May 2019
A few years ago, the police were hiding and catching drivers who were doing a left-turn where it was not allowed. (The alternative is a a long detour). They caught lots of drivers. It was common, as the police cars had been doing it.
I admitted my guilt and signed something on his machine.
However, he took my photo. I don't know if he had a right to do that?. He did not ask me. Did I have a right to refuse my photo being taken?... Read more
Just had to buy father-in-law a defibrillator after his quote from Skoda for a Fabia battery.
£235 inc fitting. I know it's an AGM battery, but blimey, that's still a fair chunk of money even though they are specially made for Skoda (according to the parts manager).... Read more
Eventually purchased a Yuasa battery for the Skoda at under £150 with free fitting.
Now to deal with my Golf 1.4 TSI timing chain which the local VW garage has quoted a ...
My TOYOTA Yaris 1.33 showed an engine management light. The garage diagnostic showed a fault on the o2 sensor 1 in bank 1. The garage replaced it. 20 miles later the light came on again. This time it recorded a fault on o2 sensor 2 in bank 1. The garage tested it and can’t see a fault with it. 5 visits to the garage and they can’t find the fault (which records in the diagnostics as a fault on either of the o2 sensors, record keeps changing between the 2).
I have noticed a pattern. The light regularly comes on after a local drive of 15 - 20 miles.
It never comes on during a shorter drive.
It does not come on during motorway driving, I drove over 100 miles on motorways at speeds between 50-70mph and no fault.
The fact that it comes on consistently at 15-20 miles of local driving made me think it was a temperature related fault ie when something warmed up but surely the fact that it doesn’t come on during a long motorway drive shows that to be wrong?
I thought it may be a Mass Airflow sensor fault but testing that voltage goes up on the live feed when I rev the engine so I can’t see that is the issue.
It has had a new air filter so that can’t be the issue.
The garage can’t find the fault on a diagnosis machine as it keeps recording 2 different faults (but a neighbours hand held fault reader gave a “low voltage on Airlfow sensor” reading once even though I can see voltage going up and down on my volt meter when I rev the engine. ). The garage never got that fault message on any of their diagnostics machine.
Someone suggested a loose or corroded wire but as the fault is so consistent at 15-20 miles local driving and never before that and because it never came on a motorway driving at speed I can’t see that being a wiring fault. It’s too consistent to my mind to be a loose or corroded wire.
Desperate and running out of ideas. Anyone help?
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Hi MartinDa …. Realise its awhile ago, but our Yaris is doing exactly the same as yours did down to the last detail. Did you manage to solve the issue? How did you do it.
Many thanks in advance...
Hi all HJ forumers!
I'm looking for some quick advice on something rather silly I did yesterday.... Read more
“I was lucky enough to survive an incident with an irate bus driver - not me doing something stupid, but as a witness as a passenger on the bus. The bus was already very late, getting more so as more passengers were getting on at each stop (becuase of how late it was).
The next sheduled bus caught us up and passed us, and our driver lost his rag and proceeded to try and overtake the other bus on a normal (one lane each way) road in a built up area of North London (in the rush hour). Him dicing with the other bus (same company) at well over 60mph and putting many lives in danger was not exactly an experience I'd care to repeat.
Our driver likely knew he'd probably get a rollocking for being so late and did his idiot maneuvre because the other driver didn't bother to stop to take on passengers so we'd stay ahead. The other driver sped up as ours tried the overtaking manouvre. Many passengers were shouting at him to slow down, which he eventually did. Not good, and sadly I've seen that with other road users not liked being overtaken, despite them previously driving relatively”
In a situation like this where a bus is running so late the next one has overtaken it the driver should stop and report it so that when he can pass his passengers onto the other bus and run not in service to get back on time. He or she shouldn’t get wound up trying to battle his or her way back on time, this only serves to stress themselves and make passengers uncomfortable while those waiting on a late bus are upset also. Driver error in this case. The firm would take a dim view of this drivers actions.
While looking at 10 year old used Mazda 6s, I noticed that the 2.0 versions and the 2.5 versions are available at similar prices.
Can folks who have driven the 2.5 version give me your thoughts on it?... Read more
“I'm not able to find many 2.0s in the market with full history and in good condition. But there are a couple of 2.5s that seem worth looking at...
Also the 2.5 is better equipped (leather seats, sun roof, digital instruments, etc.) that it seems a shame to ignore it, when it is available at the same price as the 2.0...”
Absolutely. Buy on condition before spec. If there’s a tidy 2.5 with good history I’d happily buy it. But I’d just live with the standard wheels rather than changing anything from standard which would mean informing your insurance company and will alter the gearing slightly if you run higher profile tyres, meaning your speedo would under-read. It’s not overly firm in the way a BMW on run flats would be. The 2.5 has a good bit of extra low speed pull and is a bit more relaxed as a result but don’t expect barnstorming performance, it’s no rocket ship.
Here’s another worthy if speed is important. The Mondeo uses the same floor pan and suspension as the Mazda and the 2.0 petrol is identical but you can get the lovely 5cyl Volvo 2.5 turbo in high spec models which is a lovely thing to drive. It just slips under the higher rate tax band but it’s a bit greedier.
Auto Trader:
www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/20190417705...2
Hello,
I’ve recently had a problem with my corsa after filling my tank up. I’ve filled to the click and no more and noticed a smell of gas around the car after. The first time I could see no leak so I drove for 2 weeks and the smell went away. I’ve refuelled again 2 days ago and the smell has returned. After looking under the car after driving home i can see a steady dripping coming from the pipe (on a connection) before it reaches the fuel tank.
