November 2005
Does anyone know of, and/or had any experience of skid-pan training? I'd be interested in undertaking something like this, possibly with some other track-based driving technique training.
I'm not interested in an IAM or RoSPA road-based course.
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Mattster
Boycott shoddy build and reliability. Read more
Just seen this on another board and thought it would amuse:
DRILL PRESS: A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, splattering it against that freshly painted airplane part you were drying.
WIRE WHEEL: Cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench with the speed of light. Also removes fingerprint whorls and hard-earned guitar calluses in about the time it takes you to say, "Ouch...."
ELECTRIC HAND DRILL: Normally used for spinning pop rivets in their holes until you die of old age.
PLIERS: Used to round off bolt heads.
HACKSAW: One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board principle. It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more dismal your future becomes.
VICE-GRIPS: Used to round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.
OXYACETYLENE TORCH: Used almost entirely for lighting various flammable objects in your shop on fire. Also handy for igniting the grease inside the wheel hub you want the bearing race out of.
WHITWORTH SOCKETS: Once used for working on older British cars and motorcycles, they are now used mainly for impersonating that 9/16 or 1/2 socket you've been searching for the last 15 minutes.
HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK: Used for lowering an automobile to the ground after you have installed your new brake shoes, trapping the jack handle firmly under the bumper.
EIGHT-FOOT LONG DOUGLAS FIR 2X4: Used for levering an automobile upward off a hydraulic jack handle.
TWEEZERS: A tool for removing wood splinters.
PHONE: Tool for calling your neighbor to see if he has another hydraulic floor jack.
SNAP-ON GASKET SCRAPER: Theoretically useful as a sandwich tool for spreading mayonnaise; used mainly for getting dog**** off your boot.
E-Z OUT BOLT AND STUD EXTRACTOR: A tool ten times harder than any known drill bit that snaps off in bolt holes you couldn't use anyway.
TWO-TON ENGINE HOIST: A tool for testing the tensile strength on everything you forgot to disconnect.
CRAFTSMAN 1/2 x 16-INCH SCREWDRIVER: A large prybar that inexplicably has an accurately machined screwdriver tip on the end opposite the handle.
AVIATION METAL SNIPS: See hacksaw.
TROUBLE LIGHT: The home mechanic's own tanning booth. Sometimes called a drop light, it is a good source of vitamin D, "the sunshine vitamin," which is not otherwise found under cars at night. Health benefits aside, it's main purpose is to consume 40-watt light bulbs at about the same rate that 105-mm howitzer shells might be used during, say, the first few hours of the Batt! le of the Bulge. More often dark than light, its name is somewhat misleading.
PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER: Normally used to stab the lids of old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splash oil on your shirt; but can also be used, as the name implies, to strip out Phillips screw heads.
AIR COMPRESSOR: A machine that takes energy produced in a coal-burning power plant 200 miles away and transforms it into compressed air that travels by hose to a Chicago Pneumatic impact wrench that grips rusty bolts last over tightened 50 years ago by someone at Ford, and neatly rounds off their heads.
PRY BAR: A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50 cent part.
HOSE CUTTER: A tool used to cut hoses too short.
HAMMER: Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts not far from the obj! ect we are trying to hit.
MECHANIC'S KNIFE: Used to open and slice through the contents of cardboard cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well on contents such as seats, vinyl records, liquids in plastic bottles, collector magazines, refund checks, and rubber or plastic parts.
DAMMIT TOOL: Any handy tool that you grab and throw across the garage While yelling "DAMMIT" at the top of your lungs. It is also the next tool that you will need.
EXPLETIVE: A balm, usually applied verbally in hindsight, which somehow eases those pains and indignities following our every deficiency in foresight.
teabelly Read more
Not forgetting the adjustable spanner, known (or used to be known) derogatorily in Germany as an Englisher. (Or was it an Englander?)
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L\'escargot.
While idly waiting for my car to be fixed at the local garage the blokes behind the counter reckoned profit on selling new cars was not good for the dealers. They make the money now by charging big bucks for parts. They estimated a £10,000 Focus would cost £40,000 to build from spares at market prices! Read more
During the late eighties, I was an apprentice at Cowley - you could buy bits at a hefty discount (from stylish vehicles like Maestros and Mongos!, so you can imagine the demand!) in what was V building. You were given a chit to get you past security with your prize.
I think that V building has long been knocked down, it was up at the North end of the factory, on the Eastern (Pressed Steel) side of the by-pass, and was always full of imported engines for the V6 800 series Rovers, and lots of obsolete tooling while I was there.
Number_Cruncher
I am currently experiencing problems with a new speed camera detector (Micro Road Pilot) unit and would welcome any advice on the best GPS antenna location on a 2002 E46 320d SE, and would also appreciate any info regarding whether this model is fittied with a UV windscreen that could seriously impede the signal to the antenna.
I have been in touch with the manufacturer`s technical team today and they are trying to blame the problem on the windscreen fitted to my car and refuse to accept any responsibility for the mal functioning of their unit, which I actually paid almost £100 to be hard wired by their distributor`s agent.
