March 2004

The Stanton Man

Hi Folks this is my first dabble at this forum stuff!!!!

I have just had my W reg 2lt diesel Rover 75 serviced at rover (at a cost of £300) and they said the MAF sensor needs replacing which will cost £270!!! so in the intrest of saving some dosh i have the following questions
1.can i buy one of these?
2 where is it on the engine?
3 can it be changed by a diy'er?
4 doe's it need to be set up on one of rover's computer things
or will the car's onboard engine managment system detect it?
5. what will happen to the engine if i do nothing?
The rover people said that it is disconected.
I have recently bought this car, so someone else must have disconnected it. I presume there is no warning light on because it is disconnected.

thanks any help appreciated
Read more

DL

Fiddly old job to replace, aren't they?

Glad you 'avoided' the dealer.

Why did you take it to a dealer for a service?
--
groups.msn.com/honestjohn - Pictures say a thousand words.....

Forum Mazda MPV
volvoman

Tested a 2.0l diesel Mazda MPV yesterday and was very surprised at its acceleration and the overall ride quality. It's quite a bit smaller than the Hyundai Trajet I drove a few weeks ago and felt like it. The interior was nicely finished and not too fussy. Standard equipment was very good and offered everything I want/need. The sunroof was very nice and a bonus in a car with air-con.

I was, however, a little disappointed with the seating.

At around 5'8" tall I found the head/ shoulder room available in the middle outside seats very limited. Also the various seating configurations were limited by the fact that none of the seats swivelled and strangely, the rearmost 2 seats apparently would not fold flat in the same was as the middle ones. I can't understand this at all since it greatly reduces luggage space unless you take the rear 2 out - something I'd prefer not to have to do.

As regards price (and with no haggling) the ex demo 53 plate silver model I drove was offered at £15.5k (£500 off screen price) and a 6k model with tow bar for £15k (again £500 OSP). He'd do a new one with metallic for £18.2k (£2.2k off list) but suggested the ex demo models were much better value. Drive the Deal would do it new for about £500 less.

As regards the petrol v. diesel argument and despite my low annual mileage of 4-6k, he advised me against the former. He said they were not popular, would depreciate much faster and would be harder to shift in the future. I'm not sure if all that holds water though and would be interested in anyone else's views on that.

One other thing - I noticed a sort of vibration through the clutch pedal when changing gear. It was almost as if something had come loose inside and was knocking. I had no problems finding any of the gears though and heard no alarming noises. Anyone got any idea what the cause of this might be?

Overall, a nice car with some nice touches - especially the sun roof and rear sliding doors. All let down a bit by the lack of passenger headroom and infelixble rearmost seats. Read more

volvoman

Hi Hugo - how are you me old chum?? (drop me an e.mail when you've a minute or 2 - be good to know what you're up to).

Not looking to P/ex the Volvo - have decided I'll give it to my younger brother as he drives a 940 Wentworth which although 3 years younger than mine has done more miles and suffered more problems than mine including 2 blown turbos. It's a bit like the southern states of the US around here - we like to keep things in the family :)

Forum Oil Brand.
AZ

Coming back on the subject oil/oil additives,which paricular brand of oil do BR rate for diesel cars. Some people say Shell Helix tends to make to make there cars run quieter,whereas other barnds have opposite effect. What brands are good. Read more

Adam {P}

Hi all,
Seeing as I seem to be the one who has most accidents (and by that I mean things going wrong with the car - not crashes) I feel I should brighten up your day with this rather funny story.

I was driving home yesterday from picking my mum up and on my way to work. Upon negotiatng a mini-roundabout there is this terrific bang and a horrible scraping noise. Look in the mirror and "hmmm - that looks like my spare wheel" It was. As I had turned right, the tyre had fallen out and the tray was dragging across the floor. To make matters worse, there was no-where to pull over safely as there wre bollards so I pulled in as soon as I could, legged it down to this roundabout where some guy had stopped to block the traffic, I picked up this tyre, waved a thank-you to the guy and walked off. How that must have looked.

On a more serious note, I'm sure by now you have guessed that on my car, the wheel is held in a tray underneath so when I got home (fortunately, this happened around the corner) I looked and will now try to explain in a sloppy way what was wrong. Holding the tray in place from the boot is a bolt with a hook on the end fastened into the boot. I shouild mention here that my car is a Mark 4 Fiesta so you all know. Anyway - the week before, my Dad and I had put a new wheel there but this is one occassion where tightening the nut is bad. Very bad. THe bolt is fixed in with 2 plastic - yes PLASTIC rivets so when you turn the bolt, you a putting a force on both of them. These had completely snapped so the bolt was moving up and down in the boot every time we hit a bump and eventually worked loose. As you can imagine, this is quite dangerous so my Dad put 2 proper bolts and some loctite on the bolt so the car will fall to pieces before that comes loose.

