FuZTT

It doesn't have the greatest reputation but the guy had nothing to gain from telling me to replace it all as he was telling me it wasn't economical for me to get them to replace it, and that I should look around for a back-street garage that might be able to botch it. That said, I'm going to take it for a second opinion somewhere as I need to know an exact list of what needs replacing and what doesn't. Like you say, it's all to easy to just say "it's all knackered". Cheers, for letting me know about the arms tho, it'll be useful when I get a list together of exactly what I need.

Hi all, Stopped off at a garage on my way home to get my front suspension checked because of a loud creaking sound coming from the front suspension. Things didn't start well: the guy comes immediately into the waiting room and goes "who's put a hole in your floor!?" I walk out and sure enough, there's a hole a couple of inches wide going through the sill on the passenger side, then we had a look at the drivers side and it's completely stoved in too :mad: Anyway, the car went up on the ramps and the diagnosis is that the lower ball joint on the passenger side has completely gone, and the upper arm on the driver's side is knackered as well. The guy said it's not worth replacing the individual parts as the rest doesn't look to good either, and that the whole lot needs replacing on both sides. He's advised me to weigh up how much the car is worth to me, as to sort both sills and replace the front suspension is going to be big ££££. Gutted :(

Yep, as long as the smell is coming from the rear of the car, and my MPG was shocking when mine were shot :D

faulty o2/lambda sensors were the cause for mine overfuelling.

Cheers, I'll have another look at them tonight. I'll try getting the car on the ramps and reproducing the noise. I should have been clearer earlier, the sound is more of a creak rather than a clunk - don't know if this makes a difference? I'll see if I can get a sound file on the drive home from work.

Hi, can anyone recommend a garage near Middlesbrough that I can take my car to get the knocking suspension sorted before something else goes wrong? I've given the arb links a spray with ptfe last night and it's made no difference, and I really have no idea what i'm looking for to check anything else. Cheers, Brian

Cheers people, I've just sprayed the ARB links & bushes with a load of ptfe spray, so hopefully that'll sort it. As for the engine mounts.... as soon as I figure out where the hell they are, I'll check them too :D

Hi all, Got my car up on stands & the wheel off to see if there's anything amiss with the suspension as there's a loud creaking noise when I go over a bump in the road, however, as nothing's hanging off or obviously broken/snapped I have no idea what could be causing it. Could anyone suggest which bits I should be checking or what I should be looking for? There's another issue in another thread I started which means I may also need to check the engine mounts. Could these be the cause of the creaking? Again, how to I check these? Sorry if I seem dense, but I have very little mechanical knowledge when it comes to cars. Cheers, Brian

Aah, that would make sense. The suspension has been knocking in the last week, I'm taking a look at it this weekend as I assumed it was a bush or something that had gone.

yeah, I don't really know why I used the word 'gas', must be looking at too many american forums!

the whole car is juddering, the engine doesn't stall or get near stalling.

i've just filled up the other day, should I grab a bottle of octane booster asap and stick it in the tank? Cheers for the responses guys, I'll have to see if someone near me with conzult is willing to help me out.

The car was chipped t ZedWorld by the previous owner, he never said which petrol I should use so I just went by the petrol flap :(

Aye, it'd probably help! I'm also thinking it could be the fuel as i'm running 14+psi at the moment usin 95RON Asda fuel. I may go back to using Tesco99 like I used to in my 530i.

It was overfueling quite a lot, but I just replaced the o2 sensors on thursday last week. There's now no black smoke from the exhaust under full throttle or petrol smell from the exhaust but I haven't run an ecu diagnostic yet to check if everythings working ok.

Hi, When I'm driving around town at low revs (1.5k) at a constant speed, then come off the accelerator, the engine judders and there's kind of a knocking sound from the engine. The only thing I can think of (with my limited knowledge) that's wrong is the throttle cable is slightly loose as the effect is as though the throttle's bouncing? I have a feeling that this isn't the problem though and that's it's something else :confused: Anyone have any ideas? Also, when idling, there's a bit of a popping noise from the exhaust as though the car's misfiring? So i'm not sure it's misfiring when I come off the gas or something. Cheers, Brian

Right, the new sensors are in and working! Took 3 evenings and a lot of swearing but the car's now running smoother than before. I haven't had a chance to check the ECU codes yet though.

already tried that... she said no :(

Naa, the gap is about 1/2 the size of my hand, and I need to feed half my forearm through it to reach the place to put the sensor :( I've given up for tonight, looks like I'm borrowing my lass' car for work tomorrow!

aaah, it looks like I'll have to remove the battery to get access to the passenger side. Still unsure about getting the driver's side back in if anyone has any tips?

Lol! You should check out the thread I just started - one's out and I have no idea how to get the new one in, or how to take out the passenger side! :headvswal

Hi all, My car's in my garage at the moment, the driver's side o2 sensor is out after a massive ball-ache, but I can't get the new sensor in because I can't apply pressure onto the new sensor via the crows feet and extention bar so the threads catch and it screws in. How have other people gotten around this? Does the car need to go up on ramps and then I could install it from underneath? Secondly, I can't see any way of getting to the passenger side sensor, how have people gotten this out? Again, do you get at it from underneath the car? I have extension bars and crows feet, but this is taking forever! It's taken me 1.5 hours to get the old sensor out! Any help would be appreciated guys, Thanks, Brian:headvswal

Yeah, that's what I thought. I'm certainly not paying £99 +£50 installation for the V+ box though when we're existing customers with them, and are upgrading our service.

Lol! Boo... don't say that! I need help :-P

Hey all, Anyone work for Virgin who I could give a ring tomorrow? Basically, me and my lass have just moved house, and are upgrading from broadband (old house), to broadband, phone and tv. The guy's installing it this weekend, but I've just bought a new LCD telly that only accepts HDMI input, and from what I gather, the standard box only has SCART-out? Just phoned up the Customer Care line and got some guy just listing off prices for the various boxes at me without answering my initial question (does the standard one have HDMI out) and didn't even look at my account to see what we were or weren't getting installed this weekend. So basically, if there's someone out there who works for Virgin who could talk me through my options, I'd be very grateful :) Cheers, Brian