Stevey Y

Hi if TFL says its not compliant its not, they are not worried by the CO2 levels otherwise they wouldn't be letting ancient petrol cars run round London, no the dear old mayor is on a diesel bashing mission its all about ash/Nox particles because he is to thick to work out most Hybrid cars produce more CO2 than a diesel, watch the channel four documentary The Truth about diesel. Steve.

Hi if you think thats pricey have a look at VCDS that will make your eyes water, with this type of software you only get what you pay for, I have in the past bought other scan tools [very cheap] and come royally unstuck when halfway through a job when they loose the connection, case in point I thought the £140 unit I had bought for my Alfa Mito would be fine to re calibrate the power steering, WRONG!, it kept loosing communication in the middle of calibration which left me with an underivable vehicle, borrowed my mates Fiat ECU Multiscan and it flew through, I have just had a shot sharp lesson in buying too cheap which has cost me dear, old formula, if you buy a cheap item which fails to do what you want, you have lost both the item and the money, if you upgrade and the item does exactly what you want it to is all you loose is the extra money. Steve.

Hi that probably means the drive for the EGR pintle is going down hill, the other causes can be module related or a sensor that sits in the high pressure fuel pump, I would try a new EGR valve first its the cheaper option and sounds the most likely cause. Steve.

Hi despite coming from Birmingham it appears the tool was made in Wayne King which is a rather large area in China. Steve.

Hi latest update, the super seal tool has broken despite the sellers claims and now waiting for the genuine VAG tool which is twice the price, the moral of this story is DONT BUY THE CHEAP TOOL. Steve.

Hi OBD Eleven is about the best tool I have found that is not spiteful on price, retracting your callipers with a 12v battery is not good advice as its possible to spike the control unit and if you do the process with a scan tool make sure you have a battery charger/spare charged battery hooked up as well to counter any voltage fluctuations from your battery. Steve.

Hi do you mean P4077 as this has nothing to do with the EGR or Throttle its a valve that controls exhaust back pressure. Steve.

Hi parking position sensor on the gear stick, best get it scanned and see what it comes up with. Steve.

Hi go on the Parkers VED guide and that will tell you what you need to know. Steve.

Hi if you have changed the glow plug loom its probably one or all of the plugs are gone that will throw the same code as they are compromising the loom, worst case scenario they will get so knackered one will go open circuit and will really melt your new loom. Steve.

Hi Gareth all VAG/BMW/MERCEDES/VAUXHALL/FORD/BENTLY all use pads from the TMG group, just because these companies have been bought out the only thing it realistically means is that the companies products have to conform to TMGs stringent product standards, just because its got a manufacturers logo on it and was produced by TMG in the first place why not have the same thing with DON/MINTEX/BOSCH/DELPHI for about half the price if not less, I feel sorry for people who have spent their life buying badge engineered boxes for silly money, when the facts are out there in plain sight on the internet for all with a hunger to educate themselves to do just that. Most car producers when developing vehicles go round the parts supermarkets choosing whatever meets their needs and price, price criteria, No manufacturer makes their own parts other than engines/bodywork/interiors the rest is off the shelf I.E. brakes and pads these are manufacturers such as Bosch,ATE,TRW the pads for all of the callipers are the same for each manufacturer, there is only the odd anomaly to this such as A8 rear pads which were running two different suppliers for the rears one pad being about 2mm thicker but VAG got fed up with this so you could transpose each manufacturers pads but re adapt using VCDS to allow for the difference in the pads you had just fitted, brakes are a subject close to my heart as my life and the lives of my passengers depend on them being not just right but perfect along with the tyres, as I said I have tried pretty much every brand going and settled for what works, I have said before it won't matter how good/expensive your brake hardware is its pretty much useless if the brake fluid is old. Steve

Hi it may well be a sensor camshaft or crankshaft has anybody plugged the car in and scanned it for faults thats aways a give away, BTW good luck with the impending Chuddie. Steve.

Hi well done Roy I knew a guy once that got 500,000 out of a MK2 Transit luton he used for work just by changing the oil and filters every month, the only reason he got rid was the rot on the cab was absolutely epic. Steve.

Hi be very careful as the description Cr@p might offend the automatic insult monitor, example I put in a post the opposite of advance and it removed that as being derogatory. Oh what wonderful world we live in where you can't call a spade, a spade. Steve. Steve.

Hi over the last eighteen years I have used practically every type of disc/pad combination on the market I have actually used Pagid pads, as nearly all my cars have become a second skin after a year or so you tend to notice when something is not as you would wish I noticed yeah they stop ok but when pressed showed a slight fade tendency, if you bear in mind cab drivers live on their brakes they also wear a lot quicker, when I asked the local ECP why this was happening he suggested that I might want to upgrade to Brembo/Bosch as although they are twice the price would be more suitable for my type of use, any thing to do with ECP is suspect I have had at least two major bad experiences with them, one where they were selling EGR valves for MK4 Mondeos apparently Hella O.E., should have known when I picked the first one up as it wasn't even in a box which I questioned and the guy told me thats why they were cheap, by the time I was into my third valve that didn't work properly [couldn't even get it to code in], ECP refused to refund or give me another so I sent it to Ford at Daventry who came back a day later and said it was a fake, it had all the right casting numbers and the logo had been ground off, Ford were most keen to find out where I sourced the valve so I told them, funny thing is ECP withdrew the valves two days later so there was me £170.00 down so I bought a second hand valve from a low miler at the local breakers coded in first go and never gave a days trouble after that, the second was the HID fiasco my mate bought two Osram Night Breaker D1S that were stupidly cheap from them in the permanent sale they have on, I ran in to him one night as I was dropping his neighbour off, he was putting his car in the garage and stopped to talk, the first thing I said to him was I could smell burning and there was smoke coming out of the headlight, turns out the bulb had overheated and melted his headlamp, two days later Rogue traders did a program on fake bulbs and with trading standards did a bust on a lock up not two miles from my local ECP outlet, beginning to stink, there was every make of HID bulb, Phillips, Osram,Lucas ALL FAKE and if you don't believe me the video is on youtube somewhere. When you consider companies like Car Parts In motion who sell branded real parts with a guarantee exist why would you buy from ECP, like my rear discs and pads Bosch discs and Febi pads which have now done 50k and are still dandy at £130 the lot and the fronts VAG high carbon drilled discs with Don pads [TMG frictions house brand] £150 all in and currently at 80k, I rest my case, if any vehicle will murder brakes it will be a taxi. Steve.

