Stevey Y

Hi and I mention in passing we seem to get more than our fair share. Steve.

Hi with post injection static regens do not work very well as the ECU readings are very mindful of the temperatures involved when standing still [set light to tarmac], my mate burnt a ruddy great patch on his drive doing a forced regeneration on his mondeo which lasted ten mins, the fact the soot loadings etc were down slightly bears witness to the cleaner doing its job as you experienced the now smaller particle mass rushing at the DPF which triggered the regeneration, run it through and then fill up with the addition of another bottle it will only get better, post injection engines generally run a lower soot/ash readings note your maximum allowed ash rating, on the Ford pulse pump assisted system that could go up to a max loading of 300% it is in engineering terms a more efficient system until the feed pipe blocks or the heater element goes down [frequent occurrence], post injection relies on the timing of injection being retarded therefore allowing very large droplets of heated fuel to go down the pipe and ignite in the red hot DPF core which then burns the soot, pulse pumped merely chucks extra fuel into the DPF and sets it alight with the integrated glow plug in the fuel chamber of the feed unit which is generally better for the cat as its not had to be soaked in diesel, thats where the Catalan really works as it clears the excess build up from pre regeneration over fuel. Steve.

Hi unfortunately these are built in and may necessitate replacement of the light unit, alternatively if its the headlight bulb itself just drag the old bulb out and read its denomination off of the metal fitting, H7, H4 etc, I rather think if its the led bar it might be a retrofit from the previous owner as led bar displays became mandatory in 2009-2010 before that was just a single low output side light integral to the light unit. Steve.

Hi I suspect that the new racks are failing from metal debris from the old rack, when you change the rack you are supposed to replace the fluid reservoir as well and flush the connecting pipes as any debris caught in the filter on the reservoir will only recirculate and kill the seals on the new rack, the cleaning of the pipes needs to be almost surgical. Steve.

Hi buy the top and bottom rubber mounts, new spring job done, I would seriously think about getting both rear springs and mounts done as they wear as a set. Steve.

Hi its most likely the turret that is attached to the rear lower arm which means you will have to buy a new arm, alternatively it may be the top spring rubber mount which is also replaceable, a picture would tell the correct story. Steve.

Hi, over the last couple of months I have been loosing engine oil albeit very slowly, the only sign was around the cross frame and the drivers side of the gearbox, cleaned it off monitored it but despite my best efforts could not find the leak until finally it gave itself away in the recent higher ambient temperatures, I now had fumes from the engine oil in the car and the prime suspect was a blocked PCV valve as that had oil vapour all over it but on closer inspection with a very bright pencil torch it turns out its no 3+4 rubber seals around the injectors allowing the engine to breath through those rather than the PCV which is an integral part of the rocker cover, new cover just shy of £200, two copper injector seals and two rubber seals £36, changed them in just over an hour and am now stink free. Steve.

Hi Gareth the British E10 fuel is slightly different from the European version as its blended at refineries here, the VOSA guidelines on the new fuel even tells you you will get less MPG as it burns that much better and the evaporation rate is higher, the problem is the new fuels main extra additive is Bio Ethanol which is wonderful on a race car but needs some serious research before stating that all the cars on the VOSA list are ok to use it, lets face it the manufacturers don't care if it hastens the demise of your existing fossil fuelled car because then if it breaks you will eventually be forced to buy a Milkfloat. I cite the case of the phasing out of five star fuel at the end of the seventies, the government said all the Jaguar,Mercedes,MGs can run on the lower octane fuel Four star/ Two star, Wrong, they quickly made the transition to unleaded in the early nineties which caused more problems with premature bore wear and valve pocketing in the cylinder head despite the use of lead substitute additives this merely slowed the process down the end result was the same, rattling valve gear as the valves were trying to meet the tappets, one of my friends dads made a fortune skimming cylinder heads to up the compression to deal with the lower fuel octane and fitting harder valve seat inserts and on some occasions fitting sodium filled valves to stop the seats from self destructing in the extra heat caused by the unstable burn quality of the fuel which by now had virtually no top flight lubricity enhancer in it, the government don't care as its a win, win, situation as look at the revenue in VAT alone that will be generated from expensive repair bills and it helps them towards the final solution they think is best for us, no conventional engined cars. Steve.

