December 2003
Is it possible to tell if the actual amounts on the petrol pumps correspond to the amount of fuel put into your tank? I ask this because I regularly fill up at a garage in Watford at 72.9p a litre and do not really notice a difference in the amount I am paying per tank when I use a garage here at 75.9p. This is over the course of 4 months motoring (and a lot of miles). Are the low prices used to entice people like me when in fact the pumps are calibrated on the sparing side per litre. Not accusing anyone, but any thoughts or comments on this would be helpful.
Yoby
I\'ve deleted the specific details of the garage. ND Read more
Hello BR, Happy Christmas everyone.
Has anyone had experience of driving a pretty frail elderley relative a long way? We had a death in the family a few days ago and we now face the need to get my 97 year old grandmother from Middlesborough to Liverpool for the funeral. Obviously I can drive her and my car is big and comfy, but a near three hour journey will be no picnic for her so I'd like to look at a private ambulance as she needs a wheelchair to get more than a few yards and may need nursing care at the Liverpool end. Any experience gratefully received. Read more
I have every sympathy for you. We looked after my grandmother for some years before she passed away at the age of 99. She couldn't move an inch under her own steam - in fact physically,just about everything had stopped working. Mentally, however, she was as sharp as you or I right up until days before she passed away!
On the few occasions when she had to be transported, I borrowed a minibus with tail lift from work (I taught in a Special School in those days!) We simply ran her right into the bus on the wheelchair and clamped it to the special floor rails.
Would it not be possible to hire one of those little vans that have been modified for wheelchair access - where the chair runs straight into the back door?
Alternatively, if you talk to some of the local special schools or voluntary groups for adults with Learning Difficulties you might find them very amenable - especially if you make a small donation to their funds.
If all this fails, remember you get things like turntables that can be placed on a standard car seat which allow you to gently turn someone's legs into the car - even hoists with slings to deposit the person on the seat (we had an electric one for getting my granny into bed) A 'normal' car seat would be much more comfortable if you could find a way to get your relative aboard and settled.
Hope you manage to work something out. I know how important this can be to people of that generation. They still have a great sense of 'duty'.
Graeme
Recent research from The University of Auckland has concluded that the risk of being injured in a silver car was up to 50% less than some darker colours.
They reckoned that this was due to motorists who chose silver, tend to be more mature, better off and low risk takers.!!!
What do you reckon ??? Read more
About 40 years ago the AA did a survey of the
colour of cars that had been involved in accidents and concluded
that yellow was the safest colour, and that dark green and
dark blue were the worst. To an extent this bears out
my own experiences. My first two cars were dark green and
dark blue respectively and they were forever getting bumped when parked
in car parks. I then had a number of yellow cars
and had no trouble. The brighter the colour, the more
visible it is. Silver is not a bright colour!
Couldn't agree more - my current transport is a very dark green and has been rather more akin to a dodgem car than I would like. Roughly one rear-end per year, although I have to admit the first one was my fault...
Next car arrives in April and is dark blue. Ooops.
My Problem is this!
I have a Ford Focus Ghia 1.6 Sedan - 2001 Model car.
When I was on holiday , my airbags were stolen.
Is there a way to learn when the event happaned (date and time)? Is it electronically possible to check it?
Is there a computer test to show the exact time and date?
Thanks in advance Read more
I agree with pastyman, there are no airbag systems that are active with the ignition turned off (AFAIK) apart from the VERY early mechanical systems found on the likes of Jag XJS's, even then I'm pretty sure the ignition still needs to be on.
Must have been a loading of the transporter error.
Heat is energy and what an huge amount the motor vehicle throws away with no benefit whatsoever.
Is there perhaps in the future some viable possibility that a designer could use this other than to keep us warm behind the wheel.
A package steam boiler can achieve around 75% efficiency with good maintenance and the rest goes up through the chimney or in radiation losses.
I?m sure someone will know what percentage efficiency a car engine can achieve. and is perhaps even less than this but with modern advances in such things as condensing boilers utilising heat previously wasted up the flue, there just may be some better use than pushing it out of the exhaust pipe.
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.... and less
dissipation into the ........ cooling system.
Now that winter is upon us I'm very grateful for the heat that goes into my car's cooling (and hence heating) system!
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L'escargot by name, but not by nature.
We live about 7 miles north of Newcastle Upon Tyne. A group of six of us decided to go out on New Years day to Newcastle city centre as it is a great day out. Here's how it went
1)Train - phoned the train company for shuttle service info and was told there would be no local trains on New Year at all.
2)Bus - phoned the local bus company and was told there would be no buses running on New Year.
3)Metro - We could get to the local Metro but on phoning the Metro company we were told that there would be no trains running on the Metro system on New Year
So, there is no public transport in the region whatsoever on New Year. I know the employees of these companies would like time off at this time of year also, but there must be some that would be willing to keep a service running for additional pay. The government is trying to get us onto public transport - well that's a laugh!
