Robert

I have a Vauxhall astra H (2009) 1.7 cdti ecoflex estate and I changed the fuel filter on it. Obviously some air got in during the process which now needs to be bled out. Although I did fill the filter housing/filter with diesel to minimize the amount of air.

I followed car manuals procedure of turning the ignition on for 15 seconds three times to prime the system then trying the ignition to start the engine for 30 seconds. I ran the battery flat repeating this process since the engine would not start. Battery is now recharging!

I suppose there is still air in the system somewhere or air is getting in and I'll be checking the new seals are properly in place around the new filter. But I'd like advice on how to proceed or a better method of bleeding air out. Thanks.

The power steering seems only to be working intermittently. Particularly in the mornings and at slow speeds the steering feels very heavy when turned, heavy like there is no assistance. I haven't heard any odd noises that might suggest a fault and this is a very recent issue, it just seems to have happened.

The car in question is a 2007 ford KA. The steering reservoir is at the max mark and always has been when ever I check the cars fluid levels so I happy there is not a leak in the system. The belt providing power to the pump doesn't look badly worn and is taught.

I've read that commonly on KA's the universal joint at the end of steering column wears out or that the steering rack itself is shot. I suppose it's also possible the PAS pump is also dead or dieing. Is there some way I can test the pump and the steering rack to determine which is causing the problem? Both seem to be expensive parts and I want to know for sure what to replace before I do it.

I'm fitting a dedicated circuit for a new electric oven I'm buying. Doing most of the work myself and having it checked by someone qualified to save money.

The new circuit breaker in the fuse box will be rated 32A is that suitable? The switch I've found is double pole 45A is that fine? And I plan to use twin and earth 4mm cable from the fuse box to the switch cable will conform to BS6004. Is all of the above fine, would anyone reccomend different? Cheers

I have a gas oven and range. The oven lights fine and all the jets appear to be lit and burning fine ( blue flame) I but as of last night turning the dial to a higher gas mark does nothing. Gas mark 9 is the same heat and flame as gas mark one. What are the possible reasons and things I should be checking to try and fix this? My first thought is perhaps the dial is broken, I've yet to start checking but would like advice from people with more experience in this area than I have. I would also like to identify the problem and fix it myself or at least know what's wrong before I call an engineer or replace the range.

I have an 07 ford KA, the basic standard model and I want to make clear it does NOT have air con.

Last winter the heater could only blow hot air even if set to cold. Come spring I thought I'd better solve this issue as come summer it would be unpleasant. Having looked in the haynes manual and done some research I decided the most likely cause of the fault was that the valvel for the heater had broken and stuck in the setting to provide hot air. So I replaced this valve myself. Having done so the heaters worked fine I had cold air when I set it to provide it and hot air when I wanted it also. That was about a month ago.

Now I'm back to only getting hot air. I want to know if people agree with me in thinking I've been unlucky with the new valve and that its given up sooner than it should have or is something else likely to be the cause of the problem?

I am thinking of having a water meter installed. Currently just me and my wife live in a 3 bed room semi so I understand were likely to save money with a meter.

My concern however is that were the house fully occupied 4 people or more then a meter would be more expensive than the normal system. So if we choose to move in a few years could the water meter put the sort of family's who would likely buy our size house off, or is it a factor so far down peoples list that its not a worry?

I have a 2007 ford ka, 1.3 litre and the standard basic model. . and this morning it refused to start.

If I switch on just the electrics and switch on headlights and the cockpit light they are bright. On the dash the LCD trip computer comes on, the fuel gauge rises up to the fuel level. The engine warning light comes on and stays on, as does the battery warning light, oil level warning light and engine temp light.

If I then turn the ignition from the electrics on position to the engine start position all the lights on the dash, the headlights and cockpit light go out. Some dash lights come back on and flicker. The speedo and fuel gauge drop to the stops and then rattle and click. The cockpit light is very dim.

If I switch the ignition back to electrics only the lights remain dim though get a little brighter, if I switch everything off and leave it for a few minutes and switch it back on the lights are bright again until I try to start the engine and then the same thing happens.

I can't hear the starter motor trying to turn but given that all lights go out when I try to start the engine I doubt enough if any power is ever reaching the starter motor.

