November 2008
My Renault Clio 1.5DCi Dymanigue went on fire on Thursday night in my driveway. The Fire Service came to put the fire out and told me they thought it was probably caused by an electrcal fault. I had work done by the local dealer two weeks ago costing £800. The car needed a new timing belt and the dealer were doing a special offer so I booked it in with them. It also needed new rear wheel bearings and I got them to do that work at the same time and also got them to do a silver service while they were at it. I thought it would be less hassle killing three birds with one stone (as opposed to two), though as it was the dealer I knew it would bit on the pricey side. A couple of days before leaving the car in it started leaking oil so I asked the dealer to have a look at that also. This turned out to be the heat exchanger (though they told me it was the radiator at first) and they would have to get one from France. When it arrived the next day it turned out the one they had ordered was for the later model and didn't fit my car so they had to order another one. This took three days to arrive! I didn't therefore get my car back until the Friday (I'd left it in on the Monday!). They didn't even offer me a free courtesy car during all this time. I think it is too much of a coincidence that two weeks later the car goes up in flames don't you? Spookily I got a text from the dealer the morning after the car went on fire saying my car may have been involved in a safety recall campaign. I phoned them (I had already phoned them earlier about the fire which they of course they said had nothing to do with the work they did) and they said the recall was to do with the bonnet catch, however, the dealer had texted me about that several months earlier and I had already left the car in with them to get a new one fitted. I e-mailed the photos of the fire to the dealer and they contacted me and said they would forward them to Renault UK.
Has anyone had a similar experience?
I had to take a couple of days off work to clean up the mess! The tarmac is in a bad state and will need resurfaced at least.
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I have just disposed of my 10-year old 2 litre Renault Mégane RXE automatic (and for the francophobes, it has covered over 90,000 miles and, apart from the usual service consumables it has needed one wheel bearing and one ignition coil in that time. Last month it went the length of the Alps to Provence and back on half a litre of oil and still had the original exhaust system and rear brake linings).
I have replaced it with a Renault Grand Scénic petrol 2.0 litre auto and am puzzled by the new service intervals. Now the book specifies a glycol based anti-freeze. The Mégane used glycol, and the coolant changed every 20,000 miles or 2 years. The Scénic however requires coolant changes at 70,000 miles or seven years. -- yet is still apparently on a glycol-based fluid.
Can anyone explain, please? Read more
Hi
I am currantly rebuilding a 4.6V8 out of a Range Rover. I understand these engines are subject to liner problems. Having made up blanking plates for the water jacket I pressure tested the block buy emersing in water at 50Ibs pressure. Very minute bubbles escaped around the top of the liner flush with the block. It has been suggested that this will cause no problem as the head gasket will seal any leaks. I would be greatful if anyone has experienced this or has knowledge where the liner fails.
Regards Dave. Read more
Dave
It's an epidemic. The 3.9 and 4.6 took the bores one step too far and the thinned alloy behind the liners cracks at high miles, allowing water to seep up the outside of the liner and enter the combustion chamber - as the gasket sits on the block just outside the liner.
"Top-hat" liners cure the problem as they are sealed by the gasket - but if the block has already gone, then it will likely crumble as they are fitted.
Turner Engineeering are the acknowledged experts in this problem; worth a call.
I'm looking to buy a used Japanese car. I had wanted a diesel automatic but they are rare. Then I realized there's something more important to me than out-and-out economy. I want serenity at seventy: a car that's nice to drive. I'm sure you know what I mean, though it's subjective and somewhat indefinable.
Moreover, I need reliability so well-proven that the car I settle on is in plentiful supply secondhand; and sorry, but it must be available as an automatic.
Don't want much, do I (like most of us)?
Thank you,
AF. Read more
My A6 superbly quiet at cruising speeds , unless someone has seen the diesel sign on the back, they would find it hard to believe its a diesel!
(Almost equals a session in the gym as a destressor!)
I have made the advertiser aware of your comments regarding the title.
But please, no more discussion on it.
DD. Read more
Bought a brand new 7 seat Chevrolet Captiva from (can I name 'em?) in (can I name the town?)
Agreed a £400 'up front' service package of 3 years/60,000 miles.
