May 2004
I actually have a birds nest in my car, in between the bumper and the radiator. It\'s well hidden and I can\'t get to it without jacking up the car and removing the bottom (renault megane sport tourer). I noticed it because I see the same bird come out of nowhere every time I start the car.
Question is should I just leave it there? I\'m sort of a nature lover but this is taking the pink fluffy dice Read more
hello
the wife's car now has 250000 km and upto recently has had minimal oil consumption (1/2 litre between oil changes done every 15000 kms). however over the last 7000 kms it has consumed 3/4 litres of oil. there are no leaks and i can't see any obvious blue smoke from the exhaust. taking off the inlet rubber to the turbo shows an oily film with 3 to 4 drops of oil sitting in the turbo inlet. when moved between finger and thumb the turbo shows movement radially but not having a reference i can't say if it's too much. could the bearings/seals in the turbo be letting the oil past? where's the best place to buy a replacement and should it be a recon unit or new? any ideas on the price of the turbo? - i can fit it myself. otherwise the car runs well so if anyone has any other ideas to explain the increase i'd welcome your comments. thanks in advance for any help. Read more
st thanks for your suggestion and apologies for replying so late (been travelling). no i’ve not changed the oil brand – i use the same shell i’ve always used since the guarantee ended and i started to look after the car and i’ve had no problems at all until now. what about the possibility of this breather being clogged ? apparently it’s common on turbo diesels to start to lose oil if it becomes clogged – so i’m told. The only trouble is i can’t find it on the car. the haynes manual mentions it (no photos) and says it’s a no maintenance item. surely if the oil is getting past the turbo, albeit slightly at the moment, it's only a matter of time before they let go big time, usually on the motorway, burn all the oil and scrap the engine (i've seen it happen often on renault 21's diesel. any other higher miles astra owners experienced this ? regards
You can't buy one used, 'cos they didn't sell many new, well...
2001 Y reg Ex lease, 1 owner 34,000 miles, 2.0 Lusso, metalic red, few light scratches on the boot lid, sat nav, leather & lots more...
Sold in Blackbushe auction today £5,800, value or what!!??
VB Read more
Would a 50%antifreeze/coolant mix with water lower the running temp.Also when using a high octane petrol such as shell optimax in an old conventional engine--1949standard vanguard--is the running temp raised?.My block may be sludged up ,the rad seems ok,does anyone know of a stronge internal cleaner ?
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"Antifreeze actually conducts heat less well than water - so increasing the antifreeze concentration will increase the running temperature. 50% is as far as you want to go. For cool running and summer use you could go with 25%.
Alternatively, for summer use only, you could use water with corrosion inhibitor (no antifreeze)."
Question for Aprilla, purely out of interest and for my own education. During the aborted start for the Monaco GP, one of the cars brewed up a bit and started to spit coolant onto the track. Now this coolant was a nice bright flourescent green colour.
Now assuming corrosion is not a worry as longevity is not a F1 engine trait, nor is freezing up, if as you say pure water conducts heat best, why do they add anything to the coolant?
Any idea what they use?
Question for Aprilla
Apologies if there's already been a thread - I tried to do a search but this site has a cute habit of shutting down the browser just as you get to something you want to look at.
Motorshow tickets arrived this morning - we're going on the 27th.
Hopefully it will be better than last year when we were around and out within an hour - not even enough time for my trousers to dry from getting stuck in gales and rain on the trek from the carpark! This year we're going by train as there's a £2 return voucher in with the tickets, along with 5 £2 breakfast offer things, which is odd considering there's only two of us going. Maybe we'll be extra hungry!!
We're also booked into the live action arena thing (looks like a dodgy sci fi thing involving cars) but I want a go on the 4x4s - anyone know if you get to drive them or if you just queue for hours to be a passenger, in which case I'll be needing that little yellow bucket again!
Anyone else going? Read more
And there was me hoping for some photos of you PG!
Never mind eh?!
T'yeah right... just so you know... that's never going to happen!
;-)
Engine has the code RKB :-
Does anyone know if the crankshaft/pulley is the key/keyway type ? I'm shortly to change the timing belt .
