Yesterday I bought an X-reg 306 Hdi, 5dr Meridian, which has done 80k. Limited Service history but lots of old mots, the odd receipt etc. It only has one previous owner. It is seriously underpowered from 1500rpm upwards. The engine sounds sweet as a nut, and im very confident the mileage is genuine. It doesn't smoke at all, not even cold, under load or when accelerating. I cant hear the turbo, where as you clearly can on the other 306 HDi's I've owned. And also I've noticed that distinctive 'ticking' and air gushing (sorry crap description!) sound you normally get when you put your foot down in 5th gear is missing altogether? At a guess I'd say the Turbo is not working at all. Could this be an airflow sensor problem, opening the wastegate all the time?

Performance wise, its like driving a naturally aspirated diesel really? The engine is really clean, no sign of oil anywhere I can see. No lights on the dash, (bar the ABS light which came on on the way home but is a red herring i assume!). When its not under load the engine revs quite normally, and easily revs upto 3500-4000 rpm. When under load though, it takes forever to get upto 3000rpm. You can rev it really hard in 2nd, but when you change upto 3rd it takes ages to accelerate up from 1900- 2600.

Im not a complete mug when it comes to mechanicing, and iv always serviced my 306's myself, but Im not sure where to start looking with this problem! It is driveable, and i needed a car urgently, so I knocked him down from £2100 and got it for £1700 hoping this would give me enough room to get it fixed without making it a really expensive car!

I would be really grateful for any help you can give me guys.

Regards,
Sam

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On the way home tonight whilst going round a roundabout the ESP light and service lights came up on the dashboard. Got home and re-started the car hoping the lights would dissapear but still on. I tried switching the ESP switch off with the button on the dash, but no effect. I am concerned this may be an expensive fix as I belive the ESP is linked to the ABS. Wondered if anyone has come across this before and if this should be a main dealer fix. I have had the car from new, 60k miles FRSH. Read more

So I find myself sat in front of a spreadsheet trying to work out which company car to change to next year. A combination of the leasing costs on my company's scheme, list price, emissions etc means that a BMW 318i Touring looks like a very attractive replacement for my current Ford Focus Estate 2.0TDCi.

One factor that may actually make the maths even more favorable is that in moving from a diesel to a petrol I benefit from the increasing difference in cost between the two fuels and the fact that for my business miles I will be able to claim 3p a mile more. All this assumes that the BMW Efficient Dynamics really do make the fuel consumption of the 318i only about 10% worse than my Diesel Focus in the real world. Any comments on how realistic this is? My driving is the usual mixture of motorways, urban hold ups and the occasional "open road". The Focus returns anything between 45 and just over 50mpg depending on the exact mix for that tank full.

Obviously I will get to test drive the BMW (and others) for a couple of days but any comments on how much difference I will notice in the reduction in torque between the Diesel Focus and Petrol BMW?

Anything else I have missed? Read more

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Help!

My Corsa Breeze 1.2 petrol cam shaft has snapped and I think Vauxhall are being pretty harsh. It's had one lady owner (!) and has been looked after well.

I was driving on the motorway at 70 on Saturday when there was a noise and then the oil light and eps light came on and the engine died. Only just managed to get it onto the hard shoulder in time or it could have been very very nasty indeed.

Called Green Flag and he was fairly sure the camshaft had snapped but was astonished as the car is only an 05 reg with 24,000 miles on the clock. It was bought new from a vauxhall dealership and has been serviced regularly at the same dealership, the last service only being last month. Trouble is the warranty ran out in August.

Called a friend who was astonished and thinks it has to be a manufacturing fault and Vauxhall should pay some or all of the cost of having it repaired as he thinks it could cost around £2500 for a new engine. However been dealing with them today and they'll only offer 60% and won't budge.

Anyone I ask at work and on forums thinks it wasn't fit for purpose and must be a manufacturing error.

Have rung Trading Standards who on one hand say they have made an offer and they can't officially judge whether its a fair on or not but on the other say under Sale of Good Acts a major part like this shouldn't break within 6 years.

Any advice. I really can't afford the £1000+ bill at the minute which is what they're quoting.

Thanks for your time! Read more

Last Thursday I was driving home when the MFD alerted me to stop, and indicated that there was a problem with the Oil Pressure on my diesel engined Passat. Having ignored such warnings in years gone by, and having learned my lesson, I stopped straight away.

I checked the oil level, as the handbook suggested, and it was fine. The handbook advised that if that was the case, I should seek professional assistance. I called the RAC and they recovered the car back home, as it was 11pm, and no garage was open.

A friends son, who is a mechanic with Honda, popped over the next day and plugged his diagnostic kit in to the car. The RAC guy and my friend's son both thought that maybe there was a sensor fault or an oil pump fault, but neither of these were reported. The only fault reported was "175057/P0673 Cylinder 3 glow plug circuit - Q12".

I've Googled that error code and as it suggests, it's simply a dodgy glow plug.

I'm finding it very hard to get a tow to the local VW garage which is just 2.7 miles away and I'm wondering if anyone can shed any more info on what could be the cause of these symptoms, and whether it would be ok to drive to the dealership. Friends son suggested it would be OK to do so, but I am worried I will damage the engine.

The warning doesn't come on straight away, and only shows when I move the car.

Almost all that I've read about the oil pressure warning online, following a Google search, suggest that it might be a simple case of needing an oil change. Indeed, the Service in xxx miles indicator had been showing since the start of last week, and finally turned to SERVICE NOW just 200 or so miles before the STOP OIL PRESSURE warning showed.

I guess what I'm asking is that if the pressure sensor was faulty or if the oil pump had failed, would that have been reported by the diagnostic tools? Read more