Before completing the deal I discover a free servicing offer from Chevrolet on 7 seat Cap's - giving 3 years/30,000 miles of servicing worth £300 - with the option to upgrade to the 60,000 plan for an extra £100
Print off 'coupon', take myself off to the dealer brandishing said coupon to claim my free servcing - which would have saved me £300 out of the £400 I was being charged.
Sales managers scratches his head - 'Never heard of that particular promotion, best to do the deal and take it up with Chevrolet"
As I was about to take delvery I took him at his word.
Then I found out that the dealership's own website was promoting the free servicing plan that had so mystified the sales manager.
Printed off the various docs & proofs, faxed them to Chevrolet.
Chevrolet were very prompt and very helpful - yes, I should have had the free servicing, it must all be a mistake.
Then it transpires that, despite not knowing anything about the service deal, the dealer had applied the free package anyway ;) - and pocketed the £300 I should have saved.
Worse - the dealer had *only* applied the free 30,000 mile package - not the 60,000 mile plan that I'd paid for, thus putting a further £100 into his kitty.
Made calls to the dealership, sales manager invariably 'out', 'busy', 'off for the day' - would call me back. Never did.
Chevrolet pressed the matter - still no calls from the dealership, and (more impportantly) no refund of the money I'd paid them.
In the end, Chevvie sent me the missing £300 themselves - really great service (no pun)
They also upgraded the service pakage to 60,000 miles to reflect the extra £100 that the dealer had taken but not passed on.
So, many thanks to Chevrolet UK - and some derisory/obscene gestures at the dealership - who I know can't me named, but who left me feeeling rather less than Merry.
Sharp practice, I think - particulalry charging for a 60,000 mile package, but only applying the free 30,000 plan (which, of course, they'd 'never heard about')
Point is, quite apart from being overcharged, I would have known nothing about the missing service entitlement until I needed a 40,000 service - by which time the dealer might well have long vanished into whatever purgatory is reserved for bankrupt car dealerships...
Thanks again, Chevvie, best customer service I've known from a car company in over 20 years of buying new vehicles. Read more
"what are HJ and the moderators afraid of ? If a poster wants to name names , and is prepared to put their own name down, who's going to be worried ? "
This thread on another forum was interesting - in that context.
tinyurl.com/6jbmv2
Tin foil radiator covers.
Radio aerials made out of coat hangers.
Racoon tails adorning genuine aerials.
Chaps driving around with their other halves sitting on the back seat. Read more
Those aerofoil spoiler thingys on windscreen wipers.
Got one on my 03/03 Focus.
Smelt burning paraffin on the M1 last week - near Sheffield and came up behind a small flat-bed (1 car) transporter. Only a few years old too.
A surprise really, what`s the benefit? Isn`t paraffin and a splosh of engine oil just about as expensive as Derv?
The last time I smelt paraffin was behind a Landrover during the last fuel strike.
I thought cooking oil had taken over as the engine wrecker
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interesting, thanks.
Hi guys can anybody tell me what tool I need to drain the engine oil on a Citroen C5 2.0 HDi diesel? Is it a special square tool, an allen key or a normal spanner.
Many Thanks
Mark Read more
My 2002 C5 HDI uses an Allen Key (maybe 8mm), but the sump plug is hexagonal and would also take a quite large spanner (about an inch).
You need to remove the undertray which requires a flat blade screwdriver and a 10mm spanner (easier with a ratchet spanner).
Some people find they can change the oil with the suspension on high and the sills supported (slight chance the suspension will drop and crush you to death.)
Ben
I am having problems with my engine cutting out while driving.
All of a sudden its like my engine isn't getting gas or something.
I don't think its missing but maybe. Could it be a fuel injector going out?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Read more
Not sure. I'll look into it thanks
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Friend of mine, a consultant trickcyclist, had a brand new Alfa Spider a couple of years ago. Bowling up the M61, he smelled something, looked down and saw an orange spot growing on the floor by the pedals. Pulled over, grabbed briefcase and off down the hard shoulder a safe distance whilst the car went up in flames. It was the day after it's first service at supplying main agent ! Car gutted. He was gutted and the agent denied any fault. Never got anywhere with them.
Ted