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

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

Its often a common policy of economic car ownership to buy at 2 or 3 years old to lose the high initial depreciation, but (IMHO) times have changed and certain models pose enhanced risks.

Decades ago when I learnt to drive as a teenager (and as a consequence work on cars) any inadvertant abuse of the car was tempered by a growing mechanical sympathy due to understanding and being able to *visualise* what was going on, in for example the clutch, or oil flow around a cold engine.
Most of the new cars of that era were bought by the relatively wealthy older people who tended to look after them.
Well.. There was Auntie Nelly, slipping the clutch a bit and witless about the mechanics, but the proposition I am making is that *new car abuse* is often more extensive and model specific today.

There are two models in a manufacturers range, discussed in another marque specific forum. One is typically bought by pensioners or young female drivers. It has few problems and seems a reasonable bet at 3 years old.

The other model seems to have taken over the role of the old modded Novas or Corsa`s of a decade or so ago however Its not a Vauxhall.

This newish, large supermini is often bought brand new by 17yr olds who are getting their first car, courtesy of parents. so none of the suffering of personal saving, doing without things as a result applies.

Whoo Hoo then :)

Some are chipped as soon as purchased, run off the limiter at every gear change even when cold as though its a computer game. A group of owners ran some on neat cooking oil with no concerns of the fuel pump and injectors, One guy banged a new one into second gear to overtake a truck seemingly putting it beyond the limited engine speed on the changedown, then held it at the limiter, blue smoke pouring out the back. It reportedly doesnt have the same power now and he`s puzzled why. ( really puzzled that is, no mech awareness at all)

Their cars have lots of breakages and faults and often there is putting water into the sump (other fluids into the wrong places) and going the full 12,000 miles to the first service without opening the bonnet. Oil pressure lights coming on during cornering due to almost no oil and running it like that until finally getting advice on what it means and then putting in some cheap oil. Astounding examples of ineptitude and knowing and unknowing mechanical abuse charactorising their period of ownership.

The general plan is to keep quiet about a lot of this and then move them on at about 3 years old..............

Our economic buyer who would not dream of buying new, then buys these cars....
So IMHO, some particular `cult`models are a real risk these days, far more than in days gone by.

Then there is the petrol into common rail diesel and running it 40 miles until it finally chugs to a halt, quietly part exchanged and coming soon as a nice " someone else has taken the initial depreciation 3 year old" to a dealer near you.

As for me? There`s no way I`m going to buy a small sub £8,000 car used, I`ll take the hit on buying new, then keep it 15yrs.

I also think I`m turning into Victor Meldew, I wonder why?

Regards
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i need to fit one new front caliper (old one keeps sticking) i recently changed the fluid and had a real job getting the rears to bleed properly even with the load valve forced open

so my question is...when i fit the new caliper can i just bleed that corner?

1991 g60 golf with abs Read more

Hi,

I have just taken the Rocker cover off of my Focus to take a look at my camshafts to see if one had snapped. It hadn't and both turned when i put a spanner on the crank pulley. However, i noticed that at the gearbox end of the cams, the recesses where a bar can be fitted to stop movement of the cams are not lining up. Does this mean my valve is out? And how could this have happend?
Jon Read more