August 2010
I'm a time served mechanic in the trade now 25years and just want to alert all mazda owners to the recurring problem I have seen on many mazda's of blocked oil pickup strainers. The first warning you as the driver will notice is the odd flicker of the oil light often only at higher revs.DO NOT BE TEMPTED TO PASS THIS SYMPTOM OFF AS A GLITCH.... IT IS SERIOUS. Have the sump removed and clean the strainer (after removing it from the oilpump) .If confirmation is required that this is a problem in your case then have the oil pressure tested. If the oil pressure remains low at 1500rpm and above (in some cases pressure has even been observed to drop as the engine rev's increase) then you have a "cloggage". These cars have smaller oil strainers than some of the other manufacturers and this makes them less tolerant of irregular servicing and the consequent carbon deposits that build up in all internal combustion engines
Failure to take action nearly always ends in disaster for the engine ie at best failure of crank bearings and in many cases total siezure Read more
Hi all,
I am thinking of buying a car for my wife. Here is the context:... Read more
Yes I was going to say something similar! Change the oil and filter regularly and most Daihatsus will run on and on. They don't rust like they used to either which helps!
We’ve tried some cars and read up on others and the only one still In the frame to replace my wife's 7 year old Toyota Corolla Verso is the B class Merc despite it being a bit expensive.
... Read more
Absolutely, 659. I had a B200 CDI automatic for nearly two years - until I could stand the drone no longer. The combination of 4 cylinders + Mercedes diesel + CVT transmission is not one I'd ever like to come across again.
For 6,000 miles a year you don't need a diesel and you'll never recover the extra cost, and I'm not sure even the better resale value is enough to make up for this. If you particularly like diesel, there's nothing wrong with another Verso, which I think can be had as an automatic....
Went to hire a rof box for our hols today. The S-max has fixed points under covers on the roof. All going well until, when tightening the bolt holding the rack to the roof, the guy fitting it sheared the bolt flush with the hole.
He drilled down the broken stud but it did not fully remove and the bar is now held firmly with a self tapping screw into the hole left by drilling... Read more
Firstly, I'd be a bit pee'd off with the fitter. He should have felt something was wrong as he was tightening the bolt before it sheared.
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Did anyone else watch this program
Once again we have a program that is giving out the politically correct massage speeding kills. to illustrate the fact the program rolled out a number of clips from reckless criminals and the tragic story of a young girl left brain damaged by some rich irresponsible yob driving a powerful car, stupidly. It also had a demonstration that a car going faster takes longer to stop! Now that is news.
It illustrates the stupidity of these that make our laws, surely 19 year olds, or these that just passed their test should not be allowed to drive fast cars on public roads
The program claims 40% of road deaths are due to speeding, therefore 60% are not
These programs should get across the dangers of tailgating, not indicating, not putting the headlights on in bad weather and so on and not just go on and on and on about the dangers of speed and then show irrelevant examples Read more
Mothers ( & fathers) should be banned from transporting their offspring in the same vehicle.
been there & had it done to me ..... by the children rather than the Polis....
My Father has a 2002 52 plate 320d on 44k. Around 6 weeks ago, the car began to smoke and burn oil. Turbo failure was ultimately diagnosed and the turbo was duly replaced. EGR valve, etc, was cleaned, exhaust system thoroughly cleaned. Anyway, the smoking continued after the period in which the residue of the engine oil would normally have been burned off. The smoke is white. When left to idle under some load oil is depsoited on the road from the exhaust. The oil level is gradually declining at a slow rate. The car however is running very well and there is no loss of pressure. Current thinking at the garage is that there is a problem with the head or the block more generally. It looks like the engine is generating 2-3 times the pressure that it should and is forcing oil through the system. It is recommended that a pressure test on the block be carried out. Any thoughts or advice would be most welcome.
Regards,
Anthony Read more
I would agree with you but there is pressurisation and smoke, time will tell.
is it just me or has the Autotrader website become unuseable. There is now so much unrelated advertising that my PC can't load it. Each refresh takes upto a minute. What other sites are good apart from Exchange and Mart and Petrolheads? Read more
Confirmed the browser issue to myself yesterday, round my brother's last night on a fairly slow antique computer, he was trying desperately to show me something on Autotrader (IE8) - page just hanging - cut and paste url into FireFox - pow, instant access no problems.
Does anyone know what the definition of fair wear and tear is ?
I've looked on AA & RAC websites and didn't see anything useful.... Read more
The new company is one of all too many short-term thinkers who can't see that if they take that attitude your employer will go elsewhere as soon as the contract expires.
Unfortunately I can't see that happening, because this new company offers these "tax efficient" car leases whereby through financial smoke and mirrors the company is able to claim the AMAP tax relief due to employees when less than 40/25ppm is claimed by the driver (company pays nowhere near either of those figures - the less they pay the driver, the more tax relief they can claim).
To me it's not far removed from tax fraud, how they can force an employee to sign over their personal tax relief is beyond me, but they can and do. If you decide that scheme is not for you, and to take the monthly payment instead and run your own car - you still have to sign over your AMAP tax relief before they will pay the monthly sum, which is enough to buy a 1 year old Vectra, pay for it over 4 years and hope to hell nothing goes wrong with it, all the while trying to get 50mpg from your car of you're going to be out of pocket on every trip.
Why the Government don't close that loop hole, I have no idea. I saw on some fleet websites there were murmurings of the Govt either decreasing the ppm allowances or dropping the 40ppm/10,000 mile limit to maybe even half that, so valid, individual users (claimers) of AMAP relief are going to get hammered financially because of abuse by big companies.
Kancho for PM - I know what I'd do about it.
Hi. I had an unfortunate incident yesturday in my work car park. My car wouldnt start so had to push it back to get start leads to the engine. When i pushed it back my abs wouldnt work as the engine was off so no brakes. As a result i bumped into some girls car and dented her front left side wing. So i went back into work and asked at reception whos car it was. They made a call on the radio and some girl came out. I showed her to her car and described what happened. I said i would pay for the costs rather than going for insurance. She then pointed out some marks near the headlight which had red paint and claimed i did that also. My car is silver and so is hers. All i had done was a dent directly above the wheel and minute scratches. She has an 02 plate vw polo. She had a few bumps all round the car and scratches. She went on to say her father works in a garage and that it would cost £600+ and she would take it there in the morning. I wasnt in the mood to argue and was waiting for her father to say it would cost 100/150 max.
So i saw her the next day and she said her father told her to go to another garage in which they said it would cost 500/600 and she wanted to go through insurance. I know this is a lie and she must know someone within the garage who is going to pull a fast one. ... Read more
Ideally you should have taken pictures at the time of impact so you could show where the damage was. Take a photo of the damage you admit and also for the additional damage she is claiming - particularly showing the other paint colour.
You are only responsible for the damage you caused not for any other damage and if it could not have been caused by you or shows a different paint colour any loss adjuster would recgonise this and will disallow the claim....
any help please. i have a 306 hdi that suddenly would not start. i have found there is no fuel comming from the pump driven by the cambelt.
low presure pump working in tank. fuel being deliverd to filter and main pump but not comming out of pump to common rail and injectors.... Read more
The ecu will only try to fire the injectors if it detects enough pressure in the fuel rail. Dont start taking any of the high pressure sytem apart - very very high pressure and single use connections.
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Changing the oil frequencey wont have any effect (or little) as once the strainer is blocked its blocked.
To check the Torque settings on the injetor (no 1 in my and most cases) would solve also be of help Takes again minutes....