Stevey Y

Crappy plastic gears. What !Removed!. Took the garage a wee bit to find this, even though I mentioned it. But they also caught a failing solenoid. Attached is pic of those !Removed! plastic parts. Worn worm screw and teeth chipped off the gear. So much for a "glow-plug" warning! Hi Thomas the Ford ones were a bit different they had bigger gears with more teeth to strip I rebuilt a couple of mine but ended up buying a new unit it was cheaper than keep buying repair kits which only lasted about 40k, they are a real engineering atrocity.

Hi here are the pics of my box out, the driveshaft seal goes in hole in the gearbox diff housing I also included a picture of the reciprocating part of the diff, the exploded diagram shows the other possible contender marked in yellow that fits between radius shaft and the inner bore of the slave cylinder, the pressure plate and driven plate are industrial quality with regard too gripping there are only three things that cause slip, clutch master, contamination or just good old wear

Hi its one of two things, if the whole brake system is not bled with the cylinder the symptoms will return, get the car up in the air remove the belly pan and there is an inspection cover on the bottom of the bell housing pull it off and have a good look inside for oil misting/oil there are two real nasty oil seals in there one inside the slave cylinder and one on the n/s driveshaft which runs across the box to the diff the seal there is prone to leaking gear oil as well, if its as dry as a bone in there its definitely the pressure plate going weak, how many miles has the car done, will post some pics that my be of use in understanding. Steve.

Hi its the clutch master cylinder holding off, I had it on my car they are Cr@p plastic thing and the seals swell if the brake fluid is a bit past its change date, mine went about 3 months after I had my clutch changed the reason the symptoms are random is because it is all regulated by the torque bite depending which gear you are in say 3rd at 1500 rpm as soon as you push the throttle as the torque increases the the thing will briefly slip then grip, do that for too long and it does wonders for the driven plate wear, quite a bit of stripping down under the plastic scuttle to get at the cylinder and about two hours graft in all, did mine and used an O.E. cylinder from TPS as my mechanic told me the Febi units were failing quite frequently, bled everything with fresh fluid and not had a problem since, BTW Ford are having a real problem with this with Transits and now insist you change the clutch master when you put in a new clutch.

Hi you can't beat good old four gauge, you can beat it, sand it, fill it and stretch it, money well spent in my humble opinion. Steve.

Hi don't know of any in your area but I am sure there must be GRP manufacturers in your area we only have Fibre sports in our area but I wouldn't use them as the work is suspect and they only really cater for all the little Dweebs in MK6 Fiestas, many a night I have seen them removing the new GRP font air dams on the speed bumps in Asda carpark and by week two they are all held together with cable ties they don't do drilling and Spire Bolts, I always thought the company name sounded like a go faster laxative supplier. Steve.

Hi run the Cataclean through and the fuel down before refilling and using archoil then you will get better data from your readings as to what the Archoil is actually doing 290 miles is pretty good going as mine regenerates about every 200 miles bearing in mind my vehicle does a lot of short stop start duty cycles, I did just over 250 miles today and it had a regeneration on the way home. Steve.

Don't hold your breath. New GRP technology has moved on but you must explain how critical the fit will be before spending your hard earned. Steve.

Hi if you plumb in your year and model it won't come up with the exact same model but there are a couple of vids on how to on VWs that use the same system the connectors are a plunge lock clip which is easy enough, other than that find a local man in a van that will fix it by bridging the circuit with a diode which shuts it up until you have got rid, its not something I would recommend if you were keeping the car, as for Audi fixing it their potential for charging for this job is breathtaking, they probably would tell you they need to replace the bag unit. I am certain daddyo is well capable of doing this one. Steve.

Hi unless the pattern is perfect they are likely to be fitting wise like poking smoke up a cats backside with a knitting needle believe me I used to fit them during the early eighties and soon discovered the unfits of a good quality aftermarket steel item and Waxoyl under seal, yes fibreglass won't rot but it also won't stand the odd tap with a hide mallet to get the shut gaps perfect. Steve.

Hi this is a new one it normally says too low, either way its a connector problem to that system, before you go pulling it about allow the car to stand for a while so the airbag module discharges you will have to pull the rubber weather strips down to gain access I believe the connector is at the top of the windscreen piller trim which you may also have to pull out, plastic trim remover kit is a must as well as no electronic watches or nylon clothing as static can induce the bag firing mechanism to deploy [Major BILL] there are a couple of tutorials on youtube on how to release the connectors, having removed the connector liberally hose down both the connector and the reciprocating port with a good quality electrical cleaner or a home made spray filled with 99% solution of isopropyl alcohol and hold a cloth underneath what you are spraying so it won't drip on the trim below, airbag systems work on an infinitesimally small current between 6-9 OHMS so it won't take a lot to upset it, I think your problem may well be slight corrosion rather than dirt which drives the resistance up. Steve

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.