Saxo drinking fuel!

BeenieCat

I know the prices of petrol have gone up, but i put a fiver in today and the light is back on already! I've only driven a couple of miles! Usually a fiver would last a good few days and would bring it away from the empty side of the gauge.

Anyway it's a 1.1 P-reg and i have noticed it's quite smoky out of the exhaust, but not constantly it will have a good smoke and then stop after a while, not sure why it is but it did fail it's last MOT first time on high carbon monoxide emissions?

Another thing, if the oil filter needs changing whats the symptoms? We sometimes can smell a slight burning smell, but there is plenty of oil in there we keep a 5l bottle in the cat all the time as it was found to have a small oil leak on the last trip to garage.

Also, (unrelated) but i think i need the brake discs doing as it's started scraping a bit when slowing to a stop. Think i cursed myself when i referred to it as my "trusty £300 car" the other day

jaydeeuk1

Have you replaced the air filter recently? Small oil leaks not too much to worry about. Are the spark plugs oily?

steveo3002

sounds like it needs a good service all round

oil filter..it will cause extra wear to the engine eventualy , it wont cause smells or smoke

the brake noise..might be sticking on a bit making things worse?

at the end of the day £5 buys hardly any petrol , its not going to get you far anyway

BeenieCat

Haven't replaced the air filter, i've had it since Oct last year and i've done nothing but top the oil and water up!

It's got over 100k and tbh i don't know what's been done or needs doing. When i bought it i took it to the trusty garage to be checked over and he wrote loads of stuff down - namely the oil leak and bits of rust/bodywork repairs but he said the engine itself was fine.

Don't know about the spark plugs - should they be oily? I'll have to get OH to have a look! Hopefully i can get a list of things for him to look at and send him out to the car, as he doesn't know about car engines either, although he knows a lot more than me!

diable

You need a diag run on it as one of the sensors could be playing up meaning that you are over fuelling when you drive.

BeenieCat

Well i had a suspicion there was some kind of petrol leakage so that's why i put the odd fiver/tenner in, rather than fill the tank.

I can't afford to get it serviced, it would probably cost ore than i paid for the car so we try to maintain it ourselves, i don't really want to see another garage til November (MOT) if i can help it!!

BeenieCat

diable wrote: »

You need a diag run on it as one of the sensors could be playing up meaning that you are over fuelling when you drive.

Brill, my garage did one of these for free with my old Escort, so hopefully he'll do it again, or at least cheap! Money is tighter than my cats exit at the moment round here

goldspanners

i would recommend a service aswell, its probably not been done for a while,the brakes making a scrapping noise should worry you as they wont work one day when you really need them, probably needs new pads and discs on the front.

Rikki

£5 is only just over a gallon of petrol. That's only 30 miles for me.

1 Imperial Gallon (UK) = 4.54609188 litres

dieselhead

Your description of the brakes is very worrying, please get these checked ASAP, not only for your safety but for other road users who would be at risk if your brakes were to fail. If necessary you could get them checked and ask for quotes at a couple of garages to get the best price.

On a lighter note, a service is relativity easy by a competent DIYer, borrow a haynes manual from you local library (mine has the more common cars), order parts, ebay or you local motor factors and you should be away! (oil must be disposed of at your local tip)

steveo3002

cars need servicing and looking at at least once a year

i understand a dealer service will be the same cost as the car was , maybe get a haynes manual and see if someones dad/brother etc can have a look , the parts dont cost a whole lot and it could mean the car will carry on for a good fews with no trouble

at the bare minimum ...oil and filter change , air filter , and check all the brakes