January 2007
Hi,
I am thinking of changing the fuel filter myself because it is due though a full service is not yet due, the filter is easy to change, it clips in and has quick release pipe fittings, also the system is self bleeding though I dont want to crank the engine to get the air through, how about applying power to the lift pump for 5 mins or so to pump the air in the new filter back through the fuel return to the tank?
Not sure how the dealer does this, any thoughts?
Thanks. Read more
This forum looks a whole lot better than my local dealer...
I've a 51 plate, 1.8 mondeo estate that started what I believe is a misfire (never experienced one before) just before xmas. I've searched previous posts but can't find a good match for my symptoms.
Starting from cold and just idling with my foot lightly resting on the clutch pedal I can feel the occasional jerk. When I go to pull away I find myself kangarooing down the road. The fault carries on through 2nd, through slow acceleration in 3rd and I can still feel power loss accelerating in 4th on the motorway. On the return journey in the evening the fault seems to clear much quicker. After 10-15 minutes things are usually back to normal. That said I drove from Brighton to Bristol once over xmas and could still detect the problem, all be in slight and infrequent, when I arrived.
Once I've got past the jerking I can accelerate hard and everything seems fine.
I've replaced HT leads. Oil and plugs were changed by a main dealer 3-4 months ago. There are no warning lights and a local garage checked the ECU and found no faults.
I'm not keen on taking it in to the local Ford garage without some idea of where the problem could lie. I'm also aware we have a big cold spell coming and I need to get it sorted. Any thoughts ? Read more
Problem Solved !
Rather disappointing I'm afraid. It was one of the most likely faults mentioned quite early in this thread but something I never got time away from the kids long enough to check - a cracked coil pack.
Gave in and took it to a local dealer (the only one I hadn't previously used and vowed never to go back to). Excellent service, good chat with the assigned mechanic and 40 minutes later a call saying they'd fix it. The crack wasn't evident until the pack was off the car, quick replacement and the fault cleared.
Thanks for all the advice, I couldn't use it all but it still could have avoided an unnecessary expense.
Vauxhall combo bonnet pull has snapped,any ideas how to get in my bonnet?
please help! Read more
mines snapped doh!!!!!
When I was a lad I could buy tyre paint, this was a black, easy to apply rubber type of compound that was used to smarten up tyre walls; it seems to have vanished from the shops, does anyone know why?
Legislation?
E.U. regulations?
Out of fashion?
? Read more
Anyone remember WHITE tyre paint, when white-walled tyres were the rage on Fords?
>>
No, but Google comes up with it on the first page
tinyurl.com/y5ndcu
It even shows you how to apply it :-)
Hi, this is my first post.
I have been asked to recommend a suitable car for the 21 year old son of a friend of mine, no more than £3K - £4K. Something small probably, nothing too fancy and where the insurance won't cripple him.
Does anyone have any thoughts or recommendations on suitable small, economical, low insurance cars that might fall into this price bracket. What sort of age, mileage, condition etc would we be looking at? Roughly what would the insurance be assuming a clean license?
Thanks.
Fluke Read more
Don't you mean my Volvo S60? I do think you should "think out the box" when buying a car when young - as Mike H said just because some cars are in a high insurance group doesn't mean they are that expensive to insure - my car cost me just over £650 to insure - not bad for a 21 year old male driving a 180bhp 2 litre turbo! However its just not practical for a lot of people own cars like these. A 3 door (looks better than the 5 door) Focus is a good bet for a first car - good fun and easy to drive, looks good, cheap to run and reliable.
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On WMP 11 Options>Privacy has various tick boxes to uncheck also a Firewall such as Zonealarm allows you to restrict an application's right to connect to the internet as does the Firewall on my router.
Hi,
The bonnet rease catch has ceased to work.Please can someone tell me how to open the bonett so i can repair it.
Regards
Dave Read more
If you look up through the righthand side of the grille you can see the bonnet catch. It has a slot in the side with the end of the spring showing. Find a long enough stiff thin rod and probe it through so that its end rests firmly on the spring end. Strike the end of the rod with a hammer and the bonnet will open. Well mine did anyway. Took me about 10 minutes and sent me boz eyed but it worked!
Hi,
I've got a 1999 astra 2.0 sri 16V which has an odd gearbox problem.
When the engine is cold, it's very hard to change gears; I have to force it into gear. There's no crunching sound from any gear so I assume the syncromesh etc is working. Once the engine is at normal running temperature, the problem disappears and I can change gears normally. Even when the engine is cold, I can easily change gears when the engine isn't running but as soon as I start the engine, the gearbox starts acting up.
The clutch pedal lies slightly below the brake pedal as if it needed the cable adjusted (I'm assuming the pedal should be slightly above the brake pedal) but this model doesn't have a cable - it's all hydraulic.
The fluid level is normal - the clutch and brakes share the fluid reservoir so I would have thought a problem here would affect the brakes as well.
I've no intention of tackling gearbox problems myself but any ideas about the problem would be welcome before I go to a dealer. I don't want the dealer telling me to replace the gearbox when it's maybe a fairly simple problem!
Read more
Reverse gear isn't fitted with a syncrohnizer ( this acts as a brake to match the speed ) whilst the other gears have a coned syncro and the wrong oil & even some addatives effect the coefficent of friction on the hubs & slows the gear change down or in some cases actually makes it almost impossible to change gear.
If its suffering clutch drag you will only need a new clutch but make sure you spend money on a decent one as this vehicle is fitted with a relatively low lift clutch & the tolerences of some will spoil the way it drives. Hope this helps Try to avoid remanufactured, reconditioned clutches some are well disgised but you never know if they have done more miles than your car before there fitted.I would use valeo or LUK from experience
Just traded in my 03 Ibiza TDI Sport for a 55-plate Mini Cooper S, and after a few days have noticed that the gearchange and clutch both seem to be pretty heavy - there's absolutely no way you can just 'slap' it into gear like I could with the Ibiza when a quick gearchange was required.
I don't remember the gearchange being that heavy on the Cooper S that I test drove, so was just wondering if could still be newness - apparently the mini has had one very careful lady driver prior to me, or whether I should be taking it back to the dealership and asking them to have a butchers.
All replies very welcome
jake Read more
There is no engineering reason why a gearbox designed to handle
'a lot' (in Mini terms!) of torque should be heavy to
shift..
Absolutely. But my gearchange has a nice feel (to me) and the clutch is nicely weighted. Jakey, if you're in danger of some abnormal left limb development, I'd get it checked out, as Aprilia suggests.
Woke up this morning (now THAT'S an original idea for a Blues song) and started the Jag, to find it was in "Reduced Performance" mode. It had been standing in the street in Sheffield in poiuring rain overnight with a true gale blowing it at the front of the car.
I drove it carefully till it warmed up, then stopped for a couple of minutes and restarted. The limp home mode was gone, but now the "engine fault" light was on. A quick dive throught he manual suggested this just meant "get it checked at a dealer". so I drove it 200 miles home. No problems whatsoever, but the light didn't go out.
My question: Is this light just to say "There has been a problem", or does it mean "There is currently a problem". I'm hoping the former and that it was the rather extreme conditions last night that did it, but can anyone with a tad more mechanical knowledge that I shed some light on this for me?
Cheers,
V Read more
True - although in my experience most engine light faults on the S Type have been down to faulty coil packs. It's almost impossible to say exactly what the cause is without hooking it up to a fault code reader.
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Buy another can/Get a suitable glass container, fill it with say £3 of diesel, then fill the filter, then top up the tank of the Mondeo. ;o)