May 2008
Our Focus II is just over 3 years old with 29K and through its 1st MOT. Being sad and doing a full spring clean inside and out I thought I'd whip the front alloys off and clean the insides.
Wheel nuts off and oh dear wheels stuck well on. No amount of banging with a lump hammer and block of wood would shift them.
Nuts back on loose and driven backwards and forwards did the trick.
Now my beef is - should not the wheels be taken off during one of its 3 main dealer services for brake component inspection?? They clearly haven't been off since the car was manufactured!
It seems as though if the brakes are working then thats a service item pass.
And whilst I'm on a roll. Wheel nut torque settings. I have the Focus and a Sorento. Neither has the wheel nut torque settings in the owners handbook. Full of fictitious fuel consumption figures, lubricant specs etc, but no wheel nut torque settings. Surely this figure is a basic setting an owner should have. Why is it not there?
Anyway, set them to 70ft lb which I think is about right for an alloy.
This post is more of a cathartic release than a question!
PS - Anyone know the alloy wheel torque setting for a Focus II 1.6 Climate in metallic blue with charcoal interior?
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My old Cavalier has a slow leak on one tyre, possibly caused by flaking "paint" on the wheel, causing an imperfect seal where the bead seats. Is there a dirt-cheap remedy for this? Will a tyre fitter scrape off the flaky paint and re-fit the tyre? I can get it off myself, and do this - possibly treating the wheel to some "Smoothrite" - what do you recommend? I don't want to spend money on this, but I don't want to have to keep pumping it up every time I want to use the car! Read more
The first thing I would do is dunk the wheel (complete with inflated tyre) in the bath and see whether I could find the leak.
Is it best to report a dangerous vehicle to the local plod just on their normal number or is there a national scheme for reporting vehicles in dangerous condition?
I ask as today I followed a B reg maestro with one rear wheel which was wobbling visibly, both rear tyres were bald and the driver's side rear the canvas could be seen. Car was clearly a death trap. Its uninsured but it has current tax.
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I have certainly phoned the police to report dangerous driving on the motorway and they definately followed it up, as I could see the police join the motorway at the next junction and tuck very neatly behind the offending vehicle.
A word of warning - and any advice gratefully received. The 607 (and I think maybe the 407?) are fitted with electronic TPI sensors, as special valve that transmits a soignal if the tyre pressure is low, or if it is flat, that produces a warning on the dashboard.
Firstly they have a life of about 10 years but - in my case - a valve was damaged and had to eb replaced. The cost is £70 each but that's not all. Rather like a key the TPI has to be coded to the car and the Peugeot garage say that would be a minimum charge of £40
Of course we all know that the actual job will be 35 seconds - connect a lead, press a couple of buttons and job done, but apparently the software is only available to Peugeot dealers so - once again - it's a captive market
If you dont have it done then every journey starts with a warning that there is a TPI missing. So that;s your choice - £110 extra per TPI or a warning each trip.
Unless anyone knows a garage weher these things can be re-programmed? Read more
Its a simple turn on or turn off procedure ,what is all the scaremongering for.If you want to be pedantic the UK is out of line with the rest of the EU regarding the MOT here in Germany where they follow the letter of the law more so than the UK the equivelent of the MOT is required on new cars.
I have an imported Pajero 2.8 LWB that runs fine when warm but when starting from cold the engine cuts out after a few hundred yards, if I keep the key turned or leave it for 5-10 mins it will eventually start, it will sometimes do this again before I can drive away and then it will give no problems all day.
Does anyone know the fault and cure.
As I said it is a 1994 Pajero/Shogun 2.8 Auto.
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Its pump off,quite a big job,i've had the job done many times in the past but my man has now retired.
I know the normal arguements about Diesel vs Petrol. i.e. Diesel will give better economy, torque is useful and it will pay for itself if you do more than 15k / year.
We are looking at a Midi MPV, and having test driven a few (Mazda5, Verso etc.) the Diesel engines seem to suit my wife's driving style / car weight better (low end grunt, meaning less gear changes in stop/start traffic, and plenty of torque for motorway overtaking).
