chris holford

Ok, Just so you get the picture. A couple of weeks ago some prat pulled out of a side road (A1 slip road - 90 degree turning) into the front / side of my car whilst I was travelling at 50mph in a 60mph section of the A606 (totally his fault all witnessed by several and hes decalered guilt he just wasnt looking). Unfortunately my car is a write off. Doubly unfortunatley the insurance have only offered £3500! I valued it at £5000 when insuring but I didnt declare the candy paint although they know about everything else. Thankfully they didnt pick up on the paint when the engineer inspected it. I am hoping to get as close to £5000 as possible when its all sorted, as they are "considering" my evidence for higher value which includes several zeds going for more and the new engine and turbos with 12 months warranty that ive just had. Anyway to get back to the actual point of my thread if you havent fallen asleep already! Having less money than id hope to spend and in need of better economy but still a bit of fun I went to look at a Mitsubishi FTO GPX mivec today. Shut up they aint that bad and they are quicker than youd think particluarly when the mivec kicks in all the way to 8000 redline. The car I look at seemed almost perfect, its a 1999 t reg in imperial red nice wheels bodykit ind ss ex etc some nice touches and a manual with full UK service history excellent condition all for £4295, which for a 1999 model is a bargain. Look at the V5 it says uk registered 1999, used overseas, declared manufactured 1995. Yep thats all normal but why a 1999 t plate? It should be a 1995 m or n. Its first UK MOT was before it was registered and there were 34,000 kilometres on the clock so has been used before 1999.I told the seller this and he didnt have an answer. Any ideas?

The only reason why Im almost sure its the temp sensor is because it was that what was changed in front of me for another used one which resulted in a lot less popping. Also, as its only the sensor that was changed, it could be the connector. Unfortunetly, I dont have the car again until Monday afternoon because its with anglia engines (who contracted it out to Nippon Spares) as it needs to have a new MOT. I am worried about driving the car too far, in view of what happened originally (two pistons cracked due to detonation). When it happened originally the popping was when I came off full (or near full) throttle and it was on average 4 loud pops. I have to admit I was a bit negligent and allowed it to get to the stage where I was getting lots of smoke as well! I think best bet is too speak to jeff at zedworld and see when he can fit me in. If its this week (I'll be lucky!) then ill just get it over to him and hope it makes the journey. If not then ill get the sensor off him and I can get the connector from an electronics shop near me and if it dont sort it I will get it over to jeff.

Right got car back today (after 5 months) with 2nd new engine fitted. Just want to hopefully confirm my diagnosis. When picked car up it was randomly popping like mad so went straight back round to Nippon Spares who had put the engine in. After a bit of fiddling about they swapped the ecu temp sensor over for another one - a used one. Now the car only very occasionally pops, usually when at low revs in 2nd or 3rd gear at a roundabout for example. It never does it at high revs for example when coming off throttle having given prolonged acceleration. Based on the fact that changing the sensor for another used one has improved things am I right to assume that if I replace both the sensor and the connector with new ones this should be an end to this potential fatal (to my engine and maybe me the way I feel about the car!) problem?

So if it doesnt record faults for detonation / knocking then what does the det sensor actually do? When you say bypass, you mean not have det sensor a tall? But then if it doesnt record faults for detonation / knocking then I suppose I wouldnt be any worse off if it was bypassed.

Having taken from the middle of january to the middle of May to replace my f@cked engine and turbos and then sort out various other problems Anglia Engine Services decided that the best thing to do when the engine then overheated was to send the car over to the suppliers of the engine, Nippon Spares, for them to replace it again and carry out the job. Compared to that prick at Anglia Engines Nippon have been very good, in a month they have replaced the engine, disconnected my heater matrix (perished pipe I cant afford to have that job done now), sorted out a water flow problem, sorted out a idle problem and everything was fine until engine check light comes on. They find the code and its knock sensor. Guess what? The bloody bleed valve that was on the car when I brought it and is probably the reason why my engine detonated and cracked two pistons and replacing with the standard actuator was gonna be the first thing (as well as the engine obviously) that Kerry at Anglia Engines was gonna do IS STILL ON THE CAR! The thing thats concerning me with Nippon Spares is that it was only when he told me about the Knock Sensor and I mentioned it used to have a bleed valve but it had been taken off that he realised that the bleed valve been on the car may be a problem. He said "yeh I noticed that little blue thing and thought it looked a bit dodgy"! Christ a bit dodgy, understatement! Well this was 10 days ago and he said he would get an actuator and replace the knock sensor (I thought why when surely its working fine becuase its doing its job if its sensing knocking but then I suppose if its a new one in there then we know if it tells us something then it will be accurate), well the parts were gonna be in friday and I have the car monday then they were due monday,then they would have it all ready wednesday and now it will be done friday - I am noticing a pattern developing here! I am going on holiday on Saturday and the bag of crap that I brought as a runabout is due an MOT next wednesday and Ive got more hope of Ronaldinho playing for England than there is of this car passing its MOT! As you can imagine I am just a tiny bit annoyed! Anyway, as the thread says as anyone dealt with Nippon Spares before just to put my mind at ease, because Im starting to feel like these are mucking me about as well.

Right new engine fitted blah blah taken 4 months blah blah I wont bore you with that but now we have the new problem. They have disconnected my heater matrix due to one of the pipes to and from it being damaged but now the "water is not flowing properly". Having had a heated conversation with them on thursday I have been told to back off and leave them to it because there is "no way its the engine theyve supplied" and its my ancillaries that are suspected and im to stop ringing him "he doesnt have to mend problems with my bits" and ill be the first to know when its done. Ive left them "taking off the relevant hoses and checking for blockages etc" which is fine for now but I am losing patience. Anyway what do I need help and advice with? Well, are they correct to say that it cant be anything to do with there new engine?

