May 2007
My Astra 1.8sxi occasionally has a problem starting, more often when it is warm but can happen any time. It always starts eventually and runs perfectly. The battery is new and car recently serviced. Also is there any magic way of improving the engines compression, and could this loss of compression contribute to the starting problem. Read more
Have seen an oil CO. advertising EXOL brand lubricants on their ebay shop, wondered what the quality is like - anyone know ? Other fluid I've seen for sale is Comma, whcih I understand to be pretty cheep and cheerful from what others have said on this forum.
I am particualrly interested in their Exol Autotrans Dexron III fluid, which claims to be"Semi-synthetic".
It is for my 1995 celica GT
I would prob be buying a 25L drum.
I'd probabaly also be considering buying some fully synthetic engine oil for it too, assuming they do the right grade, and the quality is good. Anyone know what grade I should be using ?
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SS
It was to do with the maximum weight that a single person can lift occupationally. 25's were deemed too heavy, so 20 litre packs replaced them about 5 years ago. [It was a handy way for the manufacturers to sneak in a price rise too....]
It's surprising how many old size pails are still around.
im looking to convert my mondeo to xenon headlights ive bought two second hand xenon headlights the original units used h7 bulbs im looking to fit an after market xenon kit but not sure what bulb type fits the xenon units Read more
The correct xenon bulb has a unique fitting that requires a special locking collar and a circular push and twist connector.No other type of bulb will fit this headlight or work correctly .Xenon bulbs are only 35watt .hth
Good afternoon guys,
I have a 1998 Escort I bought a couple of weeks ago.
Im doing most of the repairs and tarting up myself... Brave ??
It was overheating slightly, ie the needle would go to red whilst driving around town, but as soon as we hit 50/70 it would go to normal. And there was no heat in the car. Thermostat I thought.
So today began the task of raplacing, NO THERMOSTAT THERE !! How could this be... why would someone do this, Have i missed a 'trick of the trade' to make the car drivable for a bit and hide another problem. Hey ho... Replaced it, even though the naughty prev owner didnt have the thermo in.. had no clip did it !! Had to go get one from uncle scrappy.
Any opinions would be great
Thanks guys. Read more
>>looks like someone couldnt be bothered to change the water pump so took the stat out hoping the water would cool thru conduction or convection
Good chance they did not know what was wrong,usually when stat taken out, its because they think its stuck closed, causing the overheating.
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Steve
Does anyone know where the current regulator resides for the DIM/DIP option on a 1998 A6 1.8T. Regards Peter Read more
Thanks Screwloose, that would explain it. Regards Peter
Would an old coolant ratio measuring 'thingy' (With the three balls in a pipette tube) measure G12+ in the same way as it would the old blue stuff it was no doubt designed for? Read more
MSDS looks like a useful to know about, thanks Ashok!
A mate has offered to lend me his roof box so I'm looking to buy some roofbars for the trip to the Le Mans 24h next month.
The car is an 04 Vectra hatch.
For conveneience, I'm loooking online. There seems to be a choice of "cars with fixpoints" and without, for my model.
If I slide back the caps on the rof there is a shiny block there. Is that a fixpoint? Read more
Smokie, what was the online place with the cheaper Thule parts? Might be going down the same road with roof bars etc myself.
My car was manufactured in May 1993, and has a catalytic converter as standard.
Usually therefore at each MOT its emissions are tested according to the post-92 more stringent requirements, for CO, NO, and Lambda.
However, every few years for some unknown reason the tester decides to use the previous standards, and only CO is tested, with a less exacting pass rate. This has happened twice in the past.
Yesterday it was again tested under the old regs, the print-out clearly stating "Non-catalyst". After I had got the pass certificate safely in my pocket I asked the tester, as a matter of interest, why he had used the non-cat test even though the car clearly has a cat and is post-92. He said it is nothing to do with him - he just types in the year, and the VOSA computer tells him what to test.
It is very odd - last year, at the same garage, the new-style system told him to do a cat test.
Anyone else had this experience, or know what is going on? Read more
Another curiousity of the MOT system is that I now know advisories are not
followed up.
