engine | Ask Honest John

Ask Honest John

Most recently answered engine questions

Do you think that petrol 6-cylinders are still a viable option? I ask because, when returning from a recent holiday in the South-West of England, I managed to obtain 38.6 mpg on the trip computer of my...

Incapacity benefit

We’re considering buying a Volvo V70. Volvo has announced a V70 1.6D DRIVe, which my wife likes but I’m concerned that it might be a little underpowered. There's little information, but looking on the...

Great Xpectations

Does the Jaguar XF 3.0i V6 diesel prominently advertised in yesterday's Telegraph have the new diesel engine or are they clearing stocks of the old one? Are the claims of high quality standing up to expectation?

Reg per minute

In the course of an old fogey's refresher driving lesson, a year ago, the Instructor explained the benefits of driving at the optimum rpm – not something that had occurred to me previously. I was then...

Tensioner, nervous headache

I have a Vectra 1.9TDCi registered in June 2006 with 71,205 on the clock. Last Monday, whilst driving home, the temperature shot up and the engine started making rattling noises without warning. The car...

Boxster Knocked out

The engine in my un-thrashed 2004 2.7 Boxster, 23k miles, FSH (Porsche main dealer), has just suffered a catastrophic "bag of spanners” breakdown, whilst doing nothing more exotic than driving to the shops....

All torque and no action

There are a good number of three-year-old C5 and 407 estates on the market at what seems a good price. Many of them have the 1.6 HDI engine. Aren't these somewhat underpowered for what are pretty large...

Swirl guides

We recently emailed you regarding our 2004 BMW 320d that suffered a catastrophic engine failure when a swirl flap in the inlet manifold broke off and entered the engine. The car has full BMW service history...

Diesceased

I filled up my 2007 Mondeo TDCI with diesel as usual. Over a period of 4 days, including long distance motorway, running I experienced a number of issues. I had trouble starting, the engine would rev on...

Cold medal

I have a 2003 BMW E39 525dSE auto Touring that appears to have a problem of overcooling. It can take up to 10 miles to reach normal working temperature, summer or winter. At that point, descending hills...