Topbloke

sounds like classic brakelight switch problems to me if your car is a manual you should have two switches the best thing would be to change them both considering your previous problems they are about 10/12 quid each

how new is the vehicle has the pollen filter everbeen changed if the pollen filter becomes blocked over time or in high dust conditions the heatermotor has a hard time sucking the air through , does the whistle change tone if you change settings from recirc to freshair, it could be a small vacumn pipe thats come off that moves the heater flaps up in the footwell :angry:

sorry to dispell an old wives tale but rocking in gear was for the old type starter motors and will not make the slightist difference to the modern starters admitedly a gentle tap with a screwdriver/bar/hammer usually works after exploring every other possibility, poor connections, bad earth , signal being recieved from ignition switch etc, immobiliser preblem if auto switch on bottom of gearlever

if he is experiencing cold start problems and it is definatly a glowplug problem then it will have to be removed to cure the problem,there is a know cold start problem with the vectra (omega) and that is fuel draining away from the pump/filter over a period of time, this is usually down to the injector seals, because the injectors are in the middle of the head they use what is known as a bridge to take the fuel from the outside of the engine to the injector, between the injector and the bridge is a seal, these age or get nipped during fitment causing air ingress allowing the fuel to drain back, it has been known for the fuel tank to be coated internally with engine oil due to the bridge seals sitting in oil in the head and the seal allowing the oil into the fuel system. if your friend has been to the maindealer and all the possibilities have been explored and they still come up with the glowplugs then he will have to make a decision of what to do, sell it or payup

found the link, search for" ignition coil wireing" :lol:

another common problem is the wirring to the coil/plug lead, there has been a previous thread on this with photo's of what to check

the main reason that us mechanic's dont lossen them is that they only get changed when there is a poor starting fault and we suspect the glow plugs . On the vectra seing that you mentioned it, these glowplugs very rairly get turned on because they only come on when the tempreture drops to a certain level typically -5 degs, the reason for this is that it is a direct injection engine and compression are typically higher. therefore if the are not being constantly used they wont need changeing very often if at all. we have to draw the line somewhere in what to lossen perhaps we should lossen the exhaust clamps so that when it needs changing they are not seized. :lol: B) B) in reply to the orignal post they are not to bad to change and if you are going to take them out it would make sense to change them all as if one has failed and you find which one it is by testing them put the other three back and one new, sods law says that very soon one of the others will go down

as an M O T tester we have been advised that this is not a problem the reason it sinks is that they are "over servo'd" what the hell that means i don't know. but it is only on diesels but not just gals bamas and sharans, passats vauxhalls et al

Some of the new renaults have an electric handbrake which measures the tension in the cables and winds the handbrake on further as the disc's cool off . what ever next ,they will be getting rid of the bloke with the red flag next !!!!!!! :rolleyes:

I too wish to use my ipod via the car stereo but i am using a tape addapter at the moment, did you know that you can buy an fm modulator that plugs into the pod and all you do is tune your radio into the preset frequence 87.9 i think . this may be about the same price and would be another alternative :(

i used to drive an vw t4 and if you had your foot on the brake and try to rev up the ecu would not allow it possible same prob its not unknown for the brake switches to go pear shapped. there are two and there are pleanty of threads on this site about them

Easy way to see if earth problem get a jump lead connect to the engine a bright shiny part if poss and other end to battery earth if this cures it, that is the problem, and a hunting you must go to seek and find all the main earth points :rolleyes: :huh: :lol: engine to chassis chassis to body

sorry did not realise that you had repaired/ replaced it

I know a pub called the drunken duck in the lake district !!!!! doe's this help ?

STOP SHOUTING thats better there is a good chance that if the heater hoses have been disconnected there is probberly a reason, the general assumption would be the matrix has been leaking and has been bypassed .i don't think it will make any difference which way they are connected Good Luck

If the light only comes on some times i would suspect the switches (dislodged,sticking) black one and a blue one .The abs sensors are constantly recording the wheel speed and can't some times work sometimes not unless there is a poor connection if you check the previous threads on this subject you will find it tells you how to check, if you cant find it PM me and i will try to help

Just as a side issue iirc the maf sensors have a self cleaning system when the ignition is switched off the ecu should power the maf sensor and heat the wire element (like a light bulb ) which self cleans ready for the next time I wonder if this is the difference between 4 pin and 5 pin and if so i wonder if this is a mod (by the makers) for the later cars

IIRC the filter is a bugger to get at and there is usually a drain on the bottom of it, the filter contains fuel (duh) and some times water, fuel being lighter than water ,the water sits at the bottom and can be drained off, as a mek can ik we very rarely drained them because the modern fuel suppliers have got there act together and is not required. If you are that worried about water then you would be better just changing the whole unit

It may be worth a quick visit to your local friendly garage and get them to check the level there are various threads on this subject, if you are still struggling let us know and we will try to help, the light on usually means one of two things either both brake bulbs have failed or one of the wheel sensors have gone t**t's up , get the garage to check the lights at the same time as the levels if you are handy with a multimeter you can check it out the sensors yourself

give us a clue joe do you mean an aircon compressor

the hand book should tell you the capacity of the sump with and without filter change, if that exact amount is fitted it may be slighly above the mark , an over fill is not to bad for a petrol engine but can be very scary if a diesel, it can be sucked up by the turbo and then the engine runs away (very very scary)If they charged you for 5 litre and the sump only takes 4.75 then you have to much in the engine and you have been over charged . the other alternative is to supply the oil your self and demand the can back with whats left in the can, or d i y

i have seen scratches polished out off w/screens but if it is too deep it distorts, with this being a side window i dont think that would be a problem we use a small local independant windscreen repairer try yellow pages . ps a new/ second hand window should not be that expensive compared to a polish . they are very easy to remove (window) 2xtorx screws and a philips and two people if you want to know how just ask

whilst driving in an orderly fashion down the A 14 at the weekend my air bag light came on , had a look today and found that if i moved steering wheel slowly i could here a clicking noise upon closer inspection i found that the clock spring casing is moving i have checked the resistance in the clokc spring and found it open circuit what i need to know or possibly see is what/where does the caseing locate it may become obvious when i strip it to put the new one in but if it ain't i will be up the creak so i thought check to see if anyone knows many thanks in anticipation

did you ask how many air con units they had <_< :( :D :D :D

if you don't have a wall that you can get close to ask the wife no if you put the lights on and get someone to roll the switch you should be able to here the motor's whirring <_<