August 2004
Does anybody know if the computer generated fuel consumption figures are supposed to be accurate. On my Honda the computer mpg is approx 7% optimistic. Do other makes of cars give similar readings? I have assumed that the computer figures are there to give users a feel good factor.
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I'm changing jobs and need to find myself a diesel, as I'll be doing 500-600 odd miles a week. Unfortunately I only have a budget of about £2250... any recommendations? So far I've been looking at Pug 306s and Ibiza/Polo TDIs... anything else worth perusing?
Cheers! Read more
Heh! Thanks for the advice all... not sure about all these dirty big French tractors (!) but you've gone some way to convince me!!!
Cheers,
James
I have a 98 Mondeo with the above engine and the manual quotes cambelt replacement at 80k miles or 5 years.
However as I understand it the current Focus uses exactly the same engine but quotes 100k miles or 10 years. Can anyone explain the reason for this 5 year increase? Read more
Probably not the same engine!
Are the valve covers on your engine black or silver in colour.
Black cover = 10 years or 100,000 miles
Silver Cover = 5 years or 80,000 miles
These are the Ford recommendations, but many would recommend changing the cambelt sooner.
I think the cover colour changed during 1998, so you car could have either. The two engines are quite different, hence the cambelt interval difference.
I have a car on pcp. dont want it any longer, but how do i tell the prospective buyer that i will use the funds from car to pay off pcp (finance i guess). can i write out a letter which is signed by myself, would this be enough for the person buying my car. i cant raise the funds to pay off the finance first.
i will get an extra 3-4 grand by selling it private, rather than the poultry?? (chicken?) amount the dealer is offering.
but the car is £4K cheaper than off the forecourt.
can i get a solictor to write out a letter for prospective buyer? or get him to get his solictor to do one?
cheers me dears.
and yes thank the lord for the mods. they put me on the straight and narrow ages ago. and i aprci8 it ;-) Read more
Excellent idea. Thanks for that :-)
Hello.
I have just noticed some rust around the weatherstrip on the top of the drivers door frame.
I have a 15 month warranty with the ford dealership and the car has a 6 year anticorrosion warranty.
How do i get the rust repaired.
--
(iam not a mechanic)
Martin Winters Read more
Surely these days serious corrosion on a 4-year-old car means either a really unusual fault on the production line, or an accident repair poorly done. Though that seems unlikely above the driver's door. Do you know the car's full history?
I'm considering importing a classic car from Germany, it will be pre-1963 so I guess the registration allocated will take the form of XYZ 123.
I'd quite like a specific first 3 letters (OFP), but because the letters haven't run that far yet can I register the car at a certain registration office and get _FP 123 ? How do I find out where the FP registration office is located?
As it's not ab obvious set of initials a search on the "cherished plates" type places comes back with nothing. As I'm going to pay to register it anyway, I think I might as well get part of the letters in my normal registration fee.
Any help would be gratefully received.
Gareth Read more
Certainly some plates are non-transferable - including the one on my car now, which bears the initials of the original owner. I don't know why the DVLA deemed that it can't be transferred, though. Perhaps because the car was not new (three years old) when first registered...
-M.
(not strictly motoring related, but I own a car and you own cars.... feel free to move or delete)
I've had to do some research over the past few days which involved reading some newsgroups. The newsgroups were related to walking, gardening and diy, and as such, have, one assumes, a fairly 'mature' readership
Ha !
someone asks a question about fixing 'a water metre' (his spelling) and is immediately told 'if you can't spell it you've no hope of ....ing fixing it' and this generates 40+ replies !
a question about killing slugs is the cue (honestly) for a multi-post tirade from what I can only assume are thinly disguised animal activists, who also plague the walking group
all three areas are full of 'you didn't read my post, you moron' and 'who are you calling a moron' conversations.
I don't know if we don't see, this sort of posting in the BR because it gets cut before we see it, or it doesn't get posted in the first place because it can be seen to be a moderated environment, but I am very glad we don't.
I don't know how much time Alan, Dave and Mark put into modding, but I'd like to say Thanks, chaps !
you have to get out of the car sometime
so visit www.mikes-walks.co.uk Read more
Blimmin' 'eck it worked. ;)
Yup, beers are a-flowing chez HF. What was that about a Dorset (or was it Devon?) meetup? Won't Pikey Orpington do?
Some main dealers will not use a copper-based anti-squeal grease (e.g. Copaslip istr) on the back of the pads. I used to do this when I did my own servicing and found it worked a treat. Has there been some safety issue foudn with the stuff?
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Cliff_G
(no relation to Ali) Read more
On some makes of pad the backing plate has holes in it which the pad material is "moulded" into. Where the pad material is exposed on the piston side in this way, one must be EXTREMELY CAREFUL not to get any lubricant onto the exposed material, because if one does the lube leaches into the material and can affect braking performance.
Personally I put a smear around the edges of the pad where they will slide in the caliper and then onto the piston rather than directly onto the pad back.
Try this one.
I have a 97 Mercedes E320 Avantgarde (sports suspension - basically hard springs & shocks) which has a sometimes nasty twitch from the rear end. The back will twitch to the left when hitting a pothole with the n/s wheels, and sometimes when hitting a different surface on the n/s wheels from the o/s. It doesn't do it with a bump or if both n/s & o/s wheels hit the same object (trough or bump).
I have had it checked by a main Mercedes dealer, a small independent, and a middling-size general but very experienced garage, and none can find anything wrong, either with the suspension set-up (arms, bushes etc etc) or even can they reproduce the problem. I have new shocks all round, which did nothing to help, and a full 4-wheel alignment by a company who definitely knew what they were doing. The guy who road-tested after the 4-WA did notice the twitch (so its not a figment of my imagination, and even my wife notices it), but he had no suggestions other than "well, now we know it's not the alignment". Tyres are 50% worn, evenly, standard fit P6000s.
My theory is that the rear toe-in (which is about 14 minutes toe-in each rear wheel) seems quite significant when you look along the car - you can see the wheel angles - and with the fairly beefy tyres, if one wheel "unsticks" itself (i.e. loses contactdue to a dip, or hits a slippery surface (drain cover), the toe of the other wheel pushes the back end over.
Anyone got any ideas?
If not, what I feel I need is someone experinced in setting up performance car suspension - such behaviour would not be permitted on a track car for example. I'm in hertfordshire, so any suggestions?
Hope someone can help
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Cliff_G
(no relation to Ali) Read more
Cliff_G
While you experience the problem when your rear wheel goes over a bump, it is possible that the cause is not the rear suspension.
If cars had three wheels (bear with me on this!...), they would always sit properly on the road, and the vertical load at each wheel would balance properly - like a three legged stool. once you have more than three wheels, i.e., four, it is easy for diagonal pairs of wheels to take more than their fair share of the load - like a four legged chair or table which doensn't sit properly, and rocks.
So, it is possible that misaligned front suspension, or, if you are v. unlucky, a twisted bodyshell would give this sort of non-symmetric behaviour.
Checking the corner weights of the car would enable this hypothesis to be tested.
I hope this helps,
number_cruncher
Hi,
I've got the sticking clutch problem as well, is there a fix, and what is it?
Cheers Read more
Browse
Here is another thread which has some posts on the subject:
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?f=2&t=11...4