May 2006
Currently parents considering a one year old model available for less than £6k with low miles. Read the road test here and comes out well, anyone else has thoughts on the model?
Seems a bit of a Honda Jazz type of car, good space and flexibility. Model being considered is 1.4 model. Read more
Never mind acetone and additives! Which of these incredibly fantastic two fuel saving devices would you put your money on?
tinyurl.com/g94uv
or
tinyurl.com/fzgps Read more
BMW are developing a Turbosteamer device
I have wondered why a manufacturer has never progressed an idea like this, or any other external combustion/heat engines such as Stirling or Rankine, to make use of wasted exhaust heat.
I guess the main problem is that the extra power is not delivered instantaneously on start-up, and the space restriction under the bonnet. A 15% power increase may be accompanied by a 15% weight increase!
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Mike Farrow
Some time ago I was following an oldish Ford Fiesta down the M4 in good weather but heavy traffic at about 45-50 mph. Suddenly and for no apparent reason the Fiesta just spun right in front of me, causing me to escape collision by violently steering onto the hard shoulder.
I have heard of this happening before years ago before the Fiesta was born, and was wondering why this should happen. Broken suspension component maybe ?? Read more
Coming home along the M62 Westbound past Warrington this evening (about half 5) there was a Citroen Xsara facing totally the opposite direction, tight to the armco on the hard shoulder with a bashed in front bumper.
Had obviously somehow spun and it had literally just happened as the driver was walking up the embankment on his mobile.
I didn't see it happen, but the traffic in front of me didn't slow down as we came up to it. There seeemed to be a little bit of debris on the carriageway.
No other vehicles around that could have been involved, either. It was fairly heavy rain though.
Most unusual thing to see, especially since the traffic carried on flowing as normal!
On 6th May, I posted about the problems I've had with my diesel car,(registered 52!!) new engine after 6,000 miles now after a further 45,000 miles Renault have carried out a diagnostic test and found Ingestion of oil within the engine, and have recommended the only solution is a new engine. Parts and labour at £6650, they are prepared to contribute 60%, but that still leaves £2660 + V.A.T.
I've been offered a Low milage reconditioned engine, but both the new engines failed at what I would say is low milage. Or do I DUMP IT and use the money to buy some thing different.
Any idea what value it might have once completed!!
thanks
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Yes it's the 2.2 DCI, the response is the technical spill.
Ingestion of oil??
intercooler circuit problem sucking in oil??
E.G.R. exhaust gas recirculation??
if that helps anyone with any further recommendations.
Have had a price of £14,500 for a new Megane coupe Dynamique that has been imported from Cyprus. Is this value for money?
Is there anything that I should be aware of, any pit falls on this deal?
I have been told by the salesman that it has a full 3-year British warranty - is this true? - I haven't had this in writing.
Thanks Read more
Cyprus registered cars suffer collosal depreciation what you may gain now you will lose times over upon resale.
hi have checked forums on this subject and am unable to find info i seek.according to my local dealer i have a tempremental heater flap motor.this means when i set temp control knob the motor is suppose to keep set temp.at moment it is highly erratic goes from freezing to sauna all by its self.first how do i check this motor for a fault and if faulty how easy to change.any info will be gratefully received.the xsara is a 1.6 8 valve forte model on a 'w' plate.otherwise it is a nice comfortable car to drive and is proving economical to run 40mpg commuting and 45 mpg on a long run. Read more
hi back on this problem again.taken fan out from behind dash for heat sensor.some one has already had a go and wrecked it.not to paninck at this time but a more serious problem has occurred.have fitted new thermosat and bled cooling system also got citreon to check this for me.temperture gauge shows a drop of 10-15c when driving down hill on no/light throttle.i am sure this is far from normal but any suggjestions would be appricated.
ok, we were replacing the thermostat and upon re tghtening the top bolt , snap. I had broke the screw and the end fell off. Does anyone know if the entire housing can come off , it has 3 screw or bolt heads that look like this holds it onto the full engine , feel well shockin wasnt even my car , weird thing is it didnt feel tight when it happend Read more
OOPS. I shouldn't have said Japanese engines, I meant to say Modern engines...
