Stevey Y

Hi for all the people who value stop start, had a rather interesting Volvo/Ford engineer as a passenger this week and rather than a lecture on electric vehicles he had my attention talking about stop/start, mine as usual was zoned out and he enquired why, I explained that my theory was it put added wear on the starter and ring gear he laughed and said it was highly unlikely as both components were beefed up to accommodate the extra loads but in fact my theory wasn't as far off as I thought, he then went on to tell me he was working with the oil companies to produce new nano tech oils because the existing engine technology is suffering with stop/start as when the engine is running the pressured oil forms a hydro barrier between the crank journals and the bearings, when the engine is stopped the journal/bearing come into contact and when the engine starts again there is a lapse between the oil pressure arriving to reinstate the hydro barrier, I.E. extra wear, he then explained that a normal engine is rated to start 50,000 times during its life and a stop/start engine will perform the same function over 500,000 times, so you can see where this is going and apparently the race is on to produce a coating for crank bearings that is self lubricating Teflon and Iron Oxide, Yes, Rust, which in fine particles reduces friction co efficient by 50%, also he explained that the engine conditions for stop/start have to be ideal as it won't work when the engine is too hot/cold or if you have the aircon working flat out, I have never experienced this as my stop/start is never on. Steve.

Hi plug removal is fairly straight forward, if you get the engine nice and hot and use a low nm torque wrench set at 28nm to crack them off, reassembly should include a liberal coat of aluminium anti seize paste, the duty cycles are all different according to your post and yes the plugs wear as a set but at different failure rates. Steve.

Hi yes it may well be the valve block in the gearbox but it sound like the wet clutch is slipping thats why it won't change up as the torque grip sensor is not getting the right information to change up, the glow plugs are definitely shot up the duty cycles are all over the place. Steve.

Hi sorry but clutch slip is a mechanical fault. Steve.

Hi bulbs are like track rod ends, tyres, brake pads, discs you always change them in pairs because they wear as a set the new single light bulb will be much brighter than the other side, you don't have to buy the expensive bulbs from Euros, go on eBay I have used many different brands and Limastar from valley lighting are about the best Lumex are good, you are supposed to change the bulbs every three years as they do go off. Steve.

Hi, yep self tappers, the body units are plastic so if you take your time and don't get them in at an angle they should be fine, its just a cheap way round putting in brass inserts. Steve.

Hi you can use the 19 inch wheels as long as you choose a tyre profile that brings the wheel O/D to the same size as the original 18 inch wheel, pros it looks better, cons low profile tyres suffer more punctures and bigger wheels are heavier. Steve.

Hi its the bulb needs changing if it was the ballast it would either not work or the light would flicker, its a fairly easy job to replace just remove the rear cover to find out what bulbs you have its printed on the rear of the bulb it will be a D3S or D5S which a good branded set [you need to replace both sides] will be around £130, no idea about garage costs as I have always replaced my own, 4500k is off white but if you go up to 5500k as long as the wattage is the same will give a more pure white light, the k rating equals kelvin which is light output without he heat halogen bulbs produce. STEVE

Hi have you had the car scanned and the live data analysed, could be a cam chain problem. Steve.

Hi if you have the remap you will definitely have to use the 97/99 premium or use a proprietary quality octane booster as an additive to 95 otherwise you start burning valves etc, but the thing that baffles me is why, with all that power as standard or do we have a track day planned, cars with a standard state of tune like that have come from the factory in a high state of tune and the bonus with that is there is also a high reliability factor built in, mapping eats into the reliability factor but aim sure the mapping boys will say not, the manufacturer makes sure the clutch and gearbox will live with this power as standard if you start throwing different torque curves and more BHP invairiably major components will fail faster, I cite the case of the VW Golf GTI owner who at 36k had his car remapped, happy days 60bhp more and another 40nm of torque until the clutch retired 4k later and another two grand bill for an uprated clutch, not so happy. Steve.

