May 2009
I am hoping someone has seen this or can give me some further ideas as I am running out!!
My Focus has started to stall about 5 seconds after being started. It starts perfectly and runs fine, but it cuts out just as though it has been turned off. No lights come on until the revs drop enough for the battery light comes on. It starts again perfectly on the next turn of the key. It appears to simply need an ECU reset as I can actually keep the revs at about 2000 (it doesn't matter how many revs I have - it still stalls!) and as soon as it cuts out, just switching the key to ACC and back to IGN quickly before the revs die, it will catch again for another 5 seconds.
It is logging the P0351 and P0352 Ignition coil faults, but I have swapped coils and HT leads and it didn't help. I have measured the voltage to the coil power feed during this stall (min-hold multimeter) and it never drops below 14V (until the revs drop), so all the fuses and relays seem to be okay.
Any suggestions? I will probably try changing the crank position sensor (what else does the ECU listen to!) but I assume that there is a DTC for a faulty crank sensor. After that, it is probably time to try a new ECU :(
Once I have started the engine about 10 times, it will stay on and I can make my journey, usually with no issues. Occasionally, it happens mid-journey but I just repeat this procedure and it clears itself. Once the engine starts and stays on, there is usually a solid mechanical click (sounding like the AC pulley engaging, but I don't have the AC on), and the engine cooling fans come on, but I am not sure if this is normal as I can't recall whether the engine fans came on that early before all the problems (I don't think so!).
It has been in to two garages, but they can only get as far as me, and then want to just replace everything until it is cured, but that would get too expensive.
Any suggestions gratefully received, as I am running out of things to check! This is just strange!
Thanks
Nick Read more
I really need to start thinking about replacing my old car, and with the new government scrappage scheme, this seems like a good time. My current small car is a 1998 Nissan Micra 1.3 GX, but it really is starting to get old. It struggles to hit 60mph, it has a very poor safety rating, the fuel economy can't be brilliant, and the central locking is now completely bust.
I've narrowed my choice of a new car down to the brand-new 2009 Ford Ka Style, and the newly restyled 2009 Toyota AYGO Blue, but I'm really unsure which to get, because the reviews they get are quite similar, and they seem to be getting 4/5 stars everywhere.
The Ka Style costs £8,595 whereas the AYGO Blue costs £8,835 (5-door), but the AYGO has £20 road tax because of its CO2, cheaper insurance across the board, and a much higher MPG of 62.8 combined (compared with the Ka's 55.4). It also seems that the AYGO comes with more equipment as standard - Bluetooth Hands-free and iPod integration (£200 on the Ka) and Side airbags (£150 in the Ka) for example.
My anticipated annual mileage would be around 10,000 miles - mostly around-town travelling with the occasional motorway journey.
I'm just wondering if anyone has any ideas? Thanks in advance! Read more
I drove ours on Sunday for 140 miles of rural roads and enjoyed them all. The fuel gauge finally moved a mile from home!
I estimate high 60s mpg for that trip and the aircon was on all the time.
Guys,
Any thoughts on what is wrong with my car?
It's a W203 C class 2.2 diesel auto, 2005, 116000 miles
It's being running a bit rough over the past few days but I thought nothing of it as due a service in 1500 miles. On Friday, it really dropped power. Even with full throttle, it was couuldn't keep up with the flow of traffic when leaving traffic lights and roundabouts and top speed was about 50MPH with my foot flat on the floor.
When you drive it, it wants to change up throught he gears as quickly as possible (circa 1500-2000RPM) even when your foot is to the floor. It will not drop a gear even if you engage kickdown, it remains in the gear it is in. If I turn the engin off, it 'resets' everything and drives normally for about 3-4 minutes then the lack of power kicks in again.
As I was driving to the Mercedes garage, the engine management light can on (yellow) but this wasn't on before.
Any thoughts guys? The car is in the garage at the moment but they can't look at it until Tuesday.
Thanks Read more
On a four year old Merc????
I agree with you, it's not really good enough despite 116k miles.
It's fair to say that this Merc with 116k miles is nowhere near as tight as my BMW 320d that went back with 120k after 3 years. I did inherit this merc (company car) at 91k miles so I've no idea how it was looked after, my guess is that it was treated badly.
I'm thinking about buying a used Eunos and want to spend around 1700. My question is what comes first when considering reliability - age or mileage. I've seen a vehicle with around 60,000 miles on the clock but am worried about its age. It's a G reg and I've never bought a car that old before. What are your thoughts? Read more
Some are murder- If its not listed in ADL ( an aftermarket japanese/korean parts supplier) then really you're up the creek. Anything other than consumables and you can really struggle, or if you do find it it WILL be extortionate.