Hi I was told some of the aftermarket caps supplied with new reservoirs are not that good which would explain the persistent problem you have depending where they sourced the unit I paid £36 for an OEM unit, the only other thing I found was that an excessively rich mix of antifreeze causes them to boil out what they don't need via the venting on the cap, you seem to have covered just about everything other than that and it definitely isn't the head gasket as that would chuck all the coolant out even around town. Steve.

P.S. when you reassemble the new bolts don't use copper grease as I have found it will eventually go hard and seize again, my weapon of choice these days is Aluminium Anti Seize paste as this never degrades and has a temp rating of 0-2000 degrees thats why they use it on the threads of oxygen sensors etc so they don't rust in.

Hi Jack the turbo sockets Rock as normally they get the bolt turning as well and the Plusgas is a must especially in the rust eating version, give it a soak overnight for best results, get the car up as high as you can so you can get a extension bar on it and worse ways get a tube on the end of the bar, you only need enough grunt on it to get it started, the problem with the grinder is it cuts the nut off flush so you then have the problem of trying to get the now flush bolt out having looked at the picture again it looks like you could get a nut splitter around it which grips the nut while you wind in the carbon steel blade which splits the nut and releases the tension whilst still leaving the bolt to be bashed through, only other advice is get everything you need around you as once you start there is no going back. Steve.

Hi thank you for the resume, that is a proper piece of kit that is probably about all you will ever need, rough estimate from my parts system plus labour at around five grand the multiple cylinders from them would be six hundred, all in all a well earned result which for the outlay has already paid for itself. Steve.

Hi I don't think anyone can help you by looking at pictures of various units that you post, as stated get the part number off the old unit or go to your local motor factors and give your Registration or Vehicle identification number which is on the logbook, it starts with WAU or similar that way you will get exactly the right part, there is no milage in guessing when getting a part when the tools you need to get it are in front of you.

Hi when they fitted the new expansion chamber did it have a new cap?, my daughters Q3 had the same problem which turned out to be the cap so we replaced it and its all happy days. Steve.

Hi forgot to say run like that for half an hour then top up fuel.

Hi I can't see why not as its not got a cetane booster in it so it won't compromise the the cylinder head temperature as it would with overdosing with the other fuel additives. Steve.

Hi a blowtorch or if you don't fancy that Halfords do a freeze spray that works quite well, just clean the end of the bolt with a wire brush as that allows the penetrating oil to get into the thread, my preferred combination is Plusgas and the Turbo sockets that you tap on they have a sort of spiral grip system that bites into the nut and won't let go, sometimes they destroy the nut but thats ok if you have replacements. Steve.

Hi yes thats correct but you can get a litre of it on eBay for about £23. Steve.

Hi thats fine its the latest Hazchem regulation packaging with the seal integral to the cap, please note the raised lip on the bottle this allows you the luxury of re sealing the bottle if you don't use the entire content the original peal off seal wasn't very good when trying to preserve the remainder of the bottle and as you have the latest type of bottle at least it proves its not old stock. Steve.

Hi it appears the method you used was breathtakingly simple once you had the right kit which looks awesome in the pictures, well done with running in the fresh wire, I must admit the transcript of this problem will lead a lot of people to the solution for the same problem, top marks for persistence and is it to nosey a question to ask how much the shiny kit was. Steve.

Hi yes there is a connection but that becomes redundant with the fitting of aftermarket shocks, the old cure for that was bridge the connector with a diode so it thinks its still working on some cars you don't even need the diode, its like the conversion I did on an old Jaguar Sovereign after installing the twin angled conventional shocks with the new brackets I had to cap off the reservoirs and feed pipes but because the sensor was not receiving any info from the reservoirs it thought it was stopped permanently, no warning lights. They were all pretty simple systems but not that reliable as they can't follow the dynamic travel of any road the same way as a conventional shock will, they are great if you want to drive round at 30mph everywhere, if you ever have a mind try Bilstein B6s they are like travelling on rails. Steve.

Hi change the oil pump its wear on the driven shaft. Steve.

Hi yes thats it but the internal pressure controls all vary so if you get the part number off of your old unit that will put you in the right ballpark, other than that a VIN search is your best bet. Steve.

Sorry I just THOUGHT about it you may be talking about a Sinclair C5. Steve.

Hi anything would be an improvement over Citroen O.E. shocks they are appalling as they just use the cheapest suppliers they can, a couple of the older models I have worked on had oil only shock absorbers which as far as I was aware became extinct after the seventies. Steve.