June 2003

Question Copper grease and brakes

peteH on 7 June 2003

Should copper grease be used every time brake pads are fitted?

To which surface is it applied, and what does it prevent/lubricate? Read more

hardway on 16 January 2016

I never smeared copper grease,

or any grease on the back of pads....

Question Are exhaust bandages any good ?

johnmac on 5 June 2003

hello,

Does anybody have any experience with these bandages (gum gum i think they're called) to patch up exhaust holes?

Are they just a temporary thing, such as for a day or 2, or would they last for a few weeks.

Read more

THe Growler on 9 June 2003

Drove a Bedford CA Van London to Istanbul and back with a Gun Gum bandage on the front pipe, with the obligatory tomato sauce can and yards of wire. Lasted the whole way there and back before disintegrating at 1 in the morning on Brighton seafront after coming off the Newhaven Ferry on the way back.

A friendly police officer in a Morris Minor panda car pulled us up and commented on the noise, also the lack of a tax disc. I explained we had just driven from UK to Turkey and back and the tax has expired while we were away. His expression exuded pull the other one, unsurprisingly, as he paced around the filthy and dilapidated Bedford.

I could see the right hand beginning its journey to the uniform breast pocket and the notepad when I grabbed our passports and showed him a succession of entry stamps across Western and Eastern Europe. We got let off with the strict admonition to get it fixed tomorrow.

Question Diesel fuel additives

IanM on 24 June 2003

I am taking delivery soon of a Skoda Octavia with the 130bhp tdi pd diesel engine fitted. I have used Millers Diesel Power Plus for many years in my 11 year old Passat. Skoda discourage use of fuel additives on the basis that engines are designed with modern fuels in mind. I would be grateful for your opinions on whether it would be a good thing to continue using this product in the new car, a waste of money or positively a bad move.
Read more

IanM on 12 July 2003

Many thanks to all who contributed to the discussion. In summary I guess the answer to the question seems to be to use a good quality fuel and that additives do no harm and may do some good. For a few pence per tankful I will carry on with Millers.

Forum kormoran tyres

guss on 20 June 2003

i saw these tyres in costco yesterday. i have never heard of them . does anyone know who makes them or has any experience of them? they were priced at about 40 pounds each Read more

1litregolfeater on 31 May 2012

I hate spending money unnecessarily so I just get them off the internet.

That website with black circles seems to work great, the fitters are grateful for the additional traffic and seem to work hard to please their internet bosses.

Question VW Golf Problems

Keith Fellows on 20 June 2003

I've got a VW Golf 1.9 TDi which is about 18 months old. On Tuesday night I was driving home on the motorway when I suddenly experienced a loss of power. The car didn't stop but the engine wouldn't rev above 2500 rpm and wouldn't get above 60 mph. It was almost as if the engine had lost all turbo assistance. I nursed it off at the next junction, stopped and switched the engine off. About a minute later I switched back on again and everything was fine. The car was fine yesterday but today it did exactly the same thing again.

Personally I think it is either a faulty sensor or a fault in the ECU (I think some Bosch ECUs exhibit this kind of fault).

Has anybody else experienced anything similar? Read more

macempete on 23 July 2009

Yes i have the same problem VW Golf V 2.0 2004 .. had the problem in its 1st year loss of power when acelerating uphill .. main dealer could not find fault over 3 yrs but changed the turbo anyway .. the car is now 5.5yrs old 36K on the clock and the fault has repeated 3 times last weekend .. now getting fed up switching off at 70mph overtaking .. so its back to main dealer next week probably at my cost this time (unless there is some good will from VW) even though the original fault was in the first year. Fingers crossed they can sort it

SQ

Question High pitch noise when bearing right?

andrew4 on 24 June 2003

Hi All

I have a VW Golf Mk2 1300 82,000 miles.

After a few miles driving (i.e. when the car has warmed up) a high pitch noise occurs when the road veers to the right. This noise therefore occurs when I turn the steering to the right, it?s comes from the front of the car most likely the driver side wheel.