For about the first 5 miles every time I get in the car from cold, I will hear:
1) A longish squeak on turning the ignition key
2) A feint "tappy" squeak while idling, that repeats about every second or so
3) When the clutch bites, a short chirp
4) sometimes a short squeal when stopping the engine
After a while the squeaks seem to stop, and won't start again until I get in the car from cold again a few hours later.
Opening the bonnet, and looking at the engine, these seem to be coming from the driver's side of the engine bay, perhaps from the area immediately to the side of the plastic engine cover.
The car has covered 96K miles, always serviced on the dot, and had the DMF and clutch replaced at 93K after failure (peugeot main dealer, it was my father's company car). Otherwise a nice car (apart from the blasted fan running on when stopped).
What kind of thing could I be looking at here?
Also, I was very surprised when I asked the garage and they told me the cambelt isn't due til 144K or something equally implausible - my 2000 406 90HDI was every 80K! Is this really true?
Read more
took it this morning to the Norwich peugeot main dealer. They managed to work out it was the fuel lines not clipped into a holder, with it being more noticeable at cold due to the increased movement in the engine. Anyhow £38 later now squeak free, not bad really.
They did say that the auxiliary belt should be replaced next service as is showing some minor signs of wear - and commented exactly as you have that the bad thing that may happen is the shreds ending up colliding with the cambelt.
All in all a result, many thanks to all for the comments.
Hello
What do people think of the water boost system. I saw an article in car mechanics singing its praises, but is it really that good? Does it have any long term negative effects? Are the claims correct?
Here is the website that talks about it www.waterboost.co.uk
Greg Read more
Magnets attached to the fuel lines work miracles. I get 70mpg out of my Camaro.
Well it's now 6 months since I bought my one-owner E320CDI Estate, and in the time-honoured way, I thought it was about time I posted my experiences.
I bought it from a franchised dealer who have incredibly high pressure sales tactics. I had been looking for a while when I saw this on their web-site. So I rung up. 'Sold - how about this other one we've got for £4,000 more'. Me: 'No thanks - that's the price/age/spec I'm after, I'll carry on looking.' Next day they ring up: 'It's available, give us a deposit over the phone and we'll get it down for a test drive'. Me: 'You get it down, and if I like it and decide to buy it, then I'll give you a deposit.'
Anyway having bought the thing for what I thought was a good price, how's it been? In a word refined.
Good points:
Comfortable. We drove all the way to Switzerland, and I never felt tired so as to swap drivers. Not something that I could say when we took the C8 previously.
Refined. Very smooth. It's the inline 6 cylinder not the V6, so it's a relatively old-tech lump, but it is still very refined.
Quick. The torque is tremendous and it pulls extremely well at all speeds.
Driving position. Very comfortable to me. What Car whinge about the pedals being offset but I think they must be refering to manual models (how many manual E-classes can there be? - not many). With reach and rake steering and multi-adjustable seat, the ideal position is easy to find.
Solid. The car feels solid and nothing has gone wrong with the body and fittings.
Roomy. With the rear seats folded, there is 1950l of space. Very practical.
Economy. The worst I've seen in haevy town use is late 20s mpg. On the open road 40+ is easily achievable. Not bad for a big old lump.
Not so good points:
Steering. Feels a little vague at times when wafting, but actually when you hustle the car it gets slightly better
Not sporty. But that's not what I wanted. I wanted a large comfortable estate. For that it fit's the bill perfectly. If I wanted harsh suspension I would have looked elsewhere.
Toys. It has leather, Parktronic parking sensors, Comand sat-nav/phone/CD changer, an iPod connection, xenon lights, 7-seats, auto lights/wipers, etc. Which is enough for me!
Faults. The brilliant brake-by-wire SBC controller packed up - luckily under warranty as it's £280 + 3 hours labour. I had the gear-changes re-set as for some reason they were a little jerky from cold (and yes, the tranny fluid had been changed).
Servicing. It's not cheap, nor did I expect it to be, nor is it any more than rival manufacturers, but it is good (at Tony Purslow in Guildford, anyway).
Overall it is a very calm and relaxing place to be. Very comfortable, practical, quick and satisfying to drive. No, it's not sporty, but that suits me just fine. Read more
> Refined. Very smooth. It's the inline 6 cylinder not the V6 so it's a relatively
old-tech lump but it is still very refined.
Id have the straight 6 over the vee any day, I have seen more vees in bits than the straights, and I think they sound loads better!
