September 2004
I took delivery of a new Renault Grand Scenic 1.9 Dci and drove immediately to France. In England the steering was fine. In France on their cambered roads it pulls to the right. Two dealers cannot find a problem with the geometry. Any ideas?
Sorerightarm Read more
Car in question is a '92 Audi 80 2.0E, fitted (from new as far as we can tell) with a Hella rear spoiler. This is painted and lacquered in the same colour as the car itself (a dark metallic green).
After 12 years and 120k miles, the lacquer is giving up the struggle and slowly detaching itself from the spoiler. Currently a largeish patch has "lifted" from the spoiler, looking for all the world like a blister, and can be chipped away to leave the metallic paint underneath.
Is there a simple way to remove all the lacquer in order to then spray on some new stuff? Would cutting compound (the gritty stuff you get in a yellow tube from Halfords, being more abrasive than T-Cut) do the job? I'd like to take advice from the assembled before I begin, and not ruin it...
Thanks Read more
If it's lifting in lumps like that you could try a high pressure jet wash - they're good at lifting paint when the adhesion starts to go.
Our Premacy (1.8l petrol, 2000, 35,000 miles) has an intermittent hot starting / rough idle / power loss problem.
It starts OK first thing (i.e. cold) but after warming up on a run and then stopping, it won't re-start (it just cranks over and doesn't catch). After waiting 10 mins it is OK again. the lumpy idle again occurs when warm and the sudden power loss (2 cylinders?) the same.
The dealer said it might be the immobiliser (the non-start) but there is no stored code and the logic does not fit. He then said it might be the coil?
I have a theory it may be the injectors or something to do with the fuel injection system. It has got noticeably worse since the beginning of September when the 'winter petrol' was introduced to the forecourts. Put some petrol and fuel injector cleaner in on Saturday and it seems a little better already.
Any ideas? Read more
Having had to change the ECU on the car approx 6months ago, it's showing the same symptoms once again. On attempting to start the car from cold, it is turning over a number of times before eventually struggling to start. Then once started, it will struggle once or twice before running as normal, ticking over fine. This has only happened twice in the last week and is usually when the car has been standing for 12hours or so and the weather has been wet..
After the last time, when it took ages to start as it is starting to once again but struggled to not cut out and was loosing power etc. After that, i made sure that the ECU itself was 100% protected from any water that could have splashed from draining down from the windscreen. However, it seems to be happening again..
Any ideas? Read more
I havent yet applied the copper grease, got some from work tonight.. And as I started the car to drive to work, the thing struggled again. Ive got a spare hall sender in the car and ive got a feeling that i'll be putting the grease and new hall sender on the car this morning, which is nice when you've just done a 12hr night shift!!
Fingers crossed..
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JH
Hello all. Long time no post. I'm after some impartial advice regarding a 'K' plate Ford Fiesta Ghia I have just bought for the Missus. It's a grand little car. I have stereo issue's I believe she is a Ford 2006/2007/2008 radio cassette player, I know you are all thinking get with the times but all in good time. It comes up with the ellusive code reqd message, believe battery has recently been disconnected and as such requires code, I have only just bought the car and surprise, surprise as Cilla would say no code with it! I have phone the guy who I bought it from but alas he does not have any idea either, can anyone shed some light/assistance on this one? I'm sure many years ago I heard tales of people putting ford stereo's into a freezer for 10 mins. Ford dealer the best bet?
Oh and family car I opted for a 2003 Vectra Saloon DTI, it was this or the Citreon C5. A spoiler and a cracking blue colour she goes like a train, most impressed. Read more
Ive also seen the codes writen on the under side of ashtrays and on the B posts behind the seat belt.
Worth a look.
(Glass-Tech)
We are about to replace my mothers car. Because of age and infirmity, we are looking at smaller and taler cars and have narrowed the choice down to a couple or three models, but the most suitable from my mother's perspective is the Wagon R+ with auto box.
We have seen a couple of examples, about 2 or 3 years old with less than 15,000 miles. Seems to well well looked after.
I know its not a great car to drive. Mainly interested in convenience for an older driver and reliability.
