Black Knight

I know its very difficult over a forum guys, but any advice is greatly appreciated. In the few miles into and back from town as I say it was ONLY on acceleration, around the 3000 rev mark maybe, just guessing with that as I’m not a big rever and usually notice that 3 is were I’m changing gear. Sounds like Valves rattling to me. As I say the engine has a well documented oil burning problem anyway which is thought to be through the head. So with the clouds of smoke wondering if the valve seals have just suffered catastrophic failure! Just check oil level, still were it was when I went to town and nothing untoward in the air box.

If I go back to the petrol station, Tesco by the way, would they have any way to check that it is Unleaded coming out of the pump? I mean what if there tank has been filled up with diesel by mistake!?! And whats a big end? Is that a safe to drive problem or a pull over imediatley before it gos pop problem?

Funnily enough that was my first thought. But no, I checked the recipt, deff Unleaded.

Right, this is rather concerning. Just filled up from about a quarter tank to full with £40 of normal unleaded. Within 2 miles the engine is rattling under acceleration load in 1st and 2nd gear and belching huge clouds of smoke out the exhaust Once into 3rd it settles down to its usual soft purr again! Is this… The oil burning problem suddenly getting a LOT worse. Head/valve stems related I’m guessing? Something to do with the fuel that just went in? This is a real worry as I need to drive down to London on Saturday and not coming home till Tuesday morning. Is it going to be safe to drive or is it likely to go bang somewhere down the motorway? Oil level was fine when I went up town but going to check it again in a couple hours once its settled to make sure it hasn’t suddenly emptied itself! Will also check the air box as put the pressure washer over it after filling up, but cant really see how that would cause this unless water has somehow entered the air intake! Surely not possible with a standard air box set up? Anything else I can check?

Your biggest stumbling block, as I told you before X’mas, will be the fact that you have never even changed the oil since owning the car! That’s really going to put anyone in the know off of a 1.8

Oh deff a dealer, you only got to look at all those other cars parked in the background and the fact that they are offering PX. No doubt about it.

Well, unless I’m very much mistaken, the heater unit in the centre console is of the import variety. And it does have a jap square plate at the back, but we all know how easy it is to change these, and the fact that it has club stickers in the rear window would indicate that it has at some point been owned by a club member which would lend to the idea of the front end swap as well. Never seen a rear lap belt across the centre though!?! Cant imagine that would be very safe at all to be perched up on the hump!!!

Good idea. Copper Grease?

This was my thoughts. Can only freeze if water/moisture gets in. So with WD being a water repelent its going to push the moisture out leaving a nice dry lock. Ok it wont be as lubricated as with true grease, but WD is still a lubricant as well, and how many of us have a can of spray grease to hand! As it happens I do infact, but its chain grease for the motorbike and I reckon that would be a bit think for squirting into a lock mechanism

Frozen or gummed up I would guess. Drivers side lock on mine was getting VERY sticky once the cold weather hit, to the point where one morning I could not even get the key into the lock! Squirted some WD-40 in it though and no bother at all since

Funnily enough that was my first thought as well Because the basic body shell exterior does not appear to have been messed with would be fairly simple too

Thats it then, you got em. As said above, any inacuracy should mean their evidence is classed as unusable, especially if the second officer has noted a different/correct road number. So make sure you draw the courts attention to this error

Hey Si this might help: Was reading in a Bike magazine a few days ago that when taking the police to court you can have all their evidence thrown out for even the slightest inaccuracy. Example. There should have been two PC’s in the car, (if there was only 1 then you’ve got em already as there HAS to be two). Anyway, each PC has to submit their own report of events. Now obviously each report should be the same on its key facts and figures, time, location, noise level of exhaust in your case, but different in its body text. If the two reports are actually duplicates of each other but just with different names on them then that’s not allowed either. In the article the Biker was being done for supposedly being on the wrong side of the road. When reading over the two PC’s reports the time of incident was different by a few minutes on each report and 1 PC said they were driving in one direction and the other said the other way! Result; case thrown out as Police had no usable evidence Don’t know if you have the police reports already? If not request them and compare closely. Might come in handy

You mean to say you guys are all driving around with trolley jacks in your boot!!! If it can’t be done with the basic Toyota jack and tool kit then that’s what the RAC card is for

Still no 10w-40 available at Halfords Wisbech, convenient that!!! :rolleyes: But…Huzzah…seems Asda do a free click and collect service, which includes their £12 Castrol Oil offer So with cold weather on the way I’ve ordered 2 4L bottles of the Castrol 15w-40. 1 bottle to dump and replace the 20w-50 and 1 bottle to keep it topped up over the next couple months. With the way she burns its going to be the best trade off of thickness vs burnability

Send Julien at Spree LED a message. Best man on here to answer these sort of questions Got his LED/SMD kits in both our Gen 6's, never had any problems.

Safety…even a slight drop in cylinder pressure could result in that jack failing and dropping your car to the ground with possibly catastrophic effects, especially if you happen to be under it positioning a jack stand at the time!!! Always best to have a bigger lift capacity than needed, that way you got spare to play with

Well with a quick look at those I’d get the top one. Has consistant profile, the largest lift capacity at 2T and 4 proper wheels instead of silly rollers. The second one is only a 1.5T, and for a lot more £££! The third one will I expect be useless on a lowered car because of that HUGE bulge in its profile, unless all your jack points are only a few inches under the car! And the forth at only 1.25T lift is frankly pathetic for that money!

Stem seals have been replaced in mine, after replacing the whole bottom end made no difference, but still no difference! So Fensport have told me next stage is to have the head off and send it to a specialist as the stem, i'll call them tubes!, must need reboring/relining or something! I only embarked on trying to fix it because the rest of the car is perfectley solid. But a pot of money and wasted time later I really wish I hadn't bothered. For the money thats gone into it already I could have fed it with oil for many many years to come :( Oh and just been to my local Asda. Car section is so tiny that they only stock Castrol 1L and there own brand 2L

Well thats a question and a half with an answer as long as your arm!!! Prob best if you just have a read through my Mod Thread, link in sig.

Now that would be perfect for mine Best compromise of thickness vs burnability and a decent brand. Will have to go check out my local

Which I have. But 5w-30 burns off soooo fast that its false economy even at £10. Currentley having to run 20w-50 to slow the burn rate down to a managable level I would go with 10w-40 for a tenner but naturally my local Halfords is all sold out of that!!!

As far as I am aware a hissing or fizzing sound when removing the fuel cap is a good thing. Means the tank has no leaks and the system is running at a good pressure Both our 6's give a nice fizz when stopping for fuel :xmas_biggrin:

Now I’m not entirely sure here but…the fact that it is coming out of the filler when the cap is removed must indicate some sort of pressure build up in the tank. And the reason for that must surely be a blocked breather pipe as the whole point of it is to let fumes and pressure out of the tank. Cant be that the breather pipe is corroded to the point of holing as that would still allow pressure out, but must be blocked in some way. Very strange none the less and I would think the only way to investigate safely is going to be to first burn off as much of that tank of fuel as possible so that you can safely remove all the pipes to find the blockage. When my breather pipe corroded through it leaked only when brimmed full, but the leak was under the car directly onto the rear suspension arms, passenger side. Like Mooey garage fixed mine by cutting out the corroded section and fitting a longer rubber pipe section.