Hi I think European type approval have probably changed the rules again, to many Euro MPs !Removed! off at being stuck at the side of the road in the dark mucking about with with weird and wonderful bottles of compressed latex repair fluid or trying to inflate the already flat spare, my Titanium x ford I bought had a recall to have a full size tin wheel and tyre fitted along with a new jack and wheel brace station because a director of Ford U.K. had been left in some lanes in Wiltshire with only a pot of glorified puncture fluid to repair a four inch tear in the tyre wall, he threw his toys out of the pram and demands the Belgians built the cars with a proper spare wheel. Its a bit like the Holy Grail there is no point of looking for it as the car is under warranty. Steve. Steve.

Hi get the level sensor in the tank re calibrated diagnostically or just keep driving the car and it may well disappear of its own accord, this phenomenon usually occurs when it s been overfilled. Steve.

Hi yes the battery removal is ok and should work fine after, just don't go anywhere else in it until garage day. Steve.

Hi possible, engine Hydro mounts especially if they are original check them for oil leakage. Steve.

Why buy the collar and lead for the Rottweiler when you can have the whole dog with the collar and lead. Steve.

Hi why would anyone build a gearbox that relied on crud in the oil to help it work, biggest hole in that theory is that has anyone thought about what the filters do in the box, yes they stop 99percent of contaminants and its when they become blocked and the pressure starts passing larger volumes of matter through the filter that you have problems, if the clutch slips after a gearbox service the plate was already knackered. Steve.

Hi you can't trust the fuel range implicitly as it works on an algorithm which makes its calculations on driving style, the most common source of milage drop rapidly is DPF regeneration. BTW £60 worth of diesel is not a lot at current prices. Steve.

Hi you wouldn't half have to have some aborted regens to start filling the sump with diesel, don't know if the last person to service it might have overfilled it it don't take a lot for the sensor to spit its dummy out. Steve.

Hi, so they want £800 to tell you your EGR valve is knackered that must have taken some real working out, they have already found the cause and now want to be paid to take it apart to find out what they already know, I have run diesels as cabs for a million miles now and come across all types of EGR valves and the rule of thumb is if its showing blocked/low flow just replace it there is no milage in cleaning it as that won't last long as if its the original valve the electronic part of the actuator normally fails shortly after, believe me this is from bitter experience and especially if your paying for it, I have a morbid mistrust of these type of garages that spend time and money on films rather than invite you in real time and explain the problem man to man and by the cringe they are paying through the nose for that dealer system, so are you, its something any garages diagnostic system would have found, the flow rates measured by a sensor in the unit, wonder if they thought of that being knackered, in the final analysis its a lot more cost efficient to just replace the unit and readapt it, these people prey on the lack of knowledge of the average motorist the garage I use has no I.T. tech to post videos just people that know what they are doing and find the quickest and most cost effective solution, thats why they make plenty of money and custom walks in the front door, word of mouth the finest form of advertising. Steve.

Hi if it runs with adblue whats the problem better to produce Nox2 than rip up the starter and ring gear at just over £1200 just for the parts. Steve.

Hi can't see it will cause slipping as burnt oil will cause far more wear problems than fresh oil and new filters, provided you use a good quality filter kit and oil I can't see the problem the only time I have seen that happen was when some zoon used the wrong grade oil.

Hi the oil level sensor is on its way out, mine did the same and I had to replace it which is fairly easy, mine was showing to high after I had removed a litre, the problem is if you have opened the bonnet at all after removing the oil because of the switch on the bonnet mechanism it will only show the previous readings until you have driven the car a couple of times, if that won't work its the sensor, finest formula belongs to Thomas G on this site when servicing pour in 4.5 litres of oil run it for a couple of days then dribble the rest in. Steve.

Hi if you got that sort of dollar you might as well buy the real thing, had a Porsche 911 floating around my area with an uprated Alfa Sud engine in it, it was of course a fake and I was even less impressed when the owner showed me the engine explaining that he had to put a twin choke Webber on it to get it insured but it still had Autodelta billet high lift cams and reworked heads as well as an overbore to 1750cc, whats the point of all that money and machine work if you are starving it of air/fuel. Steve.

Hi its most probably either the reversing switch on the gearbox or most likely the parking sensor module is on its way to retirement. Steve.

Hi if your talking about the green menu I would steer well clear of it unless you are totally at home with the adjustments to be done as if you get it wrong you can FRY the MMI and oh boy is that an expensive hobby.