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• Volkswagen - VW LT35 1982 2L Petrol - Ignition Timing 4 May 2008 (Forum)
  He says it is running rough, but it drove home the 200 miles ok after he bought it. I suggested he did all the usual things & change the oil, filters, plugs, points (that takes me back) etc. He has done all the above except the points. This made no difference & the pugs he took out were black, he says it is doing 10 - 15 mpg. The dealer asked what distributor it had, as he couldn't see any marks he removed it & then found the Bosch marking.
• Renault Scenic (2003 - 2009) - 2004 1.9 dCi poor fuel consumption 7 Apr 2008 (Forum)
  Engine still starts well and no drop in power. The car was serviced at 2 years old and is now 3.5 years old. I've done the oil every 12 months. Was thinking of taking off the air filter to see if it is clogged up and whether its removal improves matters. Can anyone tell me how to get at it? I can see the pipe behind the radiator but it disappears behind the battery.
• Volvo 940 (1992 - 1997) - 1990 2.4TD - Steel Seal HG repair product 29 Mar 2008 (Forum)
  Its pressurizing the coolant and forcing it out of the weekest part of the system - the radiator plastic end cap. I have also noticed a tinge of oil in the expansion tank. I am having to top up the coolant about once a week - so in travelling approx 180-200 miles a week I am having to top up about a pint of coolant. I really dont have the time to change a HG at this moment and to get a garage to do it would send the old girl to the scrapper (a shame as its in good nick for its age).
• Citroen ZX (1992 - 1998) - 1997 1.4 running hot 24 Feb 2008 (Forum)
  ve noticed these problems Its been fault free ? I don?t think this is electrical. I am going to change the water and oil this weekend ? I was also wondering if it?s imperative you vacuum fill the system on these to prevent air pockets as the Haynes manual describes using an empty bottle with an ?O?
• Washing paper air filter elements 31 Jan 2008 (Forum)
  Has anybody ever done this? The LR Defender Tdi maintenance section says (only for elements not contaminated with oil or carbon deposits): soak the element for 15 to 60 mins in a solution of automatic washing machine detergent and water. Rinse in running water. Allow to dry naturally and dry fully before fitting. Do not attempt to clean a V8 air filter element.
• Vauxhall Astra G Petrol (1998 - 2004) - 2002 1.6 running temperature 24 Oct 2007 (Forum)
  It could be a dodgy temp sender unit or the coolant ecu unit. To change the stat on these you are advised to remove cambelt, camshaft sprocket and timing belt covers to get to the stat housing, I'm tempted to try it in situ - has anyone done this? Thanks for any suggestions.
• TDCi judder around 2200-2700rpm 17 Aug 2006 (Forum)
  It's done nearly 70k miles and has recently had a new turbo fitted (old one went blew a seal and dumped oil out of the exhaust) and the garage who changed the turbo nd fitted a new exhaust, said that they had fitted a new EGR valve, but I'm not 100% sure if this was done. It has also had a custom remap, but this was fine before the turbo went pop.
• citroen AX - head gasket leaking 19 Oct 2005 (Forum)
  Recently, my L-reg AX overheated after the water pipe to the radiator burst. It was rapid and quite spectacular - oil coming out and burning, lots of smoke. But - we the head gasket seemed okay and we replaced the water pipe, and she ran fine for about a fortnight. Then, the overheating light starting coming on again, although there was plenty of water in the system.
• Cheap mpv 30 Dec 2004 (Forum)
  New tyres (4) within the last year - still newish - even though they have covered 12,000 miles. Although has been serviced - oil / filter newish. The guy selling had covered 12,000 miles in the last 10 months. Approx 2500 - 3000 of which on holiday through Europe. Paid £3k. What do you think? (seriously) Have advised my friend to get cambelt changed - peace of mind.
• Resetting the service indication - Micra 11 Jul 2004 (Forum)
  My interest is in resetting the computer screen \'service\' indication after a first oil change on a 2003 Micra SE. In spite of risking a bit of warrantee bother, it is a job I prefer to do myself. I saw Gunson equipment in Halfords for about £99 that, amongst other things, read and reset car fault codes.
