Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2023 i Car Mechanics

I bought the ex-project Vauxhall Astra J from the magazine when the time came to sell it. I didn’t have a buyer and the Astra needed to be sold asap. Of course, I priced the car myself and I thought it was a good deal. With a new clutch kit just fitted and a new aircon pump a few months earlier, those big (expensive) jobs had been done. I did, though, have a use for this Astra – a local lady (Julie) borrows it from me occasionally – it’s cheap, really cheap for her – and the rental fee includes road tax, the annual MOT and a maintenance package. Many that know about this arrangement think I’m barmy, but in my mind, I know that most problems can be sorted…

Average quoted car insurance premiums soar The average quoted price of car insurance rose by 61% in the year to August – the highest annual increase on record, the latest Consumer Intelligence Car Insurance Price Index shows. Average quoted car insurance premiums have also seen a record 22% rise in the three months from May to August – the biggest quarterly increase for the index, since tracking began in October 2013. Telematics providers are becoming less competitive accounting for just 17% of the top five quotes compared with 21% just three months ago. That has particularly hit younger drivers and telematics providers now account for just 41% of the most competitive quotes for under-25s compared with 53% three months ago. Under-25s are seeing rises in quoted premiums of 66.7%. “Motorists…

Naughty! Overall, I think the used car trade has improved significantly in the 40+ years that I’ve been involved. In part this is down to tighter regulation, but another major factor is that by and large, today’s cars are better-made and more durable than those that were around 20 years ago. I’d also like to think that most of today’s traders are a bit more professional than was the norm back then. Sometimes, however, one hears of a ‘rotten apple’ who really should not be involved in our industry at all, and Car Dealer magazine recently reported on one such who ended up with a criminal conviction and paying out over £6800 in fines, costs and compensation. The Essex-based dealer sold a 2006/56 Nissan Pathfinder via Gumtree to a family…

GENERAL Taps & dies Q I set out to change my neighbours front coil spring on her V40 the other day only to be defeated by a seized solid lower balljoint pinch bolt which caused the head to completely round off, aided I suspect by the somewhat small diameter of the head (15mm), an alloy hub with a steel bolt causing electrolysis, and possibly being a Volvo (big on safety) a lot of thread lock. The only option now is to drill out the threaded section of the bolt and retap the thread, although I have just thought about the possibility of just putting a longer bolt with a nut in, assuming the hub is nice and flat so the nut will bolt down squarely – I’ll have to check…

For the fusspots among us, nothing quite ruins driving engagement like having a wonky steering wheel. My 2006 BMW 130i M-Sport was not only munching through front tyres, but the steering wheel was offset at the 11 o’clock position and had a nasty vibration when driving just below the national speed limit. After a tyre replacement I’d have to get the tracking sorted sooner than later to save my sanity! The sticker in the driver’s door shut indicated that front tyres should be of the 205/45/18 profile while the rears get the wider 225/40/18. A nice set of Michelin Pilot Sports would put a reasonable dent in my budget, especially for the fronts as they aren’t a common size and warrant an extra 26% on the price tag! A trick…

How much stuff do you carry with you in your car’s boot? And how much of it do you actually need? Once upon a time, I carried a complete toolkit; a full fivetray cantilevered box which contained, basically, all my hand tools. On top of that there would be boxes-full of ‘essential’ emergency spares; fanbelt, bulbs, spark plugs, oil and water plus, because we’re talking about 20-25 years ago at least, a dizzy cap, coil, rotor arm and a set of contact-breaker points. Oh, and the most essential item of all, a can of damp-start or similar. And jump leads. And a petrol can. And a tow-rope. I’m sure you can see where this is going. Even that, though, wasn’t always going to be it. There was a time when…

SEAT TOLEDO Smelly engine The smell of diesel fuel is not one of my favourite scents, and when this is being evaporated into the air from a hot engine it causes a most unpleasant odour. The owner of this 2000 SEAT Toledo 1.9 TDI agreed that the smell coming from under the bonnet was not pleasant and he asked me to have a look at resolving the issue. Lifting the bonnet, it did not take long to spot the area of the problem, and the leak-off pipes could be seen to be weeping diesel. The solution was thankfully going to be quite simple, and a new set of leakoff pipes once fitted would be all that was required to prevent the leaking of diesel fuel over the hot engine. As…

Start a conversation with any driver about the state of the roads and the first words will be potholes. I have heard it said that the phrase pothole dates back to the Roman days when potters stole clay from the roman roads to use in the manufacturing of Roman pots. I’m not sure if that is true or not, and I was under the belief that roman roads were constructed mainly of gravel, but I’m sure that Roman roads were probably in better condition than the tarmac ones we now use! The continuing growing population of potholes which are appearing at a faster rate than they can be repaired is a constant bane of the road user whether they have two, three four or more wheels. Every road I drive…

FORD S-MAX Bogging down Q My friend has a 2010 Ford S-MAX 2.0 diesel bought a couple of years ago. When he first got the vehicle, it had a loud turbo whistle which I quickly Identified as a bad intercooler (it had a hole in it). Now fixed. Now on occasions it seems to bog down when under hard acceleration and then when he changes down a big puff of black smoke is emitted, then off it goes again all fine. Once whilst on holiday it left him stranded as wouldn’t gain any power, wouldn’t even rev properly at standstill. I have looked at the entire intake system from filter to turbo then to intercooler and inlet manifold, etc., the only fault I found was where the air pipe attaches…

We have the driver of a once beautiful BMW to thank for owning this Audi. Not that my eldest son, Bradley, had any intentions of replacing his restored 56-plate Land Rover Discovery 3 until this Beemer travelling in the opposite direction decided otherwise, hitting the Land Rover’s offside with such ferocity that only a telegraph pole prevented the off-roader from rolling onto the kerb. It takes a lot to write off a Discovery so it’s no surprise that the once Ultimate Driving Machine was no more – and was collected up in a vacuum bag. Thankfully and miraculously, there were no serious injuries. In fact, what hurt the most was the insurance pay out that amounted to half of what Bradley had spent on making his Landie desirable and trustworthy…