April 2008
Fiesta 1.8 Diesel (Non Turbo)
R Reg 74000 miles
I bought this car a couple of months ago and It has very quickly deteriorated.
Firstly I noticed it was difficult to start but putting my Clutch and Accelerator down solved this. Starting first time.
Then I found that it was starting to struggle getting up hills and smoking when I applied any torque. I dismissed this as being part of owning a diesel. But now it smokes when I accelerate and will not go up even the flattest hills in more than second gear.
I apply the accelerator and black smoke pours out the back. If i manage to get the revs to increase significantly the exhaust instantly stops smoking and you get an incredible burst of speed.
I am in the process of having it looked at by my mechanic but he is stumped at the moment. He has checked for cracked pipes, cleared the exhaust, filter and put some injector fluid in, this does not appear to have helped.
He suspects the injectors, pistons or pump. A diesel specialist has got another fiesta with the same problem and he is waiting to see if they come up with a solution.
I thought I would try to get some help on the internet but I cant seem to find anyone with the same symptoms.
Thankyou in advance
Ellis Read more
A rather alarming knocking has started happening from the front right corner of the car. It becomes noticable at about 60 and loud at 75. A kind of wup wup wup wup that gets faster and faster with the speed of the car. I can feel it through the pedals.
Timing couldn't be worse I'm driving across Europe on Sunday so I have to take it to the dealer asap but what could it be and how will it hurt my wallet
Regards
Dave Read more
"but have a look first to see if the bearing housing has come loose"
Great advice, wrong location it was the under tray, 2 sheared bolts allowing it to buffet in the wind. Problem solved.
Peter the tyres have been on for two weeks and the noise started suddenly yesterday on a dual carriageway. Perhaps I hit something or perhaps they weren't tightened up properly when they replaced the fans last week.
Very grateful and much relieved
Dave
Does anyone have views on which of the two they prefer? I know that I prefer the former.
Our Bromley, Glades car park has just converted to the Pay on Foot type, and I naively thought that this would benefit my shopping habits and lower costs, as they used to charge 90p for 1 hour's parking and £1.80p for 2 hours. Invariably I came back within the 2 hour period to make sure that I did not have a penalty notice slapped on my windscreen.
Yesterday, however, with the new system in operation, I still came back in under 2 hours and when I placed my ticket into the new pay machines found that I still had to pay £1.80p even though I'd only been parked for 1.5 hours! Again, naively, I thought that these machines would have been more sophisticated and been able to apportion me a discount for arriving back earlier, but no, seemingly not.
I don't really know, from my point of view, what benefit this changeover has accomplished other than freeing up those staff employed from walking around the car park spotting people who've outstayed there welcome. All I know, is that a certain amount of congestion will be caused at peak times with people having to queue to get their entry and exit ticket verified etc.
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We have pay by mobile in Taunton which was very useful when I only had a £2 coin with me on Sat which the P&D machine didn't take - the system works well even if you do get charged a 20p convenience charge - grrrr!
I prefer Pay on Foot as usually you can pay by card, I rarely have cash with me.
DB.
While we had some discussion on this following the budget, it's been interesting to see just what effect the tax rises have had on p/x prices. On the other forums I browse, posters have stated that they've had extremely low offers (if anything at all) on their cars. Predictably, cars like the 3.2 V6 Vectras are suffering, but I was surprised to see that a Meriva 1.6 was now unloved. Apparently, this little shopping car is now classed by 'Gordo' as a gas guzzler.In the coming couple of years, it'll approach £300/year to tax it. Dealers are giving the 'nobody will buy it, it's not a diesel' argument.
I think a lot of people are going to be surprised (and potentially exploited) when they come to p/x. Read more
I'm not letting SWMBO know about this thread, what she thinks about car salesmen would be automatically deleted, and get me banned too.
Hope no one's under the impression Dave is going to do anything different (is he still leader of the opposition? I use the terms loosely)
I'm going to France in a couple of weeks and want to know if I can easily adjust the headlights on my 2004 (old model) Passat TDi Sport Estate to dip correctly when I get there, or do I have to fit horrible sticky things to my headlights?
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Thanks for your detailed reply. I had a V6 diesel Superb just before the VW - a lot of car for the money!!
Does a retrospective view give you appreciation of some of histories motoring possibilities?
for example,
The overhead electric system on which trams ran so efficiently decades ago. If society had taken a different path and developed it for all transport, with nuclear power instead of the coal of 60 years ago.
