My Brother in Law has owned a 1.8 litre Mazda MX-5 since new, first reg 2005 but the original Panasonic Gel Battery has become so deeply discharged that none of the usual battery revival techniques seem to be effective. The car is left for weeks at a time unused with the alarm armed and as a result the battery becomes deeply discharged. He bought a set of new tyres for it last August and had to get a push start from a pasing Rugby Player when it stalled on the way home and would not restart due to severe chronic battery capacity/output depletion. Since then the car has only been started and driven once (by using jumper leads from a good battery) for about 20 miles, just a few weeks ago after many months of neglect and then more recently trickle charging for more than three weeks (at about half an amp) alternating with normal charging at about 3 to 4 amps. The 'settled open circuit voltage' is always a healthy 12.6 to 12.8 volts but as soon as you apply a load to it, even just sidelights, the voltage falls to below 12 volts and attempting to engage the starter motor/solenoid just results in a rapid clicking noise, at the best, and battery volts falling to below 8 volts, even just on full beam headlamps with the engine not running. Everything else electrics wise seems to be ok and once 'started on the jump leads' the engine ran smoothly and battery volts stabilised at around 14.8 volts with the alternator keeping things all hunky dory!

Does anyone know how to 'disolve or disperse' the heavy sulphation in the honeycomb lead matrix inside this relatively young battery (Owners say that used daily, these batteries can last for over 15 years) to release the full surface area and the associated 200 amps or so necessary to turn the starter motor over?... Read more

My car has covered 36k from new. I had a misfire on Cylinder 1 which was first diagnosed as a coil pack. When this was changed it did not fix it so a compression test revealed there was a deeper problem. With the head off the piston had a piece missing from the top which looked like it had melted. Unfortunately this appears to have scarred the lining of the block. The independent garage have said I will need a replacement engine as the thickness of the block will not allow any rebore. I trust the garage and have inspected the engine. My beef is with VW , this is a DSG model and has not been thrashed by me since new. Will I have any claim against VW that you know off and is this a known problem? Thank you Read more

I have a 2004 1.4 tdci fiesta. Its done 140K. I do 22K a year in it. I am a window cleaner so there's quite a bit of stop and start but also a bit of 60mph throughout the week. I have not been keeping up on my filter/oil changes (as i know i should - very naughty!). Its been getting a bit louder lately - turning the music up higher now. The manual says i should be using 5w30. 5w30/10w40 for top ups. Should i be going with fully synthetic or semi? Any thoughts. I was going to go with Castrol Magnatec Read more

My high level Brake light has failed. Manual says can only be dealt with by Nissan dealer, presumably at high cost. Is the bulb accessible for a D-I-Y fix please? Also not sure if this is an MOT failure but other two brake lights working fine. Thanks. Read more

I had to manually put my roof down on my 307 cc and now it won't budge at all. Does anyone know where the hydraulic fluid is for me to check?? Read more