April 2005
The water pump on my 96 1.25 fiesta appears to be leaking. I checked the hoses and radiator, these are fine, the water appears to be leaking from the area of the pump itself and it looks like it might need replacing. I had a look at the Haynes manual for this job and in all honesty it's beyond my skill level. So with that in mind can anyone give me a rough idea of the cost of this job at a ford dealership. Alternatively does anyone have a reliable independent in the Nottingham area.
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I ahve just booked my Primera (new in Dec 2004) in for its 12K service on 10 May and when I rang up I asked them to take a look at the MPG - guy says "if you're getting over mid 30's you're doing well"!
I told him in no uncertain terms that I would expect mid to high 40's with ease and am getting low 40's on daily 114 mile round trip commute. I used to get over 50 mpg out of my Jazz so I'm hardly heavy footed.
I heard of a throttle sensor problem on these cars - any comments appreciated.
BTW the figures listed are Urban 34.9 Extra Urban 56.5 and Combined 46.3. As most of my commute is A14 out of commuter hours and thefore steady speed 75mph ish I would expect circa 50 MPG.
Before anyone asks, the MPG has been gradually improving but only marginally and last tank driven REALLY gently gave me 45 mpg.
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I have the same car and generally love it, but also shared your concerns re the fuel economy. I have now covered 8500 miles and have noticed a slow but steady improvement from low 30's indicated on the computer to high 30's. HOWEVER for a more accurate reading do the old brim the tank, measure etc thing and then judge. Town driving kills the economy stone dead, conversely I have achieved 56mpg out of mine on a cross country blat thought, so it can be made to both perform and sip juice. My hint would be to keep the revs below 2750 for changing up and things should improve. There is still ample torque there to get you moving quickly and turbo lag is pretty non existent anyway.
Also keep a careful eye on the oil level too.
Problem with the immobiliser/central locking fitted to my 1995 Escort TD. Whilst welding on a sill, I fried the electrics that lead to the NSR door, wires run up the 'B' piller and into rear door. The electrics power the central locking fitted to that door. I have replaced all the wires with a same age car with parts from the scrappies. Now the central locking does not work, nor does the tailgate release and the immobiliser light on the dash no longer flashes like before. Any ideas?
Cheers
Rob Read more
Did as described - you were 100% spot on - there it was - blown 20 amp fuse just where you mentioned. Cheers for that.
Rob
Since my previous post I have found out that VX heater plugs are £30 each! and thats cos they are ceramic and VX have some agreement with NGK as sole supplier or summat.
Its all to with bad starting(7 secs cranking) and white smoke/rough idle for 5 secs after starting. I still have the original set of plugs I exchanged for the halfords ones I fitted last year and these are NGK ceramic ones. Anyhow I was testing these old Plugs for resistance and got readings of 1-1.5 Ohms for three of them and 1 of them I got a reading of 22 ohms!(by measurin between the metal contact where the screw thread goes into and body of the plug) and it looks burnt BUT if I measure the resistance ON the screw thread and main body of the Plug I get 1.3 Ohms???
So are these reisitances showning burnt out glow plugs? and do you measure the resistance between the screw thread top of the Plug and the body of the pug OR the metal part that the screw thread goes into and the body of the plug?
I think I will test the older plugs by taking off the bus bar from the plugs in the engine and fitting the older plugs on the bar while out of the engine and switch the ignition on and look for the glow pattern? Does that sound ok?
One thing to note is that last year after I changed the plugs with the halfords ones I saw no difference at all! in starting/cranking time. perhaps due to them not being ceramic?
So I was thinking perhaps I should just get one NGK plug and refit the other 3 plugs?
Please help me as its my 1st car and and im on a budget as Ive already had a new radiator fitted and the engine reshimmed.
