jackcramerr

Mazda 3. They tend to take ford engine. Very unreliable car.

The car is consuming oil. Lots of it but no smoke. Last year did a compression test and results were ok but I am going to perform it again. In case it is a pass, is it safe to say it will be valve seals? How can I confirm it? And for valve seals, I saw vidoes that does not require head to be removed. Having no experience, do I have to remove the cams completely? I think answer is yes, generally speaking, what will that entail? What bolts will need to be undone and what will I need to replace? Will I need to remove the timing chain as well?

I could see 4 houses coming out. One thin, might be for the reserviour, one medium which might be for heater and two same size large ones with one going on top of rad and other maybe bottom? The top is warmer to touch than lower one. The top one seems as warm as the one that goes to the reserviour. The lower one seemed to be cooler than top one. This was after 4 mile journey with needle lowe than 2/4 of the middle point. So engine never gets to operating temp with my daily millage. I used paddle shifts today.

Weather is warmer now but I can safely say, 4 miles drive today made the needle be 3/4 to from the middle. So it never gets warm from my local short journey. So long as I am not damaging the engine with it running cold, I can ignore it. Is it ok to do so? The other car I had similar issue with but it was worse because driving that car at 70 in winters made the needle go well below the middle. I changed thermostate for that car and now it warms up within 2 miles. Actually warms up soon as I come across the first brae to work. Lexus is cold as a cucumber on the same brae. Even though with this car, the thermostate looked fine when I removed it. It was maybe opening earlier. In initial days, I saw the same behaviour as Lexus, it wasn't getting warm fast enough. Is there any good way to check the thermostate without taking it out?

Hi Noticed since a while that is250 takes much longer than any other car to come up to operating temperature. Is that normal? It gets there after 15-30 mins of driving. 50k miles. Is it time for new thermal valve?

Thanks Linas Its sometimes bad to know so much. Had I been an average brit, wouldn't even have a clue and not worry about this issue. I couldn't watch him justify how broken clips didn't matter... All coming to mind was how the hell did I fell for insurance and if there is a way to bring this whole system down to its knees. I am a strong opponent of insurance. I think thieves run it and thieves claim it. Paying 2k for what... then paying excess on top of it. And other folks in this paying 300 and claiming thousands.. A joke and a half and some more. Rant over.

f-ing hell. Wipers are screwed up. It just wipes even when there is no water no nothing. I have always seen, whenever I go for for non oem parts ... I get f ed in a@@@. Couldn't find my wheel spanner else would have smashed the hell out of the wind screen. Yes, I am like this mad.

autoglass Yes. Told the guy. He put it in notes and said someone will come next week to see it again till the exisitng glue dries. But he gave me the idea that nothing much will happen and the next guy will do the same. Suggested I get lexus moulding and call him. Meaning, they will get same low quality moulds again even if they do it again. I kept the old one with me as samples. I think (my heart tells me) get these parts from Lexus. Nothing beats oem.

Went with insurance. And I need advise now. The windscreen fitted ok but the side mouldings did not. They tried fitting it but I think they might have been wrong part. I noticed they broke the blue clips during the process as it was just mot fitting. Then they used silicone to hold it in place.....

re used the old ones...

Original pads don't come with pins. Mine didn't.

Didn't even take a pee break let alone tea :) I am telling you guys... It takes a day and you guys are too good at it and not painting the true picture.

Thanks John. I used Redex and Tesco Premium petrol to get to a pass. With Italian tune. Should I still pour in Cataclean now or wait for next mot? Or just sell the car off? I wouldn't be able to tell if Cataclean worked... will I?

I will need to check again how much I filled in. Might have been less than 7 liters. One of the 2L is used for topping up another car ... so I cannot tell for certian.

Ok first test was performed a week back. Result was Fail, then Pass then Fail. Limit <.5 and failed as it was .5xx Second test was performed yesterday only once. Pass. Limit <.3. And it passed on .29x

I'll need to check mot sheets again for the units. I googled thanks to John's tip and came across dft website. 0.580 CO Emissions [g/km or mg/km under Euro 5/6] And I am sure the second pass test performed said pass results of .29xx and limit of <.3 to pass. So it is on the border. The first test that was a fail had limit of <.5xx and it failed as it was .5xx I will check the sheets and provide exact info

Re used the pads I had replaced few months ago. This is my third time I am doing this job.It is a pain as I would want a solution to this problem and not worry every few months. Every 12 months is ok but nothing before that. Have a life to live as well then maintain cars.

Sorry I meant to say, when cold it is on nail and warm above nail by 1 cm. Can I live with this or do I need to drain it?

its 2006 reg but car is 2005. 2.0 petrol.

Ok it passed mot. I am not understanding the results. I am compaing the first fail test result with second pass resukt.... the limits are different.... One says CO should be less than 5. The other ( passing result) says less then 3. And it passed just at 2.xx so at a margin. What is the usual CO level? And how can I reduce it further?

How do you guys do it in 40 mins... See jacking up and preparing tools takes 1 hour. Then each side takes 40 mins. You remove, tyre , caliper, clips, pins, pads then clean and grease. Then everything back in. 40 mins to 1 hour each side. And putting back the clips is a pain. Also, you need to rewind the piston. And if you over fill the grease, then remove it again as pads won't go in... 40 mins... no way.

So safe to say I can ignore the smear? If so then warm is on the nail and cold 1cm above the nail. It is still confusing though. The 1cm above the nail also looks like smear.

I will take a few pictures and maybe you guys can suggest if it is over filled. Because I cannot. As for dipstick, I kept it half way out when draining and filling.

Can I drive the car around for italian tune when mot re test is on the same day?

Greased brake callipers today. Rear ones had no grease and almost got rusted in few months time. Used cera tec. So I will not recommend cera tec anymore. Wish to know: Part number for Toyota red grease Part numbers for rear caliper boots upper and lower Took me whole day to do this job... what a pain this is. Isn't there a permanent fix for this issue??