March 2009
My Pug 407 is having it's first service today. (At two years old). Enquired with the supplying dealer (who were excellent when I bought it) and they wanted £261. They absolutely wouldn't budge from the price.
Decided to check with the other local Peugeot dealer (who didn't seem that interested in selling me one) and they're charging £132. What a huge difference in price. Thing is, the first dealer bend over themselves to provide customer service, and I feel almost guilty at going to the cheaper one.......but not that guilty to pay an extra £130!!
I can't understand why dealers price themselves out of the market like this. Seems to be akin to shooting yourself in the foot in the current climate.
(The Pug 207 courtesy car has proved to be very good as well) Read more
hi, my vectra suffers from brief engine run-on and ticking/tapping sound. these symptons disappear if i force the ecu into limp/ safe mode (by disconnecting the cam sensor). the eml is throwing up a cam sensor fault. ive changed this but eml remains. (ive come to understand that the eml showing a faulty cam sensor is a bit of a red herring.) this all happened after i changed the cambelt, tensioners, rollers, water pump.
the timing marks are lined up so im sure im not a tooth out and ive tried the tensioner at 4 or 5 different tensions but no change.
my only train of thought so far is that the timing is advanced which is causing pinking (the ticking sound, although ive never heard a car pink before) and being advanced this may cause the engine run on. when it goes into safe mode, the ignition is retarded and brings it back into range. plus if the timing is out of range perhaps this is why the cam sensor is throwing up a fault.
incidentally, if i put my foot on the brake when i turn the engine off i get no run on.
my tiny lack of car knowledge ends there im afraid :)
thanks, kris Read more
hi, thought i'd bring this back up.
i removed the cam sensor pins from the ecu so i could test the resistance while running the engine and i got good cam sensor readings at the pins and no inteference. it must be something else fooling the ecu into thinking the cam sensor is duff.
i also adjusted the tension and rotated the water pump a little and the engine run on has gone (touch wood). it seems to pull a bit smoother through the rev range. i feels a little underpowered but i wont be touching it again. it can wait til i can get it on a diagnostic machine.
Firstly I'm not overly mechanically minded, so go easy on the replies.
I've recently heard a whining sound when the engine is warmed up. If I rev the car, it "speeds up" with the engine. The fan is coming on, so I don't think it's that. The annoying thing is, it's an intermittent event, so naturally when I took it to a garage, it didn't "perform"
it waited until I got home, then started. This will happen when the car is stationary.
Is there a motor that drives the fan that could be on it's way out? Or could it be something more sinister.
Any feedback greatly appreciated Read more
Cheers, will try that one. May cut down on labour time and costs if I can point them in a more certain direction.
Feature on BBC South last night about a bloke that's developed some sort of valve that's claimed to reduce engine emissions:
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7953443.stm
I'm at work and haven't got headphones so I can't listen to it again now, but IIRC they measured the CO2 from a bike and it dropped from ~4% to <1%. I think the valve opens as the piston goes down, reducing the 'friction' (resistance?), allegedly.
Might be more snake oil, but it sounded interesting, and the program said they were going to test it out on at least one of their cars over the next week or two - I'll try to remember to find out how they get on.
Can't find anything on t'internet about this.
F Read more
the bike was running rich so by adding the valve this allowed air into the manifold making it run weaker. The principle of the valve is that on the overun with the butterflies shut on the carbs vacum would be reduced by allowing air through the spring loaded valve reducing the amount of air dragged through the carbs pulling fuel with it.
On the modern injection engine fuel shuts off on the overun altogether reducing emissions even further!
Woodspeed was right, the same thing as ecotec years & years ago. If the vehicle was tuned right to start with they made no difference to emissions or economey. I tried quite a few on a fleet of vehicles for 5 years.
Hi all,
recently bought a Mondeo TDCi. In the event of anything fuelling-related going wrong, I dont want to put myself into the hands of a Ford dealership (various reasons.)
Can anyone recommend a diesel specialist in Scotland, preferably West Coast, Glasgow, Lanarkshire region?
tia-
tt Read more
how do l open the bonnet of my rover 75 as the lever is broken Read more
club forums url is actually www.the75andztclub.co.uk/forum
This GDI engine will not tick over. It starts easily and drives OK, except the engine will not idle at constant revs. When you start the engine (warm or cold), the revs rise to about 1500, then momenterily fall to around 750, then falls to zero in about 4 seconds. This deterioration took place overnight after a mild front-end crunch which wiped out the bumper, dented the front of the bonnet, but was not so bad as to damage any of the lights. Perhaps the crunch jolted something loose or damaged a sensor, but nothing appears to be out of place on a visual check. Any suggestions please ?
Thanks
Megan Read more
Having just bought a new CRV. I am currently contemplating about the 5yr fixed price service. However looking at the Honda Brochure. At the back of the brochure it mentions the many different Honda happiness packages including roadside assistance. Yes the car comes with 3 yrs roadside recovery (AA). The write up in the brochure for roadside assistance quite clearly states. Qualifying customers who have their Honda serviced at one of our participating dealerships will now recieve complimentry roadside assistance. My question is so i take out the 5yr Fixed price serving £830 for the CRV, does that mean years 4 & 5 i get free roadside recovery. When i rung Honda last week they didnt know and said they would ring back (they didnt). Today i rang and i have to say its not as clear as what it states in the brochure. Why is it not so clear, because you have to find out who the participating dealers are. Who qualifies and another question i will be asking in writing is what if i was not to subscribe to a fixed price service deal and subscribed to the dealers service deal or paid as and when the vehicle was serviced would i still qualify for free roadside assistance. Anybody any experience of what i am posting here.
Read more
Ideas needed please. I have a damaged 320d engine to repair for a pal. It has suffered a mashed piston and head indentations due to the ingestion of a metal intake manifold vane. The piston protrusion has been measured so that the correct head gasket can be provided and the head will be skimmed. This leaves me with a problem. Although the head is flat, the valves are slightly pocketed and will therefore become closer to the piston when the head is machined. I usually put a piece of plasticine in the combustion area to confirm clearances during a dry build. My problem here is that the tappets are hydraulic and therefore I can't duplicate the true positions as in when the engine is in service. I have considered charging the tappets with air but air is compressible and the follower will not properly follow the cam. I have considered replacing a tappet with an adjustable rod to set the geometry but I don't think I will be able to take the gap up correctly when in position. Any thoughts please? Regards. Read more
Thank you for your advice but I will not be grinding the valve stems as they are often hardened to prevent wear and this would not result in the tappets being lifted to cause the rockers to follow the cam correctly. Thank you anyway. Regards.
The Motor Vehicle (Test) (Amendement) Regulations 2009 in force on 6th April, 2009
will increase the fees for annual testing of motor vehicles. Increases are between 1.64 to 1.88%
So if you want to save a bob or two book one early.
dvd Read more
So would I. I was under the impression that MOT testing stations paid a percentage of the test to the DVLA - a government department at the end of the day.
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Thanks - read original post as being serviced on Monday!