GRcade

Alvin Flummux wrote:Had to get all of the tires on our car changed last week because they were balding badly, with dry rot in 3 of the 4. $650 in total, but they're Cooper tires so they should be alright.

Had to get the front brake pads and rotors replaced yesterday after a nasty grinding noise emerged during braking, and the brake pedal became semi unresponsive. Turns out the rotors were warped and worn almost to the pillar parts in the middle. $308 to resolve.

Cars are strawberry floating expensive. Ugh.

They're called strawberry floating discs, mate. GTFO with that american slang

What the hell is a rotor?

Ad7 wrote:What the hell is a rotor?

Alternator I think.

Excuuuse me, princesses. Brake discs, yes.

Aviation hazard.

https://www.topgear.com/car-news/hot-ha ... e-r-pickup

Something you don't see everyday.......

No posts for a while here so I will revive the topic with my tale of woe. Regular posters to this topic may remember me mentioning the engine warning light I'm getting on the Dodge and the fairly useless error code referencing the turbo. Unfortunately the code alone does not give anyone enough information to understand what the issue is and the problem cannot be replicated at will.
Originally I was getting the issue once every few months (typically between 300-600 miles) but recently, it has become a once a week thing (if I use the car regularly).

I've sort of worked out the pattern to trigger the issue, you need to be in 6th gear and on or over 70mph. A couple of weeks back I tried a different garage and they thought it could be the wastegate in the turbo but didn't think it could be replaced so at minimum cost, suggested an engine internal clean. So I went with this, did a 200 mile journey with no problem and 40 miles into the return trip, engine light and turbo cut off. Of course, there is some other variable I can't identify which means the car will quite happily run at 90mph without issue and also let me accelerate up an incline over 70 mph meaning it looks like it is an under load issue plus some other random bastard thing.

Last week I took it to a local tuning specialist who ran it through their diagnostics and noticed that the air flow meter was sometimes reading nothing so suggested replacing the MAF as that would be fairly low cost. Again, did a 60 mile trip no problem and on the way back, boom, light and turbo cut off. Now I also have the bonus warning that the car needs an oil change (even though it doesn't).

Today I took it back to them for more diagnostics and their tests show no turbo problems but they have suggested changing the actuator (which is also known as the wastegate) but they think this can actually be replaced rather than it being part of the turbo. The problem is (because of course everything connected with this is a strawberry floating nightmare) although this is a VW engine, the actuator in the Dodge does not have the same code as any of the VW parts. They suggested contacting someone who can provide Dodge parts (Fiat) or online (they suggested some ebay site).

Continuing with my mission I contact Fiat who take the details and say they will call me back and whilst waiting, I contact the ebay people (who actually have a site where the work is done and you can get parts through a non e-bay method). ebay people didn't recognise any of the codes AMD gave me (the tuning people). Fiat called me back with the good news that the actuator is not listed as a part i can buy, but a brand new turbo can be mine for a mere £2,643 + VAT (and then of course would need to be fitted). FFS.

With that happy news (AD7 - Happy days!) I go back to AMD to see if they have any other reference numbers for the turbo, and it turns out they do. So back to ebay people and they recognise the number and can give me an ebay listing for the part, a rebuilt actuator with a 2 year warranty (that matches the OEM number I gave them earlier which they said they didn't recognise) for £114. Ordered and hopefully will come by Monday next week, at which point its back to AMD for fitting. Assuming the part is good, don't actually know if this will fix the problem but if it doesn't, I guess I'll just be using the Dodge at under 70mph until such time as the engine blows.


tl;dr: Mother strawberry floater.

What type of Dodge is it?

Apropos of nothing - I just love American cars. Spent most of the day looking at Mustangs.

Dodge Journey, basically a very large estate. But on a roll, my iOBD2 didn't register the oil change message as a fault, but found how to clear the message on the internet.

Sounds like you...

Dodged a bullet

YEEEAAAAHHHHHHH

Are you a member of an owner's club? I found that to be a good source of parts for the Celica, even if it was just pointing you in the right direction.

My dad, who never learned to drive, once bought an old Mini and joined an online owner's forum. The car ended up rusted outside my front garden for years until we gave it to a mate who fixed it all up.

Ad7 wrote:Are you a member of an owner's club? I found that to be a good source of parts for the Celica, even if it was just pointing you in the right direction.

I should start one for me and the other 5 Dodge Journey owners. The only forums I can find are in the US where they still sell the car and I don't think they have any diesel models.

