February 2010

Experienced Insight

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

Experienced Insight

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.

IanST

Excuse me, if this seems an obvious fix, but i've not come across it before.

My '98 Escort SI 1.8 has been off the road for a few months, the battery was dead, so i gave it a full charge.

On putting the battery back on the car this morning, the hazards kept flashing and the horn sounding.

How do you reset the alarm on the car?

Once i got the car running, the horn did stop sounding after a few seconds, but the hazards continued flashing...
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elekie&a/c doctor

Easiest option is to disconnect the alarm module.It is located behind the plastic panel to the right of the accelerator pedal.There are 2 multi-pin connectors attached to it.This will disable the alarm and double lock system.The standard c/d/locking should work ok.hth

janliv18

Further to my recent post regarding an Octavia, the Skoda website badly needs updating. I cant believe a company the size of VAG has out of date pictures on it of the old Octavia and also the 'build your own' feature has been unavailable for months now. The cars look great, sort it out Skoda!

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CraigP

It's rotten, the only thing you can do is download the brochure and manually put a spec together.

Watch out however... when you go in the showroom with your list of options, salesman brings out a new brochure and smiles with "ah the website brochure? oh thats out of date, take a look at this new one" :-(

nil points for website skoda!!!

Edit: p.s. some of the options aren't exactly self explanitory, what's a maxidot when it's at home? Briskoda.com has the details though

taxidriver

Hi guys i hope someone can help with this please,

I have a brand new exide battery for a london black metro taxi that has been stood still for 3months and has gone flat.I have tried charging it and still no life what can i do to get a full charge?????

Thanks
taxidriver Read more

Dynamic Dave

I have tried charging it and still no life what can i do to get a full charge?????


What type of charger did you use? eg, some of these trickle chargers require the battery to have over 7 volts for them to operate.
Nikkita

Hi there
I recently had 2 new front tyres fitted to my Focus (no grip in the snow) and when I was driving home I heard a bad creaking from the nearside when I turned left. I went back to garage next day to ask if they could tell me why it started after they had fitted tyres, his answer was to spray the front suspension with WD40 and send me on my way.

Now after 2 weeks of driving just locally, my car sounds like i'm driving 'an old metal bedstead'..it creaks really badly on all turns now and I can even hear it on straight roads, although not as loud. Could this be the anti roll bar bushes have been damaged, or messed up with the salt & grit from snow or something much worse & am I causing more harm by continuing to drive it ?? .. Any suggestions would be much appreciated Read more

Nikkita

I'll call a garage tomorrow, I'm sure something did happen when it was in their hands.
Thanks Dave

SteelSpark

Following my earlier thread about service intervals, I had a look at the online booking form.

tinyurl.com/ycn7pwy

Looks like the service is £175 (I am assuming that the first 12 month service is an interim service), but on the form there are 4 items that they claim are "Ford recommendations", specifically:

* Air con treatment
* Pollen filter replacement
* Oil-top up
* Brake fluid change

Elsewhere on the page there are prices for the pollen filter (£39.99), the air con treatment (£29.99) and the brake fluid change (£55). There is no indication of a price for the oil top up.

Because these are not included in the main service price, I am guessing that they must purely be optional extras, so not having them done would still mean that the car had a full service history. Is that right?

I always thought that oil top up was something that you would do yourself (I checked it a while back and the level was fine). Maybe for the convenience it would be OK to have it done during the service, but as an optional extra I guess they would plan to charge (although I also expected that a bit of extra oil would be included, must only take a few seconds).

Just wondered if anybody had any thoughts on whether I should select any of these options, or just go for the standard service.

The car is an 09 reg Mondeo Zetec, with about 7,000 miles on the clock.

Any input appreciated. Thanks.


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smokie

It's quick, but does it in an unbusy style and is smooth so you don''t notice the speed. Took me a while to get used to six gears, and to get best fun performance you need to use the gears a bit - not excessively though (and I now keep trying to go from fifth to reverse when driving SWMBOs Focus!)

Mine is in dark grey with the gangsta black windows - which I wouldn't have spec'd, but actually look v good IMO. It has all the Titanium X bits plus some extras - sun roof, reversing sensors front & rear, Converse display, inbuilt SatNav etc etc. Consumption is really best not talked about - I don't tend to welly it too much and I'm only getting around 28 mpg overall. In fact since losing the fuel card which I had when I bought the car, I am considering trying to find a straight(ish) swap for a 2.2 diesel - not too many about with the spec and reasonable mileage though.

