May 2007
My car's (X-reg Hyundai Accent) engine seized recently following leak from engine oil. The warning light came at a very last stage when already the damage was done!
Local mechanic is currently fitting a used engine.....
Just wondering why the manufacturer's can't provide a gauge on dash for the oil pressure level?
I've seen some cars that come with (eg. Porche, Peugeot 406 etc.)
Is it possible to fit an aftermarket engine oil level gage? How much will it cost?
Well, I was stupid enough not to check oil level every morning but a leak was beyond my imagination.
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A couple of weeks ago I was unfortunate enough to be involved in a minor collision in my Skoda Fabia. I was sitting in heavy traffic in the left hand lane of a dual carriage way, approaching a roundabout. The accident occurred when a taxi attempted to join the carriageway from a side road on the left. Instead of pulling in behind me he attempted to pull around me and join the right hand lane, as he did so he clipped the my rear bumper and light. Although he never explicitly said it was his fault, he seemed to accept liability did by saying that ?he could get it sorted out at a garage he uses... no need to go through the insurance?.
After asking friends and family I decided to take the car for a couple of quotes at local garages. Both quoted just over £300 for the work, due to the amount of labour involved. I contacted the taxi driver and he was amazed at the price, saying he wasn?t willing to pay this much since the garage he knows will do the work for £20!
Since I have not been involved in a situation like this I am not sure what the best thing is to do next. Obviously I want the car to be repaired to a good standard, at the taxi driver?s expense. I am concerned that if I don?t accept his offer of getting it repaired at ?his? garage there is a good chance that I won?t get any money out of him at all. However, I don?t want to accept his offer if the work is not carried out to a good standard as it will affect the value of my car.
I understand that I could go through my own insurance but since I have no witnesses I feel that this could be costly. However because he was pulling out of a garage forecourt he was in full view of the garages CCTV camera.If anyone out there has some useful advice to offer I would be grateful to hear from you. Thanks in advance.
Paul
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If it was a licensed taxi contact the Hackney Carriage Office for the area.
As a condition of his licence I think he is obliged to report any accidents.
What a gorgeous, gorgeous, GORGEOUS car.
Totally irrelevant to 99.99% (or more) of us reading this, but what a stunning machine. The lovely teak deck to the rear, just like a classic Riva speedboat, the unpainted metal bonnet. The mere fact that it exists should be celebrated.
I can just picture myself wafting down to the south of France in one before boarding my luxury yacht, vodka martini in hand (shaken not stired), leggy blonde in my arm .... WAKE UP!!
Yes I'm sure the ethics of it could be criticised, but this car is a pure work of art (headlights aside).
It's seeing cars like this that make me wish I was a car journalist - must almost make up for those early flights and late nights testing the latest far eastern white good.
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Yes. Not claiming to be Rolls-Royces or Bentleys.
I have a 2002 Mondeo Tdci (128 HP) automatic with a pneumatic variable vane turbo charger.
Last year (40,000 miles) it began to lose power below 2,000 rpm and there was hesitation at 1,500 rpm. The Garage could find nothing listed on the computer.
Eventually I changed the turbo and this cured it for 3,000 miles but now the problem is recurring.
Has anybody had similar experiences and is there a cure?
Terry Nichols
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Rather an expensive misdiagnosis?
You are throwing money around in the dark, to me. (I hate new diesels)
I have a July 2002 VW Passat TDI Sport [PDI engine] with 42,000 miles. Everything ran normally until I took it in for a service. i.e. it pulled strongly until 2,000 revs when the turbo kicked in. There was then a real surge of power at 2,000 revs when the car really took off and pulled like a steam train right through the revs even in high gears and gave excellent performance.
I took it in to a local garage that specialised in VW's for the service. It was a normal service plus the replacement of all the brake pads - £370. I was also informed that the cam belt was starting to crack up an should be replaced in the very near future. When I drove the car after picking it up, it was totally different with a complete loss of power. In particular there was no surge of power associated with a turbo kicking in at 2,000 revs, or any where else in the power range. I've now got a slow donkey of a car with no acceleration that needs to be revved hard to just produce even an average rate of acceleration that my old 1300 Nissan Sunny would comfortably match. I noticed I have to change gears a lot more than before just to maintain a reasonable level of momentum. [and obviously I want to keep the revs at a minimum until the cam belt is changed].
At one stage it showed a reluctance to rev above 3,500 in 4th gear and seemed to stick on 3,500 revs for a while. On another occasion I thought I may have detected a bit of a kick in at about 3,500+ revs and some power. I contacted the garage immediately only to be told that nothing they did in the service would affect the performance of the turbo or create the loss of power. One of the mechanics speculated there could be air in the fuel line.
