May 2018
There are an increasing number of so called "Smart Motorways" being constructed these days. It seems to be a cut price way of obtaining an extra carriageway but at the cost of losing the safety of a hard shoulder to stop on if your car develops a fault. To cover this a "lay by" is provided at intervals, however you cannot always be sure of being able to reach a lay by if a fault arises. I can think of a number of occasions in the past when the car I have been driving has suddenly cut out without warning and I have had to come to a halt by the side of the road, fortunately without causing an accident.
The recent news that some BMW's might cut out suddenly only highlights to my mind the dangerous nature of Smart Motorways if you have to stop suddenly when other traffic can be travelling up to 70mph in the same lane!... Read more
Hi all.
I was speaking to a colleague earlier who has a newer model Nissan Qashqai Tekna, basically one of these techy new cars with a digital display. ... Read more
I will be looking very carefully at the outcomes arising from the consultation exercise on rail fare pricing announced yesterday. Whilst much is to be welcomed--I have a concern that reducing/withdrawing the number of deals/offers/entitlements/special offers and discount fares in order to even things out will have the effect of raising ticket prices, forcing willing train travellers off the rails and back to their cars. I hope I am wrong? Read more
Andrew, I agree wholeheartedly with your comments, but after 40 years in engineering, (the last 25 as self-employed), I never cease to be amazed at the number of people in organisations who do 'nowt.
Afternoon, I'm after some advice regarding a faulty compressor on an aging and creaky Ford.
I'm in the middle of preparing said car for a banger rally to Monte Carlo, and the AC isn't working. We've had it tested and miraculously there's no leaks and it holds pressure well, thus the compressor is looking likely as the culprit. I know little other than it's possibly the clutch but don't know how / what this entails.... Read more
That certainly sounds familiar, th chap I'm thinking of has had a few now; he shifts his parts across when one gets scrapped!
I recently bought a used 03 BMW 745i from a used car dealer. The car was advertised as low mileage, with a full main dealer service history and no faults. I paid the top end of what the car was worth based on these factors and the overall condition.
Although irrelevant to the fault, the car had so little petrol in it when picked up on the Thursday 22nd March that it didn’t make it 2 miles to the nearest petrol station. The car was misfiring during this time but I assumed this was due to being low on petrol. On filling it up with petrol, I drove it the 25 mile motorway drive home with no issue.
Over the weekend I noticed the car misfiring at idle when warmed up. I phoned the garage I bought the car from on Monday 26th who said to take it back to them on Tuesday the 3rd of April and they would sort it out, probably an O2 sensor and that it would probably be done by the weekend.
Over a week passed with no contact from the garage so I phoned them up to be informed the “usual” garage couldn’t find what was up with it, so it was booked in at a specialist the following week and said he would keep me posted. The following week I phoned again and was told that the specialist hadn’t got round to looking at it yet. This continued until I phoned the specialist and was told they couldn’t find out what was wrong with it either, but suspected the ECU, and that the dealer had taken the car to Sytner BMW.
I phoned the dealer again on Wednesday 2nd who said the car was with Sytner, that they had found a fault with the ECU and were waiting on the part from Germany, and that he had no idea when this would arrive but would let me know when it was done.
I phoned Sytner BMW yesterday (Tuesday 8th) and was told that the issue was with the Valvetronic levers and that they had emailed a quote to the dealer on Thursday 3rd and not yet recieved a reply. They had no knowledge of any ECU faults or parts arriving from Germany.
I phoned the dealer again this morning to be told they couldn’t help me because the guy dealing with it is away until the 16th and to phone back then. I have never been contacted by the dealership at any point about when I will recieve the car back and would have been left in the dark for over a month had I not contacted them first.
My patience has run out with this situation now, it’s already been over 5 weeks and will be 6 with no work having commenced on the car. I am using a borrowed car which needs returning and have no other way of commuting to my new job which I start in 2 weeks’ time. I wondered if anyone here would have any advice on where to go from here - the bill for the repair is likely to be close to the amount that I paid for it and I am expecting the dealer to try to avoid paying it.
What would anyone else do from here? Read more
I hope not to have to reject it as I would be out of pocket in insurance and tax and still left with no car. I knew about the big bills before I bought it but wasn’t anticipating one as soon as I drove it off the forecourt.
I don’t plan on thrashing it nor do I have a loan on it so at least there’s that! But I’ll have that mental image in my head now every time I think about it!
I certainly don’t think the dealer is “dodgy” (or I very much hope not) as they have certainly gone to some lengths so far to get the car sorted rather than just sticking with the “they all do that sir” line. However I am anticipating the dealer being unwilling to pay the bill on this as I get the feeling it’s going to be a big one (unfortunately I couldn’t bring myself to ask!) I’ll know more next week hopefully when the dealer gets back off his holiday!
