February 2004
An item on the news today suggested that VEL is becoming unworkable and 'they' are considering replacing it with a 'per mile' charge.
IF it happens, just don't expect anything sensible, fair, or cheaper. Read more
i am hearing that there is a way of getting more power out if the vag engines using some devies attached to the mass air flow sensor. have heard that it is a big thing in northern ireland. does anyone know what this is or where i could fing out . it is supposed to give the same kind of power as a tuning box and can be used with it. Read more
Welcome back Sean, where have you been?
And what was the answer to your tease just before Xmas?
Why have VW brought out a new Golf that has same headlamps as a Nissan Tino and same rear lights as an Ibiza??
Sorry to hear that. I hope you find a new advertiser soon to replace them.
On the subject of site funding I did have 1 idea, Would people consider paying for a xxx@honestjohn.co.uk email address? Or perhaps pay a small fee for pop-up free HJ (and a free t-shirt decorated suitably) Read more
Well they got my lolly twice over, but via Amazon where the cost was just £9.09 and as I was buying other books too, delivery was free.
Got 2 copies as birthday gifts for friends.
Trusty Volvo is getting long in the tooth and as the family expands (along with my waistline) I've started looking for a cheapish and reliable alternative. I'm not really interested in kudos, bells and whistles, high speeds, and complex gadgets and don't think any of the current crop of affordable estates (excepting the Omega which I have concerns about) provide the space I'll require for moving people (up to 7) and 'stuff'. Also, I tend to keep my cars a long time and rarely drive more than 6k pa so economy isn't a big factor. With this in mind I had a look a several petrol 2.0 GSi Trajets yesterday and was pleasantly surprised by what looked like quite good build quality, plastics etc. and a very practical and functional interior. Haven't had a test drive yet and do have some concerns about people carriers in general but does anyone out there have any views on whether a car like this would be a good long term bet? Drive the Deal quoted just under £13k for a new one and at this price it seems very good value for money. Read more
Thanks very much for your imput once again IET. Image really is of no conern to me whatsoever but the point about low mileages is a good one and I hadn't thought of it. Thus far my 940 has lasted very well indeed on short journeys but I know it can be a problem and I think my Rover 820 suffered badly due to it. My mileage is likely to increase as the boys grow up (and are no longer content with a walk round the local park for a day out :)) but I wouldn't think it'll ever be more than 6-8k pa. The last diesel I drove was a Toyota pick-up about 20 years ago and it was great covering 50 metre sand dunes etc. but not too much fun on the road. I'll try a diesel Trajet anyway and see what I think. BTW I'm not interested in buying a Previa for the reasons you mentioned, I just thought it would be extra comparison to add interest to my quest. The advice I've had here is sound and I guess I should try out several cars before I make any decision - after all I want to keep this next car for quite some time.
I'll let you know what happens anyway - cheers Vm.
Wow, I'm going to be getting to work really fast in the future!
www.theonion.org/4005/news1.html
Gareth Read more
Oh go on then - read it
DETROIT?With gas prices approaching $2 per gallon in some areas and gridlock on the rise, Detroit\'s three major automakers are stepping up development of their newest brainchild: the anger-powered car.
Above: The Chevrolet Tantrum, one of the new road-rage-fueled vehicles.
\"By drawing a significant percentage of its motive power from the unbridled temper of the American motorist, the new anger-powered car will change, or at least take mechanical advantage of, the way Americans drive,\" General Motors vice-chairman Robert A. Lutz said. \"We plan to have these furiously efficient machines careening down America\'s highways, byways, and sidewalks within two years.\"
Lutz said automakers have been researching fury fuels since the mid-1970s. As early as 1984, they began to look for ways to take advantage of the limitless supply of bad temper generated daily by American drivers?outrage currently vented wastefully into dashboards, steering wheels, and passengers.
An engine burning clean, white-hot hatred will release few harmful byproducts into the atmosphere?bad vibes and a small amount of water vapor will combine to be released in the form of human spittle. In addition, anger technology will turn the standard fuel-economy paradigm on its head: An anger-powered engine is actually more efficient in heavy urban traffic.
