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Hi Chaps, Got my first Japanese car the other week - 2008 Auris SR VVT-i). Nothing too exciting, cheap and cheerful. Hopefully will prove at least as reliable as my old Focus (yes it was ultra-reliable). Already found handful of valuable advice on this forum. I look forward to contribute as much as I can. I'm no stranger to spanners and electrics/electronics. Will see you a lot in the nearest future. Cheers

Many thanks Frank, had to get one from halfords (Yuasa silver 85 - 800A) sadly I was away & had to get one quickly so unable to shop around, did find one £50 cheaper but could not go and get it!!! all in ok and everything now working apart from windows which I did not know that bit so will go and check and sort. Thanks again

Go on to eurocarparts website put in reg of car and will give you the right battery.you could of course check the number on the old battery.also euro car parts normally do a sale.just unbolt the battery put new 1 in.you will have to reset windows by putting them down then pull up and keep fingers on button until they are fully up and hold for a second or 2.and then reset radio station.

It going to be the belt that's perishing and is on it's way out. They cost about £10 and are a relatively simple job to sort out. If it was a bearing it'd be howling all the time.

The squeal is usually from the belt slipping, not a faulty alternator.

Two advantages that the 1.6 petrol engine has. First, it's simple - there are no £1,000 boxes of electronic trouble waiting to ambush you when it gets middle-aged, and no £1500 turbo to fail, and no high-pressure fuel pump (that'll be another £750, sir). And secondly, there are no plans to charge petrol cars an additional tenner a day to drive into places like Bristol or Cambridge or Birmingham or a couple of dozen other cities. That was what clinched it for me, and why I switched away from diesel. My 1.6 petrol estate has far more power than my old Passat, and is faster in every way, even though it has less low-down grunt. I just have to rev it a bit higher when taking off. MPG on the 1.6 ranges from 37 around town to 45-47 on a straight motorway thrash. It works for me!

The video guidance is wrong. If you follow my suggestion by removing all four plugs at the same time and then unbolting the wiring harness, there'll be no problem. The clips should never be forced. Once the clip is raised to clear the tab, a broad tipped screwdriver is then used to gently lever the plug away from the igniter socket. Good luck.

Which video? When I changed the plugs I recall having to unplug all of the feeds on all four of the ignitors. Then remove the 10mm bolts/nuts which secure the wiring harness for those plugs. Once this is moved out of the way there's enough space to unbolt all of the ignitors. The clips which hold these plugs in place need to be eased clear. Pushing on the toggle won't lift the tap high enough so a fine screwdriver is required to raise it the last mm as you pull the plug off each ignitor.

I have an irritating leak... dribbling down the front of the engine = from the Cam box Gasket (TADTS) ... for £13 I thought I would lash this lot on [with Blue Hylomar non setting, of course] SO... I bought a Really Big Tube 2sav

Love the spoiler on my Gen3, blocks out dazzling headlights nicely of any tailgating vehicles etc. Can easily see if anything is there is necessary, and thats even with factory tinted rear windows.

Mine too but I love it. I never have to dip the mirror.

The Valvematic engine is even more awkward than the Mk2 VVTi because the cowling cover and wiper has to be removed to remove coils 3 and 4. Plus the socket is a smaller 14mm thin walled. My bits are further down the following post. One quick note - I noticed in the video above and Peter Finn's - both disconnect the battery! I have never did this and understand the reason for disconnecting, but 'luckily' never had a problem. For those with satnav, make sure the disc is handy and in place!