Dear all,

Fiance's mother has X plate Accord 2.0i VTEC. It's a great car, but does seem to use a bit of oil. On a 250 mile journey to Cornwall, used nigh on a litre. Is this normal? What's the best oil to use for these engines?

TIA,

Alex.
--
Dr Alex Mears
MG BGT 1971
If you are in a hole stop digging...unless
you are a miner. Read more

Hello all,

I was driving down from Nottingham to Maidstone on Friday. Whilst on the M25 around J25 going clockwise, I saw a couple of sets of traffic lights actually on the M25 just before going into a short tunnel.

The same was apparent on the journey back apart from traffic lights were in an overhead gantry.

Does anyone know why? Read more

ok posting this for a mate,

right firstly main concern, m reg 1.9td 306 car was fine but has been stood up for 2 weeks while some work was done, the work was back lowered, new track rod end new exhaust, stage one tune so nothin major. since being driven again the gearbox is playing up, basically it takes a good shove to go into gear and crunches when going into reverse, it's like when putting it in gear you push it in, it hits a stiff point push it some more and it pops in. have checked linkages and moved them by hand seem fine, have checked linkage directly under selector seems fine also, put in new gearbox oil until it came out of level plug on side of box(took a litre as didn't drain old stuff), now this improved things for a short while but it's now back to being stiff as a dog again.

i suspect something is up with the clutch or more likely the cable as also when you do put it in gear there is a low pitched grating noise, imagine like you were putting a needle on the flywheel whilst it's turning or a stone grating on a brake disc etc. i suspect the clutch cable needs doing and as such isn't engaging the clutch sufficiently enough to allow the box to slot into gear, another reason for this suspicion is it goes into gears fine with the engine switched off. so can anybody suggest any other possible causes? the biggest problem in my head is that the clutch box etc. have not been touched during any of the work it's just been stood there so why would it suddenly fail?

the other problem is at the rear of the car there is a noise when the suspension is pushed up and down, it sounds like when a spring moves within a suspension strut(obviously not that on a pug but similer sound) the rear axle has just been stripped regreased and put together with new rear subframe bushes, i think it could possibly be the new bush bedding in or maybe a trailing arm bearing has given up the ghost(i know should have done them while it was apart) but again anyone got any ideas? can't see it being to do with the new brake shoes although they may be slightly overadjusted but again that will just scrub off the shoe and go away with time so i don't think it's that

chris Read more

Is there a straightforward way of stopping the trip speedo coming up with INSP ? The car is a year old, and has had a service at the local independent. The mechanic is on holiday just now, and I don't want to go out of my way to a main dealer. Car is a 2005 Astra 1.6 Club, petrol. Read more

Rant mode on.

It becomes more and more clear over the years that the government doesn't need to build more roads, the money would be more wisely spent in driver education. I have recently returned from the annual holiday, which necessitated a drive from Dover up the M20/M26/M25 route to junction 10 of the M25, thence south. It's like entering Moron City when you hit the M25. Thanks to a combination of aggressive drivers of what they like to think of as fast prestious cars, and those others who find difficult in working out a) that they are on a motorway b) that there are actually four lines available for driving in c) that the speed limit is actually 70mph and d) what day of the week it is, the whole road may as well have been two lanes. Not much fun when you have 120 miles to drive, and have already covered 360 miles that day (not all driven by me I add). It's clear that the 5-lane stretch of the M25 round by Heathrow will be wasted, to get a true 5-lane you would have to go up to a physical 8-lane layout.....

Today, due to the South West Trains strike (don't start me on that!) I drove to work from Petersfield to Putney via the A3, leaving home early. On long stretches both before and after the M25 the inside lane was quite clear yet no-one was using it. The traffic was light to moderate, and there would have been no issue with performing a normal transition between lanes when appropriate (i.e. the chances of being baulked when wishing to overtake slower vehicles such as lorries) were minimal. There were no points where the inside liane beacomes a slip, so no issues there. Virtually no traffic joining, so no need to worry about continuous streams of traffic entering the road.

What is up with people??

Rant mode off. Read more