Hi All
Can anyone help as im not sure where i stand with this
My hubby owned a car before we got together approx 4 yrs ago, he never owned it when i met him and we have owned several vehicles since we have been together. The car in question has been insured by another or other drivers since he sold it. and he says that he sent off the dvla paperwork when he sold it. We are now being chased by debtors for a non tax fine issued by the preston office - we live in the south ??? The dvla are saying thst they had no notification of the change of owner and my hubby moved shortly after selling it so did not recieve the confirmation letter. Our address has 2 other vehicals registered in his name, but it has taken them over 4 yrs to send us this letter. I have written to the dvla for further investigation about this as they advised and also to the debt company to advise them of this and they still are saying they want immediate payment from us.
Can anyone help as i dont see why we should pay for a car that we dont own when we did it all right and this debt agency are adimant they are not going to back off
Thanks
Sarah Read more
I don't understand-if you're shown as the owner,you must have been getting tax reminders for the last four years
Academic now as this thread is ancient but the reminders would be going to OP's husband's old address. Suspect debt collector would have visited that address first, assured themselves that the 'debtor' was gone away and then attempted to trace him to current address. ...
Source BBC news:
tiny.cc/wEH0x Read more
No, Im sure we wouldnt all be happy...
IMHO the long and the short of this, is lack of common sense.
I havent actually driven down that road, but watching the video, and looking at maps, and google earth, 90mph is a stupid speed, for even a highly trained driver to attempt.
As I said before, 11.30 is a time that people are around leaving pubs etc.
I have myself witnessed police cars taking IMO stupid risks, ie excess speed, overtaking blind, etc etc, no matter how highly trained someone is, they cannot make the car stop shorter than normal, nor can they make them fly over other road users.
It HAS to be better to live to fight another day, than take unnecessary risks, that result in at the very least, not arriving at the crime scene at all.
After my first brand new car (Grande Punto, mentioned elsewhere here) turned out to be a four wheeled disaster, I changed for a new 57 plate Ford Sportka SE in silver. It was a fantastic car to drive and never played up once during the time I had it, but it started rusting very quickly and by the last time I took it in for a service (Feb/March) when the garage finally found someone free to look at the bodywork after months of excuses they told me that this was to be expected and all cars rust (at 18months old?). Rust was appearing in all the seams/joins underneath, the drivers side front wheel arch, the base of the windscreen both sides, the sills and up behind the back bumper and bootlid. Anyway, getting to the point.
I was in touch with a friend (who works for VW dealer) about Beetles, he let me know about a VW Fox 1.4 that a customer had ordered and then upon delivery decided that he did not want and bought a Golf Plus instead! I think I got a good deal with the car as it is a 09 plate, delivery mileage. The original customer ordered the base model 1.4 Fox (he did not want the hinged side rear windows as he thinks they leak?) and spent nearly £3000 spec-ing it up to above Urban trim levels including black paint, electric pack (windows, mirrors, remote locking, alarm), colour coding (bumpers, mirrors, side strips), air con, side airbags. The garage also threw in paint/interior protection, mats, boot liner, mudflaps and I bought a chrome strip for the bootlid to finish it off. All in all it was about £10,000 worth of Fox for £7,500.
I've read up as much as I could prior to purchasing the Fox and it seemed a better prospect than the Ka, does anyone here have any opinions/knowledge about them here? Read more
Now, 12 months tax, a tank of fuel are worth having. £250 for free.
Mats are £5.99 for a universal set from Lidl, so the £150 branded set seem quite pricey in comparison... Paint protection costs £250, or a tin of wax costs a fiver - nobody really buys it at £250, do they? Interior protection probably exactly the same.
>>What load of tat
errr, the sundry add-on bits of leather and trim you're so chuffed with
>>What £500 -
the difference between the £7.5k you paid, and the £7k cost price I came up with.
>>£7,675 (from VW)
Just because you can source a car more expensively elsewhere doesn't mean that it's a better car from the expensive source...
As mentioned, you seem to have paid about the right price for the car as sourced from a broker, plus you've got a load of cosmetic extras that seem to make you happy. Job's a good 'un.
Hi Nick
Have you managed to resolve the problem?
I was driving yesterday and my 02 Focus suddenly started badly misfiring and wanted to stall.
I had the RAC look at it once I got home and the engine management report said it was the ignition coil. The RAC man replaced the coil along with the lead and plugs (as he said these are generally what would cause the coil to fail). Once everything was replaced the problem was still there! This annoyed the RAC man (he was a really nice guy) and he rechecked everything. Satisfied that he had done everything right he took all of the new items back out as the problem was not the coil. He didnt charge me anything but suggested that the only thing left which could throw out an Ignition Coil malfunction code was the ECU and suggested taking it to a garage.
I am just concerned now that a garage is going to go to town on my car and I will be left with a horrendous bill.
Any advice would be gratefully received.
Thanks
Chris