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• Mazda Mazda 3 (2004 - 2009) - Piston-Slap Issue, Katano 1,600cc Petrol. 20 Mar 2008 (Forum)
  When we did, however, we were told (surprise, surprise) that they ran the engine for two hours and that the noise was normal for a Mazda-3. I maintain that running the engine (unloaded) for any length of time is in no way an appropriate test for piston-slap, especially when the noise only occurs from a cold start. For example, at circa minus 7C, the engine sounds as if it is running without oil, which it is not.
• Banger(ish) shopping in Ayrshire 9 Aug 2025 (Forum)
  Two Toyota Yaris 1.33’s, a Vauxhall Viva, and a couple of Vauxhall Astra J’s with the belt driven 1.6 petrol motor. The first Yaris was about five different colours, and had more runs than an IBS sufferer after a curry. It was a mess. Next Yaris (a 2014 five door in silver) looked good on first acquaintance, but hadn’t been serviced in 6yrs despite being advertised as having “good service history” the bonnet wouldn’t open and it was absolutely rotten underneath.
• SEAT Ibiza FR 1.0 TSi - 5 year 80,000 Mile Review 29 Dec 2024 (Forum)
  But after about 20,000 miles they started to drone (sounded like the wheel bearings were away). I’m now running Continental AllSeasonContact’s. These are performing fine, but it’s too early to tell if they will become noisy, or what they will be like in snow. The car still drives like new.
• Mazda CX-5 - Mazda diesel contamination 14 Mar 2024 (Forum)
  I understand that Mazda are a huge company and legal proceedings against them on our own are pointless but this all just seems so unfair when it's all down to a problem they have caused. It's taken a lot of stress over the last 2 months to get the car running again and has left us in a total mess financially. Has anyone had similar problems or can offer any advice about taking this further?  Thanks so much
• Peugeot Partner - Vehicle won't start in garage after MOT&Service 27 Nov 2023 (Forum)
  The vehicle is taking up one of their hydraulic lifts as it won't move, & at one point they said they were going to have to move on to other jobs as they were getting behind!! Cheek!   It was running absolutely fine when we took it in, hasn't had any starting issues, doesn't do many miles as it's only a few miles drive to work & back. Went today & asked for a courtesy vehicle, collecting it tomorrow as long as we can sort insurance.
• Buying advice - family car for three in rear 30 Oct 2023 (Forum)
  So I think that pretty much leaves a Skoda Octavia estate. The benefit being I could go with a petrol and have less concerns about running it to high mileage with the shorter trips. Happy to be recommended other models, though I do seem to have ended up with a lot of requirements! Any help would be greatly appreciated
• How's everyone doing with the hot weather? 21 Jul 2022 (Forum)
  Getting and keeping it that low did mean pre-cooling it overnight by utilising a small security risk by propping my flat's front door open overnight (only - all shut during the day) for three days running and (securely) half opening the windows as well as those on the block staircase top (2nd) floor landing to engeneder a 'chimney stack' effect - including getting up early at 4-5am each day and opening the windows wide to take advantage of the coolest air outside.
• Estate car recommendations 17 Mar 2022 (Forum)
  I need something with: Room for a double buggy Plus a baby bed (these fold up flat and go in a case, but still take up quite a bit of space Rear seats that you can move forwards/backwards (our Focus doesn't leave a lot of room in the front when the kids seats are in the back, so I thought moveable rear seats may help us there) Enough room for all the clothes and toys babies and toddlers may need for a weekend away Up to £180pa for road tax Decent running costs for fuel and insurance Petrol (or Petrol-Hybrid) powered I'm looking for something around the £15,000 mark (with a bit of wiggle room, we could stretch to £17k).
• Small/mid auto SUV - any recs? 10 Aug 2021 (Forum)
  We do have off-street parking, so I could install a charger, and it appears to have a good range (250 miles even). More expensive up front, but cheaper to run - worth thinking about? I read some scary stories over the weekend about potential battery issues (fires, recalls etc) which rather deter me, but it appears not all Kona's are impacted (though Hyundai are not handling it well, and are not making it clear which cars are impacted, nor how long they'll take to sort it).
• Cheapo Cars (Again) - The Philosophy 7 Nov 2020 (Forum)
  Owned by a retired mechanic who lives round the corner from me, mostly driven by his short Thai wife who seems to have driven by feei (but the scratches are polishing out). First 1000 miles have gone well, about mid 30s mpg in town, mid 40s on a run. More comfortable seats and more rear room than the Jag. No ball of fire but adequate. Impeccable mechanically. I have come to the conclusion that I'll hang on to this. Why would I spend thousands more for another disappointing 'used approved' or even more for something new?
