August 2012
On this car (semi-automatic with an automated clutch), if you left-foot brake with the throttle open, there is an almighty thud from the transmission, the engine unwinds to idle (c. 1000 rpm) and refuses to answer the throttle pedal for a good 30 seconds.
The selling garage's service chap said, 'why would you want to brake whilst accelerating?' to which I replied 'to keep the engine alive whilst shaving a little bit off the speed', but they would not accept that. OK, it looks a little odd on the face of it but I always found LF braking faster and safer on my 51-reg Mondeo, plus I really do not appreciate being left without the power to get away from a (hypothetical) 32-tonner standing on his brakes just behind me. Can I reject the car as not fit for purpose on those grounds?
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My Skoda Fabia 1.9 SDI had vibrations though the Steering Wheel when Braking Softly at low speeds. There was no vibration through the Brake Pedal. I was advised to get my Discs and Pads Changed so I got this done and the Vibrations are still there. There is also a clunking noise when I hit a bump and the Front left tyre is worn on the inside each. Anyone any ideas whats causing this?
Thanks Read more
Have you checked the lower ball joint for play?
Broken spring, might look OK but a piece might of fallen off, try counting number of coil turns on both sides. Don't think this would cause tyre wear....
Hi I was wondering about purchasing an economical car and one has been offered to me. Honda Civic 1.4i VTech . Trouble is the mileage is very high at 160000. I am only going to need it for a short period of time and the person is selling it for £600 , It comes with full service history . I would love to hear anyone's opinions , Read more
Not quite, IIRC the Acclaim was a 4 door Civic. At the time you couldn't get a 4 door Civic but the interiors of the Acclaim and 3 door Civic were virtually the same. Similar front grille too.
The Ballade was indeed a later 213/216 clone (or vice versa)...
Hi,
For a few months I've had a problem with my heating in my 1997 Ford Ka. Whatever I set the temperature dial to, it has no effect on the air tempurature. As far as I can tell it's just feeding through cold air without any heating whatsoever.... Read more
You need to put a test light or meter across the two wires.One wire is ignition supply and the other is a switched pulsed earth return from the heater control panel.hth
Ah I see I thought it was just some sort of positive pulse so was holding it to an earth! Now that I've done it correctly, I can see that the signals are indeed being generated as they should be. I.e. 12V with a drop down pulse every few seconds at 50% on the thermostat control....
hi folks
was looking for some advice iv had a good look about but nothing reseambles my problem .... Read more
thanks guys i had a few spar glow plugs kickin about so i tryed them and it fired up no problem so hopefully thats it fixed thanks for your advice this is my first desle iv had and you guys saved me alot of hassle with fault finding thanks again
With respect to the C Crosser (Aka Peugeot 4007, Aka Mitsubishi Grandis).
I am thinking of "chipping" the 2.2. Diesel engine, this looks good....
www.dieseltuningbox.com/store/index.php?route=prod...3
Anyone have any experience of DTS?
Here's another one, but it is £100 more.
www.chipexpress.com/products/290/
comments?... Read more
They look like an amateurish outfit. Glossy website but not a huge amount of history or substance.
Not sure how much choice you'll have in South Africa though!
I am having problems with my new secondhand meriva - its a 2006 version and has the anoying habit of increasing revs after releasing the throttle after the engine has been under load in a low gear and you try to change up. This happens for instance when climbing a hill and the revs get to 2500+ for a while and then you change up - it increases the revs before settling back. The garage (Vauxhall main dealer) has put on the up to date engine management software and checked it but cant find a fault and dont seem to know what to do next - any ideas what it is? Read more
Hello all,
Problem which I 'think' I know the answer to, but Im not very car-savvy!
4 days ago, noticed a small leak of water directly under the coolant-tank. Filled it back up, didnt think anything else of it and car has been running fine...until yesterday morning when I heard a constant clicking sound from under the bonnet and noticed 110° on the temperature gauge.
Immediately stopped, pulled car over, opened bonnet: smoke coming from oil-tank and water.coolant tank.
Left it for 4 hours to cool and carried out following tests:
1 - re-filled water-coolant tank, left cap OFF and started engine - left for 2-3 mins - water just constantly bubbling away at same level
2 - replaced water-coolant tank and started engine revving on-and-off for 1-2 minutes - water pouring out of overflow-pipe in side of coolant tank.
Also noticed light-grey smoke coming from exhaust-pipe with some water residue - although this smoke only appeared when I really revved the engine.
It is an OLD car, mid-90s...what other specific tests can I carry out to identify whether this is radiator-based or head-gasket?
Many thanks for any/all advice Read more
If its expelling the water that quickly that you cant drive it far I would say definitly the gasket, possibly a cracked head.
hi i have a ford mondeo 2002 diesel. without warning the heater fan will blow maximum cold air on my feet even when its set on 2 and supposed to be blowing air on the windscreen. if i switch the engine off it resets itself. thanks Read more
hi i have a ford mondeo 2002 diesel. without warning the heater fan will blow maximum cold air on my feet even when its set on 2 and supposed to be blowing air on the windscreen. if i switch the engine off it resets itself. thanks
hi an update. it was the manual heater control. gotta 2nd hand one £8.98 it works fine now
It used to be a common fault with LR Disco's that the rear floor panel used to succumb to the dreaded rust big. There was a fix in that you could buy a floor panel section and have welded in.
Just learnt that daughters X Trail (Nissan O4) the rear floor panel is suffering badly with rust. Cannot seem to find a similar solution panel on the Web.... Read more
the rear floor panel is suffering badly with rust
Could have been crashed and repaired badly, no warranty in this case unless repair carried out by Nissan authorised repairer I suspect.
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Heated though it became, I appreciate this thread. We have a new C4 eHDi. Several times I've been caught - in flat, sedate, town driving - with the engine in what is colourfully called 'sulk' or limp mode here. Once it nearly caused an accident; other times I've worried the car would snap out of the sulk and accelerate violently. The only cure I've found seemed to be to depress the brake fully - and I was attributing the issue to a problem with stop-start system.
I think I better understand the issue as an interactive one. In town driving I unconsciously find myself sometimes balancing the forward motion by little braking in between accelerating. I barely knew I did it - but remember I developed a left foot usage working the ancient clutch on my old DS21, then must have carried that over to the Subaru 1999 wagon we had - especially on hill starts - whose standard automatic transmission could handle left foot braking occasionally overlapping with gentle right foot acceleration.
I think I'll eliminate the stop-start theory by switching off the ECO mode and proving that the problem can be deliberately generated.
But I'm grateful to the posters here for giving this mechanical/electronic illiterate up the language to talk about the problem with a service mechanic, and some reassurance that I'm not imagining the problem or experiencing something irrational or unique to my car.