February 2010
Just for clarity, mine is a late mkII despite the year, and it's petrol. :o)
Anyway. For a while now it's been juddering and running roughly, especially at low revs when cold. It feels like it's misfiring on one or more cylinders and at worst it's impossible to accelerate uphill in anything higher than 3rd gear due to stuttering and juddering, and it often can't easily accelerate to or beyond 70 on the motorway unless I drop a gear and get the revs up. It tends to clear up when I get to around 3500-4000 rpm.
I tried changing the plugs first and it did nothing. I didn't really expect much as the plugs weren't that old, but I had found that the leftmost plug (as you look at the car from in front) was quite dirty and carbon'd up. I also tried using redex for a couple of weeks but that similarly did nothing to help.
I don't think it's a compression issue as once it's fully warmed up it improves a lot (though it's still not perfect) and will accelerate hard away from lights etc as it always did. I think (though this may be my imagination to some extent) that it also runs smoother when there's less load on the battery i.e. I kill the air con and heated screen etc. I really suspect it's something electrical. I've bought HT leads but not yet fitted them due to only ever remembering mid journey. When it's really stuttering, it interferes with the radio, again leading me to believe it's an electrical fault or a short somewhere.
Someone suggested it may be the ignition coil pack. I can get a new one of these for about £50 but I don't want to spend the money unless it's likely to help, plus I don't know how difficult the job is. Is it easy for a fairly unskilled but reasonably confident DIYer to test/replace the coil pack or should I be calling in an autoelectrician at this point to diagnose further? Or does this sound like something anyone's come across before on the 1.8 zetec engine?
Thanks in advance. I love this car, but I'm really getting sick of this behaviour...
-- Kev Read more
Been out and about a bit today and seen some shocking attempts at steering wheel control.
Many defy the 'hands of the clock' method of description.
One driver had the fingers of both hands interwined and was hugging the top of the wheel.
No way has he proper control, and it's not a position I could take up even if I wanted to, unless I lost a bit of weight. :)
The other one you see quite a bit is one arm straight out, with the underside of the wrist resting on the top of the wheel.
Both of these positions might be fine for a straight line, but neither gives the driver much hope of reacting swiftly to an unexpected need to change direction.
Needless to say, I'm perfect with my hands at 'ten to two' - most of time.
Where on the wheel do you usually put your hands?
And can there be any excuse for the unconventional positions I've described?
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Yes. That section seems to be a random confusion generator at the moment.
I just saw one about a competition to win James May's Bentley......only it was a three year old thread.
I'm sure the overworked, underpaid and thoroughly fed up mods have it on the to-do list.
Hello All,
The mother in law has an 02 plate 206. Recently the C/Locking has been erattic (Locking and unlocking by itself).
Last night when she tried to turn the ignition on there was no power other than a airbag light. After trying the ignition several times it finally came to life when she turned the radio on!.
Any ideas?, I guess its electrical which probably means expensive! Read more
Hi
Mrs G (who has never forgiven me selling our Merc CLK for my Jag XJS) is now looking to replace our big MPV.
Currently it is a Mitsubishi Grandis, as 7 seaters go, one of the best, but too big, and too thirsty to be worth taking off the drive these days given that we rarely if ever need the extra seats these days (though i did yesterday).
Looking to change it for something smaller, under 15ft to be usefully so. It needs to be something that has been around a few years so that we can find a 2 - 3 year old one.
The children are growing up, the eldest (18) rarely comes with us, and the youngest (9) no longer needs booster seats.
The number of occasions that we need 6 or more seats is now very small, and on those occasions we could take two cars.
We want to be able to seat 5 in comfort and carry luggage for 5 in a small(ish) footprint. On looking at 5 seaters, even some quite big ones, it is clear that the centre seat in the back is not suitable for a long comfortable place to be, knowing that Mrs G misses terribly the Merc CLK (for occasions when children are not in tow) and that the Merc C Class is mechanically siimilar, I am suggesting a C Class estate. Budget of £10 - £12k should get us a tidy example od a 200CDi.
We have both seen merc B classes and the "format" looks appealing, plenty of space for 5, Merc levels of refinement, except reading www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?f=2&t=75...2 makes me wonder if they missed the mark on this, failing to deliver Merc levels of refinement in a 5 door format
Common sense tells me a Ford C Max would be a good bet, but Mrs G is seeking something a bit "plusher", and is NOT keen, can't even get her to look at them on Autotrader. Golf Plus doesn't seem to come with full leather and all the toys (judging by current EBAY and Cargiant offerings).
Incidentally, we did look at the new Pug 5008, on the basis that if it raised the bar considerably we might talk to the dealer about trading in the Grandis, but the Grandis has leather seats, DVD etc etc, and we were getting in to £22K territory on the 5008 and the material qualities here and there felt cheap and not very nice compared with the 3008. If it had been aroud long enough to get a 2 year old used one the 3008 would be very interesting indeed.
so whats around in the Merc / Jag area of plushness and luxury, that really does seat 5, and is under 15ft? Anyone carry 5 people in a Merc C Class estate? or BMW 3?
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The Merc B Class is a good choice. It's very spacious, more so than the C-Class, and nice to drive for one of these tall hatchbacks. The interior is also well designed and made, better than an A-Class if not quite as good as a C-Class. However you need to avoid the diesel models as they are like tractors. Also, the automatics I've driven have been CVTs so suffered the elastic band effect and I don't think they do a normal automatic. Best one I've driven was a B200 petrol with a manual transmission, a very nice car.
