January 2005
Reports after the recent gales said 25 lorries were blown over on the A1M near Darlington and a further 10 on the M6 in Cumbria.
While accepting that high sided vehicles would become uncontrollable in these conditions and would have to stop until conditions improved I feel that commercial considerations may be overshadowing safety in the design parameters that they can be blown over with apparent ease.I accept the winds were exceptional but we get these reports as a result of lower wind speeds than Frid/Sat ths week.
ndbw Read more
if all dealers registering new cars were required to enter the manufacturer's colour name on the reg. document?
This would be so helpful to us poor souls down the line, buying third/fourth hand etc., trying to match the colour in the accessory shop.
All they would have to do is write in e.g. Cirrus Blue instead of just Blue.
Too much to ask? Read more
The bodyshell's paint colour should be detailed somewhere on the vehicle itself, usually on a plate providing a variety of information.
Try the manual for the exact placement.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
I have a skoda octavia 1.4 from 2001.
When i bought him six months ago I found it curious, when letting the motor turn in neutral, the motor (and rpm meter) was always fluctuating a little bit (not very much) up and down and up and down... but anyway this is not big the problem, but it might have been a precaution to this:
now i'm having already a week this problem: when starting the motor (cold and warm) after a few seconds the motor always stops immediately... i have to keep turning on the contact on for many seconds and staying on the gas pedal for another 10 seconds, otherwise the motor stops... after that 10 seconds staying on the gas pedal i hear suddenly the motor turning a little bit faster, and from that moment on i can start driving without problems. Otherwise, when i try to start driving before that 10 seconds the car turns of.. since i don't know much about car troubles i ask if this problem sounds familiar to someone of you....
another thing: there's a light "check motor electronics" on the dashboard lighting, but the garagist says that I don't have to care much about this because I'm driving on LPG... (the LPG installation works very good, so that is not the problem because starting the engine is on fuel)
{car make added to subject header.} Read more
I would think they are both related issues..Not knowing the car cannot be any more specific..But suggests The ecu is giving a week mixture..As I said before only a diagnostics will show any problems.
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Steve
Just curious to see how others drive in this respect...
When on quiet country roads or at night, I can often be found straddling the white lines at the centre of the road to aid visibility / cornering line etc. I'm not pretending to be Schumacher, but often find that taking a 'racing line' through a corner is more comfortable than doggedly sticking to the left, and makes it easier to deal with circumstances such as a tightening bend or unseen obstructions. I know that IAM teaches positioning similar to this but suspect that they would disapprove of crossing the white lines in the centre of the road (in much the same way that an instructor would frown upon 85mph on a quiet bit of motorway).
So do others use all of the road some of the time? Read more
This is the basic failing of the DOT test that
we all take. It tells you what to do for a
given situation.
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Not really, v8. The L test is for inexperienced new drivers. You cannot teach certain advanced techniques to people who do not have the experience or the skill to safely put them into practice. I straighten bends where I can see that it is safe to do so, and there is no obstruction that may even momenterally be hiding an approaching vehicle. However, I used to insist that my pupils stuck to the left of the white line without exception when cornering, and never straighten roundabouts because I knew that if I did otherwise someone with ony 30 hours road experience in their life (ten hours less than I had every week) would misjudge a situation or mis-interpret what they had been taught with disasterous consequences.
Using the whole road is a sensible way of proceeding when safe, but it takes a couple of years of regular driving to fully understand when it would not be safe.
My son's 440 diesel (1995) makes an awful screeching sound when it is started in the morning. It cut out completely yesterday, but re-started ok with some more diesel even though the gauge was well into the black. Is this noise the symptom of a duff fuel pump? I would have thought at least the pump would be driven off a toothed belt.
Read more
The screeching is probably due to the alternator drive belt slipping. It is more heavily loaded following a cold engine start as it is trying to recharge the partially drained battery.
Check the belt tension and inspect for shinny/glased friction surface.
OK, bit of a general question so havent put any make/model. I need to find a suitable signal to drive a rev counter (aftermarket).
I know on a petrol this would drive off the coil or ignition module / ecu. The car its going in has neither. I have been told before it will drive off the 'w' terminal on the alternator. Can anyone confirm? Also what kind of voltage would a coil's negative terminal give off? I want to check the alternator gives a similar output.
I also need to find out how many pulses per revolution the alternator would give out. I know it turns on a 2:1 ratio with the engine going on pulley size's. Any help is much appreciated. Read more
I dont think the W terminal is going to help you as this is the warning light terminal. I fitted a rev counter to a diesel Renault once and it used a sensor strapped to the body of the alternator and presumably sensed the magnetic disturbance of the rotor and used a little box of tricks to approximate the engine speed and pulse the tacho. Negative voltage available at the coil can reach around 400v. Pulses from the alternator, well possibly 15-20 per revolution?
Andrew
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Simplicate and add lightness!!
My sister is buying a Corsa 1.2 SXi 16v 1999 Ecotec Engine
I would like to know if it has timing chain or belt, also is this a Corsa B or C.
Regards Elad
Read more
As Martin says, camchain.
It'll be a Corsa B.
Check the Car By Car Breakdown in the menu bar to the left of the page.
I was considering changing my full beam bulbs to an 'off road' spec of about 100w.
I have done this on other cars I have owned, on the basis that I shouldn't ever have the main beams on when any other car is in front of me so it's not going to do any harm. However, looking at a website today, there was a warning not to use these kind of bulbs with non-glass lenses. I imagine on the basis that high wattage = high temp and, thereby some warping of the polycarb lens.
It makes sense, but I wondered if anyone had any experience or technical know-how to corroberate/rubbsih this theory. The wattage of the bulb has doubled, but what does this mean to the temp in the housing, what is the melting temp of polycarb??
It is so much more comfortable to have these powerful main beams on the country roads that I do most of my driving on. Read more
Will end up melting the reflective backing (usualy plastic on modern cars even with glass headlights) and the wiring (designed for 55w not 100w). Why not check your headlight alignment is correct with your car on a level surface in front of a wall.
Hi
We have hired a Vauxhall Zarifa when we go abroad and there is six of us. Have seen the Zarifa in person today and seen that the boot space is tiny, will it be possible to fit six suitcases in?
Thanks
Tony Read more
>>You just have to be realistic about what you can actually fit in a car of that size.
That's the point.
Although I have to say that even in the Landcruiser is all 8 seats are in use, then you're not going to be carrying much luggage, although with only 6 seats in use it would carry 6 cases pretty easily.
In saturdays Telegraph Motoring HJ was sharp with a correspondent whose engine lost most of its oil without bringing up an alarm, and leading to early death.
I have not needed to top up the oil in any my cars for about 15 years now, and wouldn't know what oil to use if I did.
The Volvos and Subarus I've had have been oil tight. Never a sniff on the casing. Quite different to my Wolseley and all prior thereto. My sister once said, "Get that heap of scrap off my path." I used to rely on the leakage to keep the underside of the cars rust free. Read more
Now if you had an edit button...
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We never had this issue years ago, curtain siders were rare, most loads were on a flat bed then roped and sheeted, the sheet obviously only being as high as the load itself, often at cab height only considerably lower than todays cabs.
Car transporters run high but with gaps between the vehicles don't generally have too much trouble with side winds its poor weighting where the tail wags the dog is the biggest danger there....