:( hi everyone. back again with a troublesome felicia. engine runing cold doesnt get upto 70 deg until stood in traffic! shakes really badly with a rattle occasionally.terrible vibration on steering when travelling can feel through accelerator pedal. also when turned off noticed tinking more and a drip sound. whats going on ....help please!

The cold running sounds like a classic thermostat stuck to me. There have been several other posts about the thermostats on Felicias. Is yours a petrol or a diesel? If it's a diesel I can tell you exactly where the thermostat is, but if not I'll happily consult my manual for you. I don't know about the occasional rattle, but vibration through the steering would normally be wheel balancing, unless you have had a bit of a shunt recently. An accident, even an apparently very minor shunt, could throw the steering and suspension geometry out enough to make things wobble. I really don't know about the tinking and drip sounds - most cars do that, particularly when the engines are made of different metals, as they all expand and contract at different rates.

Actually, I don't think I've been an awful lot of help here, but good luck!

Mr Music

I would have thought that the shake/rattle might be the timing chain... have a listen with the bonnet up and if the rattle is coming from the left hand side of the engine as you look straight on at it then its deffinately the timing chain... probably doesnt need chainging as they are pretty sturdy double chained things and will rattle on for like ever, but they dont half rattle as there is no tentioner fitted to them!!

Thanks so much for your help guys! will try and change thermostat. and see if balancing does the trick.

I'd pretty much agree with Mr Music. Stuck (open) thermostat for the slow warmup, wheel balance for the vibration through the steering (particularly if you find it gets worse with increasing speed) and differential expansion/contraction for the noises when the engine's colling down.