Maybe it's just my stupidity but should you own a Mark 4 Fiesta, this is something to watch out for as I can imagine it would have been less than funny should it have happened the day before on the M58.

Many thanks

Adam
--
"Ah...beer - my only weakness - my achilles heel if you will" Read more

Adam {P}

Alright then - maybe that is a little worse than the Fiesta :-)
--
"Ah...beer - my only weakness - my achilles heel if you will"

arnold2

From January next year, the Euro 4 emissions regulations come in to force in the EU - so quite a few cars are getting new/updated engines.

What I have noticed is that none of the manufacturers are (unsuprisingly!) letting on which of their current models DON'T meet the specs, and will have to be changed !

For backroom readers, here's which VW engines DON'T meet the specs and have to changed by December !!:

Seems the petrol engines are generally OK, but the diesels aren't:
1.9 Sdi engines
1.9 Tdi engines with 90, 100 (note, there is a Euro 4 100Bhp, as well as the recent 105Bhp in the Golf V, but we haven't got it yet), 110 and 130 bhp

Wonder how many other manufacturers' engines aren't Euro 4 .... Read more

PR {P}

It is only for cars sold AFTER January next year.
I suppose you can deduce from their own literature which are and which arent, since they trumpet the fact that some are already complient, those which they dont are not!

Crinkly Dave

Hi
A friend has a 1.9 diesel with a squeaking and shiny alternator belt. It looks a little tight in there. Has anyone any idea what needs to be removed to gain access.
Is it worthwhile doing the power steering and air conditioning belt at the same time.
Read more

elekie&a/c doctor

I would definitely change all drive belts at same time,(2 belts on this model?)The job is a lot easier from under car with plastic engine undertray removed.

bananaman

I have got a 2002 model A4 Avant.
Several months back the rear window was broken. It was repaired very ably by a well known windscreen replacement company. Trouble is some of the glass fragments are still stuck at the bottom of the tailgate. Said company tried to extract it but glass is still rattling around in tailgate.
This is very annoying. Is there any way of getting the glass fragments out? Read more

Altea Ego

Assume this was toughened glass amd is in small cubes?

The only way I know is to gain access to the insides of the tailgate by taking off the internal trim or through some other access place. Take a powerful vacuum cleaner, and somehow fit a flexible(ish) tube to the suction pipe. About 4/5 feet of hosepipe is good. Make it airtight at the vacuum cleaner pipe end (tape cloth round it and stuff it in the pipe). You can then manipulate your sucking pipe around in the cavities of the tailgate. The small bits will disapear up the hosepipe, the larger bits will stick to the end

smokie

Mrs smokie uses listening books on cassette to help her journey to work pass quicker.

Tonight she had a tape which was going slower then faster, and now it won\'t eject. It\'s from the same set which unravelled itself inside the player a few nights ago (different tape though).

I tried ejecting, the tape moves upwards but not outwards. Although I can grip it with pliers, it seems to be locked in position. Would removing the unit help?

Any ideas how to remove the tape pronto, before the library fines start to mount??? Is this likely to be a fault with the tape or something with the player?

Car is a Focus. Read more

smokie

Thanks Timp, I tried that one last night. Chappie at wife's work removed the player today but said the unit has anti tamper screws so he's taken it home to do tonight.

I wasn't averse to doing it, but as someone else volunteered... :-)

Will update tomorrow, and buy a cleaner tape!!

stevie070

Hi,
My mate has not seen his year old transit connect for the last 6 weeks as it has been stuck in the local Ford dealer for repairs.
The fault is intermitent yellow glow plug light and then lack of power as it goes in limp mode.
Ford have changed the fuel pump, put 2 lots of injectors in, new ecu and reprogrammed the keys twice,still no luck.
I know there is a lot of problems with the mondeo tdci engine but has anybody on here had problems with the van tdci.
I think the engine is the 1.8 90 horse tdci.
Any help would be great as he loves the van but getting well peed off with ford and about to get rid and buy another make.
Thanks,
Steve.
Read more

sp30

ok im a tree surgeon and recently our gang had to dismantle a large ash tree that was posing a hazard to the users of the road it was situated on. we had 800,400,200 yard warnings and trafic controll warnings too. the amount of verbal abuse and gestures was incredible!
i was in the tree but the lads on the lolipops were amazed at the publics attitude to been held up.
has anyone got any views why as a people we are so wound up? Read more

Mark (RLBS)

An authority has a certain amount of money to spend on the roads. They don't like spending it in the early part of the year in case they don't have money for something else or somethign important towards the end of the year.

However, any money not spent by the end of the year is taken back.

WIP accruals count as money spent.

Therefore, towards the end of the FY there tends to be an awful lot of work started, the entire budget for which is then accrued as it is work in progress, even thought they may not have the manpower to progress it very fast, or even at all, at that time.