March 2004
Hi,
I have just taken delivery of a new Mondeo TDCi 130. The manual says the idle speed should be 750rpm, I have only seen it adle at this once. Normally it idles between 850 - 900 rpm... Anyone who can confirm this?
Apart from that, a very nice car, with all the gizmos, and an excelent price!!
Cheers
Neil T
SEAT Leon TDi 150, Toledo 20VT Sport, Various Montegos... Read more
Just seen my first one in the flesh and...yuk, yuk, yuk. What a truly horendous looking car and one that does no justice to the Bentley tradition.
I can assure you that I won't be buying one. Read more
Saw DB5 in the flesh when an acquaintance, in his remaining few days at liberty, gave someone a lift to work early one morning. Plumes of spray from the wheels - grinning madly. However, it wasn't his. As not many DBs about in Castle Bromwich, his collar was felt soon after. Thought Bentley looked very suitable, but not for the likes of us.
Have just bought myself a Mondeo TDCI 130LX Estate (53 plate).
I pick it up on Friday.
When i had the old shape Mondeo, I found out long after puchasing it that I should have had a Red master key.
Should I be looking for something similar with this car. Read more
Thanks for the heads-up on that. Ford don't list a basic nav system in the brochure, so I rang the dealer to clarify and you are right. Not the bargain it first seemed.
My father has a Toyota Camry 1984 turbo diesel with 265,000 miles. Just recently, the oil warning light was initially going off and on. I checked the oil and it was full. Now, it is on constantly in the town in slow traffic whilst the light goes out at 40mph .
What could this be? The oil is full, and yet the light goes on.
Any suggestions much appreciated. Read more
Another possibility is the combination of a worn engine which needs more flow thru it to produce a given pressure reading and a worn oil pump that can't produce that pressure. At higher revs the pump output is higher and out goes the light. In traffic, warm oil + low rpm, light comes on. It isn't likely to be terminal and it is obviously best to check the pressure switch first but my small bet would be on a combination of engine and oil pump wear. Good luck in any event!
My wife is considering a used Pajero around the £4-£5000 mark. I was surprised at the MPG figure on the Car byCar Breakdown pages (22MPG for the diesel) Anyone got any experience of running an older import ( around the 93K year\reg), good or bad? Thanks in advance. Read more
I have imported many Pajeros from Japan and would say they are about as tough and reliable a vehicle as you could ever hope for.
The best driving one is the V6 petrol,16-20 MPG and the best diesel is the 2.8,with fuel consumption around 21-25 MPG.The Pajero is a better kitted version of the UK badged Shogun and will usually have done a lot less work than an equivilant UK car and be in much better overall condition.
The 2.8 is a cam chain engine,the 2.5 a belt.There are very few recurring problems,water pumps can leak (£100 fitted),and a seal in the diesel pump can leak (£250 fitted).As with everything,buy the best you can afford,then keep it maintained,oil changes,coolant changes and grease all the grease nipples.Do that and they can be just about 'bullet proof'.
My Dad is on about getting a cheap run-around to leave at his place in France. Thing is though the car would be stood still in the barn for up to 6 months at times over the winter, and I don't think this is particulaly healthy for any car, if indeed it will start at all. He seems to think modern cars can take it in their stride. What sort of preparation would you do to a car if you were leaving it for such time? are certain cars better suited than others (quite fancy the idea of leaving an old MX5 out there...)
Thanks for your help. Read more
Cat litter for instance is a dessicant and cheper than silica gel. Leave a few big baskets of it inside the car one on each seat. Spray an anti-fungal agent on the upholstery.
Clean out the engine compartment particularly ledges with water hose and detergent obviously being careful where you point the hose. At this time of year there is still a lot of silt on the roads which will corrode the vehicle -I've learned that from bitter experience. Run engine and dry out water then spray with WD40 or better lithium or silicone oil.
Seal under the car with polythene sheet taped to the chassis where it won't strip paint. Place a couple of baskets of dessicant in the engine compartment.
Anti-freezes have differnt grades of corrosion inhibition so look for one with good corrosion inhibition qualities. Use a coolant flush to clean out contaminants first.
Treat seals with silicone grease.
Hi folks,
My dad owns a 1999 Hyundai Lantra. He's very happy with the car, but is intent on replacing it over the next year or so because it's "about time". He seems certain that it will fail catasrophically at about 70,000 miles, because "Hyundais do".
He had a Hyundai before which did in fact go badly wrong at 70k (crack in cylinder head) but is this to be expected? Does anyone have tales of Hyundais which have gone on to do starship mileage? Or which have started to become uneconomical at 70k?
My personal feeling is that this is completely unfounded and that it has as good a chance of getting to 150k or above as any other car.
Or do Hyundais really not last long at all?
Thanks!
Mark Read more
"1 million indians cannot be wrong"
Well they certainly got it right with food, so I hope they know as much about cars.
I'll pass this all on - thanks folks!
-Mark
Recently suffered failure of the throttle body on my wife's 1999 1.6 MK4 Golf. Result - one extremely hefty ~£450 bill. As the car is out of warranty - VW weren't interested in my unhappinness. Even when I pursued VW GB directly and asked them to consider it as a goodwill claim. No dice, as not complete main dealer service history.
The interesting thing was that the repairs were carried out by a main dealer - and even they were surprised that Milton Keynes had this part in stock - and not just one unit either. This suggests to me that this part is a regular failure on this engine. Anyone else had experience of this on the VW 1.6 (8v) engine? Would be really interested.
Thanks
Read more
I had problems with my 1.6S S Reg which were , I'm pretty certain, down to this.
The car suffered from eratic tickover and was sorted by the VW dealer cleaning some kind of sensor hole or something in the throttle body. The problem returned 12 months later and this time a different VW garage told me that the previous VW garage were talking rubbish.
It never got sorted and was passed on to the next owner when I part exchanged the car.
I know we all have a poke at the fun & frollics at MG Rover, but lets hope they can survive ....
otherwise the largest UK car manufacturer (not foreign owned) will be TVR ..... Read more
www.channel4.com/4car/gallery/B/bmw/1-series/1-ser...l
has a nice gallery of shots;
Roadtest on:
www.channel4.com/4car/news/news-story.jsp?news_id=...7
and
www.fleetnewsnet.co.uk/newshome/home_fullarticle/?...1
reminds me of Alfa's, for some reason .... but rather Ugly exterior - 'challenging' !
.... still, interior looks nice- nicer than the Golf V, and with the nicer 2.0tdi engines Golf's being so silly expensive (£18K-what planet are VW on?!), I think it will do rather well ..... Read more
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Sounds then that 6th gear is an overdrive, which must be good for motorway cruising and economy.
There can't be much difference in ratio between 5th in either 'box.