April 2005
Might buy Mrs Bob an old model (brand new) Focus as I've heard there's lots around that Ford needs to shift going cheap, cheap, cheap. Anyone point me in the right direction and what's the best engine for a bit of punch and fuel consumption ? Thanks in advance. Bob. Read more
Can anyone advise if alloy wheels can be painted with an aerosol spray..or is this a job for the professionals? Read more
Here's the little I understand about the situation
While the alloy wheel might make a difference to the thermal behaviour of the brake, I can't believe that it is a strong effect. The reason being, that in thermal conduction calculations, the problem can be transformed into the equivalent of a resistive circuit - each part *and* interface in the path has an associated thermal resistance. The often manky interface between the disc and the inside of the alloy wheel (the bit that often sticks solid if the wheels haven't been off before) cannot be an effective conductor. If the wheels were fitted for thermal purposes, there would also be some thermal conducting paste specified.
On most 'ordinary' cars, the alloys aren't lighter - purely cosmetic.
For those instances where the alloy wheel is lighter, then the reduction in unsprung mass does help maintain handling on poor surfaces.
Tyres can produce a given level of grip as a function of vertical load. To give progressive, predictable handling, the *change* in vertical tyre load over a bump must be made as small as possible.
Contrary to what you might think from bar room type discussions, this means that it is desirable to have soft springing to keep control over bumps*. The need to provide sufficient roll and pitch stiffness for the car body also drives suspension stiffness upwards.
If you take the opposite extreme, a car with completely stiff suspension will usually only be sitting with three wheels touching the ground! Not good for handling!
If you make the suspension too soft, the unsprung mass will overshoot after going over a bump. While the unsprung mass is off the ground, or substantially unloaded, it contributes little to handling forces. The tendancy to overshoot increases with unsprung mass - hence why it desirable to reduce unsprung mass.
*There are, of course, other reasons why racing type suspensions end up being very stiff. In F1, for example, it is to keep the aerodynamics of the car working by maintaing a near constant ground clearance.
number_cruncher
Hi everybody my 1st written topic! :)
Anyway, i was parking up near my sisters one day next to a white tatty looking Pug 205 D-reg, not that there was anything strange about it as such. It was only when i came back to my Ka afterwards that i noticed something odd about it, on the bottom of the front no. plate i noticed 'Holland Park' with the BMW logo next to it! Am i right in thinking that assuming it was the previous owner, he or she part exchanged this scruffy 205 for a BMW in at a rather upmarket BMW dealer in west London?
Mind you things happen for a reason i suppose, a pay rise?
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Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-) Read more
Could be possibly a theory b_h, but the condition of the vehicle & being in rural Bucks, i wouldn't of thought the Pug would take the distance going back & forth on the M40 & overheat in the jams of Western Avenue, but then again........
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Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
hi all,
my nisan micra's (95) heater blower only works on the maximum switch setting. The switch is ok (bullet proof), i figure the fault must lie in the resistor plate (about the size of a credit card).
My question is what should this plate actually look like? Mine is blackish background with 'fragments' of white circuit attached.
Any ideas?
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Sounds about right. Check the resistors with a multimeter. If they measure very high resistance or OC, then its had it.
A neighbour of mine has difficulty getting his van started most mornings and says that it is addicted to ‘Coldstart’ which I presume is a WD40 type product.
He has had the glow plugs checked and was told that they are ok.
I suspect that most of the time it is doing *very* short trips…(his trade is window cleaning). It has done only 80,000 miles in twelve years which averages no more than twenty miles per day. I doubt whether it has ever been given the regular welly which HJ recommends.
Bearing the above in mind, do you think that it is a bit late in the engine’s life to expect any benefit from giving it regular short bursts at high revs?
Might suggesting an ‘Italian Burn-up’ do more harm (not least to other components) than good? Could there be something else causing the problem?
Suggestions (other than replacing the van!) would be welcomed.
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I can see why someone would say their engines accicted to cold start/ezistart etc. If their engine is in such poor shape, a shot of what is basically ether WILL be the only way to get that initial combustion.
