April 2006
Just pondering the above 'transplant'.
What do you reckon? I don't have any plans of the engines obviously, but as the HDi itself was based on the XUD engines in places, it doesn't sound beyond the realms of possibility. Read more
Is it me or does anyone else notice the ammount of drivers who slam there brakes on to look at an overhead warning signs on the M25 that helpfully say things like "Dont Drink & Drive"
At peak times I have seen lots of rear end shunts around these signs especially if they are displaying a long message regarding future congestion problems. Whilst the message is helpfull I think that some drivers with slower reactions or poor eyesight are becomming dangerously distracted!
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'the stereo cd do with a head clean...'
Sounds like it's not the only thing! ;o)
As the Police force in this country continue to decline in real numbers it seems that non Police cars are starting to grow. I am of course reffering to the very large vary shiny and very new 4 by 4s that the highways agency have been given to replace er I mean assist the Police on the M25 and other motorways.
The real give away that they are not police cars is the black and yellow stripes rather than blue and yellow. However from a distance of anything over 100 meters everyone slams the anchors on and addopts the safe driving bubble of 69.9 mph as seen around police cars on the motorway.
And your point is??
What legal powers do they have?
Can they zap you for speeding?
Can they force you to stop?
Bring back real Police in real Police cars
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tinyurl.com/k47le
Thommo - enjoy
dvd
Having just endured another 8 mile long rolling road block on the A43 between Brackley and Towcester as some idiot in a truck inches past another truck thereby cutting 0.5 seconds off his journey time I say we start a petition for trucks on dual carriageways to be confined to the inside lane only.
They have abused the situation long enough. Read more
around 80% of the trucks pulled
onto the hard shoulder to help cars, vans and pickups get
past them. Some Thai driving is atrocious, but Brit truckers could
learn a thing from Thai truckers.
I just see the traffic cops loving that one!!! "Oh it's alright officer, it works really well in Thailand!!" How exactly would we implement something similar over here then?
My wife has a Ford Focus mk II, 1600 engine. A recurrent problem is water getting into the spark plug "valley" and then when the engine has warmed up, causes one of the spark plugs to become non-operational (as opposed to mis-firing - 'cos it doesn't fire at all.)
The rubber seals around the top of the spark plug connectors would appear designed to keep water out - trouble is if water gets in, the seals prevent water/vapour from escaping. Twice I've removed this water - usually several millimetres deep - dried out the area and squirted WD40 around and inside the spark plug connectors but this solution is only temporary - until the next heavy rain. (My guess is that it is rain water getting in since there is no evidence of coolant or washer additives present.)
The local main dealers have proved useless - they couldn't even diagnose the problem which prompted me to start looking. When the water in the valley was pointed out to them, the response was (you're gonna love this) "......park the car in the garage when it rains................."
This is a lease car provided by my wife's employer so am somewhat limited by what can be done, since the supplying main dealer has to rectify any problems. (Fat chance!) Hence drilling a hole to drain the water would probably be frowned on.
So my query - has anyone else encountered this problem, and if so, do they know what the solution is? I can at least then tell dealer what to do to rectify the problem.
(Sorry about being a bit long-winded.) Read more
it took me ages to find it when i had it.make sure you have the rubber seal at the base of the washer jet.
the blower on this climate control model fails to work through the normal control panel, yet on removal and connecting to battery works fine. It is a complex system - any ideas of the cause or further fault diagnosis? Read more
As the car has climate control,the fan speed will be controlled by an electronic regulator.It is situated in the air ducting behind glove box .(to keep it cool).Power and control voltages will need to be checked with a multi-meter.Are fuses ok?
Sources of OEM remote entry keyless blips for series 3 BMW any ideas apart from Dealers
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Try Ebay, I got one for a Honda for 9.99, was as new, a quck search on google gave me the instructions on how to programme it as well.
In the Kingston area, newly painted red squares in the middle of a carriageway.
About the size and positioning of road humps, with a white border and two white trangles apex to apex.
