These gearboxes seem to get rave reviews during road tests. Are there any negatives following long term use in the real world - reliability, additional servicing, etc. Read more

The wife's Zafira 2001 1.6 16v goes fine on full throttle. It also idles really well. The problem is when just touching the accelerator pedal after slowing down etc. It is as though the fuel has stopped pumping for a split second. Then it catches up and all is well. Anybody seen anything like this on an Ecotec engine? My first thought is a vaccuum leak but I can't find one. Read more

Evening all. Bit of a tough one here but I would appreciate any comments.

Just so you know, I'm on an Orange Pay as you Go phone.

Last week, a number beginning 029 rang my mobile. He guy said he was from Orange and something about upgrading me. I have to admit, I was busy so I kind of fobbed him off and he said he'd ring back later.

Today, I was less busy so actually entertained the person calling from a number beginning 0870. She said she was from Orange and basically said they could upgrade me to a Motorola something or other (can't remember - pretty sure it would have been pointlessly modern) and lower call rates etc... Would I be interested? "Why not" said I and she continued.

Cheaper calls and something else under a pay monthly scheme would also be available to me so she took my name, asked for the post code and house number, and confirmed the address. Asked for a home phone number which I gave and then here is where it gets a little more weird.

I was asked am I in full time work to which I said "No - I'm at Uni". I then got asked which Uni - I told her. Now my guard was up as she asked which bank I was at. Again, I told her. She asked how long I'd banked with them which is when I really got suspicious. She wanted the name how it appeared on the card and the sort code which is when I basically ended the call saying how I never had my wallet with me. SHe said she'd ring back later and I forgot all about it.

Anyhoo, later on, the 0870 number rang twice, then the 029 number and when I got home I'm told they rang here as well.

As you can see, it's a little suspicious. It could be perfectly innocent I know and I also know that they'd need to withdraw money from my account under a pay monthly scheme but I'm not going to do anything like that over the phone. No way.

Does anyone have any thought? I know I was pretty silly giving the address out but anyone can find that out. As it stands, they don't have any information other than my name, address and the Uni I go to. Is that too much information? (Not that I can do anythign about it now)

Thanks for any thoughts you may have,
--
Adam Read more

Hi all,

Last February I bought a 1999 V 2.0 Ghia X Mondeo. As a matter of course I put it into my local Ford dealer for a cambelt change and a service. I rang them up, told them what I had and said I needed a cambelt change. They quoted me a price, I asked if that included everything I needed, I booked it in and they did the work.

Couple of months later I was doing some reading and found numerous postings etc to the effect that on a Zetec engine, it's very important that the tensioners are changed at the same time as the cambelt. Wary of this, I dug out my invoice and found I'd been billed only for a belt - no tensioners. A quick call to them revealed they did not change the tensioners becuase on the later Blacktop 2.0 Zetec, tensioner change was not required.

Sceptically, I rang the other Ford dealer in town and 'enquired' about a cambelt change. I was informed that they WOULD change the tensioners as 'its very important sir'.

Somewhat confused, I called the Ford technical centre and asked their opinion. After a bit of time on hold, they'd spoken to a 'Master Technician' whose opinion was apparently that on Blacktop Zetec engines, the tensioners are merely inspected and replaced if required, not as a matter of course as is the case on the Silvertop Zetec engines.

I was reasonably happy, and forgot about it. But since then I keep reading the same thing all over the web 'Make sure you get the tensioners changed!'.

I'm really interested in how I can get the definitive answer here. SHOULD my cambelt change have involved tensioners? When I booked the car in I had no idea what tensioners were even - thought that for the first service and belt change that doing it at Ford would be the safest way to do it. Had I been called and told it needed doing I'd obviously have said yes.

So what do I do now? Stop being so paranoid and stop worrying about it, or change the belt again less than 10,000 miles later, this time including a tensioner change? Read more

I have had my a6 for 18mnths with no problems but recently when on motorways etc at around 70mph there is a distinct loss of power and pulling and it feels like the engine is missing.
I have been to a independent Audi garage and they have run a diag' and no faults have come up.
They suggest the problem could be the air mass sensor but they are not sure. They also told me to check that the turbo was working. They suggested that i remove the hose from the front of the turbo and spin the shaft to determine seizure or not.It looks like a fiddly job to me. Is there another way to test if the turbo is working. Please help
Thanx
Dave
P.S. the a6 has 94k on the clock Read more