July 2008
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hi their, i have a vauxhall astra 1.6 16 valve ls. i have had problems in the past with this car but managed to sort it and the last being the egr valve being blanked off a few months ago. but again im having problems. yesterday the car was fine until last nite when it just suddenly died on me. no lights appeared on dashboard beforehand.phoned the rac guy and even he was baffled. no faults appeared on his computer and we also put more petrol in the car, he was thinking the petrol gauge was dodgy. then checked the petrol pump petrol is running fine through system. the car will start no problem, but then has problems keeping idle speed and then just dies. managed to drive the car a wee bit but you really need to rev it up high and try to keep it at that or it will cut out. the same thing happened a few weeks ago, but i managed to limp it home and left it overnight and when i went out to turn it over the next day and it was fine and has been for a few weeks till know. the rac guy seems to think it might be idle control valve?.. any ideas as it is starting to annoy me as i thought my problems were solved when i blanked off the egr valve.
make of car now selected from drop down menu Read more
I have had constant probs. the car starts no problem, fires up well, but so far into my journey the management light comes on and car starts to shudder(misfire) doesnt cut out. struggles on 3 cylinders. i will then restart and it goes, but it lacks power, its as if the rev counter is stuck at 2000revs, then all of a sudden it will shoot off as though it has a new lease of life. so i have had a new egr valve put in. fine for a week then same probs. took it to garage and guy said cylinder 1 was misfiring, so i had a new coil pack and plugs put in and ecu reset. was back a week later, as i was still having probs. cylinder 3 misfir.new plug put in and ecu reset again. took car for really long run and it has been fine for 3 weeks, then lately it has started to lack power, then it started to misfire again, back to garage, was told that it was showing cylinder 4 misfire, but the car had settled, so the ecu was reset again? the only cylinder that hasnt went is2. i also have the engine electronic light coming on but if i turn the ignition off the light goes off. any ideas.
I am thinking of buying a Vauxhall Zafira 1.6 Life, 5 door on a 04A
This car has 48k on the clock, can anyone please tell me when the engine cam belt should be changed
Thanks
Barry Lawson
re-written in lower case Read more
>>If not I will get him to change the full kit.
I'd rather get the car for less and have it changed by a mechanic I trust (unless you know the dealer well). Same with the 'free' service which will likely be just an oil and filter change with a cheap filter.
Thought it might be useful for prospective little car buyers to see some real mpg figures.
Just taken the little Aygo up to Scotland and back (about 400 miles each way). Two of us, used the back seats for luggage.
Thought it would be difficult, but in fact was excellent - didn't miss a beat, comfortable seats remained so, held its own on the A1 and motorways no problem.
Since having the car I've moderated my driving style to be slower and smoother - not taken the car over 70 yet, according to satnav.
Real mpg figures measured brim to brim(unleaded petrol, not diesel or super unleaded) thus far since new in April are:
55
55
58
57
57
57
55
58
61
58
58
59
65
To put that into perspective, yer actual money saved on fuel compared to doing the same mileage on my old car is £566 since April 22nd 2008. There's a good mix of serious stop start, general commuting and motorway in there, and the car has now done just over 4000 miles.
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very good figures your driving seems to getting better and better.
There is a real world MPG database on www.whatMPG.co.uk please help community and
post there..
Ive got an Audi A4 1.9Tdi 1999 and my real world MPG is
47-49 MPG
I thought I'd post this in case you are considering getting one, as I spent much time considering what car to run and what might be useful.
O8 MY 520d SE Touring auto, ordered last October for February arrival - 12,000miles since involving mixed traffic dashes to the station in the morning and regular motorway trips of 200 miles. It replaced both a E270CDi Elegance auto saloon and V70 2.4 SE petrol auto.
Options specified were:
* silver metallic paint and upgraded but standard size wheel (17")
* automatic gear box: which hesitates less from a standing start compared to the Mercedes and I don't bother to use the tiptronic
* Xenon/ adaptive lights: superb on unlit country roads
* memory seats: useful and quick for regular drivers changes but seats are inifinitely adjustable and makes it much easier to maintain the right driving position, which took a while to find. The steering column moves electrically as well.
