dr_mat

It could also be temp-related. Mine feels much more notchy in temperatures significantly less than 5 degrees. Of course that could just be cos mine is knackered too, but it's really nice and smooth when it's warm, so I'm inclined to think it's just it doesn't like the cold...

Do a search for same subject, I'm sure we've discussed this before. Long and short answer is: 1) it's hard and expensive 2) the later switchgear is pants - it keeps breaking 3) don't bother.

Ah, hell, I really don't wanna go down that particular money pit right now!!! Those "little jobs" really add up! (Some engines are designed to run warmer - it's more efficient to keep the oil thinner, you get better MPG. Some engines are even smart enough to dynamically decide what's best - keeping the engine cooler when you want more performance, and warmer when you're driving in a more relaxed manner, so you get better economy.)

I've heard that opening out the grille makes no difference at all, actually.. If you've money to burn, slap in an oil cooler, but make sure you don't over-cool the engine. These engines are designed to be run hot, the oil is designed to be run hot - it's too viscous for the engine if it's significantly cooler than normal. Keep it above 90 and you should be fine, but I really would let it run below that.

Eh? Think you're a little mixed up there Kev - the axle runs BELOW the fitted exhaust, so you don't have to touch the exhaust to do the axle bushes. It's the other way around - when you do the exhaust, you've either got to remove the axle (again - but at least it's an easy job with fresh bushes in place), or you've got to cut+shut the exhaust out/in.

110-112 degrees on the oil is not too bad. It sounds a little high for a 60mph cruise, but it's not unusual, IMHO. I know there's people on here that will advocate extra oil coolers, but unless you're seeing over 125 degrees on a regular basis I don't think that's really justified. The oil temp is supposed to be over 100 degrees to ensure dissolved water boils out of the oil. Mayo under the fuel cap? Could be too many short journeys + cold, damp starts - you never get the oil hot enough it'll never go away.

For future reference, it would be useful if you can post up the Ford part numbers you use - this could save a lot of people a lot of cash! :) Thnx.

That how it happens - the oil that's in the tappets when you turn the engine off (particularly if the oil wasn't fully up to temp at the time) stays there - so it's nice and quiet when you restart it. But the pressure of the cams hitting the lifters pushes the oil out slowly, and this is greater than the ability of the thick oil to get squeezed in the other side, hence quiet when first started, then clattery, then it quietens down again as all the oil pressures settle out and oil circulates properly. Or was that just bull that I made up?? At least that's how it happens on mine.. I'm due an oil change, but I wouldn't have thought 5k mile old quantum silver would be that problematic.

I definitely have a duff pump in storage, the fuel gauge sender worked fine. I'll dig it out if you're interested. My local garage fitted my replacement pump inside 10 minutes, it's really not a hard job - you just have to be careful not to get fuel everywhere.

Give ya £50 for it... and I'm cutting my own throat there... ;) Don't worry too much about it - the big expensive parts of the ABS system almost never break - I'd put money on it being some electrical bodgery causing the light to come on when it shouldn't. Maybe it's been messed up when someone fitted some ICE?

That's all wrong!! Once the light has come ON (indicating a fault) it should never go off, unless you turn the ignition off and restart the car. The fact that yours DOES go off while the engine is running means something is VERY wrong. I'd suggest you get the thing hooked up to some ABS diags software PDQ, cos I'd suspect some joker has hotwired your ABS light to some other circuit. Does the ABS actually *work*? I mean, if you hit the brakes on a gravel car park can you feel and hear it operating?

The bizarre thing here is the suggestion that the ABS light goes OFF at some point. It NEVER GOES OFF, except when you turn the ignition off. If it *does* for you, then something ain't wired right!!!

Yep, I'll agree there, both my dents were removed by knocking it out. No filling required.

I had a dent on each side in the rear wheel arch. One kindly provided by the previous owner (or the one before that, who knows?), and one kindly provided by some anonymous idiot visiting my street one day. They have both been professionally repaired and are both now absolutely invisible. A decent body shop should have no problems with it, assuming that's all it is.

Mine was DEFINITELY oil filled. There may be differences between this and other cars, but...

It's certainly feasible. The MAF sensor is backed up by the throttle position sensor, so a failed MAF can be worked around for the most part, but a failed cam position sensor can't - it'll drop the timing so far back that it'll drive pretty poorly. It's relying on the crank position sensor, and that's too far from the cams to be any real use for fine-tuning the timing. Or so I think. I'll leave it to one of the experts to back my pure speculation up with facts! :)

You have to supply a credit card and billing address to ebay when you register from a username on a free ISP, so it's not 100% anonymous. Also - bear in mind this guy may have simply bought a broken Corrado from someone else, who may well have been a scally.. Or may not - it could still be 100% genuine. Not saying you're wrong, just pointing out that two swallows does not a summer make...

I'm sure that if they're anywhere near compentent scallys they will have disposed of everything that's traceable by now. The rest is just coincidence. The only way to prove any of this is to catch them selling something with a chassis number on it..! Don't suppose you'd had the old micro-dot people round to put the car's ID on all the parts??

And then you come to those of us that aren't paying reasonable amounts... '95 VR6, 3yrs NCD, fully comp, £200 excess, 30 years old, Reading p/c, clean license: £840 And it was £1100 last year with only 2yrs no claims. Eagle Star (my previous insurer) quoted me no less than £2564 for the year... Needless to say I'm with Highway now... Why the hell is a VR6 in insurance group EIGHTEEN!!?? Madness!!!

If the engine moves "significantly" when you apply driving force against the hand-brake. How much is ok? Well you will see *some* movement, but it shouldn't be more than a few millimetres in any direction (note that you can't tell if the rear engine mounts are screwed unless you do this test in *reverse* gear).. Also note that VRs (and maybe others, don't know) have oil-filled engine mounts at the rear, so look out for dark, sticky oil on the rear subframe - this is a give-away that your mount has blown. Prices? Not too much. OEM mounts can be had for about £30 each and fitting is less than an hour per mount. Upgrades? Not my cup of tea, but you'll probably find that new OEM or VW mounts drastically improve matters, so why upgrade? Also note that if your engine is moving around a lot on ageing or broken mounts you will start to see engine hoses dying from the extra stretching - that can get expensive!! Worst case scenario is cracking the exhaust manifold down-pipes. £198 + VAT!! :shock: HTH.

Mine's at 116k now... Engine still un-opened...

I agree with your sentiments, but can't see what "the opposition" are going to do differently. There is no opposition, there is no choice. (You will be assimilated, resistance is futile...?) Anyway, I don't see how these changes effect anyone on the forum in the slightest. It simply places the onus on the car owner to make sure their tax is up to date, rather than leaving the onus on the police to find and prosecute people who's tax is not up to date. Of course, that's not going to fix the DVLA database overnight and get all the out-of-date information out of it, but it's going to encourage people to make sure the details are correct when they buy/sell cars. For the most part, assuming you're buying your tax in the usual way for a normal vehicle, these rule changes will have ZERO impact on you.

Sounds more likely to be a wiring problem at the bulb end, IMHO. Sounds like current is leaking from the sidelight circuit onto the brake bulbs. Remove both bulbs from the "dodgy" side and see if the other side works normally.

Quite: having 116k miles on mine and no receipts for new ones, I'm curious to know too... Not that I'm too worried about mine - they seem to quieten down when it all warms up ok.

I'd agree that sounds dodgy as anything. Report the buyer - he'll get his account suspended for offering to sell you an item outside of an ebay auction. In fact, report the whole thing, ebay might be able to find out if it was in fact the same person doing the selling and bidding. (Might have used the same IP address for example.)