October 2019
Until the price of a battery car comes down to an affordable price for the average family I can see no rush to go "green".
Before that time arrives. When will the government initiate the installation of a new power network to every household to enable fast chargers at home - look how long it took for North Sea gas and now high speed fibre connections. But before the new power network we need more power stations - remember the recent black out across parts of the country. Read more
In the reply to the 'Superman' comment, the part that says "Quite a lot of Volvo owners are coming very unstuck from trying to run their Volvo diesels on anything else" is not correct.
The EGR / EGR cooler fault with the Volvo D4 modular diesel engine is well-documented and is a fundamental design fault from the factory, compounded by inadequate pre-launch testing.
Volvo hoped to be able to pass the Euro VI emissions tests without using an AdBlue injection system to reduce NOx. So they kitted the D4 engine with a watercooled EGR cooler and relied on a high level of active EGR cycling.
However, the original EGR coolers fitted to the cars would overcool the exhaust gases, causing condensation which mixed with the exhaust gases and gunked up the cooler and EGR valves. Subsequent resdesigns failed to fully fix the problem.
Many Volvo owners with the D4 engine had run their cars on nothing but superdiesel and still had problems requiring EGR valve and cooler replacements - so fuel choice was not the root cause of this problem and cannot be blamed for it. The fault was reported widely across Europe, not just the UK. My own V60 D4 had one EGR valve replacement and 2 new EGR coolers in 3 years.
Volvo has now moved to AdBlue-based NOx reduction on its diesels, which is an admission that the original EGR system fitted from 2014 was not up to the job.
The company only just got away with the problem, as the majority of cars just got a 'check engine' light when the EGR system got gunked up and still drove normally - only a small percentage went into limp mode. Had the cars been actually breaking down and stranding owners, Volvo could have had a real disaster in its hands.
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Re : A man for all seasons
I'd be worried about people nicking ebikes (e for expensive) off a rear rack, look on the web you will see it done in traffic.
Tesco is down to 121.9p/l for unleaded petrol which is good news too. Read more
In West London 2 star unleaded has during October been: 121.7p per litre at ASDA and 121.9p per litre at TESCO.
Hi everyone.
I am a 3rd year student at Royal Holloway University London researching on the personal experiences of driving and how this may cause difficulty for drivers to move towards autonomous cars in the future. ... Read more
- why would a healthy diet affect decisions about cars.
Shouldn't....
After six happy years with the Civic I fancy a change. Taking a well trodden Back Room route I thought a 1-3 year old Japanese/Korean/VAG medium sized estate or hatch with a large boot would fit the bill. SUVs with small boots do not appeal. I want petrol manual and 1.4 litre plus as I am not convinced that 1 litre engines are up to the job for mid-sized cars. My preferred budget is £10-12k plus the trade-in.
HJ values my car as £3.8k and WBAC offered £4.1k although I am aware they tend to reduce offers on inspection. Having said that its got full main Honda service history and is unmarked.... Read more
Sounds like a nice car, I like the Golf and the 1.4 TSi motor is well liked.
Can I pay with monopoly money? Read more
Reported 8:00pm 16/10.
Engine had a very loud top half noise, suspected camshaft. Changed the camshaft, was told one of the buckets had wore through
Engine sounds quieter but it is still knocking...what would cause this?... Read more
Probably the PD unit injectors operated from the cam shaft - If these engines are run on the wrong oil without anti foaming (proper vw spec) then the cam/injectors can badly wear and presumably the cam and followers have been changed but have the unit injectors?
...
It is approaching that time of year and had a couple of questions, so phoned up to check.
Smaller, 15 " steel wheels with 195/65/15 tyres (Base model MG ZS 2017 instead of the current 17" alloys with 205/50/17.... Read more
The insurance market in the UK is pretty much unique, in that cover almost invariably goes with the driver(s) rather than the car, rendering teens almost uninsurable, prohibiting "fronting" and constantly punishing blameless drivers with hiked premiums after a no-fault claim. Anyone over 25 can drive my car in Spain, and with one phone call I can extend cover to any driver aged 18-24. Cover does decrease to 3PF&T, including on occasional trips to France or Portugal, but the legal minimum cover is always included if a policy is in force.
Quick straw poll - would backroomers prefer (1) to keep the existing "competitive", "always shop around" insurance system in the UK; (2) a "rest of the world" style "any driver is covered" system; or (3) New Zealand's (unique AFAIK) state insurance scheme, whereby car insurance is not actually required: in the event of a crash, the driver sues the state and the state pursues the guilty party for costs.
I recently had my Seat Leon in for some work as the front shocks were both leaking and it was due for an MOT soon, the car also needed the timing belt replaced soon. I found a garage who were well reviewed on google and on approvedgarages.co.uk to carry out the work and they came back with a good quote. Dropped the car off on a Friday and picked it up on Saturday and all was fine, for all of 50 miles.
The missus commutes 60 miles each way every day all along the motorway, on her first commute to work on Monday less than halfway through the car started marking a whirring noise that seemed to be coming from the front, when she pulled into the car park at work the ABS lights came on and the steering wheel locked up. We had the car recovered to the garage and they have just finished looking at it.... Read more
I had a front wheel bearing on my 2018 Polo go after 20,000 miles. The VW garage replaced it for free given the low mileage. I think I was lucky as pot holes are commonplace here.
As for the ABS warning light ...
I do have a car insurance policy so is it possible to combine health insurance policy to it in case needed? Read more
Thanks for reply Gordonbennet. Yes could you please help me out in choosing right plans for car insurance and for critical illness cover.
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With the petrol version available for just over £34k how can a version with no engine but batteries be worth an extra £16,000 ?
An added problem will arise as the cost of batteries falls leading to cheaper EVs and destruction of residuals for cars bought now.