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Diagnotic flow charts for non-mechanically minded?

I have two daughters who have their own cars but unfortunately they didn't inherit my interest in things mechanical. When they have a problem with their cars, the message I tend to get is "It's making a noise".

On its own, a description like that isn't terribly helpful and taking a car to a garage with no more information than that is pretty much like giving them a blank cheque.

Are there any good on-line flow charts for mechanical novices that can help them do a bit of fault diagnosis? I've found this one

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but I wonder if there aren't some better ones out there?

Tim

Reply to
Tim Downie
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I had a phonecall from a female friend a week or so ago, she's got a Polo TDi.

Her "My car is poorly" Me "Why? What's wrong with it?" H "It sounds like its got a cold, and it's shivering"

When I got there it turned out her little 3 cylinder engine was only running on two cylinders...

Reply to
Pete M
[...]

:-)

Chris

Reply to
Chris Whelan

I remember how rough my father's fiat 500 used to sound when it it was only running on one cylinder. ;-)

Tim

Reply to
Tim Downie

In message , Mrcheerful writes

8-) I had a thump from the rear end of the 1936 Standard 10 I inherited from my dad. At first it was only noticeable on LH bends, but it got slowly worse, and reminded me of when the crown wheel lost a tooth on his old Morris 8.

The mystery was solved when I looked at the car from behind when it was parked on a sloping drive. There was a huge bulge in the inside of one of the rear tyres, and the inner tube was about to peep out through a split. It caught the chassis on LH bends. :)

Reply to
Gordon H

I had to drive 100 miles home from the lake District in our Viva HC on three cylinders on a busy Sunday with the wife and three kids aboard. I tried the AA for over an hour but couldn't get through.

The tough part was starting up a slight slope with pathetic power.

The Viva HC used to be very temperamental about plugs, I think there was only one make that seemed to last any length of time, AC?

Reply to
Gordon H
[...]

All Vauxhalls of that era ran better on AC-Delco plugs.

For a journey of 100 miles, I'd have looked for somewhere to buy a plug and plug spanner...

Chris

Reply to
Chris Whelan

On a busy Sunday? I didn't know that it was the plug at that stage, and it only occurred under load. Once cruising on the motorway the miss-firing stopped, but I would have had to do something if we'd been in Derbyshire!

Reply to
Gordon H

Tim Downie said in i6d1gk$8gi$ snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.org

Teacher at my school asked me to look at her car " it's making a horrible noise when it's moving, wobbling and won't turn corners very well. It can't be much 'cos it's ever so quiet when stood still!!"

Front wheel missing, driveshafts torn out, suspension dragging ...

"Oh. So would that be what the bang was when I hit the kerb then?"

Reply to
Paul - xxx

Must have been a hell of a wallop to lock the diff.

Reply to
Duncan Wood

maybe it was a 4x4?

Reply to
Mrcheerful

Nope, Corsa. She hit the kerb while on full lock, and it looked to me like the wheel folded over, outwards, from the top, breaking the hub and suspension and simply pulling the wheel/hub/driveshaft out the side of the diff!

She'd somehow carried on driving ... as you say, I guess the diff still had bits in it that somehow locked it up enough. She only drove about 300 yards to the school carpark after the hit. She was AA'd away ... ;)

Reply to
Paul - xxx

In message , Paul - xxx writes

Something similar happened to Twit Hamilton earlier today in Italy...

Is he becoming the new Damon Hill?

Reply to
Gordon H

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