If an electric based transport system had been the focus from the time motorways were built what could have been achieved by now?
Even if the inner two lanes of Motorways were electrified for HGV`s with full nuclear capacity electricity generation. Hybrid trucks, mains electric /diesel?
If hybrid cars could charge at home, then somehow pick up mains power on the motorways, later on other main roads.
Sounds improbable of course, but if 60 years ago (Instead of ripping it out of cities) electricity had been embraced, surely solutions would have been found.
The current focus of adding bio fuels to regular fuel just seems so short sighted given the number of vehicles that need fueling.
Once down the petroleum path, difficult to go back... But any comments or any other examples of where motoring and the road transport system could have been different to now?
(It seems unlikely.. but you look at the Black Horse advert on TV and wonder, yes, we `could` have built an infrastructure like that if we had `wanted` to. Just like Art Deco entered architecture and gas bags sat on the roof of Second World War cars)
Perhaps Western Society needs a `jolt` to start some lateral thinking?
Regards ;)
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I could never understand why they got rid of trolleybuses - all the advantages of trams (electric power) but without the massive cost of the track and they could go round things like road works/badly parked cars, unlike trams (as I found out in Prague last year!). Stop building trams and bring back trolleybuses, with a diesel generator for out of town running like OR says!
i have problems whith my powering steering my hose pipe is goosed tryed to get new part but they dont make it any more it the one that goes into the pump with the electrical flow censor without air con i phoned ford up but they said that the company that supplied the part whent bust years ago and the only way i could get the part is buy is to go to a auto breakers but i had phoned round about a hundred breakers and they had not many in it seemed that the pumas that the had is with air con and the part is diffrentthe part number is 1044930 i would be very greatfull if you could help me as my puma is off the road untill i get this part thanx rob Read more
Why have you re-posted this ?
It was always in the back of my mind after purchasing my 2002 MG-ZT with 18" rims last july that ever i got a puncture it's going to cause serious grief.
Well it happened not far from home luckily.. the tyre foam as supplied by Rover was as much use as a chocolate teapot. Just about made it to my fast fitters depot just a mile or so..
However the tyre had come off the rim even with the foam. Ok so i need to buy a wheel/tyre/jack off ebay but after a search doesn't seem to be any at all, and a full size 18" wheel wouldn't fit in the wheel well anyway (that's the whole point of not having one!)
So now i'm reluctant to travel very long distances due to this dilema.
I'm a member of the RAC so would they recover me anywhere in the country just if i had a puncture and no factory fitted spare?
What should I do? Read more
What does the handbook say ?
Hi,
I have a 53 reg Civic 1.6SE 3 door (October 03 registered), which has covered approximately 47k miles. It has always been serviced at a main dealer. Recently the SRS light on the dash came on. I tried resetting it through disconnecting the battery for a few hours, as I read on one website, but the light stayed on. After taking it to the garage, it appears the Internal SRS Control Unit has failed, which can be replaced for a cost of £523.38. I've spoken to Honda, and they have flat refused to give any goodwill payment, saying the car is out of warranty, so they will not help. Does anyone have any advice, or should I bite the bullet and cough up the £523? Any advice gratefully received!
Thanks! Read more
Help ! My Peugeot is causing me some problems in that it is losing power, then it seems to surge and pick up again with occasional white smoke whilst moving and
produces black smoke when accelerating . I know there are myriad things which can cause this problem, but are there any 'easy' steps I can take to rectify the problem BEFORE I send it a garage. I dont suppose Iam the ONLY person who has encountered this fault, so maybe some kind soul can shed some light as to what the problem is. Oh, incidentally, the engine is a turbo diesel.
Many thanks Read more
Nice simple engine, shouldn't be to difficult to find. Black smoke is due to excessive fuel or not enough air, the latter is more probable. Try disconnecting the air intake from the manifold and driving it, this should result in less power as you are no longer benifiting from the turbo, but if it cures the smoking you have a restriction in your air intake somewhere, check the filter and all piping for collapse. Could be the turbo but unlikely if its intermittent. You could also have air getting into the fuel system causing the surging but that is unlikely to cause black smoke, unless you have two seperate faults.
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If it's the EGR,it must be stuck open;no sophisticated control on this;just on/off.Remove and fit a blanking plate under the valve.