Do anyone have any idea what this could be? Could a clip be loose on the connection?
Here is a photo
m.imgur.com/gallery/ujOr6Rd Read more
<< it's a convenient datum for calculating the fuel consumption. >>
That's all you can say for it, and there are other equally convenient ways of doing that IMHO....
The trusty 1.8 Civic is in for discs and pads so I have a new model as a courtesy car. Drove home same way I went out so it was a back to back test including urban roads and motorway. Only about 20 miles though.
Its a bit of a mixed bag. The engine is very willing up to 60/65 mph and feels faster than my 1.8 as power is more avaiable without using the revs. It turns over about 2400rpm at 70 where my car runs at 3000. However the 1.0 feels much less responsive when putting the foot down at 65+ in 6th. The 1.8 has a sweet spot at an indicated 70 that the 1.0 does not. So underway the new car takes the prize at lower speeds but the old one seems the better motorway cruiser.
I know the car is equipped with a lot of safety warning gizmos but none of these fired off during a busy traffic trip so hopefully they are not intrusive. The little speed sign recognition display was wrong a couple of times. I am not sure if its GPS based or trying to detect signs but either way it was wrong
Although it is a bigger car the new one feels no bigger to drive. The reversing camera in todays rain was far better on the new car. Rear visibiliity has never been an issue for me but the new car's spoiler is even thinner and the overall glass area is pretty big.
Some of the interior is a step backwards. They've lost the old split dash design that I found easy to use from day one and the new dash is a bit random. There is a cubby in the central binnacle thing that temporarily lost my house keys as they fell through the tiny lip at the back into an awkward little tray beneath. The armrest/storage has an ugly open section at the front that you cant close off. The feature lines of the dashboard bear little relation to the feature lines on the door. They appear as if they are from different cars. The flimsy boot cargo cover is a joke. What most reviewers seem to have missed is that the side sliding bit only covers half the opening over the boot. The rest is covered by a Heath Robinson nylon affair attached to the hatchback lid itself. I cant see it surviving a tall object in the boot. There is no apparent way to take it off.
As for tall objects I happened to buy a tall plant on the way back. I squeezed it in but those magic sears would often be missed I am sure.
The boot floor cover itself is not as smart as the old one which you could flip origami style to make the the spare wheel well part of the boot if you had no spare. The new one is just a simple flap.
The fuel gauge is oddly calibrated. I got a fuel warning light soon after setting out and the electronic display showed the needle at close to empty. So I stuck in £6 worth and the gauge now shows 1/3 full.
Technically I am disappointed that the 1.0 is a cam belt in oil with a 65k change interval.bNo issue to the fleets but a cost for those of us who run to higher miles.
The electronic parking brake is not intuitive in manual mode. You can only apply and release it with the foot brake engaged. So setting off requires you to treat the driver behind to a blast of brake light, and then manually release the button. Luckily there is an auto brake hold function that you can select that seems to get round some of this but it seems to revert to manual mode in some circumstances that would need me to rtfm to understand!
None of these points are the end of the world but its often the trivial niggles in a car that prove annoying over time. As successive Civics have been a recommended choice on this site I felt it was worth a bit of detail. I don't see me replacing my 1.8 with the new model.
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I’ve every confidence it’ll be reliable but with the belt in bath design it’ll be prohibitively expensive to replace the belt so I’d probably favour the more powerful chain driven 1.5 or the proven 1.6 diesel. I’m not a big fan of the styling and I found them overpriced new but used examples are falling to more realistic levels quite quickly now.
Not to mention they ain't exactly a mid-sized hatchback any more - essentially as big as the previous generation Accord. Does the car (not sure which engine of the two, or even both) still has that issue with oil dilution (?) when the weather's cold?
Hi all
After a horrendous 3 hours changing the knock sensor on my CR-V, the engine warning light still comes on. Faults logged are knock sensor and Electric Load Detector Circuit High Voltage. ... Read more
Hi mss1tw,
Did you solve the knock sensor problem / pass MOT with light on / scrap the car ?...
Just got this car and noticed that the coolant reservoir is dirty with dried brown gunk around the sides. Also the oil on the dipstick is a lighter brown than I'm used to seeing, viscosity seems normal though.
Is this likely a head gasket about to go and stop driving it now type scenario? It seems to run fine, no overheating or anything.... Read more
The oil did, however, look black, in bulk, and if this is due to wear debris its possible the long change interval has contributed to higher wear....
Hi there. I was wondering what a realistic estimated life expectancy for a very high mileage coach would be?
Imagine a coach is running around 1,000km per day or about 350,000km per year, almost entirely on the motorway. Some of the more extreme National Express/Megabus routes might have this kind of profile.... Read more
They generally do get refurbished these days. You see a brand new coach needs a disabled lift and associated hole in the side, so this pushes the cost up a lot. So it's cheaper to take a coach built before those rules, strip it back to a bit of metal with a chassis number on it, and do a complete rebuild.
Coaches when they are completely knackered and not a kind that justifies a rebuild get sold to places like Malta where they keep them running much longer, although they constantly break down in ways that would not be tolerated here....
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I think there's still a question over how long pictures should be kept for minor offences - including those in moving traffic. ...