The concern I have is that 95%+ of her journeys are going to be short ones, less than 5 miles from a cold start, plenty of it stop / start traffic.
What would the real world fuel economy of a Diesel engine vs Petrol from a cold start over a short distance be (I presume the Petrol would warm up quicker)?
I've also heard a number of horror stories of particulate filters clogging and severe fuel dilution of oil after only 3k when a car has been subjected to such short journey abuse.
Should I be concerned?
Is a modern Diesel still a sensible(ish) choice for a school run car?
TIA - Rufus. Read more
Thanks everyone - so looks like Diesel won't be too stupid a choice, provided it gets a weekly blat!
All I need to do now is convince SWMBO that I *HAVE* to rag the nuts off the thing to keep it running sweetly!
Rufus.
Hi, we have the air bag and service light illuminated on our Megane dash. We put it in to be checked out and the garage say that it is the spring behind the steering wheel. It might be just a wire loose but we have to change the whole module costing £180. I have heard other people locally having this light coming on. What are your views on the forum. Thanks, regards, Paul
{awaiting exact year and engine details to arrive in my inbox - DD} Read more
Oh, third precaution is DO NOT USE AN ORDINARY MULTIMETER to test continuity of Airbag Circuits, that could set off the detonator.
The Airbag computer uses a very very low current to test circuit continuity.
Hi all, recently bought an 05 S60 D5 auto with 26000 miles on it, i've since put a couple of thousand miles on it and it seems a nice car to drive, but what do the BR's think of these cars and what is there to look out for in the future, regarding engine, gearbox, suspension etc, thanks for your views. Read more
just bought a 2003 D5 a couple of days ago and love it!
its got 135k on the clock with full dealer SH
with things like the top engine mount and bushes being the likely cause for anything to go wrong would it be worth while taking out an idependant warranty? I can get the Platinum www.warrantyworks.co.uk/carPlatinum.jsp for £280 for the year.
Anyone had any experience with these sort of things?
I'm always dubious with insurance companies looking for the first way out of paying!
cheers
In my rearview mirror, on Saturday I spotted cars behind me being flashed by a speed camera on the dual carriageway section of the A46 Lincoln bypass. In the past, in the absence of signs to the contrary, I've always assumed that the limit was 70 and in fact I've driven past the camera at 70 on countless occasions. The question is .......... has the limit recently been dropped to 60? If it has then I missed seeing the sign, the camera may have flashed me as well, and I may be in trouble! Read more
They also flash at fixed intervals as it is good for the discharge capacitors which lose capacity if left constantly charged and ready to fire.
Wonder if anyone else has come across this and even better has a solution that does not involve a trip to the workshop.
The CD player with in dash 6 CD changer unit on my 56 reg Nissan Note will not load or eject CD's. When I start it the message comes up 'Checking Trays' which it just keeps scrolling. It will however play the CD's and change discs happily enough, it is just the load/eject function which appears at fault and the continuously scrolling message.
If there are no ideas for a DIY fix is there any way of extracting the CD's currently loaded? The manual is silent on 'emergency ejection' procedures!
Thanks in advance for any help or comment.
Steve Read more
Problem sorted! This may be of interest to other Nissan owners with the same CD player setup as well.
In desperation yesterday evening I tried a bit of the old fashioned impact technology. As the CD player started up I gave the unit a couple of sharp thumps on the dashboard immediately above it. Turned unit off and back on again. Pressed eject and the CD's started coming out again and so far it seems to be working fine.
A trawl through some (mainly American) websites suggest that 'sticking' CD's may be a bit of a possible issue with these units. Some sites also suggested that the cause may be home burnt CD's in the unit slightly warping. I did have one in there and maybe that was the cause.
I have learnt a lot from this site and I hope that the above is of some use to other forum members.
Regards,
Steve
Fullchat, always rotate the tyres on a 4x4, as you do, cos they don't like significantly different diameters betwen front and back, it wears out the 4x4 transmission.
as for 2wd, well I rotate so that have to visit tyre fitter less often and have not noticed handling problems when front and rear tyres are more or less similarly worn.