Car advice

[alta-pete]

10 minutes ago, Florentine_Pogen said:

But does he have a basement / dungeon ?

Doesn’t matter all that much if he can’t be found. (so my friend tells me..)

 

[Boghead ranter]

20 hours ago, Plumpy said:

iButton device, probably somekind of datalogger. https://www.analog.com/en/resources/technical-articles/what-is-an-ibutton-device.html

 

16 hours ago, Boghead ranter said:

Thank you, van was previously a company van, so makes sense the drivers whereabouts could be being tracked. 

I'll be uninstalling it then.

Actually, the van has TomTom, though integral in the dash, rather than a wee device.  Could it be part of that?

[TxRover]

On 08/05/2024 at 09:17, Boghead ranter said:

Thank you, van was previously a company van, so makes sense the drivers whereabouts could be being tracked. 

I'll be uninstalling it then.

Any tracking via iButton could only be accomplished by physical action. The iButton was likely attached to the key as part of a checkout/checkin system for the van. As it sits, unless there is a logger and transmitter attached to that socket, it seems harmless enough…unless it’s a required item to be in place to start the vehicle, in which case you’ll need to trace it to the control unit and uninstall that.

[Wacky]

Sorry if posted before. 
Just a warning to the unwary and uninformed. If your cars steering starts to feel “different” loose/tight etc, be aware that garages will offer to change the track control arms “to see if it will save you the cost of a new steering rack” this only works on a very very small percentage of vehicles, and is a bit of a revenue collector for garages. 
A garage just did this to my sons car, and his uncle, a car mechanic of many years pointed this out to us. 
Also says to never tell a garage what you think is wrong, they could replace parts you don’t need and tell you that you said that’s what’s wrong. 

Edited May 10 by Wacky

[welshbairn]

Had to take the car in for a service and Mot this morning, and it wouldn't start, dead battery by the looks of it. Stuck the charger on and nervously tried the key again straight away, and it started no problem. Q1 Is this a daft thing to do and Q2 what does it all mean? 

[alta-pete]

6 hours ago, welshbairn said:

Had to take the car in for a service and Mot this morning, and it wouldn't start, dead battery by the looks of it. Stuck the charger on and nervously tried the key again straight away, and it started no problem. Q1 Is this a daft thing to do and Q2 what does it all mean? 

It won't start off a charger - my guess is one of the battery terminals was loose and you attaching the charger gave it enough of a nudge to re-establish enough of a connection.

[welshbairn]

27 minutes ago, alta-pete said:

It won't start off a charger - my guess is one of the battery terminals was loose and you attaching the charger gave it enough of a nudge to re-establish enough of a connection.

Google tells me it might be something to do with the immobiliser, didn't even know there was one. Just picking the car up, hopefully I'll find out. 

[TxRover]

3 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

Google tells me it might be something to do with the immobiliser, didn't even know there was one. Just picking the car up, hopefully I'll find out. 

Well hopefully you didn’t tell them about it, or you’ll probably be looking at a £500 charge for changing the blinker fluid, cleaning your doohickey and recalibrating your whatchamacallit.

[welshbairn]

Garage tested the battery which was fine and couldn't find anything else wrong, starts fine now, so I'll tighten the battery terminals as @alta-pete suggested and hope for the best. 

[welshbairn]

Anyone failed their ULEZ rating yet? My car is more than 12 years old, petrol, 1600 cc, and pàssed easy. Are SUV school run tanks taking a hit?

https://lowemissionzones.scot/vehicle-registration-checker

[scottsdad]

3 hours ago, welshbairn said:

Garage tested the battery which was fine and couldn't find anything else wrong, starts fine now, so I'll tighten the battery terminals as @alta-pete suggested and hope for the best. 

Attach the cables from the battery to your baws.

All going well you'll feel a "message of hope" that the car is OK.

[TxRover]

9 hours ago, scottsdad said:

Attach the cables from the battery to your baws.

All going well you'll feel a "message of hope" that the car is OK.

Only works right if you have remote start…otherwise the cables are too short for you to reach the start button or key.

[Thistle_do_nicely]

On 17/03/2024 at 23:44, Thistle_do_nicely said:

Wondering if anyone has any quick ways to tell what a fault might be on my car (will get it looked at soon but just even if i can brace myself in case it might be something pricey)

- 1.6 turbo astra petrol, 52k miles on it

- out driving yesterday, first ive noticed this. Lots of puddles/surface water, but i dont actually think i went through any prior to it starting, maybe exacerbated it, idk

- no warning or dash lights

- basically: the car runs more or less as normal, but at idle theres like a chugging noise started coming out of the engine and an occasional fairly high pitched kind of trill when its in motion. When the engine revs the chugging sound goes away

- turning the engine off it now makes an unearthly screeching noise

It went away when i started it up again today but came back after a couple of minutes of driving.

Not sure. Fan belt/loose bearing? Did open the bonnet and the sound is coming kind of near the driver side tyre i think.

 

Unsure if/how its linked, but a long while later...

Been in the garage for weeks. High crank case pressure, been advised theres probably something wrong with a piston seal/ring or a piston is cracking/melting

They've advised they've got it running fine for now, but have changed a few filters and will try one or two more things to get the pressure down. Car will run for a while but they're advising to get shot of the car within a year, would apparently be a full engine strip to fix down the line if thats what the fault is.

Edited May 18 by Thistle_do_nicely

[Hard Graft]

8 hours ago, Thistle_do_nicely said:

 

Unsure if/how its linked, but a long while later...

