May 2008
HI all,
I hear all this talk of "scanning codes" from ECU's to help diagnose problems. What would I need to scan the codes on my car with an ABK engine and Bosch (I believe) ECU. I have heard of a ross tech cable and VAG.COM, is that right. Also where do you plug these into the car? Read more
Made me fail to collect grandchild and two friends from school and my poor wife had to do it by bus while I fiddled with the damn thing, locking and unlocking the doors from all angles, waiting for the timer to stop ticking and the red light to go out, pressing all the relays down on their pins, all to no avail. Until it decided to behave and started.
Must be the warm weather causing condensation perhaps? PITA anyway. It would be convenient to disconnect this tiresome device, but the flashing LED light, I like to think, deters malevolent passers-by from breaking the windows for fear that it will set up a racket (I don't think it would actually. It never has).
My wife didn't take much longer by bus than I do by car either. Am I a dinosaur? Read more
Just get an "I love Dobermans" sticker or similar Lud and leave an imitation one in the boot in amongst the rubble. Should think Hamleys will have something suitable in the sale!
When I set off sometimes (especially setting off quickly or setting off on a hill), the car really struggles to move forward, without making a really loud sound (like judder/grunting sort of sound !), and even then it really struggles to go. Now, i've figured out a way to move it forward/make less noise, by getting to the biting point but staying at the biting point for a longer time and very slowly easing off the clutch !
Is this a clutch / flywheel problem, the local Vauxhall dealership were going to charge me £484 just to check whether it was...!
Any ideas/views on this would be appreciated Read more
Is this clutch slipping?
Friend has just bought an Escort to run to work. Has 16v 1.6 Zetec 90PS engine. The tickover from cold see-saws rythemically between 1600 & 500 rpm without touching the throttle. If you touch the throttle revs rise to 2000 & if you very slowly release the throttle revs steady at 600rpm. If the throtle is bliped again the revs see-saw as before. It stabilises fine as soon as the engine gets warm. Has anyone come accross this before & know the probable cure ? Thanks in anticipation. Read more
Just an update to the above and another thank you to Lud & Screwloose.
I replaced the idle solenoid & the engine tickes over at a steady 1400 rpm from cold & drops back to 800rpm after a couple of minutes.
As it's not my car I don't know if this is normal but it's 100% better than the previous see-sawing revs, so seems ok to me.
I was wrong about the solenoid action, the partial opening of the valve when de-energised becomes a full opening when energised & the coil value of a good solenoid is 10.5 ohms.
Hope this helps anyone else with a similar problem.
On the A414 from M1 J8 into Hemel Hempstead there is a normal Gatso. They have just installed a CCTV camera about 10 metres down the road from the Gatso, pointing the same way but angled down at the road. Any ideas what it is? It isna't a security camera for the Gatso as it has been angled to point away from it, at the road. Read more
Is this allowed? I thought that they had to be yellow?
www.speedcheck.co.uk/FAQs03.htm
Why is it that there are some speed cameras which haven?t been painted yellow?
Cameras which have not been painted yellow are operated by the Police enforcement unit and are not operated by the safety camera partnership. They do not form part of the national safety camera scheme and fine revenue can not be hypothecated.
Has anybody else noticed how most colleagues / friends have no idea there family vehicles are going to cost more to tax in many cases.
I run 2 cars on a strict budget. Neccesity means i buy 6 months tax each time. In an age where most people pay there insurance monthly, possibly buy the car and pay monthly, the need to buy a tax disc once the rises impact out of ones spare cash in a single month is going to be increasingly difficult. Appreciate what has already been said about it being a relatively small expense in overall motoring terms but a significant monthly hurdle to encounter once or twice a year.
Appreciate this subject has been discussed at length already but the paying for same only touched on.
An arrangement to pay VED monthly would be useful, but expensive to put in place one assumes.
My Xsara Picasso 1.8 perhaps is a s typical family car as one will find but i believe it's emissions of 187 in the new banding will suffer quite a jump.
Your comments most welcome
Mark W
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I'm not sure what "in the sticks" means these days. I live on the outskirts of a town, but the public transport system is not good so the car gets used.
There is tax relief for business expenditure. With a basic rate of 20%, you get back 20% of any increase effectively.
Easier to police because there isn't anything to police.
Given that I'll never make a claim on it unless I've damaged somebody else... what does it give me?
Windscreen cover.
Anything else?
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The insurance co don't think fully comp - in this case - is worth much, or they would be charging a lot more than £50 for it.
The price is low because, as Mapmaker has surmised, the value of his car is low.
All the other stuff is largely irrelevant as far a calculating the extra premium for fully comp is concerned.
The Sun is reporting today:
"JELLYFISH blobs which grow in greener petrol and diesel could wreck car engines, a motoring expert warned yesterday.
The alert follows the move towards bio-fuels. Every gallon sold on Britain?s forecourts since April 1 contains 2.5 per cent of the crop and vegetable-based additive.
But unless garages spend £1,000 a time flushing out their tanks regularly, bacteria rapidly multiplies in the mixture.
It festers to form gelatinous lumps in fuel tanks which clog filters and destroy pipes and seals.
Mechanics said affected cars will lose power before the warning light comes on. The problem has to be fixed quickly before damage worsens.
Gas industry expert John Moore said: ?It poses a serious threat. Unless tanks are thoroughly cleansed you will find strange jellyfish-like objects in the fuel.?
Is there any truth in this? Read more
Marine fuel tanks are prone to fouling by microbiological growth. The bacteria grow on an interface between the fuel and included water droplets (ship fuel tanks are often "displaced type" where fuel is pushed out of the tank by pushing water in). The fouling can have some dire consequences as the bacteria excrete some fairly destructive compounds to ferrous components (sulphites and sulphuric acid), there can also be detrimental effects on plastics and rubber.
This is using standard marine gas oil (diesel fuel), you don't need biofuels for this to occur, although the higher concentrations of fatty acids in biofuels may exacerbate it.
Other than the corrosive qualities of the bacteria, it produces a slime/sludge which readily clogs filters. The quick fix is a biocide treatment and several filter changes, the ideal would be to empty, clean and sterilise the tanks and associated transfer system. Fortunately a car's fuel system should be much easier to treat. Blocked filters and a brown slime on the filter surfaces is probably the best indication, and a decent chandler will have the necessary treatment.
the new shocks absorbers on my vectra are shaped abit differently to the originals. the rubber boot doesnt mate with the rear trailing arm as the originals did.
is this common and acceptable?
a couple of pictures showing the difference
roverfan1.spaces.live.com Read more
thank you top bloke
the part numbers on the boxes did match the online reference numbers. its qh lipgas (lipmessa) 179.988. perhaps a case of one size fits all but they were cheap, i must admit.
If you ran a PD engine on regular oil( say 505.0 spec) instead of 505.1, what would be the outcome? I'm not suggesting just one oil change, but over 50K - 100K miles.
What would wear, and what would be the repair / rebuild costs?
NB. I'm not thinking of doing this, I'm just wondering about the implications for a high mileage PD engine that has been regularly (but not dealer) serviced. Hence uncertainty as to whether a PD-specific oil was used.
Interested in your comments. Read more
Two simultaneous posts - with good agreement!
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Tim
I'm not up on whether these counterfeit Chinese VAG-Com cables actually work. I have heard that some cause problems.
I'd recommend that you use the genuine items as then you can get excellent back-up and code support from their UK-based agents.