April 2005
Since my previous post I have found out that VX heater plugs are £30 each! and thats cos they are ceramic and VX have some agreement with NGK as sole supplier or summat.
Its all to with bad starting(7 secs cranking) and white smoke/rough idle for 5 secs after starting. I still have the original set of plugs I exchanged for the halfords ones I fitted last year and these are NGK ceramic ones. Anyhow I was testing these old Plugs for resistance and got readings of 1-1.5 Ohms for three of them and 1 of them I got a reading of 22 ohms!(by measurin between the metal contact where the screw thread goes into and body of the plug) and it looks burnt BUT if I measure the resistance ON the screw thread and main body of the Plug I get 1.3 Ohms???
So are these reisitances showning burnt out glow plugs? and do you measure the resistance between the screw thread top of the Plug and the body of the pug OR the metal part that the screw thread goes into and the body of the plug?
I think I will test the older plugs by taking off the bus bar from the plugs in the engine and fitting the older plugs on the bar while out of the engine and switch the ignition on and look for the glow pattern? Does that sound ok?
One thing to note is that last year after I changed the plugs with the halfords ones I saw no difference at all! in starting/cranking time. perhaps due to them not being ceramic?
So I was thinking perhaps I should just get one NGK plug and refit the other 3 plugs?
Please help me as its my 1st car and and im on a budget as Ive already had a new radiator fitted and the engine reshimmed.
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Hello.
I have found out that both lower arm bushings are split (the big ones.
The steering can pull at corners.
Is the car safe on the motorway.
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(iam not a mechanic)
Martin Winters Read more
Hello
It is split partially on one side on each of the two big bushes.
The car is only strange when i go round a roundabout a bit too fast (was in a rush)
Thanks for your help.
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(iam not a mechanic)
Martin Winters
Hi,
Trying to decide on a small automatic as a first car whether new or used. Somewhere I read that the Micra may not be as reliable as they should because they now use Renault parts?
And Corsa's have problems with the rear bulbs failing leaving the gear box in crawl home mode? As from this would a Charade at £6100 new or a Picanto at £7000 be a better deal than say a nearly new Corsa or Micra (£7700) ?
Also I hear there is a new Fiesta 1.6 automatic out, which seems dear, but brokers have them for £8700 new.
What is the best?
autouk
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Diahatsu were bought by Toyota a year or so ago. They have just closed down the Diahatsu franchise here in Australia. I wouldn't like to take a bet that they won't do the same in the UK.
My 96 phase 1 Dturbo DHY engine let go of a pre-combustion chamber resulting in a wrecked piston and head. I have now got a replacement engine for it sitting in the garage which is complete with all ancilliaries. It came out of a later car, 97 phase 2. The breakers that supplied the engine told me I would have to swap the diesel pump for my original one as it stores the code for the keypad immobiliser. The 'new' engine was out of a car that didnt have the keycode, but they didnt know if it had a transponder do-dah.
Anyway, I went to Peugeot to ask them but all I got was a blank look, so I thought id try here. Will I need to swap the pumps over? surely the code is stored in the ECU and that then sends a signal to the fuel shut off valve in the pump? The pump on the new engine is slightly different in that it has a damper and a pipe leading to the oil filler, whereas the old one doesnt have these.
Any help will be appreciated.
Jon Read more
Thanks for your help.
Can the stop solenoids be swapped over from one pump to the other? What happens if you buy a brand new pump then? How do you go about installing that so the immobiliser still works?
Been thinking about getting one of these and they seem to be graet little cars. Fast, cheap to run, well built etc. Only drawback I can see is the Skoda badge which doesn't bother me at all. Can anyone else suggest why I shouldn't buy one? Read more
Careening over the median <<
I knew there was something I hadn't watched recently.
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Adam
Hi,
I recently took my 1 year old Fiat Punto to the local dealer for its first service having done 10k miles. They told me I needed to replace both the brake pads and discs. I consider this to be unacceptable so decided to request compensation from Fiat. After a few weeks wait they've now come back to me claiming the dealer considered it 'normal' wear and tear (not covered by warranty) and the person who decided against giving me compensation has now left. I was wondering what my options are for pursuing the matter further, such as discussing it with local trading standards etc? In people's experience do I even have a leg to stand on?
Thanks for your time Read more
No Do$h the car is manual and I don't drive 'on
the brakes.'
Thanks, just wanted to exclude as many possible causes as possible.