* USB connection: for me, the simplest but best option if your like music in your car, as you don't need an IPOD to take advantage of the I-Drive - simply load up a memory stick(s)/ MP3 player and the whole lot can be accessed, with track listings etc, through the controller and viewed on the screen. The CD player hasn't been needed. It will store 20,000 track details, but I have found it prefers MP3 to WMA format. However, it is fiddly to get to on the move, as it mounted on the inner side of the centre storage compartment.
* Storage pack in boot: side net, webbing, extra underboot storage, bag hooks all very useful and makes the most of boot space
* Hi-fi loudspeaker upgrade: better quality sound than standard but doesn't really compare to the Volvo
* Interior lights package: not really worth having
* Sliding armrest
* Auto dimming folding mirrors - very good in tight car parks etc: the passenger side has an auto-dipping feature in reverse.
No phone or sat nav fitted.
Run as a company car, so 08 MY tax reduction was a factor, so chose it instead of more expensive 525d, E280CDi or a D5. 520d seemed to have lot less lag than the 525d, which also sounded noisier to me.
Has achieved 40mpg average out over this period, but will do more if driven sedately and will achieve 43-45 on steady motorway runs using cruise control. 600miles on a full tank.
Chose black cloth interior in preference to beige or grey, which I thought look dated, and in preference to leather, but interior is very functional and gloomy as a result compared to the lighter Volvo and Mercedes and cloth not as child friendly as dark leather. Seats show no wear but are fairly hard and flat and not as comfortable for the family as Volvo or Mercedes. Black interior shows every hair, dirt etc.
Drives superbly well. Engine spins very above 2500 rpm, to overcome a little lag, with a noticeable coarse note around 1250-1500rpm at around-town speeds.
Ride is excellent on good roads and can be fidgety on rough roads, which is probably down to the runflats but I found SE spec to be much better than M Sport in this respect.
However, it's more prone on rough roads to causing car sickness for children, not helped but quite high window shoulder line in the back. Handling is excellent: the car grips fantastically but there's so little flex in the tyres that you feel the car "skip" slightly on tight corners, but it always feels secure.
The run flat tyres are immensely strong - hitting some dry stone walling rocks obscured by vegetation on a tight mountain road, it sounded like the wheels had come off on the passenger's side but an inspection revealed cracking in the sidewall and no wheel damage. Tyre replaced by BMW but no ill affect on anything else it seems.
Has used barely any oil, which is not due to be changed until 18k (despite my attempts to get them to change it anyway).
Pedals are offset to the right like the Mercedes making left foot braking less comfortable and the windscreen wipers are left hand drive configeration which is annoying, as you get an unswept area in the top right hand corner of the screen. The radio is a pain to tune until you figure it out. And I don't know how to return immediately back to the previous station after you receive a TP traffic alert.
The starting sequence (START button on, foot on brake, press button) seems a gimmick but you get used to it, and the steering wheel even lifts when you go to get out the car.
But, while the other half loved the Mercedes, she can't get on with this at all - finds it too big and the technology and starting sequence etc overwhelming. It's a better driver's car but not necessarily a better family car.
Has anything gone wrong?
* Rear centre seat belt occassionally stuck in fully retracted position: fortunately, not used really but rectified by dealer
* rear driver's side top of door seal weeps rainwater onto rear seat when opened after heavy rain: not fixed at first attempt
* sticky front bonnet catch caused by bonnet/ side struts being slightly misaligned but rectified by dealer
* piece of trim on driver's sear rails loose: the interior trim doesn't feel quite up to quality of the Mercedes
* The USB feed will sometimes freeze if it doesn't like the compression used in the music files it reads but BMW tells you this in the manual: MP3 seems to work better than WMA.
Things I wish I would have had? Probably the comfort seats as they are softer, and probably in a non-black leather to brighten the inside a bit.
Hope that's of some use to someone out there! Read more
I have bought a '56 plate approved Subaru Legacy Outback 3.0R, which is very different but very nice: silver with beige leather interior, huge sunroof & low window wasteline so plenty of light and the children are happy. Only 26ish mpg but they paid the first year full tax (£405) and what I paid for it compensates for that given the lower miles I will do. And while I was there, I bought an '05 plate Forester for my partner who liked the look of that too.
Reasonable deal on the two of them and thoroughly enjoyed my car buying experience from Subaru, which was quite unlike buying a car before from anywhere else. Very nice people and highly recommended.
looking for the fuse to wire up caravan feed, the feed goes to fuse number 26 on "Passenger compartment fusebox 2, but cannot find where this is. Haynes manual does not show location and a local towbar fitter was none the wiser.
