coastline taxis

change your fuel and air filters

normally when a key just spins its a sign that the tumblers are siezed in the lock. Do as paul suggested but use brake cleaner in the lock 1st then loads of wd in the lock and also on the key then insert the key

once a bsi/ecu/keys are married to each other they can not no matter what be divorced from each other ever. so if you didnt get the bsi from the donor car when you swapped the ecu over then thats your problem. You can however get a new (virgin) bsi unit and reprogram it to the car. the codes needed for this can be obtained from the dealers. But to be honest unless you do this everyday then id let the dealer do it as theres a lot to set up.

Your egr valve needs cleaning/changing. Common fault on the 1.6

what does the smoke smell off

yes

have you over filled the oil by anychance

go bac to the garage and get him to record the live data off the engine need it recording at tickover then again at 3000 revs and tell him to select all readings in the live data then post them on here please. black smoke is down to either serious amounts of excess fuel getting in or a intercooler pipe split or intercooler itself knackered

your garage is talking rubbish. the strap that paul is onabout is a metal door stay and are not colour coded to any car other than top end roller,s Bentley,s etc. and it is a 20 min job to replace them

yes its probally water comming down from the scuttle panel. there should be a rubber pipe taking it away from the gearbox. if pipe is not there then get one a.s.a.p as the water gets into the gearbox via the selector fork bearing and kills the gearbox oil which inturn kills the gearbox

They dont need recocing if you give me the last 4 numers on the injector il match a set up for you. They come out very easy and arnt prone to sticking in. All you will need to buy is 4 sealing rings there about a £1 each

if there the bosch type ive got about 20 of them sitting in the garage and can eisily send u a set for the cost of postage. im assuming its a 8 valve

youve probally wrecked the air mass and the air temperature which shares the airmass by brushing them/ always use a spray cleaner and never ever touch the probes.

use a diagnostic and see if you can park the wipers with it. if that dosnt work then take pauls advice and check linkages etc

just get a strip of 6in x 1 in angled metal and it fits perfect with very little trimming needed and very easy to weld in then underseal it and the jobs done in a hour

just look down at your clutch pedal. you see the piece of plastic trim to the left of the clutch pedal well its behind that. chances are it will be 2 green muiti plugs with thick and thin wires attached to them

Wouldnt hurt after 10 years and also allows you to rule a cause out

Well done to you for sorting it and a big thank you for letting us know. many thanks and yes they have heater plugs but they dont operate till a least minus 5

the 1.6 dosnt have a good reputaition regarding turbos. you really need to get the car pluged into live data and see what the fault is before it destroys your turbo/ engine. Could be anything from a broken wire to a split hose to the actual turbo. google 1.6 turbo failure then youl understand how important it is for you to act quickly

you don't say what year the car is or I just cant see it. you 1st thing is to plug the car in and go to the bsi unit ( depending on age) and test the central locking and maybe reconfigure it

Wow £213

there fairly straight forward to do but not really a 1 man job as theres a load of twisting and pulling. just slacken rear sub frame bolts and pull down with a crowbar

might be worth getting your battery load tested as the cold weather will put a strain on a good battery

check the earths and feed wires to the headlights then

it does its just that you dont notice it. im not talking inches here. every time the ride height adjuster is moved it tries to correct it back to the correct ride height. this includes speed humps and pot holes