Any ideas, as I'm about to do battle with the garage and got the feeling they are going to fight their corner and refuse to accept any responsibility for the total change in my car.
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I recently had to have the flywheel replaced on my Focus 1.8 TDCi. Got exactly the same symptoms that you have described - absolutely no power afterwards - as if there was no turbo. Immediately took it back to the garage who, without hesitation, checked all the connections to the turbo. A pipe had been accidently kinked and split, resulting in the loss of power. This was quickly rectified and upon leaving, the car was back to normal again (except for not having the hot start problem caused by the duff flywheel, but that's another story), absolutely no hassle. Sounds to me like this garage are just trying to wriggle out of admitting that they may, and most probably inadvertinently, have created the problem and their excuses are totally unacceptable - stand up to them.
Apology if this has been posted - can't find it in forum search though it was in the news last week.
My BMW-riding colleague has often chortled that the forward facing cameras don't catch bikes - must show him this story when he gets back from holiday.
A Dunstable biker had been making a habit of riding past three of these every day at 100mph while making victory gestures - this presumably annoyed the police so much that they actually traced him ...
www.visordown.com/motorcyclenews/view/biker_busted...l
Can't condone of course but he made me smile. Read more
True, it may catch the occassional nutter, and im all for that;...... but, the chances are its going to catch a far greater number of thoroughly decent types who, because they were probably spending their time looking where they were going, rather than staring down constantly at speedometers, just happened to accidentally stray up to 36mph on a downhill stretch of road.
These people are not 'imbecilic morons'; they are perfectly decent people who because they were concentrating on the road, driving probably very safely, suddenly find themselves with points on their licence.
The whole thing stinks if you ask me.
Just for general info. There are Specs Cameras on the Northampton ring road, I've only been there in the dark so can't comment on the signage, Also the stretch of the A14 from Alconbury to Cambridge is a Specs area (about 10 miles) but very clearly signed all the way.
Mods please move this if it is the wrong place!
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The notts ring road (A43) was one of the first specs zones in the uk. Been there for some years. Most specs are ok, they are clearly visible for what they are
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
Hi can anyone help with this problem ?
My car usually starts Ok and usually runs fine as long as you don't stop !
If you stop for 5 - 10 minutes or so, the car will sometimes not start unless you put your foot flat on the accelerator fault lights off at this stage. Then when it starts it idles rough with the red injector fault light on. Sometimes after running like that for a while the red injector fault warning light goes out and the car is Ok. Sometimes when driving (after a 10 min. stop) the car cuts out altogether and you have to put your foot flat on the accelerator to get it going again and the red injector fault light comes on, otherwise it will just eventually stop. Sometimes the red injector fault light does not go out when first starting the car from cold and it idles rough but you can drive it like that. I have "reset" the ECU a few times using the procedure in the Haynes manual. I have changed the following :-
Injector body top including choke stepper motor injector etc
Ignition coils, see below
TDC sensor, at one time it would not start at all until I changed this. The above fault appeared a long time (a few months) after I replaced the petrol tank filler pipe (complete assembly) and after replacing that, there was no pressure in the tank. Before pressure would build up in the petrol tank while driving, you could hear it escape when you took the petrol cap off. Dont know if thats significant, maybe just a coincidence. I have had a diagnostic test done, before all the ECU resets, but no fault showed UP !! any help appreciated thanks ! Read more
does valve work in innerwing that vents fumes to the charcoal cannister/see if you can hear CLICK it when you turn ignition OFF
im after a pair of cooling fan motors for a 306 hdi
ive been told that they have had it and mine are made by ECIA
does anybody know what motors could i fit to my car as im struggling to locate any. For example could i use fans off a 1995 306 with no aircon as long as the fan motors are made by ECIA
im not planning on taking the cowling out (as the multiplug is stuck) so any fan that will fit will do
Do any other peugeots ie. 406s have similar fans?
cheers Read more
do a search on euro car parts and find the number for the fan for your car then put the number back in to search for other cars
Son and I were strolling into town the other day and we pondered a shiny yellow camera. I daydreamed that Captain Gatso would appear to no avail. Now there were two little holes facing one way and on the other side what appeared to be a flash unit and camera. Correct me if I am wrong but it seems that you are monitored approaching the camera and photographed after you have passed by. Read more
Oil pressure is the important thing. Its what prevents the engine seizing. You can have a sump full of oil but if the oil pump isn't working the the engine will still trash itself.
The trouble with the standard oil pressure warning lights is that they only light up at really low pressures so you have to lose loads of oil before it wil tell you and by then its often too late. If you keep an eye on a retro fitted oil pressure gauge everytime you drive you can at least monitor any oil loss indirectly as the pressure will slowly drop over the weeks if the engine is burning oil or has a slow leak.