Email Tim with your questions

I own a range rover vogue 3ltr diesel, and whilst driving the car, I have blue smoke coming out of the exhaust, would you know what is causing this problem?

Barbara Steven, Essex, UK

Blue smoke indicates engine oil getting into the cylinders and burning. There are three main causes – too much oil in the engine, a worn engine or a turbocharger problem. It can take quite a while for the oil to settle properly on modern engines, so overfilling by mistake is not uncommon. It’s best to check it after the car has been standing for a few hours – ideally overnight, but make sure it’s on level ground. Assuming the oil level is correct, that leaves engine wear or a turbo problem.

You can get a rough idea of which is the most likely by pulling the dipstick out with the engine warmed up and idling. If you see a fair amount of oil splashing out of the dipstick tube, engine wear is the most likely, especially if the mileage is mounting up, (but get the engine breather system checked first before you change the engine – the same symptom can arise from something as simple as a twisted pipe or gummed up valve). On a high mileage engine, the pistons are no longer a snug, gas-tight fit in the cylinders; oil leaks past one way and gets burned, giving the blue smoke, and high pressure combustion gas leaks past the other way, creating pressure inside the bottom of the engine, which pushes the oil out of the dipstick tube. The dipstick test is just a rough guide, so the next step is a compression check to assess more accurately the state of engine wear – allow an hour or so of labour charge for a garage to do this.

However, if there’s not much sign of oil around the dipstick, and the engine sounds smooth and still pulls enthusiastically, the turbocharger is the more likely cause. The cause can be simple or involved. It can be a blocked air filter or inlet pipe, but most commonly it’s an internal problem, which invariably involves rebuilding the turbo – a job for a turbo specialist.

As a matter of interest, turbochargers don’t wear with age – if you use good quality oil and change it regularly, the turbo and the engine can carry on for huge mileages; broken or blown turbochargers are almost always the result of inadequate maintenance. However, you will still hear the expert down in the local pub who tells you about his car that went round the clock twice without ever having a spanner laid on it, the car makers are just trying to flog you unnecessary services, they’re in league with the oil companies and so on. So, if you want to understand why good, clean oil really is so important for a turbo, click here

Good afternoon

I have an intermittent fault on my Scenic which states “Check Injection”. Can you explain to me what the issue is please and how much approx it would cost to fix? Thanks

Scott, UK

The light is letting you know that there’s a fault with the engine management system – somewhere. It could be anything from a faulty sensor, to a loose connection, to a failing injector. The good news is that the computer controlling the engine management is the thing that puts the light on, because it’s detected that one of the readings it’s getting is not normal. It will store that information in the form of a fault code that can be read when someone plugs a fault code reader into the diagnostic socket on the car. You need to go to a Renault dealer or local garage with a fault code reader – then get a quote for the repair.

My Audi A4 Quattro has 235/45 17 tyres. I am planning on taking my car to Europe for skiing this winter and am thinking of fitting winter tyres, specifically S&W. Are these the best type of tyres to fit or should I be looking at steel rims and thinner tyres?

Stuart Benford, Sheffield, UK

Audi’s excellent Quattro system should help to keep you pretty steady on most roads in Europe, but winter tyres or summer/winter tyres will certainly improve the grip, and they’re recommended for Alpine roads – not just for grip, but because you may find your insurance isn’t valid if you have summer tyres on in freezing conditions. However, your wheels and tyres are filling your wheel arches up pretty well right now – you may struggle to fit summer/winter tyres without fouling something, so smaller steel wheels may well be necessary. Summer/winter tyres will meet the requirements provided the tread depth is greater than 4mm and they are marked with the letters “M+S” or just “M.S.” and at least you won’t wear them down unduly on the way to the ski resort. Don’t forget that you also need to take snow chains if you’re going to an area that requires you to have them (mainly in the Alps) and that means chains, not socks, so it may be worth giving one of the specialists a ring before you rush out and buy a set of wheels and tyres. Try Polar Snowchains (www.polarsnowchains.com) on 01892 519933

If you’ve ever wondered about fitting winter tyres to your car, click here for more information

Hi,

I've been reading the section for a long time and now have a question of my own to raise:

I've recently taken advantage of the scrappage scheme and ordered a new car. My budget couldn't stretch to alloy wheels but for my birthday a few months later my dad has felt sorry for me and ordered me some.

