Toms306's China HDi Estate 2012

[Niall]

No one said OBD2 is pointless. It has its places but by no means should it be relied on because most of the time its not right. you can use a multimeter for live readings tom. Ive done it my self for lambda readings. As i said, just scanning for faults will tell you barely any more than a hunch that any half decent mechanic will have. Obviously, if you have got to diagnose electrical control issues....say central locking timings incorrect for example, then yes you would connect it to a specific reader or if you needed to program on a new module, then yes. For example, when my old man was at jag, if a ECU wasnt working in some way...say for instance the stereo wasnt turning on when you turn the car on, they could connect it to OBD and the guys at Jag in coventry could read the coding and change it or confirm a fault but thats not mechanics tom. Thats electrical controls. A proper mechanic is becoming a rare thing these days and thats because people like you go to college and are taught that everything can be diagnosed and fixed with a computer and most of the time it cant and it adds unnecessary time to the job.

[Toms306]

You cant do live readings with a multimeter whilst driving lol.........I'd like to see you try!

How are you gonna have a 'hunch' until youve gained experience though? Hunch's can be dangerous anyway........the mechanics that looked over my Golf told me the dmf had failed as cams never wear out (yes really!)........needless to say I didn't leave it there lol. But those guys have worked there for years, getting all sorts of cars in as its a small independant but never a golf with failed cams...you can't possibly know whats wrong with every different car, or know the common faults on them. Ok for the cams or DMF neither would bring up a fault code (as they did check...because thats the first thing to do with an unknown fault) but say it was a misfire or something, I happen to know part of the injector loom fails on PDs from research and forums, but I wouldn't expect the majority of indepants to know that - yet a quick code read and they'll find the injector circuit broken, then can pinpoint the exact part with a multimeter. At the main dealer you'd obviously expect them to be familiar with cetain issues and get good 'hunch's', just like we would with cars we're familiar with now (306s lol).

Also - we were taught to use bloody multimeters for everything as there was only one code reader to go round lol, and guess which team always finished the job first...yeah the one with the code reader lol. Multimeters waste time unless you know where you're heading first and what readings you're expecting to find. Much easier to read a code in a minute or two, check the code/usual faults for that code on Autodata and then it'll even give you what to check with the multimeter and expected readings. So much simpler than going through guessing things because of a hunch in my opinion.


Aaaaaanyway, what do we reckon the 'state is worth back as standard? 3 months T & T, 121k miles, some SH, recent service. If its not worth much and not worth the hassle I'll probably just trade it in. Depending on what you guys reckon its worth....

[WiNgNuTz]

So. Many. Words!

[Toms306]

Tbh, people only look at the pictures in projects anyway don't they!?

But srsly - whats it worth lol??

[samass]

I'll give you twenty quid for it?

[rocker8742]

Bidding a bit high there Sam id start at 5 and a doughnut

[Toms306]

Dont want to p/x with doughnuts or anything.

[samass]

how about a lovely volvo

[Toms306]

Dont want another car either...just cash lol....

[samass]

how boring

[procta]

See that's the difference between a mechanic and someone who's just walled out of college with a qualification in working on cars. You rely on heavily on obd which can be wrong and misleading a lot of the time. A decent mechanic can just use a multimeter or other methods. Most garages don't bother with obd unless its something obd specific they are doing like programming a new key.

your right there niall, you give them an old car and i think they will stuck on how to get it running again.

[Toms306]

how boring

Very boring! Just like myself lol.

[stu9]

I know this thread's a few months old....but after reading alot of it..

Tom you sound as confused as me sometimes .....I'm kind of in the same boat ie not much cash at all (trying to run a bike too...Bandit 12 and C5 HDi too....imposible...well is it for me), and try and do what I can. Although I sometimes hate my 306 (also an HDI, a 2.0 an 01, and also dark blue with 150000), I seem to have to love/hate with it, but cant seem to part with, as daft as it might sound.

When I say I cant part with it, I had it for sale 2 months ago, 2 folk asked about it, I said yes it's still for sale, but then I pulled it and said sorry. I dont know why but I did.

Granted they're not the best cars (what are), but they're cheap, reliable (well should be if looked after), give good mpg (again the looked after/serviced properly bit) and handle good for what they are.

I also have an 03 Citroen C5 2.0 HDI est, it's like a bloody boat compared to the 306, but it's comfy (very), quite powerfull (got a stage 1 from Whippy) but for some reason I keep going back to the Pug and dont know why..

I've been told my ideal car would be an est and handle like an Evo 8/9 (or equivilent), Rolls Royce comfort, 1000hp, and the same 1000mpg....and never break down apart from the odd puncture

I dont think it exists or ever will.....I can dream though

[Eeyore]

Tom now owns a vectra

/thread

[Oil-burner]

Tom now owns a vectra

/life

EFA

[stu9]

What's efa

[Eeyore]

What's efa

efa accuracy.

