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• Mazda CX-5 - Car breakdown very soon after service 7 Aug 2025 (Forum)
  A fairly small amount of oil was also leaking from under the bonnet onto the driveway - around a small cupful if I had to estimate. During the service the oil was changed, along with replacement of the cabin air filter and brake fluid. The service had also identified various fault codes which the garage cleared. The car was recovered to the garage for diagnosis of the issue. After 16 days of having the car and looking at it on and off, the garage came to the conclusion that a fuel injector was stuck open, which had flooded the engine and exhaust system with diesel.
• SEAT Ibiza FR 1.0 TSi - 5 year 80,000 Mile Review 29 Dec 2024 (Forum)
  It gets serviced every 10,000 miles. I now get it serviced by my trusted indy. I’ve had both the front and rear brake pads and discs changed once. When I bought the car, I bought a top-up bottle of engine oil. I like to keep the oil level on the maximum (I know many on the forum disagree with my view). Sometimes I top the oil up once between services.
• Suzuki Vitara - Should have followed my own advice 17 Sep 2024 (Forum)
  Doesn’t sound too far but if you had to leave the car and go back later in the day for it you’re looking at losing most of a day.  Anyway within a day of picking it up I found the DLRs weren’t working. Brakes also were intermittently grinding in reverse.  Both PDI fails surely. They  gave us a free courtesy car for the day and resolved the faults.  But it was a tedious day of killing time, Then it needed a service, nine months into our tenure.
• Vauxhall Movano - Vauxhall Movano major electrical fault! 30 Jan 2024 (Forum)
  What i can't work out is how a fault with a light has effected so many different systems including the brakes, surely any system associated with safety like ABS and traction control should be on a separate circuit and protected by a separate fuse? Also how did it take them nearly 2 weeks to diagnose the problem?
• Honda Jazz Hybrid - Unsafe safety systems? 8 Dec 2023 (Forum)
  It has an impressive sounding list of safety features including: Collision Mitigation Braking System (CMBS) Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) with Low Speed Follow Lane Keeping Assist System (LKAS) Road Departure Mitigation System I'm wondering if some of these systems could actually be less safe than not having the system at all.
• Electric Vehicles, EVs - EVs and effects of dealershhips 25 Feb 2021 (Forum)
  The second factor was that EVs can be manufactured to be very simple and very reliable for the mainstream public, thus negating the need for 'technicians' and dealer servicing. The motor is extremely simple and reliable; regen braking means much extended service intervals on pads/discs; many electrical components can be plug-n-play modules, and components like tyres and shocks could be dealt with by Kwik-Fit or mobile operators.
• Renault Clio 2008 TomTom 16v 1.2 - MOT Major Failure 9 Feb 2021 (Forum)
  MOT failures  Do not drive until repaired (dangerous defects): Nearside Rear Tyre has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure (5.2.3 (d) (ii)) Repair immediately (major defects): Windscreen washer provides insufficient washer liquid (3.5 (a)) Front passenger door cannot be opened from outside the vehicle (6.2.3 (a)) Front Position lamp adversely affected by the operation of another lamp lights flash on and off (4.2.3 (c)) Nearside Rear Direction indicator incorrect colour (4.4.3 (a)) Rear fog lamp not working (4.5.1 (a) (ii)) Nearside Front Suspension arm ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (5.3.4 (b) (ii)) Offside Front Suspension arm ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (5.3.4 (b) (ii)) Offside Front Anti-roll bar linkage ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (5.3.4 (b) (ii)) Nearside Rear Service brake grabbing severely (1.2.1 (c)) Monitor and repair if necessary (advisories): Nearside Front Suspension arm ball joint has slight play (5.3.4 (a) (i)) Offside Front Play in steering rack inner joint(s) () Nearside Front Tyre worn close to legal limit/worn on edge (5.2.3 (e)) Offside Rear Tyre slightly damaged/cracking or perishing (5.2.3 (d) (ii)) Nearside Non obligatory mirror damaged wing mirror () different size tyres front and rear
• Economy in tow cars and necessary licenses 23 Aug 2020 (Forum)
  I've looked on the Real MPG section of HJ and on Fuelly and it seems like I could expect around 19 mpg or more. There's also the old ML320 but I'm not sure on economy. A Shogun LWB has a braked towing weight of 3,200kg and the ML320 would be 3,365kg IIRC. This would be fine as I could downplate a 3.5 ton trailer to that weight and still be able to tow pretty heavy cars. I'd also be open to considering a cheap petrol van with a good towing weight but I'm pretty sure no such thing exists.
• Dad mobiles 18 Apr 2020 (Forum)
  The two Mercs served him well but he made a mistake with the first one by forgetting to opt for the auto as the manual box was horrid and mismatched with the foot operated parking brake. The later auto lasted him 13yrs until it was time for a wrinkly mobile, a Honda Jazz. Sheer boredom but can anyone else do better than their old man when it comes to picking cars?
• Accident Advice 18 Jan 2020 (Forum)
  I was parked on the road a couple of houses away from friends house, when her elderly next door neighbour was parking in between parked cars( one being mine) missed the brake and hit the accelerator, hit my car and knocked down a front wall, gate post and Party fence. He offered to pay private if I wanted it to go through my insurance. I said I would think about it and get back in touch.
