May 2009
My fiesta diesel has just started to produce a strong bad egg smell (sulphur dioxide) on start up. The car has done about 70,000 miles and just been fully serviced. The smell comes from heater vents but disapears after a short while or turning on the A/C. Could this be the Exhaust gas leaking into the air circulation or bacteria in the A/C? Read more
With the local Mitsubishi dealer wanting £302 for SWMBO's Colt's 2nd year service, we are considering taking it to an indie. Will a non-Mitsu garage know what needs doing?
The dealer said this service was a 'big one' and IIRC mentioned that the brake fluid would be changed amongst other things - no idea whether that's normal or not. BTW more distant dealer wanted £322.
Car is actually a CZ2 1.3 3dr, but that isn't listed in the Make/Model dropdown. Read more
Thank you :-)
I'm assuming brake shoes no longer contains asbestos, right? But after working on my brakes and dusting them out I developed a chesty cough the next day and so just wondered if the dust is still toxic in anyway. Read more
as a youth in the late 60s/ early 70s, me and a load of mates used to mess about in old factories ...one trick was to hang off the steam pipes and waggle them to make the white asbestos coating fall off like snow falling... im still drawing breath at a very pleasant rate fortunately...any one with asbestosis or emphysemia has my up most sympathy , i had double pneumonia caused by an infection ( viral or bacterial cant remember) it aint nice
Just having a flick through tonight's telly and I notice Knightrider is back on. New pilot tonight on SciFi at 8pm. Val Kilmer taking over in the driving seat from The Hoff who does make a cameo so it seems.
Not sure what the car will be or whether it will be as camp as the 80s version
"Brace yourself Michael!"
It clashes with the new Wheeler Dealers series but is repeated on Thursday evening, filling the hole left by the Sarah Connor Chronicles. Read more
It's a good series. Well worth watching. I acquired it from a friend a couple of months ago and am working my way through it.
The car is lovely! Truly a worthy successor. :-)
The other end of Westbourne Park Road, a series of bends and junctions with large desirable residences down one side and a mixed bag on the other, is being resurfaced and is for the moment devoid of its very nasty, sharp, eroded speed bumps. I often have cause to drive along it and it was such a pleasure today to waft over the new surface and even to rumble over the scoured 'temporary surface' without having to consider those awful gratuitous obstructions and without all that accelerating and decelerating along with the suspension wear and damned general discomfort of the things.
Have the residents, I wonder, got sick of the eternal thumping, graunching and extra pollution made by cars doing their best to drive down a wilfully damaged road, and urged the local authority to restore the road to its proper configuration?
I do hope so. If not I will dream up some swear-filter evaders for screaming and kicking purposes here. Read more
Went along that end of Westbourne Park Road again today. The resurfacing is done and the speed bumps are back. Well, uneroded new ones good for a steady 20mph in my car, unnecessarily slow of course for the road.
I promised to invent some swear-filter avoiders for kicking and screaming purposes. Well, I can't. I will resort to quoting my favourite aunt, long dead now alas, who would cry in a husky but ladylike Mediterranean voice, and with wildly flashing eyes:
'Hell's bells and buckets of blood!'
I have recently posted that my 9,000 mile Continental Premium Contact 2s had cracked at the bottom of the treads. I took them back to the independent tyre place in Derby where I bought them from, they sold me 4 new tyres and sent the Contis back to the factory.
I have received a letter this morning telling me that they are sorry for my disappointment with their tyres and are reimbursing me 60% of the cost of the 4 tyres.
I am very satisfied with Continental's response and the actions of Britannia Tyres of Derby.
I wish all firms would deal with problems in this way. Read more
No Pat, I did not have to chase it up.
I had the new tyres in the middle of April and was beginning to wonder whether I would have to chase them, I was thinking Trading Standards, Which, Honestjohn. But no out of the blue the good news arrived, 60% refund.
My first set of tyres were Dunlop SP200E, they were rubbish. My next set were Pirelli P7s, they were excellent. My next set were the Contact Premium 2s which I sent back, they were a good handling tyre and I bought these because the tyre firm had them in stock. I have replaced them with Pirelli P7s again, I like these tyres alot, very sharp handling and good in the wet. I might have tried Michelin HP but they don't do them in 15 inches.
I'll say it again, well done Continental Tyres! It's not often that I am pleased, I'm normally a miserable so and so!
Recently got a lovely E220 CDi Estate... the annoying thing is that the alarm decides to go off weneva it wants! It can be 1 minute after locking or 1 hour.... disconnected the alarm today cos the neighbours are getting cheesed and so am i...after it resets it may go off or decide to wait a while...indicators go crazy...but at least its quiet
read the thread on the 95 merc sim probs... any ideas...? unsure what it could be etc... Read more
I had exactly the same fault - a change in the atmospheric pressure causes the interior sensors to set the alarm off, seemingly randomly. Solution - cover the interior sensors (above the front seat seat belt anchor points) with black insulating tape. The alarm has never gone off since.
Could someone please tell me. When a colour looks different in different light conditions its called meta-? I did know this but now have such a rubbish memory its easier to ask someone else. Thanks Read more
My Vectra is Panacotta which is a pearlescent colour.
In some lights it looks gold,other lights it looks silver and also grey sometimes.
If the sunlight catches it just right it can be gold at the front going into silver at the back.
I really like the effect as its like having different cars on different days!
hi there .. looking for some help (AKA pointing in the right direction)
my 02 plate mondeo diesel cut out on me last week and ever since has been a git to start when warm .. cold starting was ok until i fitted a new fuel filter as i was lead to believe that could have been the problem... on refitting the new unit the car will now not start at all ... turns over fine and all electrics seem ok ...(no dash warning lights appearing) i am now begining to wonder if the original engine cut out was a symptom of something more serious...
any ideas.....
cheers
Adam Read more
by the time its self bled, its likely the pump will have died due to no lubrication.
The mileage trip button (below the speedometer) having operated intermittently for a while, has now failed completely, i.e. when operated, it fails to reset the 'trip' mileage gauge to zero. The mileage gauge itself still works ok - I suspect that the contact behind the button is dirty/worn.
Is it fixable? I.e if I remove the speedometer/rev counter assembly will I be able to access to trip button contacts and clean them, or replace the button completely...........or is it a sealed unit? If the latter I understand that a new unit costs around £350 - in which case I'll just live with the trip button not working.
Any thoughts/ideas gratefully received. Read more
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I'd be having a look at the battery / alternator and check that it's not overcharging at start up and boiling up the battery.