ashabristol

Hello, I've a 2016 1.4 L&K that is having some issues. A few weeks ago the parking sensors stopped working and I had a long beep instead of the usual parking sensor display. I took it to the dealer and they said no fault codes were recorded and they would need several hours to examine the wiring to each sensor. I said I'd leave it until after Christmas and book it in then. After about a week the parking sensors returned intermittantly but in it's place the central locking has intermittantly stopped responding to the key fob. I have changed the battery so that isn't the issue. So I'm left with parking sensors that either work perfectly or don't work at all and central locking that either works perfectly or not at all. All other car functions windows, mirrors etc. work find - as far as I'm aware anyway. Guessing this is a wiring issue? Thanks, Ash

I'll certainly give that a try. Just struggling to come to terms with the car feeling and driving very differently from before. Last time I had a clutch changed (many many years ago) nothing was different other than the biting point of the clutch.

What I mean is if I fill it up, drive a round trip I know uses spot-on half a tank (unless major detours etc) then (regardless of maxidot mpg readings) if after doing that trip the physical fuel gauge (not the maxidot) says I've used three quarters of a tank of fuel then I know something is amiss. Is that thinking not correct?

That's what I figured. The garage said they drove it for 2.5 miles to test the new clutch. They had it for so long I honestly wouldn't be able to say if they'd done more miles than that in it! How do you reset the long term average? I've only just figured out how to display it. When I drive to Devon next week I will ignore the mpg readouts and focus more on the fuel gauge readings as that might be a more accurate way of establishing if the car is 'actually' using more fuel.

To be honest there was nothing wrong with the old clutch, it was just replaced since they had access to do so. It had done 40k so fair enough in my (not very informed) opinion.

Would that affect trip average figures though? I've only just worked out how to display the continuous ongoing average figure.

What sort of driving did you do during that time? I'm going to change the maxidot today from trip mpg to rolling mpg and see what that says.

I had two further thoughts this evening. One was to check the units of measurement in the maxidot settings (will do tomorrow) and the other was to research the mpg others have been getting out of the same spec car. This has made things more interesting. I've read several threads on 1.4 4x4 mpg and looked at some 'real world' mpg websites and every single thread / site mirrors the mpg I am currently getting so perhaps the question should be why was i getting higher mpg before the clutch change?

I didn't take it personally. I'm not mechanically minded so really didn't have much choice. I too was shocked but like I said this has been the only car related repair bill in the last 13 years (probably closer to 17 years as my previous car gave no issues either) so they could have said £5k and I wouldn't have known any better. Besides, other than this mpg issue they appear to have done a good job with the clutch. Like I say, it's easy to get things done cheaper if you know the right people / places. I'm more annoyed that I nearly traded her in during the summer but didn't in the end. Now stuck with trading her in at a near 3k loss or keeping her to recoup some of that money (and crossing my fingers!)

Well, what's done is done as regards the cost. As with everything in life, if you know the right people / places you can get stuff done cheaper. Having not needed a garage for anything other than routine servicing for the past 13 years of driving my knowledge of local independents is somewhat non existant.

They said it was over 8 hours work, much of that because it's a 4x4. Of that £950 (exc vat) was parts. Anyway, having had to take a day off work and wait 8 hours for RAC to turn up I didn't them to leave it on the drive so had little choice but to get them to tow it to the dealer.

Yes, will do that. I guess I'm trying to figure out (as well as any potential cause) if the maxidot is displaying incorrectly or if the car is actually consuming more fuel.

Not enough to account for this kind of mpg loss then? I had a look inside the engine bay and couldn't find anything out of place other than the fabric battery cover was unfolded which suggests they might have disconnected the battery? I haven't heard back from the dealer today so will leave it until after Christmas now. At least I have a copy of the email in my outbox as proof I raised a query. I will top it up with petrol next week ahead of a family gathering which will mean a 250 mile round trip. I know that trip uses exactly half a tank (give or take a very small margin) so will be interesting to see what the fuel gauge reads at the end of that trip.

They didn't replace the haldex clutch but I believe they had to remove it as part of the sub frame in order to access the clutch. Anyone have any ideas as to what mpg loss a working 4wd system would bring over a 4wd system that wasn't working?

This is the strange thing. The car handles better than ever - drives perfectly straight (it did tend to veer a bit before) and it's far more 'planted' in corners than it ever used to be. There are no engine lights on the dash but I did think the engine sounded a little 'rough' last night but that might just be my imagination. Cost in excess of £2800. Had to have it towed by RAC so no time to research alternatives. Still that's been the only issue in 7 years of ownership. If the 4wd wasn't working before it went in, but is now, would that cause some of the symptoms I'm experiencing?

Thanks for the suggestions. I will take a look under the bonnet later but have just emailed the dealer to ask their thoughts so will see what they have to say. It's an odd one as the car feels completely different than it used to. Obviously the clutch biting point is different, but the whole car feels more stable and more 'planted' on the road. It feels somewhat heavier too, doesn't accelerate quite as fast or rev quite as freely as it used to either. I know they had to remove the sub-frame to do the clutch. Is there anything in doing that which might cause drag if not reassembled 100% correctly?

Hello, Recently had a new clutch on my 1.4 L&K 4x4 as had the dreaded slave cylinder go. Had the car back yesterday and whilst it drives better than ever I've noticed the MPG (on the maxidot display at least) is way down on what it used to be compared to the same trip with the old clutch. On a regular trip I do for work I used to get an MPG of around 42. Today I only managed 29. This evening on a longer trip where I could often average 52 I could only manage 45. I noticed the cars rolling resistance seems to be less than it used to be too but that might just be my imagination. Will changing the clutch have reset the ECU or messed with the maxidot MPG calculations in some way or does anyone have any other ideas? I don't want the hassle of taking it back to the dealer if it might rectify itself but at the same time I don't want to leave it too long before making a complaint about it either. Ash