June 2009
hello, i dont really want an estate as they are a bit big for parking, but I need to load heavy stuff in the car, is there a hatch back car with flat loading so i can slide heavy things in/out easily?
thanks for any help - looking to spend upto £5k preferably less! Read more
Here's a nice collection of period roadtests of Jensen Interceptors and FFs for perusing over a coffee break.
www.british-steel.org/brochure/Road_tests/rt1.htm
Now where's the nice man from National Savings, telling me about my PB win ....? Read more
Quite so .... I wonder what the supply of 5-star is like in Uganda and Tanzania? All the cars you mention were rather fond of their high-octane brew ....
As most modern CR diesel owners know, the EGR valve will eventually soot up one way or another, leading to the valve sticking. This requires either a jolly good cleaning of the valve or replacing it to the tune of about £125 depending on wether its salvageable (these valves can corrode internally so siezing the mechanism)
Symptoms of a sricking open valvle are (among others) usually low power at low revs - feels like turbo lag.
My questions are thus:-
1) Should EGR valve cleaning be considered routine maintenance?
2) If the inlet manifolds of a diesel car had exhaust soot running through it, is it only a matter of time before things like swirl flaps choke up? The GM/FIAT 1.9 diesel is known to have swirl flap issues.
3) Are design engineers hamstrung by cost / emissions legislations such that its a good idea to have exhaust soot whistling past (therfore collecting on) what look like delicate servo driven tumblers in the inlet manifold?
EGR valves are supposed to reduce NOx. I fancy blanking mine off to prevent the inlet manifold from choking up, would it A) Be illegal B) Fail an MOT - how would they know anyway? or C) Be morally reprehensible from an emissions point of view?
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1) If you do your own servicing, yes
2) GM/FIAT CR Diesels are no worse than any others.
3) It seemed like a good idea at the time,
A) In the UK - No
B) No
C) No
I know brand new cars can be taxed for 12 months + 1 week, but can they be taxed for 12 months + 2 or 3 weeks? Read more
Thanks for those who chose to answer the question.
To those who replied with wise cracks, may the car in front be a mimser.....with a caravan....
Hi all - I'm considering a 55 plate 2.0 petrol SE with 70K for around £5K. Full HSH
I was wondering what they are like to live with - Whatcar claims they are expensive to run - if this so?
What sort of MPG will I get on long runs on motorway at 80mph - A roads.
I'd like 35mpg - is that realistic in your eyes?
I use an excellent indie garage - I'm assuming they will be able to service it - is there anything about these that would mean I'd have to use a Honda dealer.
In short, any one got one who can report on whether these a good long-term purchase. I tend to keep cars until 10 years old 150K on the clock
All views very gratefully received - do we rate these cars?
thanks
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If Honda did a better diesel engine and hadn't bumped the price up I'd probably
have got another. Alas they don't so I didn't.
Apparently the latest i-DTEC is a big improvement on the CTDi.
Pricing is another issue altogether and, looking at the alternatives, it's hard to justify the extra money. It will be interesting to see how Honda's market share holds up.
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The problem is that my local Ford Garage don't seem very capable. The starting problem is intermittent, so I can appreciate that this might be hard to find, especially when it seems to start first time whenever they get it, but I get the impression that if Ford's software doesn't report the problem accurately, then they're stuffed.
I'm on the verge of taking a sledge hammer to the thing, but I'd much rather get a few more years out of the car if possible. Does anyone have any advice or know someone really handy with a C-MAX in the East Sussex region? Read more
Just about to swap this car in for a Mercedes A-Class unless someone can help. I can't believe a Ford is so hard to fix!
Our trilby wearing warrior now has a group on Facebook;
tinyurl.com/onvu97 Read more
Genesis P.Orridge !........do you remember the name of his group, ? I do !
Ted
Starts fine, runs happily on long journeys, but on local trips it's plagued by frequent (every minute or so) loss of power for a second or two. This shows as uneven idle speed, too, fine when cold and (probably) fine after running for half an hour, but otherwise fluctuating 500- 850 rpm (should be steady 850). It's just had a new distributor, spark plugs and plug leads as part of a horribly expensive breakdown repair.
How do I track down what's wrong? My guesses are ignition (I'll get it a new coil lead soon, since the original is old and stiff and 15 years old), fuel supply or engine management electronics. Is it practical for a DIY owner to get anything useful out of the "diagnostic" connector in the engine bay, for example, and will it do any good for this sort of thing?
There are no strange noises or other symptoms with the loss of power, and it doesn't seem to be getting any worse or better. Doesn't depend on the weather (within the range of May & June). I don't think it can be a faulty idle air valve, despite the uneven idling speed, since the effect happens under power as well. (It's rather off-putting to drive, not knowing whether 0-40 mph will take 10 seconds or 14 seconds.) This model uses Renault's "J7R" engine. Read more
The cause eventually diagnosed as a faulty lambda sensor. Most of the time it worked, but now and again it gave fluctuating readings -- not quite badly enough to show up as a fault in any diagnostic test. Fixed by a very helpful and thorough garage who ended up taking the car for a drive with a fancy engine test thing operated by a passenger. Fixed at last (new sensor).
Apparently the moral is to replace the lambda sensor every ten years, whether it appears to have failed or not.
Hi
Can anyone help me with a recurring problem. After 2000 miles the turbo blows, it has now had 2 turbos and is on its third (that i am aware of).
The latest garage has tested the oil pressure in the engine and have found it is lower than it ought to be and have suggested that with previous cases warranty have replaced the engine.
I am out of main manufacturer warranty and would prefer not to have to fork out for a new engine if someone may be able to suggest any possible alternatives to try beforehand.
Many thanks
Mick Read more
Thanks for the advice Mike, very much appreciated.
...or do I need to console him?
I apologise if this is in the wrong place - I suspect Discussion is a better place for it but happy for it to be moved if that isn't the case.
Good evening to you all.
Mum somehow managed to get Dad to do the shopping before which means a week of cereal I've never heard of, the wrong milk and fruit that looks like it's been irradiated. But anyway, it was when he returned that he said he'd had to nurse the car home because it had just virtually packed up.
I went out and struggled to start it but finally managed it when it became obvious something was badly wrong. It sounded like a tractor...moreso than usual and wouldnt rev over 1500 so I promptly shut it off and confirmed to Pa something he already knew - something was wrong.
It was later on that Mum said he'd filled up and asked him whether he'd put petrol in...the sheer look of horror (and the subsequent receipt) confirmed this and it turns out he's put 30 quid of petrol into a nearly empty tank and goodness knows how, managed to drive 10 miles.
The problem is, the car isn't really that old (07 plate Mondeo) with less than 20k on so writing it off as "bad luck" isn't an option. It's getting towed tomorrow to get the tank drained but I think he's as good as signed the death warrant for it.
I hope I'm wrong...please tell me I am.
Adam
P.S. If it was me that had done this to his car, I'd now be dead.
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You can go off people very easily. ;)
Browse
Fairenoughski Martin. Being that bit younger I haven't yet encountered that problem...
I find estates easier to load than taller vehicles for what it's worth.
( only kidding on the age thing, I seem to remember from previous posts that we are about the same model year ! )