March 2008
I have a car here in a garage in Estonia that is on SORN with expired MOT. I have insurance.
I need to get the car back to UK. I understand I can drive an untaxed vehicle to a pre-arranged MOT test. Can I therefore make an appointment in writing with my usual MOT tester (say in Basingstoke) for the day of arrival from the Dover ferry and simply drive 1hr45 to the MOT station?
And then I can take the MOT, insurance cert, V5 and completed V10 ?Vehicle licence application? to my local tax disc issuing Post office to get a tax disc. Does the car automatically become un-SORN'ed at this point? Read more
Ive noticed recently that when driving (more when cold) that theres a slight whining noise that picks up in speed with engine revs. I noticed its more detectable from the right hand side of the engine block (as you loof at the engine). This has connections from the brake servo so im assuming its the EGR valve?
However the picture of the engine bay that ive seen shows the turbo in this position connected to the EGR. Im wondering if this could be coked up?
Any advise to make it run better/quieter would be appreciated. Its MOT time next week
thanks Read more
Get an exact match; the vacuum requirement may be less on a lighter car.
Some 3 months ago, I took it to my local independent Citroen man with an Engine Fault message. He diagnosed a faulty air-mass sensor as a result of water ingress - the air filter was soaking wet. He replaced both. It seemed fine for a while but recently the same message has appeared fairly regularly in cold and wet weather, resetting itself after a day or two. The air intake appears to be low down at the near-side of the engine compartment and I wonder if there could be a possibility of re-positioning it or fitting some sort of baffle. Would this cure the problem? Anyone any ideas please? HJ says he has not come across the problem before.
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Agreed,
Full code scan with an eye on injector correction values.
Hello All,
A friend has fallen in love with an SL500 for sale at our local Mercedes main dealer. Before she runs into the dealership literally throwing money at the salesman, I was wondering if any of you guys with the little black books would be able to help me determine what a reasonable cost to change would be please?
She is trading in a 1999 T SL280 with 79k miles on the clock. It is silver with black leather, panoramic hard top, FSH and in good nick.
She is buying a black 2005 SL500 with 15k miles on the clock. It is a one owner car, has the panoramic roof and lots of kit (no idea what is standard and what is optional!).
The SL500 is stickered at £43K and comes with 1yr Mercedes warranty under the Mercedes Assured programme.
Any accurate valuations gratefully received!
Secondly - if anyone has any experience of running one of these, or knows sensible questions to ask such as whether recalls have been done, when cambelt should be changed (does it have one?) etc that would be fantastic.
BTW - She is happy with increased running costs of one of these, but I can't let her be robbed blind at point of sale if I can help it!
Once again thanks for all your help.
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Thanks All.
Funnily enough I am very much looking forward to a long ride in an SL500
which will probably be quite a lot better than my 1998 Corsa 1.2 "Trip"
You have nice friends Corsa Boy!
TIC..........MD
Hi All,
Was after a bit of advice really. Back in Feb I bought a 1999 T reg Ford Focus 1.8LX 5dr from a trader. It is now about 1-2 weeks past the original 28 day mechanical warranty he gave me (couldnt afford to pay to have a longer warranty). This is the situation at the moment. Twice in the past week I have been driving along and my 'check engine' orange warning light has come on, the power has died and the steering felt really strange, and I had to steer the car to safety at the side of the road and put my hazards on. I know it wasnt me stalling the car. I didnt have any bad gut feelings when I bought the car. I paid £1700 for it, hpi clear, traders business was on the same site as his own home so i thought and felt as though this was a very honest trader (am I naive?? I have been done over once before so mega careful and scared about buying another car on my own).
Anyway first of all, I dont know what the fault is and have not had it checked out yet as I wanted advice before approaching the trader, remember the warranty is now out of date and I do not know what rights I do or dont have. Why didnt this happen when it was in its warranty grrrrr!
Ok, so has anyone had a smiliar experience re:power loss, and opinions on how I should approach the dealer would be most apppreciated... I waS due to take the car on a 250 mile journey at the beginning of next week but so scared that if the power goes on the motorway that I cannot get it safely across the carriageway Read more
I know this problem was highlighted back in 2008 but I would appreciate any updates since then as I have problems with heavy steering. I own a 1.8L Zetec. My mileage is much lower at 58K. I would appreciate any advice. Ford have suggested a new PAS Steering Pump that MIGHT be the cause but I'd like a definite answer/solution.
Its not the sort of problem where Mechanics can say see hwo you go with it. I could have a serious accident with this.
Took my bike today for a 60 mile round trip,I noticed it felt a bit chuggy and wasn't as smooth as normal
Also on a dual carrigeaway while overtaking some cars 80-90mph I thought I could see smoke coming from the exhaust in my mirror(blacky/blue smoke).
Anyway on the return journey bike did not feel quiet right,like it was being restricted or holding back. when I returned home I gave the bike a good rev while idling...lo and behold I got the occasional puff of black smoke from exhaust.