The issues according to BMW are due to wear on the Valvetronic eccentric shafts. I assume the car switches over to the system shortly after startup and if so this would explain why it only does it at operating temp. There is a chance you could be right on that though... the car mostly idled very roughly but occasionally much better, and you wouldn’t think it could ever work properly if they were worn out - but it’s such a complicated system anything could be happening. That is assuming that the VANOS could be causing it instead of the Valvetronic as they are both separate systems.
To save myself a lot of stress - there is a BMW bulletin with a “workaround” to the issue. I am strongly considering accepting that it was partially my mistake in buying it, taking the car back and applying the workaround. Only as a last resort if the dealer won’t fix it or give me a refund of course. Preferably with some kind of contribution towards the cost of the repair. Then it’ll be a valuable lesson learned in choosing a car!
Looks like the VW Group are at it again - bit.ly/2K5buxz Read more
What amazes me about the VW Group is they got stung for $31b for the original dieselgate. What company can afford a fine like that and not go under?
Hi,
We are currently a two car family. Citroen C1 and Ford Focus 1.6 Petrol Zetec 2009. We use both cars but mileage is split at 15,000 in Citroen and 5,000 in Focus. However Citroen is a little tired now so getting rid this weekend. My dilema is do i keep the Focus which has done 72000 miles and had a water pump and cambelt change recently or consider getting a Dacia Sandero 0.9 Petrol new on a pcp. Which works out at £2500 deposit (Focus Part Ex Figure) and £40 month for 24 months based on 20,000 miles a year. With a Final Option to Purchase at the end of 2 years at £3000 Or do i keep my fingers crossed that the Focus will cope well with the 20,000 miles a years. Any advice on what to do would be appreciated. I would get another C1 but it is just too small for us now. ... Read more
or if you only need the second car occassionally it can work out better to hire a car when the second one is needed. just own one car but flex up. hire cars can be super cheap especially if booked well in advance and being a member of the rental loyalty club.
I read (I cannot remember where) that the recall was because the engine management systems in these cars were deliberately reducing the amount of AdBlue added to the system to help removed NOx so that owners didn't have to refill their tanks of AdBlue in between services (or at least not so often), leading to far higher emissions of NOx.
If true (I cannot confirm any of this), this, to me at least, is almost as bad as Dieselgate, as it sounds like a deliberate piece of software to reduce costs for the car owner at the expense of emissions, in contravention of EU regulations.
I also note that thus far, the EU or any national government within the Bloc has taken any similar punative action against VAG for Dieselgate, and also note that the so-called 'fix' (NOT an official recall) of affected cars of the Dieselgate fiasco was never made manditory - I suspect partly because the 'fix' itself seemingly (in my opinion) has a significant detrimental effect on the performance, mpg and reliability of those cars modified.
If many people (as they seem to be doing, and quite understandably too) choose NOT to have their cars fixed, then what was the point of the fix? Why haven't VAG been heavily fined like in the US and those fines go directly to spending on health to mitigate the additional NOx and other emissions?
This latest turn of events will, for me at least, show if both VAG and the EU/governments care about what has happened and whether they favour corporates more than the people they are supposed to SERVE. Read more
I have an A6 313ps bitdi MY2014. It does not have adblue, it still had a recall. I wasn’t advised of the recall, but Audi applied it anyway when they had my car. They have overwritten the ECU. I had a custom map on my ECU, achieving better MPG and performance, that’s now gone and I have the post fix stock map... Not happy.
My friendly neighbour and car enthusiast used to castigate me for my choice of means of getting about. His pet phrase .. "You cannot beat German Reliability and Engineering John".
I say used to, he no longer does that now. Not since A dozen years ago when his fine example of German Automotive product left him stranded on the hard shoulder of the nearby M5 whilst his car burnt out its engine. His Porsche cost more to repair than my MG ZS cost new "on the road" back in 2003.
He is well clued up like so many UK car consumers. He's convinced my MGs and Rovers are very reliable simply because of their Honda engines.
He's puzzled that those engines have R O V E R or MG large across their spark plug covers. I imagine Soichiro Honda would be spinning at very high Honda revs in his grave if anyone put their name on one of his engines.
OK I lied about his being well clued up. He is far from alone with such Automotive ignorance. Our UK media in all its forms has much to answer for. Read more
I would be interested to find the reliability of (former) Japanese companies - manufacturing vehicles outside of Japan - such as India (Suzuki Baleno) compared to a (supposedly) similar Swift, from Japan.
Similarly - KIA and Hyundai - started in S Korea - now made in Mexico, India, Romania amongst many other locations
I understand that they are all supposed to be built to a "standard" but are they ?
That is the great sign that car market has recovered and it will surely impact positively on economy and on car makers and will generate more employment for the country. I am really happy that car market has posted positive growth. Read more
Should be a prison sentence . Turn off check phone when parked safely not on the move.
I'm still impressed this topic is resonating that much. There are so many shadows in this matter from both sides. Obviously changes will always scare, Audi already received many critics when they tried to implement changes in order to reach buyers from different ages and economical classes. This techonological advances won't harm drivers. As you said, there's no reliable data about the backlashes it may have. Just being cautious it will advance positively.