October 2005
I did the ultimate silly on sunday, filled up my diesel car with unleaded. I said to the bloke who drained the tank and then my wallet what a plonker I felt, he said he had done the best part of 50..yes 50 that week on the M3 at Fleet. Read more
Got a 1999 Frontera Diesel 2.2DTI Manual with an idle problem.
It starts fine and drives well until I sit at some lights etc and let the engine idle. After about 5 seconds idling, the idle drops by 100 - 150 rpm and the engine runs lumpy. Drive away, and the engine isn't pulling as well (very subtle differnece) as before the car stopped.
Somethings kicking in and making the idle drop and then the engine isn't pulling quite as well as before that happened. On stopping the engine and restarting, its all ok until you stop and idle again.
If you idle the engine for 10 minutes, usually but not everytime, the idle gets progressively lower until the engine shudders to a stop altogether and stalls. When this stalling occurs, theres quite a bit of black smoke coming from the exhaust.
The cars been to 2 top notch injection places and a garage run by ex VX tecs. All the usual tests have been done and everyones scratching their heads. People are starting to say maybe its not a fuel supply problem.
Just to emphasise here - there are no day to day starting problems with the vehicle.
Pleeeeeeeeese can someone help as we're at our wits end with the only scenario sell it with a hidden or known fault or pay a blank cheque to an injection place who will guarentee to diagnose but it might take 10 hours plus @ £42 per hour then plus the parts to fix.
The injection guy says its unlikely to be the injection pump and it may ben more mechanical. Read more
I've acheived a temporary fix by packing up the throttle pedal slightly. The pedal works a throttle potenionometer under the dash at the top of the pedal on the bulkhead.
Do these potentionometers wear out and if so, what are the symptoms and does any malfunction affect the idle speed. Its a Bosch unit.
Help. Morning people, can anyone solve this problem (electrical funnily enough) that I've got with my Jag. The problem is that the warning buzzer won't go off, It came on yesterday morning & is still buzzing 26hrs later. Whilst it is buzzing my indicators, rear demister, hazards, front & back foglights, radio & interior lights don't work. No faults appear on the dash when the VCM button is pressed & it is starting to hack me off. It done it once at the weekend for about 10 mins, again no indicators etc during this, but when it stopped of it's own accord I had indicators etc again. Can anyone tell me whats causing this & how to stop it, please? Read more
As mentioned, water ingress into this ECU is a problem and they are very hard to come by secondhand because so many fail.
How do you deal with people hogging the middle lane?
I was driving down the M23 on Sunday morning and was amazed at the driver of a red Ford Escort Estate. He sat in the middle lane for at least 10 miles whilst people overtook him and then moved over from outside lane to inside lane to "show" him where he should be. People on the inside were having to move to the outside lane to pass him as he was travelling at about 60-65 mph.
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I bet some people wouldn't even 'get' that message. They'll probably read that as 'don't stay in the far outside lane unless overtaking'.
Be a lot clearer to most of the CLODs if the matrix simply said 'DON'T hog the middle lane unless overtaking'
Hi - need advice!
Recently, my L-reg AX overheated after the water pipe to the radiator burst. It was rapid and quite spectacular - oil coming out and burning, lots of smoke. But - we the head gasket seemed okay and we replaced the water pipe, and she ran fine for about a fortnight. Then, the overheating light starting coming on again, although there was plenty of water in the system. About a week later, the heater stopped blowing hot air, and finally, a couple of days ago the overheating light came on and stayed on, so I called out a mechanic. He smelt the water in the radiator and declared the head gasket had gone (I smelt it - it smelt 'smoky'). He told me it would be £300 to change or skin the head gasket, although there was a chance it had been so overheated it would be 'too warped'.
Now, I know very little about cars, so I just wanted to ask - does his diagnosis seem reasonable, and is the price for fixing it reasonable? Is it worth doing? The rest of the machine is very tidy - just had new brake pads and tires on it, new exhaust last year, and she still does a fab 55 to the gallon. But she has just passed 100,000 miles, so....
