Car Mechanics July 2022

Email martyn.knowles@kelsey.c o.uk Follow us on Facebook @ Car Mechanics ► After many rumours over the past couple of years, it’s now confirmed that the two big names that we instantly recognise on our roads are to end production. In fact, both the Insignia and Mondeo have had the order books closed for a few months now and production is only continuing to fulfil those last orders. Hands up those who has owned (or own) these models? For me, I’ve nearly bought many a Mondeo but never did actually own one and we purchased the first-generation Insignia as a project car in 2018. Popular with fleet buyers, the Mondeo and Insignia were also firm family favourites with the general public. Times are changing and the saloon car is having a…

► Over the past few weeks, my 1991 Volvo 240 estate has, to put it mildly, been an incredibly useful piece of kit. You see, the arrival of spring also signals the start of the annual Simpson family spring-clean – or, more accurately, spring clear-out of things we no longer need. Which, because things have been a little, shall we say, ‘different’ since 2020, has been a bit more ‘intense’ than usual. Oh, and we’ve had the added complications of a major living room revamp and ‘absorption’ of the 70 years accumulation of stuff from Mum’s house thrown in for good measure. I really don’t know how one family can accumulate quite as much ‘stuff ’ as we seem to every single year, but talking to others, I know we…

Follow Rob on Twitter: #CarTechJourno Our disposable income is being squeezed more than ever in recent months. While it is hard to ignore the eyewatering price increases at the pumps, skyrocketing car asking prices are not so obvious, unless you are either a trader, or a serial car swapper. The reasons are manifold, politics included. Often forgotten, however, is that the race to develop currently unprofitable electric vehicles has pressured mainstream manufacturers to increase prices of their internal combustion-engined offerings. Furthermore, production shortages, caused by the difficulty in sourcing parts (semiconductor chips especially), have also led to market forces taking over, stoking price increases. The situation trickles into the used car arena. Auto Trader reports that some three-year-old models are selling for over 60% more now than two years ago.…

MITSUBISHI OUTLANDER Clutch catastrophe ► Just about making it under its own steam, the owner should have stopped driving this 2007 Mitsubishi Outlander Di-D 2.0 some miles back. Doing so may have saved the cost of the gearbox which was now in an unserviceable condition. It’s one of those mysteries which we will probably never know the answer too – did the clutch bolts come loose causing the problem, or was it the failing clutch which caused the bolts to become loose and then throw out. Either way the looser was the gearbox which ended up with a nice hole in the bellhousing, and copious amounts of marks internally where contact had been made. In theory the gearbox was still operational, but its structure was compromised, and the owner was…

in a ssociation with BUY ONLINE OR CALL US ON 0121 626 7971 One job we haven’t done on a project car for a while is changing automatic gearbox oil and filter. For at least 20 years now, most autos have been sealed-for-life using modern synthetic oils that are far better than the old Dexron ever was. Gearbox oil has a much easier life than engine oil. It doesn’t get quite as hot, and it doesn’t have combustion by-products to deal with either. Most automatics will do 200,000 miles or more on one fill of oil and most problems and failures are mechanical or electrical when something just breaks. Even so, an oil with filter change is a good idea at around 100,000 miles. A clean filter and new thinner…

We’ve almost passed the 100k mark on our sixthgeneration Vauxhall Astra, meaning we’ve clocked up a little over 3000 miles since we took it on. At the beginning of this project series, the vehicle had oil-contaminated coolant, worn brakes, scratched bodywork and the bare minimum of service history, but it’s now in much better condition and drives as well as can be expected for a 12-year-old Astra. The one aspect of it that has surprised us is the electronic park brake (EPB) and brake assist system (BAS). We were dubious at first, but the EPB is a simple motorised cable-pull system that works really well (for now), and the brake assist is clever enough to identify an uphill gradient and keep the brakes applied, making it easier to conduct a…