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Update:
I finally got out the old plugs, they were quite stiff and stuck but eventually they all came out(1yr old Halfords ones) They were covered in thick soot so that means that the combustion isnt complete right? I tried putting a jump lead on the plug out of the car but I got nothing(probably cos I didnt earth the plug!) anyway I just put back in the original ceramic NGK ones (9yrs old) and she started up beautifully....much less smoke and faster. On checking the resistance of the halfords plug only one plug had any reading at all! of 5 Ohms So I presume that the Halfords ones,as reported on other forums, have burnt out in less than a year and I was trying to start the car with one glow plug!! I think its because these cars have a post heating time of up to 7-8 minutes and these cheap metal Plugs burn out.
Hello.
I have found out that both lower arm bushings are split (the big ones.
The steering can pull at corners.
Is the car safe on the motorway.
--
(iam not a mechanic)
Martin Winters Read more
Hello
It is split partially on one side on each of the two big bushes.
The car is only strange when i go round a roundabout a bit too fast (was in a rush)
Thanks for your help.
--
(iam not a mechanic)
Martin Winters
Hi,
Trying to decide on a small automatic as a first car whether new or used. Somewhere I read that the Micra may not be as reliable as they should because they now use Renault parts?
And Corsa's have problems with the rear bulbs failing leaving the gear box in crawl home mode? As from this would a Charade at £6100 new or a Picanto at £7000 be a better deal than say a nearly new Corsa or Micra (£7700) ?
Also I hear there is a new Fiesta 1.6 automatic out, which seems dear, but brokers have them for £8700 new.
What is the best?
autouk
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Diahatsu were bought by Toyota a year or so ago. They have just closed down the Diahatsu franchise here in Australia. I wouldn't like to take a bet that they won't do the same in the UK.
My 96 phase 1 Dturbo DHY engine let go of a pre-combustion chamber resulting in a wrecked piston and head. I have now got a replacement engine for it sitting in the garage which is complete with all ancilliaries. It came out of a later car, 97 phase 2. The breakers that supplied the engine told me I would have to swap the diesel pump for my original one as it stores the code for the keypad immobiliser. The 'new' engine was out of a car that didnt have the keycode, but they didnt know if it had a transponder do-dah.
Anyway, I went to Peugeot to ask them but all I got was a blank look, so I thought id try here. Will I need to swap the pumps over? surely the code is stored in the ECU and that then sends a signal to the fuel shut off valve in the pump? The pump on the new engine is slightly different in that it has a damper and a pipe leading to the oil filler, whereas the old one doesnt have these.
Any help will be appreciated.
Jon Read more
Thanks for your help.
Can the stop solenoids be swapped over from one pump to the other? What happens if you buy a brand new pump then? How do you go about installing that so the immobiliser still works?
Been thinking about getting one of these and they seem to be graet little cars. Fast, cheap to run, well built etc. Only drawback I can see is the Skoda badge which doesn't bother me at all. Can anyone else suggest why I shouldn't buy one? Read more
Careening over the median <<
I knew there was something I hadn't watched recently.
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Adam
Hi,
I recently took my 1 year old Fiat Punto to the local dealer for its first service having done 10k miles. They told me I needed to replace both the brake pads and discs. I consider this to be unacceptable so decided to request compensation from Fiat. After a few weeks wait they've now come back to me claiming the dealer considered it 'normal' wear and tear (not covered by warranty) and the person who decided against giving me compensation has now left. I was wondering what my options are for pursuing the matter further, such as discussing it with local trading standards etc? In people's experience do I even have a leg to stand on?
Thanks for your time Read more
No Do$h the car is manual and I don't drive 'on
the brakes.'
Thanks, just wanted to exclude as many possible causes as possible.
Hi
Please can you help me? I have been offered a choice of 2 cars as part of a lease for a company car. It is based on an employee contribution scheme. Both cars will cost about £90 a month and all other bills are taken care of. Which would be the best car to go for? I have a knee injury and need a car with height ajustable driver seats. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Regards
Anne Read more
There were several threads hear about automatics, in which the boys-in-the-know said that the Ford 4-speed autoboxes were only good for 60-90K miles.
e.g. see www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?v=e&t=26...0
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I would ring about a little first, just about any decent garage should be able to change the waterpump on one of these IMO.
Blue