January 2010
Morning all, had yet another problem with the Zetec. Tried opening the car as usual with the key a couple of days ago and it started the alarm. Locking and unlocking the doors on both sides did nothing and neither did starting the engine, which is strange considering the key has the red bit (immobiliser I believe).
Eventually I had to remove the battery as i could not get into the car without the alarm going off. Every time i reconnect the battery the alarm sounds for a short while and goes off, that is until I try to open the door again!
Any Ideas would be greatly appreciated,
Carl Read more
I have up to £6 grand to spend and currently drive a 1997 escort. Need a 5dr as baby number 2 about to arrive. Want something cheap to run, reliable and cheap in services/MOT. initially concentrated on Jazz, but brother-in-law swears by Focus TDCi. Been checking models of both up to 5 years old and 20-40K on clock.
Is there any major difference or preference between them? Which would be the best deal and what should I steer clear of? I don't know a whole lot about motors and would greatly appreciate any advice or experience. Read more
Slightly tricky question to ask here, because of the house rules on naming companies negatively, but let's see how it goes.
100 yards from work this morning and a six inch crack appeared in the windscreen in front of me. My insurance will do the usual "get it repaired and you just pay the excess".
Do I go with one of the large companies that advertise on tv or through my dealer, do we think? And if as I suspect the answer is the former then I'm reading horror stories about one of the most obvious ones, but don't know whether to take such internet white noise seriously or just ring up and hope it will all be ok.
So, without knocking anybody, are there any recommendations?
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interesting thread interesting answers
all good knowledge
i always also find it interesting that the big boys always seem to quote the same prices (anyone think of a reason for this as im completely stumped)
and you cannot go and buy a new windscreen from any supplier as its a closed shop and you have to be a registered glass fitter,way round this? get local one man and his van glass fitter to cut one out of a breaker and fit that if its an expensive screen and you are on a budget
hi i have just got my micra and dont know how the rear parking sensors work? when i am reversing they arent making any noice-do i have to activate them? the car doesnt have the original radio-its been replaced but all works fine. will this have something to do with it?
have looked all through the manual and googled but to no avail, its the SVE model so i know they were factory fitted-just dont know how to get them to work!!
please help
thanks Read more
is there a fuse for them and has that been removed? no idea just a thought i guess...!
I have noticed over the past few months that my fuel economy has dropped from a consistent 36 - 38mpg (mixed town and motorway) down to just 30mpg. I used to achieve well over 40mpg on a pure motorway run but can't get above 32mpg currently.
I believe the problem is due to 1 of the fuel injectors. With the bonnet up a constant light tapping noise can be heard. It gets louder and faster with increasing revs. It is definately not the tappets or an engine problem. Placing a large stanley screwdriver on injector 3 and then putting my ear to the handle I can clearly hear the injector is much louder than the others.
Has anyone one else experienced an injector failing. To me it sounds like the spring inside may have broken and the plunger is slapping up and down in an uncontrolled manner which is causing the increased noise. I guess the fuel regulation and spray wouldn't be ideal if this is the case causing the poor fuel economy. For reference it does not appear noticably down on power on full throttle and has not registered a fault code.
I'm interested to know if anyone else has had the same issue, i'm guessing i'll have to hunt for a new set on e-bay but at just 60,000 miles this doesn't seem all that good.
Cheers,
James Read more
In that case then assuming you have absolutely isolated the noise to an injector, I would say you could be right. It is not often these fail though, and second hand ones from a scrappie should still be okay to fit.
These forums are full of tales of motorists taking cars, with defined faults, into dealers and being charged for repairs which don't work. They are then subsequently charged for more repairs to fix the same fault and even this, sometimes, is ineffective. Surely this is, or should be, against the law? It could be construed as a type of fraud.
I recently asked my wife to take her car into a garage because the exhaust was making a noise. She was shown a hole and properly charged for a part that worked. Had she been charged for new brake discs, and left with the exhaust still barking away, I'd have been up there like a flash threatening all sorts of retribution. Why do we motorists put up with similar scenarios when they involve the moving parts? Read more
In my experience main dealers don't have a clue when it comes to fault finding .........
You've only been to a limited number of main dealers and may have been unlucky in your choice. I've found that the franchised dealers (main or otherwise) I've been to were all competent.
Dear all,
My 2001 306 HDi Meridian 5 door recently developed a fault with the locking. I opened the car with the remote key with no issues & drove to work but when I arrived found the car would not lock. I tried using the key in the door lock on both passenger & driver's doors but with no joy so have had to revert to manually locking each door individually.
Symptoms are as follows:
- central locking system does not work at all (a previous 306 I owned had the classic "lock & unlock" fault due to a broken wire but this does nothing at all)
- using the keys in the locks directly or pushing the buttons down from inside doesn't work either
- when you open any of the doors the courtesy lights no longer function
Things I've tried so far:
- I've taken the driver's door off to trace back the wiring loom & harness and found one cracked cable insulation (repaired with tape) but no broken wires
- I've had the driver's seat out but couldn't find the control module (probably because I was using a haynes manual that only went up to 1999 & so thought it was behind the rear seats...)
- I've pulled the loom casing off the passenger's door wiring harness to check for broken wires (couldn't see any; next step is to take the door off)
- I've checked all the fuses in the fuseboard and in the engine bay; none blown
- I've also followed the instructions for the Built in Systems Interface Reboot on the off chance that my car had one of those but with no effect
From the above, it sounds to me as if it's something fairly central to the whole system that's broken as none of the doors lock & the courtesy lights don't come on as mentioned.
If anyone's experienced similar problems or has any idea for a solution any ideas would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Chris Read more
anyone test drove the crv with the uprated engine, 148bhp/258 torque?
How does it compare to the old car? Read more
As it happens I am test driving one tomorrow afternoon
Reading a piece today where its now the norm to teach people to slow down with the brakes and not to use the gearbox.
Well i have a message for these new world teachers of fashion---
--------how many accidents have you caused with this bad teaching this last week with all the snow we have had had?
If people as pupils of driving schools were taught that in certain situations ie in snow that the gearbox could be their friend then i reckon a lot of claims could have been avoided
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I use the brakes to slow down and then change gear as required.
Most drivers are asleep and you need those bright lights on at the back so
they dont run into you.
It works both ways, if you have some idiot touching their brakes unnecessarily every 5 seconds I guess you'd zone out and ignore the brake lights after a while.
I've put this in Discussion rather than Technical as it is for interest sake.
Not to be advised.!!
tinyurl.com/yayx5un
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If it was a fanbelt where was the fan?
On the other end of the generator, inside the fan housing?
Wonder if that bloke has lots of bent screwdrivers and a few dents in his head....
Browse
I have an 02 Focus and a 56 Jazz, both manual and petrol. Both are excellent overall. The Jazz is a smaller class of car so tyres and insurance are a bit cheaper. It is returns much better MPG.
Jazz is well equipped in standard form, and it incredibly flexible. Remarkable amount of space inside and the boots okay too. I find it great fun to drive and fine on the motorway.
As other have said the focus will be cheaper to service in general, and possibly better for long journey if this is a large part of your usage.
The jazz fits in my garage, the focus doesn't!
So i think you would enjoy either to be honest. If the Jazz isn't quite big enough try the focus. If the focus is a bit to wide for your liking try the Jazz.
Top motors both