December 2008
In childhood days, I was told that it is because bigger rear wheels are good over difficult terrains and small front wheels are for easier steering.
But now all cars (tractors as well?) have power steering - so why still its front wheels are smaller?
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Hi
Can you help. I have the above car and it has recently started cutting out and leaving me in some dangerous positions. It just stops after a lot of 'clicking' noises from the right hand side of the dash. Sometimes it will start after several attempts, with a bit of smoke coming from the exhaust. Other times it will start and let me rev then cut out again. When I start in the morning there is a whistling noise from the engine when I accelerate away. I have changed the fuel relay fuse after speaking to VAG however this has not worked. The car is completely standard. I again broke down this morning, went back an hour later and it started and drove fine. Any ideas that may help would be appreciated.
Thank you
Tony Read more
I had the similar problems with mine.
After changing the Bosch Coil, High Tension Leads and the ignition, etc, etc I decided to try the internet.
Thanks very much guys.
The problem is now solved. I changed the Rotor and boom the problem is solved. Thanks a mil
From the beautiful Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho. Deep in the African jungle.
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Beatles motoring llink:
The line "Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire" from a A Day in the Life on Sgt Peppers was almost certainly taken from the Daily Mail.
A councillor in Blackburn asked a question of the borough engineer concerning the state of the roads in the town.
The engineer's reply included the information there were an estimated 4,000 potholes.
The exchange made about 100 words in the Mail.
Good to know the lads were reading a quality newspaper during breaks from creating some of the greatest popular music ever recorded.
anyone know why my expansion tank stays cold when the engine is hot?, also keep getting a smell of hot rubber, ive checked all hoses and cant find anything wrong.
thanks for any help
alan Read more
My (my wifes actually) 1.2 clio .... exact same symptoms... Hot engine cold expansion tank, hot rubber smell from heater, added to that I also have a low pitched squeal from the fan belt area. .... Quite simply the water pump is shot and if you were luckier than I am you spotted it before a head gasket leak.
Anyone that needs to change a worn pump needs to check the cam belt too because if that goes it's a head rebuild at the very least....
Hi,
Any one ever replaced fuel gauge on the cluster unit. i have had a new fuel pump installed and now the fue gauge not working. the garage says it might be the fuel gauge which means changing the whole speedo probably. if so then what happens to the mileage reading that is in existing. i have managed to remove the shrouds and the lower plastic cover underneath the the column and all the screws bu the small plastic trim on the bottom of the clock cluster does not come out to give me access to the two screws holding the clock assy.
can any one help please. Read more
Hi Injection Doc,
i eventually ended up fitting another cluster unit of a mondeo ghia x. the fuel gauge now works but the tripmeter reading keeps flutuating and i don't get correct reading to show me how many miles of fuel is left. Do you think i have to reset on the gauge. the needle on the gauges work perfect. can you help please.