[stu9]

Still dont know....obviously you lot know

[Stephen]

Edited for accuracy

[Toms306]

Haha....thought this thread had disappeared into the archives!

Sounds like we want the same non-existant things Stu!

I do indeed now own a Vectra... :yawn: Comfy, powerful and handles like a boat....on tram lines...honestly its the weirdest sensation to go round a corner with a load of bodyroll yet still hold the corner perfectly at much higher speed than I could in the 'solid' 306! Plus the 306 is now just a shell and an engine...soon to be just a shell by the end of the week lol.

Did I make the right decision? I se3riously doubt it but meh, it's done now!

[C.A.R.]

Shock horror, much newer car with massively bigger proportions, tyre tread and weight corners better than knackered old 12 year old estate! Stop press, we got ourselves a genius here!

What you're experiencing is not 'better handling' necessarily but 'increased grip'

But it's easy to get the two mixed up when you haven't driven a performance car before :p

[cwspellowe]

Don't start.. he's driven a Golf you know?

[Niall]

Don't start.. he's driven a Golf you know?

This is true. To Tom, any car is slow compared to a golf! I was told once that Tom is one of the only guys who can control the stupidly extreme torque steer in the golf and have the bollocks to keep his foot on the floor.

[cwspellowe]

Tom set the fastest lap time of any production car in a Golf but he didn't publish the figures because then people would know he's not agoraphobic and doesn't have IBS as he managed a round trip to the Nurburgring in just one day just to escape his flatmates he secretly has a man crush on and cant stand seeing them happy with anyone else so he'd have nothing to moan about on car forums ever.

[Toms306]

Shock horror, much newer car with massively bigger proportions, tyre tread and weight corners better than knackered old 12 year old estate! Stop press, we got ourselves a genius here!

What you're experiencing is not 'better handling' necessarily but 'increased grip'

But it's easy to get the two mixed up when you haven't driven a performance car before :p

Wait...the way you worded that is as if a Vectra is a performance car....

But seriously, people always say you can't beat a 306 through the twisties......but if even a heavy, boring Vectra can then I'm sure theres a hell of a lot of cars that can lol!

The Golf though? Certainly not, that had bodyroll AND lots of understeer...despite also being heavy and having wide tyres....hmm....

---

Just to bore you all......







Front end is still a bit 'soft' for my liking, can't find a decent angle for it lol. Ah well, its certainly not show car!

[Niall]

Shock horror, much newer car with massively bigger proportions, tyre tread and weight corners better than knackered old 12 year old estate! Stop press, we got ourselves a genius here!

What you're experiencing is not 'better handling' necessarily but 'increased grip'

But it's easy to get the two mixed up when you haven't driven a performance car before :p

Wait...the way you worded that is as if a Vectra is a performance car....

But seriously, people always say you can't beat a 306 through the twisties......but if even a heavy, boring Vectra can then I'm sure theres a hell of a lot of cars that can lol!

The Golf though? Certainly not, that had bodyroll AND lots of understeer...despite also being heavy and having wide tyres....hmm....

Next time im up your way, i challenge you to a drive through some country roads. I will bet matts rallye you will be lost in the remains of the slight blue haze emerging from my exhaust.

[Toms306]

But Im a shit driver....thats not a fair test.

If I was racing myself though...the Vec would win everytime. I've never had a car with so much grip! Feels nice to not be bricking it around every quick corner...

[procta]

tom, I am gonna tell you now, you think the pug and the golf had problems. wait till the Vectra shows its ugly side! my mate had one, he said it was one of two of the worst cars he has owned. he got that pissed off with the Vectra that he reverted back to an audi. they are nice cars mind tom, my mates was nice. he wished he kept his ford focus after buying it.

[Toms306]

As with all cars you get good ones and bad ones. Some.people get good hdi estates, I got a bad one lol. Some people get good 106s, I got a bad one. Some people get....well you get the idea.

If golfs hadn't been so ridiculously high priced to buy I would have had another. But the choice between a 12 year old high miler golf or a 6 year old top spec average mile Vec/mondeo it wasn't a difficult choice lol! Golfs are nice, but they certainly aren't worth that much in my opinion.

So I'm trying something completely new to me, had no luck with pugs, vag is nice but way overpriced so trying out vaux now...

[Eeyore]

As with all cars you get good ones and bad ones. Some.people get good hdi estates, I got a bad one lol. Some people get good 106s, I got a bad one. Some people get....well you get the idea.

If golfs hadn't been so ridiculously high priced to buy I would have had another. But the choice between a 12 year old high miler golf or a 6 year old top spec average mile Vec/mondeo it wasn't a difficult choice lol! Golfs are nice, but they certainly aren't worth that much in my opinion.

So I'm trying something completely new to me, had no luck with pugs, vag is nice but way overpriced so trying out vaux now...

but the 106 was cheap and you bought it asap.
the hdi was... fixable but not to your liking.
Golfs have dub tax.

everything has ups and downs!