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• Vauxhall Vectra C - Front coil spring failure 29 Mar 2010 (Forum)
  I think what I am getting round to saying is that services based on high mileages or every 12 months if those mileages are not achieved can lead to major problems going unnoticed. Certainly, from now on, my car is going into the Vauxhall dealers every six months for a check over, even though they continue to tell me that this is completely unneccessary.
• Vauxhall Vectra B (1995 - 1999) - 99 2.0 Smoky exhaust, cockpit ecu light 7 Feb 2010 (Forum)
  After a week or 2 the exhaust started to smoke (white) but i'm not loosing any coolant, water, oil, e.g.. Plugs were dry but Iv popped in new ones and HT leads. Any help welcome Also I have the engine management or ecu light up in the cockpit ( amber, pic of an engine with flash in the mid ) I comes on intermitted, the revs will drop off if I give it some welly they will pick up again but now and again it will stall and not turn over again for a min or 2.
• Ford Fiesta (2002 - 2008) - Fiesta ST 8 Jan 2010 (Forum)
  I will be doing around 35k miles a year so am looking for a lower mileage car - not for residual value purposes, just because there is the potential for less to go wrong (and I do mean potential, I'm not making any assumptions). Research leads me to the Ford family and I have come down to 2 choices (both 2005/2006 models): Ford Mondeo 2.0i any trim Ford Fiesta 2.0i ST I would value thoughts and feedback on running the ST. My daily commute is 45 miles each way and is a mix of fast A road, M1 from Jn 9 - 1 and heavy West London traffic.
• Useless gadgets 15 Jul 2009 (Forum)
  The list is as long as it is embarrassing... The clip on notepad with a carpy pen attached post-office style by a coiled lead - with its own built in reading light. (Never wrote anything down on it, least of all at night: never had any urgent phone messages as it was 20 years before I even got a phone in the car!) Those colour-keyed plastic gaiter things to adorn the base of the windscreen wiper arms (presumably intended to save impacted pedestrians from undue harm in those murderous pre-NCAP years...)
• Honda Accord UK (2003 - 2008) - Honda Accord 2.4i EX Auto driving experiences 10 May 2009 (Forum)
  I've never been able to get used to the brakes, they always feel as though there's not enough resistance in them which sometimes leads to them feeling very on or off at low speeds (i.e. its hard to brake progressively). I've had this checked by the dealer who insists that they are within specification 3. My wife would like an Auto I've recently test driven a 2.4 EX auto accord (outgoing model) and on the surface my problems are solved, however, I'm worried that the 2.4 feels gutless on the motorway by comparison and I've read stuff that seems to imply that the EX comes with a sports suspension, although the EX definitely felt softer on a test drive.
• Mazda MX5 (1998-2005) - 2000 1.6 Start up problems 22 Apr 2009 (Forum)
  I have a friend who was a mechanic so they could fit it for me. 2. I have read similar problems on here where it was mentioned it may be the HT leads, could it be this and not the coil pack? This is my first car and I am not an expert, and naively assumed that as long as I had it serviced regularly that it would be fine, as people keep quoting at me that "Mazda's are so reliable".
• Ford Focus (1998 - 2004) - 2000 1.8 Starting Problem 15 Dec 2008 (Forum)
  We checked the battery voltage and it turned out to be real low (12.2v) so I bought a new battery (I bought a lead acid one but have since discovered that I can only use an expensive silver calcium one from ford). It was real cold out last night which may have had something to do with it. Stuck the new one in this morning but did the same thing.
• Jaguar X-Type Estate (2004 - 2007) - 2005 2.0ltr Query when starting from cold 23 Nov 2008 (Forum)
  I assumed to battery was shot (Jan 2005) but have had no indication that it was on its way out, tried jump leads still no response, by more luck than design I kept the key in the position III for approx three seconds and hey presto it fired straight up no turning over just fired straight up. So I tried a new quality battery no issues all week, it was cold last night 1 degree so gave it a try this afternoon and the same thing happened position III for starting nothing turned back to position I then back to III held there for 2/3 seconds fired straight up, after letting it run for no more than a minute or so turned it off and tried again, this time started in the usual manner.
• Keeping your head down - what have you done? 7 Sep 2008 (Forum)
  Walking back to the tent and car on this rather overgrown site we saw a family coming towards us with black grease on their lower legs. Sure enough it was all over the long late summer dried grass in the centre of the track leading to our tent at the far end of the site. I must admit, my first concern was for my beauty having its belly wiped clean, but a quick head under revealed lots of black grease and semi-liquid ooze from the chassis. 1987 and Blue Citroen 2CV, D908 GWX (Is it still around) had received waxoil and full underbody grease slather + rag bungs into chassis end rails and several litres of engine oil mixed with waxoil into the chassis.
