February 2010
My wife's car is playing up (again). The engine warning light it on continuously and the fan stays on once the car has warmed up. I've checked the oil and water levels and they are OK. I've also felt the rad hoses - the top one is hot and bottom one is cold. If its something as simple as the thermostat sticking closed- would this cause the engine warning light to illuminate?? Does anyone know if my guess is right?? or are there 2 separate issues with the car?? Read more
My golf mk4 02 1.9 TDI 150 PD is badly playing up, it is now overfuelling badly and blowing out loads of white smoke, you can just smell neat diesel?
As well as this it is rough in idle, drives poorly with little or no power, and struggles to start in the mornings (even though it cranks fine, just wont catch and kick in)?
Quick background to the car, initially at 300rpm it intermittently judders and throws out black smoke, changed maf, changed turbo pipes, but no joy. More recently vagcom picked up fault code 16688- intermittent misfire on injector 4, changed it twice with no improvement, replaced with same injector i had originally, then changed round injector 3 (known to be working) with injector 4, still gave the same code, saying injector 4 misfire, also changed injector wiring loom!!!
please help, as i am running out of ideas and money!
thanks in advance. Read more
Earlier today I was in a local supermarket car park. Car reversing out and I heard the scraping of car against car. Looked across and front bumper of the reversing car was in touch and damaging the rear bumper of the other.
Driver had to pull forward again before they could reverse out (thought they were parking). I took picture of rear of car to get reg number. But she wasn't going to stop! She then got out saying she never touched the other car. Yet there is damage to both cars! She then drove off.
I have passed on details to the driver and they are pursuing it. The fact it wasn't my car etc. is one thing but I won't want her getting away with it. What else would you have done??
I bet their partner will be interested when they see the damage - worse on their car. And if it was not from this time they've done it before! Read more
I never witness these things - they happen to me!
Most recently a new white scrape has appeared on the rear bumper of my car. Coincidentally a red (my car colour) scrape has appeared on a neighbouring persons (white) van. Has he come forward and admitted he did it? Has he heck as like. Can I prove he did it? Not likely.
Hi
We're in the process of looking for a replacement for our Zafira. We want something with more boot space. We never use the 2 back seat so even with them permanently folded we need more space! We're looking at larger estates and 4x4's. With a budget of around £15k we are struggling to find the best option. Top of the list so far is the Pathfinder, a fully specced Aventura, 56/07 plate, manual, diesel. This is based on size and reasonable running costs and not too big a list of common faults.
Any suggestions will be much appreciated.
Thanks Read more
Mitsubishi Warrier?
To cover what's happening in front, behind, all around..?
Any recommendations?
Any ways of modifying non-specific equipment to use in such a capacity? Read more
I'm sold. I just bought one via www.dogcamsport.co.uk/ Will see how i get on with it once it arrives. Looks to be well thought out & feature complete.
Have one of those two. excellent bit of kit.
Every time a thread starts on leasing I get ready to put this question but the thread gets closed before I get a chance.
I normally buy a car new or ex-demonstrator, keep it for 3 years and trade it in. Partly because thats the usual warranty expiry and partly due to me getting bored with cars.
My last Scenic was on a PCP and at the end of 3 years, I paid the final payment and traded it in for my Altea and I think I got, in effect, £1k for it. Current Altea is on 5 year loan, my theory being this was the car I was going to keep as it would last through the "ferrying the kids about stage".
I have looked at how much cars cost me over the years and know that I would be quite well off if I hadn't constantly changed cars. But its a cost I can afford and choose to do. I long to be one of these drivers who keeps their car for 10 years, runs it into the ground until it owes them nothing. But I think I would get bored too quickly!
Having said all that, I have looked at various leasing sites and see that I could pay roughly what I am currently paying just now and get a comparable car. But the car will never be mine. I know that is probably no different to always having a loan on it that is roughly the same as the value of the car! But to me its a huge pyschological barrier!
Maybe I have this theory that everytime I sell a car I would have a couple of grand in equity on it, and over time I would eventually be able to be loan free on a decent car. But thats not happened in 20 odd years of buying cars. Yes I know it could very easily be if I just kept my cars for a longer time, or went for much cheaper cars.
If I am resigning myself always to be paying a monthly car loan, then leasing is probably the way to go. But at some stage in my life, I will want a car thats mine and don't want to be starting from scratch with it. Is this where your pension lump sum comes in :)
So my question really is, of private buyers who have went down the leasing road, what was your thought process? Do you just treat it as another monthly cost , like utilities, community charge etc? Did you cost it versus loans / depreciation etc?
