I have a 5 year old yaris 1.0 vvti engine which developed a slight engine noise in march 2005 took the car to the local toyota garage who could not hear anything wrong.Driving
back from a 120 mile journey i noticed the engine management light had come on 30 miles from home pulled over did the usual checks oil water ect, Drove home at a steady 35mph, booked in to local garage(not toyota garage) had a service done and engine management check (air flow meter was cleaned)and was told to keep a eye on the timing chain because it was noisy.

we decicded to take the car to the local toyota garage to have this noise checked out again some five months after the first visit. I was quoted £213 labour costs+parts+vat, they thought it was just the tensioner that needed replacing and would take approximatley 4hrs to complete. The next day I was told the water pump was leaking i told them to replace the part. two days later cars still not ready they were waiting for parts,
day later told the belt might need replacing.One whole week later after droping the car of they have informed me there is still a noise in the engine and they have now discovered water in the oil and neede a total strip down to dicver the fault i checked oil and water before i took it never lost any in five years, anybody got any suggestions on whats gone wrong.
Read more

Car is 1997 Rover Sterling with replacement 2.5 KV6 engine (obtained in September, 2001, from Rover 49K miles ago). One day it sounded a bit lumpy so arranged compression check and to reassure myself that the gasket problems I suffered with the previous engine had been corrected with the replacement engine. The Rover dealer who did the check told me that there was zero compression on cylinder no. 4 and down to 80 on no. 3. There doesn't appear to be real loss of power. The remainder are at 175 which I understand is the correct amount. Had the emissions checked and they are all ok. There doesn't appear to be any emulsification around the filler cap or on the dipstick. What I have noticed is that, when I do check the oil level (even after it has been standing overnight), it is difficult to get a clear reading. There is oil all the way up the dipstick, with just slightly more in between the high and low markers (it was serviced 2k miles ago).
Can someone advise what the problem might be, or, perhaps make recommendations as to what other investigation may help to pinpoint the problem? If its just valves or gasket blown, then I might be prepared get the work done, if its liner problem, rings or corrosion on the block, then I guess I should just get rid.
All advice would be greatly appreciated.

thanks,
Corky

Read more

The car is blowing coolant out through the pressure cap,no visible leaks elsewhere.
No mayonnaise under the oil filler cap or oil in water but system is pressurising.
Timing belt is being renewed at this time (car has 68000+ on clock) and haynes manual says I need a special tool to tension the belt or get dealer to tension it as soon as possible after installation.Is there some way I can do this myself? Can I get the tool anywhere?
The Haynes manual also says there are three different thicknesses of gasket and that I have to take relevant measurements with a dial test indicator to ascertain which is the correct one.Is this really necessary,would it be risky to just fit the thickest gasket? I do only want to do this job once so if I must do it that way then I will!
Any other jobs worth doing at the same time?

And finally,just a comment.Are Renault incapable of building an engine that doesn't blow a gasket? I did 140,000 on my fiesta that never had ANY major work done on it!

PS Is it worthwhile looking at another gasket supplier?

Sorry for the long post,thank you in anticipation of your replies!
Read more

Upon checking my 1997 Megane Scenic 1.9 rtdt (97,000 miles) yesterday I noticed oil in the coolant bottle. Of course - heart missed a beat and immediately I thought head gasket :(

However I'm not so sure. There are no other symptoms (no white stuff in the filler cap/dipstick), no 'bubbling' in the coolant bottle, and the oil in the coolant bottle is black oil - not oil and water .....

Car still drives, doesn't overheat, fan still cuts in when engine is hot.

So - visited a friend last night who is a trusted mechanic (works on military vehicles and strips down engines / gearboxes etc - so very knowledgable) - and he looked at it for me. He wasn't convinced about it being a head gasket - so started looking at other options.

Now - he reckons it could be the oil cooler unit (the oil filter sits on it - small thing about 1" deep - 2 coolant pipes attached). So today I visited a local (reputable) garage and managed to get a 'block' test done on it this morning (and that doesn't point to it being the head gasket either).

Tomorrow we're going to bypass the cooler / flush the system & run it for a week or two.

Any problems with that ? Any other suggestions ? Likely price of a new oil cooler ?

Any help / advice would be great in this worrying time (head gasket >£500+, Oil Cooler = much cheaper)

Thanks

Mark
Read more

The engine in my wife's 306 1.8 SR Sedan has started to pink under the transition from light load to medium load at medium revs. A typical situation is pulling away from the 270 degree navigation of a mini roundabout in second gear or leaving a 30 limit in third gear. After a few seconds the pinking ceases. It does not pink under any other operating regime. The plugs are a perfect colour, fuel consumption is as it always has been, the air filter is still clean, there are no induction blockages, and the problem has been prevalent over many (many) tanks of branded 95 octane petrol. This genuine 37k miles car still burns the same faithful 1 litre of oil per 2000 miles that it always has. I have not yet tried a tank of super unleaded. Of course ignition timing is taken care of by the ECU so I haven't even tried to check it.

Can any BRer with experience of the XU7 engine with Magneti Marelli 8P control systems share advice please; is this likely to be a knock sensor problem?

I know the difference between knocking and pinking and they are not the same, but given that the car pulls and runs otherwise perfectly well, I can't think what else the problem could be.


TVM. Read more