February 2009
I have been offered a fiat coupe for under £900. It belongs to the garage where I take one of my cars. The previous owner spent lots on it and they will include fitting a new clutch and getting fit to use in this price. I know nothing about them. Need a cheaper to run everyday car so was thinking of replacing my skyline with this. I also have a lancia delta so I know about italian reliability!
Think the car is a P or R reg. It has aircon (which actually works!!!) and is a dark blue colour. What is the boot space like on them and are they as incredibly awful as everyone says???? How big is the boot? Needs to be big enough for general tat carrying and 4 large bags of shopping.
Can't think of any other car which is cheapish and which is actually fun to drive. Not that keen on fwd, would prefer rwd but cheap rwd fun isn't cheap! Wouldn't have a bmw and nissan 200sxs are too expensive.
If anyone else can think of something fun under a grand that won't cost the earth to look after then feel free! Looked at 2cvs but they're too pricey. Generally not keen on french cars. Would consider an alfa 75 if I could find one for under a grand that wasn't a nail.....
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Hello all,
I have a problem with the rear washer not spraying on my 54 reg car, I can hear the pump working but on water comes out. I have looked for a second washer bottle and can't find it, so i assume that the car only has one. I can not see any leaks from any of the pipes leading from the washer bottle, or any leaks into the car.
Can anyone shed any light on the issue.
Cheers Read more
Hi I have had a similar problem and found it to be a loose pipe located in the driver side rear quarterpanel which can be removed by unscrewing it. A little plastic T- junction will be there and pipes coming out of it. One of these will probably be loose. My rear footwell in the car was getting wet and couldn't understand why. Now sorted.
I have a soggy carpet (rear passenger, driver's side footwell). Can you explain where the rear quarter panel is please to remove? Is it the rear boot panel (driver's side?)
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The mechanism for releasing the bonnet catch involves involves inserting the ignition key into an opening in the centre of the radiator grille, giving it a quarter turn anti-clockwise (which partly releases the bonnet) followed by a half turn clockwise which completes the release. The second phase has ceased to work and I cannot now access the engine compartment.
Any suggestions? Read more
what did you do then?
Today the wiper blades collided and the offside blade was badly bent. They're not new so I'm a bit puzzled why it should suddenly happen. I had a spare set and fitted them only to have the same thing immediately happen again!! The blades are 24" long on both sides. All I can think is that with the recent ice situation that maybe a frozen blade caused an arm to slip on its spline. How can I check this? Thanks, Read more
What I did was remove both wipers and bent the drivers side wiper in my Workmate - Note that the arm has a twist in it which needs to remain so the wiper sits on the windscreen properly. I moved this round the spline until it swept the biggest area - On the vertical its about 1cm away and parallel to the "A" pillar . I then refitted the passenger wiper. The right edge of the passenger wiper (looking fron the front of the car) almost touches the driver wiper, unfortunately the other end of the passenger wiper doesn't lie flat. but does sweep right up to the "A" pillar. There is no problem with the wipers hitting each other at all since I did the mod.
As I say I got a spare set of arms from the scrappy (about £20) so if a made a hash of it nothing was lost
Dear all
Following on from my CV joint saga (opened a new thread as it's now a different problem):
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=71745
yorkiebar was right (unfortunately).
The play is all in the diff, at both ends (shame I didn't spot that in the N/S before!).
So, my question now is, will the 'box have to come out, or can the situation be saved in situ (I'm assuming the 'access plate' under the diff. allows you to do something)?
Many thanks. Read more
All done and dusted.
A secondhand gearbox for £60, some new bearings, seals and oil were all required.
Some pointers:
The gearbox main casing doesn't have to be removed to take the diff out on these. However, it does have to come out to set the pre-load as otherwise you'd obviously spin the mainshaft.
The casing and shafts only came out so far as there isn't sufficient clearance to remove in situ without dropping the box down, however this is far enough for the pinion gear to clear the diff.
A carefully crafted house brick makes an excellent pre-load setting weight.
You'll need to buy or fabricate your own tool to remove the castellated nut, there isn't enough room to remove it on cars with subframes with a flat bar as mentioned in Haynes.
Oh, and remember to order the right gasket from Autovaux, otherwise you'll be playing about with gasketing silicone all afternoon!
Thanks to all, especially to GM designers who made the diff. so accessible.
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I have direct debits set up to pay mine off each month. Saves messing about with cheques and/or squeezing payments in when you are on holiday etc.
If you can't afford to pay it off in full each month, why not set up a direct debit for the minimum amount and then top that up with whatever you can afford. Then you are covered against penalty charges if you forget or the cheque is late for any reason.
Hi, I've been reading some of the post on here relating to camshaft snapping on 05 and 55 plate Corsas and wondered if anyone has had the same problem on a Tigra?
