September 2004
I was driving home in my car (conveniently) last week, and I thought the car was driving a bit "funny".
When I got home (12 miles) I noticed that the rear driver wheel was flat. And red hot.
I pumped it up (after letting it cool down) and went to the local tyre place and bought 2 new (budget) tyres for the back.
Now the car seems unstable, and when I braked going round the roundabout I nearly lost control of the car and narrowly avoided a van on my right and railings on my left - the steering just seemed to "lose it".
Also when going round corners, the rear wheels do not grip like they used to. The budget tyres have a good tread, not remoulds, and apparently are made by Dunlop. They were £45 each.
The car is a Toyota Avensis GS 1.8 on a 2000+ X plate.
Have I damaged the rear axle by having an overheated tyre?
Have I damaged the brakes?
The manager of the car tyre place "wellied" my car around an estate, doing fast left and right turns, slaloming etc and could not replicate the problem?
Any ideas?
Have I just bought crap tyres?
(also posted on "usenet")
Arfur Read more
Hi,
Just popped down to the local dealer to get a new pipe (the old had split) The pipe goes from the top of the Cam Shaft cover and drops any waste oil into the bottom of the filler - where the dip stick sticks in..
Got the pipe, its the right one, but it looks very very tricky and nigh on impossible without a pretty big dismantle.
Any tips please ?
Thanks
Paul Read more
Thanks, I knew it wouldn't be easy, the top of the pipe is split so I might just botch it !
Can F1 survive?
www.formula1.com/news/2225.html
It puts a big question mark over the minnows.
Will the public watch an even more depleted field?
It does not look good. Read more
Why is it that countries around the world are falling over themselves trying to stage a Grand Prix?
news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/37...m
Yet the teams and the sport seems to be on self destruct (read Jaguar/silverstone)??
mystifing..
Can any one help me with my (Rover 200 like) '96 Honda Civic? The ventilation fan is only working on its third and fourth speeds. I presume there's a resistor somewhere that's broken. Any ideas on where it is and how to get at it gratefully received. Read more
I remembered that this had cropped up recently, and that I had replied to that particular thread as well. I put my username in the Author window, 'Civic' in the Subject window, and 'fan' in the Message Body window.
SWMBO's Punto* has just gone in for it's MOT and has failed on a couple of points; front brake imbalance, front brake pipes corroded.
"That's not too bad" I hear you say - however, apart from that, the brake master cylinder is leaking, the rear brakes need replacing, there is a fuel leak (on the fuel line near fuel filter), the fuel tank holding straps are corroded and they'll need to be replaced if the leak is to be fixed as the tank will need to be removed, there is quite alot of corrosion in general to the underside, the rear shocks are knackered etc. - you're starting to get the picture!
The independent garage (whom I trust), are quoting £572.00 as a "minimum" for the work but reckon it may be upto £700 as they have yet to get some part prices from FIAT.
Is it worth repairing (probably only to be sold straight afterwards anyway**) or should we cut our losses and scrap it? I'm on the "scrap it and be done with it" side of the fence.
TIA,
Chad.R
* The car is a '94 Punto 75 SX 5dr, 68K with FSH, excellent interior and body.
** I wouldn't be happy "patching" it up to get it through the MOT and then selling it to some unsuspecting punter....
Read more
Just to close this thread - We've got rid of the car; A young lad (apprentice) at the garage showed an interest and I've "sold" it to him for the cost of repairs so far, new battery and MOT test fee etc. - basically around £120.
Perhaps not the best deal but certainly the right deal at the right time - 100% hassle free.
Now, SWMBO's quite keen on a Smart Forfour. Hmmmm, I can see the beginnings of another thread.......
Cheers,
Chad.
First of all, I've been watching for a few weeks now, and would like to thank all of you for sharing your knowledge, wisdom and wit.....
After the birth of my second son in March, I'd like to replace our Peugeot 406 estate, and rather like the look (and price) of the Citroen Picasso.
I recently bought my Focus TDDi at BCA in Blackbushe, and was impressed with the ease of it all, and the great prices. Therefore, I'd like to buy my new Picasso there too. Does anyone know any rough prices, as Auctionview shows what's coming up, but not what things sell for. For example, I know that loads of Picassos went through today in the Citroen sale, but an idea of prices would make my planning much easier.
I do work in Farnborough, not far from Blackbushe, but can't spare any more time off work for 'homework' at an auction.
Many thanks in anticipation
Read more
theres an even simpler way - have a friend who works at the auction house and get them to give you the print off of reserve prices - give you plenty of laughs to how people pay well over the odds, especially this time of year.