I've owned various petrol cars over the years, and not once noticed any difference in performance no matter what fuel I put in.
Now I've got a diesel, it seems to make a huge difference. I tried BP Ultimate when I lived near an outlet, and it gave loads of extra power below 1600 rpm, and made the car pull much more strongly. You wouldn't notice anything on the motorway, but I rekon it took about half a second off the 30-60 time in 3rd (very rough guess), and it definitely added about 4 mpg (~10%). It's also way more drivable in the city as turbo lag is much less of an issue, with near instant pickup.
I've been using 'standard' diesel for the last month as I can't get the good stuff round here. But. I put in a tank from a certain mainstream chain the other day (not a supermarket), and now the car's a dog. Noticeably less power unless the turbo's on song, and just feels gutless to drive. Haven't had a chance to investigate any acceleration numbers, but it's a really quite surprisingly large difference, and won?t know mpg until I?ve run the tank dry, so can?t comment. I better not name the chain ?cos of naming and shaming.
Is this a common thing? Do others find this? Or has my car just broken and I'm blaming it on the diesel? Or have I just gone mad?
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The goona liked BP Ultimate, more low down grunt but did not give any increase in MPG. The rest all felt much the same
Now on the Touran, and that postively *hates* Texaco. Very rough.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
My son in law is back driving Texaco fuel tankers on nights after two years on car transporters.
I asked him recently if Supermarkets had additives put in their fuel. His first response was no, they didn?t the last time he was working on tankers . But he said he would have to find out the current situation as he personally didn?t deliver to them and all his deliveries were to garages such as Texaco. He would ask one of the supermarket tankers who load out of his depot.
He also explained that when given an order number nowadays you punch this into some device at the loading bay and you know that additives are being injected into the fuel tanker by certain coloured lights on a panel which indicates diesel, petrol, grade etc. and additives. In effect the order number dictates what is being fed into the tanker.
Yesterday he told me that he had asked one of the supermarket tanker drivers waiting to load (I won?t mention the supermarket name) whether additives went into their fuel.
The drivers reply was ?Its funny you asking this question because its not constant. When we load out of your depot additives are put in. When we load out of another there are no additives injected.? ( I may have this the wrong way round but makes no difference) ?We know this because of the indicator lamps.?
He could give no explanation as to why and son in law speculated that it could perhaps be because they didn?t have a additive tank for that particular company on their site whereas Shell and Texaco do which are separate ones. Or perhaps one Supermarket does and another not?.
So the only definitive is that Shell, BP, Texaco each have their own specific additives in their fuel. And it appears that supermarket fuel may or may not have any.
The drivers have no knowledge of additives put into their tankers and only know if is being injected or not. (Not that they are really interested.)
In case anyone thinks that it depends on the tanker livery they see delivering to their supermarket this makes no difference. Even the main players such as Shell and Texaco don?t have their own fleet and the tanker delivers the fuel specified by the customer.
Incidentally he tells me that deliveries to haulage companies with their own fuel tanks don?t have additives.
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Perhaps its where I buy the Texaco then. Its been the same station each time.
Its currently running on a tank of BP.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
Japanese manufacturers have dominated a poll of the Top 100 most reliable used cars over the past decade.
The list, compiled by independent mechanical breakdown insurer, Warranty Direct, found that every car in the Top 10, and 16 out of the Top 20, were Japanese models. The Honda Accord was at number one, with Honda also taking the 6th place with the the Civic and 8th with the CR-V.
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BTW- I live near a chap who owns a Peugeot 407 and having a nose at the front of it the other day, couldn't believe the amount of free access to the Rad. It almost looks as if you could replace the rad without opening the bonnet!
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Spend £20 or so on uprated bulbs and you might be pleasantly surprised. I had a similar problem with a Citroen whereby on dipped the light from oncoming traffic was 'swamping' the light from my dipped headlights. I bought a pair of Osram bulbs billed as being for use in rainy weather and the difference was very marked. I could immediately see the side of the road in front and beyond the oncoming car much better. No doubt something to do with wavelength of the light etc.
Always liked the Mazda 2 for its in-between size and would imagine it is a worthwhile buy.