April 2007
Hi,
Have a 5 year old (02 plate) 1.8LX petrol estate with 80k miles. Had the car since 20k miles and not abused. Car just failed MOT:
Carbon Monoxide at idle excessive also after 2nd fast idle. Hydrocarbon after 2nd fast idle excessive. Lambda reading outside limits, blue smoke during acceleration. They say "Severe engine malfunction, buring oil, possibly pistons worn."
Anything I can do to get through MOT or is there no hope? New engine too expensive, recon/2nd hand probably not worth the cost/effort? Any ideas on options?
Any opinions/advice/help gratefully received.
Regards,
Hatethosefords Read more
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i think that your daughter is working illegally hugo
you know this
the landlord knows this
so there aint much you can do
i personally think the owner is guilty of theft and as said how is it accountable via till receipts?
Long time since I posted, but always reading the messages.
Looking at buying a car from the above, anybody had any dealings, especially in negtotiating price?
Thanks
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Hi Romeo156,
If you are after a Ford check out Ashington Autos, they are located in Ashington on the A24, not far from Jerrries Billingshurst site.
I have bought two car from them in the past six years with no problems.
They have specialised in nearly new Fords for about thirty years, they could almost be called the orginal car supermarket!
My last purchase in Aug 06 was a 13 month old Focus, 05 plate 1.6 LX with 13,000 on the clock for £7995.
Their website details are: www.ashingtonautos.co.uk
Good luck
I had a crash a couple of weeks ago, and both my car and (I suspect) the 3rd party's was written off.
Here is a link to the junction:
tinyurl.com/2xkupv {Shortened link to maps.google.com/maps - DD}
I was trying to turn right out of the side road (to the right on the image). It is a busy road at rush hour and it is sometimes necessary, when the opportunity arises, to come out across the first lane, stop, and then wait before being able to turn right. There is also a filter lane for traffic wanting to turn right into the road I was trying to turn out of. They obviously have the right of way, but there are a lot of considerate drivers who will wave you through once you're halfway out.
So, the accident. After arriving at the junction, I looked to the right to see a car about 90 metres up the road, by the traffic lights. I pulled out into the lane of the oncoming car, stopped for about 4-6 seconds, looked left, and a car wanting to turn right waved me past him. Just as I went to turn right, I was hit by the car whose lane I was stationary in.
The young girl who hit me was quite hysterical and didn't say anything once I'd made sure she was okay.
The police turned up about 5 mins later. They said they could see what had happened but they would have to put down in their report that I was at fault because I was blocking the oncoming vehicle's lane. I questioned them as to how far a car had to be up the road before it was reasonable to expect them to both see me and act accordingly, given the fact that I may still be there by the time it the reached me. She said it was a grey area in the law.
Their is absolutely no evidence of the girl reacting to my presence until the very last fraction of a second, when she appeared to try to avoid me by swerving to the right. She appeared not to slow down at all during the preceding 4-6 seconds (whilst I was across her lane), and she certainly didn't leave any skid marks in the road.
I believe it was reasonable for me to assume that in that time she would be able to either slow down or stop if she had to, given that there was a stationary vehicle in front of her (if I'd been stationary but facing the same way as her, it would most definitely have been her fault). I'm fairly sure the girl was not paying attention to the road, and hit me as a result.
The question is: have a got a chance of convincing the insurance company that I should not take 100% of the blame? Read more
It was silver. I think I would have seen an object the size of a car in the road had I been the girl though.
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It's not that I dislike the new look, it's just that I'd become accustomed to the old ~ a bit like one becomes accustomed to old, comfortable, slippers!
--
L'escargot. Read more
>>a really welcome feature it is, too
it will be if I can get it to work for me......hmmmm
Dan
Hi there,
When I bought my VW Bora last week, I agreed with the salesman that he should get the 'ticking' sound that the engine was making fixed before I pick it up tomorrow. Spoke to him today, and he's assured me that the ticking noise is down to the charcoal filter, and they all do it! Its perfectly normal apparently.
I managed to find another link on the interweb regarding this, but it sounds a bit odd to me.
Its probably mega-common and I'm sounding a bit mental, but I am curious what its all about.
Cheers Read more
I can not hear my mk3 Golf charcoal control valve, but I am half deaf anyway. I would put one end of a screwdriver in contact with the charcoal control valve and the other end of the screwdrive in contact with one's ear and hear if the noise via the screwdriver is in time with the noise you hear from under the bonnet.
Using diesel fuel as a flushing oil, outcomes?
