January 2007
On my vw passat the front brake sensors have been taken of and the wires have been joined together yet the check brake warning light is still coming on ? Read more
Brake lights always on on the above car (2000 model).
First thoughts were faulty brake light switch; but it doesn't appear to have one !
Any ideas welcome, especially from 206 experts. Read more
Doesnt really matter now the 206 has been replaced, PSA are not going to waste money on a simple protection plate for us right hand drive people when the system already designed works fine.
A fault has developed on my wife's BMW whereby when she is crawling to a halt (e.g. at a busy roundabout) or manoeuvring at slow speed the car shudders from what appears to be engine vibration. When the revs rise it goes away and it is intermittent in nature. The sensation is closest to when a novice driver rabbits a manual on its clutch.
The car is an auto and has just been serviced by the main dealer, it has done 79k miles. I have also noticed that the mpg has dropped off by a about 2 mpg recently.
I would greatly appreciate it if anyone could offer any advice, the dealer plugged it into their computer and merely said "yes it is running a little roughly but we will need it in overnight to find out the cause"!?!
Many thanks, Adam Read more
Hello all,
This sounds very similar to a problem I've got (apologies if it's not and it's been covered elsewhere).
My car (54 plate 320d) idles fine but gets a nasty shudder when cruising in any gear and applying light acceleration to maintain speed. Give it a bit more throttle and it disappears but it seems to be happening more and sometimes when slowing without braking too.
Any help/advice would be much appreciated.
Cheers.
Realised that my new BMW 3 has no coolant temperature gauge!
SWMBO says that a temperature gauge is something she doesn't look at anyway, and i suspect that's the case for many drivers. Also, modern, well looked after engines seem to work with the temperature gauge (where fitted) rock steady anyway, regardless of outside temperature or demands placed on them.
But I do like to see how the coolant is warming up, and even more to see how the oil is warming up - as on my MINI Cooper S. Still, the BM has a 'fuel consumption indicator' and does have a fuel gauge thrown in too. Apart from this relative lack of instrumentation, the latest 3 seems a fine car. Read more
Ah my old Italian,
Temp Gauge, Oil pressure gauge, Oil temp Gauge, voltmeter and a gauge on the dash that you could check the oil level with by simply pusing a little button on the instrument panel, and it was accurate. With an Old Italian car then all of them necessary, but now I have 2 Jap cars then I am fairly content without them, just as long as you do check things every so often. Ah my old Italian .................
Hi,
I have a 2000 X plate Xsara Picasso 1.6 SX with average mileage. Condition is generally good and is fully serviced with recent new exhaust and tyres. I am looking to upgrade now to a 7 seater, probably a Touran or Zafira. The problem is there is damage to the front wing where a cyclist ran into it whilst cycling on a pavement about 3 years ago which has left an indent about the size of a dinner plate and also there is small damage to the roof from where my roof box and rack slid off when I was going down the A3. Neither of these are major damage, which is why they did not bother me at the time, however now coming to sell I was wondering how much these could affect the trade in value.
Is it worth trying to get this fixed before I trade in or what sort of reduction could I expect?
Cheers,
Peter Read more
Don't bother fixing it, normally if the garage want to do the deal they will simply make an offer on the trade-in minus the "*trade cost* of repairing the damage, which is always much less than what you can get it done for.
That's what I always did with my customers anyway, we also did it when they were honest enough to declare serious mechanical problems, one of them was about to spend £500 getting her Ka fixed and then trade it in. We offered her the normal price of her car minus about £250 if she bought straight away without fixing her Ka, she was well chuffed :-)
Blue
Why are virtually all the tool kits you see in Halfords, Argos, etc etc always have half and half imperial and metric sockets and spanners? No one uses imperial anymore, there's no need for them. This is a real bugbear(?) of mine.
A friend of mine, who I am teaching how to service his car, proudly announced he had a new tool kit for xmas, which upon inspection had half metric, half imp' sockets but also had 5 spanners all imperial with no metric spanners what so ever! And the small [b]ball bearing[/b] on the bitdriver which (holds the bit in place) fell out on first use, no way could we find the ball bearing.
Any ideas where I can find a replacement ball bearing about 2mm diameter? Read more
Has anyone used Clarke sockets from Machine Mart, are they any
good?
For some of the the 'Pro' ones they do Metric only,
eg. www.machinemart.co.uk/product.asp?p=040212495&r=20...1 .
