Fetch and the Art of Car Maintenance

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LazyDaisy Feb 2019 4:12pm, 19 Feb 2019 25,760 posts	0 LazyDaisy Remember the strange bleeping noise that our Focus Estate makes on random occasions? The car had its six-year service today, and the bleeping was reported to the main dealer service department when I dropped it off. They have no idea either. They did take it out on the road but of course it didn't bleep then. So who knows, still
LazyDaisy Apr 2019 7:31pm, 16 Apr 2019 26,369 posts	0 LazyDaisy Two things... We think we've got to the bottom of the bleeping noise. It appears to be connected to the button in the side panel of the boot which operates the retractable towbar. We had no idea we had a retractable towbar, but on one occasion when I'd put my bike in the car the bleeping happened before I'd even set off. I thought the tailagte might not have been shut properly and went to reposition my bike, and spotted the wheel resting against this button. Apparently, in the depths of the handbook, there is a section about this optional extra (I told you it had all the bells and whistles) and apparently if the towbar is not clicked in properly there is a bleeping alarm. It's a fault, because the towbar is clicked in, but at least we know what it is. The other thing is much less good news, potentially. Driving down a very bumpy country lane - slowly, but still - the other day, I hit a lump of what I thought was mud stuck on the road but was evidently more like concrete dropped off a cement mixer lorry Today, at very low speed I was manoeuvring round a tight bend in a carpark and there was a sort of loud, rubbery ker-thunk from the somewhere at the front of the car. The car is driving normally, but I fear this is a sign of something very expensive to do with steering, struts or similar Can anyone reassure me that it's unlikely to be as bad as I fear?
Angus Clydesdale Aug 2019 10:03pm, 19 Aug 2019 15,418 posts	0 Angus Clydesdale Pleased with myself this week. Diagnosed correctly the starting fault and then replaced the seals on my diesel injectors. Also did oils & filters whilst I was there. Running like a dream now.
LazyDaisy Sep 2019 7:44am, 21 Sep 2019 27,836 posts	0 LazyDaisy Re my post of 16 April above - The Ford dealer said the only way to fix the intermittent fault with the tow bar alarm was to replace the whole thing at a codt of £250 plus labour; we declined and asked them simply to disconnect the circuit. (We never even knew we had a retractable tow bar til the alarm started going off.) But the ker-thunk noise...last week the car failed its MOT because that noise, back in April, was a coil spring breaking The car has been driving perfectly normally all summer but we must have been on the knife edge of a major failure
fetcheveryone Sep 2019 8:41am, 21 Sep 2019 22,741 posts	0 fetcheveryone I had the same thing. Drove round quite happily for months with a broken coil spring. Now I know what they are, I tend to spot them quite often in gutters by the side of the road.
BaronessBL Sep 2019 9:11am, 21 Sep 2019 7,808 posts	0 BaronessBL My car has been taken hostage by my local main dealer.... It's 5 years old and I've had it a year. In fact on the day it first went to the main dealer at the end of July I'd had it a year and 2 days - I know this because its warranty had run out 2 days before I took it in. There seemed to be an issue with the coolant system (the light kept coming on) and the heating system wasn't working either (although being the summer I have no idea when this problem had started - I'd noticed it only through trying to clear the windscreen when heading for an early start at work). Because of being out of warranty the repairs cost me just short of £1k. When I got the car back it was making a noise as if there was a washing machine under the bonnet. I rang the garage and a was told in a (fairly patronising tone) that I should bring it in and an engineer would come out for a drive with me so I could tell him 'when it was making this washing machine noise.' When I took it in and described in some detail about the 'washing machine noise' such as where on the temperature gauge the indicator is when it starts and so on they decided they didn't need me to take them out for a drive and they would be able to resolve the problem. That was 3 weeks ago............I still have no idea when I'm going to see it again.
um Sep 2019 9:50am, 21 Sep 2019 1,237 posts	0 um LD - sorry, only just read your April post - woukd have said spring straight away. Did the dealer say to change both front ones? General wisdom, if affordable, is to do both at the same time - if one has gone, the chances are the matching pair one is in a similar condition.
Diogenes Sep 2019 10:09am, 21 Sep 2019 40,397 posts	0 Diogenes That’s crap, BBL, bet you won’t be buying one of those again (whatever it is). Do you have a courtesy car?
LazyDaisy Sep 2019 11:46am, 21 Sep 2019 27,838 posts	0 LazyDaisy Useful info, thanks um, I'll follow that up. They didn't say about doing the other one. Baroness that's pretty outrageous - main dealers don't like Twitter complaints, it might be worth geeing them up that way!
um Sep 2019 12:06pm, 21 Sep 2019 1,239 posts	0 um (but I also found Kwik fit a lot less expensive than the ford main dealer, and I thought the springs were generic enough to go with them) (and quite a lot of us have driven for ages with broken springs - main risk is if there's a loose sharp end spiking the tyre, of the suspension collapses so much the wing rest on the tyre - when you'd soon spot that)