Part no. on pulley appears to be 928 M 6B320 DDH 05 571
If I can determine beforehand if it is keyed then I do the job , if not it's off to Fords !
Another little querie for any ABS whizz-kids . I changed the brake fluid today , in the normal way - pipe in jar , pump pedal, top-up fluid etc etc
Pedal fine , however on starting engine abs light and brake warning light stayed on longer than before. They go out together , when car driven off , and stay off , but on re-start same thing occurs .
I used DOT4 fluid , cylinder specifies DOT4 super - is there any real difference , is there a problem , or is it just because the system has been interupted ? Read more
Thanks for the link .
Hi...
My white Cavalier failed its MOT on the rear N/S rear brake
So I replaced the cylinder
Then with my wife I bleed the new cylinder by means of opening the vavle after she had started pushing the foot brake and closing the valve before her foot stopped moving.
I did this until I was 100% sure no air remaind or was trapped in the system then i topped up the brake fluid again to the max line.
The problem is all was well until I was driving down to my sister-in-laws house at 70mph and I started to get a slight vibrating down the steering wheel when ever I braked sometimes it would be a lot of shaking throught the steering wheel and other times you can just about feel the shake but only when you braked.
Then I got the same shaking down the steering wheel like when your front brake is warped but this time I was not braking just driving at 50mph and I was coming up to a round about so I went to slow down and there was no brake there whatever just a soft peddle and the brakes where just there I stopped the through using the gears and hand brake.
Strage after about ten minutes the brakes peddle seemed to be working again but now the brakes work but not well.
The car slows down with the peddle on the floor.
The brake fluid level is still on the max position and there are no brake fluid leaks
Any help would be great regards Mike
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Hi all...
Ok I found out the problem was the rear N/S self adjuster spring had lost its tension due to age I think.
So I have replaced the spring and cleaned all the old brake dust and any rust.
re-greased the bearings and set them.
flushed brake fluid with a pressure bleed system.
and all is working fine now.
Thanks for all your help.
Mike
If I wrote recently that I haven't seen a police car since Easter, then I meant a moving police car. Every time I have been down or up the M11 in the last month or two (from end to end) there has been a parked police car, looking imposing and ominous with its blue & yellow chequerboard livery.
What are they doing? (Apart from causing traffic to do 70mph exactly for the next 2.5 miles, instead of the 76mph it was doing before.) Are they really just looking for a speeding car?
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"The M11 has some quite long stretches between junctions and a car on a ramp probably has a quicker response time"
...they also "lurk" rather than driving aorund to save fuel costs...
Is all wheel balacing the same?
Are certain machine more accurate? Is on car better than off car?
or at the end of the day does it not make any difference?
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This would explain the judder I get on my private driveway when going between 80-90. KPH, of course.
I've booked a track day for the autumn, via an organisation that insists that you use a suitable helmet. Needless to say, I don't have one.
They say they usually have stock available, but as my head measurements are, errm, at the edge of the usual envelope, experience says they'll only have one or two to fit (at best) so I'm wondering where to get one of my own.
A motorbike shop seems the obvious place, but is this likely to be a full face job that is perhaps OTT for car work? I see TG's Liana drivers have something that doesn't cover the mouth and looks rather more comfortable. Or maybe that's so they can record the celeb making a bleeping noise.
Any ideas? Read more
Surely your head can't be that huge/tiny can it? I would have thought they will be used to catering for pin heads and/or elephant men lookalikes every day.
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Don't worry about it PM - nature's cruel and nobody was to blame.
Last year we had Blackbirds nesting in one of our hedges. I rigged up a remote PIR controlled colour camera right aove the nest, connected it to our video recorder and we sat back waiting for footage of the 4 eggs hatching. One by one they hatched, the female then ate the broken shells and would leave the nest only for the male to appear, inspect the nest and take away the newly hatched chicks one after another. It was truly heartbreaking and at one point we wanted to intervene but then discovered that it was too late in the year for the young to survive and the male Blackbird was simply acting accordingly.