\"The theory behind the anger-powered engine is actually quite simple,\" said Keith Cameron, chief engineer on General Motors\' Project Instigator until January. \"The average motorist traveling a clogged American highway produces hundreds of kilowatt-hours of negative energy per infuriating drive. The Instigator motor converts this emotional energy into kinetic energy by a process most drivers?people too goddamn stupid to use their goddamn blinkers when they change goddamn lanes?will never be able to understand. Just trust me, dumbasses, it works.\"
Cameron, who is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence for vehicular manslaughter and high-efficiency battery, added, \"In the white-knuckled hands of the average American driver, it\'s an extremely powerful tool.\"
GM is currently developing two anger-powered cars, the entry-level Chevrolet Tantrum coupe and the larger, pricier Buick Umbrage. Ford has announced a multi-tiered move toward anger power, with plans to introduce anger/gasoline hybrid engines in the popular Lincoln Frown Car in 2006, to offer a de Sade option for its classic Mercury Gran Marquis in 2007, and to unveil a line of Acrimony family-sized cars and wagons in 2008. Daimler-Chrysler will resurrect the defunct Plymouth brand name with the reintroduction of the Plymouth Fury.
Anger power was first explored by Daimler-Chrysler, whose concept car, the Plymouth Violent, caused an uproar upon its introduction at the 1989 Detroit Auto Show. The Violent, more a seething showcase of technology and rage than a workable production car, achieved a remarkable 89 miles per gallon and hospitalized 19 auto-show attendees.
The anger-powered car will be aimed solidly at the middle of the market. Options such as semi-tinted glower windows, auto-locking brakes, and a baffling array of randomly blinking warning lights will be standard on all models.
\"Production models will have angry-punch-absorbing energy-conversion pads in the dashboards, steering wheels, and driver-side doors,\" Chrysler Group chief executive Dieter Zetsche said. \"Sound-sensitive materials in the cars\' interiors will convert livid outbursts into motive power. And, because an angry driver is, in this case, a better driver, literally hundreds of anger- and performance-enhancing options will be available, including loud, ineffective mufflers, talk-station-only radios, truly intermittent wipers, steering wheels which imperceptibly tilt forward over the course of an hour, and excruciatingly well-heated seats.\"
Early consumer tests of the cars indicate that they perform beyond designers\' expectations. The automotive press has been particularly enthusiastic about anger power.
\"This loads of pink fluffy dice went like a goddamn raped ape with me at the wheel,\" said Car And Driver\'s Brock Yates, who test-drove Daimler-Chrysler\'s Dodge Rammit pickup. \"The vitriolic-assist brakes barely worked, the rear-view mirror found my bald spot every time, and the voice-response OnStar system mocked me for writing the script for Cannonball Run. I was getting 107 miles to the gallon when I T-boned that bus.\"
Car manufacturers have yet to determine a price for the rage-fueled vehicles.
\"We have a delicate balance to strike,\" Ford Motor Company president Nick Scheele said. \"The middle-income customer should be able to afford the car, but in order to increase engine efficiency, the price should be high enough to eat away at him the entire time he\'s driving. We\'re considering wildly fluctuating interest rates or a monthly payment rate that\'s pegged to the basketball standings.\"
Added Scheele: \"I can assure you that there will be a model priced so that middle-class Americans who spend hours each week commuting between mid-level office jobs in the city and noisy, demanding families in the suburbs can afford it.\"
Fully anger-powered cars are expected to begin hitting American showrooms and other cars in summer 2006. If successful, the venture may vindicate the auto engineers still smarting over their brief and disastrous flirtation with love-and-happiness power, a trend that failed commercially and eventually petered out during the positive-energy crisis of the 1970s.
Hi,
My Sister in law has a P Reg 2.0 Petrol Xantia. In the first 10 minutes or so of driving she experiences a very heavy clutch. This then returns to normal. Garages are saying this requires a new clutch at several hundred quid...it sounds more to do with the actuation so I wondered if anyone had experience of this and could give us a clue if do need the clutch change.
Thanks Read more
You don't leave much to add Richard!
In full agreement these clutches are getting heavy because they are close to replacement, it's a major factor with used Xantias now.
The only comment I would add is...
Are you sure the owner means the clutch is heavy for the first few miles...not actually the gearbox as the oil warms?
I change the gearbox oil at the 72K service on Xantias, use a good semi-syn 75/80 oil. If anyone has put in a heavier oil in the past by mistake the change can be sluggish when cold.
Given the substantial cost of a Xantia clutch job I would go for a cable and oil change, even if a longshot.
M.M
Okay, the story so far:
I changed the cylinder head of a BMW 318i after buying it off someone who had overheated it. Turns out that a valve seat had come out of place and so I bought a second hand cylinder head, skimmed it and put it on... Voila!
