Hope someone can help here, I've been recommended this site by a friend and I'll freely admit I'm a bit lacking in knowledge here.

I've got an offer of an espace but it has a strange fault. Basically when you first start it you need to use gears 1, 2 and drive (as gear 3) as the automatic gear box doesn't work initially. When you have driven a mile or so you can turn the engine off and on again and the automatic gear box works fine.

Does a fault like this mean an automatic MOT failure? Anyone any idea please?

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Bought a 01 Xsara (mkII) from a salvage auction, has 2.0TD HDi engine. It had a big old wallop on the front end and we have sucessfully rebuilt it. Just a couple of spare parts as the saying goes.

Fitting the air cleaner housing went fine, apart from none of us can figure out where the inlet pipe comes from, fits the box fine but seems to drag on the floor, does anybody know where we attach the 'scoop' end?

There is what we suspect is the injector pump in the centre of the engine bay, hanging from the bottom of this is a length of, again, what appears to be a vaccuum pump, anybody with a notion of where the other 'dangly' end goes to?

Honestly we must sound a bit thick...all help gratefully recieved.

Cheers
Banger
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Grrr... so which bit of 'check mirrors' don't some people understand? Driving behind a girl in an old Frontera on Friday down my mother's narrow street. She suddenly stops, lets her friend out, puts the car in reverse and promptly issues my Mondeo with a free nose job courtesy of her spare wheel box.

As it happens I used to go to school with the girl and agreed to try to cut out the insurance kerfuffle at her apologetic request (yeah yeah, I know) and got a quote for putting it right at an accident repair centre on the industrial estate where I work. They are of the opinion that a new bonnet is the solution and gave me of quote of... £627.91 :O

So my question is, will the response be the same from pretty much anywhere? The dent is just above the radiator grille, about the size of a saucer, and comes complete with scratches in my otherwise perfect (OK, maybe not quite perfect) Stardust Silver. I think the poor lass is expecting someone to mallet it out for a fiver, but I don't want to waste my time 'shopping around' if replacement is the only solution and £600 is the going rate... I certainly don't want a bodge job either. I noticed she wasn't wearing any make-up, so I'm guessing the whole mirror issue isn't really her thing... maybe this'll change when I hand her the bill :p

Does anyone else get the feeling other drivers think they're a lesser person when driving around in a car with a dent on the nose, or am I just a paranoid snob...?! Read more

My D5 engine is smoking profusely under light engine loads. Been into the Volvo garage. New Turbo hoses have been fitted, the EGR plenum has been cleaned and no fault codes have logged. The road test reported no smoke! Driving home gently at 1500 to 1800rpm and then accelerating produces steady smoke and then a billow as the car accelerates. The smoke is black. Looks like over fuelling. The engine runs very smoothly, mpg is good as ever, performance is slightly down on normal. Only noticed the problem this week and i have run the tank right down, put common rail injector cleaner through and put new fuel in. The air filter has also been changed. All the obvious things! Any ideas where to look next? Read more

The leader of the fuel protests suggested on the radio today that they may have to begin French style blockades to get the government to realise how much the fuel prices are hurting the haulage industry at the moment.

I have a suggestion, it's called slipstreaming.

Instead of insisting on overtaking every vehicle that is travelling 0.3 mph less than you are, sit back, relax and think about how you are going to spend the £10,000 that your manouvre would have cost you.
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