The Don

Check with Unimo if they have service records for the car and if the item in question was repaired. The thing is if you inspect the car, there will be signs of accident damage if it was enough to damage the pre tensioner requiring a seat belt change. You should put it on a hoist and inspect. To be honest on a brand new car with service history, the likelyhood of this discrepency being caused by an illegal reason is very remote. Worthwhile checking things out as with any vehicle, but to me this does not sound suspicious.

Thats why I asked for the model Crosswind. There were some recalls involving seatbelt pre tensioners that happened around this period. But dates do overlap on some parts because the tag is not added in at assembly when the part is manufactured. I've not heard of anything breaking during an accident, though they are usually replaced as a precaution after some.

He did reccomend a place, in Mirihana close to the Japan Lanka showroom. I think its accross the road if memory serves right.

Was the car imported new or used? What is the model. Take a copy of the CR to RMV car division and ask them to verify it. If it checks out and the numbers on the car matches the the ones on the car there is nothing to worry about. The part manufacturer might have used a newer label (as in parts for 2009 is normally delivered in advance, so could have been delivered in end of 2008, but used up in 2008 itself), or the part changed after manufacture under warranty or for other reasons.

Most garages should have the equipment. If not a place which does engine rebuilds like Edirisinghe bros can do it for you. I've given a link above which tell you where the numbers should be, but there will be discrepencies depending on engine design. I have no idea about cost and its a simple process. A guague is attached to a pipe which is then screwed into the spark plug hold (with the plug out) and the engine is turned around to get a reading. The mileage on car odometers are meaningless unless you have owned the car from new. Many have been tampered with. And wear can be accelorated due to bad maintenance, particularly not changing oil on time, but also over revving the car frequently which can cause the piston chambers to get scorched and the valve seats to wear faster. Carbon deposits on valves can become heated embers slowly melting through the valves which can cause compression leaks as well. Often this is associated with bad maintenance but also city driving whether the car spends most of the time at slow speeds on stop start traffic Also when it comes to things like valve seats age also plays a part (and in SL fuel quality). No matter how low the mileage, they will start to leak as they become older and lose their suple qualities. Also its very important to be objective here. You should eliminate the cheaper to fix issues first before thinking big. Coolant temperature sensor should not have any bearing on cold crank. The MAF will, and many older chaps have issues with the MAF but a lot of the time the issues are obvious not when trying to start but when running, where you have issues with idle speed etc. But the OP has more obvious issues. The most obvious symptom is the black spark plugs. Get back to Rumesh with the ECO test readings. Increased HC numbers usually indicate either incorrect fuel burn (too much fuel being injected) or oil in the combustion chamber.

That particular engine is available everywhere. Delkanda and the Engine Watte in Panchikawatte will have them. To be honest you should repair as you do not always know the state of the engine you are about to fit, particularly if you can get away with just replacing the ring set without re boring or re sleeving. This depends on the cylinder gap. You should eliminate fuel delivery issues completely before you go ahead, and of course any issues with the coil packs. There must be standard ways of testing both. For fuel you are interested in fuel pressure to the injector rail. For coil packs whether its triggering the plugs with enough voltage. Have you checked the plugs? How do they look? Are they spoiled?

Upload it to a file share service or google drive (If you are uploading to Google drive please make it public) and then provide a link to it on the forum. The forum has very limited file upload facilities.

Clearly the issue is their tracking system and process for these collect and forward type orders. Funny thing is if I had the time and the space, I should do this myself for a living, as already do a lot of it for friends, and unlike Kapruka, I know exactly where stuff is I think their issue is probably margins, as its difficult to make a profit unless they do it at a grand scale and they probably don't have the personel or the infrastructure to do this properly. I'm surprised how the food delivery service has faded because thats something they have had for years! But credit where credit is due. I've used Trico to collect and deliver stuff for me from Australia and the United States, and except for one occasion, things have always gone smoothly. On that one occasion, Trico split my shipment (probably ran out of container space, and wasn't enough for another container) and failed to inform me, but they did not charge me for the second half of the shipment. They haven't lost anything to date either, and gave me a detailed inventory of things in their care, particularly the US office where most stuff originated from.

