Fixing advice from our garage proprietor Steve Rothwell
VAUXHALL CORSA
When I first opened my garage in 1987, the average age of the vehicle I saw was between four to 12-years-old. Newer vehicles went to the main dealer and older vehicles were normally maintained by the owner or just not worth spending money on.
Now, the average age still starts at around four-years-old but stretches much further – vehicles at 20-years-old (and over) are not uncommon.
This in my mind is far more environmentallyfriendly than throwing away a perfectly good vehicle just because it is not quite as efficient as a newer model.
This 2005 Vauxhall Corsa needed a steering rack due to the excessive play – the job time is given as 2.9 hours, but that of course doesn’t allow for the problem bolts that may be encountered dropping the front exhaust pipe and the subframe.
Thankfully a few oil leaks over the years had helped keep the bolts coated and so the job didn’t go too bad, ensuring this Corsa was back on the road and with a new MOT ready for a few more years of motoring.
FORD FOCUS
At 20-years-old, the owner was quite accepting of the fact that things go wrong, and provided the motor was safe, he was happy. He was aware that the rear wiper had not been working for a while, and now he had discovered that the heated rear screen was not operating, this was a little more of an inconvenience, but wasn’t the reason for him asking me to have a look into the problems.
The reason for this was that with the MOT due shortly, he had discovered that the centre brake light had also failed. I was expecting to see a couple of broken wires in the short loom between the rear hatch and the body, but when I began to investigate, I discovered that the broken wires had also shorted out, and the wiring back into the vehicle had begun to melt. The job had grown, and it was now down to the local auto electrician to give a price, and for the owner to decide if it was worth doing.
SKODA ROOMSTER
Unnoticed until the MOT, the horn on this 2009 Skoda Roomster 1.4 was totally silent. No amount of pushing on the steering wheel pad would produce any sound from the horn.
Testing the actual unit itself proved that the problem was not with the actual horn – this is quite unusual as 99% of the time, a failed horn is down to the actual unit which either gets waterlogged or corroded.
Tracing the problem back, I concluded that the fault was in the push mechanism on the steering wheel. The problem here is that to remove the airbag and horn push, the 12V battery needs to be disconnected, and with the battery