• Vauxhall Vectra B facelift (1999 - 2002) - 1999 1.8 Missing whilst revving 28 Aug 2008 (Forum)
  I'm unlucky enough to own a face lift vectra on a T-plate, which i believe has the x18 xe1 lump. The coil/dis going across the head with no leads. Anyway, the trouble i'm having is, that when i'm in neutrel and revving the car around 2k revs, it seems to be missing. The EML is on, but the car still drives pretty good, no missing whilst driving, lurching etc.
• What fuel consumption gaffs/efforts have you made 1 Apr 2008 (Forum)
  (sold after 87,000 miles after losing me a fortune in mileage claims) 4) Its replacement, the 1.6 petrol auto Maestro that eventually got down to 23mpg on long runs as its main jet wore due to the rubbing needle. Sold in desperation as it needed leaded petrol too. 5) The saviour of my finances, in the early 90`s recession, the new Maestro Clubman D, that could get 60MPG, drew max car allowance and ran for 130,000 miles. Boring after that as i had learnt a lesson, but for some reason as the years went on and fuel consumption became less of an issue for the pocket, it became an issue for the mind....
• Citroen C5 (2001 - 2008) - 2002 110 HDi - Leak of precious fuel... 23 Feb 2008 (Forum)
  I have a 2002 51 reg C5 110bhp HDI with close approaching 100k miles. A strong smell of diesel and small tell trale drip from back of sump tray lead me to have a good look today under the bonnet and I found that the fuel pipe with two nuts going inyto the high pressure pump is leaking albeit lightly. Tried to nip up with open end spanner but no real movement, and in any case did not want to make anything worse on a Sat afternoon!
• Jaguar X-Type (2001 - 2009) - manual or auto? 11 Jan 2008 (Forum)
  Its not quite bangernomics though having a 5.5 year old car that has done 125k and drives pretty much as new has lead me to believe in running an older car that has already largely depreciated. So I am thinking possibly of a slightly older V6 saloon, not the 2.1, I have driven one, it lacks torque, the 2.5 is much more flexible yet alone the 3.0.
• Interesting experience at shopping centre 13 Dec 2007 (Forum)
  I was driving into an out of town shopping centre just outside Leicester this afternoon, and when I turned onto the access road I noticed a large plain white van parked right in the centre of the road across the chevrons that lead from the end of the centre railing. This was a long wheelbase van and so the front wheels stuck out onto the road itself as the chevrons narrowed towards the centre line. The van had hazards on, and I noticed through the back windows that there were two cameras that appeared to have three lenses each aimed at the access road.
• '99 Accord - oxygen sensor 6 Nov 2007 (Forum)
  There are tell-tale residue marks which we believe to be WD40, which would indicate that the workshop has tried to remove the sensor but can't shift it, leading me to believe that the price quoted is for both the sensor and the manifold. Where do I stand with the dealer on this? They haven't expressly told me they can't shift the sensor from the manifold, and I haven't queried the price breakdown.
• Parking Ticket 27 Apr 2007 (Forum)
  There are however signs at the ends of the road, one next to a footpath some 20m away from where I parked which leads down some steps and could easily be blocked by a parked car, similarly there is one at the other end of the road across a junction (some 20m away), where the road is narrower and a throughfare (the stretch I parked in is a deadend (apart from access to houses and the footpath).
• Ford Mondeo 1995 idle speed control 28 Mar 2007 (Forum)
  Mainly - idle is ok when cold. as the engine warms up, the problem seems to be a "pulsing" of the revs, leading to a stall. Can anyone tell me how good the diagnostic kit is at a main dealer and therefore how likely it is that the part I need is the Idle Speed Control Valve? Also, if it is this, is £120 too much to pay?
• Misfiring Vauxhall Astra 14 Mar 2007 (Forum)
  I later took it to an independant garage for a decoke quote who told me that it didn't need one the problem lies elsewhere. Since then I have change the spark plugs, HT leads and used numerous tankfulls of redex and the like, cleaned the injector inlet using injector cleaner, poured redex into the cylinder and leaving it for a whilst. After all of this the car is running better but still has an intermittant misfire on cylinder 3.
• 51 Mondeo Misfire 19 Jan 2007 (Forum)
  Once I've got past the jerking I can accelerate hard and everything seems fine. I've replaced HT leads. Oil and plugs were changed by a main dealer 3-4 months ago. There are no warning lights and a local garage checked the ECU and found no faults. I'm not keen on taking it in to the local Ford garage without some idea of where the problem could lie.
• Ford KA 2003 Misfire...pls Help..EUC?? 12 Jan 2007 (Forum)
  The car just started to missfire and the Engine managment light came on, so I thought I would have a look, Looking at the car I noticed that it was only on No2 that it was misfiring, I pulled the injector multi plug off on no2 and it made no diffrence to the running. pulling any of the others of and it nearly dies. so I swapped the plugs round, and the leads. still the same . I carried out a compression check and all was well also, I then removed the fuel rail and swapped over no 1 and no 2 injectors, still the same problem, just on no2... there is a real healthy spak on this so the coil pack looks like it is ok.