March 2002
It is many years since I drove down the very steep road into Lynmouth, but I remember the frequent signs -'Keep in low gear, Escape road 2 miles--Escape road 1 mile---1/2 mile', etc. Then I passed the 'escape road' - a ten yard slot cut into the cliff face with a pile of gravel to slow you down from what? possibly 80mph?!
Has this been changed?
P. Read more
Ah....not what you thought! But the supermarket parking thread got me thinking. Back in September I was in UK and running around on my Harley Road King. That's one big wide bike when you take into account the pannier boxes and the engine bars. I was leaving it in Pay and Display parks, it would have taken up most of the small bike areas and deprived others of them, and to make sure I had plenty of room so it didn't get dinged I was paying the full car price for the sticker. Twice passers-by told me rather righteously I thought (maybe it's the tattoos....) I shouldn't be there, I was taking up space allocated for cars. Don't see why, I was paying the full (extortionate) sticker price. Since I will be riding in UK again in May, what does anyone think about this? I always made sure I didn't overstay and at no point did anyone in uniform challenge me. On this point I would say most of the motorcycle parking facilities I encountered were very inadequate, not just for me but for any rider. Read more
Where do you put the parking ticket sticker on a bike, it will most definitely be nicked.
I was always under the impression that for this reason it is OK to park your bike in zones where parking tickets might otherwise be required ( in Cardiff you have to buy a card, scratch off your time arrival and jam this in the car window - obviously not possible on a bike ). This can also be extended to disabled bays. I am not condoning this as some element of responsibility to other road users is required but i'm sure this is correct. I did ask a rather nice looking traffic warden in Cardiff if I could park the bike in a ticketed zone but was very politely directed to a bike parking area a few hundred yards away in a dodgy backstreet.
Is it just my ISP or has the 'Older Messages' link gone from the Backroom Home page?
BobH Read more
I know, I know - but at least I corrected it a minute later. I think it was you who was asking for an Edit button, with which I heartily concur!
I have a 1991 Volvo 480 Turbo, Looking into why when I remove my petrol cap I hear a long hiss. Has anyone had any probs with the tank vent system, the vapours are pulled from the top of the tank and passed through a charcoal filter and then burnt by the engine via the inlet manifold. The vent line consists of a gravity valve (I would think that this prevent's the tank emptying if the car rolls over) and a diagphram valve, I am thinking that if the diagphram valve is passing then the turbo pressure within the inlet manifold will pressurise the fuel tank?????. If this is happening how would this affect the running of the engine?, the tickover is very lumpy but only when the tank is less than half full of fuel.
Anyway before I start ripping things to bits just finding out if anyone has experiance of this system and common probs?
Thanks
Andy Read more
Andy,
All modern vehicles have a similar system. The tank venting into the inlet only occurs under certain driving parrameters. At other times the fact that, as in all injection systems, fuel is returned to the tank under pressure will inevitably cause some pressurisation of the tank. So, unless there are other problems, your situation seems normal. The lumpy idle when less than half full is very strange, though. Suggest you check fuel for airation when level is low by fitting a length of clear plastic pipe on the delivery side of the fuel rail - any air in the delivery could suggest a damaged pick-up in the tank.
Regards, Adam.
My girlfriend has recently bought a 'P' Reg Clio 1.4 RT, the heater is appaling on it and only warms the car up when the fan is on No3 setiing (the fan works fine), Before I consider ripping the dashboard to bits is there any common probs on these models with the heater set up.
I have considered damaged linkages and blocked heater matrix etc but before I investigate further just want to know if anyone else as had a similar prob.
Many Thanks
Andy Read more
I have a Clio diesel, and whilst I realise that diesels' heaters take a while to warm up, I think that the heater output is poor. Even when it is warmed up
and there's hot air in the facia vents there is very little warm air in the footwells
particularly the driver's side. Maybe its a Clio thing.
If you search on "Clio" on this site you'll see that someone queried a problem with their Clio heater on 6/12/01 but got no replies.
I do understand and respect the views of those who would prefer this forum to be more strictly technically/legally motoring-related. But please bear in mind some of us are not able to speak so learnedly because we don't have the knowledge. For us the forum is a useful resource in a wider sense. I for one have learnt heaps, some practical and useful, some educational, some mind-opening to issues I hadn't thought of before, or was confused about. We mechanical ingenues, social commentators, Blimp-ish reactionaries, humorists manques, armchair quarter-backs, you name it, come here to learn too, y'know. Pissed-Off of Peckham and Gatsoed-Out of Guildford need their escape valves also.
To paraphrase Tomo, if I just wanted an Internet Haynes Manual, I wouldn't bother.
There's more: there are definite "characters" here projecting all sorts of persona in a motoring context. I like that, I find it entertaining and it sustains my interest in the other postings on the forum which are perhaps more in line with the "purity" of theme some would like to see more of.
I would also like to think I know some of you guys a bit already and we would hit it off tolerably well over a pint or three if ever we chanced to meet. I wouldn't like to lose that. I enjoy the good-natured (as long as it remains well-mannered) sparring and points-scoring. If I just want to know what's the right oil (although that info is very useful) I can get that from my service mechanic.
