Grainne O'

No, the parts I changed *were* broken (except maybe the temperature sensor). So that wasn't unnecessary, as such. They were just corollaries really, to the bigger problem. I ran her 3 years without doing anything to it, not even decent servicing and it shows. After all that revving the past few weeks, there is no more need for a (EXPENSIVE) compression test though; it is now obvious that the piston rings are on their last legs; what was a little of white smoke is now clouds of blue smoke, and it eats oil increasingly; basically it has taken a sharp turn for the worse; maybe the holiday trip to achill Island finished it off... The emissions figures are absolutely perfect until it gets to the point where oil seeps through the exhaust and then it skyrockets. (2.5k/3.5k rpm average) Sadly I finally found cars with the exact same emission figures as mine on the net, and the same smoke (Ford Mondeos actually), and they all have been diagnosed with leaky piston rings (a known issue apparently with the old ones) Now the options are: -rebuild (still waiting on quote). The chassis and electrics so far are in excellent order -sell it for parts, a guy in Laois wants one like mine for parts -buy another one that's just come for sale in Dublin, the exact same one including sunroof, and maybe use the parts of this one in that one I agree it could have been diagnosed earlier, but not all mechanics are equal. And tbh there is now absolutely bugger all else that could cause this, after all the rest has been done.

Wish you could rebuild mine..lol. It does look like a piston rings problem alright now. Maybe valve stem seals as well, just for safety and while we're there. Provided there is no cracked piston or other nasty, how hard is it and how long does it take to change the above do you know? Anything else you'd recommend to change?

Went for emissions check, the guy found a lovely leak in one pipe still, wich accounts for the idling again and which we taped more or less for now, but the long and the short of it now is the engine simply is on the way out. There's zero emissions improvement at high revs lol, and we nearly got poisoned with the smoke. At lower revs though, she is perfectly perfect, everything is ship shape and under control. *Piston rings* *seals and things* .....Makes sense though and I sorta know when that happened too anyway. Waiting for a quote from this mechanic who in fairness to him knew the job. Every single part he asked me about first I had already changed so of course we now may keep going and see this to the end. Still cheaper than a new car, if getting a bit pricey. The guy told me it'd be cheaper to rebuild than buy another engine. Thoughts? if anyone stilll reads this

Well I suppose the simple fact you're keeping it even after the two *crucial* things you needed don't work right is an answer in itself

Wow those are really nice. Do they actually exist? I'm afraid I don't like those new badges at all. Fair enough the old ones are ugly anyway but it's a "proud to be cheap and functional" kind of ugly; Stick it to the snobs These new ones are so..........middle-class. It's like suddenly Skoda is ashamed of being Skoda and is trying to blend in with the big expensive brands....like those fake Gucci bags you get off China. :think: Looks like a lot of people who like to customise love them though, so that leaves my opinion irrelevant :sun:

What do you think of the phone in general now you've had time to run it a bit?

Right, intake hose fitted and not a minute too late as I went last week to the far side of the country and the damn car had great fun shooting all its oil off the disptick hole - 5 litres of oil needed to get there and back [managed to run out 500 m off a petrol station after 2 hours on the motorway lucky me] The good news is it's not shooting oil into the sky anymore and also there seems to be finally no more mayonnaise being produced so far; the 00537 fault appears to be gone and there's no more white smoke at high idle The bad news is now there is grey/blue smoke at high idle , and the general low idling is wrong again; Anything from slightly wrong/fairly ok to very wrong, and the 00533 fault is still there - Can the cat be clogged/contaminated to the point of shooting all that smoke, out of curiosity (without being FUBAR altogether)? I seem to hear some sort of dim putt putting from under the car when I rev her hard, or some sort of intermittent vibration, and I'm sure it comes from the exhaust [i'm nearly resigned to replacing it but I need to fix that %$^&* idling first] -Fuel filter is on the way, what does that do when clogged exactly? -All this is still pointing to the fuel pressure regulator as well, so anyone has any advice on that? it's not cheap. - Going to do a new emissions test soon to see where we stand on CO at least. Quite obviously we're losing the HC battle here lol - Would I have other obvious symptoms if one of my injectors was failing? (which is another possibility) Oh yeah...forgot to add...the car's now idling most of the time much faster than usual, over 1k RPM, especially when cold

Does look like it could be an Octy too actually. Maybe I should send the thing to Jeremy Clarkson ? "Does this car fit a donkey in it" episode

Legally irish sorry, had to post it

It's probably because a lot of people are wider

[wrong answer]

There are so many tips and tricks to it. Starting with tap, long tap, press, long press, double tap ... it's endless Do you love your screen yet? must-read to start with. http://thehandheldbl...s2-tips-tricks/ couple more http://www.androidpi...Tips-and-Tricks then there's other stuff like long press the home button to get the task manager, press the home button to snooze instead of the volume one, press the home button to take pictures instead of the dedicated screen area. Bottom left area usually a settings/menu one (think right-click, with all the goodies that always come with it). Short tap there from home screen takes you to settings/edit/wallpaper etc, long tap takes you to the stock browser and the google page; long press on the bottom of the top side-right button (the power one) takes you to different modes, data on or off, plane mode, etc; short press of the same button shuts down the screen; pinching in the homescreen lets you add pages for new apps; bringing down the notification curtain shows shortcuts for wi fi bluetooth gps sound and rotation (all big battery eaters), as well as the weather or other stuff you might want to download and that needs to notify you it's endless really, and I haven't got to the bottom of it yet

I just didn't want to broach that particular subject in a car forum We'd be in agreement If diesels aren't tested then I can't see that car failing tbh, seeing its service history

Lights are compulsory in some nordic countries and they've been debating for ages about making them compulsory in the whole of Europe. They do annoy me in sunny weather but really they're not here to look pretty on your car whan all's said and done "Not being in the wrong" won't be of much use to you after the other driver has smashed straight through your car because he couldn't see you on time, even though you could see them This nearly happened to me once so I revised my position double quick after that. If it rains 50% of the time then lights go on 50% of the time. (And that goes for cyclists too. 90% of the cyclists I see here are plain dangerous...you can't see them, very simply. That little flickery cheapo yoke off lidl just isn't good enough, sorry. Your cyclists rights aren't enough, either, at least on rural roads. Nobody hits a cyclist on purpose.) It's not like it costs anything to put your lights on. Neither money, time nor effort

Oh snap, I've ordered the other one already :| this one was cheaper and postage only 8£ which is the actual price it costs them more or less, and not 15£ Thanks for the link! I'll keep the seller bookmarked. Kind of unrelated but while I was looking for a breaker part I ran through all the cars that came out with an AKL engine at some stage: Skoda Octavia VW Bora VW Passat VW Golf Seat Leon Seat Cordoba Seat Toledo Audi A3 Audi TT at least.. that's a lot!