Can anyone shed light on this for me.
Many thanks
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Hi.
The fusebox 2 is cliped to up - front corner of main internal fusebox (to the right-hand side trim panel for UK cars). That is not visible.
You must unclip the right-hand side trim (facia) panel, unscrew the fusebox securing screw using Torx T-20 bit, and unclip the fusebox/MTU. You must unclip the switch panel to refitting. One small (blue color) fusebox are cliped to the corner of fusebox/MTU. There are 6 fuses position (4 used + 2 unused), 3 whith 30Amp fuse (caravan, sunroof, rear electric windows), and 1 whith 15Amp fuse (steering wheel angle sensor).
For refitting must reversal the removal.
kiaples / Greece.
Hi all,
Friend is looking for a Saab tid to replace his older petrol LPT one. He's seen one for sale 2002 51 plate SE with 118000 miles but full saab s/h - £2750. He's really keen but I've advised caution - my understanding is that the diesel is not very good. Any pointers or wise words disproving my view before he goes and looks at it? (It'll be a 180 mile round trip and I have a feeling this might influence his decision - if he goes I don't think he will come back without having bought it!). Read more
Well he went and saw it yesterday. When he got there however the car was 'out with one the partners' and wouldn't be back until 6pm (this was at 11am)!! Now I could say he should have checked it would be there, but he did phone to check it was still available.....Anyhow I thought he'd had a lucky escape until he then mentioned a Citroen Xsara coupe 2.0ltr HDi he'd seen....I give up! Anyone had any experience of one of these? I used to have 1.4 petrol 5 door several years ago as a company hack and to be honest it was only engine problems I had (20k miles in 8 months was just too much for the poor thing). He seems hell bent on getting diesel, any diesel it appears (!) but with a limited £2.5 - £3K budget. In some ways I actually think he might be on to something with the Xsara-73k miles on a 52 plate and £3000, but I just am not sure what he'll make of the interior quality after a saab! I've said I'll go with him at the weekend to take a look-so any pearls of wisedom apart from checking service history for clutch/belt and pulley replacement which seem the main issues with the hdi unit?
Hi, we have a 2003 Vito on our fleet (not a V-Class as indicated, but basically the same vehicle) and it's developed a fairly serious diesel leak. THe whole underside and back of the van is covered in a film of diesel, and its smoking where its dropping on the exhaust, so much so that a friendly copper stopped me this morning and pointed it out to me (plus the film of diesel he had over his crash helmet visor!).
I've dismantled all the covers from the top of the engine and found a big pond of diesel in the recess where the injectors sit. Having syringed it all out and mopped it all dry, i ran the engine and No.4 injector has a 'mist' of diesel around it while idling, and clearly gets worse as the revs increase.
I've removed the injector, but now need to know if its simply the copper washer at the bottom that needs replacing, or if the injector can release this mist effect from anywhere else, maybe where the top part screws on to the main injector body?? It was not clear where the source of the diesel mist was, just around that injector.
Any views gladly received. Hopefully its just the washer but i know things are seldom this easy or cheap to fix!!
Thanks, Jonathan
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I haven't been onto the forum for a long time but this thread came up when googling about Vito CDi's & I thought it worth posting a few things I've come across for others who may find it as well.
The Merc CDi engines are renown for injector blow-by, having to spend as long as an hour per injector to physically dig them out when they have suffered prolonged combustion blow-by is not unusual. The channel in the head/rocker cover that the injectors are in fills with black solid pitch type material, if you are lucky damage may be limited to the copper washer being blown away, often though there may be damage to the seat down in the alloy head, this can be recut with specialist seat cutters but getting a good finish isn't easy.
As for the OP's question as to how to clean the seat, a simple tool can be made from a small rotary wire brush designed for use in a drill, this needs to be welded to long-ish bolt to enable it to be worked with a thumb & finger this should be enough to clean the seat & reveal any blow-by damage if present. Genuine MB copper washers are not flat, but have a convex face on both sides, in my opinion these can suffer blowby if the seat is not 100%, where as nongenuine washers are generally flat in cross-section and seem to be holding up well.
