May 2004
My wife's Saxo diesel (68,000) has developed a bit of a problem when starting from cold. It blows white smoke from the exhaust and runs rough for about a minute, then settles down and runs perfectly. No problem on warm starts, just first thing in the morning.
The glow plug light goes out as normal and the plugs were renewed at about 50k. The problem started after a fill up at the local Safeways, is that just coincidence or could it be a dodgy tank of fuel?
I heard somewhere that there is a relay that controls the glowplugs and wondered if that could be at fault. Help appreciated before I start throwing money at it. Read more
Great article. Some mass action is needed to bring the government to its senses - and I'm not sure that trying to vote it out will make any difference. The cost of fuel is astronomical, and about the most expensive in the world.
I'm willing to hang up my car keys for a few days. Anyone else? Read more
All (and I mean ALL) the main roads into and out of London have been reduced to a single carriageway in each direction by bus lanes and on other roads bus laybys have been filled in so that every time a bus pulls up everything comes to a standstill.
however deserved, French cars (particularly Renault, it seems from certain regular postings here) do seem to have a reputation for being unreliable, but a recent visit to northern Spain, well off the tourist trail, found me admiring the high number of older models still going apparently strongly and in daily use in the small town where I stayed. Particularly noticeable, and impressive, were the many Renault 4, 9 and 11s, some well over 20 years old, most battered and bruised but still up to the job (and with their current MoT equivalent certificates on the windscreen). Perhaps Renault made their cars simpler then and, QED, they were more reliable?
Oh (and this hurts) an interesting footnote: was in a Peugeot main dealer with a relative, and noticed the hourly labour rate displayed - 27 Euros (£18ish) an hour. Read more
I saw a Renault 4 the other day - being driven!
Haven't seen one in years.
I think Craig Brown from the DT has bought a new car:
tinyurl.com/3b6n8
(you will probably need to register)
Any guesses what? i-think that i-can narrow it down to three possibilities even before i-drive his car. Read more
If he doesn't like trying to figure out zillions of buttons, he could have bought of the many fine cars which have cockpits designed for driving ... rather than the ones which try to emulate the cockpit of a 1970s airliner.
Honda do rather nice uncluttered dashboards. If he's bought a propellor badge instead, he could spare us the whining.
How much is petrol in the UK these days? Here in the US everybody is whining because it is now about $2.20/gal (3.8L). I must be getting Americanized because I'm whining too. Read more
biofuels sound tempting, but have you ever considered how much land would be required to make any significant dent in the requirement for fossil fuels? >>
What I am saying is that land and subsidies are being mis-used at the moment.
And synthetic fuel is another option.
The Germans ran a heck of a lot of their war effort on synthetic fuel and the Allies put a lot of effort in putting their plants out of action.
The Luftwaffe was largely neutralised towards the end of the war by lack of fuel as much as anything else and ended the war with total stocks of only 1,500 tons.
I have a Fiat Punto, an oldish one, M-reg (1995).
It doesn't have any locking system on the petrol filler cap and I want to buy a replacement cap that has a lock if at all possible.
Can anyone suggest where I might be able to find one?
Thanks.
Read more
I fitted one of these recently to my 1995 TDS
A little over £10 trade, and quite easy to fit
Look at the new one, and it is quite straightforward
Dear Mods,
Within 10 seconds of clicking on discussion and it opening up a Security alert stating, "you are about to view pages over a secure connection", appears. This is new? Have I missed something?
Regards as ever Read more
Just had the security alert as I was logging in and it took out part of my address!!!!
I would still like to know who and what is mooching about in our machines when we are on line. Still, it won't be the C.I.A. will it, as they have all resigned in the last day or two!
Bankers.
Well we all know Brunstrom is a joke but this letter was in the Telegraph Saturday from a resident in his area of North Wales.
Mr. Brunstrom is proposing the incapacitometer a device to tell if you are driving whilst on drugs, too tired etc. In response I propose a plodometer. This low tech device will consist of an OAP equiped with a calendar sitting in her freshhly burgled home waiting for a member of his force to arrive and investigate the crime. The scale will run from 2 days to infinity.
Well made me laugh... Read more
been havin trouble for ages now with gearbox/clutch???????.
its really hard sometimes to change into 1st or 4th.also it jumps out of fifth all the time....ive changed the whole linkage cep the gear stick and rollerball at the bottom ,also changed the clutch cable,but still the same,fifth jumps out when clutch is released and i put my footdown on the gas ,just after the bite,sometimes its fine and feels brillant but still jump out of 5th ....the car is a 93 plated gldt 405 ,ive also changed clutch clips at pedal end. Read more
typical isn\'t it, i\'ve already done cam belt last month and water pump, p-steering lol, thanks for the tip though ,nice one mate
Does anyone know if one has to remove the radiator in order to change the water pump (leaking & noisy)? If so, any special points to observe. Thanks in advance.
Dave Read more
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Hi
White smoke from a diesel exhaust means theres water in the fuel, Drain the water out the fuel filter & fill up at a different garage!