The part has been identified and ordered, just a matter now of whether or not it is the solution to the problem.

picking up my 'new' car soon hopefully. It's a 15 plate Focus, but it only has 5400 miles or so on it, so it's basically straight off the line.

made a slight mistake with the reg plate though. I wanted to keep the old plate (cos it's a Northern Ireland plate, and the first car I drove, and the first car I owned... etc) so I did the application online. Didn't realise this voids the V5C on the old car and means need a new one through the post though D: Given I was meant to be selling the old car on Saturday when I pick the new one up, I strawberry floated up a bit. :X

Got the multi-car renewal through for the policy me, my dad and my brother share for the 4 cars between us.
Admiral wanted over £2,000 for the renewal.

Half an hour of getting quotes and being on the phone got them to knock over £400 off it to beat the online quotes.

How the strawberry float do insurance companies get away with inflating renewal prices like this?

Lagamorph wrote:Got the multi-car renewal through for the policy me, my dad and my brother share for the 4 cars between us.
Admiral wanted over £2,000 for the renewal.

Half an hour of getting quotes and being on the phone got them to knock over £400 off it to beat the online quotes.

How the strawberry float do insurance companies get away with inflating renewal prices like this?

Something else I found out to lower your rates, having renters insurance might get you a home+car discount.

I got it when I moved out and combined with my family's 3 cars, we saved over $200. Basically the renters insurance is so cheap, even if you don't rent it's worth just adding it to your policy as it more than pays for itself with the discount.

Lagamorph wrote:Got the multi-car renewal through for the policy me, my dad and my brother share for the 4 cars between us.
Admiral wanted over £2,000 for the renewal.

Half an hour of getting quotes and being on the phone got them to knock over £400 off it to beat the online quotes.

How the strawberry float do insurance companies get away with inflating renewal prices like this?

We should be stronger and just cancel when we find a better deal rather than renewing after negotiation. Every year, be it car, house or some other service, the price always goes up. Give them a call to say you are going or X is £Y cheaper and suddenly there is a better deal.

Rightey wrote:

Lagamorph wrote:Got the multi-car renewal through for the policy me, my dad and my brother share for the 4 cars between us.
Admiral wanted over £2,000 for the renewal.

Half an hour of getting quotes and being on the phone got them to knock over £400 off it to beat the online quotes.

How the strawberry float do insurance companies get away with inflating renewal prices like this?

Something else I found out to lower your rates, having renters insurance might get you a home+car discount.

I got it when I moved out and combined with my family's 3 cars, we saved over $200. Basically the renters insurance is so cheap, even if you don't rent it's worth just adding it to your policy as it more than pays for itself with the discount.

These multi car insurance deals also need to be checked. The insurance on my son's car went up a little bit (slightly more than £1k) this year and although you expect that for most, he is a young driver without any claims and a black box so at his age, insurance should be dropping every year. Including his car, we have 4 cars in the multi discount policy so I'd really expect this to be a good deal.

However, on checking around, moving just his car to a different insurer brought the cost down by around £400 and he doesn't need the black box anymore.

Sounds like that quote came right on time.

Death's Head wrote:

Rightey wrote:

Lagamorph wrote:Got the multi-car renewal through for the policy me, my dad and my brother share for the 4 cars between us.
Admiral wanted over £2,000 for the renewal.

Half an hour of getting quotes and being on the phone got them to knock over £400 off it to beat the online quotes.

How the strawberry float do insurance companies get away with inflating renewal prices like this?

Something else I found out to lower your rates, having renters insurance might get you a home+car discount.

I got it when I moved out and combined with my family's 3 cars, we saved over $200. Basically the renters insurance is so cheap, even if you don't rent it's worth just adding it to your policy as it more than pays for itself with the discount.

These multi car insurance deals also need to be checked. The insurance on my son's car went up a little bit (slightly more than £1k) this year and although you expect that for most, he is a young driver without any claims and a black box so at his age, insurance should be dropping every year. Including his car, we have 4 cars in the multi discount policy so I'd really expect this to be a good deal.

However, on checking around, moving just his car to a different insurer brought the cost down by around £400 and he doesn't need the black box anymore.

I’m not a fan of black box insurance(probably because my policy would be cancelled by the insurer very quickly ). However, it’s the worst fallacy that insurance should go down year on year. There are hundreds of factors that may contribute to an increase and young drivers with little or no driving ability are much more susceptible to changing rates.

It’s also worth remembering that a lot of insurers will take a huge loss on first year policies to get customers in the door(we don’t, but I think it’s fairly common practice) so shopping around at renewal will usually see you get cheap prices - just be careful.

Insurers are actually now required to put a note on their returning customer policies stating that if they shop around they may be able to find something better.