My sons 110hp Toledo has started to play up a little.
It seems after about 15 minutes running that the temperature starts to rise and the heater goes cold.
He grabbed a thermostat today to exclude that, and as we speak he is trying to find where the thing goes.
I have a sneaky feeling that the water pump may be playing up, i wonder if this could be one of the plastic impeller jobbies.

The car has done about 115K i believe maybe more, and according to service history cam belt was changed at 70K ish, but we don't know if the water pump was upgraded at the time.

My question is, would the cambelt and water pump renewal be a reasonable job for the likes of me and he, i suppose we need to get a kit to lock the various moving parts.
We don't have a haynes for the car, but even if there isn't one for the Toledo, would one for a Leon do?

He was quoted about £350 for cambelt/pump/idler renewal by a well regarded indy, is that reasonable and would the knowledgable chaps here recommend us having a go instead?

Any thoughts please gentlemen? Read more

I am currently running my Focus TDdi on 100% biodiesel and wondered whether these models were fitted with a fuel tank strainer?

Thanks for any help Read more

Nice to report a pro active spares dept giving what I consider super service.
The glass on sons Focus electric heated door mirror got cracked by a passing vehicle.
I called into a long established independant Ford spares company to get a genuine replacement.
( I had read Haynes and was unsure of the complex replacement method illustrated there)
Unprompted, the spare dept asked if I would like the glass replaced, for a small fee, immediately.
"We charge THREE pounds plus VAT.
A no brainer in my book!
To my amazement their guy had emerged from the workshop, installed the new heated mirror and dissapeared before the credit card transactin was completed.

There is obviously another non Haynes method of doing the job but that was to me real value.

I wonder how much a main dealer would charge?
( the glass was £17:61 plus vat compared with a simple stick on version @ £7 including vat) Read more

Ford has now reduced it's shareholding in Mazda to just 13% - although it still remains the biggest single shareholder.
IMO this gives them the opportunity to raise lots of dosh (obviously) but also it enables them to keep strong links with a well known Japanese company which will continue to help them develop more and more reliable products at less cost. Read more

I suspect there are going to be a lot of Land Rover staff and dealers staff unemployed next year. Deservedly based on my experience.

I have bought new Land Rovers for over 30 years (2 RR, 4 Disco 2 Freelanders) and have the usual reliability and build quality scars. I was going to buy a new Freelander but have concluded the company and dealers may now be the worst in the UK so have bought a Honda.

I rang a number of dealers centred on my home town having already checked price and availablity via brokers. 3 use obscene profit making numbers...a real no-no for my generation. 1 didn't answer. 1 had a receptionist whose use of language led me to terminate the call. 2 had no sales staff to take the call...1 of whom had a sales manager who 'doesn't take calls from customers'!

With the 4 sales staff I spoke with 2 didn't know the answer to a basic question...'which is the cheapest model with climate control?' (what do they do all day?). 2 tried to obfuscate (they presumably call it 'negotiate') over delivery times....apparently don't they read newspapers.

Then the critcal issue of price. In no instance did they even hint at a discount over the current Land Rover 'offers'. When pressed the best price was over £2300 more than a few clicks reveal (again what do they do all day? I'd expect anyone purporting to be a salesman to know his product and his competitors). Made more galling given that dealer was actually the franchise supplier via a broker I'd had a price from.


I raised the experience with Land Rover senior management. The response was disinterest and that dealers are 'independent and not under their control'.

I know others will have siimilar experiences with other marques...I have relatives who will never (again) buy Saab or Mitsubishi because of bad experiences with dealers. But I do think Land Rover are the worst . In part because they don't realise they should be trying harder given the product profile and that times have changed. Read more