February 2004
This tip comes from Paul Gibbons in an MB W124 discussion group, with his permission. His disclaimer is "this opinion has been formed over 33 years of tinkering with cars, not cast-iron facts passed down from on high". If he's right, it's very useful; if he's wrong, I'm sure we'll hear from some of the technical experts in the Back Room.
"To diagnose where the oil is going, find a long hill and get up to a reasonable speed at the top of it, say 120mph (alright 50 then). Drive down the hill on a trailing throttle.
At the bottom put your foot down and watch for smoke from the exhaust.
If it smokes a lot in this situation it's almost certainly the valve guide seals (but check the PCV plumbing just in case).
If it smokes when accelerating most of the time, it's probably going past the rings." Read more
I took my 98 Daewoo Lanos 1.6 SX for an oil change a few days ago and noticed after that a problem with the idle speed, in that it is fine when I first start the car up but then revs high when idle (at 1 500 instead of 900/1000).
Also from time to time in the last week or so the \'engine control indicator\' (aka the \'service engine soon\' light) comes up. The instruction book
is not very clear on that but states that \'if the indicator illuminates during normal running, a fault has occured. The engine control indicator light permanently on indicates fault which may damage vehicle\'. But it later says that \'if the engine control indicator comes on briefly and then goes out again this is normal and does not indicate a system fault\'
So, what is this light about and how does it work ? If all is normal, why does it come on ? (how does it know it needs a service ?
In the 2 1/2 years I\'ve has the car it had never come on before.
I am experiencing trouble with the idle speed on my 98 Daewoo Lanos, it is revving at 1 500/1 600 when idle once the car has warmed up. I will take it to the garage next month, but can it wait that long, what damages to the engine can this sort of faults cause ?
I had the misfortune of a clutch cover -to- flywheel bolt falling out and being projected through the internal gearbox case into the final-drive area. Gears weren\'t damaged to any extent but lots of oil got in the bellhousing. Garage (independent) got a replacement g/b case and \"degreased and sanded-down\" the flywheel before installing brand new Borg&Beck clutch and refitting everything. But right from picking up the car I\'ve had a bad clutch judder. Informed the garage, they said they\'d noticed it too, but leave it for a few weeks and see if it bedded-in. Two full months later and it\'s just as bad. Garage had another test drive and agree it judders and haven\'t mentioned any other cause like engine mounts.
They seem willing to take the box off and replace the clutch and refit everything free of charge ONCE, but are loath to do it without me getting another flywheel for them to fit at the same time, because they \"are worried it\'s the flywheel that must be ingrained with oil, and another clutch would go the same way\" and aren\'t keen on doing a free strip and refit yet ANOTHER time.
Their reasoning is that in all the years they\'ve fitted B&B clutches, they\'ve never had one malfunction like this.
Trouble is, a new flywheel is £335, and breakers are loath to separate one from an engine, which suggests paying out for a complete scrapped engine.
Could I get the existing flywheel skimmed or something?
Has anybody heard of a flywheel getting so ingrained with oil that even after \"degreasing and sanding down\" it would cause bad clutch judder on a brand new top-quality clutch? (and over 1000 miles of \'bedding in\' allowance)
Or is that just completely not feasible, and it MUST be the clutch itself that\'s faulty or somehow been fitted incorrectly??
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Cyd{P} The mainshaft is inside the gearbox connected to the input shaft/primary shaft which holds the clutch.misaligned clutch is I think right but tend to think it`s caused by either of what I mentioned before.? But may be wrong
Hi,
I\'m about to service my car, and I was just wondering 2 things about the distributor and rotor arm.
Firstly, what are the change intervals of the distributor & rotor arm? When should they be changed?
Secondly, some people have told me to just clean the contacts with a bit of sand paper, but i think that this may cause arking of the spark. Someone else told me to just rub the rotor arm on the tyre.
Can anyone help?!
Peter. Read more
I wouldn't mess about. Europarts do a cap for £4-7, and the distributor arm for £2.75 + vat. Replace both and enjoy 5 years of so trouble from this potentially weak area. Remember this is nearly a 10 year old car. The secret in running old cars is to slightly over maintain them. Especially in 'weak' areas, like electrics and fan belts. Then they are fine. The £10 looks great value when your car breaks down going to that wedding, or on Dartmoor at 3am.
Isn't oil paid for in US dollars?
And doesn't the pound buy about 35% more dollars than it did a few weeks ago?
Shouldn't our fuel prices have dropped? (ok, maybe only by 35% of 20% of the total price)
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Some time back there was a topic on why the price of oil is still high,when the $ is low against the pound. maybe this is the reason why. refer to link. news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3488310.stm
Hello All,
I’ve got a 1973 MG Midget, which is sooner or later due for its MOT. One failure point that I know of (I’m sure however there’s a lot I don’t know about), is the lack of horn. For some reason, the previous owner took out the entire horn assembly.
This is a *really* stupid question, but can I get away with fixing a ‘vintage style’ horn to the car (the one with a squeezy rubber ball on the end) to comply with the MOT requirements?
Does anyone know how this stands legally?
Many thanks for your impending words of wisdom!
DB
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I recall they used to have a similar 'thing' with sound effects of a .50 Browning machine gun, rocket launcher, death ray etc. Ideal for those road-rage moments...
