kerrinmay

Does anyone know how many hours labour I can expect a garage to charge to fit a new sunroof cable assembly? It looks like a fiddly job that I'd rather not tackle myself, however considering that I'm looking at about £80 for the cable assembly this might get quite expensive having a garage fix it, so any idea on number of hours labour would be great to know. With what seemed like a first taste of spring yesterday I'm keen to get my sunroof back in operation.

Spotted Black 16v XIL 1582 on M27 this morning, came off at J9.

White C owned by guy at GSF Portsmouth. If you read this then nice to meet you Andy.

I've been using Beru.

I seem to have a recurring problem with the contacts in my distributor cap getting badly worn/pitted. I replaced the cap and rotor arm just 6 months ago as had problems with flat spots and eventually it wouldn't idle properly and would cut out. A new distributor cap and rotor arm did the trick and it ran perfectly after that. Now just 6 months later I had the same symptoms and just checked and the contacts in the new cap are in the same poor condition as with the last one, so replaced the cap and arm yet again! What could be causing this recurring problem? I imagine that there must be some underlying problem that I need to resolve. I shouldn't have to keep replacing the distributor cap and rotor arm every 6 months! P.S. This is on a 9A (2.0 16v)

So is it actually possible to still get the older style bulb and holder, or are they now obsolete?

Any advice anyone?

I ordered a new bulb (and holder) for my cigarette lighter from the dealer, however when I picked it up I noticed that it wasn't the same as what I have in the car. I popped the lighter out and took it into the dealers and we spent a few mins looking at it, but couldn't work out how the new bulb and holder would fit as the holder really wasn't the same and it looked like the connectors would be in the wrong places. Any suggestions? I've got the older style dash, but the dealer claimed to find no difference in the bulb/holder on his system between early/late interiors. Is there an excess (old) part that I also need to prise off to get the new bulb/holder to fit? In the end I asked for my money back, but thinking I might have to go back and buy it and have a bit more of a fiddle. I had also thought I needed the same bulb for my ashtray, but upon looking at the weekend I realised that it's illuminated off the same bulb.

Trying to determine the best way to clean my passenger side front carpet mat (JustMatz Deluxe) after the heater matrix leaked coolant all over it. The mat is wet through and feels greasy; wondering if it would ruin it if I put it in the washing machine on a hand-wash cycle wrapped in an old sheet? Anyone machine washed mats before? Wondering if it's advisable not to completely soak the mat? Should I just give it a thorough clean with my regular upholstery cleaner (AutoGroom)? Any thoughts/advise?

Found the source of the problem...a loose nut on the mechanism above the gearbox. I'd got the C back from garage on Friday following the replacement of my heater matrix and driving around yesterday I got into the position where I could no longer select 1st or 2nd gear. The problem of gear selection had seemed quite intermittant, sometimes there seemed no problem at all whereas other times I really struggled to engage 1st in particular. The garage had previously taken a look and made quite a job out of lubricating all the mechanisms both under the gater and also above the gearbox. With the problem worsening yesterday I decided to familiarise myself with how it all worked with both selecting gears with the stick and also by moving the mech above the gearbox. I then noticed that the mech attached to the cable for raising/lowering (i.e. higher gears the mech comes up and lower gears the mech must go down had a very slightly loose nut that was slipping. This was causing the mech not to go down, so by staying neutral I kept getting 3rd and 4th. I decided to tighten the nut in it's midway position and that seems to have solved the problem! Bit surprised that the garage didn't notice the loose/slipping nut!

Thanks for the advice. Not really used my multimeter much before...what should I attach to what? :?

Managed to get the panel off ok and all seems to be connected. The illumination was fine until garage took dash out to replace the heater matrix. Does anyone know how the other end of the wires are connected? Are they just part of the main wiring loom or could they have become easily disconnected?

Should the knobs just pull off? Any particular knack to getting them off? Does the panel then just fall away or are there clips etc?

