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  At what annual mileage should drivers consider diesel vehicles? 10 Aug 2010 (Ask HJ)
  In last Saturday's paper, you advised someone who does 10,000 miles a year that 'You don't do enough miles for a diesel.' I'd appreciate your opinion as...
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  Why does my Vauxhall Zafira started losing power? 2 Aug 2010 (Ask HJ)
  My 2002 Zafira 1.8 Elegance automatic has started losing power when being driven at a steady speed. It works well at lower speeds or in narrow country...
• Citroen Xantia Turbo Diesel 1.9l - Sealed-for-life battey 28 Jul 2010 (Forum)
  A new (6 months old) battery twice failed to provide enough power to start the car when it was very hot.       The first time was when I had filled up after 2 hours of towing a caravan, - on a hot day.   Eventually battery recovered enough to start after disconnecting caravan electrics and waiting for 2 hours.    The 2nd time the car was solo.  Started OK when cold and ran 10 miles to a lunch.
• Peugeot 306 (1993 - 2001) - 99 2.0 HDI engine warning light ,not revving 18 Jul 2010 (Forum)
  Hi looking for some advice on my Hdi The car ran fine to the supermarket-we stopped,shopped and went back to the car and it wouldnt start at all ,called the AA man out who plugged in his scanner and it came up with 5 fault codes P3040 P112 P0380 P1404 P0230 He tried the usual hitting the tank with a hammer but that didnt work and he ended up towing it to a local peugeot specialist who looked and said it was just the connections to the camshaft sensor that he cleaned up and also the No1 injector wire aswell and charged me lots of money for doing so. the day after the battery completely died so I fitted a new one.
• Peugeot 306 1.9DT - 306 DT - will NOT start 15 Jul 2010 (Forum)
  On sunday the auxillary fanbelt slipped off, due to the smaller of the two tensioners becoming somehow wonky.  I realised this was no big deal but still had it towed to a local garage to have the pulley and belt replaced, as It was a signifcant amount of work on the driveway (lowering engine etc to get at tensoiner nut!) The guys fixed this issue on monday, but 1 mile down the road from the garage, the car heaved and tried to stop whilst travelling about 40mph, just warming up.
• 2001 passat tdi 130 133k - passat tdi130 heaters going hot n cold overheating 8 Jul 2010 (Forum)
  over the last month i have noticed when the heaters are on warm when the car is up to temp 90oc they have been blowing cold air until the car is driven a bit harder then they get warmer. but tonight i had to tow my friends discovery  a few miles which broke down, when i got back in it to go home the temp needle was around 110oc  i have never seen it over 90oc while driving home i put the heaters on warm to get the temp down but it fluctuated between 90 and 110, when the temp got to 110 then heaters got warm till it dropped to 90-95 then they got cold and so on.
• Vauxhall Astra H - Compensation for breakdown within six months of pu 20 Jun 2010 (Forum)
    Earlier today, he went on holiday in it to France, and on the way broke down on the French motorway system.  He called out a local breakdown garage and was towed to their premises where a faulty alternator was diagnosed.  It will take until Thursday for them to obtain and fit a new one.  My son has therefore hired a car from the garage to enable him to continue to his holiday destination and will pick up his repaired car on the way back next Friday.
• 9 points all in one go ? 15 Feb 2010 (Forum)
  We were overtaken in the overtaking lane by a small truck, the next size up to a Transit type. About a 3 tonner, He must have been doing about 80. That wasn't all, he was towing a 4 wheel trailer...the type you'd carry a small excavator on ! It didn't look happy, bouncing up and down! No police around, of course. Do these people know the law or do they just blunder dangerously along without a clue as to what they're doing ?
• Vauxhall Astra G Petrol (1998 - 2004) - 00 1.6 Engine goosed. 4 Feb 2010 (Forum)
  It's a 1600, 16V, Ecotech sports manual. W reg. It froze up...he didn't check the coolant. I think he must have tried to tow start it, thinking it was just the starter clicking or battery flat. It seems certain the belt has slipped, because the valves are broken and some are embedded in the head and pistons.. I'm sure a conrod has gone as well.
• Citroen C4 (2004 - ) - 09 1.6 Fitting a towbar - "Trailer Stability Progr 30 Jan 2010 (Forum)
  I assume Citroën have actually gone to the trouble of recognising that a car behaves differently when towing a 5m trailer weighing a tonne plus, and if/when the driver has to brake hard or swerve, have worked out the safest way for the the car to respond, which will different from when without a trailer.