Hi Jon any thing printed by ECP is about as believable as Boris, please note the beter and best are all with the exception of Pagid made by TMG friction who supply all OEM pads/discs to the manufacturers, TMG own the branding for all major brake manufacturers they are massive and it was their lobbying that bought about the E.U. regulations and testing for E11/E9 Google it. Steve.

Hi Simon wise decision and to be honest the full Audi service history is really not worth the paper its printed on as I have two Audis to look after, my A6 and my daughters Q3 BOTH HAD FULL HISTORY which didn't bear close scrutiny as in both cases they were both serviced before we bought them, I set about servicing both shortly after buying them and my daughters was the worst, they hadn't changed the air filter since the car was made 62,000 miles later it got changed, I was going to use the piece of paper the service history was printed on in our loo but the wife won't let me. If you ever see another you want to go for get an AA inspection not cheap but they look at everything and pick holes in anything they don't like the look of. Steve.

Hi best place to get brakes is eBay the front discs and pads for my A6 were from A-Z carparts and were £150 fitted them myself and they are just coming round to 80,000 mls going to replace them at 90,000 they still have a good five millimetre on the pads, just make sure you buy high carbon discs for the front the backs as in my case are Bosch all good and a sight cheaper than Euros, they always push Pagid as its their brand. You can't buy substandard pads as they all have to be E11 or E9 marked to be sold anywhere Europe. Steve.

Hi Gareth, you made me smile, some councils have no age limit on cabs but most its eight years, I can't think of any council that would licence an A3 as I don't believe the rear seat width would make the minimum requirement, the other give away would be the interior as that always gets hammered shredded carpets, holes in the plastic trim where data heads and coms have been fitted, holes around the rear bumper where the plate has been fixed, its easy enough to check through an insurance data base if its ever been insured for hire and reward, I suspect it probably was an ex fleet car but the price is very rich considering the amount of future parts you may have to buy because unless its had new suspension etc in the last nine years its not a cheap car, better to put another four grand to the money and get something with lower miles and longer legs.

Hi Roy makes me wonder what all these youngsters are going to do when all us oldies are gone along with the experience, as far as mobile phones go I can do what I need to do on them but I don't care if I never become a fully fledged member of the phone wizards, like you my head is too full of practical useful stuff. Steve.

Hi Roy for someone who claimed to be useless you have turned out positively sparkling, well done the old tricks are the Best. Steve.

Hi if you get the car scanned for faults my bet is they are all low voltage faults which would most likely be a battery going out as this type of multi fault situation is normally caused by this as the ECU will shut down various functions that use a lot of power to preserve battery function voltage, if you have to get a new battery it will have to be coded to the BEM module, its worth spending the extra for a good branded battery and my suggestion would be Halfords, all in price for fitting and coding, make sure they code it ! , Steve.

Hi Gareth, in a previous life I was a printer and one of the things I printed back in the eighties was an article which was a transcript of an interview with Anita Roddick AKA the founder of Body Shop, when asked why she had been so successful she replied her sales philosophy was, FIND OUT WHAT YOUR CUSTOMERS WANT AND GIVE IT TO THEM, these clowns just don't get it so they will continue to loose business unlike a Ford main dealers I used called Rates of Grays, because of the regularity of my parts purchase from them they would give me trade on most purchases and subject to a conversation with a Ford CEO I had in the car he admitted that although he was from the states he had heard of Rates as they had the highest turnover of parts in our area. Steve.

Hi it gets better, I have just forked out another £100 for the special tool to mount the new seal as the crank sensor ring which is the toothed bit has to sit at a precise position with the engine timing at TDC, it also has to sit at a precise level on the seal otherwise you will never get the car to start again and another bonus is if you ever want to take the crank sensor pick up out without removing the gearbox you have to remove the oil cooler assembly to get at it, I think our Teutonic friends have lost the plot with the quality issues, the latest being couple of my colleagues have bought new E220 Mercedes and were advised by the dealerships that the cam chain assemblies are suspect so anything after 40k would be a good time to get the upgraded chain kit fitted, after all the kit is only £1500+ labour and is guaranteed to do 250k, am I/we missing the point here, why not fit them to the engine when new, a couple of the boys I know in London have had the same issues with BMWs, at this rate next cab will be a Ford. Steve.

Hi I know what you meant its the lousy predictive spelling on the computer, its had me a few times, Ahhh the wonders of modern technology now you see why anybody who is informed is no fan of electric vehicles that have been rushed out to suit E.U. guidelines, the Butchers bill for the bank accounts has yet to be publicly realised. Steve.