December 2007
Hi, I've got 2002 1.9D, which is strange because I thought they'd stop making them 18 months earlier. Anyway, this car is the worst conditioned 5 year old car I have ever seen. I have no service history or anything and when I start it in the mornings I get a load of blue smoke accompanied by 5 seconds of clatter. It's calmed down slightly since I have had it, and I am getting the oil and filter changed tommorow. The car starts and runs fine (although the idle speed is a little high) It's only done 58000, but I lot of may have been with a faulty timing control solenoid. When I bought the car it sounded like it was about to blow up, but at high revs it quietend down, hence I guesses it was a timing issue.
Any ideas on the smoke and clatter? Or is it a diesel thing? Read more
Gave myself something of a 'brown trouser moment' today.
Going round a largish, well-used roundabout, the back end started drifting out of its own accord. Armfuls of opposite-lock (just) brought it under control, and after a quick look in the mirror (at a gape-jawed van driver) I pulled it into the side.
I expected to see a flat rear nearside, but it looked OK, and I couldn't see anything else untoward. I filled up a couple of miles down the road, and checked all the tyre pressures, with my own gauge. They were all OK.
All the tyres have at least 4mm of tread left. The temperature was above 4 centigrade, so I don't think it was ice.
I do tend to corner fairly hard, but I had a passenger with me (my daughter, who's getting married tomorrow) so I like to think I was taking it fairly easy.
I would've thought a modern, front engined, FWD would understeer to eternity.
It hasn't got anything tricky, like stability control, just ABS, but I didn't touch the brakes.
Can BRs suggest what I should be checking? I've given the car a good looking over, and pulling around. I've even taken it out on my own and 'chucked it around a bit', but can't get it to do it again.
Funnily enough, I recall the exact same sort of thing happening twenty-odd years ago, in a recent (don't laugh) Austin Ambassador!
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I did exactly the same thing about 2 weeks ago. Going straight over a roundabout I use quite often. Lost control turning the wheel left to get off the r/about. Mines a Golf, FWD, only doing in the region of 25. No other cars around me thankfully. Not raining, but road was a little damp. I put it down to my newish cheap tyres or oil on the road.
Help! This morning SWMBO had an appointment at the hairdressers and our A6 Avant 1.9tdi SE (54 plate, 69k) would 'turn over' but not start. Apparently the emmission control system warning light came on which I can only presume is a problem with the cat or particulate filter (if it has one!!). The car is a Mutitronic so I reckon I'm going to have to get it recovered from home to our local Audi dealer. Sounds expensive already!
I appreciate the first place to look will be via Mr Audi 's diagnostic equioment, but does anybody have any thoughts on the problem etc.........
Regards...
Age engine size/type inserted. Read more
Update. A few weeks ago while checking the engine etc I noticed that some sort of creature ie mouse had been in the engine bay and stored berries, seeds and the like for winter, near to the top ot the suspension turrets. This happened on a couple of occasions and I cleared them up on noticing them.
Yesterday morning I had a good look around the engine bay and took the large plastic engine cover off only to notice that down by the fuel filter was a nest of leafs and twigs amid the cables and other bits. When the leafs were removed I found out that our freindly rodent had chewed through one cable (6 wires) and partially through another (4 wires). No wonder the car won't start!! We do live out in the sticks in Norfolk but this is the first time I've heard of this. I suppose it must be quite a nice warm place to live in winter for these little creatures.....
Tommorow must get onto an auto electrician to sort the cables & loom out and hopefully get the car started. Hopefully our friendly mouse has moved on elsewhere........
Hi,
Just purchased a 2003 Astra Elegance estate (Petrol/dual fuel LPG). 1598cc 5 speed manual.
Can the air conditioning system be the sole cause (as suggested by my GP) of the nausea, headaches, cold/flu like symptoms that my partner and I have started to jointly encounter since using this vehicle?
Can the whole of the air intake including the air conditioning system be disinfected in anyway?
If so ? how?
Even after just short journeys I am leaving the vehicle ?not feeling as well as I did? when I first got in.
When used for extended periods with the ECO [this means the air con is disabled] displayed the whole system is leaving us with exceptionally dry skin (even worse when you use the air con) and is causing us both to have breathing difficulties.