But can I stress, please no mention of companies, websites, suppliers names as I don't want this thread closed!! :)
Read more
It's a fair point to mention Bill Payer but the poster you refer to only visited here once to grumble about two VW related issues and never returned. It did also sound like his daughter had knocked the Polo about. Poster said it had only done 9000mls in 2 yrs yet it had dents in doors, scuffed bumpers, damaged wheeltrims and tyres at the legal limit. The poster said he paid £1500+ himself to get it in a decent condition to hand back to avoid the lease people charging £1700. That must have been one abused car or the validity of the story is in doubt.
My contract clearly states all the conditions expected for paint/body, interior, alloys, tyres, glass etc in such detail there can be little room for argument. They allow quite a degree of normal wear and tear... more than I'd expected. The 9yr old Mondeo I've just sold for £1500 would have passed their end of lease requirements!
The missus is talking about buying a wee single axle caravan, it's around 700kg, which, I'm led to believe, is under the towing weight for our old 306 DT, I'm just not so sure, it's one thing towing something a couple of miles, but not up and down 200 miles of M6. Do you think we'd be better off getting something bigger?
TIA! Read more
It's the gross plated weight of the trailer that gets added to the gross plated weight of the car - no weighing is necessary by plod/gendarme/polizei etc - just simple addition so most of them can do that !
So you might be illegal even with an empty trailer.
Does any people have any views or thoughts on the relative strengths and weakesses of VW/Audi TDI CR engines v's Peugeot HDI engines. I am intersted in aspects of design that influence durability, reliability and performance. Any views or thoughts would be appreciated. A non scientific scan of the backroom archives suggest that VW/Audi reliability is pretty poor given all the marketing hype. I have had a look at the breakdown section........on this site,
Many thanks Read more
Yep our ideas about caring for these are similar. Even though mine is on contract and under 3yr warranty I'll ask the dealer for a bargain price interim 6k oil change.
Regarding getting all the old oil out. One example on that engine is that some oil is retained in the oil filter housing casting... the only way to get it all out is by using the vacuum extractor probe poked in the recess!!
Hello all, I'm at my wits end with our problem child of a Lupo, I'm hoping someone can help!
The car is a 1.4 S (75bhp) on 96K
The car has developed a horrendous misfire that is only cured by stopping and switching off the engine, restarting clears it and it can be driven again, sometimes for half a mile, other times for 15+.
Strangely when the misfire comes, its at all revs, including idle but it never stalls out, the car also seems to be drinking fuel and when the misfire occurs there is a hot smell coming out of the exhaust. No warning lights show and the car is not overheating
The car had a basic service (plugs,filters (not fuel) and oil) less than 300miles ago. My Wife has been saying for some time it felt down on power.
The latest problem came after we ran the tank low, first thought were some crud had been sucked through but the switch off/reset/restart thing is really confusing me!
Hope someone can help
Matt Read more
Thanks for taking the time and trouble to post the update after the 'quiet period' (but hope I won't need it for my daughter's 1.4 Lupo!)
Mazda 6.... 6 months old and under 20,000 miles on the clock.
This morning it drove absolutely fine. 2 new front tyres were needed so called in a national tyre chain's mobile tyre fitting service, who put on 2 Good Year Eagle NCTs.
Driving it immediately afterwards, noticed that the steering wheel is now off centre - i.e. when driving in a straight line the steering wheel points very slightly to the left..... and if you hold the wheel dead centre the car steers very slightly to the right.
Took it back to a branch of the national tyre chain that fitted the new tyres and they laser checked the tracking and confirmed all is OK. They re-balanced the tyres and refitted the wheels.
Problem is still the same.
Have noticed that the one wheel seems to have a lot of weights inside the wheel rim, and when they were trying to balance the wheel they seemed to be having difficulty.
Any thoughts? Read more
My 08 Mazda 6 2.5 sport developed the same off centre steering wheel problem which seemed to happen overnight. I took it to a national tyre chain to check the tracking. They told me that speed humps and pot holes could cause the problem. They made adjustments and told me that everything was now spot on and to come back in a fortnight for re-checking. Despite this the problem remained. I told them that I had recently had two new tyres put on the front and asked if this could cause the problem. The mechanic (a term I use with reservation) told me that there was absolutely no possibility of a connection between the too. It was now becomming a problem that was difficult to live with. I was desparate to get to the bottom of it, as i was concerned that there maybe a more serious issue. I decided to try another garage to get the car checked out, they suggested that laser and digital steering geometry setup was the answer to my problems. I handed over my 25 quid and hey presto... the problem was still there, if anything a tad worse. In desparation I asked them to swap my new tyres to the rear. Would you Adam and Eve it, the steering wheel was now dead centre once more. So before spending any money try swapping the tyres round first, it may just work for you too.
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many people have suggested this to me on forums, but the mechanic doesnt agree, when looking at the injectors i did see a very slight scratch on one of the 'diamondish/triangle' shaped lobes, but he said it was nothing to be concerned about.
how easy is it to check the cam shaft, and all the lobes, bearings etc....
and would that create all the symptoms i am having?? as i cant see how it would be related myself?