When replacing CDi injectors it is important to lubricate their seat, washer & stem with a special high melting point grease sold by MB, its not cheap but its the best product to prevent injectors seizing in the head. The injector is clamped with a fork type retainer using a M6 torx stretch bolt, these are designed to be use once only. Everything needs to be squeaky clean and lubricated to ensure that the clamping pressure is 100%.
As for having to replace all pipes because of the extreme high pressure I disagree. Provided pipes pass close inspection for seat damage or fractures where the flange is formed from the pipe, I have successfully reused all pipes so far. Again cleanliness has to be obsessive to prevent leaks and prevent damage from ingress of foreign material
footsfitter
Hello,
I was wondering if you could help me out with a problem I am having with my Peugeot 406 2.0 HDI 110SE 2003 53REG
It has now 90k on the clock it has 63k on the clock when I purchaes this 18 months ago.
I have serviced it regularly at a local garage not wanting to Pay main dealer costs and I have had the timing belt changed.
The cut out problem was present before I had the timing belt changed so it is not related in my opnion.
My car seems to intermittently cut out and I do not undetsand why, It can happen once a week or maybe even once a month, more worryingly it has been happening about 2 to 3 times a week. Not necesarily from cold, i could be ten mins into my drive or I could have just come back of the motorway after a 20 mile journey. The tempreature and oil gauges idle as they normally do in the centre.
I have had it checked at local garages and they could not find anything on thier diagnostic and today it has been with Peugeot main dealer garage all day and again they cannot find anything on thier diagnostic system either. I took it into peugeot today as yesterday for the first tim ever when i tried to start it it would fire up and then immediately cut out, on the 4th attempt it fired up but there was no power in it when pressing the accelaration as if the engine is on but no power. I then turned the ignition off and restarted and it worked. It did this yesterday on 3 seperate ocasions after i had parked up and gone back to the car to restart her up.
It has once previously cut out on the motorway whilst I was doing 70 mph, but I managed to restart it whilst driving.
Once the car has cut out it does re-start immediately
Im really at a dead end with this problem and could really do with your help please. Read more
1999 Peugeot 406 Coupe V6 Intermittent engine shut-down
Whilst driving, the engine warning light would suddenly come on and the engine would shut down immediately, with the resultant loss of power steering and power brakes. Not very good when you?re in the outside lane on the motorway doing 100 kph? This has happened four times. After the fourth time the engine would not restart after about 15 minutes as has happened previously and I had to get the car towed home.
I couldn?t restart the car again after a week, so I had the car towed to a Peugeot dealer?s service centre. Of course the car started OK when they tried it? They claimed they couldn?t get the car to repeat its antics (naturally). I picked up the car and attempted to drive it home, with much trepidation.
The same thing happened after travelling about 10kms. I had a friend following me, so after I had managed to get the car to the side of the motorway, I locked the car and got him to take me back to the dealer. They had the car towed back to their service centre. Now that the car wouldn?t start for them, they were able to determine that a fuel injection relay had failed. Evidently, these relays are not recorded in the Engine Management System when they fail. I suppose this is because a relay is either off or on, and the Engine Management System can?t tell whether it should be on when it?s off, if you get my gist.
If you should have this happen to you, it is absolutely imperative that you get the car taken to a Peugeot service centre so that they are able to determine which component has failed or is causing the problem. As the service advisor said to me, they don?t want to be going in and replacing a $1,000 fuel pump when it?s a $300 relay that?s causing me grief. Needless to say, this can be a bit difficult if this happens during the weekend as it usually did with me?
Up until this had happened, the car had been performing faultlessly and had been a joy to drive. After this little series of events, I have lost confidence in the car. To have the car?s engine completely shut down when you?re travelling at 100kph is extremely scary and it was more by good fortune that the traffic on the motorway at the time was not too heavy that I was able to get this car safely to the side verge with no power. I consider this to be a very bad design fault and as a result will not consider getting a Peugeot again.
Hope this helps with your problem...
The passenger's side of my car's windscreen recently acquired a curved 9 mm long crack from a flying stone. At the moment I can't work up the enthusiasm to do anything about it. What minimum length would a crack need to be to spur you into action? Read more
Cracks are only a big deal if you leave them too long,
i have many times repaired long cracks in laminated glass succesfully, yes with larger cracks above 6inches they are more vsible...
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As for bleeding the boiler if you run out; it's a doddle for anybody with half an ounce of common sense. The guy from the oil company will probably do it for you if you ask.