{Moved from Discussion. DD}

I have been having trouble with my passat 1.8 20V turbo 1997 R plate, about a week ago I was doing the home run from work stopped once, and when i started again the engine was juddering, rather like a mis-fire. I got home and took each plug off each coil to see which one it was. I found that it was piston 2 which was not firing, as a result i changed the spark plug, but it was still the same. I then changed around the two of the coils still the same. I have since call out a mobile tuning / diagnostics company, but he could not find the problem on his scanner. I have since checked the wiring from the coil plug back to the air flow module and from the module back to the ECU, the result being that i have good continuity through the wiring. Does this problem sound like ECU or air flow module. Can any body help?
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A saw an old work colleague yesterday who was telling me about an accident he had which resulted in his motorbike being written off. Fortunately he was OK.

The facts:

Windy A road between Wakefield and Huddersfield - he knows the road very well. Just after a rain storm - road wet, weather sunny. He knows a long left hander is coming up so positions himself accordingly near the centre of the road. Whilst going round the bend (which has double white lines) he notices a Police car on the other side of the road, parked up with the officers arresting two people (he found this out afterwards).

Next a 4x4 comes around the corner and has to pull over the double lines to miss the police car - in doing so puts himself on the other side of the road on a collision course for my collegue. 4x4 driver was no doubt shocked to find the Police car parked on a blind bend.

Colleague sees what could happen and does a controlled fall off - he skids along the road into the verge and bike ends up under the 4x4. Police see everything.

Insurance company now want to know off him whose fault the accident was.

Over to you!!! Read more

tinyurl.com/4dcar


RUESSELSHEIM, Germany (Reuters) - General Motors will cut up to 12,000 jobs over the next two years to reduce annual costs at its European operations by 500 million, or $613.4 million, by 2006, it said Thursday.

Most of the job cuts will come in Germany and 90 percent of the reductions will take place in 2005, the world's biggest automaker said in a statement.

GM made no mention of plans for specific plants. It said the company expected to take charges in 2005 and 2006, the amount and timing of which would depend on negotiations with works councils.



The job cuts come as the latest blow to automaking in western Europe that is desperately trying to cope with a toxic mixture of stark currency head winds, high labor costs and intense competition in weak car markets.

"With losses since 1999 and no reasonable indication that market or economic conditions will improve substantially in the coming years, we have no other choice than to take tough steps to ensure our long-term success," GM Europe Chairman Fritz Henderson said.

This should not be seen as a lack of commitment to grow the company or provide new products, he added, "but the lack of industry growth, the pricing environment and the competitiveness of the market do not allow us to grow fast enough to offset the cost base we have today."

GM employed around 63,000 people at 11 production and assembly plants in Europe at the end of 2003.

Wider loss
GM Europe's loss widened in the second quarter to $45 million from $3 million a year earlier amid intense pricing pressure, adverse currency impact and restructuring costs for a joint venture with Fiat.

That brought its first-half loss to $161 million versus $68 million in the first six months of 2003. It abandoned its original target of making a profit in Europe this year.

GM had already reduced capacity in Europe by 28 percent from 1999 levels but has acknowledged it has to take a tougher line on cutting costs and boosting revenue.



madf


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My Golf has developed a problem where it vibrates when travelling at high speed. This problem only occurs in 4th gear when accelerating. As soon as i change into 5th the vibrations stop. It is also smooth running in 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Any ideas? Read more

Hi all,
I'm a member of 2 other forums and because a) I am off today, b) I am bored and c) I am sad, I noticed that both of the others have a star system.

Considering I post very rarely on the other 2, I don't have any stars but I was wondering what do they mean. For example, someone who's posted 25 bijillion posts may have 10 gold stars but what is the advantage of that?

Just to link to this forum considering this is a separate thread, how come this one doesn't have that system. (Not a complaint just a geniune query)

Many thanks
--
Adam Read more