Any help or advice would be much appreciated as I currently don`t seem to be getting any satisfaction. Read more
Its entriely possible that your BMW has a reflective windscreen and your sons does not.
www.gpsw-support.co.uk/athermic.htm
There are lots of other hits about various BMWS having them.
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RF - currently 1 Renault short of a family
Can anyone give me some advice for some running problems with my Peugeot 309, it starts and runs OK, gives excellent MPG (50 mpg) on long runs, the engine seems in good condition, only 50,000 on the clock, but round town with no load or passengers it drops to about 20mpg. It idles erraticly when warming up, then when it has reached full operating temperature it idles excessively as if a full choke is on (it has no choke of course). I have renewed air filter/spark plugs, but this has not improved things. The engine is a 1.4i, (Bosch single point injection). Any advice appreciated. Thanks. Read more
Thanks Andrew, seems like something I can do, I'll give it a try!
I know there will be some here who will think this is a ridiculous thing to share, but if I only just worked it out after 6 and a half years of driving then there must be a few that will benefit from this little tip:
When I fill up, I find it really hard not to get a few drops of petrol on the car, which invariable either marks the laquer, or results in a scramble for the (often missing) forecourt wet sponge, not pleasent in this nippy weather. It dawned upon me last week that after you finish fueling, rather than shaking the nozzle, trying to time between drips to whip it away from the car etc, you can pull it -just- out (so any drips still go into the car's tank), rotate the nozzle through 180 degrees so it's pointing upwards, and hey presto, no more drippage or spillage woes!
Now where's that T-cut...... Read more
>>Isn't it better to refuel the car when the weather's cold?>>
Probably thinking of liquids expanding when hot.
However, for most of the year it's unlikely to be cold enough to make very much difference and, if it is that cold, you probably won't want to be out driving...:-)
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
cgi.ebay.co.uk/2002-BMW-330d-SPORT-4-DOOR-TV-SCREE...m
Buy it now £4500, only a one day auction, anyone else smell a rat? seems to good to be true but then the guy does have 100% feedback. Read more
It works like this:-
1. Genuine eBayer gets convincing looking e-mail from eBay saying "Give us your details or we will suspend your account."
2. Genuine eBayer gives details which the scammer then uses to list the high value item.
3. Someone hopefully comes along and pays the money to the scammer quickly enough that the genuine eBayer doesn't notice.
4. Genuine eBayer notices; hopefully no one has been ripped off but the quick auction end facilitates it being completed before the account holder or eBay can be alerted to the fraud.
Hi
Just had a new cambelt on my Pug, its done 148k miles and it was due for renewal (actually at 144k but I forgot about it). Anyway, drove away and came home, but noticed that the engine sounds a bit more "tappety" and also a whirring sound that definitely wasnt there before.
Any ideas? Should I pop it back and mention it... is it likely to cause damage, or worst still, snap?
Thanks in advance! Read more
Mine was just showing >(evidence being a crusty deposit at the bearing vent hole)< this. If the pump had been easily accessable and not cam belt driven, I would not have had it changed then. I would probably have done it myself and saved a few quid.
I had a BX 16valve and that pump lasted until a cam belt change at 140k(or thereabouts).
It still only seems to be a rumour at the moment but there are mootings that insurance companies are planning to hike the insurance of those people that fix and service their own car. Now having had experience of woefully inadequate garages leaving dangerous faults on my car I wonder whether this will actually lead to an increase in accidents? Most people that repair their own vehicle are competant (it's their own safety on the line for a start) and often don't trust garages because of the likelihood of serious mistakes. Insurance companies do things to absolve themselves of responsibility which suggests to me that vehicle defects and accidents due to them must be on the increase, hence the desire to avoid paying out. Could this be in part due to the increased wear and tear on braking/suspension components with worsening roads and use of humps?
Of course it might entirely be due to lengthening servicing intervals so no-one looks at a car often enough so dangerous faults are being missed.
teabelly Read more
An elderly person once told me that the only laws worth obeying are those that you are likely to get caught out over. Didn't rub off on me though, I went back to the garage to inform them they had undercharged me. Now that's sad.
Hope someone can help us out here. A friend bought an MG Rover 1.8 two weeks ago from a garage, which I won't name.
This morning, the clutch went. Warranty was taken with the car as it is a Rover! Call the garage, but the guy there has just said that the warranty doesn't cover clutch breakages.
Now, I appreciate that this is probably the case, but seeing as it was a dealership are they not responsible for making sure that the car was fit for sale? I'm not sure on the sales of second hand car, but is it too late for her to reject the car?
I wouldn't normally get involved with this for her, but the guy has made her cry now as is saying she's on her own.
Thanks in advance. Read more
Thanks for all the replies. Sorry I've not had more details for you, but I've been getting bits and pieces through messenger and still not sure what actually has happend to the car.
Think she's going to reject the car, and hope that the garage will deal with it.
Browse
My son did it for free earlier this year in Lincolnshire, courtesy of Lincolnshire Police on their skidpan.
They used 2 cars, Rear wheel drive Granada & Front wheel drive mondeo, approx 15 minutes in each car, the conditions are:
You must live in Lincolnshire, you must be under 25 or you must have passed your test recently.
My son thoroughly recommended it because he learned a lot about car control.