Milage means nothing.

[Ikanpaul]

Update on my plan to renovate the Slug,whilst working on site I am a ceramic tiler by the way, a painter told me he was retiring and wondered if I knew of anyone who would want a van, 2004 1.9d , he had owned the van for 3yrs and never had any trouble with it,this got me thinking that I could do with it to enable me to work whilst working on the slug , so I offered him a lowish price and last weekend he delivered it and I ran him home in my car,he did mention that it had been a little slow to start but did not know why.So this morning (monday) it reluctantly fired up with masses of smoke,also sounding like a oil drum being filled with stones!,so popped the bonnet for the first time, what a filthy mess,oil ,grease,grime etc ,so swapped glows for duratherms,drained oil/soup last changed 13000mls ago!,new filter also,had a general de-grease and look around , had to loosely cable tie up throttle cable which was melted onto exhaust manifold,re-fitted vacuum pipes which had fallen off ,bled water out of filter housing , I decided to turn the go key and hey-presto instant start with normal noise not bad at all. Quick drive and all is well apart from typical antifreeze smell from heater and sure enough reach down to find drip from matrix, anyway temp gauge is ok no problems so I may pop new matrix in (pop in means whole day I know) I know I should have looked at van before purchase but when a tradesman relies on their vehicle why not maintain it !. To the point my van has done double the mileage of this one but I know which one I would take from Lands end to John o groats. 

[ron]

Update on my plan to renovate the Slug,whilst working on site I am a ceramic tiler by the way, a painter told me he was retiring and wondered if I knew of anyone who would want a van, 2004 1.9d , he had owned the van for 3yrs and never had any trouble with it,this got me thinking that I could do with it to enable me to work whilst working on the slug , so I offered him a lowish price and last weekend he delivered it and I ran him home in my car,he did mention that it had been a little slow to start but did not know why.So this morning (monday) it reluctantly fired up with masses of smoke,also sounding like a oil drum being filled with stones!,so popped the bonnet for the first time, what a filthy mess,oil ,grease,grime etc ,so swapped glows for duratherms,drained oil/soup last changed 13000mls ago!,new filter also,had a general de-grease and look around , had to loosely cable tie up throttle cable which was melted onto exhaust manifold,re-fitted vacuum pipes which had fallen off ,bled water out of filter housing , I decided to turn the go key and hey-presto instant start with normal noise not bad at all. Quick drive and all is well apart from typical antifreeze smell from heater and sure enough reach down to find drip from matrix, anyway temp gauge is ok no problems so I may pop new matrix in (pop in means whole day I know) I know I should have looked at van before purchase but when a tradesman relies on their vehicle why not maintain it !. To the point my van has done double the mileage of this one but I know which one I would take from Lands end to John o groats. 

Years ago I had a customer with a Mk1 Fiesta.It needed a new engine @ 19,000m having been used for short runs.

[Ikanpaul]

Update on my plan to renovate the Slug,whilst working on site I am a ceramic tiler by the way, a painter told me he was retiring and wondered if I knew of anyone who would want a van, 2004 1.9d , he had owned the van for 3yrs and never had any trouble with it,this got me thinking that I could do with it to enable me to work whilst working on the slug , so I offered him a lowish price and last weekend he delivered it and I ran him home in my car,he did mention that it had been a little slow to start but did not know why.So this morning (monday) it reluctantly fired up with masses of smoke,also sounding like a oil drum being filled with stones!,so popped the bonnet for the first time, what a filthy mess,oil ,grease,grime etc ,so swapped glows for duratherms,drained oil/soup last changed 13000mls ago!,new filter also,had a general de-grease and look around , had to loosely cable tie up throttle cable which was melted onto exhaust manifold,re-fitted vacuum pipes which had fallen off ,bled water out of filter housing , I decided to turn the go key and hey-presto instant start with normal noise not bad at all. Quick drive and all is well apart from typical antifreeze smell from heater and sure enough reach down to find drip from matrix, anyway temp gauge is ok no problems so I may pop new matrix in (pop in means whole day I know) I know I should have looked at van before purchase but when a tradesman relies on their vehicle why not maintain it !. To the point my van has done double the mileage of this one but I know which one I would take from Lands end to John o groats. 

