Dear Dorothy Dix...

Ray Bell · 8 Dec 2001, 21:19 (Ref:183751)

We haven't had many queries about problems with cars lately... one of the reasons for this forum to exist, as I recall.

Come on, if you have something bugging you and can't find the answer, put it into digital form and see if someone here can help you!

woodyracing · 10 Dec 2001, 01:57 (Ref:184142)

ok,

my Ford Fiesta XR2i has developed a little problem,
when i turn the electrics on, the oil light doesn't always come on (the oil is fine), also the illumination of the main dials is not lighting up properly so i can barly see them when its dark.

anyone know whats going on?

Ray Bell · 10 Dec 2001, 02:17 (Ref:184149)

Oil light could be a sticky switch or a loose wire to the switch, which earths the light when the oil pressure drops.

Check around the dash (do you have an owner's manual?) and see if you can find a rheostat switch to brighten up the dashlights. Most cars have them...

woodyracing · 10 Dec 2001, 02:33 (Ref:184153)

on my car the oil light comes on with the electrics, (as a bulb test) then should go out when engine is started to indicate that there's enough oil. This usually works, but recently, the bulb sometimes doesn't come on at all.

theres no adjustment on the brightness of the dash.

i have a haynes book for my car, which describes everything down to the nuts & bolts.

i could take the instrument panel out, but im not sure if there will be anything i can do.

Ray Bell · 10 Dec 2001, 03:41 (Ref:184164)

Loose wires then on the oil light... that's the logical explanation, or is it a problem that causes both issues?

Like maybe a loose earthwire to the dash?

I wouldn't expect Haynes to pinpoint the rheostat switch, the owners' manual is the book that tells you how to drive and operate everything. It will be right in front of you if it's there, no need to pull anything apart.

woodyracing · 10 Dec 2001, 10:47 (Ref:184233)

im not sure whats wrong.

I might take out the instrument panel and have a look.
I'll probably take it to a Ford garage though.

Cheers.

Truckosaurus · 10 Dec 2001, 13:02 (Ref:184268)

Quote:

if you have something bugging you...

Yes, who the tugboat is Dorothy Dix?

Ray Bell · 10 Dec 2001, 13:37 (Ref:184275)

Quote:

Originally posted by Guy Humpage
Yes, who the tugboat is Dorothy Dix?

The generation gap again...

Dorothy Dix may or may not have been what poms call an 'Agony Aunt' ... but the name lingered and prospered. I don't know, to be honest, if there was a Dorothy Dix wrote answers to all ills for a newspaper's lovelorn, but I think she did.

Hence I started this thread to get some questions about problems people may be having with their road cars.

Now, my question... what's a tugboat got to do with anything?

**bella** · 10 Dec 2001, 14:13 (Ref:184292)

ok. my car has a manual choke. it's very inconsistent, and often stalls at any level of choke when started in the morning. it misses cylinders for a while, and is now using a lot of fuel.

any ideas? should i be expecting a broken motor soon?

woodyracing · 10 Dec 2001, 15:14 (Ref:184297)

worn spark plugs ? they are easy enough to check.

or how about ignition leads?? they need to be changed every 60,000 miles or so.

Ray Bell · 10 Dec 2001, 20:51 (Ref:184441)

Well, it won't be a 'broken motor' but it could well be a non-functioning one...

Check the easy things first, spark plugs, points and ignition timing, the things you can see. Then, if there's no improvement go for the things you can't see like the plug leads. You may also have an airleak somewhere, so check the vaccuum hoses and around the manifold generally, loose bolts etc.

What sort of car is it?

Vandas · 16 Dec 2001, 11:56 (Ref:186472)

Ray,

I logged on to this thread expecting to read about your views on Australian politics.

A "Dorothy Dixer" is a question from a government backbencher, to a minister which allows the minister to spell out their policy in a well-prepared speech especially created for Question Time.

I still don't understand what your interpretation of Dorothy Dix is!

By the way Ray, I need your help with some stuff for PIARC's 50th anniversary. Please email me at your earliest convenience.

thanks

Cameron

Ray Bell · 17 Dec 2001, 03:24 (Ref:186744)

The voice of the political animal....

The 'Dorothy Dix' nomenclature was only adopted by politics after it had become common eleswhere... as I said, usually in newspapers where the teenage girls would write in about their new loves...

I'll be in touch...

**bella** · 17 Dec 2001, 17:41 (Ref:186963)

Quote:

Originally posted by Ray Bell
What sort of car is it?

it's an sj413 suzuki. about so high, so tall, so wide, and goes like stink when it's happy.

it went down the m11 and m25 at around 75-80 for 45 minutes very happily yesterday morning. it's just really not a fan of the cold at all. when all is warmed up, and it's loosened up a bit, it's back to its normal sh*t-off-a-shovel self.... hmmm....