I had thought about buying one of these but then got
a cheap set as an Xmas present a few years ago,
so never got round to it, and wouldnt use them enough
to justify the cost..
What I did 25 years ago when replacing mine after it got nicked was buy a reasonable set (actually Draper) & then the ones that wear like 10 & 13mm I've binned as they wore & replaced with Halfords Pro which are good value. Although my £37 hex air gun ones from Screwfix probably get more use these days. And in the past I've probably used them more than most amateurs, as I've worked on cars fr part of my living, as well as doing a huge amount of work at home.
I appear to have an oil starvation problem with my 2002 Shogun 3.2 diesel.
At first it only occurred if I went straight onto a motorway after a cold start. (I live 2 miles from the motorway, so it was not completely cold). After a couple of miles at 60 to 70 the oil light would come on, making me release the accelerator and look for the hard shoulder. Within 5 seconds the light would go out and stay out, whatever pressure I put the car under. This fault only occurred on the motorway, never on ordinary roads even with 2.5 tons on the towbar. I wondered if my 10W-40 oil was a bit thick when cold.
Today I was climbing a 1:5 hill solo after about 10 miles of running. Half way up the hill my oil light came on! I came off the throttle and coasted for a passing place….and out went the light.
Clearly I need to do some investigating….here’s the rest of the history.
It’s done 85,000 miles: I bought it 9 months ago at 82,000 with a full Mitsubishi service history, although the last dealer service was at 66,000. I changed the oil and filter when I first had it. The old oil was black but otherwise healthy. The new filter came from a Japanese parts motor factor, so is not a genuine Mitsubishi one. There is no oil pressure gauge on the car, just a warning light. Oil level on the dipstick is about one third down from the max mark.
Any thoughts guys?
Many thanks,
John
Read more
Hi there
...
Recently purchased above for wife as she was concerned about realiability of 236K 405
Warranty work done at cost to supplier of £511. Last oil change at 31K, now on 36342.
Last night oil light came on, to signify complete loss of oil. Undertray in position and undamaged. Garage unable to recover from my house until Monday. Last night recovery mechanic suggested major oil leak from crankseal or sump gasket, but unable to verify due to position of undertray and full engine bay.
have filled full of oil again, and positioned over pit, and will go and burrow when I finished this. Undertray looks a pig, and I am working on my own.
Any ideas (leak is really really major). I thought oil filter slackening itself off (seen once by local garage after H.....d oil change), failed filter casing, . More important, is this a known problem or failure, and is there a makers bulletin. Common engine to VW, Audi, Seat, Skoda and recovery mechanic said he'd never seen one
Off I go................. Read more
An update, as information and perhaps amusement.
a week after this I noticed oil on the drive. Removing the undertray showed a seeping weld. Took it back to welder, who told me to take it off and bring it in, and he would do it again.
That I did. Took it back one lunchtime and off the little man toddled, but the forman did not do it himself but gave it to what I would call the YTS lad who bought it back after 10 minutes. At my assistance he took away yet again and put another weld on the inside, and more weld on the source of the leak.
Put it on again, and this time one of the bolts was tighter than the others (oh god I hope I have not crossthreaded it)
Ran engine for 20 minutes and no leak at this point on weld, but 2" away a much slower seep started.
Went back on Saturday morning and informed foreman I wanted my money back. How he dared slide under car to check my story I don't know, as he was certainly in kicking range.
Have now bit the bullet and ordered a new sump, complete with opening for the oil level gauge. Spares man assures me that swopping over this component is not a problem, and they have done it "many times" without a problem. Lets hope that 3rd time lucky really works, as this is getting me down. This time will do the whole job one night in the week, as let's face it, I am getting practiced at it
Hi, just started doing my mates head gasket and realised I've lent out my Haynes manual,
searched the web but can not find the torque wrench settings, and tightening sequence
anywhere....pls can anyone help? Vehicle is a 1993 PEUGEOT 306 1.4 PETROL
(Engine code TU3M/Z). Thx in advance!!! Read more
A bit late in the day in responding, however just having replaced a 306 head gasket, there are a few things to watch out for, I would recommend new head bolts for a start, the length and thiness of these bolts almost dictates replacement. lock the cam shaft in place along with the flywheel, by fitting a couple of bolts in both holes, its so easy and keeps everything in place, blow out the bolt holes in the block with an air gun (mind your eyes) this makes sure that the bolts can go right in, and as I found having struggled with a dial gauge, its not easy to get it right as the dial gauge I had, wanted to move however tight I thought I had it fixed, in the end I used it just as a guide for the the final angle of my torque wrench.... One thing I am concerned about is that the Haynes manual (and others who may all be quoting from the same source) say after tourquing up to 15lb, the bolts should be turned another 240 degrees however the Elring gasket pack I used recommended 120 degrees, I assume that as they make the gasket they know its limitations!
