April 2007
A friends N reg Rover 416SLi Auto has started to have overheating problems.
I understand this is a Honda engine in the auto version of the 416.
The details I have to date are:
It is not happening all the time but this may be due to shortish trip useage.
The stat was replaced. A pressure test found no problem.
On the most recent journey - 1st 40 miles on fast dual carriageway/ motorway at 60/70 it started to overheat.
Some minor loss of coolant so stopped and a minor top up of coolant
Next part - fast A roads probably similar speeds and another overheating situation.
Final part - fast A road at a controlled 50 mph with me in convoy appeared OK.
I have now changed the rad cap and checked the coolant level.
Heater is on , there appears to be no airlock but the bleed screw not undone as I do not want to risk disturbing anything else before it returns to base.
The rad looks good and no drips or puddles to be found from leaks
The return trip is planned to be a steady 50mph to see what happens.
A good local motor factor tells me they are supplying replacement waterpumps due to impeller failure.
Either the vanes have corroded away or have worn away.
If it is the pump what is involved in changing it and approx cost ?
Any other possible causes ?
Sorry I have no more details to date.
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Can anyone recommend a family car that is best suited to our needs. The criteria is as follows:
Budget: up to £5k
Essential requirements: MUST have drivers headroom of 1030mms or more.
To be able to carry two adults, two teenagers, two Labradors plus all luggage on annual holiday. (Not just to and from kennels/airport, but nationwide).
Manual gear change.
Options that would be nice but not essential: A decent towing capability would be nice but not essential.
A sunroof would be nice, so long as it does not impinge on headroom.
Air conditioning and central locking.
We have no real preference regarding fuel type, but shy away from LPG due to its scarcity in this part of Kent.
A 'car' would be preferred as opposed to a 'van' or 'minibus' style vehicle.
Before somebody recommends a Discovery or Shogun, Range Rover, Land Cruiser, etc...they all fail on headroom.
Bizarrely, a friend of ours has a 'Y' registration Nissan Micra and I can fit into that with headroom to spare. There must be a 'family-sized' car that also has extra head-room?
Regards
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Yes, I've owned one for 5 years.
I'm 6'1". I've rarely been in the back seat. I can say, however, that with the driver's seat pushed back as far as it will go (which is the way I have it), I would have a couple of inches to spare for my knees if I were sitting in the back seat - and plenty of room for my big feet under the seat.
Hi i am thinking of increasing the boost on my 306 d turbo. I have heard if you run more than 18psi of boost you have to uprate the intercooler. Would it make a difference mounting the origional intercooler at the front behind the bumper rather than on top of the hot engine. If anyone has tuned there d turbo can you tell me what you did and what, if any difference it made. Cheers. Read more
Cheers mate. I will check it out
I took my Ford Focus along to one of our Ford dealers for it's 25k mile service. They were friendly and even gave the car a good washing and leathering. However, when I got home I checked out a few things to make sure they had been done the service properly. I found the tyres had not been pumped up to the correct pressures, I know as there were a few things I had tested before I took the car in so I could ascertain how thorough the service they had done. Now the question is, what else did they miss ? I pumped up the tyres to their correct pressures.
Anyone else had any similar experiences and if so what if any action did you take ?
Also do you check after a service that servicing has been done according to the required spec ? Read more
before i took my main dealer serviced car to a specialist independent (sourced from the pages of my marque's monthly magazine) i had the mechanic who works on my old car, go through it first and just give me a report
he thought i was mad, paying him £50 for not doing anything but check.........
i consider it money well spent for my peace of mind. Everything he highlighted they reciprocated, even asking me how much mileage i do as the pads had 4,000 miles left approx & the discs would need doing about then as well.
i now use them exclusively and will continue to do so & when SWMBOs car comes out of warranty that will go there as well.
I found my diesel leaking from the fuel tank. I looked and found that someone had drilled a 10mm hole into the bottom of the metal tank and pinched all of my diesel, (scum!!!). Do I replace or fill with grommet/epoxy. Is there anything outhere that will do the job cheap?
mickjo Read more
Thanks for all the advice,
After further investigation found that the tank is a indeed a plastic one. If I can get a plastic plug with washer, I'll use a fibre glass patch to go over the top. I've heard that a Kevlar patch might be even better.
If I'm not happy then I will just bite the bullet and buy a replacement tank.
mickjo
I have a 99 1.8 focus that will not start. when i turn the key to the last position there is a constant clicking noise and nothing else. Is this the immobiliser? Please someone help.
