November 2001
Has anyone fallen for the mistake of being out in the wilds (no street lights) and finding the small twin headlights approaching in the mirror are not a car still some distance away but a bike actually much closer. Read more
this is for the person who wanted a camper, if you go to ebay auctions, then go into automotive, then click on classics, you will see a VW camper from 1972, its just had a new engine fitted from volkspares. he wants £1800 for it, so its worth looking at the photos on the website. if you cant find the auction then type in the item number 1658304773 i hope this helps. Read more
The birds around here seem to have been breeding with an alien. I can to remove some bird droppings off my car only to find the paint had blistered slightly underneath.
First question, is there any way I can get rid of the blisters (it's pearlescent paint).
Second question, is there any wax/polish/stuff that can protect the paint against this kind of attack.
Third...anyone know where I can buy a machine gun...
Andy Read more
The only problem with Autoglym is its like a weak T-Cut, try using a black cloth to buff the car with and you will see what i mean.
Have a look at www.zymol.co.uk - go to the online shop. This stuff is very nice. especially the stuff that costs over a grand a tub...
Its time to stop people using mobile phones while they are driving.
Everyday i will follow somebody who decides to answer a call, then the inevitable erratic driving happens - you know speed up/down , wander across lanes.
The vast majority of us do not have the coordination to drive, hold a mobile and a conversation.
I know many of you will disagree but this is a road safety issue that seems to be ignored.
Steve G Read more
Yeah, I seem to recall that too. Didn't the fuming lorry driver he run into change his mood and ask for an autograph in the end?
Someone earlier (sorry forgot who) mentioned the ambulance thing. I'd agree with them on that, but would add that "I'll be home in ten minutes", "So how many do you want to buy" and "Did you see Beryl at the restaurant on Saturday" calls, which I suspect are the subject of most mobile conversations are just unnecessary and very dangerous.
Interesting what HJ said about jams. I'd agree with him, but only if the car was stationary or in very slow traffic and it was in an automatic.
No-one's mentioned texting, which would be entirely unsafe whilst driving, regardless of the circumstances.
The thread about performance bargains of the year mentioned a never-ending power source from two AA batteries etc...
What happened to the hydrogen fuel cell engine? Modern myth has it that oil companies bought the patent and buried it. Anyone read Gridlock by Ben Elton will have heard this one before.
Far more recently and with my own eyes (i.e. read it in a legit newspaper) there exists a compressed air vehicle which uses overnight charge to pressurise a compartment slowly lettting the out air as required to power the car like a steam engine. Not only that but becase it takes air in through charcoal filters when it brakes and recharges it actually produces negative pollution. (it cleans the air as it is used!). Er.. so where did that one go then?
Excuse my poor memory but was it this forum that talked about electric cars that could do 200 miles for 60pence etc.. which all the car company reps in this country strenuously deny the existence of?
dan Read more
Alwyn,
Depending upon mileage covered and fuel consumption, installation costs can be recovered suprisingly quickly. Guy's conversion cost him roughly £650 (I supplied the labour FOC - family huh?)
I think Guy will have almost recovered his costs by now. I'm sure he'll pop up soon and put us right.
David
I have a late 90 jetta 16v which runs unevenly and occasionally cuts out. The problem is believed to exist at higher revs but is more obvious on tickover. My (very helpful) VW specialist has spent several hours attempting to diagnose the problem, and has narrowed it down to a malfunction in the ignition. The Crypton tester shows an intermittent (every 10 to 40 seconds) loss of spark, the Crypton signal "breaking down in the middle of the scale as if turning up a resistor in the ignition circuit".
He has borrowed the following components from other vehicles: coil, ECU, amplifier, leads and has fitted a new distributor, all to no effect. He is now suggesting there may be a fault in the loom.
Any suggestions would be very welcome! Read more
Ben - I think this is the least of John's problems!
David
The Cavalier is due it's second service under my ownership and I was wondering what oil to use. The car has a full service history and has a very "clean" engine so given all the benefits of fully synthetic that everyone has been extolling, should I use that from now on and will it increase the life of the engine? Read more
I agree with you David, 6K changes are adequate.There is also the question of using a fully synthetic oil if you run a turbo.
regards
Simon
Thank you for all the replies to my previous question.
A final thought, if you need to run your air con all the time to keep it working properly and avoid expensive repairs, why do manufactures provide you with the facility to switch it off? Read more
can someone explain to me why it is that Honda has fitted air con to mainstream models since the mid-1970s and (on the whole) as long as the system gets an occasional recharge it just goes on working, while air con systems fitted to other makes seem to reduce fuel consumption, give major problems or just smell horrible! is there a lesson here? incidentally - hi david! hope you're well and still making a living hammering rovers back together!
Some help please. My 1990 Citroen BX TGD, ie the 1905cc normally aspirated diesel, recently required the hose leading to the heater matrix replacing as it was leaking coolant through it. The repair has been effected and the coolant level has stabilised for several days and hundreds of miles in the coolant expansion bottle at the recommended level.
Last night the low level coolant warning light came on after the car had been standing for 2 hours after use in congested town traffic. Coolant had been expelled through the overflow hole at the top of the expansion bottle.
This morning with the engine cold over night, I removed the pressure cap on the expansion bottle and saw the bottle completely empty. I have, of course, completely refilled it to the recommended level but am baffled as to why all the coolant should have been expelled from the expansion bottle after many miles of travel after the initial repair. There are, moreover, no signs of cross contamination of coolant and oil in the coolant and no indication of any other leak.
One other thing, in a journey I made yesterday of 100 miles in the countryside, I noticed the engine seemd a bit sluggish on acceleration. The engine has clocked 156,000 miles. Read more
Scrap it and buy a Lada. LOL
Does anyone know if there was a modification on Citroen diesels to replace the filter asembly and primer on the side of the battery housing.I have a 2.5TD XM which has had an inline Bosch filter fitted and the assembly removed.
This was done by a Citroen dealer but another doubts the move.
Car is a 1995 VSX estate and there are no problems with the inline arrangements. Read more
My 98 2.5 td has the bosch system ,I think they were modified in 96 and retrofitted under a call back
Browse
John Slaughter wrote:
>
> Wierd! Cars have to have two headlights - why is it a
> problem for bikes?
>
In theory:
Because most paired vehicle headlights are usually more than 1.5m apart.
On a bike they are no more than 6 cm apart.
Given that the bikes conventionally have only one headlight, the brain
automatically treats the two 6cm apart lights as being a four wheeled
vehicle. Once this assumption is made the brain then works out the distance
using perspective, but the basis that the lights are more than 1.5m apart, leading to a gross over estimation of the distance.
/john