OK, have a weird problem with my Calibra Turbo (with 83k on the clock). For the last few months now, once on a warm engine, my tickover regularly settles at 1400 - 1500 rpm, for a while before dropping back to about 900.
Now I first assumed it to be the ISCV, however after cleaning the original and then swapping it for a known working one I have noticed no difference whatsoever. Stranger still, although it doesn't do it when it is on a cold engine, it doesn't always do on a hot one either.
Now the weird bit, having the fuel computer read out on instant consumption, I have noticed that the deceleration fuel cut off doesn't always work (ie. you don't always get 999.9 mpg). Now I know that as you approach the idle speed you won't see this anyway. Problem is if I back off at any revs, the instant read out reads anywhere between 100 to 400 mpg. Sometimes, it does cut off and I get 999.9, only for fuel to be used again a second or two later, sometimes to go back to 999.9 again. This ties in with what the car feels to drive, when you see 999.9 it decelerates as it should, but other times it feels like you've still got your foot on the throttle a bit.
Like I said it doesn't do this all of the time, but it is pretty frequent, probably 50% of the time. I suspected the throttle linkage sticking or the throttle cable, but after having a look at it, it doesn't seem to be, when moved by hand it certainly seems to return to its stop fast enough, even so, I gave it a liberal dose of WD40 - to no effect. I've also had the top hat off and checked the position of the butterfly, but it looks ok to me.
Other thoughts are TPS ? CTS maybe ? (although it was replaced last year).
Other than that the car runs absolutely spot on, no smoke, holds 9.5 psi boost, starts and runs fine. When I took the ISCV out there was very little contamination on it and it uses very little oil, so the engine seems to be in good nick, it's just got this damned annoying habit of revs holding up, and I'm pretty certain it's not the ISCV.
Any ideas anyone ?
Oh, and forgot to say, there are no stored codes either, it's just giving me code 12 over and over. Read more
Well, thanks guys, finally got to sorting this out (been moving house). The problem was the CTS. Fitted a new one of those a week ago, and problem sorted.
Thanks again
Can reccomend Fish Insurance (Keep Mobile Poilicy) who insured our Caravelle Tdi which has modifications for wheelchair access.
They were over £100 cheaper than our current insurers (Liverpool Victoria) only £100 xs (vs350), in addition the modifications are covered on a new for old basis.
Contact No is 0500 432141
Mark Read more
Mazda 323F on a 51 plate.
Lovely car, but damned uncomfortable to drive. I have added lots of additional foam to the front setas, both the seat and back, but it is still causing pain to the lower of my back. I am now considering the fact that I may have to sell the car on, after only 2 months ownership which I am reluctant to do, but firstly, does anyone now if the seats of any other car will fit? The car seems to share lots of parts with the Toyota Corolla, and it doesnt seem dissimilar in design either, likewise wiht the Nissan Alemera. Any help and advice would be very much appreciated. Read more
Hi Everyone, well after about three months trying to rectify the seating issue, I have managed to sort this out, for me anyway, but I thought I would share with all of you that suffer. What I did was to unzip the back cover of the seat, there you will find a 'mesh' that supports your back, which is held in place with 6 springs, you need to remove the two srings that are at the very top of the seat, its difficult to see them but they are there, secondly what I did was to put a piece of foam about 5 cm in width right down the centre of the seat to support my spine which is held in place by the 'mesh'. This has really improved things for me, and I now love driving the car again. Good luck.
Now I know many will think I'm paranoid, but I would like to offer my prediction that Newcastle will employ 'congestion' charging methods fairly soon.
The reason? In the last 10 months I've seen rush hour traffic queuing vastly increase - mainly due to changed priorites/new traffic lights/hugely delayed & slow roadworks. The notorious Tyne Bridge queue now continues well out of peak times.
I can't believe the amount of cars has increased on our roads so much in such a short space of time, so its my slightly cynical view that much of this is deliberat in order to 'justify' further charges.
Anyone else noticed recent bottlenecks appearing in their town/city centre? Read more
It would be nice if commercial buildings did start to migrate
from the city centres to a more distributed location, but even
today in Newcastle we are seeing more buildings appearing rather than
less.
To a certain extent it is happening in some towns with office buildings appearing in new build Industrial estates. Also nearly all new supermarkets etc appearing in Retail parks.
Pumping the tyres from 28 to 32 has fixed the problem.
Or perhaps the grease off the new tyres has worn away.
Car is fine.
Never had this happen before.
Will avoid cheapo tyres in future.