nta16

Big hands then. 😄

The gauge you have put up a photo of doesn't inspire much confidence in me by it's appearance, and no manufacturers name, it might be great but by the photo only, not for me. Digital or analogue it's the accuracy that matters rather than type. At one time I had three pencil type gauges two read the same and the third 2 psi different. My wife bought me one years ago and when I checked at the time a Weights & Measure bloke send he tested it and found it to be very accurate (within its stated parameter). Mine sits in the boot of the car which is outside 365/6 days a year with huge solar gain in summer (the Halfords badges came unglued one summer) and whatever temperatures the winter brings, always worked - to be clear I haven't confirmed it readings recently as I haven't felt the need. There are pre-sets and bar and old money but I can't remember how to alter the settings and the leaflet font is too small for my eyes now. I can only remember having to change the batteries once. I had an old well known name quite expensive dial gauge one but it didn't last too long, poor value. Personally I'd never trust a garage or petrol station gauge or any on electric or manual foot pumps and never use them anyway as I keep a manual foot pump in my boot (instead of a spare wheel but that upsets so many). I've had my Halfords for a few years now so I don't know if the current batch are as well made. - Halfords LED Digital Tyre Pressure Gauge 2015.

I must be thinking of another model then, I thought there was something added to the system must be my bad memory.

That is strange though. In England customer service is practically non-existent for most companies and has been for a long time, but then the customers may also have got worse. Yeah that's fair enough. I was thinking how small that air filter looked - or have you got big hands.

Certainly with my car the feel and movement of the pedal is dependant on the rear shoes being set well. Setting the shoes so that they catch enough but not too much is always a bit of a compromise as I have cheap modern made drums. Cleaning all of the rear brakes and lubricating where required does help especially if it hasn't been done for a good while. I don't know about the force but you seem to me to have a lot of pedal travel slack, I don't know if your cars are the same but on my old car pedal slack can often be the pedal or it's connection (clevis pin in this case) get ovalled and/or wear ridge(s) on one or both, they can have loads of wear and still operate. My car doesn't have any fancy bias or adjuster, when the rear shoes are set OK I check the handbrake by pulling it up three clicks and if I can just about rotate each wheel heavy hand push (wear gloves) then it's fine. I don't know about your pressure regulator but to test what getting where at the rear you could try clamping off rubber supply to before split to each side if you have it, and then to each side's rubber supply, by opening bleed valves at at rear cylinder, or before union if required.

I would expect the quality to be very high as the price is very high and for the product to have very good longevity, decades for road use.

Subject to you having been supplied the correct part I would contact both manufacturers and ask about this. If I was the manufacturer I would ask you to send the filter back for examination to see if it was my product or production at fault or something done or applied to the product incorrectly. If there was a batch or any other production fault I would send you a replacement and reimburse the cost of a paper filter that could have ben fitted during the postage and investigation times. If it was not a fault of the product I would return your filter with a letter of explanation. I would contact them if I was you especially if the parts do not fit correctly either (subject to them being correct for your model).

Yes many items have an optimum level of use and this may not be at brand new installation. The trick is to judge when the item has gone passed its optimum and how far passed this point the item is renewed. This depends on a lot of factors so may be well before any service interval or even well after. I am really surprised at the BMC, I had never heard of them until this thread (BMC means something entirely different to old UK motorists). Are you sure it was a genuine part and not fake/counterfeit, same with K&N. You would need to check but I have a feeling that K&N at one time at least had their filters made in China (as with so much USA manufacturing) and it was said the quality dropped but I didn't see this verified. "K&N products are designed and manufactured on-site. K&N® is headquartered in Riverside, California, in a building complex spanning nearly 400,000 square feet, and also operates facilities in Grand Prairie, TX, England, China, and the Netherlands. K&N facilities include departments for engineering, product design, manufacturing, warehousing, test facilities, purchasing, sales, customer service, marketing, and corporate offices." The K&N filters the used to advertise as a million miles use so they should hold together for years. If you are sure no other chemicals were used, by a mechanic perhaps, I would not have thought there was much else other than manufacturing fault that could cause the K&N at least (as I put I do not know the BMC) to fall apart as they go in cars causing lots more heat like the Vipers.

A good person using a good level scan tool, often not a lower priced code reader or a lower priced scan tool or app, should be able to get some idea of where to start the diagnosis, however as in another thread the scan tool used didn't find an error code and even if it does brain power, training, skill and experience need to be applied to find and resolve the problem. By the sound of what you have put there should be plenty of historical codes to go on from the correct level scan tool and perhaps even a simple cheap code reader. Intermittent problems can be a lot more awkward to deal with and sometimes need the necessary conditions for the fault replicated. Good luck let us know how you get on.

