Occaisionally in the cooler damper weather I find that i have a patch of quite wet condensation on the inside of the screen above the demist vent, more than just mist, nevertheless the aircon clears it quickly and the heated screen helps if required.

There is no sign of water ingress in the car, the carpets are dry as is the boot, no damp smells, the climate / heating etc works fine, no coolant loss etc.

I wonder if the aircon evap drain could be blocked, I guess this could cause such symtoms. Otherwise perhaps the polen filter is due a change, it was done about 18,000 miles ago.

2002 Mondeo TDCi Ghia X.


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120k 51 reg vectra - went for service with Vx Dealer, and lpg pump "cleaned out" as reluctant to cut across to gas from petrol until warm. This problem resolved, but within 50 miles of service now suffering intermittent misfire (hiccup really) when going from overrun to drive (easing off on motorway, negotiating roundabouts, picking up drive in traffic etc). Only seems to happen on gas, not petrol. Back to dealer - he says gas injector on one cylinder faulty (identified by clamping off gas pipe to faulty cylinder), but all need replacing at c £800! Left me with diagnostic light on - said he'd been trying to clear down all afternoon without success. Any ideas? Diagnostic light no longer on - cleared down myself by repeated start-stop of engine. Misfire more of an annoyance than anything else - seems really coincidental that only happening since the service - I can live with it rather than stump up £800!
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Hi - I have a 1996 1.4 Polo with 64,000 miles on the clock. When should I get the cambelt replaced? Many thanks. Read more

In a recent edition of the magazine Advanced Driving, a letter from a Mr Hyett of Kent suggests that the Government should seek to reduce carbon emissions from our motor vehicles as follows;

" ... surely the best way would be to fit all road vehicles with governors limiting their maximum speed to 56mph? This is the most efficient speed at which motor vehicles can drive - engine efficiency increases with speed, as does wind resistance, and the two intersect at 56mph."

"the most efficient speed" - I wonder if the magic figure of 80kph holds true for trains and aircraft as well or should we wait until Mr Hyett discovers the most efficient speeds for all other forms of motorised transport?

Can you imagine the size of the traffic jam as we all cruise at lorry speed?

I nearly choked on my Shreddies at this. What do you lot make of it?
Hawkeye
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Stranger in a strange land Read more

We?ve just spent a week in Tenerife, we had a car for three - some of my experiences.

First car we were in was a Merc W124 Estate taxi - V6 petrol. Nicely run in at just short of 500,000 km. Auto box sounded a bit clunky, but we covered the miles very quickly. Easy to see why 99% of cabbies over there drive them.

Plenty of the cars were also of considerable age. Second hand values are high (very unloved 10+ year old motors with plenty of bodywork damage sell for over £1,000 - it would be worth scrap value over here) and there is a ?350 document transfer and registration fee when you buy a car, so most owners keep cars for years.

I noticed quite early on that there are very few large family cars in Tenerife. I didn?t see a Mondeo or Vectra all week. There was a huge mix of cars but most were superminis - Fiestas, Clios etc. I only saw a handful of Focus all week, similarly very few Astras. MPVs and 4x4s were a rare sight, but Berlingos and Transit Connect Tourneos were extremely common. .

This was borne out when we went to hire a car. We needed something large enough to accommodate 4 adults and a baby in a car seat. On the way to the UK airport the back seat of my A3 had been a bit too tight so we set out to hire a Mondeo or similar. Cars were available in groups A-F. By group D the largest available was an old shape Seat Leon or Cordoba, far too small. For some reason Group E was made up of superminis with auto boxes - all too small. So we were in to group F offering a Picasso and two van derivatives. A Transit Connect Tourneo and a Citroen ?Jumpy?!

We ended up with a brand new Jumpy - just 160km on the clock. It?s a Citroen Dispatch van with 9 seats. Raised a few laughs when I brought it to the apartment, but to be honest on very twisty and steep mountain roads the 2.0HDi was just the job. On a few occasions we came across other visitors in hired Fiat Pandas etc really struggling on the 1 in 4 hills - I simply stuck the ?bus? in third and motored on!

On a particularly nasty stretch of mountain switchback we were descending we came across a bus climbing the same hill. No choice but to reverse, unfortunately the person behind me couldn?t. They ended up reversing, steering the wrong way and hitting the crash barrier. They then got the car jammed against the barrier and it took 15 minutes to get them untangled! I honestly thought it was a wind up, but no the driver just couldn?t reverse.

We covered almost 500km most of it in 3rd gear or lower and the ?bus? did over 30 mpg - but at less than £2 a gallon fuel costs aren?t really a concern! No speed cameras and decent road surfaces, worst parts were actually on the motorways where parts of the surface are badly worn - not good at 120kmh.

So if you go to Tenerife and need a large car you may actually end up with a van.

The Connect Tourneo looked a decent bit of kit, but as far as I?m aware not available in the UK. No doubt us image conscious Brits would rather buy one of the trio of more expensive Ford MPVs rather than a van with seats.

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