My first thoughts were contaminated fuel...so I emptied the tank with on of them suction pumps(the type you suck engine oil from car sumps without removing sump plug).
I then got a gallon of fresh fuel and put it in the tank......tried it on the starter and bike refused to fire.....I eventually flattened the battery trying to start it, I have it on an optimate as I speak.
I am wondering if when I drained the tank did I create an air lock?(if thats possible)
If the fuel was contaminated should draining tank and refilling have cured that?
Or have I got a dicky battery?
The bike has only covered 1,700 miles , I dont want to go pulling the tank off to look at the plugs or anything as I am going to ring the dealer tomm morning.
Any help appreciated so I dont want to look a pratt if it turns out to be something simple! Read more
Yes, loose plugs will only fire intermittently because you're losing compression and making a poor earth. The oil level will have risen because the fuel isn't being ignited, and is going past the piston rings into the sump. ...
I`m running an Astra G 1.6 8v hatch for about 8 months now, the mileage is approx 50,000 miles, the car has been serviced 8 months ago. All ok with the car up to about one month ago, then the car started to act up as follows.After a couple of miles driving, while braking for a roundabout / traffic lights etc., the engine revs drop down to zero on the rev counter and the engine stalls. After restarting the engine (sometimes with a bit of difficulty) the car then seems to kangaroo for a while then it clears up and continues as normal. If you then take the car onto the motorway and run it up to the speed limit, it runs well with no apparent problems. As soon as you get back onto the slower "A" roads and you have to brake the kangrooing returns and the engine again wants to stall.The engine always starts first time in the morning, it idles smoothly at 800 / 850 rpm. I have been told it might be a problem with the petrol pump or petrol filter. Have any of you Astra G boffins out there had similar problems like these. If so I would be grateful for your thoughts and possible actions on the symptoms.
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The way it was explained to me was;
- if the EGR valve is found to be fully closed, then all is well, and just the software update is applied, and the EGR never opens again
- if the EGR valve is found to be stuck open, and cannot be closed, then a new one is fitted, and then promptly disabled via the software update
Having said this, depending upon which version of the software is currently in the ECU, there were updates before the one where the EGR function was [finally!] disabled which improved driveability - I *think* the drive by wire control laws were updated. i.e., it's still worth doing the software update even if you blank off the EGR.
I've got an old car bonnet and some old brake discs to dispose of. Are scrap metal merchants likely to be interested in such things or would I be better taking them to my local dump.
Someone said to me yesterday that they would be worth something but to be honest, I wouldn't have thought so. Read more
I remember a colleague of some years ago now who approached site travelers, he passed regularly, to ask if they were interested in his old car as free scrap "that was not roadworthy but had a good engine" and told them it was on his drive at his address if they wanted to look. He came home later that day to find the engine had been cut out using oxy-acet and the rest of the 'heap' was still there together with a quantity of spilt dirty oil!
7.00am I spotted a car with a puncture whilst I was out walking the dog - it belongs to a neighbour - 200yds up the road.
RFL was out of date - well what the heck - if G Brown & A Darling do not get the £100 for a few weeks why should I care.
However about 5 mins ago I checked the reg no with ASKMID - car is unsinsured according to MID and the car just went down the road - hell for leather.
What would you do?
Have a word with him?
Report it to the local Police
Forget it however what if he had an accident tomorrow or next week?
What would the BRs recommend? Read more
Well said Lud. Thread now locked as we're going around in a perpetual loop. The OP can update us if he chooses.
Hiya, on Friday I noticed a crack in my windscreen so called my insurance company's 24hr windscreen hotline, which is in fact the switchboard for a well known windscreen replacement company. I mentioned to the operator that I had a heating element at the bottom of the windscreen that defrosts the wipers to stop them getting stuck to the glass and she said that this feature was already noted on their database for my model of car. This is a feature of all new shape Lexus IS's. The mobile replacement guy came and replaced the windscreen but then noticed that there were quite a lot of scratches on the glass that he had thought were just grime when he fitted it. This was a fair mistake because they really do look like little blobs of dirt but in fact are probably from where the pane has been laid face down on a concrete floor or similar. Anyway the fitter was a bit gutted and said that another pane would have to be fitted in a week's time. I then noticed that the new scratched pane didn't have the heater element anyway. I am obviously going to speak to them before they come out again and mention that I need a screen with the heating element because even though it's a useless feature in my opinion I don't really want to explain to whoever I sell it on to that the switch on the dash does nothing because my insurance company paid for a cheapo patent part to be fitted. I don't want to be a misery but it seems that at least 50% of anything that I pay to have done is wrong in some way either because of damaged parts of incorrect fitting. Surely my experience is not unique and if so how do these companies make money and why does everything seem to be bodged these days? Read more
I had a replacement screen on my Mazda fitted a couple of years ago by RAC. They, at my request, fitted a geniune Mazda screen which they had to order in from Mazda in Japan. It took a few weeks but quite happy.
My car at the time was about 4 months old and of the new shape.
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Only if you sang "wheel meet again" on the way !