Now, the alloys are by the same manufacturer of the car, are from the next model up from mine and have about 80 miles on them, they've got the same specs as my wheels and same size tyres; essentially they're the same wheel in terms of specs but alloy rather than steel.

What is my warranty position should I fit the alloys in replacement of the factory wheels.

Thanks in advance.

Martin Seagrave, UK

No problem with this – if those alloys are fitted to the car as an option anyway, the warranty won’t be affected in any way. What a nice Dad you have!

Now comes the task of keeping them gleaming of course. Alloy wheels are coated with laquer to protect the metal from tarnishing, but it does need regular attention to keep it intact. You can’t beat a regular wash to get the brake dust off – and I don’t mean the cursory tickle they get at the automatic car wash. A bucket, sponge and a miserly squirt of car shampoo once a week or so does the trick. It keeps them looking shiny, but more importantly, it gets rid of the brake dust, which otherwise starts to eat into the laquer through the twin effects of heat (from the brakes) and water. It’s important to keep the protective laquer intact because without it, the salt on UK winter roads will attack the alloy rapidly. That’s why a lot of three year old cars enter the second hand market with wheel already starting to look a little jaded. A good alloy wheel cleaner will get rid of stubborn stains – a brownish tinge often builds up after a few months and it needs more serious treatment than water. However, avoid really cheap wheel cleaners – they don’t do much. The good ones will warn you to wear stout rubber gloves because they’re either acid or alkali based, but either way they’ll damage human skin and make even Goth fashions in clothes look unattractive. Finally, you can get alloy wheel polish, but you may think that life has too many other things to offer for time to be spent polishing wheels. Most people with an interesting life would agree. Just keep them clean. Anyway, must go – I have to gloss my tyres...

Dear Tim,

I purchased an ‘05 BMW 530D with 72k miles under the BMW approved used scheme in August last year, and it came with the BMW 1 year approved warranty. Since March this year it has been in the garage repeatedly due to a lack of power and rough idle. The service centre have tried a number of things – gear box reprogram, traction control adjustment, air mass meter replacement, all without success. This culminated in the car going to the garage for 4 weeks to find the problem and being diagnosed with a faulty oil splitter putting too much oil to the top of the engine, requiring replacement and a strip and decoke of the engine top. After this work the car seemed fine for a while, until last month when it started to leak oil. I returned it to the service centre, where they have now stripped the engine and told me there is damage to the crank bearings and will need a replacement engine. I was surprised to hear that BMW will only cover a small part of the cost, and want to charge me £9600. I had previously contacted BMW customer service (before the problem was diagnosed), who ensured me that the warranty would be upheld as the problem was found before the warranty expired. I talked to customer services again today, and they have agreed to extend the goodwill further – but still want me to pay £2800. I have only driven 11k miles in the car since I bought it

Can you give me any advice of what to do next? I am at my wits end.

Best Regards

Phil McDavitt, UK

Write to them and point out that a) the problem occurred during the warranty period, b) BMW customer service assured you that it would be covered by the warranty, and ask on what grounds they are asking you to make a contribution. Then check the (usually lengthy) terms and conditions of the warranty carefully.

There could be a “betterment” clause in the warranty, which they may be using to justify charging you. The idea is that you now have a brand new engine, whereas yours had over 80K on the clock, so the car’s now better than it was. If this is their justification, I would be inclined to challenge it and ask them simply to repair your 80,000 mile engine, then you won’t be getting any “betterment”. They will almost certainly refuse and give you lots of reasons why they can’t do it, but the fact is that a good mechanical engineer would be able to remove the crankshaft, regrind it if necessary and replace the damaged bearings. On the other hand, you will be without your car all this time, so unless you have a courtesy car from them, it’s really your decision as to how long you are prepared to argue before coming to a compromise.