Never mind, there is always the good old taxi to get us through. We phone for a taxi and were told it would be £40 there and £60 back, maybe more. One hundred quid for a 15 mile round trip! Obviously the taxi companies are taking advantage of the lack of public transport. By the way the fare is normally around £15 there and £20 back.
Hardly encourages people not to drink and drive. And before anybody jumps on this, I don't or never will drink/drive, neither do I condone it at all. I'm referring to people of less willpower who no doubt will be on New Year as a result of this madness............oh and haven't the goverment got a thing about drink driving also?
Well for us the outcome is that we will be staying locally and walking to the pub instead! Read more
What you need is a friend or neighbour who doesn't drink (or at least isn't drinking that night), who owns a people carrier (or a seven seater car) and will drive you and pick you up later for £50, that's a saving of £50 on the taxi and it's only gonna cost them about £4 in petrol, so they'll be making a £46 profit.
Afternoon All and Seasons Greetings too.
A colleague has bought a 1998 Civic LSI but did not get a handbook. A yellow dashboard light is now lit and she doesn't know why.
She describes the symbol as a circle with a vertical line touching the left hand edge and a horizontal line touching the top edge. She also says that the light comes on when the ignition is turned on and remains on after the engine is started.
Any civic owners out there who are familiar with this? Read more
Happy to have helped.
Sorry if this has been raised before, Im new here.
Ive seen several references to "mysterious" failures in ECUs, eg in the Audi climate control thread. Some people have even referred to failed electrolytic capacitors.
Has anyone here heard of the infamous "bulging caps" problem thats been the scourge of the computer industry for the last couple of years? I think it may be relevant, particularly regarding sudden, mysterious death of electronics in 1999/2000 cars.
Google for "bulging caps" for more info. Add "stolen formula" to cut to the chase. :)
HTH.
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Automotive ECU's are manufactured by a wide variety of companies; too many to list here. Major suppliers are Motorola, Bosch, Siemens, Matsushita, AC-Delco (GM), SAGEM.
And they all suffer failures, one way or another!
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groups.msn.com/honestjohn/problems.msnw?Page=1 - Pictures say a thousand words.....
Many years ago,when cogged belts were introduced,( by I think,Glas),they seemed to me to be a very good idea.
Their simplicity and silence were most appealing.Also their potential for simple and easy replacement.
Naturally,car designers soon found a way of making their replacement almost prohibitively difficult,I have an XUD here which is an all time classic,but even the very visible belts on my Alfasud sprint were not entirely meccano.
But,I have never had one break on me,possibly because ,in spite of the inconvenience,I have them changed either when the manufacturer says,or sooner,together with ancilliary bits and bobs if I dont trust their overlong estimates of service life.
Engine speeds seem to control this,Deisel belts seem to last longer than petrols.
But chains............I have had two break,and been forced to change many others,with sprockets,mainly because of noise.
The problem,it seemed to me, was the use of monoplex chains,instead of duplex ones.Perhaps the cars wth duplex chains never caused a problem,so I dont exactly recall which they were.
It does occur to me,however,that,with modern twin camshaft engines,yards of duplex chain flailing about is hardly an elegant solution.
So why not go back to nice,quiet,cogged belts but specify them a bit harder,and change them at,say,50000 miles?
Useless to ask for them to be made accessible for cheap changing,as the motor trade make most of their money from their workshops these days.
Robin Read more
Truck engines have gear driven camshafts..
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groups.msn.com/honestjohn/problems.msnw?Page=1 - Pictures say a thousand words.....
I had the idea to have a Subaru Justy when we could afford to run two cars. We had been impressed by how Justys dealt with the conditions in Switzerland. When we went to the dealer SWMBO was quite pleased with the car up until she finally closed the drivers door. That was the big turnoff. When I asked her why afterwards, she said that it closed with a 'Ding', instead of a thump.
Some years ago - a considerable number - I read of a case where a husband was buying his wife her first car for her use only. The salesman put on his best delivery, proposing a top of the range model as befitted husbands obvious affluence. The sales pitch was almost done when wife walked around the back for a last look. Her expression changed, and she turned on her heel, leaving the premises with husband trotting blankly behind. The only thing the sales staff could imagine was the XL badge above the back bumper. She was a rather mature lady. Read more
My SWMBO picked a 28 inch JVC widescreen tv purely on the vasis that she liked the remote control!
Aargh!!!
Browse
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I posed a similar query a few months ago although I was more concerned about the 'Minimum Delivery 2Litres' that you see on every pump.
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=9627&m...e
Most of the specs and testing criteria are explained on the UK Weights and Measures website. Don't be shy to email them if the info you want isn't there, they were very responsive and helpful to me. One of the few Govt. Depts. I've dealt with that appears to be totally unbiased towards either consumer or supplier.
Kevin...
PS. Consistent over/under-supply from a pump would not obtain type-approval.