I used ezistart years ago in the winter to get farm-tractors started, it is quite violent stuff, and when the engine does catch, it knocks like mad for quite a few seconds until the ether dissipates. This is obviously not good for the engine, but hey if you have to use this stuff in the first place the end is usually nigh anyway !
Hi All,
Thanks for your varied and helpful responses earlier about a flash little motor for me - after much consideration, I'm off tomorrow to look at a 2000 W reg Golf GTI 1.8 turbo - it's got 23000 miles on and is £9k - how does this look to you guys - it's at a main VW dealership BTW. Should I get the milage verified & what's the best way?
Thanks, Ben Read more
Was he referring to you and your HD, Growler?. 8-)
Hello all,
The posse and I are going on a little expedition next month and are going to need a minibus.
The original plan was for me to drive but I think I'm too young. I'm told 21 is the minimum age. Now only one of the group is 21 so she would need to drive it. I can't make head nor tail of the DVLA website (no I'm not looking at the Welsh version) so I wonder if anyone could help me:
1) Is she ok to drive a minubus aged 21?
2) What is the maximum seat number she can drive? - I'm guessing the 3.5 tonne weight limit comes into force
If we can whittle the numbers down, I thought about hiring a Galaxy or something and driving down in that but I'm assuming that isn't possible for the time being.
Thanks for any help,
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Adam Read more
WEll - thanks for all of your replies people but the minibus idea is out of the window.
No-one will hire out to over 25's - surprising. So I tried the Galaxy idea - again - none to under 25's.
Separate cars it is then.
THanks again for all of your help
Mike - we're all heading down to Alton Towers for the day! :-) I'll be sure to hand down my Winstanley terrorising duties to the little neighbourhood kids for the day!
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Adam
A decent pair of pincers will take a finger off nicely. A lot less trouble than searching for keys. Read more
it was a freebie and I can't say no to gadgets. It lights up red for God's sake...RED!
How could I say no to that?
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Adam
For interest
1/ Top Gear returns to BBC at end of May
2/ BBC is recording a new series called Petrolheads - the blurb quotes "COMING SOON! Petrolheads is the new BBC game show along the lines of "Have I Got News For You" - but about cars and all things car-related! Hosted by Neil Morrissey with team captains being Richard Hammond (Top Gear) & others TBC!"
3/ Men and Motors is coming to Freeview May 2nd channel 38 Read more
Off topic here, but I'm sure I remember World of Sport featuring car jumping - i.e. 'athletes' leaping over cars being driven towards them at speed.
I was working back from uni toaday and came across one of the worst cases of dangerous driving ive seen in a while. I was crossing the road a short way down from a junction when an idiot pulled into the road with no signal, on his mobile fone and it appears without having seen the pedestrians crossing. stopped in middle of the road to avoid being run over!! the guy put his hand on his horn, didnt slow down and looked directly at me as he drove past. I gestured towards the junction and mouthed the word signal at him then crossed behind him to carry on home. the idiot then stopped put his car into reverse and proceeded to swear and curse at me to tell me to learn how to cross the road while i pointed out to him that it was a junction he had not signalled before pulling into the road. he continued to swear at me so i just walked off he continued to reverse against the flow of traffic until another motorist reminded him what he was doing with a blast on the horn. it makes you wonder how people keep their licenses!!!
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Im a student ive got time!!! Read more
Raises the question....."Why DID the chicken cross the road"?
Depends who's asking: tinyurl.com/b7xak
Browse
The place where my parents got their Focus Flight from in late 2002 has a couple of old shape Foci in stock still.
www.pwmillar.co.uk
£11k for a 1.6 Ghia hatch, £10k for a 1.6 LX (both metallic) or £9k for a 1.8 LX saloon in solid red.
www.directford.co.uk is doing some nice deals on diesels, at least according to their website.
The 1.6 took about 8k miles to be run in and until then it felt utterly gutless. It still needs to be revved but isn't too slow when you put your foot down, and gives just under 40 mpg (dropping to 36 if driven hard). If you're not a performance driver, I'd say it's adequate, although I dread to think what it would be like with 25 bhp less.