Ray Bell · 18 Dec 2001, 00:33 (Ref:187130)

Check a couple of things... the thermostat for one... see that it closes when it cools down... and that there is water passing through the inlet system as it was designed to do...

If these things are in order, perhaps you could check the cold-start mechanism, whether this be an automatic choke or an enrichener in an injection system.

**bella** · 19 Dec 2001, 11:02 (Ref:187583)

it's manual choke (i'll manual choke it if it bloody well messes around again like it did the other night....). i was wondering whether it had something to do with the fuel pump, because last night it was acting like it had ran out of fuel, hesitating and spluttering. in the morning, it wouldn't let me go any faster than 35mph.

hmm. the plot thickens...

woodyracing · 19 Dec 2001, 13:01 (Ref:187612)

Quote:

Originally posted by bella
i was wondering whether it had something to do with the fuel pump, because last night it was acting like it had ran out of fuel, hesitating and spluttering.

Mine once did that, it turned out to be an electrical fault - the garage fixed it but I couldn't find out what the problem was

Ray Bell · 19 Dec 2001, 22:33 (Ref:187844)

Fuel filter does that... restricts the flow of fuel when it's almost totally blocked off... almost like you're right out of fuel.

**bella** · 21 Dec 2001, 21:17 (Ref:188566)

ah! good point. could it be the wires to the distributor too? they need replacing, but i guess that wouldn't cause my speed related problem. going down the m11 today, well, i hit 60, and the car just decided that it wasn't going any faster, and it slowed down like it had ran out of fuel. again. only this time, i figured eventually that if i did 30mph, it didn't stop. so i did. down the hard shoulder with my warning lights on... when you're an ickle suzuki, those big nasty trucks are extremely daunting...

not to worry.

Bomn · 22 Dec 2001, 12:05 (Ref:188687)

Dear Dorothy,
I have a weird problem with my VK commodore and I just wanted to know if Energy Polarisers run out of energy. Does anybody re-polarise them. Or should I just pump up my tyres and get on with my life.

Look forward to your response.
Edna Bucket

djb · 27 Dec 2001, 05:25 (Ref:189812)

Dear Abby, dear Abby (the Yank version of D.D)

How about this one: My '91 Mazda 626 had been sitting about for a number of days, and it got snowed on. When I got in to drive to work on Monday, the heater fan wasn't working on the 1 or 2 setting, but it was on the 3 or 4 setting-albeit with a loud noise of something phyisically interfering with the fan blades. Now I figured that some snow must have melted and refreezed in somewhere, continued on to work without the fan on, and hoped that perhaps it would warm up and dry out during the day. That evening, the fan worked again at the 3 and 4 (two highest by the way) settings, without the noise of something hitting the fan, but the low settings were still not working. It has been a week and a half, and they still do not work.

Question is, I am assuming that there is only one fan,(meaning one for the low speeds and another for the high) and so it is probably somewhere in the switch connections, but I really don't know, so I am curious to hear what you think. I doubt my water freezing theory, as I have never seen this problem come up after a car has been snowed on, sleeted on, freezing rain etc etc etc before, so it may have just been a coincidence. Also, I have been driving my bicycle to work most of the time this summer and fall, so it is possible that the 1 and 2 setting has been out for awhile, as window fogging isn't usually a problem with warmer temps, and also, at the lower settings, you hardly hear the fan, so I may not have noticed it.

Any ideas from down under, where you probably don't get your cars snowed on very often?

djb

Ray Bell · 29 Dec 2001, 02:15 (Ref:190789)

Quote:

Originally posted by Bomn
Dear Dorothy,
I have a weird problem with my VK commodore and I just wanted to know if Energy Polarisers run out of energy. Does anybody re-polarise them. Or should I just pump up my tyres and get on with my life.

Look forward to your response.
Edna Bucket

I'm afraid there is little relationship between the tyre pressure and the polariser...

The only thing the polariser does to the tyres is organise some of the molecules so they can better face the larger stones you find on the road.

As for running out of energy, Dr Dowker told me that they are likely to slow down in the third century of full time operation. Don't forget, though, that the VK predated most polariser technology and there may be some system conflicts.

djb...

I'm more inclined to think along the lines of dirty contacts somewhere in the system, maybe corrosion on the contacts or something?

Or possibly there is a motor with multiple windings involved and some of the windings have died.

djb · 29 Dec 2001, 03:44 (Ref:190807)

thanks Ray for the suggestions, when I take the time to go through the Haynes manual and/or ask the local garage guys, I'll get back with the (hopefully) final answer.

djb (Happy New Years in a few days)

Ray Bell · 29 Dec 2001, 03:51 (Ref:190808)

I'd say an auto electrician would diagnose it in minutes...

Bluebottle · 29 Dec 2001, 18:04 (Ref:191103)

...thats if you can find one who's skills extend beyond installing sub-bass speakers in small hatchbacks...

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