January 2020
Hi, I would be grateful for any advice and tips when buying a used Civic auto. I'm looking at spending up to circa £12,000, so will probably end up being a 2015 or 2016 model or maybe (just!) a 2017 one.
I am switching from an Auris Hybrid as I have had my catalytic converter stolen recently and not confident that it won't keep happening in the part of London I work in, so I was looking for a reliable auto with reasonable fuel economy and where the cat is not located where it is dead easy for scum bags to steal in seconds!... Read more
Hi we have purchased a Ducato 2.3 2006 knowing that it needed the turbo replaced. When limping the van home it cut out and had to be towed home. After investigation we discovered a starter motor problem. Now having purchased a new one checked it and fitted it the engine will not engage. When you turn the key the lights for the coil and the immobiliser come on and go off as expected, but when you turn the key fully there is a loud clunk which we think is the starters dog kicking out but nothing else. We have a fully charged batter on and have checked the earth lead but still nothing. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Read more
These have a large power distribution board on the positive terminal of the battery . Very common for the main battery terminal to corrode an not make an adequate connection. Remove it from the battery and give it a thorough clean .
How is it that when some 1.8 TDCI EGR valves are blanked of the engine management light come's on, ( with or with out a 10mm hole in the plate ) Question 2 how does the system know, i can not see any sensors on the EGR except for the intake pressure sensor but i believe it is for Turbo pressure so it can open or close the Turbo waste gate.???? Read more
Finely !! someone who knows there stuff , Thank you..
My wife's car wouldn't start this morning. Annoying as the new owner is due to collect it tomorrow. Given that I didn't want to mess about so she called Britannia, her breakdown service. She has comprehensive cover, last used about 15 years ago when they were excellent.
She described the symptoms (won't start, dash lights on, knocking sound). The operator said it wasn't something they could deal with on the drive. We would have to call and pay a garage ourselves but Britannia would cover up to 10 miles of tow fee if necessary.
Some readers will be ahead of me here but the "knocking" would slightly better be described as "clicking". Classic signs of a simple flat battery and relays not holding. A typical breakdown service driveway job if ever there was one.
Rather than call out a garage at our expense (if I could find one on a Saturday) and possibly not achieve a fix before tomorrow's sale, I dug out the charger and gave it an hour. This enabled me to start the car and give it a quick 20 mile run to ensure all was well. It seems to be and I guess it's her low recent miles at the root of it.
As to whether it's a knock or a click, Google searches using both terms flag up the battery as a prime suspect. It's surely reasonable to expect a couple of simple diagnostic questions from a trained breakdown agent before leaving a customer to their own devices.
I would hope it's an isolated incident but I am having second thoughts about moving to them for my own car when the VAG cover expires.
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Well re my original post Britannia have responded today with apologies and the promise of a £50 cheque. They accepted the complaint in full which is reassuring.
Financially I guess that's an OK resolution. It's probably what around what they pay out to their third party agents for the attended visit we ought to have had. So it's hardly generous but, as I only spent time rather than money in resolving it myself, I am not out of pocket.
In any case I am not a fan of compo culture.
Had the dipped headlights bulbs put in at a very large outfit's store. Result....next to useless, £50 for no improvement. Driving home last night along a B road a car coming the other way had lights so bright and white I thought he must be on full beam so I foolishly flashed to warn him and he did put his full beam on and it was like a searchlight in the eyeballs so I won't be doing the again. So many people Know hate night driving now with the lack of white lines round here and the blinding power of modern car lights. Read more
I fitted "Xenon Style" H4 headlight bulbs to my car some years ago, was very impressed with the illumination but the bulbs didn't last much longer than a year. (H4, dip and high beam on one bulb)
Later I changed car and had proper Xenon gas discharge dipped beam but halogen H7 high beam. High beam was mediocre but dipped beam was good, although I recall that the the forward light penetration seemed inferior to the previous car....
My breakdown company came and recovered my vehicle after a hit and run. Their bill was part of the claim Read more
You do not have to replace a flywheel if the starter gear is damaged. A new one can be fitted.
"The other 'major players' are Peugeot/Citroen/FIAT/Toyota/ Vauxhall and Renault/Vauxhall."
