[non-Austin] any MOT specialist knowledge?

[John Gould]

Yes, my 25k miles Fiat 500 does that, it randomly displays various warnings for its various useless electronic extras (hill hold, esp, auto restart etc) the warnings disappear after a day or two and a week or two later randomly reappear. I now ignore them.

[Hedd_Jones]

My 1995 Citroen C15 van is a keeper.  It has the original Peugeot-Citroen 1.8 litre XUD diesel engine. No turbo, no HDi, and its mechanically fuelled diesel only develops 60bhp. However, it is absolutely bombproof and returns 45-50 mpg laden or not. Citroen made millions of them, but they are now starting to disappear. Mine won't. I have a garage attic full of spares!

I had the later XUD based DW8, which was a mechanical normally aspirated 'HDI' block. 68 horse In my first 306 estate. That went to eastern europe after I killed it (bent the rear axle beam). With some washers between the wheel and hub the tyre didnt rub the wheel arch so the latvian bloke who bought it drove off into the sunset. 

The two HDIs I had were totally reliable. No issues ever. 110horse too as I recall. Certainly better than the XUD 110horse 'DT' for go. 

To be fair the 'Duratorque' in the Mondeo pIssed all over them. Pulling fairly hard still at 150. But EGR issues made it smoke like a Gardner in a 50s lorry, two garages it went to wanted to replace the injectors (at circa 800quid).Then it started to hunt. So blocked the EGR off with a home made stainless plate, clearing the engine management light the day before each MOT. Then lost boost, a bursted hose from the intercooler.  Then the vanes in the turbo stopped working (stuck), so limp mode due to overboost, so a strategic hole drilled and tapped in the turbo, followed by a dose of Mr Muscle oven cleaner solved that, or did once the hole was plugged with a bolt. Lastly the vane actuator gave up, probably because of mauling the stiff vanes, after about 5 soldering jobs on the PCB I concluded it was fubar, so on ebay it went, running, but in limp mode. Bye bye. That went to donate its central locking to a ST24 estate. 

The 1600 petrol Focus is all very weedy and totally gutlesa, unless you rev the wotsits off it. And when you do, the fuel consumption goes from bloody awfull (35mpg) to diabolical (20odd).

[Parazine]

I had a 2.4 litre "Duratorque" in a Transit van. It was a disaster with all the things Hedd mentions above. Eventually gave up and sold it for scrap, prompted by the chassis rusting out at less than 10 years old!
Now have a MB Sprinter, far better vehicle.

[Rogerpugs]

JonE late to the party in reply to the opener on this post
My senior MOT tester says the seat belt light is not an MOT test item- it is the seat belt that must pas the test The light is outside the scope of the MOT
Regards
Roger

[David Stepney]

Hedd Jones wrote: "David, I run 10year+ cars by choice. Issues are 'life'."

Yes Hedd, I do too, but out of economic necessity. It is only with he greatest reluctance that I have had to replace the 1983 Polo with something a bit newer. (the Fiat Panda 4x4 I have bought is a mere 15 years old.) The Polo did over 200,000 miles in my hands over a 14 year period, including several years when i was running up to Redditch from Bala and back twice a week. The only reason it had to be replaced was the increasing difficulty of getting the parts to keep it on the road.  When it came off the road for an engine overhaul in April, I allowed myself 6 weeks to do the work. This has turned into a four month marathon simply because I was trying to source all the bits to do the job. Brexit hasn't helped. For instance, no one seemed to be able to to supply a clutch for it. I had to source one from Germany!

In the meantime, I was using the RP as my daily driver and my Series 3 Landrover for the fetching and carrying. Even so, I racked up over two and a half thousand miles in the RP, and, whilst it proved to be utterly dependable, the only replacements being a speedo cable and a propshaft flexible coupling, I was terrified of breaking something major, and the idea of having both cars off the road at the same time was not one I could contemplate.

To be fair, the Panda was the best one I could afford, has done 87000 miles and has just passed its MOT with only two minor advisories which I shall deal with over the next week. Some how, though, I can't see it giving me the sterling service the Volkswagen has given me over the years.

[Steve kay]

Hedd, now really… smelly and smoky Cummins, AEC let alone a two stroke Commer possibly, but a Gardner! Surely they are always smooth, almost silent and as clean as a cherub’s shirt.