I have a 2005 plate Tigra 1.4i Sport that I have had since new (May 05), it has a full Vx service history and has done about 43,000 miles, has been a great car with no problems whatsoever up untilo now!
I was in the fast lane of a very busy motorway doing about 70ish on Friday when the engine started to lose power rapidly so I pulled over to the hardshoulder and called recovery. Have had no warning lights come on prior to the actual moment when the car started to lose power and then the engine management light came on - a slightly sooner warning would have been nice!!! Diagnosis is a snapped camshaft. The camshaft has now been replaced and also the engine coil pack and report from the garage this morning is that the car is running fine on a test drive but has a slight misfire when idling so they are now removing the cylinder head to check for bent valves - bill currently sitting at just over £700!
I was wondering if anyone can tell me whether this is a common problem with all 05 vx's or is it just one of those things? I am quite shocked at having such a major thing go wrong on a well looked after, full serviced and still relatively newish car but if this is just a wear and tear thing then I'll feel slightly less hacked off at the cost and inconvenience!
A couple of friends have suggested writing to vx to see where i get with a part recovery of the costs, despite the car being out of warranty - if anyone has any advice or wisdom to share on this then I'd be really grateful. I just feel like i'm at the mercy of the garage and they could basically be telling me anything! There seem to be mixed experiences on here re vx covering the costs and again as it is all to do with Corsas I was lookng for any other Tigra owners with the same problem, or anyone with any advice to offer.
Thanks v much. Read more
I am glad to see that other people have taken this further. I have just finished arguing with the 'helpful' people at Vauxhall customer service. I have been told that I will have to cover full cost of my faulty camshaft that snapped whilst travelling on the M25 last week, because the services were late before I owned the car, and the service that I had done this year was with an independent garage and 'they might have used a different oil'. Sounds like a load of excuses to get out of covering the cost to me. I have just written to Watchdog and I am currently composing a letter to the managing director of Vauxhall. I can say 100% that unless they sort this out soon I will be selling the car and never buying another Vauxhall again.
Please take it further if you have the same problem, the more of us that say something the more chance that they need to listen.
hello and i hope you can help
I am planning fitting a new clutch kit however this would be my first clutch. i have read the workshop manual and understand that the gearbox needs to be removed which is fine....but does anyone know if there is a easyer way eg droping the gearbox without removing the drive shafts? if so this would reduce the striping and maybe time doing the job. ne other tips would be most helpful cheers
mike Read more
It's not a job I'd relish with the car parked on the street, especially at this time of year. Why not ring your local Mr. Clutch or similar. They'll give you a quote and get the job done in a morning or afternoon.
3 Days ago I had a message come up "change oil soon" on my 55 reg Megane so I checked the oil and the level is fine the oil is black but ive seen worse! then today the service light came on saying "Check Injectors".
Ive had the car just over 12 months from locail renault dealer and been going like a dream, the car has only done 28k. Please anyone got any idea how I can solve this with out going to the dealer as thay charge £££s just for turning up!
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The service intervals for the Megane are 18k unless you have a FAP equipped diesel in which case its 9k although you should be changing it every 9k really whatever the engine. Pop along here www.meganeownersclub.co.uk/forum/index.php re: your check injectors. If its a deisel and it was 'check injection' it could well be a glow plug. Personally (as a Megane owner myself) I'd avoid the main Dealer if at all possible and try to find an independent Renault garage. They'll charge you £80 just to plug it in.
hi... just wondering if any one has had problems with frontera 2.2dti engines... The car wont start aftter all the basic checks put it on a code reader which pointed to the cam sensor (in the pump) so i removed the fuel injection pump for testing this came back no faults fond. I then removed the ecu for testing this came bacck no faults found so is it possible to test the can-bus link between the ecu's Read more
Good evening, wondered if you can help me. I have a t ref frontera and have carried out the wiring checks you have said to do. Pin 7 batt voltage, 7 to 6 batt voltage and 6 to 5 batt voltage. Pin 8 when cranking is 10.1 volts. Pin 2 with ignition on is 3.9v and pin 1 is 2.5v. Pin 6 earth. Any help appreciated
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I didn't bother in the end and decided I'd be better off hanging onto the skyline as it would likely be more reliable than any coupe! Have only managed it due to the bank of Mum & Dad for which I'm ever grateful.
Think the one I was looking it is still kicking around but they'd only sell it to someone that was definitely interested as it needs a new clutch. The price isn't a reflection on the potential for trouble. It's mainly down to how the previous owners have looked after it and the level of service history. The guy that sold it to them had spent a fortune getting things done so I suspect it might have been an ok buy for one of those. Just didn't really want a front wheel drive car in the end.