October 2009
The Focus (Y reg, 2001) is currently at a local garage waiting for its MoT. It's also booked in for its annual service, but because we've had to pay out for a number of things recently SWMBO, who handles the household finances, objected to this.
The car doesn't do many miles - I think it's averaged out at ~5k per year since we bought it, currently <60k - so her reasoning was that it should be ok to miss the service out. I pointed out that the last 2 services have only been 'interim' ones, as will this one, so we're already perhaps pushing our luck. I've never done DIY servicing so that's not currently an option.
So what do you think - how important is a yearly basic service on an aging low mileage vehicle? Any ammunition I can use in an argument will be gratefully received :-) Read more
What do you think of millers engine oil?
Just done a oil & filter change to my grandads merc A class 160cdi used this stuff 5w-40 i think fully synthetic for petrol and diesel.
At a wopping £32.00 for 5ltrs the stuff before was fully synthetic at about £27.50.
So how do you rate millers oils any good better than other brand named oils?, i know they have been around for years on lots of applications. Read more
>> fully synthetic oil ...
That worked out at £7.05 for
5 litres delivered to my front door. Apparently we were classed as "bulk-buyers"."
And that price was for buying only 60 litres - imagine what the main dealer, ordering perhaps 50-100 times that amount per year pays??????
And remember that when he invoices you on your service bill at over £12 per litre.
J
Had the car from new,estate sport, 110k miles, last 2 years had problems starting when parked nose up ( only a few inches and progressively getting worse ), turns over fine after several mins cranking it starts, runs rough, feels like fuel starvation, fine after 10 seconds of running. ( has worn the starter motor out over time ) When parked nose down starts perfect every time. since problem fuel filter and fuel pipe to PD pump changed ( Known rubbing point under the main air intake tube at the back of the head ) Can not find any air or fuel leaks. Fuel / oil consumption good and never change, regular serviced, otherwise great car - anybody ever solved this one ? Read more
Read this tread on the subject.
http://www.vwaudiforum.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=101246...
Not quite sure how it got there, but I managed to run over what appeared to be a ceramic teacup (I say appeared, because it shattered into about a billion pieces), as a turned into a parking space.
My initial response was relief because I was pulling into a supermarket "parent and child" space and the car noticably rode up over the cup before it popped, and I had a blood freezing moment when I wondered if I had somehow managed to not see a rogue small child!
Anyway I inspected the tyre and it seems fine, and I would expect that a ceramic cup would not really damage the tyre. However, it made me wonder, how exactly would I spot a slow puncture early? Would I just check the tyre pressure a couple of times over the next day? I read somewhere that you should check tyre pressure every couple of weeks. Do you do that by buying a pressure gauge, or can you just check it at the petrol station, at the same place you inflate your tyres?
Any advice appreciated!
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It must be nice to be that rich.
They are just keeping up with the neighbours, (or Galaxies). :-)
hi can anybody help i have a zafira 2.0 diesel when trying to select a gear its really tight and the gear selector does not spring back to center somebody told me it could be the linkage so i rang vauxhalls and they said it will be the bushes but i need to buy the full linkage for nearly £500 but surley i can just buy the bushes.has anybody else had this problem cheers Read more
Also if these people can do a genuine Vauxhall Corsa C gear change mechanism for £45 they may be able to help you with your Zafira A. tinyurl.com/yggd63r
I am not sure how but I have lost the key for my Ford locking wheel nuts on my Focus.
I was hoping it would be easy to get another one from Ford but they were very unhelpful and told my wife that their 'Rapid Fit' centre would remove the old nuts and charge us £40 for the new ones plus the labour to remove the old. This to me seems absurd and in any case hell would freeze over before I would let one of those places anywhere near my car.
Any ideas?
Cheers,
Stuart Read more
L'escargot I dont have the polythene bag but I agree quoting the VIN should be enough as these are Ford factory fitted items, coupled with the fact that I would most likely be driving the car to the dealer to purchase the wheel nut key. I just feel that as my wife went to the dealer she was simply fobbed off because she was a female.
I might be wrong, but there appears to me to be more diesel engine reliability problems reported in this forum than petrol engine problems. What do you think? In your reply it might be better if you said whether you are a diesel nut or a petrol head. Read more
I believe it was Screwloose (may some deity bless his holy name- he's gone to a better, happier place) who said: "never buy a used modern common-rail diesel engine without a warranty".
That said, I've had very little problems with a mix of Ford and Peugeot late-model CR engines (until the Mondy played up) so who really knows? The man with the NUMBERS!
Water is getting into my car from somewhere. Under the front passenger side seat puddles of water keep appearing with that whole carpet area ending up soaking. Also in the boot where you keep your jack is also soaked, it may or not be connected.