Really, I got it through JDNet and he said you reccomended the guy. He's up Baddegana road after the bridge. I must check out this chap when I'm home for a bit. Need the A/Cs serviced on the usual cars, and see how one can be installed on the Datsun. I'm thinking about getting some of the original 1960s kit, but how well that will work remains to be seen. The problem is these are slow revving engines and the original compressors matched that. The more modern variants might require more revs to get enough compression, so it needs somebody who understands the science of it, if things need to be adapted locally.

Sorry about this Saturn, but I'm done working with Kapruka myself. My complaint relates to their local food delivery side of the business, what they started off with. A couple of times I've had issues with orders, but I could not get hold of anybody to speak to, particularly through their London number or their US offices. I've once or twice got hold of people in SL, who rudely cut me out. I was waiting on the phone for 15 odd minutes so might have been a bit late to respond but that was ridiculous. But the one which broke the camels back is as follows. I ordered a Christmas hamper for an associate of mine which included a bottle of Johnny Walker Black Label. This is as advertised on the web site and I made no special requests. The day after the delivery, of which I get confirmation, I check with the chap whether he is happy with the gift. He tells me while the food got delivered, they told him they could not deliver alchohol in Sri Lanka due to government regulations. I had to spend another 3 days to get these guys to give me a refund, and they wrote to me they are refunding the value of the bottle of black "on my request". It is probably at that point that I decided never to deal with the company again. It is entirely possible that I've gotten used to good customer service in the UK but this was ridiculous. I think the following are fair expectations in any country. 1. If they could not source or deliver something that was ordered and paid for, they should have contacted me, not the receiver. 2. They should have offered me a refund automatically and apologised. It is they who are in breach of contract. Instead I had to go after them and waste my time to get a refund but no apology. 3. If I had not contacted the receiver, which is not something I usually do, I would not have known about the missing item. Now I have no confidence over all my other orders via them either, and whether what was delivered was what I ordered (as I am overseas and these are gifts to friends and family). I'm sure you are regretting anouncing you work for Kapruka now Please note this is not personal. But from a consumers perspective, I'm sure you will recognise my concerns.

Ok here is the thing. When an engine is warm, it expands a bit and this compounds any issues with compression loss. That is probably why you are seeing the issue more when the engine is warm than cold. Delay in starting can be caused by a lot of issues. But if you have a compression leak either through valve seats, charred valves, piston rings etc then you are likely to see a start delay. This is a progressive problem which will get worse over time. Also oil getting into the combustion chamber will spoil the plugs and injectors making the issue worse. These can be temporally overcome by cleaning them. Sounds like one of the pistons is a bit low and the others are kind of ok. Read the article below. http://www.gregsengine.com/cylinder-compression-testing.html How bad is the delay?

Can you guys mention a competent AC technician if there are any. I think VVTi mentioned Situlya in Baddegana a while ago. Also are there any good places to get a new AC installed?

Is it not 40? Does it not say SAE 40?

I thought Maruti was building a home grown gearbox. Sounds like the dual clutch software is not up to scratch. I would be surprised if a Magnetti Marelli is that jerky.

Don't replace the engine yet. You don't know what sort of lump you will end up with. If you are burning oil, have you checked the plugs to see if they are spoiled? Sounds like your car is starting and running. If your problem is the car takes a little while to start in the morning, do check compression. But likely causes are ignition and fuel delivery. Particularly as I said before coil packs, fuel line blockage, air in the fuel line, and pump issues (gunk in the fuel pump). To test this you can see if the car starts easily if you spray some easy start directly into the air filter as you are cranking. Then stop, and try to start without it.

There cars have the coil per spark plug, and they have a habit of failing. But you should check before replacing. The other issues like cam sensor usually show up on the scanner. Who scanned the car. Was it the agent using the Consult system? If you have got the starter motor serviced. Check the usual suspects like blocked fuel line, faulty spark plugs, plug wires, whether you get a spark in the first place, and if all else fails a compression test, though petrols normally start even with a bit of low compression.

