You may or may not have heard of him, but I wes saddend to hear of the untimely passing last week of a well known ex. motor boss.. well within the Ford Motor company anyway. Lord Alex Trotman aged 71 who was Fords world big chief from 1993 to 1999.

What is even less well known is that the had a personal hand in the ill-fated buyout attempt of British Leyland in the late 70's. (Ford eventually got cold feet and pulled out.)

What is poigniant for me personally is I met Alex Trotman at Ford World Headquaters in Dearbourn Michigan in 1996 albeit briefly.

A genuine car guy and not a bean counter IMO and will be sadly missed by his family, ex colleagues and friends.


more here.. www.bbc.co.uk/news/1/hi/business/4484185.stm

(copy and paste.)
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Hi

I recently did a lot of miles on the motorway (Brum to Gatwick) and found that when I drove on the smaller roads around town the idle speed of the engine tends to "stick" before settling back down (when changing gear). I have also noticed that since then a). my fuel economy isnt the greatest and b). my *actual* idle speed, at rest, is a lot higher... nearer 1250 (c.f. around 8-900 previously).

When I owned a slightly older Fiesta the problem I had a similar problem that was much more apparent, especially when coming to a standstil... the revs would race super high and I would have to lower then my bringing the clutch to the bite point. On that occasion I had to buy a new idle speed control valve and that cleared the problem up.

Now... is it likely that although my current problem isnt anywhere as severe, it may be related to the same valve?

I remember reading somewhere how to disconnect the ecu for a period of time - apparently this can "re-set" the management system that may fix the problem. Is this likely to help and, if so, could someone tell me where it is located?!

Thans in advance guys.

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hi,

can anyone suggest a possible reason for the following problem with a 1.9 Diesel ZX.....

Car runs OK at town driving speeds. Put it on a motorway and sometimes after a while it starts blowing out clouds of white smoke and continues to accelerate. Pull over and leave it for a few minutes and it drives normally again for a while.

White smoke to me implies excess diesel. Accelerating ditto, which seems to me to indicate that the injector pump is doing something silly.

Is this a fimiliar symptom of a recognised fault, and can anyone suggest what the fault/solution might be?

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A follow on from Schoolboy's'worst car',what is the best car(s) you have had?Could be the most reliable/economical or just one that gave you a good time or brings back fond memories.
I'll start with an Anglia,it was the 1200,such power,I was a teenager,it was my first car.I thrashed it without mercy until the three bearing crank snapped one day.Undeterred I rebuilt a Cortina engine and dropped that in.Eventually four of us drove it to Morocco,sadly KLE 625D never made it back,but that's another story.
Another vehicle that sticks in my mind is a Renault 20 TS auto,it was supremely comfortable,no doubt designed for pave(should be an accent over the e)and went like a rocket on kickdown.It was fairly straight forward for a Renault of the period,although they managed to negate the usefulness of the hatchback by having some bizarre rear seat pivoting arrangement instead of simply folding down.
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Have looked at a 02 defender td5 with 25k on the clock, it looks fab and drives ok, but am worried about reliability especially gearboxes, have been told to walk away if anything about the gear change / clutch doesn't feel right. Is there anything else to look out for on these cars.
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