July 2007
Yesterday I experienced total coolant failure whilst driving home. With no warning (and having checked the oil & water at the weekend) an internal alarm sounded, 'STOP' appeared on the dash and the temperature gauge swung to maximum. After pulling over I opened the bonnet to find a smouldering engine and cream coloured foam coming out of the expansion bottle. Needless to say that the car is in my usual garage awaiting repairs and I have been told that possible failures could be the cylinder head or even the oil cooler (didn't know it had one!)
Anybody had a similar experience?
Read more
As a follow on from my comments on the other thread re. taking me down a forest track and being directed to leave the roundabout at the 6th exit when here was only 5,have any of you any experiences to share with the rest of us. Read more
Brilliant gadgets if you accept their limitations. I'd like a 'No, I'm not going that way!' button. Obviously they'll recalculate the route if you disobey them, but I find mine is initially too keen get me back onto the original route that it calculated.
One annoying example: 'please turn right' (approaching a no right turn sign), followed by 'please do a U-turn' (approaching a no U-turns sign) and finally 'please turn left' (to get me back onto the original road in order to start the whole sequence again).
Also, mine (a Mio that uses Navignon software) is often wrong about speed limits. I can accept that some will have changed since the maps were produced but some are downright eccentric: 30 mph in what is a 70 mph limit and vice versa. I soon turned off the speed warning function in favour of adding camera data using a program called POI Warner.
Hi, we have a 2003 Civic old shape and today during a drive in what was a hot spell I noticed the air con was not working. I switched it off and there was no difference in the temperature of the vents.When I arrived home I sat with the car at idle, air con switched off, when I switched it on there was no load placed on the engine at all and the rev counter remained steady, the air did not get any cooler.
There has been no gradual warming up of the air con temperature, this has happened from one day to the next.
I rang the Honda dealers who have serviced the car from new and he said it might need re-gassing at £70 but if that fails then it might be the condenser at approx. £300.........after I regained my composure he said if it was the latter they would request some goodwill from Honda.
Any clue as to whether it will need re-gassing or could it be the condenser?. Read more
Mal, yes you are correct.
whilst driving today the engine management light came on and on the radio display it said "anti pollution fault" with an audible bleep, it will not rev above 2500. does it have a get you home mode? which is the reason for loss of power/revs and does anyone know what the fault could be? is it safe to drive round local until it is fixed?
Read more
sorry only just seen your question, its a 53 with 84000 on clock, just got it back from local independant specialist and he says it was water ingress on an air pump for the turbo, he showed me the pump and it is low down on the front of the engine so it is obviously in the line of fire when its been raining, although I find it hard to believe that waters caused it cos we live on a hill and have had no floods, charged me £50 and it seems ok for now.
ok i have a post already on about my lumpy ruuning. Anyway there is a aftermarket KN filter fitted with some blue hoses around. There is a 'purge' outlet on top of the engine that a hose goes over, and the other end goes into a medium sized round disc/canister.Out of this canister there is two normal black hoses that go somewhere?????
anyway i pulled off the blue hose on the engine purge valve and now everything seems to run good. car pulls away well and does not seem to run lumpy.
I took car on a quick run and when i got back and parked up,lifted bonnet and then some smoke was coming from somewhere and after a little while eventually stop (like oil was burning)
now if my write up makes a bit of sense to you, can you advise if what i have done is ok?? and where do the two black hoses go? Read more
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/essex/6270506.stm
An Essex lady has been banned from driving for six months .......
Phillip Kelly, mitigating, told the court .......He also claimed she was "totally dependant" on her car.
(But it is also reported she "passed her driving test just two weeks ago")
I guess you can but ask :-)
It is surprising how very quickly one becomes "totally dependant" on ones car. :-)
Read more
Phillip Kelly, mitigating, told the court Goody had made an error, cancelling her motor insurance instead of her home insurance policy.
Ah well - if essex had flooded she would have been ok and not know it.