As far as Im aware matrix is fine its just one of those pipes so thats some good news if they are seperate parts because I can just get them but its still gonna be as much labour (or work for me if im brave) unless they can be swapped over from the engine bay (from underneath?) without removing too much?

I havent seen anything for myself Im just going on what they saying. They have told me that these pipes are part of the matrix but, as your picture shows, they are indeed seperate parts. The question is are they accessible to change over any easier (and with less labour) than by getting to them in the same way you do the heater matrix? At the moment the car is with the company that supplied the engine to the garage thats been fitting it and they have replaced the engine under warranty and now they have realised that it was one of 'my parts of the car' that is at fault I suppose that now theyve put another engine in they want to get some money out of me in whatever way they can to compensate themselves. Basically, whatever they do its at my expense so I think best bet is get them to disconnect it, as this shouldnt cost me anything, and then talk to someone like Jeff at Zedworld about the best course of action. That way its back in my hands.

Having waited patiently for best part of 3 months whilst my car was having replacement engine and turbos, you can imagine my frustration to find out that whilst they were road testing my car it pissed all the coolant out and overheated the engine! Theyve now put another new engine in and have diagnosed the problem. One of the two copper pipes that go out of the engine into the heater matrix and back to the engine has perished and is the culprit. They are apparently having a go at soldering it (a viable idea?) which we will have to wait and see if it sorts it. Otherwise Ive gotta have a whole new heater matrix (along with the labour charge) or of course it can be disconnected. With the outlay that ive got for the engine and turbos I cant afford the extra expense at the moment so will, unless they can fix it, probably have it disconnected. One question I have is I know its all controlled by the one unit inside the car but is the air con dependant on the matrix to work or will I be able to still use that. It would be a temporary thing anyway but would be nice to know that ill still have air con. Im thinking of taking the heater matrix job on myself at a later date - a good or bad idea?

Was meant to be getting my car back today 3 months, one engine, two turbos, and a load of bits and pieces later. Everything was running perfectly it had a new MOT and was getting it back tonight and now somethings burst somewhere pissing most of the coolant out and its gonna have to have another new engine! thankfully the warranty covers this! Oh well, at least the weathers good!

Ive not had the car back from them yet its been with them since January! The reason for getting the cylinders to start working was because they got hold of the several bits of the wiring loom and by swapping bits over they got it from not starting and the engine check light on to starting and running on 4 cylinders, they than ordered two ignition coils thinking this would sort it all and thats how we got to where we are now...BUT... they has been a change since before the weekend. Well, I say a change, I mean more that I misunderstood what he said was happening with the car and what needed to be done. Its not that the cam lobes actually need reprofiling whats actually happened is one of the hydraulic tappets is damaged meaning that the valves aint opening enough to let enough fuel in. And whereas I thought he said it was losing the power on that cylinder when reving it its actually when ticking over that you lose it but if you rev it tries to work, which backs up what hes saying I think. The other thing that bothered me was if he "knew" this was the problem or if he was guesing. well, he says hes taken that area apart and can see what is and isnt happening. It should be done by end of week apparently. I will beleive it when I see it!

Im thinking the same. Ive done a search on here using the words "cam lobes" and it returned less than 10 threads and none of these had any relation to whats happening with my car. I will ring Zedworld first thing tommorow to check they have room for my car and then il get the car over there on monday.

Oh dear! I was hoping that you were gonna think that they may have the right idea Greg. The question is do I just say, right thats it get it over to Zedworld, or do I let him waste another week or so mucking about (my time as well as his, tax out end if month MOT middle of May, although he says he will MOT it for me (for what its worth!)) and then, assuming it doesnt sort it (not looking likely), get it over to Zedworld. Thing is what if he makes a mess of this cam lobe profiling? Are they readily available if he makes such a mess they are not usable? Sorry I probably sound really thick babbling on. The thing is he is such a nice guy (or maybe hes a good actor) but 3 months is a long time and ive gotta do whats best for me. I am a patient person but I am having problems with my sanity now! The question is, can he do any harm, other than wasting time, if he reprofiles this cam lobe? If so, I think Im gonna have to do away with politeness. Or perhaps I should do away with politeness whether he can do any harm or not, as enough is enough. I only chose them ahead of the tried and tested specialist route because they include a 12 month warranty but then whats the warranty worth because itd probably take them 6 months to sort it out if I do have any problems! Only joking they aint that bad but they aint that good either! Fair enough Zedworld would have only given a 3 month warranty but id have had my car back at least a month ago, going by the experiences my brother has had with them with his Zed. Decisions decisions.

I would much rather get the car over to a Zed specialist like Zedworld, Ztech, etc, because of the product knowledge, better equipment(conzult), and the fact that when they say they know whats wrong with it they WILL know whats wrong with it rather than think they know whats wrong and it turn out to make no difference. It was all set to go to Zedworld last week when all of a sudden they KNEW that it was a couple of coilpacks and fair enough weve gone from 4 cylinders this time last week to nearly 6 now so thats an improvement and all the time they are spending on it now is not costing me anymore, as weve got an agreed price and theyve guaranteed that but if this dont sort then itl have to go to Zedworld (sorry Greg but its nearer to me and theyve agreed to get it over there without charge if it has to go) but the cost of there diagnosis will be worth it, as it will be right and it wont take an eternity.

But I am not rulling anything out so I would be more than grateful if you dont mind. How much would you wont for postage? I would collect but its a fair old way and I dont know if my 1989 Ford Escort diesel estate (with a tow bar (worth more than the car!)) will get that far!