Folks, let's not have a Back Room "PC" policy! Certainly I think patently nonsensical and gratuitously offensive postings and those by impostors and mischief-makers (no names no pack drill) are beyond the pale, but I'm willing to listen and consider all views. It's up to each poster to behave with responsibility and in keeping with the site's "culture" as it has developed. And bear in mind that, whatever the site's stated mission or vision, ultimately it will belong to its contributors, who will determine via their input the actual flavor and content. That's why we need to listen to everyone. If things get too out of hand, well that's why the Moderator exists.
For my part, yes I live overseas. Two posters I think implied obliquely that somehow disqualifies me and others like me. But I am a Brit and I still take a keen interest in what goes on in my mother country. The Back Room is part of my resources for doing so, because it has so many motoring-related thoughts which are extremely pertinent to, and indicative of, the socio-political climate prevalent today in Britain. If my own anecdotes about motoring life in the tropics or the golden days of yore etc bother a large enough number, hell, just tell me and I'll shut up. I just try to express contrast and the often comic nature of motoring elsewhere in the world. Humor is good for the blood pressure. The same thing gives me perspective too: reminds me of how lucky we are in many ways (pound a gallon gas, no GATSOS) and how lucky YOU are -- despite what you think you do not know REAL traffic congestion till you've seen Manila during a typical workday! Not to mention 12" high unannounced speed-bumps, unmarked unlit holes dug in roads etc).
But surely, each reader is the ultimate censor, is he/she not? All you have to do is lighten up, grin and bear the carpal tunnel twinges and just mouse on by, if anything you see doesn't appeal. Don't even bother to put it in print, just carry on down to see whether anyone replied to your post about Morris Minor half-shafts. The internet is a democracy, just like in the papers you don't have to read what you don't want to! Democracy by its very nature irritates because not everyone agrees with everyone, but most of us prefer it to the alternatives! Put some basics in like registration and booting off the extreme stuff, but leave it at that! Read more
As with all the above..... yes, I like the diversity and don't come here for a Haynes Internet Manual.
I like the overseas angle too - you live in a crazy place! - keep it up Growler!
Martin.
Gentlemen,
I have never read such a pretensious load of crap as is on this website on non motoring items. Get a grip Honest John or lose those who browse this website for information. I am totally disgusted that HJ has allowed the backroom to be highjacked by a load of idiots that put forward their puerile observations on any subject and draw in even more cretins who are sucked in to comment on such subjects as guns. What a sad bunch! Especially those regulars from foreign parts who have descended into intellectual masturbation in being sucked in to reply to the idiots. Do you not realise that you are feeding these simian dolts by keeping their arguments alive? Read more
'Guiere Middach' or I'm a dutchman too...???
Where did this thread start?
Oh yes.
I guess 'gandalf', you must be stupid. If you spend enough time to write so energetically when you could be doing something constructive...
Just my opinion of course.
Martin.
can anyone explain, or is it just a waste of time?
Lada riva owner wrote:
>its a shame its not stuart's birthday, as i could sent him a new cloth to clean his >end bat with.
??? Read more
Every time a TV shot of Afghanistan or elsewhere features a tank, it shows a HUGE amount of blue smoke from the exhaust. Same in Bosnia etc etc. Are all these vehicles knackered or what? They seem to keep going, unless we are being shown the same film again and again.
Years ago a friend of mine was employed running the then Shah of Iran's news agency in Paris. It was called Telepress. Real shambles. Half the staff slept on the floor and there seemed to be a lot of ripped bits of Rizzla papers about. When his bosses back in Iran wanted some action shots of a recent conflict, he used to paste together old WW2 footage and send it off. Even in WW2 the tanks belched blue smoke. Read more
Andy,
Although not entirely sure of my facts, because time evolves spec's, I understood that the Challenger main battle tank currently uses a Rolls Royce V12 diesel of 1970's initial design. The smaller scorpion aluminium light tanks do use the Jag V12 petrol engine ie the units used during the Falklands debacle.
Interesting re the exhaust effluent, the Russian units certainly seem to belch the stuff during moving off, and this was also the case with the Chieftain which used the Leyland 2 stroke multi fuel diesel initially. It was not a success.
American main battle tanks use a gas turbine - or did, and I do not know how their exhaust performs under similar conditions.
I imagine that either the main engine or perhaps a donkey engine requires to run continuously on a MBT in order to supply electrical or hydraulic services to turret traverse and sighting technology. Modern MBT's can also fire their main armament accurately on the move.
I like anything mechanicaly interesting - I am not particularly a military specialist.
Regards,
Julian.
I always park my car as far as possible away from others on supermarket car parks as people opening doors into my car is something I can do without and trying to push trolleys between the cars is an added hazard to my paintwork. Last Monday stacks of empty space on the car park, I parked about as far away from the main door as possible, there was no car within a hundred yards of me. I did my shopping went back to the car and what did I see ? a car parked right next to mine, but what made it worse, he/she parked so close I had to drive out of the space so my wife could get in the passenger door, once again tons of empty spaces around me, I just wish I had my camera in the car it would have made a lovely shot! Read more
Ian said . Regretably it is this group whose attitude requires changing. There is an inevitability about car park dings because, as with so many other things, we put up with it. I have often had the urge (no jumping to conclusions now) to retaliate in kind when my car has been the victim of some inconsiderate but so far have managed to restrict myself to a stern chat with said idiot. Some of the comments from these creatures is absolutely breathtaking and.....one day!
Browse
The Road down to Dover docks always interests me, half a mile or more long with traps, but if you get to the bottom there is the choice of a sharp turn onto a little roundabout or going straight on into the harbour.