thanks
HI. My wife's sharen's heater doesn't seem to work very well, i think it must be the thermostat stuck open. Is this a common thing to happen. When i looked under the bonnet i had trouble locating where it is. I think it is right in front of the engine with a hose about 45mm coming out of it. Could anybody confirm this to save me wasting my time stripping it down and finding out it' wrong. Thank's again. Sparky 100. Read more
Sparky if its the same as a 99 sharan the thermostat is at the bottom front left as you look in the engine bay. I had the same problem with mine last year. I thought the stat was stuck, heater was taking ages to warm up and temp gauge not showing for about 15 mins. It turned out the booster heater under the back of the rear heater matrix was'nt working. after much messing with the booster i gave up as they are around 400 hundred pounds and put up with the slow warm of the car. these cars just take ages to warm up in the cold mate. i got this article about the booster after i had trouble with mine. hope this helps Rich
this guide is for owners of the car, diesels only, models from 95 were fitted with a booster heater, this is a unit fitted underneath the car under where the cenre row passenger sits on the nearside. its a cylinder like object with a small exhaust pipe coming from it. it also has 2 water pipes going in and out . its purpose is to assist the engine in producing hot water more quickly in cold weather. you know if its working as it gives of a distinct humming sound and sometimes exhaust ssmoke also it runs on after the engine has been stopped sometimes. its supplied with fuel via a t into the main fuel line. if your car seems to take an age to even start to warm up chances are its faulty. the usual cause is a duff glowplug. this sits in the unit and the unit has to be lowered from the car to do, you can unbolt the bracket and lower the unit with water pipes still on you must then remove the torx drive bolts to seperate the unit into 2. the glowplug can then be removed for checking and replacement. sometimes you need to take the unit to a workbench in which case the water pipes need clamping with something . the torx bolts tend to rust and need to be drilled out have new ones ready available from vw dealers, dont bother with seat or ford as they may tell you they are not available. on re assembly hopefully the unit will fire or give it a gentle thump with a hammer the fan may have got stuck. there is a way to test yours by bridging a sensor. in the engine bay on the n/s wiper arm linkage there is a small round cylinder shape sensor remove this and pop in across the terminals a 10 amp mini fuse this will signal to the unit that the temp is lower tthan 5 degrees and it will pass voltage to the unit. and hopefully fire.usually people leave the fusr in as when removed for the summer sometimes the unit will seize up usually though a thump with the hammer gets it going. you can sometimes hear the fuel pump for the unit ticking its under the central ara of the middle row of seats a very common fault is the fuel pump wires corrode as they are exposed re connection sometimes starts the heater. the glowplugs are £30 + at dealers we sell them in our shop much cheaper. they are much more expensive than normal glowplugs as they are classed as industrial use only beru the german firm make them and we have to import them for the best price. hope this answers a few questions most info is correct but o doubt someone out there will know more than we do. this is a rough guide not a expert breakdown. it can save you a lot of cash to change the glowplug as a dealer will charge a fortune and may say a new unit is needed at £300 +
I recently bought a secondhand A3 (from a NON-main dealer garage) but have had continual problems with cruise control.
Sometimes the cruise control will not 'engage' i.e. switch on and sometimes when it is on it will switch itself off. In either case once it's decided that it is not going to work it, I cannot re-engage it until I stop the car and switch off the ignition. It's an intermittent fault and there seems to be no common theme to being able to reproduce the fault e.g. it is just as likely to not work/switch off when driving along a smooth road as going over a bump.
I originally took it back to the garage I bought it from, who have done their best to resolve the problem; They changed the cruise control stalk on the steering column but this didn't fix it.They then decide it had to go to an Audi dealer for further investigation, who informed me they 'thought' it was a 'Control Column ECU'. Needless to say, when I picked the car up from the Audi garage and drove it home, the cruise control promptly failed.
It's been booked back into the Audi garage but this is now the 4th time it's been in (to a garage) and while it's cost me nothing for the 'repairs' so far, it's becoming a little frustrating and I'm not particularly confident in the garage's troubleshooting abilities (have the earths been checked ? etc etc).
I'm looking for some advice/information on how these cruise controls work (or better still if someone has had similar problems and how they resolved it). It's getting to the stage now where I want to fix it myself (although I'm going to continue to take it to the garage for the moment); I have the technical ability but just lack the specific technical knowledge.
So in summary :
1) Has anyone had a similar problem to mine ? If so, did you resolve it and how ?
2) Does anyone have any technical information on how the cruise control works ? (There's no Haynes manual available, nor Bentleys for this year of A3)
3) Are there any diagnostic codes related to the cruise control and would it be worth me getting my local garage to get a read out of these ? And are these codes any good for troubleshooting ?
4) I've manage to gather that the 'Steering Column ECU' (mentioned above) interfaces with the Engine ECU. Is this through a dedicated electrical connection or via a digital bus ? Could it be the Engine ECU at fault ?
5) If it is an earthing fault, does the earth for the cruise control share it with any-other service - for example on some old cars the indicators would share an earth with the headlights and if the earth was poor it would cause the headlights to alternate in brightness in sympathy with the indicators. Where are the earths for the cruise control ?
