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• Car Advice, budget circa 3.5K 6 Apr 2018 (Forum)
    I can patiently wait although the peasant wagon is not good for my back and I need to bring my son home from Leeds uni in 4 months; and although I do work in a doctors I think it’s a tad unethical to go through the deaths/strokes/MIs in the hope there’s a newish car going cheap! Buying a cheap run around seemed much less hassle.  Thank you for any help.
• How much difference does a roof rack make to MPG? 20 Feb 2018 (Forum)
  I cover around 10k miles per year and at a guess i'd say about 80% of that would be driving to and from where i am working, the rest being short stop start runs from house to house in whatever town or village i happen to be working in.  think there may be some water leaking in through the roof fittings. It hasn't happened more than a couple of times since i got it, but the odd drop of water coming from somewhere around the edge of the drivers sunvisor.
• What to do with a damaged/repairable van 3 Jan 2018 (Forum)
  Having got my caddy van up and running, my thoughts are turning to exactly what i should do with the trusty old, but now damaged, transit connect. So i would appreciate any thoughts on the matter. It is a 2006 lwb 230 tdci with 135k miles.
• Volvo V40 - Alternatives to a Volvo V40 18 Nov 2017 (Forum)
  He fancies a V40 but these are very rare and even early examples of the current model are over budget. Failing that he quite likes the BMW 3 series but he has heeded my warnings about the potential running costs of a BMW in that price bracket. Also petrol models are again rare, although more common than the V40 if you go back further in age. I have suggested a Focus (he thinks its too much of a family car), a Civic (maybe but prefers not to follow me), Astra (doesnt want to go back to VX after his old Corsa), Mazda 3 (just doesnt appeal), Kia/Hyundai SUV (had one on day hire didnt like it).
• Honest John’s Motoring Agony Column 09-09-2017 Part II 15 Sep 2017 (Forum)
  No water pump to replace, don't even need to take the fan/auxilliary drive belt off, though it makes sense to check the condition of it after 90k miles i changed mine for belt and braces, the substantial cambelt only drives the camshaft and its own tensioner nothing else, all timing marks are easily seen. 6x10mm bolts removes the plastic cam cover, turn engine over via crank pulley bolt to align timing marks, 2 bolts sees the tensioner off, 1 bolt holds the idler wheel in place, replace idler wheel and tensioner, slip cambelt on, check timing marks are still in line (making sure the belt is not slack on its long run), remove grenade style clip holding tensioner spring back, belt is now tensioned, check once again timing marks are correct and you can always turn the engine over via the crank pulley bolt two revolutions to double check, refit cover, make cup of tea and acknowledge yet another brilliant design by Mr T's excellent engineers.
• Help choosing the right car please 27 Feb 2017 (Forum)
  I could get a newer car with my money with those types, but would they cost me more over the 3 years in running costs? Sorry I'm rambling now if you have managed to finish my post any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Sue.
• Skoda Octavia vRS - Help me decide which car to get next year. 16 Feb 2017 (Forum)
      Anyway I'm saving up for a new car, well trying as I seem to keep having to spend money on what I currently have. It is after all a 16 year old car. My current car is a Skoda Octavia VRS converted to run on LPG. So I'm looking for something similar, I do roughly 10,000 miles a year and do quite a few short journeys so I would guess this rules out diesels? Although I had a 110bhp Golf diesel and never really ran into any issues with that.
• VW Polo GTI - Used car problems - help with rejecting car 28 Dec 2016 (Forum)
  It has 4 previous owners and the service book shows evidence of multiple oil changes close together before then being part exchanged. Spoke to well known car supermarket who I purchased off and they said run for another 1000 miles and see if it happens again. That was the plan and then just a couple days ago the coolant has dropped a massive amount. They have advised top fluids up and get it back to them, which is my next step.
• Nissan Micra K11 2001 coilpack - Failed Mot on emissions - natural idle CO only. 11 Nov 2016 (Forum)
  I got an OBD scanner (OBDLink SX to link to a laptop) which gave only one fault for STORED fault codes - P0120, indicating an incorrect voltage from the Throttle Position Sensor. However, on clearing the code and running the engine again, I couldn't get the code to come back again. On checking the resistance on the TPS with the sensor disconnected I'm getting 2Kohm regardless of accelerator pedal position. But no further fault code.
• Mercedes E320 - Ford or Mercedes 5 Nov 2016 (Forum)
  At the moment he has a 52 reg S class which has just gone through a service without one additional penny being spent on it. I've heard the argument that an 8 year old £50k car may be cheap to buy but still has the running costs of a £50k car but I must admit his point of view seems to have a lot of merit. He's got me looking at 57/58 E class Mercs at the moment. I'd be interested to hear opinions from people on here.
