January 2010
Sister has a diesel Galaxy, had been parked up in her driveway unused from the Friday as she has broken her ankle.
On the Monday, her neighbour spotted smoke coming out the back and managed to put a fire out. From the photos she sent it looks like wiring somewhere at the back.
Anyone know of any possible ideas of what could have caused it, have googled and found some issues with engine fires but nothing in boot areas?
I know vague but just wondering if any known issues?
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hey guys,
I thought I'd open my dilemma to you all. I?ve got £4500 to spend on a diesel estate, and keep going around and around in circles on which one to go for, any help would be greatly appreciated.
Skoda Octavia / VW passat ? not so sure about these they don?t get very good feedback in carsurvey org (even though their supposed to be great)
Ford Mondeo ? I?m a Vauxhall man, so prejudice kicks in, and I am concerned how they fair at high miles on the clock
Vauxhall Vectra 05 plate onwards ? one of my fav?s unless I?m missing something
Mazda 6 ? Nice but don?t know much about them
Jag Xtype ? concerned about the wood and cream interiors.
Merc C class ? it?ll be a older model and although I?d quite like a premium badge, the desire to have reliable cheap to run car out-ways this.
Old shape 3/5 series BMW?. Not sure might be paying for the badge and an outdated design.
Honda accord ? don?t know much about them other then they are reliable
Toyota Avensis ? don?t know anything about them.
£4500 is a stretch for us, so it?s a long term purchase run it as long as it will go for so longevity is a priority.
I do about 25k miles a year. Mainly motorway, and I am replacing a Mark 4 Astra diesel estate 249k on the clock, which has been great: a few EGR valves, steering rack, exhaust, discs and pads, tires and that?s it but its getting tired and shabby but I could probably do another 50k miles in it without major spend.
What would you spend your hard earned / saved cash on if you were me?
Thanks!
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If 4,500 is a stretch, you are heading for trouble. Don't do it.
If you can get more life out of the Astra, then do it. It's dirt cheap motoring.
Shabby? Take hold of a bucket of water and some car shampoo. Some alloy wheel cleaner. Then a bottle of t-cut and polish the thing to within an inch of its life. Some tyre black. A vacuum inside, and maybe some upholstery cleaner. Then a pot of paint and tidy up the stone chips. A pair of scissors and cut the snags off the seats. Treat it to some new mats.
Total cost £20 and half a day.
I live in Latvia at present and since the weather got to -20c (yes, cold) I am having starting issues. Once started and run for a while, the car performs excellently and starts well all day. Also excellent mpg.
I have replaced the battery and glow plugs with new. However, first thing in the morning (cold), on starting, it fires once and then continues to crank for up to a miniute (sometimes longer, thank goodness for the new battery) slowly getting faster and faster and faster until it eventually fires and runs.
I put some clear hose into the diesel return line and found some air bubbles (not a lot mind you).
I have now run a clear diesel hose from the priming pump outlet direct to the diesel injection pump inlet. I notice that air bubbles appear to be coming out of the pump exit spigot into the hose.
I have thought about temporarily bypassing the priming pump but it's not easy to do as they use stupid plastic female fittings to go onto the male spigots on the pump. It would also mean bypassing the fuel filter for a while, but I thought it worth it to see if the bubbles disappeared ?
Is it possible that the cold weather has shrunk/damaged the pump internals I(feels like a diaphragm type pump) and that could be causing the problem air leak and starting ?
Many thanks for any feedback..............ebt
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Thanks for you insight and memories Peter...ebt
car developed misfire at 115000 miles and being quoted silly money to change plugs. Read more
Either plugs or leads - 12 yr old car might still be on original leads.
I gave longlife plugs a pass on my Xedos and just have "normal NGKs" and replace them at each service! £15 for 6 instead of £15+ each.
I have recently purchased this car which had an existing problem with a non-working drivers window, I cleaned (lighty sponged) the inside of the car yesterday, went out again to run and heat/dry the car and although the central locking works I cannot turn the ignition key (at all) and it appears as though the immobilser is running (a red light is still flashing on the radio facia which I assume indicates this?) and not being de-activated by the key fob, another clue here bing that the key fob is not activating the memory seat settings - any help please it is snowing! Read more
yep common fault need a new barrel and tumblers and make the barrel up to fir the old key.
This morning when I started the car, I noticed a loud throbbing sound - almost making the whole car shake. Its particularly noticable and loud when the car is stationary - in other words when the engine is just idling. The exhaust seems to chug and throb at the same time - almost as if its 'choking.' Petrol tank is half-full. I took the car to a car-wash two days a go - and used the (dreded) pressure jet wash. Could I have introduced water into the lambda sensor, or the exhaust system ? Read more
It will cost you a lot less to repair rhan a modern car!
Hi,
We're thinking of taking the new Octavia (it's fabulous but that'll be for another thread) on holiday with us this summer to Slovenia. Looks like a very interesting country. We're planning to take the trip in a pretty leisurely fashion and camp along the way. Haven't planned a route yet (in fact I've never embarked on a cross-europe drive before), but have any of you any suggestions, as well as experience of good campsites en route? Unfortunately (cos SWMBO's a teacher) we're stuck with going in the smmer hols.
Thanks! Read more
Reminds me of the best thing to come out of the Iraq war. (Quote from about 2003 before it had really kicked off).
Reporter: "People are saying Basra is a bit like Southampton?"
Squaddie: "Absolutely wrong. There's no beer, there's no women, and people are shooting at us. It's more like Portsmouth".
I have a Peugeot 206 1.9D which has developed a cold starting issue. The engine cranks ok but take several minutes before it will fire and start. When it does start it seems to run on 2 cylinders until it warms up when it runs ok. The garage have replaced the glow plugs and glow plug relay and now suspect injectors (very expensive) or perhaps a blown head gasket which puzzles me as there's no sludge around the dip stick or oil filler cap. Any help would be great.
Thanks
Mike Read more
Someone ran into my car yesterday at 60-70mph, the insurance company has made me a compensation offer of £1,000 this morning based on a few questions from them to me i.e. how I feel and if I am in pain and at work. having never been in this situation before I would appreciate some advice Read more
A few years back one of my customers was hit by a drunk driver (who was being followed by the BiB).
3/4 days in hospital he came out to an offer of £500 for the banger Escort and £500 for injuries, expenses....... He was off sick for 3 weeks in in total. The employer limit on sickness benefit was 4 weeks pay maximum.
He was so strapped for cash he took it immediately instead of taking/arguing over the value of the car and then settling his injuries at a later date. Effectively the Ins Co threatened to starve him into taking their offer, hold back settling car value till injury ££s agreed.
Cheque was there in under 1 week but he should have consulted his lawyer. However he could not afford the delays - even if only a few weeks!
Use of dual mass flywheels on diesels is now commonplace and has the potential to give rise to well documented problems.
I thought I read somewhere that they are also used (or starting to be used) with some petrol engines? Does anybody have any insights?
Will a DMF in a petrol last longer, as generally the torque output is lower?
There also seem to be a few modern diesels that don't use a DMF and instead rely on electronics to smooth things out. I think the current Fiesta TDCi is an example of this.
Does anybody know of any other current diesels that a DMF-less?
Cheers Read more
In what way does a '98 1.6 Golf have a high power output?
Relatively. ?
EDIT: ahh i see where you're coming from
My understanding is that the high power
Replace "the" with "a"
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Who said it was Airdrie.... 2+2=5 :)