I got an advisory a few years ago - "corroded inner rear wing". Found the corrosion, painted on some rust-primer, and gave it a nice thick coat of Hammerite. Next year, the car passed with no advisories, same tester, same garage!
SWMBO is looking for her next car. She does nearly 35,000 miles a year so is looking for a diesel car. Had a quick look yesterday evening at 6-12 months old cars and most of them had a handful of stonechips. Is it reasonable to expect this on cars of this age? Most of them had done between 5000-7000 miles.
many thanks Read more
I think very very few car makers (and certainly none of the major ones) are using organic solvent-based paints any more. They are only used by the refinishing trade, and are slowly being phased out altogther in developed countries.
Properly applied water-based paint seems to be reasonably durable. Many makers have been using them for over 10 years and they have more or less perfected them. Some refinishers still struggle with them though, largely due to a lack of experience or proper equipment.
Finish varies a lot from one maker to another and I suspect in some cases problems are due to cost-cutting and poor preparation of the underlying metal. On some cars the paint seems to be put on incredibly thin, so its no wonder it chips easily. My sister's Swift is just over a year old and I looked around it recently. The paint is excellent with no chips - just a gouge low down on the front bumper where it his a piece of wood.
Funny, but this car has become the most important car ive ever owned - mainly because I have always loathed Fiats and I have now relented after ten years and am two weeks into the ownership of one.
Its actually not anywhere near as bad as I expected and I can see why people like them.
Handling is great, nimble and the supple suspension means it handles mid corner bumps and cambers very well, unlike my mums Hyundai Coupe. The steering is very direct although doesnt seem to self-centre much which is disconcerting at first.
Its not that fast for sure and the high gearing means you often need a lower gear than instinct suggests, but its acceptable and the first fuel consumption return was 55 mpg with a mix of town and A/B roads, which is impressive and a trip to Lincoln on Sunday will be a real test for economy.
Great car in town, very easy to park and visability is great.
I find mine very quiet - its hard to hear the engine unless you rev it, so its quite a relaxed crusier, but never really know if you stretching it unless you really hold onto the gears.
Reliability, THE Fiat issue. Aside from the fuel tank issue, Im gaining confidence in it. Problems so far are minor - very slight grumble from the NSF wheel bearing and a slight rattle from the exhaust ( which was replaced in Jan so perhaps just needs tightening ). The is also a slight hestitancy when at low to mid revs under load - perhaps just needs a tune? Its not that noticable except when its very cold, once warmed through its only ever so slight.
Th Cd player is odd. It wont start to play a CD if the car is moving, but start the CD when your stationary and it plays fine, most odd, but its not a Fiat CD player ( Clarion ) so not directly linked to Fiat.
I have decided to get the cambelt done a year early as it cant do any harm and then i wont be worrying about it ( I dont always trust manufacturers recommendations aimed at the fleet markets running costs ).
All in all, Im actually very happy with it - certainly you get what you pay for, but on initial impressions, you get a fair bit more too.
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The Bosch Super 4 range of 24 different plugs are a rationalised range that are a compromise on certain applications. They were developed for garages and retailers that didn't want to stock umpteen different types. People are also wowed by the 4 earth electrode design that gets around the problem of faster wearing cheaper materials.
If you use their OE specification Super Plus plugs you shouldn't have any problems as they are matched exactly to the engine often using higher specifiation materials such as Yttrium alloy.
HTH
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you don't say whether its not turning over when warm or just noy firing when warm?. sometimes the starters become lazy when warm!.
if its spinning over fine but not firing it may be worth checking out the cranksensor & 2nd if you can unbolt the injection rail whilst warm with injectors still in rail & rest injectors on brown paper still sitting across manifold & leave for a few hours. If you find small fuel staines on brown paper then you can suspect the injectors are dribbling when hot & flooding engine, this is quite common, injection cleaner may help or hinder, if water has been in the system & caused microscopic corrosion then ultasonic cleaning or replacemeant may be the only answer. check all the easy options first.1.8sxi don't normally suffer from compression loss & are good for 170,000+ miles if looked after.