Bumble SV

Its almost a year to the day since I posted this question but I thought I'd post an update in case anyone is interested... Running a special UV die through the coolant has helped to find that a housing at the back of the engine which connect various pipes was cracked. Its a part that can't be seen from anywhere, even when up on the ramps. Hopefully this sorts things out and I manage to avoid having to have the head taken off. Roadsport SV - Yellow/Black Stripe

The use of RON98 in your ST220, provided it has a knock sensor should give you more MPG but also more performance as it is a powerful highly tuned engine. Whether this extra is sufficient and worth the cost is your call! FYI - my A4 is the TFSI engine which was specifically designed to use RON98 fuel. I can definitely notice the negagtive difference in performance and the loss of about 3 MPG when I use standard unleaded. Roadsport SV - Yellow/Black Stripe

Yes I'm sure BUT your sitation is different. DON'T change your fuel - stay as you are with the V-Power. You should use the correct RON for what your ECU is mapped to. It sounds like your R400 is factory mapped using RON 98. However, my K series is factory mapped using RON 95 so I should stick with that. However, if I chose to have a rolling road remap, then I might choose to fill with 98 and have it mapped based on that and use 98 going forward. The effect of the different RON is the amount of compression that the fuel can take before the optimum point to induce combustion (ie when the spark plug should fire). A knock sensor detects when the spark plug is firing sub-optiminally and adjusts things accordingly via the ECU. Therefore, in my A4 which does have a knock sensor, I can use either 95 or 98). Does that help? Sorry if I didn't make it clear in my original post. Roadsport SV - Yellow/Black Stripe

A family member of mine is one of Shell's senior petro-chemical engineer. After discussing the issue with him, I now only use RON 95 in the 7! The knock sensor point above is the main issue - the K series engine doesn't have one (don't know about the zetec or cosworth though). Using RON 98 can actually give you marginally less performance, so in short you may be more than wasting your money! Roadsport SV - Yellow/Black Stripe

Thanks to all for the replies. I've tried looking under the bonnet in the dark and cold with the engine hot and running, using a bright LED torch, but still nothing. Thankfully no sign of any maynaisse like substances under any of the filler caps (either when hot or cold) and no sign of crystals anywhere. And now to cap it all (in hopefully a good way!) after 500 miles since the last fill, absolutely no loss!! Crazy. I am hoping that the most sensible explanation is a dodgy pressure release in the cap which has some how righted itself after I removed it for the last fill. Needless to say, a close inspection of the coolant level is to be added to my weekly tyre pressure and washer fluid checks. Thanks again to all.

Over the last few months I have had to keep topping up the coolant on my A4 (2005 2.0T petrol). It runs from Max to below Min over less than 1k miles. I can't see any obvious leak, but I'm not sure how to tell to be honest. Any tips before it gets sent off to the garage? Can I just keep topping up or is that too dangerous? [PS - the only change in the car is the JabbaSport remap 😬 before Christmas if that could have caused any problem?] Roadsport SV - Yellow/Black Stripe

davidreeves I experienced the same issue and thought of doing the same with the alignment, until someone pointed out that the car was deliberately set up in order to give it better handling in corners, but this could produce this tyre wear effect if it spent much time being driven on motorways/dual carriageways (ie a leisurely wear on the tyre). Given you have already had your alignment adjusted, be careful of reduced handling next time you go for a blat on the country roads! But re the tyre wear, even if you did swap them over, now you have had the alignment changed to neutral, what benefit would you get (ie you should no longer get more tyre wear on the inner tread)? Roadsport SV - Yellow/Black Stripe

😬 Roadsport SV - Yellow/Black Stripe

Last Sunday? That was probably me. On the way for a fantastic blat around Lincolnshire - the wind made it such hard work though!! Roadsport SV - Yellow/Black Stripe

I run 18psi on CR500s 195/45/R15. After hearing a few horror stories, I check the pressures once a week on both the 7 and tin top - the variations (especially in Spring when the weather swaps from cold to hot frequently) always amaze me. Off to check the inner sidewalls too... Roadsport SV - Yellow/Black Stripe

A day with Don Palmer will have you knowing all about your car's full potential (and so how to keep just below the limit) http://www.donpalmer.co.uk Roadsport SV - Yellow/Black Stripe

Just had the 7 MOTed this week - the guys were amazed the car had a reversing light! Roadsport SV - Yellow/Black Stripe

I too have exactly the same problem with one of my CR500s - 18psi to 9psi over about a week but then stops at 9psi and never seems to get any lower I mentioned this to someone at CC (I think) and they said that track tyres somtimes have this problem and that it is "normal" as they are only intended to operate at a set psi for a few hours at a time. Apart from CR500s being not just track tyres, and that CR500s are clearly CC's choice of road tyre, I didn't really believe this. But then I never did anything about it and just continued inflating the tyre each time I take the car out. Interesting comment by Stationary M25 about the pourous band in the tread. Does anyone have a suitable contact at Avon? There seems to be plenty of people with an irritating tyre problem! Roadsport SV - Yellow/Black Stripe

Thanks all. That gives me several to go at. Roadsport SV - Yellow/Black Stripe

All My 7 requires an MOT shortly and a post-winter service probably wouldn't go a miss. I've previously used Caterham Midlands but wasn't that impressed last time round to warrant the inconvenience of the trip to Leicester. Anyone aware of any good local garages with experience of 7s worth using in the Newark/Grantham area? Edited to add Red Text Roadsport SV - Yellow/Black Stripe Edited by - Bumble SV on 1 Apr 2008 12:07:07