I found a spanner in one of my cars and wondered why no one had retrieved it but when I tried I discovered why, got it out after some effort and it was very rusty so might have been there a good while, I'd had the car a number of months and not noticed or heard it.

Thanks for reporting back. Scan tools are very useful but are only one tool and as you have found shouldn't solely be relied on for diagnostics and repairs, they normally however with many faults give you a start point to the diagnostics. It also depends on the type you are using, the cheap basic ones are only generic code readers but the high level tools can be used to integrate and hopefully might have pointed to the issue but physical tests are also need if only as conformation. A person can look, touch (smell and listen) and use other tools and brain power so also comes in handy. Glad it's sorted.

Note the change in colour of the K&Ns after only one year's use, about 6k-miles (9,600Kms), from the previous photo.

True and very interesting and informative video. The red oil applied to the K&N filter is to trap particles and like the paper collects more over time. When I first knew about K&N they had that the filter could be used for 100k-miles (160,000kms) in normal conditions before it needed cleaning, then at some point it dropped to 50k-miles (80,000kms). It was always said by some that the K&N filter was better when used than when new, I must admit I never understood this but perhaps they meant filtration. On the other hand the gut that had the Dodge Vipers (8l, V10 truck engine in them) moaned that they needed to clean the K&N just about every year to maintain horsepower. I can totally understand that modern cars with all their computer programs would just adjust requirements based on the amount of air coming in and why perhaps the paper air filter on my wife's 2015 Fabia is four year service interval change. My car uses carbs, you adjust them manually by setting nuts and screws by turning them, once you have set them you hopefully leave them set for years (until all the changes in petrol - unleaded, E5, E10). I know the two different K&Ns filters that I have tried on my car even after cleaning restrict airflow when fitted from no filters. It must be remembered my engine design dates back to 1951, 70 years, so is cruder in finish than more modern engines, tolerances and passages are wider. As the chap said in the video the air flow capacity of the carbs and filter(s), on my car at least, are oversized so even when modestly uprated there is still plenty of spare unused capacity. Think of it like drinking a litre of beer as quick as you can, how many seconds - we had a local chap who held many records, he downed a litre in 1.3 seconds, what ever you could down in 1.3 seconds is your capacity so the rest of the beer is not required, 1 litre is too much capacity for your 1.3 seconds of drinking. A mate of mine could drink a pint of Guinness (crap, fizzy, horrible stout) standing on his head in about 10-12 seconds, other local guy's record was 6 seconds - they were simpler times we had to make our own entertainment.

If it is it would be a cheaper version of the Norma and (ETA: other better known one - Mikalor, just remembered - I can't think of now) always get the Norma ones as they have a sort of clasp to hold the band each side rather than welds that can break). The hose clips on my wife's car are the reusable sprung type that are a pain to squeeze off and on.

Any new fixings of the same type and size anywhere, is it a shear-head bolt or just broken, is it even from the car or just dropped there from somewhere or perhaps an untidy tool box. What size is it. it looks a bit cheap and nasty, hopefully it's not from the car. You could try putting up another thread those with more knowledge and experience might identify it straight away, but not me I'm afraid.

Yes credit where credit is due another nail head hit. Bit overblown, could have been done in just one or two words but that'd been a bit curt. But you both posted after that point, will you reprimand each other, I'd just let go, Frozen in a nice way. 😄 Whoops, sorry it's sepulchrave that's got the sense of humour, ah, well, I'll leave it for him to read, might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb. 😁

Sorry I don't know if it's even off the car, seem to have a cone shape below the head, any fixings broken around the battery or connection. What I can tell you from the photo is, that you are going on a long journey . . . of discovery. 😁

Thank you for the offer but they don't even list my car and anyway the K&N are an aftermarket kit with their own front and rear housing plates instead of using the factory "saucepan" filter housings as in the photo below (not my car). For your info the K&N filters are about 150mm across and 45mm. The kit is now £170 (including VAT tax), just filters £60 (inc VAT) each from K&N. When paper filters for the old cars I had were more readily available and low priced I would change them every 6 months or 9,600km whichever was the sooner and this worked out very well it seemed (without any testing to back this statement up).