Renault/Nissan Surely? Read more
Re: Down to the wire
A neighbour of a workmate had to have a new supply cable to the house laid in after they got a Tesla and the cable began to overheat. It turns out the cable was shared by another property, which is a bit naughty. The local network provider laid a new supply cable free of charge, because they are responsible for the cable into your property as far as the meter. It was quite disruptive as they had to dig a trench across the front garden and across a shared driveway. I don't know if this is what RW means because to say that '..the wiring of his house is shared with other users..' suggests that this is a house with multiple occupancy, in which case I would expect the incoming supply cable to feed more than one meter.
Anyhow, at the very least I would expect a new consumer unit with a suitable circuit-breaker to feed the EV charger, and if the existing wiring tests out OK it will just need re-terminated at the new consumer unit. I doubt that the battery would be damaged if the only thing you could charge it from was a 13A extension lead, it will just take longer to charge. A company I worked for bought a Nissan Leaf to show off their green credentials, and that used to be charged with a extension lead draped through an open window. I once saw it being loaded on to a car trailer, towed by a diesel truck, to be taken to an energy-efficiency exhibition.
I'm looking into the possibility of getting a 2016 grand cmax diesel the the powershift box , does anyone have any opinions or experiences of the box . I've read there was some issues early on and that they have been fixed is this true and is the g c max a wet or dry box. Read more
Is it safe to assume this is also the case for the Kuga of a similar vintage as I am, or was, considering a 2.0D auto
...
As this is a motoring forum the following is appropriate;-)
How many forum members does it take to change a spark plug?
- 1 to ask how to change a spark plug
- 1 to give detailed instructions for changing a spark plug
- original 1 to post that spark plug has now been changed.
- 14 to share similar experiences of changing spark plugs and how the spark plug could have been changed differently.
- 7 to caution about the dangers of untrained people changing spark plugs.
- 27 to point out spelling/grammar errors in posts about changing spark plugs.
- 15 know-it-alls who claim they were in the industry, and that a "spark plug" is an electrical device threaded into the cylinder of an internal-combustion engine to ignite the fuel mixture by producing timed sparks between electrodes and should only be changed by qualified auto mechanics or you will void any warranty and trash your engine.
- 2 to post that this thread is not about spark plugs and to please take this discussion to a spark plug thread.
- 27 to defend the posting to this thread saying that we all use spark plugs and therefore the posts are relevant to this thread.
- 16 to debate which method of changing spark plugs is superior, where to buy the best spark plugs, what brand of spark plugs work best for this technique, and what brands are faulty.
- 4 to post URL's where one can see examples of different spark plugs.
- 12 to post to the group that they will no longer post because they cannot handle the spark plug controversy.
- 4 to suggest that posters request the spark plugs FAQ.
- 16 to post "F".
- 44 to ask what is a "F"?
- 4 to say "didn't we go through this already a short time ago?"
- 3 to say "do a Google search on spark plugs before posting questions about spark plugs".
... Read more
Talking of changing sparkplugs I once had did a service on a v12 Mercedes coupe with a "full main dealer service history". Got six plugs put of one bank then had to remove loads of stuff to get to the other bank of cylinders. What a pig they were to get out had to leave them soaking in some penetrating oil (WD40) to loosen them up and use a 4 foot pole the undo them just glad none of them snapped in the head. They were all sooted up unlike the other 6.
Full main dealer service my a**. Bet the owner was charged a hefty premium form the Mercedes dealer as well.
I have a broken headlamp assembly after a minor prang - it's the little part that sticks out and secures the headlight unit to the car via a small screw - see here (top right): https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/static.bisonparts.co.uk/products/medium/24228-1.jpg
Is there any way to repair this without taking it to a garage for a new replacement part + fitting? The little plastic arm tis just cracked in two so the headlamp unit rattles around a little.... Read more
Engineer Andy i offer this tale of woe.
A while ago we had a mk 1 Outlander, the car never endeared itself despite its amazing handling and roadholding even if it was ugly as sin, even running on LPG (importers conversion) it drank far more fuel than the measly performance justified, worse then the Forester but at least that gives genuine sports car performance for the fuel used....
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The cat on the Civic is under the bonnet so theft is much more difficult and visible. They’re also very reliable and pretty decent on fuel for a petrol automatic. They do make an excellent small family autos. That said, I don’t think I’d fork out thousands to change car when a cheap deterrent is very likely to put off opportunists.