March 2009
Evening all, I wonder if anyone in the know can help me with this? I recently sorted a blown head gasket on my MK2 golf, but upon checking the spark plugs, number 4 decided to snap off leaving the threaded part in the head. Anyway, it turns out that the head had to come because whoever put the plug in cross threaded it, and my attempts to remove what was left has resulted in a cracked head. I have found a cheapish 1.4 golf head, and although the part numbers a slightly different, they look exactly the same. I'm wondering if it's just the cams that are different? I'm having a hard time finding a second hand 1.3 head so any help regarding this is very much appreciated. Take care. Read more
If you were serious about selling your car privately, would you gauge the price to be in line with Glass's part exchange values?
A friend has asked me to help him buy his first car privately, and with a max budget of £2500, everything on Autotrader which I have looked at is well in excess of the Glass's p/ex valuations.
Some private sellers are asking circa £2200, yet Glass's quote a p/ex value of only £1390 if in excellent condition.£1075 if poor. Read more
I feel very trapped now, I should have canceled my insurance and waited for the market to calim down, although I am missing the car. The problem is I have a suspended policy so if I cancel now I loose the £200 deposit.
If I buy now at top price what happens if it all comes down? I intend to keep the car a fair few years so it is not a major issue but I may have to sell the car due to currently unkown circumstances - e.g I may decide to move Canada.
I don't like to be bitter but I feel like I have completly hacked this car buying thing up. I should have bought a decent car in October mind you I have more money now as I have been saving and I have had a couple of good months. I am the sort of person who will buy a house for £250k and the county will go into the deepest depression the day after!
My mate often goes down to Dorset and back in his 10 year old 140k Focus ;).
I've got a box of fuel pumps in the garage from various old cars that were left over from a business. They're pretty much all marked up AC Delco exchange service but checking a few of the numbers they don't come up in google or on ac delco's own site. I am fairly certain most of them are for pre 1980s cars. Some could be for 60s and 70s cars. A lot of them are sealed in the plastic baggies that they came in so taking pictures is quite tricky with some of them. Where is the best place to get hold of an old AC delco parts list so I can find out what on earth they all are?
Also got something market up as trico and is an APM motor, what ever one of those is!
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I have emailed AC delco and await whether they have a clue.
It'll never get to the right person. Best to ring them and be push your way through the system to the correct person.
I am about to change my rear brake pads. First car with disks on the back! I understand the winding the pistons back, but how do you reset the pads and handbrake? Do you press the brake pedal, as for the front, or is there a different procedure? Any help appreciated. Read more
Hi all
Wonder if you can help me, I have a predictable issue with locks on my Ford Fiesta but my situation is slightly different from others that I have seen reported on this site.
When I got it the key would unlock the passenger door, boot lock & ignition but would only lock the driver side door.
I fitted a new key barrel from a Ford Ka so now I can at least open the driver door without climbing in through the passenger door every time. This indicates to me that the lock itself is not faulty. However, pressing in the door handle from the inside to lock it doesn't work either (it does on the passenger and rear doors).
I have a few questions:
1. Does this sound like the actual lock could still be at fault?
2. If the barrel is the problem, is it likely that it is broken or just incompatable with the key the previous owner was using (ie was it fitted in an attempt to fix a previous problem without regard to the fact that it required a separate key to operate)? Once I removed it from the door, I sprayed it with WD40 and visually inspected but couldn't see anything obviously wrong with it.
3. If the barrel is simply incompatable, who would be able to reprogram it without serious cost to me? Read more
Read the instruction book! It says (I can't be bothered to hunt it out) something about turning the key back and forth a number of times to revert to normal opening. Funny thing is I can't get mine to act as yours.
I have just had the steering rack re-conditioned on my diesel estate here in spain
[At considerable cost]. Upon driving it I found the engine noise quite a lot louder
inside the car coming from where the steering column goes through the floor!
I took it back to the garage and was told it was as it should be.
There is a grommet seal which fits over the column from inside the engine compartment
but it looks to me like there should be one inside the car[ around the column]
The garage says no ! Can someone please tell me if there should be one -the mechanic
probably forgot it !
Thanks Ken. Read more
nothing on the inside, jusy a foam/rubber affair that go's over the rack shaft prior to it going back up to the body, they are/should be idiot proof cos you can only fit in one position the have a key/lug so you get in the right position
I have a VW Polo with a 1.4 tdi pd engine, since the warranty ran out I have changed the oil myself once a year . For the past four years I have bought a 5litre container of tdi pd (505.1) oil that is 4x5 = 20 litres. The oil change takes 4 litres so 4 yearly changes X 4 litres = 16 litres . I now have a surplus of about 4 litres so for my oil change this year I don?t have to buy any, Or do I ?.
The problem is I thought I would check to make sure there was enough of the surplus oil left to do a oil change without buying any more It is doubtful if I would need any for topping up because the car only does about 1500 miles a year . I got a small funnel (about 5 inches in diameter) out of the shed and proceeded to pour it out of its plastic container into some clean clear 2 litre pop bottles and when both bottles filled to the top I though great that?s £36 I won?t have to spend this year, then the penny dropped I had not cleaned out the inside of the funnel before measuring out the oil and although it was not dirty in any way that could be seen it must have had a layer of dust in it. The question is will the oil have been contaminated to the point where it is unusable.
Thanks Read more
Absolutely - there is a (probably theoretical) increased risk of the fuel system becoming fouled with old fuel, and by keeping the tank topped up you are probably reducing the risk of airborne contaminants and water vapour entering the tank.
Nothing a good thrash every week won't sort out ;-)
Firstly let me apologise for reading the Sunday Mirror occasionally . The great Quentin Wilson has a motoring page including readers questions and this week a Mercedes owner claiming to be hard-up asks for advice on servicing , his petrol E-class has done 60k without even an oil change ! Read more
Cars, including Mercs, big, heavy objects propelled along our roads at high speed.
The government, for all its faults, recognises how dangerous these objects can be.
The government, therefore, arrange for these cars to be inspected every year from their 3rd year.
Rather naievly, the government expect that these cars will either remain safe for the first 3 years of their lives or that market forces will force their owners to visit the dealer annually for the car to be examined by a professional to ensure that the vehicle remains safe.
I'm not being daft. I know so many folk today who will gladly ignore safety issues regarding their cars.
Snip -
Has been posted in the Bikers cafe a few mins ago:-
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=72722
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Just had a new clutch/flywheel fitted to my 18-month-old, 18,000 mile Focus (is this a record?)
Car has come back from dealer and clutch pedal is so low on the floor and with so little range of movement that clutch seems to be 'dragging' when I try to change gear (which happens with a clunk).
I actually consider this dangerous to drive.
Dealer, however, is trying to tell me this is 'normal' and it will bed itself in. Is this correct? Or is it - as I suspect - trouser ventriloquism?
Thanks Read more
NO it is not normal take it back. Regards Peter
Browse
I'll have a look at that site, thanks very much for that. I did some digging and I've found that the head gaskets for the 1.3 and 1.4 are the same, same part numbers anyway.