Don't all cars have carbs!?! 😄 I had a look at the universal thanks but none are correct size, shape or type and I've wasted too much of my life on this car already to fart about with modifications, and modifications can change the good running I already have and possibly make things worse. The filters sit in the warm engine bay already with no direct cool airflow and with the exhaust manifold not far away but owners have managed for over 60 years with this. I have picked up some of the OCD here though and have them hanging above my head air drying from being cleaned again and I will apply as little oil as possible this time. See below the filters as they were when I got the car in 2007, looked brand new then, they are closer to the wheel and bonnet opening edge than they look, when I tried a plate single filter over both it was deeper and even less room spare. These filters are quite expensive now, car parts and oils look to be a lot higher price here than Greece.

Most accidents happen nearer home - but that's obviously because of statistics, unless you rarely go home. When you have new tyres fitted you should be advise to take it easier on them for the first about 100 miles (200 if damp/wet) because of the (always forget the correct terminology) grease that may still be on them from production. Also you should recheck the torque tightness of your wheel (bloody stupid idea of) bolts after the first 30-50 miles. Never mind look after him, marry him. He's good value if he works on VWs and does a good job and doesn't oversell. VW like most manufacturers are a lot more worried about production cost than servicing costs and use fixing that require special tools, assemblies and parts that require special tools for model variants let alone various models and marques. And that's without VW's overcomplicated computers programs to help (them) with omissions and consumptions and stuff like that. I bet you'll value him even more further into your car ownership. Cheers.

Great. Unfortunately they do not make them for older cars like mine.

Just seen your other thread - Auto start system - which gives even more idea to the battery or connections. The car's computers will switch the start/stop off if power is too low but a bad/poor electrical connection could cause problems. Do consider there can be more than one problem or cause, the battery could be low in charge and there be a bad/poor connection(s). If you have any warranty on the car you could take it back to the seller to get it checked and perhaps battery changed (depending on the cause(s) of the fault(s).

I always warn about battery state of charge, regardless of if the car starts and the lights seem bright enough as the VW computer programs are over-complicated, over-intrusive and intertwined so can throw up all sorts of problems if the battery gets low in charge - or any electrical contacts are poor or faulty. Checking the battery charge and connects are all clean, secure and protected is always a good idea - BUT - with this I'd also go with getting the use of a good scan tool (cheap code readers tell you little) and see what error codes come up, unless before this you find the battery is low in charge or a loose connection(s), particularly if you bought the car from a garage or car dealer. Let us know how you get on.

They look like they might have been on the front, look at the outer quarter. Last x-number of years tyres seem to be susceptible to cracking, lack of use and sitting outside all the time doesn't help as I well know. Tread depth is only one aspect of whether the tyres should be changed, holding on to a tyre just because it has plenty of tread depth isn't a good move as the tyre could have other age and use related issues. Some change their tyres at 3mm depth and certainly not wait until the bare legal minimum and in the UK often the weather conditions aren't always the best for tyre and road contact. You can check the manufacturing date of the tyres, though sometimes IIRC the info might be inconveniently on the inboard side. - https://www.kwik-fit.com/tyres/information/tyre-age I wish I had your mechanic, look after him, good people in the car trade can be few and far between. I can't think if I've ever got 30k miles out of tyres even going back to when they used to last, would be more like how many sets in 30k-miles, but I don't do much motorways, now at least.

Yes, if it was a petrol and not diesel, I'd change the spark plugs unless there was clear evidence on inspecting the ones fitted that they had been recently changed or in good condition. In case you can't see it my signature includes - Please note I am not a mechanic or expert in anything - which is proven many times each day and every day on here alone. Unless you get warning lights or a scan tool suggests problems I'd not worry about them. Bear in mind you are only concentrating on the engine which is not really the most important things on a car, priority should be for brakes, steering, suspension (all three include tyres) visibility and safety electric items. Those are the things I'd suggest checking and servicing, maintenance and repair as required. You could try a couple of tankfuls of "clean" diesel fuel like V-Power now - and one tankful before/during and one tankful after/during future services and MoTs. Helps the British economy and tax revenue too. 😄 Following on from a recent subject, this could include things like if you carry a spare tyre that it is in good condition and correctly inflated (many aren't, discovered too late at the roadside, or Welsh mountain road if you're with a mate with a 15 year old Toyota but to be fair there's so little to do on old Toyotas you forget to check). If there's the can of gunk you might want to (pressure?) check it (and how far out of date it is). You'll probably find the car runs better with more use and not quite as well with very little and/or spasmodic use. You could do well but it'll never be as easy and the same as running company cars, don't forget to do your MoTs and "road tax". 😄