August 2008
I am having a problem with the Lambda light on my Volvo.
I purchased the Volvo for £1200 from a small dealer in North London in February and it ran well until a parking company {name generalised - DD} at Gatwick returned it to me at 12.30am with the Lambda light on. I did not realise the significance, otherwise I would have complained.
Since then I have had the car come to a dead stop (all dash board lights on) quite a few times. It will not start immediately, (I assume neat petrol is flooding the hot sensors) so one has to wait 1-2 minutes and then it starts easily and on we go, with heart in the mouth, waiting for the next time.
I have had taken the car to the garage, where perished air hoses have been replaced and the fuel system (carburettor??) inlets/jets have been cleaned.
The problem appears to happen when I am "freewheeling" i.e. my foot has come off/partially off the accelerator (obviously still in gear) as one is going down a hill, slowing for a speed hump, approaching traffic lights etc.
There appears to be no logic as to when it is going to happen. After being in the garage for the carburettor(?) to be cleaned, the garage owner took the Volvo for a protracted test drive, no problems; I collected the car and 400 metres later slowing for a hump I lost all power?? The garage owner suggested a long drive would ?blow it through?.
The next day (Thursday), having reset the Lambda light (by disconnecting the bty) I drove to Manchester. The car went beautifully. I did lots of starts and stops and I thought "hooray". The following morning (Friday) it started perfectly, more stops and starts and then, when coming to a halt at the traffic lights at the bottom of a steep hill I lost all power. Embarrassing!! After a minute or so, the car started.
It then went perfectly for 3 hectic days and then, out of the blue, stopped twice within a mile, on my way to join the motorway: It was inside lane and ?heart in mouth? all the way back to London!!
Suddenly, again out of the blue, when crawling in slow moving traffic (motorway road works) the tick over revs dropped from about 750 to 480-500. Lots of handbrake stops whilst keeping the revs up at around 750. It carried on like this all the way into London and then, having negotiated Marble Arch, going down Park Lane the revs suddenly returned to 750-800 and have stayed there ever since.
Since arriving back in London I have left the Lambda light on and thought that was it, ?cured? when on the way to the garage, slowing for a speed hump, all stopped again.
Any suggestions as to a cure would be welcome.
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Hi ppl, wondering if you can help me to find a website, or shop that sells parts for Subaru Forester 1999y. I'm looking for fog light covers, rear lights left block and hm mine english isnt so good and i dont realy know whats the name of this so i will try to explane- front lights just underthem there is like a small tower for water, mine is broken and looking to find replace. Thz in advance for answers and advices.Cheers
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I would call them front headlamp washers.
Hi Friends
Am having problems with my central locking & immobiliser system.
I lost the remote & have been using the key to manually unlock & lock the car.
For a while it worked but then the hatch door wouldn't lock.
As far as the immobiliser is concerned I took the battery for a charge & on replacing
have been unable to get the alarm to switch off! What am I doing wrong?
My guess is a new remote would help with the central locking but have no clue to the second issue!
Any advice gratefully received.
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Thanks! I'll have a go!
just read this is in HJ's test of new Sirocco:
"it has a worse than usual DSG delay on take off. I found it bogging down. I couldn?t just press the accelerator and take off and this was terrifying at the first roundabout I tried to pull onto. So, naturally, I had to work out how to make it work.
But whatever I did, if I tried to accelerate from standstill, I either got horrible wheelspin or the whole thing bogged down. Even revving against the brakes, initially it would bog down, so I?d press a bit harder, then the wheels would spin. I found it really difficult to pull away smoothly and reasonably quickly in this car."
I've got an A3 2.0 tdi and love it, except for those too frequent delays in pick-up. Why, oh why cannot a company like VAG put a brilliant 'box like dsg (or whatever they're calling it now) into their cars without sorting out this "feature" (I prefer to call it a fault). Pulling out at junctions is frequently dangerous!
Wonder if anyone fm VAG reads this site? Has anyone had any reply from VAG tech people re the problem?
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No it doesn't cut power. The handbook even gives full instructions on how to do a flying start which involves this technique.
