October 2007
Awaiting my car being MoTd (+ minor repair) last week at my local independent I heard the following
A 54 Reg BMW 3 series was mis-firing. The plugs were BLACK. On looking at the service book it had not seen an service for 30K miles (18mths).
4 x new plugs and 1 x Coil seemed to fix it.
When phoned to tell him the mis-firing had been fixed with plugs + coil the owner did not want the car serviced as apart from the mis-firing it was going well!!
Not even an oil & filter change - £30 worth of materials & labour. The mis-firing was £100+ VAT - the coil must be the expensive bit as there was only 45 mins or so between start & finish of the work.
In true BMW style the owner had arrived with dipped headlights + spot lights on at 8:30
{And in true BR style, within 24 hrs of the last mention of lighting abuse, it gets yet another one ;0) - DD}
Anyone want to buy a 318, Silver, 3yrs old, 1 careless owner........................ Read more
I have a Ka 1997 model, if i am driving a long at normal speed and the approch a junction and have to stop as i depress the clutch pedal my car continues to rev very very highly, if i don't touch anything the revs drop back to normal after about 5 seconds this fault is intermitent(it tends to do it when you are in towns im sure it is trying to embarass me!!) although it is now getting worse and is doing it more often than not. I have had a quick look on here and it seems the ka has a few things that can trigger this but i wondered if this had an obvious fault that could be sorted with out costing the earth. I know it is not the cable sticking as i have checked this. Any help would be more than welcome.
Lydia Read more
Iam getting sick of this now. My car has been doing this for months and it seems a cure is rather long winded. On Sunday I am spending a few hours trying to get the to bottom of it, I think I have found a partial cure but I need to know the name of the sensor before I can say.
Two common cures that pop up, idle control valve and the wiring loom which can become faulty.
It seems the problem with this engine is as the engine block is ancient and not very efficient ford have compensated for this by using a then state of the art electronic management system but the sensors used don't seem to be good quality.
Funny how the FIAT Punto we had years ago never developed any ECU problems but all the 3 Fords we have had nothing but ECU problems.
Some lower form of pondlife pinched all 4 trims last night..just wondering, is there anything more secure than plastic ties to fasten then on with? Read more
Re Taking wheel trims off:
How are meant to tell apart unmarked police cars from other cars if drivers of newish cars take the trims off?
Not seen for a while, but passed a Vincent Van Hire box van at the weekend. Just one of those little things that cheers me up on a boring journey :-)
It's a pity their vans are only painted white instead of lurid yellow swirlyness.....
I think I've also seen them liveried as 'Vincent Vehicle Hire' - which, sadly, does not raise a smile :-( Read more
There used to be an off-licence that had two delivery vans, one red, the other white:
Vin rouge, and vin blanc.
On (mainly) M-ways with four or more lanes it really is difficult for anyone (even thoughtful, intelligent drivers) to make smooth progress by overtaking on the right at most times of the day.
The greater 'choice' of lane means that, unless the road is almost empty, individual vehicles are travelling at a greater number of speeds within a given range - there's more road space for the volume of traffic, and drivers are better able to 'choose' their speed (as opposed to having it dictated to them by a volume of slower-moving vehicles), and they do. They also have more choice as to which lane they use, and thus the extreme LH lane is often the least used...
So on these roads applying the 'overtake only on the right' rule means frequent lane-change manoeuvres - increasing the risk of accidents. It really is time that the rule was abandoned and 'undertaking' officially condoned. Read more
But I have to agree with CP about four and five-lane stretches of e.g. the M25. I believe that in those places most drivers do expect to be undertaken sometimes at speed, since these stretches are really glorified multi-lane slip roads.
In ordinary stretches of motorway though, and even more in A-road dual carriageways where the lanes tend to be narrower, people are liable to change lanes to the left without checking their n/s mirrors. That was what I was talking about.
And incidentally, people often forget to signal when pulling left. I do myself sometimes.
the brake disk gets worn in places and causes judders though the steering wheel ,its the front on a front drive 306 diesel 1994, its the drivers side and the patches only really ( mainly ) appear on the inside of the disk, the problem has become unsuppressable buy the replacement of the disk and pads ( 4th time ), it used to be it went away or at least got a whole lot better for a while by replacing them, not any more..
the down link has been replaced and the track rod end of the anti roll bar ( hope that's the right names , it's what me dad calls them ).
the disk is really warped again and the pads will be goosed again as a result. tomorrow i will check the suspension and all other bits for movement, damage and wobbles etc.
i think after that i will go and get a caliper, disk and pads from the scrap yard ( cheep and if it don't fix the problem , which would be nice , it might make it bearable for a month or two ),
i had previously taken off the caliper and removed all rust, the pins were perfect and the piston was too, moving fee.the hob was cleaned of all imperfections and seem ideal , no obvious defects. so i am clutching at straws but the disk and pads must be replaced, so, if i get them from the same car they will at least be run in and if the problem is solved i will know it was the caliper and will get new disk and pads before the mot ( 17 nov ) if it doesn't solve it, it is at least another thing off the list of possibilities.
i will also swap the two front wheels over just to make sure the problem does not switch sides , therefore eliminating the wheel being a possibility.
I'm carrying out this work tomorrow as I have, so far, no choice. Please give me some choice, advise or divine inspiration ( even second hand would do ) if you have an epiphany let me know.
Read more
Hi again hopefulluy this is the end of the saga swapped the wheels front to back and sucess at last I did try this before and the car felt odd but after resetting the tracking it seems fine what did not help was the car had this problem from when I got it so I could never tell what it was like before ,so I now think if you have a judder check the tyres first by swapping them and then move on to discs
Just wondering what the interval is for the cambelt on the Jetta diesel im thinking of buying and if its an easy change or a difficult one? Read more
Bounce - following the re-instatement of BB's link for the reasons given and after a rather heavy hint was dropped in a post in Tech. Sorry BB.
Locked after Stuart posted an identical question in Tech
Hi everyone
I'm restoring an old bicycle, and have started respraying with "smoothrite" aerosol.
I did what it said on the tin, and overpainted 3 or 4 coats within 15min intervals.
First few coats went on nicely, nice shiny smooth finish then the last coat has ended up all pockmarked as if someone has been over it putting tiny pinholes in it.
(A) Why has this happened - what is wrong with my technique
(B) can I overpaint it if it has been left for a week to cure ? The original brush-smothrite had to be left min. 6 weeks before overpainting otherwise it went al crinkly underneath and you had to completely strip back to bare metal again.
P.S. My aerosol can says "New Formula" ?? !
Left as a standalone post, is it Tech ? is it IHAQ ?, well a bike's got wheels ! Read more
I don't know for sure, but poor overpaintability seems to be a Hammerite watchword.
i was checking my tax disc expiry date today as i never get a reminder and noticed that the cars vin number is on full display on a small metal tag attatched to the bulkhead trim at the bottom of the windscreen passenger side, i thought this was suppose to be out of view to deter cloning ? Read more
sure bb, im not paranoid honest, but you all think i am!!
Browse
In USA, where people usually change oil every 3000 miles using ordinary fossil "lube" oil, the advice given to BMW owners by one specialist is:
www.autohausaz.com/bmw-auto-parts/bmw-tuneups.html
BMW Tuneup & Maintenance Tips:
Tuneup & Auto Maintenance Tips To Lengthen Your BMW's Life
Spark Plugs
All spark plugs should be removed and checked every 30,000 miles - even if your BMW is "low maintenance" - you're told to change spark plugs at 100,000 miles.