I`ve heard about it for years and have always been horrified at the thought of the camlobe pressures (etc) when Derv is used as a flushing oil. But on another forum, someone has just run a petrol engine for 30mins at tickover on derv instead of engine oil with the oil pressure light on the whole time.
Someone else did this at 1,500 revs to keep the pressure light out.
As usual I`m interested in any evidence one way or the other of outcomes from this proceedure. Academic interest only from my perspective :)
Any thoughts ?
Regards Read more
Nice sludge pics (shudder) I`m sticking with the Mobil 1........
I tend to think once sludge has formed its stripdown time.
I have seen some cars in the early 60`s with what looked and felt like coal shale in the rocker covers.
Hi,
My Daughter has an '02 Corsa in red. It gleams but unfortunately the bonnet and roof have become 'milky'. I did polish with the 'buy from Halfords' colour majic and it did restore it for a few days. Is there a better solution (other than a respray). I want the bonnet and roof to look like the rest of the car.
Your advice and suggestions - as alwatys are appreciated.
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These are the views of Robin the Technician with 35 years in the trade. I fix, therefore I am... Read more
A good wet mopping (Farecla?) and then a polish with a decent wax would help
surely?
done just that today on a ford red,
could use the car body as a mirror to comb my hair if i had some :-(
Just had the second coil pack in less than 2 years and 19k replaced on the 1.6 Megane, done by the RAC at home,they carry a variety of OE coils onboard as I was told that they are such a common fault. They go without warning and cause the auto box to go into limp home mode just as well I was local to home. The RAC man recommended that I buy a spare to carry and showed me how to change it, it really is a 30 second job. Have any other members had any problems. Read more
Aprilia's right; the pencil coils on the 16-valve Renaults are unique to them. There are three makers: Sagem [by far the worst - changed dozens;] Beru [better - but rare] and Denso [never changed one yet that wasn't drowned.] If they're before 330-3 date code; you can still wangle a free set.
The Scenics drip scuttle water onto the engine, that floods the plugholes and kills the coils; a basic design fault that doesn't help already hideously unreliable components at all.
VAG single coils are completely different and seem to be inadequately cooled; the later ones are better. BMW suffer from water ingress too and the Jag V8 ones just die for fun. Even Dodge Viper twin-spark ones suffer.
Plugholes are too hot and suffer too much vibration for what is essentially a coil and [often] an electronic amplifier. Saab started the idea in the 70's with the 4-way drop-in amp/coilpack. An elegant solution - but their dealers still sell two a day.....
Hi Posters,
This topic is far shot from cars...but here gos the story...
I wanted to get someone to install some metal railings at the boundary line of the driveway between my drive and the car trader's drive (neighbour). We share a semi-detached house with the drives adjoining each other and separated by a boundary line (about 1 inch height block pave brick - not sure the official name to described this)
My driveway had been constantly being used (trespassed) by the neighbour car trader, and our family car always get the dings and scratches due to the culprit neighbour's. The neighbour is a car trader whose has a second hand car business and every wekend he takes one or two back to his home to sell. I guess he is performing a private sale to avoid the obvious reasons. The drives are small (average width of a normal family size car), so when he drives his M5 and other larger cars he has to manoever (spelling) his cars onto my drive in order to drive his cars into his own drive.
Can anyone suggest some ways of protecting my drive and car being damaged? I thought if I install some metal railings that may at least stop my cars being damages and stop the neighbours coming onto my private drive to get into his cars. However, I'm not sure if I need planning permission or just go ahead and get someone to install it. (I think it will involve digging my side of the drive and fit some metal post to support the metal rails.) Not sure about the cost though...
Any suggestions are welcome. Read more
>> I will have a look at my Deed soon and report back.
:: ;-) :: come on, get on with it and do it now. :: ;-) ::
people have been asking you to do so a number of times, starting from
Installing Railings to driveway boundary - Chris M
Is there anything in your deeds about whether you can or can't erect a fence?
Browse
"hatethosefords" No need for that sort of name here you know. DD will moan at you.
Servicing up to date? As mentioned, check breathers, have look inside the throttle body/air intake to see if oil is being sucked/blown in from the crankcase breather. AFAIK, there is no filter between the breather and the air intake. Try running the car with breather(s) connected to a drip bottle, plug hole into air intake (I've never had to do this with a modern engine, so very much at your own risk as always). Sensors OK? Check spark plugs for signs of burning oil, might be worth a compression test whilst you're fiddling with the plugs. Duratec is usually reliable.
More mature cars have PCVs that can do strange things, breather to atmosphere side of carb and another breather to the manifold side, PCV to prevent excessive suction during high manifold depression.
Oil is wrong, did anyone mention that ;-)