Years ago I had a customer with a Mk1 Fiesta.It needed a new engine @ 19,000m having been used for short runs.

I can believe it too, It just winds me up that so many people have no clue how to respect a vehicle/engine I think if drivers had minimum basic knowledge of how engines worked and what they need to keep working the world would be a better place!

[miccheck1516]

8000miles on my 05 1.9d.

[Ikanpaul]

What's the service interval on an 04?  It's 18k miles on my 64-reg.  I know that some change it sooner though.

From memory I think early xud were 6000kms and dw engines were 10000kms  which is odd as they are basically the same engine, although Oil has improved , either way its not many miles! , I run my 2002 1.9d on millers xfe longlife 5-30syn  but still change oil+filter every 6-8k and have had no issues , did have valve clearances shimmed at 170k so the oil I use must be ok if a little overkill!                   Our car Mazda2 63plate petrol has 18000ml oil change intervals but thats petrol running a long-life all singing dancing oil,although when warranty expires it too will have oil changes at lesser intervals,personally I think they extend service intervals to help sell cars and spares in the long run.

[geoff]

Years ago I had a customer with a Mk1 Fiesta.It needed a new engine @ 19,000m having been used for short runs.

I know this all too well and t my expense ! .... years ago my wife had a Citroen Visa car ( with 2CV flat twin engine ) bought from a local elderly lady who only did 3k miles in god knows how many years, it ran like a Swiss watch and as well as any 2CV engine I've ever had the pleasure to drive .... anyway that's the preamble .... after about 10k miles it was flat on power and smoked heavily and fuel consumption was now dire ! I stripped it out and found the pistons and bores were worn to the moon and back .... new engine fitted ...... why was it clapped out in so few miles ? my wife always drove on choke, always always always !!!
On several occasions the car " broke down " so she walked home and bent my ear ..... inspection revealed she had driven with the choke on full until the engine just couldn't take any more and stopped, of course the car always started first turn when I got there, she never did get the grip of the concept of choke .... !

Indeed mileage means nothing

[Jed Clampit]

This is why you by a car with a full service history  when they say one lady owner sorry about the pun is not always a good thing . geoff thank god for auto choke these day's 

[geoff]

 . geoff thank god for auto choke these day's 

 Absolutely correct !!!   Vanessa has a Suzuki Alto these days and is unlikely to wear it out thanks to modern technology, education didn't work !

 I remember the days when folks would put a manual choke conversion on an engine rather than the auto choke as they couldn't put up with the fuel consumption, how times have changed with engine management systems.

[ffrenchie]

.... why was it clapped out in so few miles ? my wife always drove on choke, always always always !!!
On several occasions the car " broke down " so she walked home and bent my ear ..... inspection revealed she had driven with the choke on full until the engine just couldn't take any more and stopped, of course the car always started first turn when I got there, she never did get the grip of the concept of choke .... ![/quote]

The old story was that women used the pull out choke knob to hang their handbag on causing a lot of problems

[ron]

Years ago I had a customer with a Mk1 Fiesta.It needed a new engine @ 19,000m having been used for short runs.

 I know this all too well and t my expense ! .... years ago my wife had a Citroen Visa car ( with 2CV flat twin engine ) bought from a local elderly lady who only did 3k miles in god knows how many years, it ran like a Swiss watch and as well as any 2CV engine I've ever had the pleasure to drive .... anyway that's the preamble .... after about 10k miles it was flat on power and smoked heavily and fuel consumption was now dire !  I stripped it out and found the pistons and bores were worn to the moon and back .... new engine fitted ...... why was it clapped out in so few miles ? my wife always drove on choke, always always always  !!!
On several occasions the car " broke down " so she walked home and bent my ear ..... inspection revealed she had driven with the choke on full until the engine just couldn't take any more and stopped, of course the car always started first turn when I got there, she never did get the grip of the concept of choke .... !

  Indeed mileage means nothing

Many moons ago I worked in a Renault dealer.We had a lady bring her new R6 in because it kept stalling.After several visits/checks & finding no fault the foreman told me to go out for a run with her.She got in the car & hung her handbag on the choke knob which was full out.She thought the choke turned itself off.I had to explain that a cable is a fixed link but only taking her for a run with choke in convinced her I wasn't stupid.