July 2006
Just about to replace the front pads on a 2002 Citroen C3 1.4 HDi and bleed the brakes. Straightforward or problematic? I've no manual but some experience. Is bleeding straightforward or is there a secret nipple eg on the ABS block? TIA.
Hawkeye
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Stranger in a strange land Read more
I had 2 new front tyres fitted to my van yesterday at a main dealer nearby, and whilst it's been a few years since I fitted tyres and balanced them myself, I understood the yellow dot on the tyre to be the lightest point of balance on the tyre, and therefore to be aligned with the valve, not opposite or at random, and that any wheel weights added to balance the assembly should always be at the same point on the rim, not around 90 deg to each other, as is evident on my van now. ( I realise inner and outer rim weights are not usually aligned)
Before I go charging in tomorrow to get it done properly, can anyone confirm please that technology has not changed in my absence, and balancers can identify a number of areas that need a weight, and the spot codes are the same? Thanks, I'd rather not make a fool of myself!. Read more
Mike-H,
If the wheels/tyres are balanced satisfactorily (i.e. if there are no vibration problems) I personally would leave it at that. There is nothing to be gained by having the tyres removed and refitted in a different orientation relative to the tyre valves. The wheels/tyres are not likely to end up balanced any better than they are now. You may have smaller weights, but even that isn't certain. The other factor is that by complaining you may just upset the technichnician and who knows what the end result of that might be.
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L\'escargot.
My daughter has a "W" reg Yaris automatic. I washed it a couple of days ago and left it on the drive. Now this morning the rear wheels are locked solid. I've driving it gently to and fro, and tried forward and reverse. Any ideas? StephenH
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I agree. When I forced my rusted-on Golf MkIII shoes to release, the next service reported damaged linings plus a leaking slave cylinder.
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I wasna fu but just had plenty.
I was wondering whether there is any freely available information regarding repair times on different cars. For example replacing a clutch on different makes and models? I would have thought the trade would have access to this information but what about us mere mortals? Read more
Yes, Autodata is the source. Mind you, it only takes one siezed bolt and you can double some of those times!
Not really a name and shame issue as I'm not slating them, just stating a fact.
They've just told me that my Toledo 1.9 TDI 'definitely has a PD engine'; it doesn't!
I'm sure they'd notice once they had it there in front of them - but would the difference make it's way down to the final price paid...? ;o) (For a cambelt change - £300.)
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I agree: reopening a thread after a year just to make that comment sounds like an inside job. Thread closed.
2000 Mondeo 1.8TD with 115k on the clock.
Problem is a "transmission type" noise audible when coming on and off the power at low speeds. It's not a whine, and it's pitch doesn't change with road speed or revs. It's almost like a whirring / grating sound. Just about audible inside the car if you listen for it, but quite pronounced outside. Can't hear it above about 20 mph - whether it disappears or is drowned out by road noise I don't know.
Gearbox feels otherwise OK - good change quality, not noisy in neutral, no whining. It's probably coming up due a clutch though - biting point quite high.
Any ideas?
Cheers
DP Read more
Hi all,
Just an update on this problem.
I have, this afternoon, replaced the right hand engine mounting with a good secondhand one (thanks Ebay). You could see the difference instantly with the way the rubber sat in relation to the metal part of the mount, and there was less than half the amount of movement on the cambelt end of the engine when rocked.
Anyhow, the grating noise has now completely gone, together with all manner of other strange clicks and vibrations which I never really noticed until they weren't there any more. The engine feels so much smoother under acceleration it is untrue! Gearchange feels better as well.
It's still a little jerky on and off the throttle, although miles better than it was, so I suspect one of the others is past its best too. I'll have a look next weekend (busy tomorrow). I actually bought a set of three on Ebay, so I have spare front and left mounts sitting in a box in the garage. Sod's Law it's the rear one gone, but we'll have to wait and see.
Not a bad job, truth told. One of the PAS pipes obstructed two of the bolts, but with a bit of jiggling it we worked around it. 90 mins start to finish, including a coffee and fag half way through.
Anyway, thanks for all the advice. Greatly appreciated, as always.
Cheers
DP
My main computer has just gone down, in quite a terminal seeming way, I wondered if anyone could give any advice.