1400ted


Going to Yorkshire on Saturday morning, we were on the M60 at it's busiest point, the Worsley Interchange.
We were in the Note doing about 65 in the middle with a stream of traffic, passing a slower stream which was letting other cars in from 2 slip roads close together.
Busy as usual, everyone jockeying to get in the proper lane together with cars trying to cross the two ' on ' slips to get off at the next ' off ' , a couple of hundred yards up.

We were overtaken in the overtaking lane by a small truck, the next size up to a Transit type. About a 3 tonner, He must have been doing about 80. That wasn't all, he was towing a 4 wheel trailer...the type you'd carry a small excavator on ! It didn't look happy, bouncing up and down! No police around, of course. Do these people know the law or do they just blunder dangerously along without a clue as to what they're doing ?
Or just don't they care ?
I once had a small van pass me on this busy section, weaving about a bit, with the driver swigging away at a bottle of what looked like Scotch......no mobiles in those days, the best you could do was hope to come across a patrol car on one of it's ' perches '.

Here endeth the rant !

Ted
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1400ted

That occurred to me as well, GS.
Plenty of Caravans stolen over the years, so why not a trailer.
If they needed one for a job, so much cheaper than hiring !

Ted

drumguy

Hi HJ,

I have bought an "approved used" Toyota Avensis Estate.

Prior to collection I emphasised to the sales personnel that I required a Full Toyota Service Stamped History as a condition of the sale. This they said was no problem. They said it existed and they would get it. I trusted them - saw no reason not to - I mean it's Toyota !!!!!!!

On collection the salesman said he would "post" the service and other documents out with the car. I told him that I was very unhappy about this.

I met with a Toyota Manager today and for the first time held the service history in my hands. On inspection it reveals an incomplete service schedule.

I think the car should have a minor service every 10,000/every year and a "Health & Safety Service" every 20,000/two years. The actual history is :-

Service 1 @ 14/11/06 Miles 4759
Service 2 @ 1/11/07 Miles 21236
Service 3 @ 31/1/10 Miles 45779

The Toyota Manager having contacted the previous owner said that the vehicle had not been serviced at the specified intervals due to the previous owners "financial problems". I feel I have been deceived. I feel that Toyota bought a "bargain" and then sold the car to me as "approved used" I suspect now that they did this in full knowledge from the outset since a service record was never evident until after collection.

My major issues are that they can't fix a service history and I'm worried that the car is a liability for my ownership.

Any opinions welcome. Read more

drumguy

Hi - thanks for all your replies and the useful advice - just to clarify :-

1. It's a 2.2 D

2. Toyota did service the car before sale. However, after 24,000 miles of a gap they only did a 50,000 interim service (or 10,000 schedule not the 20,000???!!). This made me even more annoyed. Complete cheapskates. They griped about changing a tyre, new brake discs and pads but never changed some of the fluids & filters that they should after 24,000 or 2years 3months of a gap.

3. I've stopped using the car after around 200 miles until it's resolved.

cheers

drumguy

Tommk4

As in the title, the red immobilizer LED under the clock in my escort van does not flash as it should when the ignition is off.

I know the LED is working as it lights up solidly for a few seconds once the key is in the ignition.

What is this symptomatic of? I guess it means the immobilizer is not activated, is this the case? and if so, why? Read more

Biker Bones

Just had a little spin in the ford fiesta courtesy car weve got untill tomorrow night while our citroen c2 is off the road . The fiesta has only done 400 miles and i have to admit its a cracking drive and very funky inside . The girlfriend has fallen in love with it , gonna be a bit of a comedown back to our c2 but nevermind maybe one day we can dream lol Read more

Dodge

Had the diesel out on rental for a week.
Good points - Looks good from outside, nice colours

Bad points

poor driving position - visibility bad
too heavy
noisy engine
cramped interior - feels smaller inside than the car it replaced
poor switch gear (already breaking)
much too expensive
Why would you buy one of these when a discounted Focus is similar money?

The Corsa (not perfect) is a much better deal and more importantly at the right price.