September 2004
I've had my new car for 700 miles and 15 days now. Yesterday a passenger who should know better managed to grind-in a large portion of her Kit-Kat into the front passenger seat. Before getting a chance to get over it, and to top it today, I graunched an alloy wheel against the kerb when my attention was distracted.
Guys, the car is no longer new! Time for another.
PS Any tips on removal of chocolate from car seats? Read more
My 1995 Xantia 1.9TD LX seems to eat glowplugs. It starts to splutter and cough every 3-4 months or so on cold starts, which is only cured by replacing the glowplugs.
Is this lifespan normal? Seems to be regardless of plug quality (NGK, Beru, champion, etc).
Have checked the voltage across the plugs, and the relay is definitely switching on and off ok.
Additional stupid question: I have a multimeter, which parts of the plug do I put the contacts on to test the plug? (The resistance seems to bounce all over the place when I try and test them).
Only bonus is that I am now a master at changing the darn things! Read more
"Also, can anyone recommend a diesel specialist thats near Peterborough and preferably open weekends (I work in London so weekdays are not good)."
Have you tried
www.pleiades.uk.com/home.html
I know that they are hydraulic specialists but their website also says
"We also service and repair Citroën vehicles in our workshop."
They are in Sawtry
I know it's some way from Peterborough (40 mins?) but I can also recommend
Eurocars, in Loughborough, tel 01509 264271 - they are Cit trained mechanics and very helpful and are also open all day on Sats. They may even suggest the solution over the phone they are that helpful!!
A few different questions here.
Shortly after I bought my Passat in March of last year, the bulb in the left brake light blew. Although I have the technical expertise of a crumbling brick, I worked out how to detach the light cluster and replace the bulb. A couple of months ago, I noticed that the same brake light was out again. Replaced it again. Yesterday, I saw that the stoplight in the same cluster was out. Before the car starts eating bulbs, I'm just wondering whether there might be a fuse/wiring problem for that particular light cluster, or does each bulb have its own fuse?
Secondly, yesterday after getting some fuel, I turned on the electrics (as usual) before re-starting the engine, and the display for the climate control started blinking on and off, with every part of the LCD display "lighting up", as it were - in other words, where the temp display might normally read "21", it blinked "88", but like I say this was happening with every part of the display, including all the symbols, arrows, etc. I tried turning the electrics off and on again, but it continued. With the electrics on, I pressed the button which reduces fan speed till the unit turned off, then turned it back on again, which got rid of the symptoms. Cool air continues to come out of the vents (although now I think of it, I did wonder on hot days over the summer whether it shouldn't get cooler quicker). Didn't happen again the four times I've started the car since then. I always run the climate control summer and winter, very rarely have it on the "ECON" setting, usually set at 18 or 19 degrees C in summer, 20 or 21 in winter, and I often vary the fan speed. No idea what yesterday's occurrence might be a symptom of, but if anyone else has experienced it before I'd like to know if it led to anything.
Thirdly, if I press the button (located on the driver's armrest) to lock all doors from the inside, the front passenger door immediately unlocks again. It can be manually locked from the inside by pressing down the button on that door, but it never stays locked by using the "master" button for all doors. At the start of the year, I did briefly experience a problem with the rear N/S passenger door refusing to unlock when pressing the button on the remote key, but this seemed to go away after happening intermittently three or four times. It's not a major worry if this is all that might happen (I rarely use this function), but I'm concerned that a problem with the central locking could lead to someone being trapped in the car, or the car becoming unlockable.
Finally, from time to time the one-shot operation for opening or closing the driver's window doesn't always work - the window only continues to open/close if I keep my finger on the button. This again is an intermittent niggle which doesn't particularly bother me right now, but again I'd hate to find that it suddenly just refused to close.
On their own, these aren't particularly troublesome, but all together, I'm starting to wonder whether there might be a wider ECU, fuse, or wiring issue to be concerned about. The car is five years old and has 114k miles up, if that's relevant. Any thoughts, suggestions or solutions will be gratefully received.
--
andymc
Vroom, vroom - mmm, doughnuts ... Read more
I've had the windows ocassionally forget the 'one-shot' capability; they seem to re-teach themselves if you operate them a couple of times.
The rear n/s door lock on my 97 Passat at around 115k started to take a few goes to lock when operating the central locking. It eventually failed locked; the door catch had to be replaced as apparently the switch is integral with the lock itself. I'd get a VW specialist to look at itsooner rather than later.
(At least the cl system is an electrical system; the previous model Passat was vacuum operated - if you ignored laziness in locking, probably due to an air leak, the vacuum motor burnt out... ex-pen-sive!)