Stupid bint
------------------------------
TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
Need to get the pads on the Xsara changed, so rang round to get quotes. The first was a local independant in Weston Super Mare called Easyfit- am naming as I cannot recommend them highly enough. Got a quote there and then. Used them before for tyres and the reception area is always spotlessly clean, with TV and magazines or that days newspapers whilst you wait.
Second call was to the local branch of a large chain near my office in Tiverton. Couldn't give me a quote on the phone, so would need to look it up and call back. Nearly 4 hours later and am still waiting. Even tried to call them (convenience to the office outweighed nuisance of no call back- and we get 10% corporate discount) but no answer.
So car is booked into Easyfit for Saturday morning. In a way am happier about that, as they are normally a lot cheaper than anywhere else, and have always had fantastic service. Plus I will be putting my money into a local business. Read more
I have also used Easyfit for tyres and an exhaust for the Clio, very helpful and friendly, the Owner/Partner Mark always remembers my name, they also do some motorcycle bits and have a Jordan F1 car hanging up in reception which is interesting.
However the last two times I have needed tyres (two fronts in Dec and two rears in Apr) the local tyre place, Cheddar Tyres, bettered the price for the same tyres and is 3 mins away rather than 25 mins. Likewise I have just got a quote for two fronts for the Clio, £4 (for the pair) more from Cheddar Tyres so no point driving over to Weston, a 2 hour round trip inc having the tyres fitted.
My partner's just bought an L reg diesel 306 and he's having problems with the immobilizer. It worked fine for the first day but on trying to start this morning, it's just dead. It doesn't have a key-fob, just a normal key, so shouldn't that disable the immobilizer once put in the ignition? Do you have any suggestions? We tried disconnecting and then re-connecting the battery, but that's just caused the internal sensor light in the middle dash to flash.. Do you have any suggestions? Any help would be gratefully received!!
Read more
The saga continues!! We booked it into the Peugeot Garage on Friday to get the immobiliser disabled.. We'd managed to get the car started by jump starting it from mine, then doing the button and ignition trick, so took it to the garage who didn't do the work we'd asked for but told us it was the Solenoid Pump that was the problem and not the immobiliser but they didnt have time to fix either. The car was OK until last night, but we managed to get it starting again by connecting the jump leads to my running car. Does it sound right that it's a solenoid problem? I don't know anything about this, but am very skeptical about believing anything I'm told by a main dealer as been ripped off so many times. Cheers, T
I've just noticed a whining/rumble coming from the offside rear.
A local garage (who local legend has it is managed by a decendant of a Mr.D.Turpin) has quoted £250 all in to fix - but can do it for me promptly (in a couple of days).
My trusted local BMW indy has quoted £150 all in but can't schedule it in until Thursday next week - 8 days.
Is it likely to cause any damage in that time - I don't anticipate any high mileage during this period - probably around 300 miles.
Should I be looking at using another car (which is an awkward but possible option) or is it just a case of it getting louder?
Thanks in advance. Read more
Thanks for the reply.
I'd go down the quiet rumble - I can't hear it if someone else is talking or the radio if is on (quietly!).
Having said that - I was very suprised at the difference in volume when I folded the rear seats down recently! This alone has prompted this thread.
Cheers!
I posted this request yesterday but it seems to have been deleted
My Toyota estima import sometimes on first starting makes clunking noises until it finally starts then whitish smoke until it burns off (FUEL?) The car runs great ,and will stat every time without problem until it has sat overnight, no oil or overheating problems. Sometimes when I require more power the Engine warning light comes on then goes off again,
Anyone have any ideas?
Stew Read more
I posted this request yesterday but it seems to have been deleted
It's over in Technical Matters. Maybe you posted it there, or one of the other moderators since moved it?
Anyhow, here's the link to it. continue discussion / suggestions there please.
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=53646
DD.
Browse
A 'sniffer test' on the coolant header tank takes but a couple of minutes and conclusively eliminates speculation as to whether the head gasket has gone or not. The problem is that 90% of garages are useless at diagnostics.