February 2010
I have a 1.8 petrol C-max that has developed an unstable idle problem when the car is moving.
When I?m slowing to a stop the rev's will bounce from around 500 to 1000 rpm until the car comes to a complete stop then the engine will return to normal idle revs.
The problem has gotten worse over time and now the car is nearly stalling with the battery light coming on. I have scanned the ECU for but there are none registered.
The car is also often a pain to start normally when been standing overnight the car will start then the rev's just drop off to 0 causing a stall.
I was wondering if anyone on here has had this problem before I start spending £££'s on parts that do not need changing.
Was thinking of changing the Intake Manifold Runner Control valve first
Any help or advice would be much appreciated
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Just before Christmas i was driving the wifes mini when the heater suddenly started blowing cold air and the temp gauge started moving around erraticaly.
upon investigation it appeared that the coolant level was low, took about a litre to top up.
All has been fine but now the level has dropped again .
No Mayo in the oil but coolant does look discolored.
Is this looking like a head gasket failure?
car has only covered 25 k miles, if it is im gutted that a modern car with such low milage and full service history should fail like this.
Car is now out of warenty.
Is there a known problem with theses gaskets? ive read of a few that have failed.
Thanks Daz Read more
Turned out to be the thermostat housing as sugested, cost £180 , thanks for the advice , Daz
I have a 55 plate Corsa 1.2 and the battery is always flat. I know Ive been told to replace it but is there something else which causes a flat battery as opposed to the obvious battery replacement?. I have been having to use jump leads to start it recently, even after a good run the car wont start the following day. ould there be something which is like trickle draining it, or is it the battery which needs replacing.
Kind regards Denn Read more
To add to diddys post, if you have a multimeter you can also check that the alt is charging the battery. Its as simple as putting the meter on the DC volts setting (probably a 20VDC on the dial) and putting the probes on the batt while the engine is running. You should see a voltage of somewhere around 14v - 14.5v.
I have lost all sound from the radio / CD player, this just happened recently. I still have visual display of the radio station or the track being played from the CD, but nothing from the speakers. This is the original (CD 30) vaux system in a 56 reg Astra. Any idea's?? Read more
Hi Gimley. Did you get to the bottom of this? Got into my astra this morning and also have no sound coming from the speakers. Thanks.
Will be getting a fuel card with my new job and will change my (personal) car to something with a MUCH lower CO2 number to minimise the BIK hit. I want to stay with petrol and have found that several companies now do a 1.4 turbo petrol with 120-140 ish horses in an Astra/Focus/Golf sized car.
Anyone got such a car? If so what's it like in the real world? Read more
The 1.4 TSi 122 Golf is on 'back order' of at least 5 months at the moment for a reason - everyone wants this engine. So there is either a consensus or a herd mentality.....
I agree it drives like a 1.8 or even a 2.0 in a low state of tune, however the fuel economy is markedly better than the 1.8 Focus we ran a few years ago and similarly better than the 2.0 MK4 Golf we ran before that (which it also beats on performance).
HJ commented that in Germany they are offering the 1.8 TSi in the Golf as an alternative to the 1.4 TSi for people who don't want to wait, it would (perhaps) be a nice combination (available in the Octavia anyhow), however it doesn't detract from the fact that the 122 TSi / Golf combination is a good one.
Personally I don't care about the complexity, if it breaks it may cost money, it was a lot cheaper in both real and numeric terms than the similarly specced 2.0 Golf MK4 was 10 years ago.
We didn't get (the undoubtedly good) Octavia because it was too big (for a second car), lacked safety equipment and quite simply wasn't a Golf.
My father has a citroen xsara 1.4, on an X plate (which I think is 2000 registered), recently the heater/blower was full on and now has stopped completey.
Any advice/suggestions greatfully received
Thankk you Read more
First place to start is to check for a power supply at the motor.Remove the underdash plastic panel ,below glove box,on passenger side.Locate the heater blower motor and check for power to the thick red lead on a multi plug attached to the motor.The engine needs to be running for this test.hth
Got a 1.2l petrol Vauxhall Corsa as a loan car. Finding it difficult to accelerate fast enough to avoid inconveniencing other road users. Also seems to be flat out at 60mph in fourth gear up my usual long hills. As far as I can tell , maximum engine torque is at 4000 rpm, but it seems very unsympathetic to rev it at least that hard to avoid slowing down between gear changes.
Be glad to get back into my turbo diesel.
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>>>That's interesting - the "B" has 74BHP, and the "D" has 85PS (about 84 BHP), according to HJ's figures (Autotrader's are less generous at 65BHP("B"):80BHP("D").
I'm wondering if that the main reason is that the newer car is fitted with a 3 cylinder Ecotec engine and that to get the emissions down there has been a sacrifice somewhere, like grunt.
Must admit, getting out of a side road in one piece was a challenge, especially with the 2nd gear flat spot.
I'm taking one of the bikes out of mothballs, It's been SORN'd for a while and It's going to need an MoT - now I used to be able to ride to a Test Centre with no MoT and no VEL for a pre-arranged test - now following reading something here a few days ago which suggested I can't do this with a SORN in place - is this right or is the law bonkers ? Read more
I'm not sure where BB is coming from on this as its quite clear that its legal under those circumstances.
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>>>>>>>> thats what i said, i was clarifying an earlier post about sorn and test drives that pugugly was thinking about :-)
If you want to start uphill, in autos, you disengage the parking brake and car will creep forward.
In normal manual (with handbrake), you release clutch and disengage handbrake at same time so car will crawl forward.
How will you do this in an auto where parking is brake is operated by left foot?
PS: For autos, I think foot operated parking brake is a good thing as left foot is no longer decommissioned :)
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In the mid 90's I had a C class manual. Managed OK with the foot handbrake 95% +time.
Only real issue was queuing on a hill in Glasgow ( A Drumlin Hill- very steep) - brake held OK - traffic moved off, so did I BUT then stopped after a few yards - at this point a 3rd leg would have been handy - also wearing a brown trousers would have been advisable.
In the 2 years I had it SWMBO drove it 3 miles and then encountered a hill start and never drove it again.
I changed the engine oil on my focus (1.8 petrol) today but was unable to remove the oil filter. Access was awkward and the filter was tight, I'm not sure when it was last changed because I have only had the car a week.
I put in new oil but left in the old oil filter which was slightly damaged but not punctured. Would there be any detrimental effect to the car by leaving the old filter in? I can either take it to the garage to get them to change just the filter or leave it till the next oil change and do both. If I leave the old filter in will it contaminate the new oil? Read more
Clean it thoroughly, then wind a long length of thin rope round and round and round and round.....starting from the bottom, then pull REALLY hard [obviously anticlockwise]! If you've got enough turns on it won't slip - like a mooring rope wound round a capstan.
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Thanks for the info,
I have looked at the live diagnostics with my code reader and the coolant temperature sensor looks ok.
The MAF sensor being at fault would fit in with a couple of other symptoms, when the is car warm and idling the idle speed is around 700rpm if you try and raise the rpm to say 1200 you tap the accelerator and the rpm rises to around 1600 and will sometimes keep climbing. Also the Long term fuel trim is often above +10% indicating unmetered air is entering the engine.
Going to get the air box out at the weekend and have a look at the MAF sensor.
I was also wondering of the MAP sensor could cause the same issues? I know it is integrated with the intake temperature sensor.