January 2006
Having recently had a tree stump grouted out of my front lawn and having backfilled the hole it left, we are blessed (not) with a recurring crop of toadstools on this area of lawn.
However well you kill these off e.g. with magnesium sulphate (Epsom Salts) solution, they spring up again in a few weeks. Thankfully we have some respite from the problem in the winter, but I know what we're looking at are just the 'fruiting bodies' and the only solution is to dig the problem out (i.e. the rotting remnants of stump under the ground).
Unless anyone knows differently?
Oz (as was) Read more
Those things that plug in car cigar lighters I mean. I have had two "go" in a few weeks - both were pretty new, one was the TomTom and the other for a Motorola phone. They seem to be sealed units. I'm just wondering whether my car is pumping out too many of something (volts?) for them. Read more
Alas yes we are now using a device that was designed to set fire to things to now powering very expensive things that we dont really want to set fire to!
------------------------------
TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
Hi
My 206 drivers side front fog light was smashed. Have purchased a new one to replace myself, but it appears that the water reservoir makes it impossible to get the old one out. Does this have to be removed to allow the old light to be removed and the new one fitted, and if so is it fairly easy ?
Any help would be much appreciated
Read more
Hi,
Just had AA looking at a turning over but non-starting audi 80 2.0 (ABK engine). He said it needs a new hall effect sensor on the distributor. Is it a big job and is it cheap. Would a new dzzy make more financial sense? Read more
Don't know anything about the Audi 80, but as far as my Polo was concerned, the garage said it was just as cheap to replace the whole dizzy as the parts were fiddly to fit and not widely available. GSF sell a hall sender for the Audi 80, priced at £31
I hope someone might be able to help with a starting problem on my 1999 T 1.9 Renault Kangoo Diesel. Most mornings, it totally refuses to start. Having loosened an injector pipe, on cranking, it is clearly not injecting, which makes me suspect it is the stop solenoid. Sometimes either with a jump start or a fiddle round with the wiring it will start. The really strange thing is that once started, it will stop & start all day no problem, but as soon as it is left to get really cold, ie overnight, it will not go again. I have checked the ecu and other connections I can find, and put a new battery on, as I wondered if it was low current to the stop solenoid, but no difference. I also thought as to whether or not it could be an immobiliser problem which is preventing the stop solenoid pulling off. I can see the shielded wires coming from the solenoid, from under the shield, and have thought about putting an ignition live straight to it, but the thought of backfeeding the ECU gives me the jitters. I would be very grateful for some expert advice please! Read more
Hi Peter, many thanks for this, but in an effort to keep the description as short as possible, I omitted to say that it has the pump off and to a specialist for checking, had a new priming pump, fuel lines, injectors checked, heater plugs etc. In actual fact, I sold it to a friend 3 months ago, running perfectly apart from a little air bleeding into the system overnight causing a few seconds misfire when it started. After he had it for a couple of weeks it developed this fault. He reckons to have spent nearly £600 on it, and we had 'words' and I have given him his money back. I don't really see it as my fault that he let someone spend all that money on fixing the wrong problems!
Mike
where can i get a replacement key for my ford mondeo??, it has a immobiliser....Help i cant find my keys, who should... i get in touch with..anybody? Read more
I am suprised you think the Ford PATS immobiliser is easy to bypass. The later ones are listed as thatcham 2 aproval which I think is very secure?
I may be wrong.
CHeers
Jlo
just picked up car after a autobox recon. car is greeting me with 5 beeps. any ideas what it is trying to tell me. Read more
bought a new battery and all ailments vanished thankyou very much
A friends 2001 Focus makes a curious sound while you steer only to the right ( not left )
Had a quick drive today and the best way to discribe it is that it sounds like bouncing up and down on a bed with bedsprings. It's fine whilst driving straight ahead.
Any ideas?
TIA. Read more
I had exactly the same issue on my previous 2001 Focus and as previously said it was a broken front right coil spring.
Carse
I have a 1996 Peugeot 306 DTurbo, the exhaust manfold is blowing and also the Turbo is whistling at a high pitch whenever the accelerator is used. Could this just be as a result of a leak in the manfold or has the turbo gone?
Any ideas? Read more
Yep its definatley a leak around the turbo. I had the jubilee clip slip off the inlet pipe from the intercooler whilst i was driving down the round and then when the accelerator was pressed I sounded like a harrier jump jet taking off!!!! Check out those pipes also check the gasket on the intercooler housing (passengers side, this has a bad habit of sitting squiffy)
Hi
I have a Golf Mk4 1.6 which is very hesitant when excellerating. My VW dealer are trying to sort out this fault; they have put a new Throttle Body and Lampda Probe or sensor, not sure which, but the car still hesitates and it jerks along brilliantly when crawling in traffic. When I took it back to the Dearler last Saturday they had it for over 7 hours and then decided to try new battery on the car as they felt that under load the battery was losing power.
Has anybody heard of this sort of problem? I did say that if battery not holding charge would that not be the alternator? VW said no.
I did speak to a garage who deal with electrical problem with cars and they did mention the engine management system may be the problem.
I am totally lost at what to do, my warranty runs out end March and this fault isnt going away. Can car computers be re-booted like personal computers?
Any advise would be very much appreciated.
Thanks Noel Read more
Are you sure? I was chatting to someone the other
day who wrote the software for car ECUs. I'm studying
DSMs at uni at the moment and was after help!
Amongst other things he told me that they continuously adapt to
driving style and input from engine sensors. In fact, when
you switch off the ignition the ECU remains active for about
30 minutes, refining and checking its thermal model of the engine
as it cools down.
A lot of what happens in the ECU is dynamic... in
fact, about half the code in there is redundancy in case
a sensor fails.
There's only one heat sensor though, and that checks the temperature of the coolant (Or the head in some cases, the Ford diesel Endura engines for example)
Unless there's something I don't know about brand new cars it sounds like he was talking it up a bit.
I wouldn't mind being proven wrong though, it does sound interesting.
Browse
I suppose the simple answer is what ever you can get her to pay!
Thankfully I haven't had to cross this bridge yet. However my personal view is that the rate should be set by you, not her, at one that encourages leaving home! I would say the cost of a room in a local shared house plus a third of all running bills plus a third of all food bills rounded up to the nearest sensible number.
Alternatively you could do what a 30 year old friend's parents did, talk about selling up and emigrating. Amazingly enough he somehow managed to buy a flat and move out ... as soon as he thought he was going to be made homeless ... of course the holidays and flash clothes disappeared pretty quickly!