February 2006
Hi All
My brother has a cambelt gone on his 1.9tdi. Has this damaged the engine or is there sufficent clearence between pistons and valves?
Hope you can help, he's tearing his hair out over this.
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Alyn Beattie
I\'m sane, it\'s the rest of the world that\'s mad. Read more
It must be back in the 1980's that Japanese manufacturers introduced 3 year warranties. Since then, nothing much seems to have moved on. I think Hyundai now give a 5 year warranty but I wonder if thats a marketing thing, as they try to increase market share, rather than a permanent global commitment by Hyundai.
European manufacturers have, grudgingly I think, brought in longer warranties. I think that the EU may have forced them to do so. On the technical matters thread, there are never ending tales of woe about things that really shouldn't break imho.
Isn't it time warranties, on certain components at least, were essentially lifetime. Particularly things that have no moving parts. I'm thinking of things like ECU's, sensors, & connectors. What do backroomers think ? Read more
IIRC Nissan and Hyundai in the US offer 10years (used to something like 5 years bumper to bumper and then the remianing 5 years on powertrain).
By law, all emission control systems on US-market cars must be warranted 8 years or 100k miles (i.e. covers cat, oxygen sensors, engine sensors, ECU etc).
I have noticed whilst driving behind twin tailpipe BMW's that some have a butterfly valve in the end of one of the two pipes.
On a 530D (I think ) the valve was open at idle and closed on pulling away, a 330CI did the opposite. Does anybody know the purpose of the valve as it intrigues me.
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I could have sworn that I had taken that extra "c" out, it is of course "Ricardo".
After just paying a large bill to get my car through MOT, by the way now have to pay for retest, i was thinking about going back to paying £500 for a car with a years MOT and then throwing it away as it were.
Wondering if anyone else does this and what were there experiences.
Any websites of interest?I already know Bangeromics. Read more
It always used to be company cars and companies have to
buy new have them main dealer serviced and sold at 3
years as this is the norm and anything else opens them
up to litigation in court however I thought the company car
was dieing out as people took the cash option.
Well I get the cash option and don't buy cars new -- get them at 3 years old and run them until they become expensive to run. Most people with the money will still blow it on a brand-new model though I find.
There's a typo in the title - You've put diiesel instead of a diesel.
It sounds like a really nice car though. What is the ground clearance like?
teabelly Read more
I went to the Scuderia Del Portello prize giving recently, held at the Arese meseum included a lunch amongst the classic Alfas as an added bonus the following day, I got to drive a Brera 3.2 V6 Q4 round the Bolocco test track.. an Alfisti dream weekend.
Anyway the point I'm trying to make is that the Brera drives as well as it looks and if you were impressed by the 159 I think you'll be very impressed by the Brera. Oh... I also drove diesel 159 Station Wagon and was very impressed much more so than I ever was with a 156. I like the offset numberplates and it's not the offsettedness of it but the stupidly large number plates of the UK that make it look strange.
Hidden door handles? if they were such a poor design feature they'vebeen copied by Honda because....
;) JaB
My car headlight bulbs aren't very bright - originals as far as I know. Car is VW POLO ESTATE 99 T reg. Checked sidelight beams yesterday, they're very brown.
Problem with dipped beam especially not putting out a lot of light. Alternator is OK. Battery is original and OK. No faults I'm aware of and the car went straight through the MOT test last week. Anyone ideas?? should I fit replacement bulbs?? Read more
Oh and one other thing. Your car should have the Type 472 H4 55/60watt bulbs fitted.
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Was Charles {P} but someone c o p i e d my name with spaces.
I've just returned from a family trip to Trier in Germany. I've travelled through Germany before but this is the first time I've actually stayed there, and as a fan of German cars I was interested to see the variations etc of the models we get here. But one of the first things I noticed was that very few cars had alloy wheels. This included the vast majority of BMW and Audi cars and many Mercs.
In fact, I saw quite a few with the plastic wheel trims missing and the black steel wheels showing, and they looked awful! Imagine a 2-3 year-old BMW 5 series in such a state.
Spotting this became almost an obsession (much to my wife's annoyance, although even she had to admit that the appearance of of many 'nice' cars was spoilt by their wheels!)
Has anyone else had this experience?
Pat
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The previous Audi RS6 was known to trash alloys if you hit say a large pot-hole. Apparently designed that way because it saved suspension which was way more costly. Under warranty Audi paid for wheels - cheaper than them paying for new suspension.
Just found this on ebay.Driver stopped to help and ended up with a convertable,courtesy of the fire brigade.Item 4613207988 Read more
The cynical side of me says that someone who starts feeling back pain just as the emergency services arrive has just had dollar signs light up in their eyes.
If he'd done that in my car, I'd have been hard pressed to resist the urge to drag him out before the firemen could get there.
As someone who has a car,van and motorcycle,and a daughter that has another car,one of my regular tasks is checking tyre pressures.
My motorcycle in particular is checked quite often as wrong pressures in its tyres could cause handling problems,which could in turn lead to more serious consequences.
I have a couple of pencil type gauges,and have a cheap thing attached to the air line of my compressor.All read differently.
I have read somewhere,that digital i.e electronic is the way to go.
Are these any good and how do they work ?
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Isn't the key to get a BS approved one,(digital or otherwise) as production is periodically checked at random, to confirm that accuracy is still being maintained?
I'm thinking of purchasing a second hand Zafira 52 plate, 2.0 DTi (Elegance), 59,000 miles with FSH - priced at £7K
Does anyone know of particular problems I should look for, eg cambelt changes at particular intervals, particular oil being used etc etc...
Any advice gratefully received
Cheers Read more
cambelt changes at particular intervals....
The 2.0 diesel is a chain.
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That'll be a 90bhp non PD then.
the cambelt tensioner on my '00 110bhp TDI broke and the belt jumped a few teeth. Once repaired, it sounded like a bag of spanners and then the garage where i got it fixed went bump, so i got rid.
I was warned that on the bottom pulley there were three possible settings (?) for the cam belt and so it may have needed have tweaking. I would have had it tweaked if the garage stayed solvent!
Anyway, I really don't know whether or not the car would have been ok once tweaked, but it did work, after a fashion. Performance was dire, it stalled easily but economy was unaffected. Wierd.