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Was more than likely then to have been a bad connection then.
When a driver loses control, swaps ends and ends up going backwards, what happens to the transmission..? E.g. if you do not declutch..? Does this
wreck the engine/gearbox..? It seems to happen a lot on the telly during road tests.
Just curious.
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.. well I wasn't so worried about stallling, just couldn't understand why
the engine/transmission wouldn't be totally shot. Of course I would instinctively
de-clutch if it happened.
I did once select reverse at 50mph, but fortunately did not release the clutch (so the experiment was incomplete..)
I'm not sure how to say this as it clearly states above 'no naming and shaming'......................I guess I'll leave out the make and model of my car unless the moderators tell me they are happy for me to mention it as I sincerly believe it is in the motoring publics best interest. Basically it's to do with a car owned from new, recently out of warranty which the manufacturer can't repair. So it's your call.
My car is 3 yrs 10 months old, has done 55,000 miles, serviced as per the book, using only synthetic oil and using only shell fuel. Basically it has been well looked after.
I month ago the car developed a starting problem, the main dealer has spent 25 hours fault finding and cannot find what is causing the problem. It has effectively been off the road for a month and is still with the garage. The service manager has admitted he has reached a brick wall and doesn't know what to do next.
What am I expected to do, scrap a 4 yr old car which cost me £10,000 new?
HJ is well respected in the motoring world and I am asking you if you would be able to put some pressure on the manufacturer to get this ridiculous situation resolved please. I really don't know what else to do and find the whole charade quite unbeleivable.
If you feel you cannot help, I'd be grateful if you can point me to someone who can. I don't really want to go down the legal route as I am sure it will just drag things on even longer, |'m just looking for someone to apply common sense and get the manufacturer to make a concerted effort to fix my car.
Thanks
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Good review, shaping up to be a nice car.
But.. Mondeo III? Even Ford acknowledge that Mondeo III was the 00-07 Mondeo - despite similarites the 93-96 and 96-00 were different models. Read more
> WilldeB - perhaps you would also post your impressions of the Verso that you intend to try.
Verso impressions now posted here, Avant:
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=53605&...f
As Cheddar suggests, I can't imagine the 1.6 petrol is much fun to drive - the Verso may be short but it's heavy. The 140 diesel engine seems just about right for it.
If Mrs Cheddar wants a Verso as a seven-seater, I'd advise checking that the seven people she wants to carry will actually fit inside. As with the Honda FRV (although I like the Verso a lot better than that horrible thing) I think it's an idea that works well on paper but less well in practice for a long-legged North European family.
Anyway, this is straying rather from the Mondeo. Haven't driven that one yet but will report when I have.
Not the bodyshop that sells soap and perfume but the sort that paint your car.
A couple of weeks ago my son opened the passenger door of my Nissan into a brick wall and chipped some of the paint. Prior to this it was pristine with barely a mark on it.
After I had calmed down (and son come out of hiding!!) I took it to a local bodyshop for a quote for touching up. This particular bodyshop has been run for 30 years by the same owner and he does all kinds of body repairs but specialises in the most wonderful 'custom' paint jobs for exhibition cars. He regularly has Porsches in his yard and has been in the local paper because of prizes won at custom car shows. He looked at the car and verbally quoted me £100 cash to touch in, which he said was his minimum charge and explained that he would have to buy matched paint and so on.
He called me two days later to go and collect the car and said it would now be £160. I went to look at the car and he's done an absolutely super job, the touching-in is completely invisible so no problem there, but I was not happy about the much higher than quoted cost. Since he had my car I felt I had no option but to reluctantly pay up the higher amount. What would others and done and what could I have done in this situation? Read more
Nothing more irritating than a chipped shell
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Perhaps so, but some of us have become used to chips and worse on our shells over the years... I agree though that when you have a pretty, more or less pristine motor it really hurts when it gets damaged.
Browse
Latest info.
The 100 mile long test trip appears to have been OK in both directions.
To recap, we did not "change just one thing at a time and check results" which in retrospect may not be the best approach
On closer examination of the NEW rad cap it appears to have a faulty seal and we think the coolant was not being sucked back from the header tank
The original rad cap was re-fitted before the 2 x 100 mile event free trips and so we are reasonably certain the new cap had introduced an interim problem.
So changing the stat ( condition unknown) and a temp sensor for the fan (definately faulty) we are hopeful the problem has been fixed.