Car Mechanics

► Can you remember the registration number of your very first car? Mine was 484 KOG, and it was an Austin A35 van. That was replaced by Mk2 Cortina estate NAP 278F which in turn was replaced by Fiat 128 NDY 687K. Then there was Austin Maxi LUR 547L,

Ahuge advantage for their makers is that cars lend themselves well to mass production. Yet, carmakers tend to consider ease of repair as secondar y to making life easier and cheaper on the assembly line. Whether a DIY owner, or a budding motor techni

► UniClutch is a revolutionary new performance clutch system brought to the UK by Clutch Industries. The company has been manufacturing clutch systems in Australia for Nissan, Ford, GM, Mitsubishi, Toyota, and many others for over 70 years. Leveragin

BMW X3 ►This 2005 BMW X3 2.0 diesel had been suffering from poor starting over the summer, and so now the winter was upon us it was certain that things were not going to improve, and with this in mind the owner booked the motor in for a check over.

►Coming out to his 2008 Ford Fiesta one morning, the owner thought at first that he a puncture and the tyre had gone flat. The offside front of the motor was sitting a little lower than it should. Checking the tyre, this appear to be fully inflated,

►Often referred to as the forgotten filter, I dread to think how many vehicles are running around with a clogged-up cabin filter. Also known as the pollen filter, the cabin filter can be located in a range of places, and I do know that on some early

Complaining of a steady coolant loss, the owner of this 1999 Peugeot 106 1.1 jumped to the conclusion that the radiator must need replacing. I often get a call from a vehicle owner requesting to book in for the leaking radiator to be renewed, only to

►With the ABS light illuminated and the ABS not operating, the owner of this 2004 Honda Civic Type-R knew that it was not going to get through the approaching MOT test, and so asked me to investigate the matter. The first check was to read the codes

Quite capable of most jobs, the owner of this 2009 Ford Ka had been unfazed when the clutch pedal felt a little soggy and had set about bleeding the hydraulic system out. This restored the feel of the pedal and all was well again. The firm feel of th

In my Editorial, I mentioned we bought this 2007 Coupé from the eBay sales. Priced at £6000, some would say that is alot of money for car approaching its 17th birthday. However, these cars are becoming collectable, especially those with this 3.0-litr

When it comes to hot hatchbacks, many try to muscle in on the act while one or two just simply deser ve the much-overused moniker of ‘legend’. To use the term legend (no pun intended) Honda not only built a luxur y saloon of the same title, but for m

Alot has changed in the world since the last Car Mechanics head torch group test in the January 2013 issue. Sure, there are still thousands of products to choose from and yep there is an Atlantic ocean’s worth of rubbish out there. More than ever, in

Regenerative braking is a kinetic energy recovery system that transfers the vehicle’s energy into electricity as it slows down. With a traditional hydraulic braking system, the friction between the brake pads and the discs produces large amounts of h

Funnily enough, despite the fifthgeneration W221 S-Class with its oddly flared wheelarches and Maybach-like rump raising more than a few eyebrows at launch in 2006, its angular styling seems bang on trend today. And it’s a lot more dramatic than the

► I’ve just taken a pretty big gamble and bought a car in a BCA online auction with no mechanical report. Yes, really! The car in question is a 2013 Citroën C5, and now that it’s arrived, I’m pleased – and not a little relieved – that my gut-instinct

I had an opportunity quite recently to drive a nice old time warp classic saloon which was complete right down to a period DIY-fitted single speaker radio setup. Apart from transporting me back almost 50 years when I first passed my test and had the

2014 Kia Sorento 2.2 CRDi KX-3 Overall difficulty rating The bilstein group (www.partsfinder. bilsteingroup.com) for the supply of service parts and to Craig Dawson of Peterborough-based Dawson Motors (Tel: 07504 552063) for allowing us to photograp

Vauxhall’s first-generation Insignia was manufactured between 2008 and 2017 and, in the case of the 2009 model seen here, is powered by a 1956cc common-rail diesel engine. Under the bonnet, components such as the turbocharger, injectors and glow plug

My wife has never particularly been into cars, but she has always had something of a ‘dream car’. And it’s not at all what you might think. It is, in fact, the car you see on this page: A Mk3 VW Golf Cabriolet. She grew up in America, where Golfs wer

My 2001 Lupo GTI track day car (yet to actually go near a track), reser ved only for use in the summer months, didn’t see much action in 2023. The issue first surfaced back in 2019 when it failed its MOT for the front offside ser vice brake excessive

► Let us forget about EV’s and hybrids just for a while and cast our minds back to a less sterile world of motoring. A time when taxing your car cost either £55 or £100 depending on if you wanted a six or twelve month ‘rent’. A time when it wasn’t un