September 2006
I've often wondered how badly the safety of cars is compromised by age. Amongst other cars, I run a 1996 Megane which had a 4-star NCAP rating when it was new. I do appreciate that NCAP is about inbuilt design as well as structural integrity, but there must be a point where key parts of the structure are no longer as sound as they were. I would hope that the Megane isn't too affected by tin worm as IIRC it's partly galvanised, but being a relatively small and light car it does depend on it's structural integrity more than my heavyweights (Saab 9-5 and 9000).
Anyone have any thoughts?
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It's very easy really.....
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lincolnshire/5379930.s...m
I'm sure the vendor (a trader) doesn't mind, especially after all this free publicity. Read more
And I thought my 3 year old was clever. Would love to see how he did that.
Really dull topic, and I apologise....
My old Fabia vRS was supposed to do 55.4mpg overall, but I rarely managed more than 48.
My new A3 is supposed to do 46.9 or thereabouts and does almost exactly that (except when I get excited and zoom off down back lanes wagging my DSG paddles).
There you go! Exciting hey? Read more
Good point. It does seem a very efficient gearbox. It drives like me in sport mode, and you can still cane it in 'D' mode.
However, for all my liking my new toy, I have to say that having hired a 911 recently (mentioned in another post so I won't bore you with the details) I am spoilt now. You can't beat a 6 speed manual gearchange, a bendy road and a proper sports car. Yes, I know the engine's in the wrong place. Yes, I know it's a yuppie cliché. Yes I know it's 145 years old. How much do I want one?!! Oh, and it didn't even use much fuel.
The gearstick on my Renault Scenic is all over the place! It's as if a gearbox/engine mount is loose.
It seems to move forwards and backwards when you accel/deccel,and also moves when idling.
Any clues what has happened? Is this common?
Thanks,Mike. Read more
Just an update,It was the tie bar under the engine that attaches eng to chassis!
Bolt must have been loose,fell off completely at weekend! A new M12 bolt from Renault,89p!!!!!
If you were underwhelmed by Fifth Gear - and reading the thread most of us were, tune in to Discovery Channel at 10pm on a Monday night. Global Garage. Last night's episode - Bangla Banger.
Imagine the Top Gear 'lets make a cabrio Espace' stunt but done in Bangladesh with a local 'car' designer and an East London mechanic with 40 years experience in the trade.
Local goes and buys an absolute shed of a Toyota 2 door coupe - at least 30 years old. Apparently Bangladesh buys up most of Japan's ex motors and scraps them. Pays £1200 for it!. The car is a large number of holes held together with very thin steel! He then spends the next four weeks getting the car ready for the Dhaka motorshow. This involves lots of sheet steel, lots of welding and lots of Bangaldeshis crawling over it. The only tools he has are hack saws, a multitude of hammers, a few spanners and oxy welding gear.
The main guy has the ideas, the locals build the body shell using cardboard templates and the sheet steel. The East London mechanic goes off and finds a new engine and gearbox. The engine is also 30 years old and is found at a huge engine supplier in the middle of Dhaka. The engine is 'bench' tested in the street. A large battery and a pop bottle full of fuel is all that's required - it fired first time. The engine is fitted by 5 locals placing it in the engine bay, there is no engine crane and of course no need for shoes - it's too hot!
The new radiator fouls the cooling fan, so off to a back street welder where the water inlet tube is moved. The machanic then tunes the enigne. The test drive takes place in the streets of Dhaka - no glass in at this stage and body work is base metal - the old paint of the original car has been stripped by many locals using hacksaw blades! The car jumps around as the shockers were shortened by four inches so have no travel!
This show is what happens in a Country where Health and Safety are unknown terms and in parts had me and my wife in stitches. Highly recommended. Read more
I saw this for the first time last night too (was it the first or have I missed some?). Despite being tired the programme had me "riveted" (no pun intended) and it was a master of fresh ideas.
The two guys are a good match and play off one another very well.
If people in India are paying £1200 for a car that in this country you would have to pay someone to take away, then good luck to them!