This happens even without heavy rain or soaked roads.
If anyone has had this problem please let me know? Read more
I had a big argument with VW customer service who to be honest were downright
rude and basically totally un-interested. They even told me if I wrote to them they
would not under any circumstances acknowledge or reply to my letter. On the strength of
this attitude I vowed never ever to buy a VW again which is a shame
because other than this issue the car was good.
That must be a VAG thing - I had similarl with SEAT UK. To be fair, they did communicate back but with calls from dippy boys and girls in Customer Service - I found it totally impossible to get past them and get any recognition of the issue.
I did read of a Porsche Cayenne owner having the same water ingress issue and the dealer said they knew the drains should be cleaned but it wasn't part of the service. Repairs cost £10K and the owners insurance picked up the bill.
Just had a pair of these fitted to the front of the Altea.
What really nice tyres. Immediately notice improved smooth ride, cut in road noise. The grip in wet / dry seems good. Cant comment about wear but I am impressed.
{couple of typos corrected in header} Read more
>>I've been told by several tyre fitters that michelins are the best - I notice that they have not featured in this discussion. Any views on that
They generally are about the most expensive so your tyre fitter will make more margin and they'll rightly tell you that they last longer so they're better value. He won't tell you they're pretty hard (why they last longer) and they don't win many tyre tests. If you want Michelins find a Cosco near you they sell them much cheaper than any retail outlet.
I had Bridgestone RE050s on my Legacy and replaced with Goodyear F1 asymetrics - quieter by some margin and better than brilliant in the wet. I don't drive fast enough in the dry to find out where one set of tyres will let go and one will hold on as for me noise and comfort are more important.
I have noticed the clutch judders significantly in start/stop traffic particularly going uphill. A couple of days ago I experienced some serious juddering and a burning smell (opened the bonnet and it was from within the engine bay)
Took to it to BMW as it was due a "vehicle check" service anyways. They said it could possibly be the clutch but the can't confirm as they will to investigate by opening up the gearbox and check the clutch.
My concern is that the car is coming upto be being 3 years from new and is still under the manufacturer's warranty and done only 30k miles. If it did require clutch replacement, how likely is it that it is due to wear and tear and not covered under the warranty.
The dealership said that BMW are getting tight on warranty claims and need authorisation. If the warranty didn't cover, they estimated the costs including labour and parts will be £1,000.
I can probably live with this problem if it not gonna cause other troubles. But if its likely to be under warranty I would quite like to get it fixed for FREE. The only problem is that by the time BMW have opened up the gearbox to investigate, I would have racked up £500 anyways and then it might not be a good idea NOT to replace it.
Any help will be much appreciated.
Thanks Read more
Ask them exactly what the minimum recommended is and what yours are measuring. Take a wheel off and look at the pads yourself. If you can see plenty of pad on there, then have a right to be suspicious, at the same time you can measure the diameter of the discs. if you can't easily measure it, look at the depth of the wear ring around the edge which give you an idea of how much material has worn away. As a very rough guide, it the ring is only 1 to 1.5 mm deep your probably fine. If the pads have 8mm of more on em your probably OK for a while, depending on how you drive..
I have seen a lot of posts on forums about how since they stopped using asbestos, the new materials are harder and wear the discs faster. Not really so sure I subscribe to that myself, for me it does not make logical sense and really doesn't seem to be the case on any car I have owned in recent years. If the discs are now wearing faster as pads are harder, then energy is being used up in wearing the disc, so this load is now shared where before it wasn't. If this was true, modern pads would last longer....but they don't. If anything they seem to wear quicker.
Disk material has changed little on cars over the years, but I do believe the performance of cars is much higher and the breaking systems are being loaded far higher for modern driving I think peoples driving styles have changed dramatically and it is this that wears things much more. Coupled with heavily sintered pads (especially some aftermarket and your going to get a lot of wear. In the old days I never would have put the loading on brakes at motorway speeds that they can be put under in a modern car, it was hard enough to get to 70 or more and certainly so few cars that there was rarely a need for heavy breaking.
I probably drive the same way I always used to and am not heavy on the brakes as such I have never had the disks changed on any car I have owned many up to 60k plus miles. I may have had 1 or even 2 sets of pads though.
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Thanks, Focus. I'm interested as my (Jan) 2006 Mazda 6 is due its annual mot and service in January, and I'm trying to plan ahead what I want to do with it. It's only on 31000 miles, having covered only 5,000 or so since its last, full Main Dealer service in February this year. The warranty I bought with it will expire in February, and I won't be renewing it. I think I might just go with an oil change service, as it seems to me the car is perfectly OK otherwise. At 4 years old I think it's time to go Indie, I'll be giving MOT City a call shortly for a price. Thanks again.