January 2011
Have been looking to buy this model, mostly with 80,000 mls (to bring into my price bracket) and would appreciate feedback from previous/existing owners. Thanks.
my sharan diesel is running badly. at low revs its fine but when i ask for full throttle the turbo comes in and out. i found a small hole in the waste gate vacume pipe and have since changed this. the waste gate linkage seems to move ok. its not seized. i have had a new air mass fitted and its been on the vag computer and didnt show any faults. the mechanic said could be the turbo but at the prices they are i need to be sure.
any help will be greatly appreciated. Read more
Sounds like an electronic or sensor problem, could be to much boost pressure. Outside my experience I'm afraid, I have only recently got my first 'electronic' diesel.
Hoping someone might be able to help me locate an issue I'm having. The car is a 2005 Focus Ghia 2.0 (obviously petrol). A couple of days ago I was driving to work and the car started to feel very sluggish on acceleration - not jolting in any way as if to indicate fuel starvation, and the closest way I can describe it would be to say it was like driving with the handbrake on. A couple of minutes later the engine warning light came on. My first call to Ford proved unhelpful, with no mechanic willing to talk to me unless I booked it in for a diagnostic check at £85.00. So I called my local independent who have been great in the past with other cars of mine and they confirmed they could run a diagnostic for me. I took the car in the following morning - warning light still showing but by now the car was driving fine, until I got near the garage and it started going sluggish again.
Diagnostics indicated an issue at the inlet manifold but the garage could find nothing wrong with the car, which by now was driving fine again, and all they could suggest was that I approach a main dealer if I wanted to investigate the issue further. They finally reset the diagnostic which cleared the engine warning light. I picked the car up from them, it felt fine, and an hour later it was starting to go sluggish again. The following day the warning light came back on after 20 minutes, but the car drove fine, no issues at all!!!
I've now had the engine light on for a couple of days and what I can confirm is that when the car is running cold it acts normal, and it's not until about 30-50 minutes in to a journey that I start having this power drain problem. There are a couple of other symptoms which have ever so slightly started to appear - last night when I parked up I could smell the catalytic converter quite a bit, and I've had the odd exhaust pop and the engine overall sounds a little louder than normal, but not engine noise, more exhaust noise.
I know the issue has to be electrical, but I've no idea where to start and I'm keen to avoid expensive main dealers charging silly labour rates. I have read some stuff pointing at air mass meters which might explain the symptoms and why the error code pointed to the inlet manifold. I'm reluctant to just start changing parts when I don't know if they're to blame, but if they're relatively cheap parts to buy and easy to fit then I'm willing to give it a go.
I'd appreciate anyone who can take the time to reply with any thoughts or suggestions. Read more
I would have thought a misfire would be a constant issue? It has only 'popped' once and I've driven it 30 odd miles since and not had it pop once or act sluggish.
I have just placed an order for a Nissan Juke Tekna 4x4. At the present time Nissan in Japan can not give a delivery date for this model, but it may be June/July. Currently there are about 190 cars on back order for the UK.
This great looking car seems to be a hit. I was surprised to find, that the cabin is as big as my current Mazda 3 Sport. Yes the boot is smaller but as it is just for the wife and I, it's a winner.... Read more
Nissan confirmed to the Nissan Juke Owners Club - http://www.jukeownersclub.co.uk that the delays are mainly due to the overwhelming success of JUKE worldwide, Nissan are, and have been experiencing parts constraints as a result of suppliers being unable to meet launch growth.
Additional tooling has already been commissioned to increase production capacity. Nissan's supply was further impacted by the heavy snow which fell in the north throughout December, which created a back log into the new year....
I've been looking to purchase a reasonable estate car for under £1,000 and today viewed a very nice Astra 1.6. (16 valve ecotec engine). It seemed to tick all the right boxes: FSH including cambelt, good body, 120k, newish brakes and tyres, drives and sounds just like new, £900. So far so good. But the very decent seeming seller volunteered that the car 'uses' a little coolant (but with no sign of any leak) but that his mechanic had told him this was normal for an Astra.
I'm just slightly worried about this water 'use'. Perhaps I'm barking entirely up the wrong tree here (I really know very little about cars...) but I'm wondering if the head gasket could be just starting to fail? Is there any way that I (or someone more in the know) could properly check this?... Read more
These are generally sound cars when looked after, I would be tempted if your still interested to go back and have another good luck, see if the coolant level has gone down since you last looked and then if you wanted make him an a fair offer, one that would compensate paritly for some work to be done,
If you make a crazy low offer and he accepts, maybe just maybe he knows more about the car than letting on and something is wrong and he want shot ASAP....