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DD & all,
That was spot on info you gave me - many thanks for the help!
My last Astra was the Swing Mk3 (1998 1.4 5 speed manual) - tomorrow I would have been in the engine compartment 'looking' for something that just was not there - need I say more?!
Hi,,, i bought a Masai Mara 2003 1.8 Free lander 56546 miles, my problem is this i bought the car 5 months ago from a secondhand dealership, before buying the Freelander my husband and i asked about Headgasket problems ect with Land Rover, the dealers response was that it wasn't to big a deal and that he would put a fluid into the engine which was effective in preventing this happening,,, however a month after my 3month warranty ran out i have no car, im told the Headgasket has gone and it would be cheaper to just replace the whole engine,,,, i feel done, have i a leg to stand on??? within the first 3months of warranty i had to take the car back because of the TC and HDC light kept going on when i braked, i was advised it was a loose connection,,,,, any ideas would be appreciated, so what you all think do i have a leg to stand on here?? Read more
Thanks for the reply guys,, hmmmm Radweld seems to be coming up quite a bit, however it was through mouth rather than on paper he stated he would put this fluid into the engine,, so we are going to see what he says and hopefully he will have a bit of compassion and help with the costs if not fix it himself,,, if we knew what we knew now we certainly would have given this hunk of junk a wide birth!!!!!!!!!!!
It was announced in "The Sunderland Echo" that The Qashqai has reached 100,000 sales in 9 months. The largest markets are U.K. Russia and Italy
Some interesting facts are an average of 850 are built a day at the Wearside Plant.
920 different combinations have been manufactured.
It takes 10.5 man hours to build
Hope this information is of interest to backroomers.
Hoseman Read more
Seems to be part of standard car manufacturers' marketing to announce that new cars are beating all sales targets and factories can't cope.
See:
Nissan Qashqai
Fiat 500
VW Tiguan
this guy was in such a hurry he thought he'd try a short-cut, Atlanta style...
www.wsbtv.com/slideshow/14843790/detail.html?taf=a...l
looks like the airbag had gone off when he went through the railings so it's just as well it didn't go the whole way :) Read more
That's one effective cable barrier. Judging by the depth that the cables have cut into the car, it must have been going at quite a speed when it hit them. Accidentally?
The local police may have some interesting questions for the driver. Maybe he was trying a tribute to Evel....
Seems to be the current vogue in road tests (all types of media, so this isn't anti-HJ) to comment on the inclusion of "soft touch" plastics.
I'm trying to recall any occasions in the last 40+ years that I've actually touched a dashboard apart from infrequent cleaning. Whilst steering wheel, gearstick, handbrake need a decent feel (I'm reminded of this with the plastics on the steering wheel of the Hyundai Getz hire car I'm usng currently), I think the remaining areas are of little concern. Presumably these soft touch plastics cost extra, which is passed on.
Is it the marketing men at work? Read more
Torque is cheap...:-)
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
Hi,
I purchased a BMW 320d from a BMW main dealer last year and the 1 year warranty that came with the Car is running out shortly. The Car is approaching 4 years old and has done 27000 miles.
Can anyone recommend any third party warranty cover providers? and are there any specific areas of the Car that I should be looking for to be covered?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions! Read more
Quite a bit cheaper than a grand though !
As it's the party season and most of us will end up going to a party somewhere and deciding who we are going to chat to, I thought it might be interesting to find out who BR's would gravitate towards if there were a BR drinks party.
Personally, I think I would seek out Lud, his posts nearly always bring a bit of a smile and a laugh - Maybe even Altea Ego to dispel his myths about fat hairy truckers, oh, maybe not then!! ;o)
Over to you > Read more
Midnights a long stretch, when you`re biologically programmed to be up at 5.30 every morning :0)
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How do you know that it hasn't done many times that mileage? [They made the WJY engined version up until '04 - apparently.]
You can tell, wear on the steering wheel, pedals etc.
What I meant was... I think and previous owner (and his dog) lived in it, the seats are black, there are ciggarette burns etc...
Anyway.. I'll look into the glow plug system, thankyou!