• Ford Mondeo Estate 2001 - Mondeo Mk3 diesel ticking 28 Jul 2016 (Forum)
  What I know: ticking noise from the engine, not terribly loud but easy to hear from inside the car it seems to come from somewhere on the drivers side of the engine when you lift the gas, the sound remains equally loud the ticking only occurs when engine is at normal temperature, not when it's cold the engine runs perfectly fine, normal amount of power and torque To me it sounds like ticking cams, but I've had only one car before so I could be wrong. We checked the oil level, it was only just enough so we filled it until right under the 'max' indicator.
• Subaru Forester mk1 faselift 2lt STurbo - missfireing 16 May 2016 (Forum)
  I then went to pull no3 cylinders lead and it disintergrated in my fingers. after a long struggle to remove the remains form the sparkplug and replacing both HT leads, the car now runs like a dream again. so i guess im telling you about this as dont want others fobbed off with clear diagnostic readings and junking your car because someone tells you (as i was) it may be a £1300 head gasket, my advice is to change a £30 set of HT leads first. it may just save you a fortune and you car !
• carburetted engines. MAYBE coked DI - DOT 3 Carb Cleaner 8 Apr 2016 (Forum)
  However, I'm told that current DI engines suffer from coked-up intake valves, because there isn't any petrol in the intake tracts to clean them, and the blowby from the EGR/crankcase ventilation system makes them dirty (I'd expect it to have been happening to diesels for ever, then, but dunno if it has) Perhaps a soak in brake fluid, followed up by a water spray in a running engine, might help with that too? (Dunno how it'd affect a catalyst though.)
• Jaguar XF - DPF full, again! 1 Apr 2016 (Forum)
  I've been using wynns DPF additive every 3rd or fourth tank full, actually three bottles since December and there is one in the full tank now. I've been doing steady motorway runs to activate the passive regen but still get the problem. It does do short journeys about 6 per day of around 2.5 miles, 2 journeys per day of around 8.5 miles then the usual driving town and country driving.
• Pushbike Incident 18 Dec 2015 (Forum)
  We had a discussion during which  it was confirmed (as my son had said) that the driver was not in the vehicle when he placed his bike on the pavement (was outside, but looking at water running off the guttering), I asked if they checked behind the car prior to reversing they said no and asked if I did, the car has a camera and sensors but they said neither picked it up (light was on, on the bike).
• Toyotal Corolla Verso - Head Gasket Issues on Toyota Corolla Verso D4D 19 Oct 2015 (Forum)
  Yesterday it went in for its MOT and Service - it has always gone back to Toyota for this and I mentioned that I'd had the temperature light flash red a couple of times and the oil and water had been topped up in early September. Other than this the car was running fine with no obvious issues. I was very shocked to then get a call saying that the head gasket on the engine had gone and I would need to pay just over £3500 to have a new engine. Since then I have looked into any known issues with the car (which I thought I had done prior to purchase), and have found a lot of posts in owners forums over the last 18 months of people having similar issues.
• Rover 25 1.4 (2003) - Alarm, engine immobiliser or some other problem 6 May 2015 (Forum)
  When I first made an attempt to get it started after a few months out of action it had a flat battery after first thinking it was the engine immobiliser (and paying for the eka code and using the key turn sequence). Once that was charged, I got everything up and running, new battery in key fob and alarm reactivated ok. However, a few days after getting the enginge going and the central locking working properly, the alarm started tripping of its accord, sometimes late at night (!).
• 2008 Ford Focus 2.0l DUratec Auto - Gearbox and Aux Belt servicing advice + Start Prob 14 Dec 2014 (Forum)
  A friend has suggested that I get them to check the fuel pressure at the rail as i can hear the fuel pump prime when putting the ignition in position 2. Could do with finding out before the warranty runs out. Many thanks for any help you can offer. Buzz
• Porsche Boxster 986 + Boxster S (1996 - 2004) - Which boxster to buy??? 30 Nov 2014 (Forum)
  Been driving a focus for the past couple of years and although I have no complaints, i'm a 25 year old looking to have a fun car before I have to worry about where to put the kids. After reading pages and pages of baffling reviews about running costs, engine seals, rear visibility and lack of 'golf club space', I was not put off, however, I am still no further in finding where to start. Firstly, as I say, I am 25 so the "S" version will hurt my pocket slightly more in terms of insurance and also the thought of that much speed under my foot after driving a focus is a little bit...scary.
• ford fiesta - fixed penalty not appearing on system 15 Oct 2014 (Forum)
  Around 3 Weeks ago I was stopped by the police, it turns unbeknownst to me the insurance had run out on my vehicle. Its due to a chain of regrettable events, my insurance company had contacted me to talk about a renewal, however I had been at work at the time and asked them to call back, they never did.