Hi. I need to head towards Oxford along the M42, on Thursday 28/09/06 at about 08:30.
I can join the motorway at Junction 3 (A435) but I've been told that this stretch is prone to jams.
Would I be better off joining the motorway at Junction 3A (A34) or even Junction 16 on the M40?
Thanks. Read more
This country is gridlocked.
It took me 5 1/2 hours to get from Docklands to Cheshire the other day. It's nonsense, absolute nonsense. And the vast majority of "roadworks" are pointless or badly done. WHY do we put up with it?
The thread by Westpig got me thinking.
In modern ECUs, some of which are purported to be of the 'learning' type, how long does it take for fuel consumption to stabilize at the new driving style?
If my Mondeo TDCi 5-speed has such an ECU (correct me if I'm wrong), then I have this evidence:
If only I use the car for commuting for several tank-fulls, I will get just over 50 mpg. If my wife and I swap the car at about every tank-full, then my commute mpg drops to 47-ish. If my wife has sole use, then the mpg hovers at around 43mpg (6 x 1.5 - 2 mile journeys per day and the odd longer one).
This evidence would back up my theory.
Is it really the ECU trying to be clever or do the lumps of metal and plastic themselves simply take a while to settle to different usage regimes? Read more
My mpg figures are brim-to-brim measurements as my 03 Zetec does not have a trip computer.
The ECU clearly has a limited memory and that eventually, data that it hold about driving style must either get deleted or fall off the bottom of the list.
(Thread header changed to accommodate later postings on same theme. HJ.)
Partner is off to Cologne tomorrow and even though he is missing my birthday in favour of work, I am being a nice girlfriend and dropping him at Heathrow early in the morning.
It has just occurred to me that when the security was raised, they stopped people being able to drop off and pick up at Heathrow - is this still the case?
(Other mods - I'll quite happily move this tomorrow if you don't think it's motoring related enough, but we are going by car!)
Thank you
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You can always self drive and park with a secure valet parking company. It is well worth the convenience and price. check www.heathrowsecurepark.co.uk
can anyone tell me whether the following consumption figures are about right or should i get the car looked at under the warranty......... i want it to be right, but don't want to look a fool at the dealers
wife's car... X Type 2.0 diesel estate (i undertsand it to be the Mondeo 130 engine)
33-34 mpg on the trip computer around town....(rush hour stop start with a fair amount of completely stationary traffic, max 4 miles journey at a time)
38-39 mpg... on a very long motorway journey, that includes 120 miles of very good fast A roads at the end of it(driven quite hard, 4th gear selected when gaps appear on motorway with full acceleration, cruise control at well over the limit for the rest of it and constant overtakes on A road at max acceleration, car very heavily laden
47-50 if you fill it up, cruise quite gently in 5th at 40-50 mph but take it very carefully...(can never last very long doing that, drives me mad)
others have said it's not as economical as it should be........ i tend to think it's my divers boot driving on the long journey and the city traffic stuff is to be expected......... however, it's left a niggling doubt....... and you know what they're like. Read more
To me, the Jag fuel consumption sounds about right. I get broadly similar figures for my Mondeo TDCi that has the same engine. a tankful of short journeys will, in the winter, give just under 40mpg, whereas if I commute with it (30 miles in 35 mins), I get just over 50mpg.
I was wondering if its possibleto install speedometer that has a rev counter and temperature gauge on a 1997 106 that currently only has a clock and speedo?
Theres plenty at the scrap yard and ebay etc and a temp gauge and rev counter would be useful
cheers Read more
thanks for the reply
maybe ill try it if i can find a cheap one!
And the reverse is often true as well.
Both my old Cavalier and my current Sunny look pretty tatty on the outside, rusty wheelarches etc.
However look underneath and they're as solid as they had been 5 years ago.
On the other hand, an old guy down the road had a 15-year-old Daihatsu Charade. Not a mark on the bodywork, where the old boy had waxed the car meticulously every Saturday. Underneath, festering. You could see the rot peeling away if you looked carefully enough.