First and foremost search the forum. Second, do not buy a car because its cheap. There is usually a reason why its cheap. If you buy a European car, be prepared to use a specialist to keep it in optimum running condition. Thankfully for Peugeot there are quite a number of these, but others are likely to mess it up. Do not buy a European car because of fuel efficiency though I estimate 8-9 city and 10-15 outstation. The parts are relatively expensive but that is because supply is limited to Genuine and OEM parts in SL. On a like for like comparable basis they are no more expensive than their comparative Japanese equivalents. But not as cheap as the lower quality replacements available in the market and definitely not as cheap as Indian parts. No offence intended, but I don't think you have researched the Peugeot 406 very well. There are number of trim levels and differences between brand new imports and used imports from the UK. Electronics can be tepramental and so are interior plastics, and you need to take care of using jacking points when lifting the car as doing so otherwise can put the body out of alignment. What you buy is obviously your choice, but make an informed decision.

Those cars have been lying there for a number of years. So when is anybodys guess. Its become an obstacle course now, where people in the neighbourhood go for walks. Thats one of the sad things. Used to be a nice park to play sports etc. Now its just full of salvage vehicles. Some of the Defenders and Japanese cars can probably put back in the road. I don't hold much hope for the Indian vehicles. Shows the contrast between quality and false economy.

This is scary because the said baiyya would do a penny pinching repair on the car, get it running again and try to make a profit. They would not have bid so much if that wasn't possible...... If you took it to a normal garrage, they will pull the dent out, maybe even repair the bonet, replace the shell, radiator, condenser, the fans, repair and replace whatever else, paint and get the car running. A lot of these cars will have alignment problems as the force from the front tends to knock the wishbones and mounts out leading to issues with caster.

The frame of the sun roof is quite strong and is supposed to help with the structural integrity. The biggest issue is leaks. Sun roofs are probably fairly useless in Sunny countries like SL. They are quite nice to have on a warmish summer day in a colder climate.

Happy birthday!

Personally I don't think the car is a write off mechanically, but by Unimo estimates it sounds like an uneconomical repair, or a technical write off. Basically in this car, the front clip, everything attached to it, radiator, condenser, lights fans and whatever is damaged in the engine needs to be replaced. Plus since the air bags would have deployed you need the sensors, the airbags and in some cars the whole dashboard needs to be replaced as the airbags tear the dashboard when deployed. There are always other things that go wrong as well, particularly wishbones and mounts...... So I'm sure the numbers add up, particularly if parts are being replaced new and considering the labour involved. The car has held together well, the crumple zones have absorbed the impact and the passenger compartment looks intact.

A number of reasons 1. Poor after sales support from Micro 2. Higher price of spares 3. Low availability of used body parts made collision repairs quite expensive 4. Common as muck, no prestige attached to the brand and in SL these things matter 5. Dubious build quality

Modern cars are pretty good at standing up to the weather. In SL the main issue is the Sun, not the rain. If your car does not have any exposed metal and the drains are clear, it is unlikely to suffer being exposed to the rain. But things to be aware of are 1. Falling projectiles, particularly under trees 2. Bird and Bat droppings. These should be washed away immediately. Personally I'd use a good quality car cover.

Yeah same here on my BMW. Its probably more indicative of the type of drive you've had rather than the pads being orignal or aftermarket. And to be honest there are plenty of excellent after market pads out there and some superior to the original. This is particularly true for Evolutions, WRX's and STIs, basically performance cars. In Europe PAGID Brake Discs and Pads are widely considered to be equivalant or better quality than the original. Why do I make this argument. Because I do not believe quality === original. There are DIY kits to deal with kerbing by the way. Most of the process if what you described above. The only extra steps are, you need to sand the damaged area down a bit, use a filler made for alloy rims, sand it down again using different grades of sand paper, prime it and then paint using alloy paint at a shad of your chosing. I'm not sure how roads and kerbs are like in Australia, but in the UK it is near impossible to avoid kerbing, no matter how careful you are.