February 2010

parrot

Hi, I am new to the forum, but Terrano owner over 8 years (two vehicles). Thanks to all in advance for any help you can provide. I don't know a huge amount about technical side as they have both been really reliable - rarely had to tinker.

My tail-lights have failed. Fuse and power supply in fusebox both fine. front side lights are on. All connections at rear clusters appear ok. Tight if a bit muddy! I haven't yet taken them all apart, anybody know the colour code for the loom? Bulbs OK, no power to bulbs though. Co-incidently perhaps, I couldn't find power on tow contacts.

I don't have any wiring diagrams, though possibly available on the internet. Especially for link to tail-light cluster and towbar?

One more Q, have I missed a fusebox? I ask because I have only seen the main box to the left of the engine, but when I bought the car, I found some bigger fuses in the glove box. Once again thanks for any help.

P Read more

Spyke

Hi. I hav the same problem, which I noticed only the other day. Would you be able to let me know the link to the pdf wiring diagram please as I cannot find one online, other than sites trying to sell online manuals.

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ahart

TDCI went into Ford garage due to fumes in the cabin. Garage replaced the injector seals and smell has now gone. Unfortunately the turbo no longer works. All diagnostics indicate no issue and the injectors themselves have been taken back out and checked. The car has been put together again but still no turbo. Garage have more or less said that they don't know the issue and are going to start swapping out parts to try and find the problem.

I am not a mechanic but if someone has seen the issue before and could suggest anything I will happily pass it on to the garage.

Thanks in advance. Read more

focusrs259

Hi did the new injectors cure the lack of power/turbo not comming in???

Stephen.

Mick Snutz

My driveway is on a slope and although I regularly check my oil level, I'm often wondering how accurate is the level shown on the dipstick.

If I start the car and move it into the road (which is reasonably level) how long would I have to leave it before getting an accurate level of oil in the engine assuming its started from cold and switched off again after only 2 minutes?
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brum

On my VAG engined 1.9Tdi the dipstick is mounted centrally and is very consistent irregardless on car tilt etc.

However my 1.2L fabia 2 has a dipstick mounted at the end of the engine, and the engine is tilted at about 10-15 deg accross the engine bay. It is EXTREMELY sensitive to car tilt both cross and length ways. A slighty sloping drive can see the level change halfway min to max (0.5l). If the car is leaning right/left you can see levels change from min to max! It also seems sensitive to temperature, I'm not sure why.

Had a similar story though less extreme with a 1.3cdti Corsa D :( - excuse me while I go and wash my mouth out with soap!

mattbod

I am considering one of these and wonder which one to get second hand. I do less than 10000 a year but am coming from a Fabia VRS with a very grunty engine so leaning towards the Diesel ( which also seems to hokd its value better than the petrol). which one though is best? Should I go for a PD model whose technology seems to be tough and dependable or buy a CR which is smoother but puts me off because of the horror stories of huge bills when cr goes wrong.Apparently it's power delivery is not as exciting as the pd either. Alternatively should I just look at a tfsi petrol? Read more

corax

they have plenty of torque and power and are borderline for really needing four-wheel-drive


Thats interesting WT. A friend of mine has a petrol VRS and is waiting for Skoda to produce a four-wheel-drive version, he thinks it could do with it, although his is not remapped.. But he loves the car, despite having a BMW 3.0D which is wife drives, and a Mercedes coupe and an Audi A5 previously. Lovely to drive, light on it's feet and light controls. He's had it about 3 years, and no problems.
janliv18

We have an 04 reg Vectra DTI thats getting on a bit now and has clocked up 180k miles.
Looking to replace with a similar sized car and have narrowed it down to two that I like.

Mondeo 2.2 Titanium X TDCI 09 Reg £15700 with approx 10k miles
New Octavia VRS TDI - Brand New £16278 inc met paint.



I?ve driven the Octavia and its a great car, seems well screwed together, the ride is quite firm. I have yet to drive a 2.2 Mondeo, I drove a 1.8tdci not long ago and found it rather flat, so I'm hoping the 2.2 will be a lot stronger.

Depreciation according to What car will mean the Skoda is worth £8226 and the Mondeo will be worth £7668 in three years, even though the list on the Mondeo is around £8000 more!

Fuel consumption is around the same, the Skoda does a little better at 49mpg as apposed to the Mondeo's 45mpg, although the Mondeo does have more torque at 295lbs as to the Skoda's 258lbs.

They both do the 0-60 in 8.4 seconds. And both have similar levels of kit, with the Mondeo having a few extra toys but Im not too fussed about that.

I'd appreciate peoples views on these two cars.

Thanks.

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cheddar

Compare a 10 year old Ford with a 10 year VAG vehicle and there's no
comparison >>


True, a 10 year old Ford will, with almost no exception, drive infinitely better (Focus v Golf/Octavia, Mondeo v Passat/A4 etc). and will also be more reliable and cheaper to repair not to mention more refined (PD v TDCi).