It was behaving normally, and then suddenly went to a blue screen saying an error had occurred, if this was the first time I'd seen this screen then restart, if I'd seen it before, something else (didn't read on, I'd never seen the screen before!)
I trid to restart with the reset button, but it didn't work, so I had to pull the power. Since then, the computer has not worked at all. On turning it on you can hear it power up, but the monitor never recognises any signal (and I've tried it with another monitor too.
Anyone got anything I can try?
As an aside question, it has got a warrantee, but it's back-to-base. I've just saved a load of stuff to it that I need, so the question is: if I unplug the SATA cable from the motherboard and plug it into my other computer, will I be able to access the hard-drive to get at the files? Will I need to use the other computers power too, or will it accept power from one computer while data connected to the other? Read more
Hasn't arrived yet - give 'em a chance !
Driving home yesterday evening with my son in the front seat and almost drove into the back of an elderly and very shabby Mk1 Range Rover. I realised reasonably quickly that the RR had no brake lights. I managed to pull to the side of him at a junction and wound the window down to tell him. He couldn't wind his window down (obviously u/s as it was his drivers side window he was trying to drop) and so opened the door, which reveal a lot of rust.
He was an early 50s bloke in shirt and tie and cigarette and had a couldn't care less attitude when i told him. I t was as if he knew already but as too lazy to deal with it.
I was able to get away from him and turned off soon after. However, I felt like I wanted to report him. But who to? If I ring the police, they are too busy dealing with law abiding motorists who are going 1mph over an unreasonable speed limit to bother looking for him.
BTW I though RRs were aluminium; so why did I see rust when he opened the door. Are the doors steel?
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So you're claiming that, whatever speed you're doing, you will be able to come to a complete halt in 2 seconds?
I disagree, the two second rule is designed to give you time to react to whatever is happening up ahead. Your reactions are likely to be much slower if there's no warning until your eyes spot the decelleration. That might happen almost instantly, but it won't happen as quickly as your eyes will notice two bright lights coming on.
An a simple example that your premise is wrong, two seconds at 70mph is 205 feet, but the stopping distance at 70mph is 315 feet. Since the highway code is responsible for both the two second rule, and that stated stopping distance, obviously the reason for the two second rule can not be as you state.
friend has a vw polo which is a few years old. its the model with four round lamps at the front. she just had a baby. at present the baby's child seat is in the back. is there a way to switch off the passenger air bag so she can have the seat at front? Read more
If there is not a key operated deactivator (probably a optional extra), then you'll have to enquire at a dealers about possibility of permanantly deactivating the airbag (to include a badge to stick on the dashboard warning that airbag is now inactive).
(This had been done to my daughter's Lupo when we saw it; we got the dealer to reactivate the airbag before we bought it).
Are these high pressue diesel systems really as bad as I've read? I always thought that diesels not having ignition systems were simpler than petrol engines, but it now seems the reverse is true. Also fuel consumption figures don't appear much different from my 1998 1.4 Civic which rarely goes below 45mpg between fill-ups. Read more
I agree with Cheddar. Having put up with cambelt failure on an older Diesel, I spent years worrying about cambelts. Now I buy chain cam diesels. It happens to be CR. Must I worry about that too?! Life's too short. Ignorance is bliss in my opinion. Please don't tell me what else can go wrong!!!!!
Perhaps I should stop reading these pages.............bad for my health...
Splodgeface
Browse
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Thanks for the replies. It was a piece of cake. Here's what I did if it's a help to anyone else. Undid bottom bolt, discarded it and swung caliper up hingeing on the top bolt. Tapped the old pads out and brushed away the carp. Clamped the brake hose, opened the bleed screw and pushed the piston home with a carpenter's G-clamp. Removed clamp and shut bleed screw. Put Copaslip on the stainless springs top and bottom, on the piston surface and on the caliper fingers opposite the piston. Inserted new pads and fitted the new bolt. Connected up the trusty Ezibleed and flushed half a jam-jar of DOT4 through each caliper. If there's a secret bleed nipple anywhere, I've left it undisturbed. Left me plenty of time to try and track down the intermittent faint rattle from the nearside. Turns out to be a broken spring ...
Hawkeye
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Stranger in a strange land