Can anyone give me some advice? On the 10th January my Honda Civic Type-R ('02' 2002) and I had an accident, which I thought was caused by a blow out on my offside front tyre, or some sort of suspension failure. No other person was involved (apart from a barrier). The insurance company said that the damage was uneconomical to repair, but they would value the car at around £7500. However their engineer has stated that my offside rear tyre is illegal and that therefore they will not pay up.
Should I organise for an independant inspection to take place to confirm this fact? If so, who would you recommend I ask to carry out the work?
If the tyre was illegal, can my insurance company refuse to pay out completely?
I have always considered tyres a very important part of my maintenance regime and have never scrimped when replacing them, so it 's ironic that this should happen.
If the tyre was indeed illegal, would I have any legal claim on my garage? Baring in mind that only on the 22nd November 2006, my Main Dealer garage had swapped the tyres around front to back and adjusted the tracking of the car (as I felt it was puling to the right). Surely at that time my tyre would have been illegal and they should have refused to carry out the work or advised me accordingly?
If indeed I have no recourse with the insurers, how do I go about selling a written off car? I have a loan outstanding on the vehicle and I will need to do something to raise cash to pay off the existing loan.
If anyone has any help or advice, please let me know.
Toby Wood.
Read more
I had an accident, which I thought was caused by a blow out on my offside front tyre, or some sort of suspension failure.
After the accident was the offside front tyre punctured or did it seem that the accient may have been caused by another tyre ?
>>However their engineer has stated that my offside rear tyre is illegal and that therefore they will not pay up. Should I organise for an independant inspection to take place to confirm this fact?
Have a look at it yourself. It shoudl be fairly obvious. If you either think it is not illegal or that it is marginal, then perhaps consider an inspection. Someone like the AA will do or anyone you find in the yellow pages.
If the tyre was illegal, can my insurance company refuse to pay out completely?
Yes, if that tyre was the cause of the accident. They cannot refuse to pay for the damage tot he barrier, but do have the option of recovering that cost from you afterwards.
I have always considered tyres a very important part of my maintenance regime and have never scrimped when replacing them,
>>Baring in mind that only on the 22nd November 2006, my Main Dealer garage had swapped the tyres
No offence, but if they changed them on the 22/11 and the tyre was illegal on 10/1, that's almost 2 months without you checking them. Hardly a measure of importance.
>>Surely at that time my tyre would have been illegal and they should have refused to carry out the work or advised me accordingly?
You'd think, but you should be aware of the state of your tyres also.
I doubt that the wheels/tyres were switched. That's a source of much myth and rumour, and there's always someone who knows of an instance where it happened, but I think I only ever saw one and that wasn't a reputable garage. It is perhaps slightly more common after the vehicle has been inspected, but beforehand I would say largely unheard of.
1) was that tyre the cause of the accident ?
2) If not, what was ?
3) Can you [or an engineer] prove it ?
4) If it was the cause of the accident, was it illegal ?
5) If it was illegal, was it majorily so or marginal ?
If it was the cause of the acccident, then your'e stuffed although you have some sympathy from me. A nasty situation which only the idiots would think could never happen to them. All I can suggest is making a fuss with insurer, maintaining the accident was not related to that tyre, insisting they prove it or produce a report showing that it was the fault of that tyre, insisting that if they cannot do so then they pay up. If all the other tyres were in good condition then that would help.
You'd have to at least show the likelihood that the other tyre was responsible, that your tyres and trhe car were generally in good nick, and that you were going to make a whole bunch of fuss (take them to court) if they don't deal with the accident.
Don't be silly though, if they make a half-way decent offer just take it and think yourself lucky.
Show no weakness, deal with all correspondance promptly and thoroughly, never miss a detail, never miss an opportunity to pull them up on an error however small, and most importantly - NEVER blink first.
Browse
.jpg)
Would the check brake pads warning light be a mot failure ? its booked in next week and ive tried everything to stop it ,