This is just one of the reasons why I believe that more should be done to protect motorists against an industry that advertises peace of mind, but all too often only delivers endless, obscure conditions, frustration and financial penalties. In my view, “betterment” clauses cannot be defended on any logical basis and are completely unreasonable, but then I also believe that the entire package of terms and conditions attached to these warranties is unreasonable, and the claims handling process frequently gives the impression that the sole purpose is to find reasons for the company not to pay up. These policies are aimed at motorists on a tight budget, people who can’t afford a new car with the luxury of the manufacturer’s warranty. Many take the sensible view that the substantial cost of an after market warranty is nevertheless worth the peace of mind of being protected against major unexpected bills, only to find that they are let down badly when things do go wrong, and still have to fork out hundreds or thousands of pounds to get their car back on the road. It’s high time the warranty industry looked at their whole service from start to finish from the customer’s point of view. They might find considerable scope for improvement.

Hi Tim

I have a 2005 Golf Mk5 GT TDi. The problem started last winter when the car was parked outside on frosty nights. The rear and headlights would come on as well as the rear brake light. If I hit the brake pedal then the lights would then go off.

Since the end of the winter this hasn't occurred until the last couple of weeks, when we have had a heavy dew. The problem has been occurring almost every other night. Sometimes all lights, sometimes just rear and brake light. I have switched off the automatic lights and not used the parking brake but still the problem occurs. The only way now to get the lights off when this happens is to switch the lights on and then off again.

No errors are reported on the instrument panel; I cannot find any reference to this problem on the Internet and I am concerned that the bill from the main dealer could be high without any clue as to what they might be looking for. Can you help?

Here's hoping you have some ideas! Thank you.

Dawn Johnson, UK

Unfortunately, the MkV Golf has quite a few build quality problems and iffy electrics is one of them. The lights will be controlled by an electronic “fuse box” under the dash – it sounds as if it’s getting damp. Have a look at it and if there are any signs of moisture, first make sure the pollen filter cover is fitted properly – it’s really awkward to get back on, and if it isn’t correctly fitted, water can leak into the car and onto lots of sensitive electrical bits. Door seals are another source of leaks, so check the front driver’s side in particular. Then get the light switch checked – it’s really easy to remove as a unit, but not easy to check because it has an array of internal electronics – substitution is the quickest test if you can get hold of a cheap second-hand switch.

I own a BMW 525 Tourer / Dec 2005 which has Run Flat Low Profile Tyres. Where I reside the roads are in extremely poor condition which play havoc with the Run Flats. I have replaced 4 tyres over the last 8 months at a cost of £208 each. Replacement due to Ballooning. My questions - Is it possible to fit normal wheels and tyres to my BMW and would it be possible to give me a idea of cost?

Bill Macnaught, Strathblane, Scotland

The problem you have is caused by the low profile of the tyres, not the fact that they’re run flats. The tyre gets pinched between the rim of the wheel and the edge of a pot hole, causing a weak spot which then balloons. You can improve things with smaller wheels and higher profile tyres. You will also get a much more comfortable ride over all those bumps.

However, because of the run flat tyres, you have a tyre pressure monitoring system on the car. This might need to be switched off when you change to normal tyres – have a chat with your local BMW garage; if it does need switching off, they will have to do it.

We also are about to have a 3rd child under 4. Our 2006 Audi A6 Avant is plenty wide but the back seat is bucketed. That pushes the outer child seats inwards and stops us fitting the baby seat in the middle. We need the front seats for ourselves! We want to keep the car and are nervous that the MultiMac may not have real road miles under its belt. Any ideas?