Car started second time after everything was put back together and I was initially quite pleased with my efforts. However.....
Now I'm driving it around and I get this really annoying slight hesitation that occurs when I'm accelerating fairly lighltly but with load, i.e. slightly up hill, and I can't for the life of me figure out what it is.
I've added 3 lots of injector cleaner, changed the plugs, air filter, in-line fuel filter and it's still happening!! Some guy test drove it the other day and he's dead keen on buying it. Luckily he didn't notice the hesitation but I wanna get it fixed for my peace of mind.
I've taken it to my fall-back mechanic who checked the emissions and determined that the mixture was fine and he couldn't think what it could be.
I was thinking maybe the ECU and if so, is it possible to 'reset' it?
ANY ideas would be greatly appreciated...
Cheers,
Steve Read more
My 318i suffered from a failed air mass sensor, symptons were flat to weakish acceleration and hesitancy especially when cold....
Rgds,
Kal
1996 Calibra 8 valve auto with a fuel leak from the tank's outlet pipe flange . (It's metal, with a plastic multiplug, and corroded beyond salvation).
After much investigation Vauxhall Customer Services at Luton have informed me that this part is no longer made and in fact doesn't even have a part number. They offered me the phone numbers of some used parts dealers , and suggested that I contact heritage clubs . The inference being that the alternative is to scrap this 8 year old car!
Incidentally , it's as clean as nip with leather interior and low mileage. Anyone else experienced what at face value appears to be Vauxhall's abandonment of its responsibilities to purchasers of its products? Phil Parker Read more
Postscript to this thread. The part was not available from any source .
I welded two new pipes into the flange, keeping the multiplug submerged in water to protect it from the generated heat. I subsequently coated the whole item with petro patch fluid and left it to harden for 24 hours. It proved a successful, if ultimately temporary, measure.
GM Luton, later wrote a letter to the owner implying that they had no legal obligation to stock or continue to make available items such as this.
I leave you to draw your own conclusions. Phil Parker
Sitting in traffic on my way through Dunstable today, I was looking at drivers going the other way and was amazed at the percentage who were not wearing seatbelts. I'd say at least 2 out of each 10 eligible vehicles.
Having said that, sometimes it was difficult to tell, so I gave them the benefit of the doubt.
I remember going on a Friday evening shift with a former neighbour who was in M4 TraffPol. He was offered two hours extension to his shift (from 00:00 - 02:00) and told to put it down as "seat belt checks". Apparently each month they are (were) given some additional budget for specific offences. Checking for non-wearers is even MORE difficult at the dead of night, so we cruised around looking for drunks and listening to other channels on case a pursuit came our way... Read more
And in most of those cars with unprotected children, the adults
in the front are wearing seatbelts. Just makes you wonder how
the NHS manages to fund so many lobotomies.
>>
This appears to be a tragic example of the above.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/3472567...m
TV report said that the two girls died after being thrown through the rear "windscreen".
Mum survived to serve two years in jail.
If you were to say to these drivers" YOU do not love your children!!!" (because of not insisting on belts being used in the back) I feel sure you would get GBH of the ear or worse.
Just like buses, you wait for ages then two come together. This weeks Autocar 3 Feb, and Auto Express 4-10 Feb, both have Subaru road tests. At least, the Autocar does, but the Auto Express has a comparison between the Outback and the Nissan XTrail.
Generally, I regard Autocar in the same way as one of the other backroomers, 'written by overexcited schoolboys'. - I wish that I had thought of that myself. - I wish, too, that the magazine' Car Design & Technology' would recommence. It was superb, written by motor engineers for people really interested in cars. Read more
I've got to agree with jd. It was not a like for like comparison. It should really have been between the XTrail and the Forester.
Browse
The 3rd party insurance is an interesting one.
My initial thought is that I do not want the Government providing yet another thing that would be much better provided through the free market.
Taking away no-claims bonuses from 3rd party claims would encourage more claims; removing the ability to choose your own level of excess would have a similar effect. In the long run, insurance companies would end up paying out more, so it would cost more for us.
On the plus side, for a low-mileage bangernomic motorist like me insurance wouldn't cost much! It seems reasonable that the more miles you do, the more you pay for your insurance.
Also on the plus side, uninsured motorists no longer exist.
I do feel that the more miles you do, the more you should pay. Why should an old lady who does 500 miles per annum pay the same level of road tax as the rep doing 50,000 miles? Protests that it is unfair seem a little strange imho!