It's a sad day for my mechanical skills

I being born in 1960,my father a miner , my earliest memories are that of being under the bonnet of "Bess" as he called all his cars tinkering with engines , his mate Ted Sharp had a scrapyard so spare parts or full engines or cars were not a problem to acquire cheap.
I honed my skills over the years to what I would say an acceptable standard . I must have had over thirty cars and a dozen motorbikes in my time and never used the services of a garage for repairs
However that all comes to an end today as I've had to call for a mobile mechanic to help with a 51 plate Renault Mégane that simply refuses to start . Despite my best efforts and searching for pointers it has beaten me .
My investment over the years in tools now seems pointless ,.
I hope he turns up in a plain vehicle I couldn't face the neighbors if it advertises his trade ,
I am sure I will get by but it will take time .
( Really I am just worried about the hit on my wallet )

 

It will probably be a cheap sensor , did you put a code reader on it?

 

Buy an OBD2 reader, you can pick them up cheap enough and if there's a fault code generated it will tell you straight away. Doesn't make you less of a mechanic, its just another tool.

 

Its not a coincidence

 

I have a few of the obd tools ,each give conflicting reports . I think it's an electrical fault but I know nothing of electrical fault finding ,as they say "I've all the gear but no idea", with electrics. I've exhausted my knowledge and I don't fancy a car fire so I await the mechanic ,

 

A pond says it's the immobiliser.

 

If its been in the pond it could be anything

 

I watch a chap called Diagnosis Dan , a Dutch chap on YouTube .a brilliant man explains everything in a language we all understand . He has all the plug in bits of kit you could dream of and he often has to use two or three to get to the root problem . The issue is where do you stop with buying gadgets . The car is only worth a couple of hundred at best .
I would recommend passing an hour or two watching Diagnosis Dan

 

I do actually fancy a new style beetle . They are dirt cheap and get alot for your money but I don't know anyone that likes them , also there's got to be a reason why there so dirt cheap.

 

Me too, they do seem very cheap! Maybe we should start a thread on cheap new beetle finds so that others can rip them to shreds and put a stop to the idea?

 

my bro had one,
the upper engine wiring loom was shot ,
intermittent faults inc not starting
its a common fault on them

 

Disconnect the battery, go and charge it up.
Reconnect battery. This will reset all the computers in the car back to an initial state.

It is quite possible that the memory of the ECU got corrupted by leaving it with a nearly flat battery.

Its an old car, I dont think OBD2 had quite made onto all cars in 2001.

If it ran before lockdown, it has developed a fault through standing around.
if its diesel it could have now got a big air bubble in the fuel line from a hairline leak.
Worse would be something rotted out from all the rain this spring and it has gone beyond economic repair.

The other cars in our household are a 51 and an 04 plate Peugeot. And I have had to strip down electromechanical actuators and clean them on the 04 to get it all basically working. They both had recalls around 2008 I think for possible water in electrics faults. They both have survived..

 

How do the OBD scanners give conflicting reports? What are they saying?

 

One says DF061 ignition coil 1 to 4 open circuit or short circuit intermittent
DF003 air temperature circuit Sensor open circuit or short, present

 

We have a new style beetle (it’s the current Mrs ‘T’s’ car) and the wife won’t part with it. It’s a 1999/2000 2 litre in yellow which has done around 130,000 miles. We’ve had it some 12yrs now and the only issue re bodywork was the rear of the sills rotting out (a regular problem by all accounts). It does however use some oil and I was forever changing spark plugs till I was advised to regularly clean the intake pipes and oil filler/breather.

 

Had 2 of these in the last couple of years while I've been building the bus. I like them to drive - the 1600 is a bit weak but the 2litre is quite lively. All of them seem to suffer with electrical problems. Dash warning lights go on and off for no apparent reason and emissions on the ones I had needed ignoring by MoT testers
As said they can be bought for buttons but I would only look at one with a long MoT as it's unlikely to make it through the next one.

 

Well, yesterday was a prime example of why I can have a good go at anything myself rather than depend on others ,especially trades people .

Having set out my stall the previous day for
1) mobile mechanic
2) sand and gravel man to drop of sand and crusher run so I can busy myself laying some block paving.

I got the sum total of sweet bugger all done , sandman didn't turn up saying he has trouble with his van when I reluctantly troubled him with a phone call. And the mobile mechanic didn't turn up and he hasn't replied to any messages sent to him .

Why are tradespeople like this , do they have so much money they can do without the work or do they just like making people fed up and waste a day put of their diminishing number of days we have left .
Can you tell I am not a happy bunny

 

Crank sensors used to be common on these, try disconnecting it and reconnecting .Also we own 2 new beetles
Martin