February 2009
How long could I drive my car with a broken spring before causing serious damage? Read more
My Fabia VRS will be 3 years old in April. Every time I go in to my local dealer they seem to have a different answer to when (if ever) a new VRS will be released. Are Skoda keeping the dealers in the dark? or are they just trying to get me to buy something else they have in stock? Occasional dates such as 'late 2008 or early 2009' are on the web but does anyone know anything further?
Matt Read more
Thanks for everyones contributions to this thread! especially BobbyG.
The mito looks really nice, I saw one up close at the London motorshow. I would be a little bit cautious about the build quality as the show model had started to show the wear and tear (although to be fair I'd imagine that show cars go through an awful lot over the week).
I quite like the look of the Volvo C30, but dont think it has an equivilent engine to the VRS in terms of performance or feel.
Briskoda is excellent too, it saved me at least one trip to the dealer when the fuel flap release cable needed adjusting.
Ford, in my case.
My uber-reliable 2002 Focus TDCi is going to be replaced by.... a Focus.
But in a bid to make life a little more interesting, I'm having a coupe cabriolet, a CC3, to be precise.
Diesel again, this time two litre, park assist on the rear, metallic blue Di Cina and don't forget the all important flaps and mats.
The only other extra is a windbreak - really just because only CC buyers can have one.
I know sales are down, but there must be others in the Backroom who are having a new car.
PU has 'fessed up to a Honda - no p/ex I heard, the guy's garage must be almost as big as his wallet.
Anyone else looking forward to a shiny new 09-reg?
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...The novelty never wears off ifithelps....
Cooper-driver,
Like the sound of that, and the rest of your post.
I've been looking out for convertibles since I placed the order, as one does.
Not seen many Focus CCs, but nearly all the convertibles I have seen have one thing in common - the roof is usually up.
Like you, I intend to get some use out of mine in something other than bright sunshine.
Even a Focus roof can't leak when it's down. :)
This car has an erratic idle
This doesnt inhibit normal use (eg MoT passed with no emission problems, car doesnt stall) but it is annoyiing and I dont want it to get worse
Anyone?
Rgds
mw Read more
Many Ford Focuses are CVT. What is this? Read more
Thanks for that DD.
From reading many posts on here over the last year it appears it has been
a problem for Ford and that many potential owners steer clear. Is this the case?
>>
From my 5 years on Focus forums, and time here you'd be right. Although the specific problem child appears to be 1.6 TDCi engines with the CVT auto. If it goes wrong it costs an arm and a leg to put right (i.e. new or reconditioned transmission), and I think from another thread that spares are getting tricky to find. I think the consensus here would be to avoid it.
For clarity, this observation only applies to this particular combination of engine & gearbox. After teething troubles with early models (perhaps up until 2005), this engine appears to be reliable (especially given how common it's likely to be - used across Ford group including Volvo, Peugeot-Citroen and Mini).
This weeks happening I will travel to a garage to see a car spend less than 20 seconds looking at it to discover that none of the front panels align properly or rust in a terminal place etc?
Are other people the same?
If after 20 seconds I am interested in the car, I start to get a little excited, then I will find other potential problems with it as I investigate or buy it. I assume this is fairly normal as us humans can make a first impresson in seconds and with cars the lesson I have learnt is the first impression is usualy right. Read more
Ah, I think I see what you mean, Rattle. I guess that's the difference between browsing and homing in on a particular specific example of a model you have already decided to buy, virtually ignoring all others on sale, which is what I do......very infrequently!
My MOT pass this morning gave a Lambda reading of 1.15 (pass range 0.95 - 1.30).
The tester commented on the high level and the highest pass range he'd seen.
It got me wondering what exactly is it measuring and what it's level would be without a cat fitted?
Other readings:
Fast idle. CO-0.02%(pass-0.5). HC-44PPM(pass-200).
Natural idle. CO-0.01%(pass-0.5). Read more
The lambda reading may be caused by the smallest of leaks in the exhaust or the probe not being far enough up the tail pipe. A minimal air leak on the analyzer will also cause this. the air leak can be so small that even whilst the analyzer has to pass a leak test each morning a tny air leak will increase lambda.
being a carburetted model I suspect the throttle spindle is leaking causing very low co reading & increased lambda.
I wouldn't worry about the HC for an older vehicle as its still well within limits
Lord Ahmed has been sent to jail for 12 weeks after admitting to dangerous driving.
He'd been sending and receiving texts minutes before he crashed into a broken down car on the M1 and the driver was killed.
12 weeks? Doesn't seem very long to me. Not much of a deterrent, either.
Why so short a sentence, anyone? Read more
well it would appear that if you have lord at the beginning of your name you get of lightly.
I always thought the QC's always looked after their own !
ask yourself this, if it was joe blogs in lord 'what-ever' shoes would he have got few weeks behind bars ?
I doubt it, more like 6 months
In a similar vein to the thread about silly news items, I got to thinking about two signs seen in the past.
In the early 70's in London on the Underground: "Dogs must be carried on the Underground"
In the mid-late 70's on the counter at the reception desk of Trust-House Fortes hotels: "No smoking rooms available"
What either of the above actually meant is known only to God.
Not a lot to do with motoring except perhaps someone may be inspired to quote more relevant examples.
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Saw a flatbed truck a bit since. On the tailboard 'Bloggs and sons , Paris ,New York and Matlock. (But mostly Matlock )'
In a sunday paper's catalogue of the usual trash..'For estate cars, a wooden folding dog ramp' Well that one won't cost much to feed and should be able to sleep anywhere !
Ted
my radio,horn,hazards and interior lights will only work when headlights are switched on.then if i lower dash dimmer slightly they don't work,sometimes get buzzing noise from fusebox,any ideas? Read more
sounds like an earth fault to me but dont ask which one, any other little signs that have happened lately that you have noticed
Browse
Thanks for your reply HJ.
>>Not Far Eastern built cars
Great! - there's a starting point for the investigation - not the end point!
However, while there may be a visible difference in the spring design, it doesn't necessarily follow that the visible design difference is the important one, and unless there's more information available, I don't see how the conclusion you wrote above could actually be drawn. Are the springs the same material?, made using the same heat treatments?, are the protective coatings comparable?
I'm not writing this to snipe - it's just that I've been involved in quite a few engineering failure investigations, and more often than not, the simple, obvious, answer isn't the correct one - usually, you have to dig a bit deeper, keeping an open mind while you go. (Ever now and again, you do find a clearly and blatantly incompetent design - which is good fun!)
I would be surprised if all Western manufacturers had suddenly made such an obvious mistake on a well understood part all at the same time.
For example, un-modified coil spring ends have been used for many many years without a large failure rate (at least 30 years to my meagre knowledge). I think the answer is not quiteas simple as you suggest HJ, although I think you've got some useful statisitics to help you solve the problem.