Yes old Kas rust though so do old Polos.

Note HJ's comments in his latest S-Max road test "you have to look at it against Audis, BMWs and Mercedes. Fords have long been equal or better than these cars under she skin, but now the evidence is tangibly there in the ambience of the cabin and the quality of the trim".
Focus_Driver

On my mk 1 focus zetec there are plastic side skirts attached to the sills but I'm not sure how to remove them. These are the standard ones that come with the car. In the manual it says to remove them you just pull it out but there are about 6 allen bolts attached along the length of each sill. Obviously the bolts need to be removed first but it seems to be quite a lot of work to me. I need to remove them so I can jack the car up on the sills to do an oil change. I could just jack under the chasis but what if I got a puncture and needed to fit the spare tyre? The car jack only works under the sills. Surely there must be a simplier way. My previous focus ghia did not have plastic skirts covering the sills. Read more

mikej

As mentioned above, the Mk1 Focus has 4 jack points on the underside of the sill by each wheel arch, which are covered by 4 plastic covers.

You don't have to touch the sill itself or unbolt anything and no tools are needed to remove them (although the clips can be quite stiff and gunged up with dirt).

The standard Ford jack is adequate for jacking up the car to change a wheel, but additional support (ie. axle stands) is always recommended for any other type of work, particularly when working underneath the car.

Forum Biodiesel
bhoy wonder

Just been into Jet garage and noticed that the diesel has transfers on the pumps saying (contains up to 7% biodiesal). Now I am normally an observant person and would have noticed this before and the fact that the transfers look new compared to the diesel transfers that are old and worn.

Is this something new Jet garages are doing or is this what they have always done.
Do any other suppliers do this and could it cause damage to any of the diesel engines in cars at present.
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Med

Hey, just read this post.

I have had bad problems with the "normal operation of the DPF" system on my Mazda 6 and there is a huge thread on it leading me to have an engine over-run due to unburnt fuel in the engine oil causing the engine to run of its own fuel....

brakenoodle

My brother has a (BMW) Mini, petrol auto with about 20k on the clock. Recently, in traffic, the coolant temp warning light came on and the fan cut in to cool things down. He asked me about this and I advised him to check the coolant level. We found that the header tank was empty, and the level had dropped to just inside the attached pipe at the bottom of the tank. The oil has no evidence of water/coolant contamination and there is no 'mayonaise' around the oil filler cap. There is also no obvious leak, although there is some dried up deposits around the header tank cap that have been dripping down the outside. Obviously the coolant is going somewhere, but my question is: are there any weak spot with these cars in this area? Are they known for this fault? My brother drives like an undertaker and the car is totally standard but driven around London a lot. The car is always serviced when required. Read more

WorkshopTech

In the normal course of events the car should not consume any coolant and the level should not noticably drop from one year to the next (there will be a tiny amount of loss due to evaporation etc).
If the coolant tank is empty then there is a leak, either internal or external. Get it pressure tested.
I am Mini specialist by the way, so this is proper advice.
Older engines did occasional let go on head gasket, but not heard of so many problems with newer ones, although we dont normally see them until they are three years old or more.

Pugugly

New telly sits on a shiny plastic plinth - came home from a weekend away, swirly dust - Wiped it off with one of those microfibre bits of cloth. Swirly dust back today - suspect it may be static electricity related - any ideas on how to cure it ?? Read more

tyro

Choisya ternata

Nice shrub, but if you go for it, I hope you have better luck with yours than we have had with ours. It is anything but quick growing. This could be either because we got a poor specimen or because we live near the sea and it doesn't care for salt spray. Other shrubs that I have planted have done a lot better.

starboater

For nearly two months our 130k miles C3 diesel has been randomly not starting from cold. It spins over perfectly, just don't fire up. Been to the Citroen dealer twice - first time injector seals and various pipes were renewed. Ran fine for a while then refused again. Towed back to the dealer who found a string of permanent faults on the computer, wiped them and it started fine again.
On the tow there I plugged my phone into the cig lighter to charge it - result one utterly scrambled phone which has never worked again.
A few days ago, a new fault - the battery went flat overnight. Replaced it - new one went flat overnight. AA man found a 4amp current drain. But charged battery and it started fine.
Electrical specialist has just found cause of drain - relay to injectors. Replaced it and Bingo it won't start!
In between all this I've replaced failed wipers and the radio signal periodically disintegrates into a series of shrieks and wails - then recovers a week or so later.
Anyone got a clue? Because we're thinking push the damned thing off a cliff right now. Read more

starboater

The verdict from the Citroen garage is that the car needs a new wiring loom!!!
Cost £750 plus nine hours fitting.
So after eight years and 130k miles of fully service ownership the car is now scrap. What a joke.