• Any - Suzuki SX4 SCross vs Honda Civic vs Toyota Avensis 23 Feb 2019 (Forum)
  (I can live with this, though I prefer to have good visibility) Is it worth spending £6000 on an 8 year old car?   3) Toyota Avensis 2009 VVTI (not the v-matic, hence no electric parking brake) model:-2009 mileage:- 63000 cost:- £3200   Pros:- Lowest cost option Avensis has excellent reliability ratings as per tuv surveys and other ratings 1.8 engine Decent motorway fuel economy (40 mpg?)
• Citroen C2 - Twice bitten.... 18 Mar 2018 (Forum)
  This time I looked for more reputable dealer and used the 'AA Approved' listing as my starting point. Found a car - saw it, tried it and put deposit on it - it needed brakes sorting and a new passenger door handle. These were fixed and the car was MOT'd. Paid £1500 for it. Took it home on a trailer the following weekend and checked it over after unloading it - no oil.
• Ford Transit Jumbo - How much should I claim back 24 Feb 2015 (Forum)
  It took them two weeks to tell me this, by this time I complained to Ford and was assured that they would look into things and resolve these issues only for the staff at Ford to leave. Next came a recall by Ford think it was the brakes and I again asked them to look at all the above and also the paintwork as it was flaking. Took it to a different dealer this time who advised that Ford told them it was down to my origional dealer even thought they knew I no longer wished to sully my hands with them so was caught between a rock and a hard place.
• renault clio 1149 1.2 turbo dynamique tom - excessive steering wheel and column vibration 13 Oct 2012 (Forum)
  We mentioned this a few times and were put off with excuses...... Renault cardiff then had it in twice and told us what it was not ie brakes, suspension, discs, tracking were fine etc. They then said it was due to excessive pressure in the tyres...!!....A week later I checked the tyre pressure and found them all to be 5-6 Lbs under the manufacturer's recommended rating........so my wife had been driving on underinflated tyres as well....!!....
• Mazda 6 TS TD 143 - Major problems with my used car, my rights? 14 May 2012 (Forum)
   The car had done 85000 miles and was sold to me with a 12 month warranty by a local independent dealer. Within about a month an oil leak had developed which caused the brake system vacuum pump to fail. The dealer was happy to get this sorted and pay for it so I took it to their preferred independent mechanic. The oil leak was fixed and the vacuum pump replaced, however, it was discovered that there was no oil getting to the pump due to a clog.
• VW Golf FSI 2.0 - ESP light on VW Golf 2004 19 Apr 2011 (Forum)
  After research it appeared to be a common fault with VW's between the age of 2004-2008 mainly. So I took it to my local garage (non-VW dealer) and they ran diagnostics which showed a 'brake pressure sensor' error. They told me this meant the ABS pump was faulty and the cost (wait for it) would be in the region of £1400-£1700. Now that is big money for something that technically should not fail, although having looked around it appears hundred of these ABS units do fail.
• Peugeot 206 - Returning a used car and refusing repairs? 8 Jun 2010 (Forum)
   Here are my problems thus far: Speakers intermittently cutting out AC sometiems works great, sometimes completely useless Strange click noise then small rev increase happens regularly A loss of power for a second (only happened once so far) One time I set off and the air-bag light was on for the whole journey  And then here's the big one; randomly at any point the engine can totally cut out losing all power, PAS, etc. I have to pull over, engage Park and turn off the engine. Engine braking also seems to happen as I rapidly lose speed when the engine stalls.  I've heavily read up about it on the internet and it seems it was a common fault on the cars, however the problem is extremely hard to fix permanently, and in nearly all cases the car has to be brought back for repairs repeatedly over the months, even years trying to fix it.
• How many tools and accessories do you keep in car 21 Dec 2009 (Forum)
  First Aid Kit Tablets Disposable Camera, but film is probably well out of date now Selection of household batteries and fuses Gloves Hat Spare Coat (think I forgot mine once, so that sealed the fate that a spare cheapo would live in the car) Picnic Blanket Foldaway Chairs x 2 (the Motorway Services 2 for £10 ones) Coins for car parks One thing I note is lacking ? a towrope Today I applied a little logic and at last removed the bottle of brake fluid from the car, as I check it every week - if the light suddenly came on whilst out and about I guess I would phone the RAC rather than just top it up! Trouble is, if I ever throw something out I always subsequently need it, so it appears I have applied the same logic over the years with the amount of bits and pieces that I ?
• Rolling roadblock truckers - Aaarghhh!! 24 Oct 2009 (Forum)
  Travelling on a 2 lane motorway (I know it's the last part of the M73 North before it connects with the A80) I notice ahead a stream of red brake lights on. These were mainly in lane 1 with lane 2 affected to a lesser degree. I know (and so does everybody else using that road regularly) that 2 miles ahead the 2 lanes become only one whilst it connects onto the A80.
• Turning slowly into side streets 18 Oct 2009 (Forum)
  She suggests that, in the worst case, I would be able to stop during the turn, although that would leave me over the oncoming lane (of the main road). I fear that, in fact, because the speeding drivers in the side street only brake in time to give way I could find myself turning into them. In theory, I reckon that I am in the right, because I am turning within the lines, am checking that the exit road is clear and if somebody rear ends me they haven't left the right gap and/or haven't been paying attention.