June 2009
I have access to a very powerful vacumn which sucks out water. Could this be used to suck out coolant from the header tank rather than disconnecting hoses to the radiator or am I missing something? The thread about syphoning oil out prompted to make this thread now but it is something I have been thinking about. Read more
tinyurl.com/pyh92w
thoughts?
I am looking at it tomorrow
Guy
{Link changed so as not to show your postcode, but one of the suggested ones by Autotrader instead} Read more
I was reading a buying guide on these just the other day. Basically, the sensible money is spent of preventitive, detailed servicing, which while it does cost a bit of money, one has to remember it is an expensive car and all expensive cars have service bills that look horrendous to a Mondeo owner, but are par for the course on such exotics.
The key is look after it and it will look after you.
It is a gorgeously understated car and it takes a special sort of person to make that leap what with Maserati being such rare and unknown cars.
Early this week my wife's car had some work done on the brakes due to safety recall. The safety recall said that the brakes could fail.
Today she had a minor accident and she said the breaks didn't seem to work properly.
What's the correct course of action to take now? Read more
I once had problems with my MGF after it had new pads.
Driving it on an 'airfield day' - it could only do about 4 emergency stops out of 5. The instructor took the car out because he couldn't believe the extremely long stopping distances I occasionally had - he had the same problem. Foot hard on the pedal - rock solid brake pedal, no ABS action - but very long stopping distance.
This wasn't brake fade !
It went to 3 different specialists before the problem was resolved - with new disks and pads.
Not one of those specialists could say what the problem was - in fact, 2 out of the three didn't even find a problem.
I now try an emergency stop every so often just to make sure the car can do one. (the MGF has long gone)
Good luck with resolving your braking problem on the S-MAX
School run is a dangerous business. A study by the University of Glasgow found that the average person has about one near-miss car crash for every 1,000 trips to and from school.
The study also found that the riskiest time for children is between 8am and 9am, when many pupils are on their way to school or just leaving.... Read more
Walking to the post office this morning I noticed a very smart Saab 9-3 convertible shod with Wanlis. This made me examine the tyres on other newish "prestige" cars en route. In the 1/4 mile journey I saw a Civic R on Achilles, an MB E class on Federals and a very recent C class on Lassa. Why?
I recently replaced the tyres on my wifes Golf and the difference in cost between Bridgestones and ditch finders was about 15 pounds per tyre. So doing the complicated maths involved I worked out that it cost me about 20 pounds/annum extra to have decent tyres.
Any thoughts or explanations on why one would buy an expensive car, spend time or money on keeping it very shiny and scrimp where safety is concerned.
alfalfa Read more
more repairs to his Alfa?
Sorry to disappoint but the money went on the Bridgestones. No longer have an Alfa but in six years of ownership of an Alfasud and then a 147 neither needed money spent on repairs.
alfalfa
Hi Guys
Previously you have been of great help to me and I hope this is quite simple
Last Monday when leaving work I had an anti pollution fault. I had it checked out on Tuesday and had the ECU reset - since then, no faults or warnings
On Thursday, going home, I tried to use the windscreen washer and the wipers worked fine but the screen washer didn't - neither front or back.
Looking at Haynes it would appear that the washer circuit has its own fuse, which I will check tomorrow. If the fuse is ok it would appear that the fact the washer isn't working could be down to 4 things - washer or switch fault, electrical fault, kinked/blocked pipe.
I can check the pipe to see if there is a blockage or it?s kinked but even if there was no water in the reservoir I would have expected to hear the washer pump trying to work, but ther is nothing to indiacate that it is trying
Before considering the circuit or switch, is there anyway I can manually by pass the normal circuit to test the pump?
Thanks
Allan
Read more
does any body know why my corsa 1.6 sport (x16xe) is developing a smokey habbit, ive recently had every single gasket changed i mean evry one, ive recently changed the valve stem oil seels but stil no look, its fine when its cold but after say 20 minutes when it gets slightly warm its booting out grey/blue smoke also when it wars up it idels up 2500 rpm and will some times drops to around 500 rpm its a problem that is anoying me, can any one help.
lee Read more
10 w 40 oil,,, im not sure about the breathers i may of put the stems in rong
The German media have reported that the VW chairman Ferdinand Piech is looking at bolstering the group with three additional brands,apparently he made a long distance call to suzuki
message ends.............. Read more
Yep, apparently the possibility of a cooperation or VW taking a financial interest of around 10% in Suzuki is being discussed. The idea being that Suzuki could get diesel engines and VW could get access to the Indian market. Presumably Suzuki could also get access to some rust proofing.
Where can I find this for my car? Glass's Guide warns that its prices can't be used for insurance purposes. Drive The Deal won't open up its used car section for my computer. Read more
.. or >WhatCar.co.uk< for valuations.
Browse
...But be prepared to need a new bottom hose...
Agreed,
I've managed to trim one back in the past - customer broken down on a Sunday, just wanted to get going.
If the hose is rotting at the rad end, it probably wants replacing anyway.