November 2006
Morning everybody,
Have a problem with my ibiza sport 1.6, it keeps stalling everttime you dip the clutch( can be pulling away or reversing) like the ECU is not detecting it need extra full to stop this happening, the diognostic light isn't coming on on the dash board so i don't know what to do? does any body think this could be a sensor problem? any idears?
Thank you for looking and for any idears
James Read more
We all now that idling a car just to heat it up is not good for the engine. My son who has just got his first car a few weeks ago did this very thing this morning. I would like to explain to him that this is not a good thing to do but I don't know exactly what harm is being done to the engine.
The car is a 2002 Clio 1.2 with 53,000 miles if this is relevant.
Thanks.
Alan Read more
"old paraffin heater"
My dad used one of those for years (before multigrade oil).
I'm not convinced by the 'warm it up as quickly as possible' argument, though. If a cold engine wears faster at idle, it will wear faster still under load, so any reduction in warm-up period is offset by the increase in wear rate. No doubt there is a yet-to-be-discovered optimum, but a friend of mine believed the 'no-idle' idea so strongly that he always started his cars in gear and drove off immediately! They never seemed to last...
Piston-engined aircraft always warm up at idle, BTW.
I have just replaced my rad. I hope I have got all the air out of the system. (I must be stupid I could not see/find one of the bleed screws as per Haynes, but bled the top one by the heater matrix.) If not what symptoms would I get? Thanks. Read more
Everything seems to be fine. Thanks
My brother in law has had stroke and will not be leaving hospital for at least 3 months. Will almost certainly not be driving again.
Car is due for MOT and service by end of month.
Questions.
1: Am i covered by my insurance to take car for service and MOT.
2: Presumably it is worth getting service and MOT before selling car as car could not be driven on road by buyer
3: How do i SORN car.
4: What about car insurance.
The only risk is theft or fire from locked garage
Thanks Read more
The tax runs out on the last day of a month. If you're changing to SORN you DON'T get 15 days to do so, you only get 15 days to re-tax the vehicle.
An Mot is vital to sell a car and a long Mot is useful. Don't bother with the service if the car's running ok, use the cost of that to negotiate / clinch the deal - ie offer to knock £100 off the asking price to cover the cost of the next service.
Yesterday I recieved a speeding NIP from 24th August. It's postmarked 1st September, and I also recieved the reminder postmarked 3rd October, as well as a road tax renewal from a month ago. I guess they all got stuck somewhere, and the postmark is within the 14 days.
Anyway, it says the time of the offence was 11.24am, but I have a job sheet for a job in Dagenham Motors E17 (Walthamstow) for 11.05 until 11.55am, signed by the customer. After that I went to Leyton (E10) and my job sheet says 12.00 till 12.30, also signed by the customer.
It says I was seen on the A13 just east of the A406 North Circular. I would have gone that way on the way to my first job at Dagenham motors, but wouldn't have gone near it between those two jobs.
The times I put on my job sheets sometimes vary by 5 minutes or so as I usually get stuck in straight away so don't always log the exact time of arrival. But the job at Dagenham motors would have taken at least 45 minutes, so even adding a few minutes here and there, and the time taken to get from the A13 up to Walthamstow, if I was at Walthamstow at around 11.05, how come I was flashed on the A13 at 11.24?
It was probably me, although I use the Origin B2 speed thingy so I would have had plenty of warning, and I've got a personal plate (I know!), and I was in the area that day, but the times just don't match up. So what to do? Read more
No it will probably be a letter from the Court.
Scrapyards - some love them, some hate them.
A proper scrapyard is not one of those recycling places that strips the parts from the cars, has the parts on the shelf and charges you accordingly. A scrapyard is a place where the cars are there to be climbed over and looked at, where you can wonder around at your leisure with your tools. You see all sorts of older cars that you haven't seen for years on the road. You go there for a part, then you see something that you have needed for a while and forgot to put on your list, or something that you could use for another use.
When you visit one you where wellies and old jeans etc, you are prepared to get a bit oily or dirty but the satisfaction is there that you have saved yourself a load of money, understood the car a bit better, kept the scrapyard open, done a bit of recycling of a second hand part but still life in the component, kept your vehicle on the road. Whereas at dealer prices some may well struggle, I know I would when I was 18 and driving my VW Golf Mk2, instead of a Fiesta or Nova which may well have been cheaper to run on dealer prices than the VW, but then I was prepared to work on the car myself and change exhausts, clutch, discs,pads, cambelt etc.
There are those that think they are an eyesore, but then are they perhaps the ones who can afford to drop their car into the dealership at £70 per hour and comment on the lovely coffee they had which was supposedly free but come out of the labour rates.
There aren't loads of scrapyards to ruin the aesthetics of this country anyhow. Besides, it is those who have little understanding of a scrapyard who comment on the supposed eyesore.
Definetly a place for the better and to be used more often. My 11 year old stepson had never been to one before and absolutely loved it, all the different badges of the cars were there, he isn't even into cars a huge amount, but he was happy.
So when are you going?
Blimey reading this I sound like an old bloke, I'm only 30! Read more
One of the more surreal episodes in my life came during my twenties when my best mate was the sort of manager for the notorious band The Macc Lads.
We had this odd game to while away the hours on trips to gigs of Skoda Spotting - 1 point for Skoda, Skoda pulling a caravan 10 points, loader full of Skodas outright win, you get the picture but we took it very seriously with printed membership cards.
For my mate's birthday we decided to club together and me and the band's drummer went to a scrappy in Ancoats and just asked the bloke "how much Skoda can we have for £20?"
I don't know who was more weirded out, the scrappy owner or the landlord of the pub that night when we gave my mate the carefully gift wrapped door off a maroon Estelle.
I have come by a Rover 4.6 v8 in basic form. (No electrics or inlet manifolds.) Is it possible to fit the old style front timing cover(SD1) to give me a distributor and oil pump. If so what mods are there? Your help would be appreciated. Regards Dave. Read more
No
Hi all, I have been offered a full set of leather seats for my car ('99 Ford Focus MK1 2.0l Zetec Ghia), I assume fittings will be exactly the same, but the more important question is: would the heated part of the seats be a plug in affair? i.e. would there already be wiring in place for it, and does anyone with a focus know what switches / knobs there are to control the heat (are they on/off or thermostat controlled?)
TIA Read more
If your existing Focus is a high trim level, you may well find the connector in the loom, but you would need to get switches, trim panel, etc
Heaters in leather seats are well worth while as the leather is quite cold in winter.
may sound a daft question but someone asked me and i didnt know the answer.
can rust be fixed? friends car has rust bubbles under the paint on his car. they are on the wheel arches and a bit on the side of the bonnet. he also has a bit on the corner of his roof which has now turned into a hole.
can a panel beater/sprayer type place / guy rectify these or is it a case of once the rust is there, its there forever? Read more
You're supposed to paint it immediately but the rust will come back-the water-soluble bit works if you put it on chrome plating but you need to get oil or wax on it immediately after wiping it off.
hi lads
ive recently bought a nissan primera v reg and ive used redx to clean it .. as it was spluttering tho it was missing a plug so i put new plugs and car been running brill for few weeks and now it started again but seems worst than it was but ive also found that the revs r sticking on 2000 revs
can any one help me slove this promlem plz
plus the orange engein light comes on and flashs then goes off
Read more
Browse
James,
Had a similar problem on a 2 litre 8 Valve that the dealers could't find. They suggested the throttle body but changed it and it made no difference!
Had my ECU checked by a guy on the intenet and he found a fault that cured it. Cost £190.00
Chris