!
It was a pig of a job trying to persuade the wishbone to pop-out of the swivel joint.Ended up opening all bolts, before it finally decided to come out.Had to be careful not to pull out the driveshaft, to avoid an oil spill.
P-bushes were badly worn (1-2 centimetres of sloppy play!). Front o-bushes were cracked.
Had better things to do on the the weekend, so returned the bushes for a pair of complete wishbones. Putting in the new wishbone wasn't too bad, but had to lever the P-bushes in at an angle so that they would align with the holes.
Thanks all
A straight answer to a straight question (?).
Do leaking injectors lead to compression loss and presumably lower power output?
This is a follow on question to an earlier query where my replacement engine 1905cc Citroen is an LS6 rather than a DB9, which is at least 10% less powerful. (Don't think I've any comeback though as I asked for a replacement 1900cc BX engine and got the earlier series!). Read more
Yeah, leak off pipes give a fair bit of trouble, whereas injectors generally don't.
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groups.msn.com/honestjohn - Pictures say a thousand words.....
Can someone please tell me whether the not-too-successful Dunlop TD tyres fitted to early 'XJ40' Jaguars were abandoned when the 4.0/3.2 litre engines were introduced - or was it done when the catalytic converter was fitted as standard?
i.e. were some non-cat 4.0's produced with inch-sized wheels?
Thanks
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That's "bangernomics" for you Mark!
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groups.msn.com/honestjohn - Pictures say a thousand words.....