• Mercedes-Benz SLK 200K - To write off or to not write off? 18 Aug 2020 (Forum)
  I'm currently in the process of moving so if there was a way to get the car back plus a large chunk of the value and fix it myself it would come in incredibly handy.  Just don't know what issues I'll run into if I try to insure it once fixed.  I've never had any intention of selling it on so the resale value dropping shouldn't be an issue for me.  One body repair shop pointed me towards an accident company where you get a decent replacement while it is being fixed and they will do the repair.
• Mazda 3 - Insurance NCB puzzle. 26 Feb 2020 (Forum)
  The insurance on my wife's car runs out in early March and we have decided to change insurer from that point. This is something we've done a few times over the years without issue. In the past none has asked for NCB evidence but this one has.
• Toyota Yaris 1.5 - 10,000 miles on 1 Dec 2019 (Forum)
  Was ok when no other vehicles were about, but when trying to pull away briskly into gaps in traffic (or at roundabouts) it was a problem. This problem was intermittent. Seemed to be less of a problem when running on Shell V power and it didn’t like supermarket fuels. Never had a car before which ran noticeably better on one fuel that another. Had to take my time changing from 1st to 2nd gear to prevent crunching.
• Any - Suzuki SX4 SCross vs Honda Civic vs Toyota Avensis 23 Feb 2019 (Forum)
  A 2008 Ford Focus with 70000 miles, owned since 2010. The ford will become my wife's car used for the school run and my wife's local commute, while the new car we buy will become my car. I will be using it for my daily commute of 22 miles (44 miles round trip) 4 days a week.  My commute is about 10 miles motorway, 6 miles city driving and 6 miles of country roads.
• mazda 6 Takuya - Car power loss, accelerating = stuttering. 7 Jun 2017 (Forum)
  If I accelerated the reves would go up, so I dont think the engine is losing power, and the car would judder but not stall. I managed to coast it into the layby in neutural with the engine still running. Turned the engine off and tried again. It would then struggle to turn over a couple times but evenataully work after a minutes rest. I was able to nurse it to a garage (still 50miles from home) in which it did the same thing a couple more times.They ran a diagnostic, in which I believe a few of these are irrelevant to the problem above, maybe all, but I'll put them up anyway: B1128 - Driverside - Side inflatable deployment control circuit open.
• n/a - Motability pros/cons & vehicle choice 9 Jan 2017 (Forum)
   My wife would keep her car on which I'm a named driver and I'd retire mine hence saving on tax/mot/insurance at a cost of around £700pa plus any other annual running costs.  I believe if we are claim free for the period that ought to be accepted by a future insurer if I were to need to insure a car in my own right again for whatever reason but for how long would that be the case?
• Any water cooled engine - Is Old Coolant better or worse than water? 6 Dec 2016 (Forum)
  Since I think I saw her doing this about three years ago, it seems likely that the system has been running plain water for some time. Of course there's no need for anti-freeze here, but I'd think there'd be a risk of long term corrosion damage.   If I had an unfixable leak on a truly disposable car I might put a pinch of washing machine powder in it from time to time, but its hard for me to regard a shiny 10-year old Skoda as quite that disposable, even though that's as old as Taiwan cars usually get.
• Which car to buy: Help me decide. 3 Jul 2016 (Forum)
  But looking at weekend getaways etc, probably 5000 miles/annum. So I don't need a diesel, but would it hurt a diesel engine if run for such low mileage and kept idle for a month ?(annual 4 week vacation).  My options: I quite like the Nissan Qashqai (one with panaromic view) and the Honda Civic.
• Help! Unending hassle over 'credit hire' vehicle. 27 Jun 2016 (Forum)
      We have received instructions [well known credit hire company] to contact you in order to obtain your permission to run a claim against the insurers in your name at no cost to yourself. [well known credit hire company] are funding a claim to recover hire charges from the insurers but unfortunately by law they are unable to make this claim directly.
• Diesel - Engine tuning the truth 7 Apr 2016 (Forum)
  Ok let's say you have your car mapped by a good guy and you have problems it will never be the file its totally down to a problem with your car that the map has highlighted something you need to fix yet people who do have bad experiences always blame the mapper because they chose to have junk they don't look after remapped also a good honest macanic will tell you the same the ones to watch out for are the ones who blame the map as they are just trying to take more money from you because of their lack of knowledge (easy to blame a prob on the map instead of fixing the prob) so never tell them you have mapped your car or before they have seen it their mind is made up ,as an example 2.0 tdi vw engines come from 82hp to 140hp with the ONLY diff is the file everything else is totally the same only detuned so the Best Buy is the 82hp model as you can map it to almost 200hp gaining much better fuel eco too with that much needed extra power . If you car runs perfect get it mapped but by a good mapper with the correct genuine tools . One customer I've had for years always has his cars tuned bought a brand new Merc c class and wanted to wait untill he had 2000 miles on the clock but before that happened his gearbox and engine had to be replaced so who's folt is that Merc putting bad files on cars ,NO it's not he was just unlucky and got a bad egg theses things happen 1000 miles on the clock or 50k if somethings going to brake it will .