I am guessing that they are to indicate the start of a 20mph area.
Have I missed something or can any council paint what they like on the road and we are just left to guess the meaning?
At least at Roehampton there was a sign explaining that the odd road markings were experimental.
Are there any other new markings around that I should know about? Read more
We have these road markings in this neck of the woods. They are used at the approach to a lower speed limit and have the speed limit included in the red area.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
I've recently become the very happy owner of a 1998 Nissan 200SX (an awful lot of car for not much money) - and I want to make sure I look after the turbo properly.
I understand the concept of giving the engine (and thus the oil) a few minutes to warm up before caning the car, and I've also read about "simmering" the turbo after a run by leaving the engine running for a moment or two at idle, which gives oil time to pass through the system and cool the turbo a little before switching off.
I live on the Isle of Man and my drive to and from work involves a small amount of town driving, a blast over the wonderful mountain road (part of the TT circuit), and then a small amount of town driving.
Does that small amount of town driving at the end of the run count as simmering the turbo? In the right conditions I do work the car pretty hard over the mountain, but for those few minutes in town before I get home or to the car park at work, the turbo doesn't get to spin up at all, and the engine generally doesn't see the high side of 2500rpm.
My guess would be that a few minutes of gentle driving achieves the same as sitting at idle for a minute or two, but I'd like to know for sure as the car is a few years old and has clocked up 90000 miles, so it probably deserves a bit of TLC.
(On a wider note, you can dramatically alter the driving characteristics of this car (for the better) by taking out both catalytic convertors (one in the exhaust and one in the turbo downpipe) and replacing them with straight-through pipes, makes it much more like the MkI 200SX with a proper brutal turbo boost, rather than the more subdued and gentle flavour that the MarkII serves up at factory standard.) Read more
I have a Saab 9-5, which has now done 156,000 on
the original turbo which is still (appreantly, and frantically looking for
piece of wood to touch!!) in good working order. The
only special care I take is when pulling straight off a
motorway or similar high speed road into a "switch off situation",
by which I mean a service area or similar, when I
simmer the turbo for a minute or so. I never
bother under any other circumstances.
My recipe is simple. I stick to fully synthetic Mobil
1, and I change the oil and filter every 6000 miles
(as opposed to manufactures recommended 12,000). Every other change I
(or the garage) use a flushing agent. IMHO this is
a far bigger factor than the simmering.
The SX has got a full dealer service history up to 74000 miles, and had the oil+filter changed religiously every 6000 miles.
The guy who owned it before me I know personally, and he changed the oil (fully synth) and filter three times in the 13000 miles he covered in it.
I've had an oil and filter change done (again fully synth) since I got it, and intended to have this done every 5000-6000 miles, so if your experience is anything to go by Mike, maybe I'll get 150,000+ out of my original turbo as well :D
My brother (age 40) is getting married in June, and May 20th has been pencilled in for his stag day. There will be about 15 blokes coming.
He lives in Pimlico and I am fortunate enough to live in Norfolk. his mates are all London based. As best man it falls to me to organise the stag day activities...
We have organised dinner and a booze up in Londong for the evening, but he wants an afternoon activity in the London area on that day. I don't know where to start looking!
Any ideas from any of you London backroomers? Read more
Thanks for the heads-up on repairs, that might be the final nail in the coffin.
I'm thinking I'll stick with the 6515 and look at the 6915 when they come out. Having real problems syncing the qTek with my works calendar (Mobile 5, ActiveSync4.1, Groupwise (ahem) 5.5). Without this, it's not much use to me. It's a lovely thing, the 9100 but doesn't do what I need it to :-(
Lee.
Lee -- You don\'t sell the steak, you sell the sizzle
Browse
It would almost certainly be more hassle than it's worth, if it's more power you are looking for the stock 90 bhp 2.0 HDi can fairly easily be tweaked to around 140 bhp and if it's big power they can be reach 190bhp whilst still being reliable and suprisingly economical.