For all those that thought F1 was getting boring this year,
JV should be driving for Renault in the final 3 races of this year then will be going to Sauber for 2005-6. Pity no one got Hakkinen back though, still, can't wait to see him battling it out again! Read more
I don't remember Rossi and Max physically fighting no, but maybe I missed that. At least it's all out in the open though :-)
I don't know what Tamada has to complain about, I didn't see anything bad from Rossi in the race - I only saw the highlights on BBC though. Now Capirossi, that's another matter...
I have been cut up more times in the last few days than the previous six months put together. I wonder if its coincidence or maybe more congestion caused by the start of the new school run is winding people up. Read more
Does aggresive mean:
Taking up two lanes whilst driving through a city
Queueing across a junction/car park etc
those are both antisocial and inconsiderate, but neither is aggressive.
I left the lights on in my Peugeot 306 and drained the battery. I jump started it and it drove perfectly normally. However, once I parked it I could not restart it. There is power but when the key is turned there is not a sound as if the battery were dead. The red alarm indicator light is permanently on - on the top left of the radio -which indicates the alarm/immobiliser is on. I suspect that the immobiliser has been activated by the battery going flat as an anti-tamper device. My key fob can open and close the door but the alarm light will not go out. I have tried putting the key in the in ignition and pressing the alarm switch off on the right of the steering column.
Any ideas?
{Moved from Discussion. DD} Read more
i recently bought a pu6 306 2.0l 8v xsi p-reg. i cant get it started at all. theres oil in the spark plugs an its used a fair bit of water aswell. dono wats up,can any1 help? it has bn recently servied an it was goin for bout a wk although it did struggle in the mornins but now it wont fire up even on the jump leads??
Another thread in Technical raised a question in my mind (always a dangerous thing):
Is there anything to deter a dealer from failing to resolve (either deliberately or by ineptitude) a serious fault until the warranty is expired and the repair(s) become chargeable to the customer? In such a case does the owner have any realistic legal redress? Surely, if a car has been suffering the same problems for some time and the dealer has failed to resolve them within the warranty period, why should not the warranty be automatically extended to cover any associated repairs undertaken until the fault is found/fixed? Read more
Don't tell your clients that Patently :)
So, those of our fellow BackRoomers with cars which have had the same intermittent and unresolved fault have nothing to worry about when their warranties expire (aside, that is, from the significant inconvenience of owning a car which needs attention on a regular basis).
Hi
I've just had my Mk4 Golt GTI 1.8T serviced at a local specialist (not main dealer).
It was the 50,000 service, when I collected the car I ask him when the cambelt needed changing (thinking it might be about the 60-80 mark). He went on to say, after checking a book, that the change doesnt need to happen untill 120,000.
Has anyone left there's for this long? and, does that not seems far too many miles for a cambelt??
Cheers
Mart Read more
Hi.
I had this debate about my fiesta because the book says 100,000 iam going to change it at 60,000 as its far too long to trust a stressed/stretched hard working piece of rubber.
I would change yours at 80,000.
--
(iam not a mechanic)
Martin Winters
Son and daughter both have new cars. Both opted not to pay £300 for paint protection (Diamondbright etc). I said I would Autoglym them so have applied the resin polish and one going over with Extra Gloss protection - is there any point in applying more than one coat of this? Would it protect better or last longer?? I quite enjoy doing it. After a day failing to make some teenagers any more bright, it\'s good to succeed with something that looks better afterwards, doesn\'t answer back and doesn\'t resent my efforts!!
Read more
AutoGlym Super Resin Polish is very slightly abrasive - its effect is apparently increased if you rub harder according to the instructions (in case that seems obvious!).
Better I would think to use the polish just the once on new paintwork and then only apply Extra Gloss for at least a year, plus the body shampoo and conditioner when washing the vehicles.
im going to get one of these for £5K
its got to be turbo diesel.
only going to keep for around 6 months before chopping in for something else.
which is the most fuel efficient and reliable?
there are a few different versions out there.
td
d turbo
hdi
??
are they comfy for a drive to manchester and/or Oxford.
from brum?
i take it the latest models and higher spec are the ones to go for?
or shall i go for 406, i think some peeps were telling me in the estate or not estate thread.
gota put 10K volvo estate on hold a bit, while i get cash for new mortgage.
Read more
Oh and julia roberts in boot?
Can QVC spare her then?
Oh, you mean the other one ;o)
It worked fine, but I was prepared to take the risk. On a brand new car I would have gone with the valet approach and then got the seat scotchguarded.