Been in the garage for weeks. High crank case pressure, been advised theres probably something wrong with a piston seal/ring or a piston is cracking/melting

They've advised they've got it running fine for now, but have changed a few filters and will try one or two more things to get the pressure down. Car will run for a while but they're advising to get shot of the car within a year, would apparently be a full engine strip to fix down the line if thats what the fault is.

Give RH33 a message - he will take it off your hands at a reasonable price and then he can post about the problems.

[RH33]

1 hour ago, Hard Graft said:

Give RH33 a message - he* will take it off your hands at a reasonable price and then he can post about the problems.

*She

Give it to Arnold Clark. They enjoy selling duff cars.

Edited May 19 by RH33

[Hard Graft]

2 hours ago, RH33 said:

*She

Give it to Arnold Clark. They enjoy selling duff cars.

Apologies for the he

[Thistle_do_nicely]

12 hours ago, Thistle_do_nicely said:

 

Unsure if/how its linked, but a long while later...

Been in the garage for weeks. High crank case pressure, been advised theres probably something wrong with a piston seal/ring or a piston is cracking/melting

They've advised they've got it running fine for now, but have changed a few filters and will try one or two more things to get the pressure down. Car will run for a while but they're advising to get shot of the car within a year, would apparently be a full engine strip to fix down the line if thats what the fault is.

Slightly conflating a bit here, sorry

So the garage have said its probably one of the oil rings on a piston that's a bit worn; the car itself is driving fine, its just that its got slightly high crank case pressure. Point still stands to get rid within a few thousand miles/next couple of years, however, just as a precaution.

Different pal I spoke to that hasn't looked at the thing said the piston rings on mine can be prone to overheating and said something about a PCV (I know nothing about cars tbh) which is where I picked that up from.

Wasn't sure if that would be an advisory/fail when its due its next MOT, but seemingly not, so got a bit of time yet. Bit of a pain because the parts themselves are buttons, its just the labour costs mean it's not really worth it - says online it'd almost be worth just getting a brand new fucking engine and fitting it in there rather than stripping the engine for the sake of a fault in and around one or more pistons? idk.

 

Is there any sorcery that can be done with some kind of remapping to prolong the life of it with the fuel air mixture?

Edited May 19 by Thistle_do_nicely

[Frosty]

7 hours ago, Thistle_do_nicely said:

Slightly conflating a bit here, sorry

So the garage have said its probably one of the oil rings on a piston that's a bit worn; the car itself is driving fine, its just that its got slightly high crank case pressure. Point still stands to get rid within a few thousand miles/next couple of years, however, just as a precaution.

Different pal I spoke to that hasn't looked at the thing said the piston rings on mine can be prone to overheating and said something about a PCV (I know nothing about cars tbh) which is where I picked that up from.

Wasn't sure if that would be an advisory/fail when its due its next MOT, but seemingly not, so got a bit of time yet. Bit of a pain because the parts themselves are buttons, its just the labour costs mean it's not really worth it - says online it'd almost be worth just getting a brand new fucking engine and fitting it in there rather than stripping the engine for the sake of a fault in and around one or more pistons? idk.

 

Is there any sorcery that can be done with some kind of remapping to prolong the life of it with the fuel air mixture?

I’m not a mechanic but just had to scrap my 8 year old/85,000 mile Jeep Grand Cherokee when the engine died after being told at its last service that there were piston issues. Never envisaged that the engine would die and wish the Jeep dealer had been clear that it was potentially terminal.

In short I’d suggest you get rid to We Buy Any Car sharpish as in my experience any talk of engine stripping is fanciful and the cost would be prohibitive versus cashing in now to WBAC where there will be no come back to you if it does die soon after you pass it on as opposed to flogging it to an individual who may come knocking on your door.

[TxRover]

18 hours ago, Hard Graft said:

Give RH33 a message - he will take it off your hands at a reasonable price and then he can post about the problems.

See, now there’s where the pronouns can be useful…they there would have saved a lot of angst.

[TxRover]

14 hours ago, Thistle_do_nicely said:

Slightly conflating a bit here, sorry

So the garage have said its probably one of the oil rings on a piston that's a bit worn; the car itself is driving fine, its just that its got slightly high crank case pressure. Point still stands to get rid within a few thousand miles/next couple of years, however, just as a precaution.

Different pal I spoke to that hasn't looked at the thing said the piston rings on mine can be prone to overheating and said something about a PCV (I know nothing about cars tbh) which is where I picked that up from.

Wasn't sure if that would be an advisory/fail when its due its next MOT, but seemingly not, so got a bit of time yet. Bit of a pain because the parts themselves are buttons, its just the labour costs mean it's not really worth it - says online it'd almost be worth just getting a brand new fucking engine and fitting it in there rather than stripping the engine for the sake of a fault in and around one or more pistons? idk.

 

Is there any sorcery that can be done with some kind of remapping to prolong the life of it with the fuel air mixture?

Worn oil ring would result in increased oil consumption. Have you seen any oil needed?

Perhaps they intend to suggest a worn ring in general, but that could be a seized ring instead. There’s a crap load of snake oily stuff that claims to loosen seized rings, but nothing that a reputable mechanic would bet on. If a ring is seized, it’s allowing pressure into the crankcase, and probably messing with the PCV (Positive Crankcase Ventilation).

One thing you could try is a “Fuel System Cleaner” with PEA (Polyether-amine) like Techron, Wynn’s, Redex or STP. Just chose one that clearly says “Fuel System Cleaner”, and includes PEA in the ingredients. It’s not anywhere near assured it will help, but it could if it’s just one ring gone a bit sticky. Don’t go for the £4.99 special, buy a good quality additive in the correct size and cross your fingers. Personally, I like, the Techron.