When I turn the steering to the left the noise will automatically go. Also when the noise is occurring if I tap on the brake pedal it will go for a few seconds.

I have noticed that after a fair journey the driver side wheel is fairly hot, especially after driving on a winding road. The passenger side wheel is not as hot.

The front wheel bearings seem ok ( I have lifted each wheel and there was no movement or clicking when I tried to move it laterally).

I assume the problem is due to the driver side disc brake. The upper caliper bolt metal sleeve could be seized, could this be the cause? should I replace it?

Is it likely that the actual caliper is seizing (the outer brake pad is 2mm thinner than the inner pad), if so do I replace?

I doubt though the disc is warped as there is no noise when braking.

Any suggestions please.

Read more

Drew20 on 1 July 2003

yes the caliper bolt bores

the slider wasn't seized but was very stiff. to get them out I had to hammer a 12mm socket on to the end of the bolt.

I first attacked the corrosion with a very small file but this is very slow going so I bought a small wire wheel from B&Q last night and plan to get this sorted ASAP.

the file did improve things but it still squeaks sometimes so it must be binding slightly still

Forum Marangoni tyres

prelude on 22 June 2003

Has anyone had any live experience of Marangoni tyres?

They are an Italian tyre - but I have not seen them around other than in a small independent garage.

My attraction is that they seem offer a high treadwear rating of 400 better than the avons I use @320.

I have visited marangoni's web site.
Can anyone help? Read more

Collos25 on 7 October 2010

They have been making car tyres for donkies years part of Pirelli.

Question What fluid for hydraulic jack?

martint123 on 23 June 2003

Hi folks, I've got a scissor lifting workbench that I use to work on the motorbike (not sure what it was originally for, LINK by name.) I got it for virtually nothing last year. Leaking seals.

It has a horizontal jack with built-in pump and a two stage ram (two diameters, wide for the large initial load and narrow for the remainder). It had been out of service for some time and was leaking fluid from the ram. I took it apart and cleaned up the bores and pistons and took it to a friendly hyraulic engineering company who measured things up and got some new seals for me (and a quart plastic milk bottle of fluid).

The seals still weep a bit and at some time I'll try one of those honing tools seen in halfords and the auto tool catalogs to see if I can polish the bores a bit as I suspect there may be some rust pitting from its lack of use.

At last the question. What is jack oil???? Halfords sell it at quite a price for a smallish quantity. The local motor factors haven't a clue. The jack holds about a pint and a half.

Would powersteering fluid do?? - it seems roughly the same viscosity and a couple of drops mixed ok on the bench.

Any info welcome, regards
Martin
Read more

jc on 24 June 2003

Look in your yellow pages for a local hydraulics supplier;they'll probably fill a container for you.

Question Hiss of Air When Fuel Tank Opened

timp on 15 June 2003

When I open the fuel tank of my Focus to fill it up, I always hear (and feel) a significant hiss of air around the filler cap. Is this normal?

I thought there was a fuel tank air vent which would let air into the tank as petrol is used, to avoid a vacuum in the tank. Or is the purpose of the fuel tank air vent to let air out of the tank when petrol is put in?

Hope this isn't a stupid question...
Tim Read more

timp on 16 June 2003

Thanks to all for your replies. I haven't experienced this on other cars, so I thought I'd better check!
Tim

Question Fiesta clutch adjustment

MGspannerman on 15 June 2003

I have just bought my daugher a 92J 1100cc Fiesta. Very nice all round, only 46k (MOTs and history to prove) and a years MOT. Slight problem is that the clutch has to very fully depressed to disengage and can be a bit crunchy on first. I have checked for cable adjustment at the gearbox end and by grovelling in the footwell but no sign. I am considering bodging up a plastic spacer to take up a little slack in the cable. I suspect the cable has stretched and maybe the release plate is weak as well. I know I should have bought an MG Midget instead, but there is only so much time you can spend welding. Any advise very gratefully received.

Many thanks MGs Read more

none on 17 June 2003

Sorry, a thick spacer pulls the ratchet round to new teeth, the worn pawl teeth are unadjustable.