Help!!!
Vikki Read more
Could be the case if it turns out it's not the HG but more serious. But these engines are notorious for a fragile HG.
As long as you didn't cook the head for too long after it failed & warped it beyond a skim.
The cars are being recalled due to a faulty headlight unit. Most of the 16 effected models are in Japan with some also exported to other far east countries and Australia.
Further details;
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4355604.stm
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>>Only a small proportion of car parts are actually made by the car manufacturer.>>
It was tongue in cheek.
I've been round the Honda, Nissan, Rover, Toyota, TVR and other UK car factories in my time...:-)
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
Hello
Every time I brake medium/hard there is a scraping/scouring sound from the passenger side of my car. Inititally throught it was the front wheel so I had the front pads/discs changed. This did not solve the problem, garage reckoned it was the front bearing so we changed this, but did not solve the problem. The garage then reckoned it could be the rear passenger side bearing, changed this but again this has not solved the problem.
Now they think it could be the rear passenger side brake drum. Before I spend any more money replacing the drums I want to be sure that this is the problem. I cant think think of anything else. Any help/ideas would be appreciated.
thanks Read more
if they work to MOT standard they will pass on rear drum,check only mentions pads being worn to excess-below limit on inspection--please anyone correct if wrong?
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Steve
On the first 2 pages of my Auto Express this week, there is an advert for the new Suzuki Grand Vitara. The marketing geniuses have came up with such eye catching phrases as
"This new model is the most capable we've ever built" - what does that tell me about all Suzukis up to now?
"both 3 and 5 door models.... have smooth, flowing lines and a confident stance that gives them real presence" - what does that tell me?
"is more spacious than its predecessor, rivalling its competitors" - rivalling, or actually better at anything?
"all models now have side and curtain airbags.....plus ABS and side impact protection beams" - hardly groundbreaking innovation! Side impact beams?
"we have also added and integrated audio system" - so its got a radio?
It looks a totally, bland, non-descript car and the advertising blurb seems to back that up! Oh, and another question, what exactly is the competition for the Vitara? Prices look to be in the £13k to £15k price bracket which is cheaper than RAV4, Freelander, CRV etc. Maybe the Sportage? Is the Tucson 4WD? Read more
They´ve given it the necessary kit for offroading (diffs, permanent 4wd etc etc) but not the ground clearance. So it´s neither one thing nor the other (off roader/soft roader). Doesn´t drive as well as rav4/xtrail/x3/tucson according to the German mags. Bit of a curate´s egg.
Hello Ive just bought a Jeep Grand Cherokee 2.5 diesel and found it needs a new exhaust. Jeep now tell me that because the car is 5 years old( by a few months) the exhausts are unobtainable, and will not be remanufactured. When I asked them what they suggest I do I was told 1/ Go for an aftermarket unit, not much help as nobody does one for the diesel and 2/ Go to a scrapyard. Any body else had this problem? Anybody got any anti road charging bumper stickers? Thanks. G. J. W Read more
Thanks for all that, according to Jeep they are obliged to support their products for 5 years only. Guess I will cancel my Crossfire. I have just received aftersales support from Citroen (yes Citroen) so stunningly good they are in the frame for my next car!!!!
I have a 1993 Fiesta which is in good condition, I've had it since 2000 and it has generally been reliable for a 8 daily mile commute. However it has had an intermittent problem with cutting out when cold since I got it, first junction or traffic lights in the morning when you take your foot off the pedal the revs drop completely and it dies. Starts again first go, once the car is warmed up it isn't a problem. This problem will go away for months at a time particularly just after a service. Anyone care to speculate what may be the cause and is there an easy/cheap solution. When I first got it I had it in a couple of garages who couldn't get the problem to occur so I've just put up with it - Thanks for any help - Paul
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Idle speed control valve?
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=18068&...f
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Mike Farrow
Browse
"Does no one ever do a search before starting these old discussion rants"
I have the same trouble in the pub. No-one ever checks to see if we've had the same debate before... :-)