David Hyland, Dublin, Ireland

Your Audi only has Isofix fittings for two seats in the back, although it has adult seat belts for three people, so it should be possible to fit three child seats. Multi Mac does look like a good solution, but is expensive – about 1,200 Euros and another 300 or so for the “Minimac” baby seat, although it has had good reviews in the likes of What Car? It will only work until your eldest child grows out of it, then you’ll need two ordinary seats for the other children, but that’s up to 8 years away yet. However, a bigger drawback is that you may not be able to fit Multimac in another car very easily – especially one with buckles attached to the seat, rather than the floor, and it’s an expensive item to give away with the Audi! I suggest a trip to your local child seat store and chat to them. They should let you try some combinations of seats to see what fits and even three new seats may cost less than the Multimac. There are some child seat and car compatibility checkers on the internet, but they only seem to deal with one seat at a time – something you’ve probably found already. Perhaps the seat manufacturers will take note and do a bit more research; there are lots of families with three young children, and they need lots of cars seats!

The Injustice of Insurance

I'd like to bring your attention an incident that happened earlier this year. Whilst driving my car was hit by a child of about 12yrs running into the side of it. Obviously there was nothing I could do, I was travelling well under the legal limit on a clear road in good visibility. I'd just pulled away from some traffic lights and crossed a junction, it was then that 'Kieran' ran into my near side wing, denting two panels and destroying a wing mirror. My passenger, ironically a doctor on her way to work in paediatrics A&E, shrieked I pulled over. Half a dozen of his friends were sitting around the scene, fearing a lynching I approached them with some trepidation to hear one of the utter the immortal works 'Kieran you twat you just ran into the side of that blokes car!'. 'Luckily' the child wasn't hurt but got taken to hospital as a precaution. The Police, Ambulance Service and general public were fantastic at both looking after the child and offering support to me any my passenger. All of the emergency services turned up within ten minutes and were extremely professional. The Police were confident the fault lay with the child, he admitted it at the scene, took a brief statement and went on their way.

The up shot of all of this is that its nearly on to impossible to pursue a pedestrian for damage they cause even at fault and even more difficult of that person happens to be a minor. So I had to repair the car costing a substantial amount. I thought the right thing would be to inform my insurance company of the incident, oh how wrong I was. To add insult to (his hopefully) injury me reporting the incident goes down as a claim against me, this affecting my record of 6 years no claims. As a pedestrian was involved they keep the case open for six months. During this period my insurance comes up for renewal, so my no claims has gone. Leaving me to pay the extra insurance premium until the case is closed, when apparently I'll get a refund.

So one stupid mistake by a child has ended up costing me a small fortune and a lot of time. Something needs to be done to make sure this doesn't happen to other people.

Is there anything I can do?

Thanks,

Will Thompson, UK

At first, I was going to sympathise and say there’s not much you can do, but a colleague tells me that there have been several successful prosecutions through the small claims courts – even when the child was injured. House insurance usually covers things like this, so the parents won’t have to pay out of their own funds. So, if you have Kieran’s details, give it a try, but please go to your local Citizen’s Advice Bureau first and get their guidance. There’s no reason why motorists should have to foot the bill for other peoples’ carelessness just because they’re motorists!

Hi Tim,

I know this is a hot debate and that there is no definitive answer as such but my Mini Cooper S "54" was diagnosed as needing a new clutch which is fine but I hoped a clutch would last longer than that.

I'm the second owner and it's done 32K miles.

Does this mean I should expect to replace the clutch in another 4 years time?

I know that BMW will argue how the car has been previously driven and take no responsibility, it's for me info more than anything.

Many thanks in advance, I can imagine your bombarded with questions, it's quiet difficult to find honest and unbiased opinions in the motor trade I find.

Dema Kattaineh, UK

MINI’s certainly have a reputation for going through clutches and I think it would be very sensible to budget for another one in four years. In the meantime, don’t use the clutch pedal as a footrest, put the car in neutral at red lights, don’t ride the clutch to stop it rolling back on hills, and you may well find that in four years you have a perfect clutch and enough in the bank for a spending spree.