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• oil coolers? waste of money? 25 Sep 2006 (Forum)
  alot of people in my car club fit additional oil coolers, which i can see makes sense on a track only car i see them complain/mention that their oil takes forever to warm up, or never goes over xxx degrees surley driving for say 20mins until the oil passes 80 degrees is daft, and wastes fuel and increases engine wear? i know having oil running at crazy high temps is bad, but isnt it almost as bad having cool oil all the time any ideas what the safe /best temps for oil is.....my manual states not to drive hard until 80deg buts doesnt say alot about how hot is too hot
• 1999 Astra alarm problems 19 Sep 2006 (Forum)
  Morning all, The Astra has blotted its copybook by developing an alarm problem. After a run with the aircon on, when the car is subsequently parked up the alarm goes off after a few minutes. I had this problem last summer, and traced it (I thought) to the recirculation button on the ventilation being on.
• Vectra 2.0 TDI 1998 management light 9 Sep 2006 (Forum)
  This morning the same again did the same although this time it stopped on until the end of the road so it looks as if I?m in for some trouble. It runs perfectly normal with no limp home mode although it wasn?t on long enough to be sure. The last time the light came on was eventually found to be the CAT had collapsed after main dealer had it for almost a week.
• Vectra 1.6 Ecotec EMU 29 Aug 2006 (Forum)
  Car is 2000, has done 94k, has always been a bit of an oil burner, rattled at start up but I still getting '40 mpg and still runs sweetly when warmed up, so I am thinking can't be too much wrong, faulty sensor perhaps? I don't want to fork out 50 quid at a vauxhall dealer to have it checked out but I am I being too complacent ?
• Wheel/tyre balancing - again 21 Aug 2006 (Forum)
  : Wheels are imbalanced because the circular periphery of the tyre is slightly eccentric with respect to the centre of the wheel. Running the wheel for a while on the rear, where this might not be noticed or matter, causes slight preferential wear in a way that re-centralises the tyre. Like spinning it on a lathe.
• please choose me a bike carrying vehicle 9 Aug 2006 (Forum)
  Any ideas for the following requirements: Used for running costs (150 mile weekly commuting) Decent acceleration and cornering performance Able to take 2 adult mountain bikes with the minimum of dismantling (front wheel out ok) Don't mind open "pick-up" style storage, not too keen on 4x4 image though A workmate found a VW Caddy 105PS TDI which is perfect, but they seem to be in short supply and none of the equivalent vehicles (Transit Connect / Pug / Citroen small vans) seem to offer the same kind of perfrormance I saw an ex-aussie Ford Falcon v8 2wd pickup on auto trader, but it was LPG only and I get the feeling that fuel prices won't be in its favour much longer....
• Toyota Estima pressure from oil filler 31 Jul 2006 (Forum)
  I test drove one today for 20 miles at 70 mph as recommended on the Estima Owners Club website and there seemed to be no problems in the cooling system BUT when I opened the oil filler cap with the engine running, there was significant air pressure . Everything else on the car seems to be fine The engine is only recorded at 50k miles and the seller ( a large independant dealer states they all have pressure) I would rather lose 10 good estimas than buy 1 which will give me big problems.
• Oil change? 16 Jul 2006 (Forum)
  My less-than 20,000 mile Almera has done nearly 5,000 miles since its last service. The service interval is 9,000 miles, but that feels to me like a long time to run on the same oil. I'm no mechanic, but I do know that on diesels, frequent oil changes are one of the most crucial parts of maintenance, and although this car is petol-engined, I'm wondering if it'd be wiser to get an oil-change now.
• VW Golf Emissions warning light 12 Jul 2006 (Forum)
  It has come on when the car has been stalled on a couple of occassions, but also when the car seems to be running fine. The only other symptom seems to be a occasional slight misfiring. The problem has been happening since VW put a new speed sensor in. Although I don't know if this is related. I have had the throttle body cleaned, but the light has still come on again.
• Whats fair mileage for a tyre ? 12 Jul 2006 (Forum)
  We were talking at work the other day about car running costs and one of the subjects that came up was tyre wear. I said that I though that Joe Average, driving a regular car, in a regular manner should expect to be getting about 20000 miles from his front tyres if on a FWD and a bit more on rears if FWD.