A long established supermarket nearby occaisionlly runs out of diesel, the new one down the road doesnt, even when super market 1 runs out and it has increased demand. Does anyone know if new refueling stations have a more even Petrol / Diesel storage split to reflect current use. I assume that they both have similar reordering and delivery systems. Read more
You can see above-ground delivery points yourself on many stations at the edge of the forecourt, and these are marked with the different products and grades. old ones would have had LRP/*** anyway, so these could have been used for diesel.
The news is here
Every petrol pump 'will be prepay by 2011'
tinyurl.com/5fkva5
I've never used prepay system so far. My question is, how do I fill up to the brim if I already paid for certain amount of fuel?
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so how does this work with certain supermarkets offering 5p off a litre when you
spend £50 or more. >>
The supermarket tills will simply print a bar code on the bottom of your receipt and you'll scan it at the pump in the same way you scan your loyalty card. It will be a unique code so once used, the code will be invalidated on a central computer.
The only way I see pre-pay being dodgy is if you pay cash up front - in the US, you don't get a receipt until you settle up! I can imagine in the UK having a dodgy counter assistant who says - "but you only gave me forty quid"
One of my daugthers will be 5 soon, her current car seat specifies 9 months to 4 years but she is very small for her age, well within the weight and height her seat is designed for.
We have sat her in the group 2 car seats that have the normal three point belt going round her but they do not look like she is safe so we intend to keep her in the group one seat until she is big enough.
My question is how does this stand legaly? More asking out of curriosity as we will keep her in whatever is safest regardless of the law, saftey first. Read more
As my youngest son reached the wonderful weight of 10 lbs when he was nearly 10 months old, we found little use for seat sizes given by manufacturers. He was in a booster seat for far longer than most children - mainly because he liked the higher level for the view. His older brother was nearly that weight at birth and soon moved onto bigger seats, using one which could be backwards facing then later forward facing.
What still bemuses me is that childrens clothes (and so on) are sold in age ranges - when six our daughter was very tall and we used to infuriate shop assistants by removing tights/school etc from their packs so we could measure them against her. I don't go into a shop and ask for socks for someone of, say, 35 (lol) and expect them to fit.....
Another question please guys. My 98 406 est. on 195m and still going strong. Recently and most notable in slow moving traffic, when lifting off accelerator at say 1500-1800 revs I hear a light clunk. I'm sure it's from the front offside. Not the anti-roll bar drop links as I changed them both yesterday. Nothing else looked obviously wrong, any thoughts on the most likely cause. Thanks. Read more
Check the top engine mounting, drivers side and the bottom stabiliser, quite easy to see. The bottom one particularly gets soaked with oil causing the rubber to go soft and allowing the engine to move excessively.
When I had the bonnet up on my Ford Focus 1.8 petrol, I noticed that on the Side of the timing belt cover a couple of small areas that looked darker than the rest of the surface of the cover (which is dark grey).
Now I am concerned that this could be engine oil and if so where does this sort of leak start and would it show up as a drop in level on the dipstick or could it possibly just be from rain water that has fell on it whilst the bonnet has been opened on a wet day ?
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I was looking into an engine bay. There was a small modern petrol engine, with modern covers and so on, but space all round the engine with every DIY item being accessible.
Does this exist?
(Triggered I think by watching an old film featuring period cars.) Read more
It always makes me cringe when I see a 30+ year old classic left covered
in salt. I wonder if these cars have been lovingly cared for by decades only
to be bought as a `trendy` car and then given modern abuse.
I have, sadly, a confession to make.
My Merc W124 was clearly pampered by its one previous owner in the 14 years and 68,000km he owned it. Literally no noteworthy scratches or evidence of touch up paint anywhere. Well, last week I managed to reverse it into a metal gatepost. Only a very small area on the rear bumper where I've removed the top layer of paint. So frustrating though, being responsible for the first "proper" scratch on a car that's now nearly 15 years old. Trying to decide whether to get the bumper resprayed or not.
Browse
Thank you for your advice, the fault may be cured.
The car "died" on the garage floor and the mechanic went back to basics and started fault finding on the electrics. Took off the distibutor cap and found it was worn beyond belief.
A new cap and new plugs and "touch wood" a weekend later all is well