Any thoughts/experiences?
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Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive? Read more
Ran a Y plater for 20 months & 22K miles until the other half crash tested. 3 Suzuki we've run and very reliable. Cost me £ 9,200 OTR with Suzuki fit A/c, 1.3 Auto in met blue.
Genrally great enthusiastic dealers. Servicing costs not bad, fuel consumption around 35-38 & I don't drive gently. Even commuted it for 6 months around the M25 when the job changed and although busy copped with it well. Nicer to drive than some economy motors and very comfortable. Changed the opinion of some of my mates when they drove it, makes a lot of sense although the missus hated it cos it had no snob value!!
Be careful of pads cos it has NO low pad warning light.
Vauxhall don't do an Auto in the Agila & I've had enough of being treated like dirt in Vaux dealers when I was spending big money so assumed they'd be worse if you were driving a bottom of their range motor. It's built in Hungary and uses lots of GM bits whether Vaux or Suzi. Better engine in the Suzuki than the Agila IMHO.
Jim
Hi, Hope someone can help.Having a problem turning on the radio. My car is fitted with a Blaupunkt 300 radio cassette player. It used to come on as soon as the key was turned in the ignition. Now, most times I have to keep pushing the on/off switch( volume control knob) about 20 to 30 times to get it to work, if at all. Anyone have any ideas? Read more
Sometimes when the on/off button has failed, you can keep a radio going by switching it via backfeeding the live to the electric aerial connection - crude, but effective!
number_cruncher
why dont you do a top tips(for cars not for getting red whine of carpets i mean)forum
nobodys interested in classifieds or polls
but those tips for cars might be handy especially for newly qualified drivers or for people who are hard of thinking.
Read more
>>... new drivers cancel their indicators instead of leaving them on..>>
Hardly technical, unless we are dealing with people who are hard of thinking - whatever that means...:-)
Hi a mate of mine has a \'99 model 2.0 TS.
Was running ok till today when the engine started making weird noises. I can\'t describe it too well as he is not so technical but to him it sounded like \"stones in the engine\" also he described like cachchh cachchh (I\'m not pulling the deleted. DD), in a rhytmic fashion, some variation on a grinding noise.
Only happened when he pressed on the gas, dissapeared off throttle, when he pulled in to check what the problem was it cut out and would not turn over.
Tow truck guy had a jump start and it turned over and idled but the problem still existed when throttle was pressed.
He had the car serviced last week and filled with Mobil synth.
Car has 73,000 on it, timing belts and pulleys at 60,000.
Have you any idea?
Thanks for any help,
Read more
Sounds like big end bearing to me aswell. The same thing happened to my previous 156, a 1.8TS. Rattle like sound when the engine was under load. On stripping the engine, there was no other damage (It was actually a "distorted" big end bearing). Alfa fixed it all for free despite it being out of waranty (it was 15months old, but imported, so technically they didnt have to do anything!). That was at 15k miles btw, it is still running now at 65k miles no problem.
BTW they checked the oil level and it was fine, and put it down to probable manufacturing defect
Wondering if any of you VW mechanics have any ideas, ive got VW passat s-reg 1.8 turbo i recently changed the brake pads,this model doesnt have the pad wear indicator, anyway afterwards the ABS light started to flash and a red brake warning light was on. any ideas? does it need reseting? ive tried disconnecting battery but still abs light comes on any ideas would be appreciated. Read more
Aren't A4 front sensors hidden inside the hub? Mine are not visible from outside.....
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groups.msn.com/honestjohn - Pictures say a thousand words.....
sorerightarm
I got my new Scenic in July and within a week I had taken it back for a full alignment check. This, I am told by the garage, is done with all sorts of electronics nowadays and took 2 hours.
The reason I took it back was that I felt that it was being pulled too much by the camber. As the steering wheel is "artificially centred" then I think this made it feel slightly worse. I felt that I was pulling against the centralising force, if that makes sense?
Anyway, it still drives the same way, but I have checked this out on various roads and it always pulls to the camber but, interestingly, drove straight ahead when I drove in a car park with no camber.
Think its just a characteristic of the car.