As I am currently in the process of buying a 2nd car, and thinking about replacing the other due to a drastic increase in mileage, I was pondering at what mileage a car really starts to wear out?
I currently have an '05 Golf GT-TDI, which is just coming up for 78k miles. My initial plan had been that SWMBO would take over the use of that for her new 70 mile a day commute, and I would spend circa £2-3k on something a little more fun for my 15 mile round trip, such as a Volvo C70.
C70 plans firmly in place, it occured to me that with SWMBO's new annual mileage of circa 20k is going to quickly stack miles on my already above average miles Golf, and as such it might be worth chopping it in now, whilst its still worth something, for a slightly newer, lower mileage example. Maybe an Auris/Civic 2.2.
My Golf plus £3k should see us right, but at what mileage do cars start to wear out. Most C70's im looking at are knocking on 100k, and my Golf will be the same this time next year. Do major components such as Gearboxes etc start packing up once a car is into triple figure territory? Read more
Depends on how long you measure it over ;)
Yes, I am sure there have been cars I've owned where I've spent much more on maintenance over several years than the car cost.
www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/insura...l
The article talks about hefty fines of £200........................
£200 fine seems very low when these drivers are avoiding insurance premiums of £1500+ / year.
2/3 of my neighbours have sons/daughters in the 17/18 bracket and £1500 seems the base premium - makes the £500 on driving lessons look the cheap part of the exercise!
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If that were all Franco were guilty of . Anyway do you mean C F might otherwise have won-- god forbid. lol!
I've been looking for a very cheap estate car (under £400!). I'm a musician and need a vehicle I can put all my keyboards in when gigging... Well there are aren't many half decent estates around at this price and the thought struck me that a hatchback could do the job too IF the back seats fold down flat.
I've never owned a hatchback. Wondering if hatchbacks usually have back seats that fold completely flat? Read more
I gigged for many years in a six piece and the manager always brought the amps etc in a Granada, amps went in the boot with music and other stuff went on the back seat. Bit of a squeeze but worked. An old Volvo 240 estate would be ideal as the back seats go down and its like a big van. Maybe a van would be worth considering anyway. Good luck with the gigs.
Just come back from a few days north of the Arctic Circle.
Interesting in that there is little obvious road clearing of the style we see in the UK. Yes main roads are cleared but not down to tarmac, but down to a manageable level of snow (two inches?) and thereafter cars are on snow tyres with little metal studs. They drive remarkably quickly for the conditions, but all the cars I saw seem to be in very good condition for their age (some at least 20 years old).
No salt is put down, but some form of grit which provides grip but no melting facility.
Mostly 2WD cars with plenty of RWD and a few 4WD including some Subaru Outback and Forester taxis! Saw very few large SUVs - in fact I saw just two Merc MLs, two XC90s and I think that was it. Read more
The irony in the UK, some of the 'performance' 4x4s like the Porsche Cayenne have low profile tyres geared towards performance and not grip. In the poor weather we recently had, they would not be any better (and possibly worse) than most cars.
And old Land Rover usually can get to places partly because it has 4x4 and obviously because of the tyres fitted (typically mud and snow).
Hi Everyone
I wonder if you can help me. I have a Zetec 1.8ltr Ford Mondeo on a Y (2001) plate. Recently it has started stalling when I come to a stop (either at lights or behind another vehicle). The engine cuts out, all lights on the dash come on, and I have to restart the engine to get going again. It is fine whilst I am going up through the gears but as I come down to almost a stop it stalls.
I have noticed it only behaves like this after I've drive a few miles and the temperature guage on the dash is getting up to the half way mark. I must admit, up until recently, I never saw it go much past the quarter mark....so I am wondering if this is temperature related?
I recently had the ignition coil replaced and fuel filter replaced.
Ahh, one other bit of info which may be relevant - I took the battery out of the Mondeo to start another car. I then charged the battery up full over 24hrs before putting it back into the Mondeo. Ever since then, this stalling problem has happened intermittently. Now it happens more often than not. Not sure if the battery is just coincidence but thought I would mention it.
If you have any ideas I would be very grateful,
Tim
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are the battery cables nice and tightly done up on the posts?
This Polo is in immaculate condition, has a very low mileage and is regularly serviced by a VW dealership. It is mainly used for long runs rather than local trips. Problem is that when cold it has recently developed a persistent tendency to flat spot when accelerating at low to medium throttle settings - when warm or hot it runs perfectly. The engine also jerks on the over-run at all temps as if the fuel cut off is being overly enthusiastic. Starting is always fine and fuel consumption normal. Interestingly, when it came back from its annual service very recently these faults had seemingly disappeared only to return a few weeks later. The car is run on top quality juice only. Any ideas? Read more
Thanks for this. Will fit a new sensor for starters. Must say that as a keen home DIY-er am suprised that these are commonly encountered faults. Leaves at best an open question about the quality of the original components ! Strongly suspect that it is the sensor because the garage may have disconnected it for the purposes of the MOT emissions test,then reconnected it only for it to fail again after successive warm ups.
Browse
Yep, all sorted. Coil pack fixed it. It's not juddered once since I fitted the new one, and fifth gear has become a realistic option below 70mph again. Now just gotta wait and see if my fuel ec***my improves from its current dire level of about 33mpg.