I'm having a weird problem, I noticed a burning smell from the drivers side right wheel yesterdat. Smelled like a jammed brake caliper. Applied some WD40 to the caliper to free it up. This morning, came out and the tyre was flat.
I presumed this was co-incidence, so put the spare on this morning. Travelled approx 3 miles earlier, the brake caliper is red hot again, and the spare is now flat. Neither tyre has any sign of damage or a puncture, and the tyres appear to inflate again.... Read more
Hello again all.
The issue was indeed a stuck piston on the caliper. I was unable to free it so changed out the caliper completely, plus fitted new discs and pads (as the discs were badly worn, and the pads had overheated and cracked).
This has sorted the issue, I have tried both tyres on the car and they are working perfectly. Air must have been getting heated up and most likely escaping through the tyre rim. I have had them both tyres checked and resealed just to be on the safe side.
All working fine now and back to normal!
Recently having a injector fault with my 2002 VW Passat 1.9 Tdi. Following all the advice and wiring checks the problem was the faulty injector. I have since had injector #1 replaced and the car seems to be running fine.
The car has been great up till now, it has done 180K with no real problems. The cam belt has been replaced with a full service.... Read more
Solenoid injector failure on VAG PD engines is very rare as long as the fuel system has been properly maintained. Look very carefully at the service record to see how frequently the fuel filter has been changed and also look to see what make of filter is presently fitted. Try to assess the likelihood of substandard or contaminated fuel usage.
Under average UK conditions with "high street" fuel I would recommend changing the filter for a German made component every 30k miles. This allows a fair margin of safety as most retail fuel now sold is very clean....
There are two companies advertising plug in diesel power upgrades,one is Tunit and the other is Turbotune DT. Has anyone had experience with these devices? The companies say these modules increase the power and torque, better fuel economy and less turbo lag. My reason for asking is that I will be towing a caravan and would like to know if installing one of these devices is going to be beneficial and could there be, in the long term damage to the engine. Your opinions would very much be appreciated. Read more
I'm no technician and can't explain it - all I know is that the Turbotune DT I've fitted to my 1.9 renault master has been amazing. Very easy ideed to fit - 10 mins. Started her up and wow. Quieter, smoother, much better throttle response. Pulls so much better. Cruising speed has gone up from a noisy 60 to a comfortable 70. Fuel consumption has gone from 29 to 35 mpg. I've done 3000 miles with it with no problems at all. I wondered if this was placebo at first, so I used the off switch. I managed about 400 yards before stopping and turning it on again. They even give you your money back if after a week you are not convinced. Brilliant.
My November, 2007 (51) X3 SE Diesel Automatic, owned since 6 months old has done 36.000 miles and has been serviced as per manufacturers instructions.
... Read more
Additional to the above, if the car still has an alternator (some modern cars don't!), try unplugging it then take the car for a drive, if the speedo etc problems disappear then your problem is the rectifier in the alternator failing creating electrical "noise" which is confusing the various computers, a replacement alternator + a reset of the DTC codes will be all that's required.
Hi,
My 2003 Fiesta has not been to a dealer since 2005. I bought a cheap fault code reader which will read and clear the fault light no problem.
I have heard that Ford dealers have far more advanced readers that can give Ford specific codes that will not show up on other readers and that their readers/computers will update the ECU software?
Although there is nothing apparent wrong with the car and no codes show on my reader, would it be beneficial to get any ford codes read and ECU updated?
I' also told that disconnecting the battery for 10mins ‘resets’ the ECU and it then relearns all the settings as you drive?
Graham.
Read more
Not sure if the ecu can be updated on that model as it's the more recent models that can be, Yes there is a lot more info off the Ford system but as the saying goes " if it aint broke, don't fix it ! "
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Agree entirely about the aircon. In fact it was the main driver for me getting rid. Had one leak that was very difficult to locate but turned out to be the thing behind the grill (condensor??). Including the fix and the various regasses, investigation work etc, I reckon I spent over £800 fixing a £200 part.
The evaporator is the real worry because that is a dash out job and at garage rates takes two days to replace a part of a few hundred....