I am in the process of looking for a replacement car and need your help!
I have about £4-£6k to spend, but need something large (saloon or estate) which is cheap to run (as I average 25,000 miles a year). I have been thinking about either a diesel or LPG converted car, but would like some advice about what makes/models I should be looking at!
Thanks, in advance, for your help!
Sanj2010 Read more
Otherwise what about an Omega big and cheap, the diesel engine
is a BMW unit.
Vectra estate is a reasonable workhorse with the diesel engine>>
I wouldn't, see the car by car breakdown for these two, bad eggs..
Does anyone know what the green spherical vacuum reservoir on a VW Golf actually does?Mine has no pipes to or from it,and also hasnt got the non-return valve which is supposed to be connected between the sphere and a pipe from the inlet manifold.Will this affect the cars performance?Car runs ok apart from what seems to be carb icing symptoms in cold/wet weather. Read more
Depending on the engine type this reservoir has two different functions.On some earlier Polo versions it was used for ignition timing control and then it was used for sustaining the operation of the choke vacuum pulldown unit.It is this latter function which is mostly seen now.However if the pulldown unit itself is in good condition and correctly connected to a vacuum supply the choke system will still work tolerably well without the green sphere.Basically its one further complication added to the over complex Pierburg carburetter.
Car:- Daewoo Lanos 1.6 SX 1998
The gas (all of 8 litres) has evaporated from my air con system in less than 2 months (on a 5-yr old car). A reputable local garage/dealer partially recharged it and did a dye test and asked me to bring it back to them 2 weeks later. In the meantime,the air con worked but again it emptied after a month (so there\'s definitely a leak somewhere) but they tell me that the dye is fine and theat there\'s no trace of a leak.
Given the low value of the car, I am not sure it\'s worth asking them to investigate further but nonetheless I\'d like to know, it might just be worth it if it\'s less than £200 to fix it.
What do you think the problem might be ?
(I\'ll add that there is a loud metallic noise coming out of the system when there\'s gas in it on switching it on)
Thanks for yr help Read more
The same idea is used all over the manufacturing industry - especially in white goods such as vacuum cleaners, washing machines and the like.
If they sold you one that lasted 18months you'd complain, possibly get it fixed for free, and not buy another by the same manufacturer = Manufacturer loses out
If they sold you one that lasted 20 years and never failed once, you'd probably go back to the same manufacturer, but only after 20 years = Manufacturer loses out
If they sold you one that lasted 5-6 years, you'd shrug your shoulders and think "well it didnt do great, but it lasted a while, and i fancy that new version anyway", and maybe go back to the same manufacturer = Manufacturer wins
It's all about how soon they can let it break without adversely affecting their sales/reputation
I thought you backroomers might be interested in Australian auction prices. This morning I attended a fleet auction of ex Government vehicles with a few private ones tacked on the end. Examples of prices were:
Oct 01 Toyota Camry Conquest, 21,766 kilometres, 3.0lt, 1.8lt, auto, air, silver AU$19,000
Dec 00 Toyota Corolla Ascent saloon, 54481 kilometres,1.8, white, auto, air AU$16,000
Sept 02 Holden Commodore Executive VY saloon, 3.8 V6, 65,000 kilometres, mica, auto, air, ABS AU$21,500
Jan 01 Landrover Discovery, auto turbo 2.5, 74,000 kilometres, air AU$33,000 (that surprised me)
My son bought a Oct 01 Holden Commodore, 3.8, auto, air, abs, white, 28,000 kilometres for AU$20,250
All these cars had books and guaranteed clear title. Amongst the roughies at the end was a private vendor Volvo 850 station wagon, auto 133,599 kilometres. It got $15,000. That is about right for here but very different from the UK. Read more
People keep their cars much longer here than they do in the UK. Ten years or 160,000 kilometres is quite usual. Most people don't judge other people's status by the brand of their vehicle or by how new it is. The average car in the street is a good bit older than in the UK. I keep my cars till the wheels drop off. I have a 1999 Ford Laser (rebadged Mazda 323) and a 1978 Holden Kingswood. I got the Kingswood at a fleet auction in 1980 and it hasn't needed any major repairs so I have kept it. It get used everyday. Even by Australian standards that is getting a bit old.
Insurance is cheaper also. Vehicle registration includes 3rd party personal insurance and I pay about AU$450 per year for each vehicle. Fully comp insurance on the Laser is $600 per year with full no claims bonus and two students as named drivers. 20 and 22 years old.
Browse
This sounds about right for older cars where a high depression in the air intake system can cause oil to be sucked past the inlet valve stems. I'm not so sure about newer cars that may have devices to prevent high intake depression in the interest of reduced emissions.
For example, 25 years ago some carburetted cars had little poppet valves within the throttle butterfly valve to reduce depression on the over-run so as to lessen emissions.
Flatlanders like myself who have no local hills could try sharply decelerating on the flat and in 3rd gear from, say, 70 to 30 mph and then accelerating again. This should give the same results, i.e. smoky exhaust if the inlet valve stem seals are badly worn.
All this applies only to petrol engines of course. Closing the throttle on a diesel interrupts the fuel supply but still allows full air flow.