• 1996 vw golf vr6 auto- no go in gears 5 Jul 2004 (Forum)
  When i removed the pan, only a "coke cans" worth of fluid came out and it was very very black. A lot of sludge had settled at the bottom of the pan and the filter (oil strainer) was absolutley filthy.Is it worth me doing a ATF/ATF filter change??? or have i left it too late? any help appreciated
• Ford Fiesta rear shocks 29 Mar 2004 (Forum)
  Good evening my learned friends, Whilst doing a brake shoe change on my Mk 4/5 Fiesta (facelifted), i noticed that the o/s rear shock needed replacing due to oil weeping on the side of it. Replacement looks fairly easy, i have a slight problem regarding the set up of the new shocks.
• Punto MK2 Clutch 11 Nov 2003 (Forum)
  Or do i have to wait for it to fail (no doubt just outside of warranty) and cough up for the cost of repair myself? The car has been going through about 1 litre of oil every 1000 miles, I know this is within quoted limits, but is this realy acceptable for a 3 year old car? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Cheers Ross
• Solving a friend's Mini 'problem' 16 Jun 2003 (Forum)
  over the year he had it, which included a fairly thorough restoration. However, after getting it home and changing the plugs and oil, he found that it was still running a little rougher than he was expecting. It also ran a bit hot. A diagnostic check at Rover found nothing and even a new temperature sensor didn't cure the problem.
• Starting Problems on Golf 3 16v 31 May 2003 (Forum)
  I've sent it to 2 garges where they did diagnostics but found nothing - one replaced the vacuum hose to no avail, the other couldn't think of anything so cleaned the injectors which did help for a bit. They said they found no fault codes on the ECU. I've changed the HT lead and put a new rotor arm on from the advice of one garage but no difference. The other thing I noticed was that the oil temperature registers at 20C colder than the water temperature dial.
• Nissan 200SX - Very slow to build revs when hot 6 Jan 2001 (Forum)
  Dear Sir I own a K-plate old-shape Nissan 200SX Auto that has been regularly serviced (including semi-synthetic oil changes at every 6,000 miles) and has covered 84,000 miles. The car has always idled at about 700-800 rpm in gear but recently, when the engine was hot after a long motorway run, the engine took a very long time to pick up revs from a standing start.
• 
  Buying a new SUV - what do you recommend? 15 Nov 2013 (Ask HJ)
  I have owned Subaru Foresters for the past 15 years. The old adage of "Subarus don't break", has proved very true in my case. The Audi Q5 is on my short...
• Citroen C5 2.0 litre diesel HDi - Engine hunting 29 Sep 2012 (Forum)
  As I said the accelerator pedal has been replaced. I have checked and cleaned all EMC connections. I have replaced, with new, the oil and oil filter, the fuel filter, the air filter and the Mass airflow meter. The latter did definitely improve performance but alas after 75 miles and a traffic jam the problem resurfaced. What could it be?
• Ford Fiesta mk5 1.3 Endura - Grinding noise from mk5 fiesta in traffic 11 Jun 2012 (Forum)
  It can be felt through the gear stick (the whole thing vibrates) and also can be felt through the steering wheel. 4. The gearbox has plenty of oil (I've checked by undoing the allen key bolt in the front of the transmission housing) 5. It's just had its front lower suspension arms changed as the bushings had disintegrated. Given 1 and 5 in particular coupled with the fact it stops when the car reaches over 30mph I'm thinking it's got to be either related to the trackrods/drive shafts or the front diff.
• Mazda Mazda 6 (2002 - 2007) - Turbo Diesels - same afflictions as TDCI? (Vol 3) 17 Mar 2012 (Forum)
  I have been looking through this forum on a regular basis ever since my Mazda diesel estate 2002 went in to have its turbo changed. I have had nothing but problems over the last year and the last straw resulted last week when my car started making a loud knocking sound. I pulled over as soon as I noticed the noise. A recovery man first on the scene said that I had no oil in the engine and suspected that it was a broken Cam shaft (difficult to believe as I lost nothing in performance, had no oil warning light and had had a full service in January and more recently in the last week had had the cam belt renewed, however to my annoyance nothing else - despite the fact that I believed they were going to service it at the same time!).