Given that the lights are bright, that some gauges and dials work the battery is obviously able to provide some power, and when I tested it with a multimeter the reading as 12.4 volts which I think is ok, though I wonder if the battery is faulty and can't supply enough power to start the engine and kills everything else in the process. Obviously i don't want to spend any money until I know exactly whats wrong and I hope someone can help.

My friends pc when switched on does not display anything on the monitor. The monitor stays in standby mode but is not displaying the warning message it does when the cable is disconnected from the back of the pc.

There was a beep code which translated to a memory problem when looked up.

I checked his ram in my pc and is faulty, it didn't work in my pc and i got the same fault ( no image on display, similar beep code). So we've replaced the ram for some new chips 2x 1gb ddr2. Which we also tested in pc where it does work. Having installed it in his pc though the fault still exists. The beep code no longer sounds suggesting that the pc knows the ram ports are occupied. But there is still no image on the monitor it still stays in standby.

Thinking that there could be more than one fault and since there is no display I have checked the graphics card. The graphics card is fine and produces an image when installed in my pc.

So has anyone else any experience of a similar problem or ideas on what the issue could be.

I'm certain the new ram is not faulty and that the graphics card works. I'm certain that all connections both internal and external are fine also. Also the monitor itself has been tested and works. To my mind either the mobo or cpu is faulty or there is a power supply problem, though no new hardware has recently been installed. The system is home built and roughly 18 months old. any help greatly appreciated.

My fiance has a HP 530, it started randomly switching off, I noted that it did this when the battery lost all charge and it didn't seem to be charging when plugged into mains. Despite the charge light being on and the battery icon on the system tray showing the laptop as charging.

So I assumed the battery was probably faulty and had lost the ability to hold a charge. Bought a new battery and the laptop showed it had 62% charge left decided to top it up to 100% so plugged in the charger. Despite the laptop saying that it was now charging the battery level dropped until it reached zero and the laptop switched itself off.

Due to this I don't think the battery is the issue, unless the brand new one happens also to be faulty. Also the charger is new since we recently broke the original so power from the mains should be being delivered to the laptop.

This leads me to suspect that the charging circuit inside the laptop is faulty. Does anyone know if the charging circuit is a seperate component inside the HP530 that can be replaced or is it intergrated into the motherboard? For the cost of a new mobo I may as well buy a new laptop but if its a cheaper componant I would be more interested. I should state that I'm a professional IT technician so actualy carrying out any repairs doesn't bother me.

I have an interview this week for an IT support 1st line with the NHS as part of the interview I have to take a 15 minute technical test. Does anyone know what the NHS's technical test usually envolves and what format it takes.

I need to change the front drivers side wheel over to the spare. I lossened the 4 nuts, jacked up the car, fully removed the 4 nuts and attempted to pull the wheel off. Heres my problem it won't move.

In the past I've had to change the rear passenger side wheel and doing the above that just came off. Which is why I'm confused as to why I can't remove the front drivers side. The rear wheels have hud brakes and the front are disks does this make a difference? Is there an extra bolt or something I've missed or is this just a case of road dirt etc ceasing the wheel on and I just need to put my back into it.

I've been running win7 rc for most of the year on a 9800GT with no issues until the last few days. Now when i boot up I get a black screen with only my curser showing where I should be seeing my login screen.

I understand from reading up that the latest drivers from nvidia are causeing this issue with these cards on win7. Although using older drivers can help I'm considering upgradeing to a new and better GPU. So I really want to know from other win7 users what cards your using or know to work without issue on win 7, I would prefer nvidia but if an ati card ticks all the boxes I'm not going to ignore it.

I have a gas range its nearly 4 years old. The hob and oven burn fine. The grill however is the issue. The grill has little holes so the gas comes out in fingers and it lights fine but then one or two fingers will go out, then it'll ripple along one finger going out and reigniting as the next one goes out. Usually after a minute or so of this the flame will go out completly. The hob and oven as I say work fine, as does our gas boiler. So I assume the issue is with grill component of the range or with the internal supply to the grill. It used to work fine. Is this an age issue? is there anything I or an engineer can do? or should I just replace the whole range?