Hi
Please can you help me? I have been offered a choice of 2 cars as part of a lease for a company car. It is based on an employee contribution scheme. Both cars will cost about £90 a month and all other bills are taken care of. Which would be the best car to go for? I have a knee injury and need a car with height ajustable driver seats. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Regards
Anne Read more
There were several threads hear about automatics, in which the boys-in-the-know said that the Ford 4-speed autoboxes were only good for 60-90K miles.
e.g. see www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?v=e&t=26...0
My friend took her Nissan Micra to a local mechanic to carry out the MOT. It failed on emissions so he "did some stuff" to make it pass. Now not only does it do 7 miles to a fiver petrol, but as soon as the temp gauge starts to rise off 'C' it won't run!!! This is a 988cc engine. I noticed black water from the exhaust so I checked the oil.....2 inches above the max on the dip stick!!! I drained out 5 litres of engine oil, this engine only takes 2.8 litres with a new filter! Her grandad put in some new points but he isn't sure if they're adjusted properly.........HELP...I've never delt with points before! Also noticed I couldn't adjust the idle speed screw in the carb, this had been bent inside the carb, near it's point. Today I fitted a replacement carb from a 1990 micra, same thing really. Any one got any ideas on why this car won't run when hot please....?
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When you drained the oil from the sump, did it smell very strongly of petrol. Looking at HJs' CBCB, these Micras can split the fuel pump diaphragm which leaks neat fuel into the sump. This may explain the extortionate thirst for fuel and the seeming overfilled sump.
However, I can't quite understand how a mechanic could have managed all of this, so this might not be the answer.
I had a drive in a Mondeo the other day, but was thoroughly distracted by being able to see the filaments in the heated windscreen. The salesman says he's never come across anyone else who noticed them. Is it just me? Read more
Ford own the patents, so you only really see them on cars made by companies owned by Ford.
However, final testing is taking place of a new generation of heated windows that don't have elements. They use the metalised layer used in solar reflective screens (pinky purple ones)
These are made with silver and barium vapour in alternate layers which produces and interference coating.
These new screend have a pattern cut in with a laser which is supposed to be invisible.
I've just read how close Jenson Button came to disqualification through the combined weight of him and car being below the 600KG minimum net of fuel. Although the FIA may yet intervene, for now, whatever the reason was (not given to the public) has been accepted.
Made me recall my first win in the 'Supers' class one kart championship I was racing in at the time. At Shenington, whilst on the dummy grid waiting for the current race to finish and mine to start, there was a downpour. Ours was declared a wet race, so switching to wet weather tyres was mandatory. To save time, make the chassis more flexible, narow the rear track, and change gear ratio (taller, to blunt torque delivery), we did this by dropping in a new axle (narrow and solid rather than large and hollow bored) on which the wet tyres and rear sprocket were already mounted.
Before the race, I also, unusally and I don't know why, took my watch off.
I won the race hands down, but in post race scrutineering, was found to be 50 grammes under the minimum allowed for kart and driver (including fuel in this case) and was disqualified.
My father then handed me my watch, simply to give it back to me, and the scales changed exactly to parity with the weight minimum! Of course this didn't count, and the disqualification stood. I was mighty unhappy, and had to accept that the scales had been certified, and 50g was within allowed sensitivity. (It was actually exactly the finest tolerance certified)
We thus learned the hard way that a wet weather kart was 1.2KG lighter than in dry race trim, and from them on carried a tobacco tin with lead melted inside to bolt on the back of the chassis (to help traction), whenever racing in the rain! Read more
BBC: Tuesday, 26 April, 2005, 16:31 GMT 17:31 UK
BAR protest innocence over Button
Button could lose Imola podium
BAR have insisted that they did not deliberately run an underweight car during the San Marino Grand Prix.
The team was cleared by race stewards after Jenson Button's car was found to be too light, but F1's ruling body the FIA has appealed against the decision.
BAR team boss Nick Fry said: "This team is owned by two blue-chip international corporations with huge integrity.
"Does anyone really think that we would deliberately do anything against the rules? We've hidden nothing."
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"If anyone is trying to destabilise us, that will not work. We're bigger than that."
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Seems to be infering a conspiracy!
Browse
Update:
I finally got out the old plugs, they were quite stiff and stuck but eventually they all came out(1yr old Halfords ones) They were covered in thick soot so that means that the combustion isnt complete right? I tried putting a jump lead on the plug out of the car but I got nothing(probably cos I didnt earth the plug!) anyway I just put back in the original ceramic NGK ones (9yrs old) and she started up beautifully....much less smoke and faster. On checking the resistance of the halfords plug only one plug had any reading at all! of 5 Ohms So I presume that the Halfords ones,as reported on other forums, have burnt out in less than a year and I was trying to start the car with one glow plug!! I think its because these cars have a post heating time of up to 7-8 minutes and these cheap metal Plugs burn out.