I wonder if they're needed when everything is new and clean, but as soon as you get a few years buildup of grease, dirt, rust, etc, there's enough friction in there to provide natural damping anyway?

I've always wondered if they were to do with damping brake squeal or something like that. Again though, it seems unlikely. I also wondered whether they were something to do with changing pads, if you undo one slider and then hinge the caliper body around the other one, so the caliper doesn't...

I think that only one pin on each caliper is supposed to have them though? Also, they're at the bottom of a blind hole, which makes me think they're not for anything to do with stopping muck from getting in?

Does anyone know what those rubber bits actually do?

These guys might be able to help: https://www.autoairconparts.co.uk/valve-cores-caps

Yeah, I'm in Cumbria too - not much fun right now! Bit better this morning... What a strange problem though? When we had the driveshaft problem with the X-Trail, there were no bangs or clunks and it steered fine The outboard CV joints were fine, it was just the tripod joint on the inboard end...

I see Nodge has already suggested it, but I had something on my wife's late X-TRail that I could have also sworn was a misfire and was actually an inner CV join. The X-Trail is like the Freelander. It uses a tripod joint on the inboard end of each driveshaft. Quite surprising how it could...

For a sealing washer, I'd be inclined to simply give it a quick rub on some 400 grit wet-or-dry paper on a surface table (or other flat surface), rather than using a file, so that there's less chance of getting the surfaces non-parallel or putting gouges in them - either of which could affect...

No, that's not true. Copper can be cooled fast or slow once annealed. It doesn't affect the mechanical properties.

It can. Once the workpiece has become red hot, the annealing process is done and the rate of cooling doesn't make any difference (unlike steel, where the properties can be dramatically altered by the cooling rate).

I can't answer your second question, but mine's also reconditioned and has done slightly fewer miles than yours (say 15,000). Mine also feels slightly "draggy" on full lock and I'm getting about a 50 second time with 5kg. Received wisdom on here seems to be that any more than a minute at 5kg...

Brilliant, thanks! I assume the advantage of doing it that way, is that when you manually switch it off, it still goes through its cool-down cycle so it doesn't "cook" anything?

Can't think of anything else then. I agree that slight clutch slip seems the most likely explanation.

Sounds fair.

Have you altered your tyre pressures recently?

Excellent advice, as always! Not really looking forward to trying to get the front bumper off, to be honest. 18 years is a long time!

Thanks Nodge. So the FBH has its own internal sensor for water temperature, somewhere in its heat exchanger then? And thanks that makes sense. The FBH exhaust isn't very hot after 10 miles, so I guess it is just the fan that's running. I'll have to have a look at that.... ...when the...

. Just a quick question on this, if I may, please? I know the ambient air temperature sensor must be faulty on mine. The FBH comes on whenever the ambient temperature drops below 10 degrees, rather than 5. However, the 75 degree upper limit is of interest. I've replaced my thermostat about...

Hi and welcome. Sorry to hear of your plight. As Nodge68 says, sounds like a (very!) badly knackered turbo oil seal. It'll need fixing before you run it again, I'm afraid.

Ta. Yes, that seems to be the consensus. I think I'm grateful, really. I'd rather have the fuel pump longevity! The only disappointment, was that I was hoping fr a tad better fuel consumption at the next fillup, but if it was doing nothing, I probably won't get that either! "Psssst! Anyone...