Great, thanks. I'll take a look later. So once the knobs are off, the panel should just pop off then?

Just had the heater matrix replaced by garage and now the heater controls aren't lighting up. My C is a changeover model with the older style interior. I'll probably have to go back to the garage for them to sort it, but wondered if it's an easy enough job then I'll take a look myself tomorrow. Any ideas on how to remove the heater control panel, or can I get to check the wires from the stereo opening just above it?

Garage confirmed last night that it is the heater matrix but they've been unable to give me a quote yet to do the job. They seem to have some 'books' that give them a 'book time' for completing a certain job on specific cars, but unfortunately he couldn't find what he needed. Does anyone have a 'book time' for replacing the matrix on a C? The guy wasn't sure if the dashboard would come out, however I pointed out that based on the info on here that it could be done by removing the glovebox etc. He didn't sound too convinced. Currently waiting for a call with the quote. Hoping that he gets confirmation that the dash doesn't have to come out and then it shouldn't be too long a job.

Thanks, do you know if these instructions apply to all C's? Or a particular model/version? Just spoke to garage and they believe that the matrix is the problem but probably can't do it until next week. Will give me a quote for the job when I go to collect later. I questioned whether I should be driving the car and the guy at the garage seemed to think that if I just kept my eye on the coolant level it should be fine! However based on the posts on here I'm a bit concerned in case it suddenly ruptures...plus I can't really see out the windows well enough to drive anyway! If I did drive it, would I be best to keep the heaters on hot or cold? I tried shutting my vents on the way home yesterday and I'm sure I saw steam coming from the dash! Maybe it was just because of how cold it was outside and I had both windows wide open so that I could see, but all the same I was somewhat concerned! I don't want to melt my dash!

This would also explain the difficulty that I had in wiping off the mist...it just didn't seem to want to wipe off easily.

I think I can get a new matrix quite cheap, however what sort of labour costs would I be looking at to replace it? Does the garage need to pretty much disassemble the whole dash to get it out? How many hours labour do you think?

Thanks for the advice. It's booked into the garage first thing tomorrow morning. Just got to drive the 10 miles or so home from work this evening. Also getting a service which is due this month anyway.

Thanks for the advice, I'm at work with it at the moment, so will have to drive it home, but better get it booked into the garage asap.

Thanks, I think it might well be coolant that I can smell. Mine is the pinky colour, but not too keen at licking the carpet! A leak would explain my coolant level dropping, although it must be quite a slow leak as it's taken about 1 week to drop so much as for the warning light to come back on. If it is a coolant leak on the carpet then would it be the matrix then? Would it be a pipe to/from the matrix or could I be looking at a new matrix required?

I've been suffering with very steamy windows for a couple of weeks now, however I thought it was down to a wet carpet in the footwell behind drivers seat due to bottled water. I purchased a de-humidifier at the weekend to try and dry it out a bit. I didn't really think about it at the time but my coolant light started flashing last week and I checked the reservoir and it was a bit low so topped it up. Was still getting very steamy windows which just won't clear and then this morning the coolant light came on again. Again the level was a bit low, but decided to check passenger footwell and carpet seems a bit damp along the right hand edge. I had thought that the car smelt a bit funny, so wondering if coolant is somehow leaking through? Any ideas?

Thanks Corradude, already have that printed off ready to take a look. Davidwort, I'm thinking that you're suggestion might actually be the problem considering the symptoms that I'm experiencing. Sometimes it doesn't seem too bad to get into first, so I'd think it quite plausable that this could be the issue as it might not always be slipping.

I've got a problem selecting first gear where it feels like the gearlever won't go far enough over to select first as I keep getting third instead. If I really push the lever to the left (without going into reverse) then I do seem to be able to get it in. I don't seem to have any problem with selecting reverse though, so not sure if adjusting the cables will help or does reverse work differently, so not necessarily connected to movement required for first? Any advice would be appreciated.