February 2010
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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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
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.
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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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".
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
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.
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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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....
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
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.
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
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.
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
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.
So. I've had my Mazda 6 a year now, and it is a very nice car.
However, it drinks like a fish and I'm a bit bored of sticking well over a hundred quid of fuel in it every month just to toodle around town delivering children and getting to work and back. I never get more than 275 miles out of a 65 pound fill, which is a bit galling after getting the best part of 450 miles out of a tank of diesel (around town too) when I had my FIAT Stilo Multiwagon.
I am strongly considering getting shot in favour of something more economical. I do mostly short urban runs, and I've decided it's going to have to be a diesel. It also has to be an automatic, and most crucially of all, must not cost any more to buy than I can get for my 6, which is in the region of £4.5-5K. It also needs to be at least a Golf sized car, and it has to have ISOFIX and a minimum 4-star NCAP rating. It should also be no more expensive to insure and tax than the 6.
What I am finding is that I will have to buy something older and with higher mileage than my 6 (a 2006 55 reg 2.0 petrol with a paltry 33k on the clock). And there's not much in the way of attractive diesel autos in this price range.
I don't want to have to travel the country to buy something, and I have spotted locally to me a 2002 (02) Golf 1.9TDi 100 which suits my wish list and budget. The car has over 60k on the clock, but full history apparently. A bit further away from home is a similar 52 plate with a bit over 50k on it and priced at the same level.
But, I have concerns.
Mainly, am I letting myself in for constant repair costs at this age and mileage? If so, I'd be a fool to let go of the reliable Mazda. At 8 years old, compared to my 4-year old 6, is the prospective saving on fuel a fool's mission? I really get the impression that my Mazda won't present me with a repair bill for years to come.
I know everyone is going to scream "Octavia", and this is the model I favour to fulfill this brief, but I can not find one within budget and within a reasonable distance of home. I've spotted one in the North West, but I don't want to take time out to travel. I'm also wary of DSG boxes at an advanced age, even though I'm quite happy with the one in our Touran. The one I've spotted oop north, however, is a Mk1 with old-fashioned TC auto box. I think I'd prefer that.
So, any sagacious advice out there? Any obvious options I'm missing? Any left field suggestions? Or any personal experiences of TDi Golfs and Octavias wt this age? I favour Japanese models and VAG cars, the latter because I've had quite a few of them in the last 7 years and they have proven their worth to me, and also there's a very good VW specialist indie less than 2 miles from me. Diesel auto Japs are non-existent at this price point, however.
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Sounds like the company will not be breaking mileage down into business and private, in which case I think you'll be paying tax on all you fuel bought on the card through your PAYE?
I would check if I were you, how the company processes the data.
Hi can anyone help please, my 07 1.6 LX Focus is great but just the other week i opened the hatch up and saw just under the black elastic strap on the black felt area on the left hand side (underneath the empty socket for a boot light) water droplets, i then pushed my hand higher up the felt and underneath the plastic which houses the hinge for the parcel shelf and it was damp.
After heavy rain it isn't soaking but just feels damp, a hell of a frustrating issue as other than this the car is ok. The service reception told me that the 3rd rear brake light fills with water and then runs round and down, think she was a little mixed up there.
I unscrewed the two screws that fix the rear LH side light clusters in place, I couldn't remove the lens but saw a load of dead leaf and grime trapped underneath the black plastic strip which houses the two screws, any one help please.
thanks to anyone out there.
{Post edited. I'm sure you didn't mean to SHOUT!} Read more
I have found that my 2009 Focus is having the same problem....have you solved yours yet and if so how
Many thanks...
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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!