Hi all, my brakes have had a lot of work done over the past couple of weeks. New discs and pads on the front and (I quote this from the garage invoice) "stripping, freeing + rebuilding rear brakes and front callipers".

This evening I was driving a very windy and steep road around the local cliffs when my brake pedal sunk all the way to the floor without doing anything. Luckily there was nothing in front. I was able to throw it into second and with a few pumps of the pedal, the braking was restored. This happened another 3 times on the way home, but I crawled it back. There's no barriers on the road to stop you plunging a long way down and needless to say, my trousers are in the wash!

About 10 minutes before this, I had stopped for petrol. When I pulled away and sped up to 40mph, the engine vibrated a lot through the pedals and steering wheel. This lasted for a few miles. I've also recently had a new exhaust and a small hole in the manifold was also fixed, so I put the vibrations down to the manifold hole not being completely plugged, but this wouldn't affect the brakes I assume?

Also I started to get paranoid that the steering felt a lot looser than usual. I've since read that the brakes and power steering share the same fluid on some cars?

Anyone have any ideas? I'm thinking that the brake lines weren't bled properly after the work was carried out? The mechanic isn't at work until Wednesday, so you have until then to convince me not to beat him to death with a rusty spanner.... Read more

I bought this car in May 2011, from the main dealer. it was 12 months old. I have had numerous problems with the car, and repairs etc, have been done under the 5 year warranty.

The car had done about 57K miles, in April 2010, when I found that the car would not start on one crank of the engine from cold, say about 12 deg. C.... Read more

I have the engine electrics/transmission electrics light on my dash every time I start my car, which puts it in to limp mode. If I turn the ignition off and then on again it clears and the car drives Ok....ish. It can be a little sluggish in low gears. This has been going on for so long now it is driving me mad. Once the petrol in the car gets to around 30 miles left the light stops coming on, however as soon as I fill up again the light starts coming on again. I have had the car put on diagnostics and it comes up with throttle body, however the mechanic cleaned this up and it has made no difference. I have had the fuel pump changed and a new coil pack fitted. No difference. It's supposedly had a full service, however, I was told that the fuel filter wasn't changed by another mechanic so I suppose it's quite possible that other things weren't done either. I do a lot of short journeys and have been told it could be the head gasket, not really convinced by that. When I take the car on longer journeys the exhaust emission light comes on which again makes the car lose power. I would really appreciate any input. Read more

I am completely disillusioned with modern belt and chain driven overhead camshaft designs. Motor manufacturers just cannot seem to design a maintenance free system and often end up designing in disastrous weaknesses, e.g. VAG.

Old pushrod ohv designs were supposedly superseded in the 70's because of the introduction of high rpm short stroke designs.... Read more

Hi guys this is the data from my recent mot failure only thing to fail and no one can say why quick history car has done 155k but very clean no visable oil leaks however adding 1 lt a month or every 1000 miles blows some smoke blueish when revved hard fuel consumption is 35 mpg average engine sounds fine no rattles etc ok

Engine oil temp: 60.00 coolant pipes hot... Read more