6) Any other advice anyone has is also welcome !
Thanks for reading my post. Read more
Live data is not available on cheap code readers. Just tell the garage that you think it is the brake or clutch sensor and see what they can find. Also write to Audi UK and complain so the the fault is covered after the warranty runs out. Regards Peter
I am noticing large numbers of cars marketed thus. Dealers seem happy to shift their stuff at any price.
tinyurl.com/9g676k
These chaps have a dozen cars a week that they send out in no reserve auctions (nothing on at the moment as it is Christmas). Given they must be making money out of the process, and they're selling cars towards the bottom end of Glass's trade-in value range, how cheaply must they be buying them?
tinyurl.com/8gyofw
Suggests to me that there is a major shake out in second hand car prices still to come, even on top of what we've seen..
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>>Petrol subarus
How did you guess what my next car will be. I reckon 1k will buy an 02/03 100k FSH Legacy.
I almost feel like my secret is out,
You only have to look at the quality of their listings and their feedback.
I still want to know where they're buying their cars from and yet managing to make a profit...
Over this dreadful Christmas period I have been looking at the new Golfs that are percolating into the local dealers. I'm not quite sure what to make of this so-called much heralded improvement over my current MK 5 Golf.
I have managed to sit in the 1.4 122PS TSI SE model, the one I hope to order in the next month or so, for delivery in time for the March 1st number change.
There is supposed to be a quantum leap in the quality of the interior but the heater controls are just rather flimsy circular dials with poor indication of their position and on one model, I could hardly move the directional air vents for fear of snapping the flexing plastic louvres!
My biggest gripe is that a sunroof is no longer an option on the S or SE, only on the top of the range GT.
Also, some of the bright, shiny alloys have been replaced with a funny greyish two tone alloy finish thus making brake dust less obvious, I suppose.
I was also surprised to see that there wasn't any fancy underbonnet engine cover but -instead the underside of the bonnet lid had sound-proofing padding. Thus the engine now looks a bit of a mess with everything visible to the prying eye.
Totting up my own configuration for a car with metallic paint, multifunctional steering wheel (in order to control the radio) and parking sensors we're looking now at a car costing in excess of £17k Read more
NW, when you've directed every car buyer to a supermarket to buy USED where are you going to get new maindealer only parts from for your cars after all the MDs have folded?
Whats the difference between a USED Focus and a new "£17K plastic vented 1.4L Golf"?
The OP does'nt want a USED Focus!
I hope thats cleared things up for you ;o)
I've been looking at IQ reviews, and I can't understand why anyone would buy one. I think the Aygo/C1/107 is a much better car, and it costs less.
From the outside it looks like an Aygo with the boot cut off, and inside it looks like a boring/cheap version of the Aygo. The rear blind spots look even worse than the Aygo, and I thought the Aygo's blind spots really bad! In terms of practicality you have less rear space and pretty much no boot. For all this, the starting price is approx £2000 more than an Aygo.
From what I can see there is only one advantage, you get an extra 7% mpg more than the Aygo. It's supposed to be the smallest four seater, but dispite being a bit shorter than an Aygo, it is wider. In my opinion making the car shorter is pointless most of the time. I park in parking bays mostly, and the length is never an issue, it's the width. Read more
alex - your concerns mirror mine. Even a 5* NCAP won't test this aspect.
I see it as a two seater with more luggage capacity than a smart.
Apparently Toyota are working on a 7 seat Yaris using the same rear set set up as the IQ.
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This thread and the present cold spell reminds me of the time when I went to a local national tyre firm to collect one of our tractors that had had new rear tyres fitted. It is fairly common practice to put air/water in the rear tyres to add weight and increase traction, usually anti-freeze is added at the same time. Now whether the tyre firm didn't realise this, or they plain forgot, i'm not sure, but i had a very unusual feeling tractor on the run back to the farm! couldn't quite fathom what was causing the surging sensation, until the boss realised that the water in the rear tyres had frozen absolutely solid!
Billy