April 2013
Ian Crowder, of the AA, replies: Your correspondent is right, a new MoT test regime came into effect from March 20 which sadly means that many older cars may well end up on on the scrapheap as repairs may be just too expensive to justify.
For instance, an airbag fault or if the airbags have passed their expiry date would be a MoT test failure and the cost of fitting new airbags is very high.... Read more
I was disappointed to se HJ peddling this dogma in the Telegraph. For the Aunt Minnies of this world it is an expense they can well do without.
I changed the oil and filter in my TR7 in 1989 [51,000m], 1993 [56,000] 1997 [58,000] and 2002 [60,800]. It still runs perfectly and I shall change it this year [67,000ish] when it gets a bit warmer. Let's have a bit of educated common sense here, oil doesn't go 'off' significantly after a mere 365 days! Does anyone else still subscribe to this outdated claptrap?... Read more
Triumph TR7 aka "The Shape of Things to Come" - I remember them as just a joke of a sports car when they were launched.......
2-litre Tdci, 47k miles, mixed use including local, long motorway trips and towing. The car was serviced by the book until about 4 years old, and annually since then. All done by local Ford dealer. Last service a month ago.
Car starts first time and runs well, with plenty of power and nicely smooth. Fuel consumption has been between 40 and 50 mpg since purchase. However, over the last 9 months it has started to smoke a bit on startup. The engine starts fine, but for the first 10 seconds or so it seems to run very rough with a noisy rattle, and it puts out a fair bit of white smoke, which smells very dieselly, like an old railway locomotive. Once the 10 seconds is past, it runs normally. This normally only happens when it has been standing overnight. Subsequent starts during the day are as normal.
I had something very similar on an old Land Rover, and it was one of the glow plugs that had failed. Easy fix. That's my first thought with this one, but I wondered if anyone had any further ideas. It's not a huge problem and I can live with it, but if there was a known issue and known fix it would be good to sort it out. I am reasonably competent and have a good toolkit. Thanks in advance for any suggestions. Read more
Mine has passed an MoT in this condition with no advisories. It only happens when the engine is cold. As the MoT is carried out with the engine at running temp, it doesn't seem to affect the smoke test. Work has been mental recently, but I will get on with checking this out in the next few days.
With the warm weather of the last few days, the problem has almost disappeared.
wife bought the car new in feb 2012 from arnold clark glasgow , got full service end jan 2013 at same garage - 5000 miles . engine temp light came on on way home from work , topped up coolant and light went off and ok for rest of week . went on motorway following week and light came on again , pulled in at services and topped up again an light went off , decided to drive home instead of carrying on , light came on again on motorway and pulled off at nearest exit , car broke down . got rac to tow it to same garage , got report later that there was a faulty coolant pipe and the engine had overheated to failure , vauxhall say they wont repair car under warranty because it was driven 59 miles from time light first came on till last time even tho it went off inbetween , they say she drove the car to destruction and want £4000 for replacement engine , where do we stand ? Read more
on board computer print out mate , cars are far too clever these days !
Our 2009/58 pathfinder aventura 2.5 d manual has had this fault since we got it at a year old.
Engine will go into limp mode for no reason upon pulling away from a junction under load no MIL no Error codes just de-rates to limp mode!!... Read more
Hi I no this was a while ago but I've not long bought a nissan pathfinder 2007 dci and I'm having exactly the same problem. Any help would be much appreciated.
Hello
Can anyone out there please advise, if Ford ever issued a GENUINE space saver spare wheel with any of their passenger cars ?... Read more
Many thanks to Thunderbird for the confirmation and thanks to all who replied.
Thank you, Pauline.
hi.
...err...HELP?!... Read more
Was interested to hear this discussion as I recently bought a new car. Have been driving it around since I took delivery in May but when the V5 arrived this week it shows the car was indeed first registered by the dealer on the day I bought it ... but to the dealer, not me. It was only 3 weeks later that the dealer registered it to me. So not only am I now the 2nd owner of my 'new' car but also I appear to have been driving illegally and possibly with invalid insurance, as I declared it was new and that I was the registered owner when taking out the policy.
The dealer is making very little of this, insisting this is common practice and that there is no loss of value. Does anyone have a view?
cvh fuel injection over fueling what sensors could be faulty and how to fault find?
which engine would bolt straight on to the cvh gearbox to replace the cvh motor Read more
This is a Ford Fiesta with a different badge.hth
Car has been running reliably since new, but recently we had have the head off, skimmed & replaced, together with a new coolant tank. Since then there have been two problems:
1) The coolant warning alarm goes off when it is first driven, but not on subsequent trips once warmed up. Since the transducer is part of the new coolant tank it should be ok. ... Read more
Did you have to disturb the main engine earth during the recent work? Might be worth checking it's tight and not corroded.
Occasionally when we go to unlock our VW Golf TDI 140PS (Sept 2011), we find all four windows about a quarter open. We always lock the car with the remote and ensure all the windows are closed when we leave. The spontaneous opening has happened more than once, but so far, we been lucky and rain hasn't got into the car. Has anyone else experienced this problem? Read more
I'm with TC, you're pressing the unlock button accidently whilst it's in your pocket and you're within radio range of the car (which could be 100m).
With my work colleague it was even simpler than that. As soon as I told her about the feature, a ray of light dawned....
Browse
.jpg)
If it's fitted it has to work. OK so take them out. Thats an MOT pass isn't it. Reductio ad absurdam.