• Vauxhall Corsa C (2000 - 2006) - Bringing Portuguese Corsa to UK 3 Nov 2009 (Forum)
  We genuinely just need to complete one journey in the car to get it from the port to our house, where it'll then be garaged until we get the chance to change over the lights, complete any other modifications necessary, and then go through the process for registering it in the UK. Is our only option a tow truck? That's very expensive. Does anyone know if its likely we'll be physically stopped from driving it at the port or what punishment we risk if we do drive it home. Or if there is a procedure we can go through to maybe allow us to drive this car temporarily in the UK?
• Cars parked blocking my drive 27 Aug 2009 (Forum)
  Despite constantly asking the neighbour to show some consideration - he'll move the car when asked but early in the morning - I would be wasting my time to knock/ask. Question being - the van is fitted with a tow bar and no rear windows. I must be getting very close to clipping his car. From my understanding - it's illegal to block of someone's driveway and incidents are often seen as knock for knock and that's as far as it goes.
• Ford Focus (1998 - 2004) - 02 1.6 Crankshaft pulley bolt failure 25 Aug 2009 (Forum)
  Then.... 5 days later, starting the car up on the drive, a big noise and a clunk.....I am not a happy chappy at at all. Towed back to the garage - and he didn't look to happy either. He's had a look at it and I have just been told the crankshaft pulley bolt has sheared, there's damage to the valves, won't know more until the head is off etc..
• Renault Clio II (2001 - 2007) - 02 1.5 Wrong fuel in my diesel car!!!! 20 Jul 2009 (Forum)
  I got so distracted that I have put wrong kind of fuel in my car! I had to call for my car to be towed away and they will have to pump out remaining petrol. So I have some questions... Can there be some additional damage to my engine? What would have happened, if I would turn the ignition key?
• Volkswagen Golf V R32 (2005 - ) - 06 3.2 dual mass flywheel problem 10 Jul 2009 (Forum)
  Just two years old and done 29,000 miles. This weekend without any previous warning it wouldnt get in to any gear. The car was towed to VW for investigation and repair. VW now say the problem is not a warranty (60k miles/3 years) covered item as it is due to hot spots on the fly wheel, with excessive movement in the dual mass suspension.
• Citroen C5 (2001 - 2008) - warranty claim in England for breakdown in France. 22 May 2009 (Forum)
  Eventually had to call out breakdown service. They put new battery in car and it started, but, as the car is less than two years old we got a tow to a Citroen garage. There they told us that the battery was dead and we needed a new one, we said that it's under warranty but they said no. Eventually we had to buy a new one for 156e. But, we took the old one with us to UK.
• Ford Focus (1998 - 2004) - 2002 Diesel problem - glowplug light flashes 11 Feb 2009 (Forum)
  I am at my witts end, I have a ford focus 2002 diesal, I love my car, Its been very reliable, however about a month ago I was driving up the lane and it cut out!! Just like that, It wouldnt start again for love or money. I had it towed home, changed the fuel filter and tryed again. I turn on the engine and the glow light flashes and it will turn over just and then dies immediatly. My friend then juggled the wires coming out of the box above the accelerator pedal(after seeing somthing on a forum) and it worked again.
• BMW 3-Series E46 (1998 - 2005) - 00 2.8 Suspect blown head gasket 6 Feb 2009 (Forum)
  The RAC guy said he suspects the head gasket has blown, he came to this conclusion because the radiator/coolant tank had split/cracked, he then towed me home. Is there anyway a mechanic will be able to diagnose this as the definite cause before taking my engine to pieces? Prior to this I have had no probems, no loss of power or anything, I did however add some antifreeze to the radiator yesterday and was wondering if the tank could have cracked if I added to much, I remember doing this to an old golf of mine years ago but on that occasion it simply blew a valve.
• Nissan Almera (2000 - 2006) - 04 1.8auto - lacking power. 3 Feb 2009 (Forum)
  Hi I have had my car check by two garagers one was my local garage and one was Nissan dealer. My car a few days ago is laking in power almost like I am towing something. It pulls ok from 0.30 ish ok but affter that when you start to notices the power loss,on a long stright road I can get the car to up around 65-75 but thats it then the car keeps changing gear as its strugling to accelerate.
• Ford Mondeo III (2000 - 2007) - 01 2.0tddi - no fuel in filter 31 Jan 2009 (Forum)
  Ive got a 51 reg 2.0 tddi mondeo estate, the other day while driving it started to splutter and throw out loads of smoke and finaly cut out and would not start again,i had the car towed home and was told it may be fuel filter blocked and may needed changing ,so went bought new filter took old filter off and noticed there was no fuel in it,so before i put the new filter on i filled it with diesel connected everything back up and it started straight away i left it running for 10 mins then i cut out and would not restart so i disconnected the filter again and once more no fuel in it.Could it be the lift pump under the car near the fuel tank and also is there a relay that runs the pump.I know there not cheap is there any way of testing to see if it is the pump.