• 1995 Golf CL diesel, slow to start 13 Jun 2006 (Forum)
  When you turn the key, the starter turns the engine normally, but nothing happens for 3-10 seconds. When it's started, everything runs perfectly. It doesn't seem to matter whether the engine's cold or not, some times it's easier than others. He took it to a garage last month, who checked the glow plugs (no faults found) and replaced "some tubes which can get blocked" - cost about £60.
• Pre registered cars - 90 day rule 12 Jun 2006 (Forum)
  This will be approx. 30 days after we are expected to pay the balance and take physical possession of the vehicle. Two issues arise. Firstly, we run the risk of having paid for something that we may not own for 1 month and secondly insurers will not explicitly cover a car for which we are not the registered keeper. Has anyone else come across this and if so any ideas??
• golf mk3 body trim 31 May 2006 (Forum)
  i have a 3 door mk3 golf in dragon green. the car is a tdi and it is all completely colour coded. what i want to do is basically make it look like a gti - small lip spoiler,plastic wheel arch covers and change the bit that runs round the middle of the car to black plastic. i rang vw for a price on wheel arch covers-£24 each and the spoiler £33 +vat. didnt get a price on middle bit,any ideas. also is it a simple job for me or is it better for me to take to a body shop. and does anyone know where else i could pick these bits up from apart from vw and scrapyard and what sort of expected price. thanks
• Renault Scenic 1.9DCi (2002) 30 May 2006 (Forum)
  Today our Renault Scenic 1.9DCI (2001/2) developed a rattling noise on idle which disappears totally when the revs are increased. The car runs perfectly. The noise is coming from the area around the alternator where there is a large belt tensioner. I have applied pressure to the tensioner (using a screwdriver) in an attempt to increase the pressure on the alternator belt and this stops the noise, so I think it may be the tensioner.
• problems with fuel sender - Fiat Ducato 24 May 2006 (Forum)
  Hi, Recently had problems with my clutch which thanks to the help of the people on this site was sorted out. Thank you. The vehicle running well but having problems with accurate fuel readings. The engine was originally a 2.0 liter petrol engine. Now has a Fiat Ducato 2.5 Diesel. I do not know much about the history of this vehicle. When the fuel reaches a quarter tank the orange light flickers and on occasions the fuel meter reads empty, which courses all sorts of problems resolved by stopping and turning off the engine.
• Gearbox whine - citroen xsara 8 May 2006 (Forum)
  The whine has started in 5th and slowly worked its way to third, with second just beginning. Ive also been told by the time it gets to first, im running on minutes rather than days. I phoned a gearbox specialist and he thinks ive got little or no oil in my gearbox, thing is i had the clutch replaced 6 months ago so new oil would have been added?
• Vauxhall Omega (1994 - 2003) - no drive on new automatic gearbox box 20 Apr 2006 (Forum)
  Does the torque converter pump the fluid round or a seperate pump. We have filled it to the level drain hole with the engine running etc... Thanks for any advice.
• MPG!! - Fiesta 1.6 Zetec S diesel 4 Apr 2006 (Forum)
  My last car was an Alfa 147 with which I obtained 33 mpg over 3 yrs (Alfa state 31mpg overall). The Fiesta engine seems to run well. Is it normal for a company's consumption figures to be so far from reality or might there be a problem with this car?
• Citroen C5 - Foam injection worries 19 Mar 2006 (Forum)
  They attempted to fix this problem by injecting "expanding foam" into the the hollow box sections which run either side of the car under the floor of the boot. Seemingly this was a Citroen approved fix at the time. The can of foam even has a citroen part number. What could i expect the long term effects of this foam to be?
• FIAT Punto (1994 - 1999) - 95 899cc ignition problem 8 Mar 2006 (Forum)
  I just picked up a cheapy cinquecento (899cc M reg) for the missus from the auctions. Problem being that when I switch the ignition to "off" and remove the key, the engine keeps on running. All the gauges seem to be operative too, although the battery symbol illuminates. I'm thinking it might be something to do with the aftermarket Foxguard immobliser it's got fitted. Supposedly, according to what little documentation I've got with it, it's got a switch hidden somewhere to override it, so if I could find it I could or not.