May 2007
Aa? I know there's a trend to ignore capital letters, but blimey, everyone knows it't the AA!
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L\'escargot. Read more
I was yesterday driving north up the A38 having come off the M5 at J22 there is a roundabout at the junction with the A370 by Brent Knoll, as I came up to the roundabout I could see a white van waiting to turn right off the A370 southbound onto the A38, I also noticed a Merc disappear behind the van, I assumed the Merc was heading north on the A38 so would turn left at the roundabout to head north, the same way as me, rather than south with the van, i.e. the Merc was in the left hand lane to turn left and the van in the right hand lane to turn right. I entered the roundabout at about 30mph, it is normally a quick flick left, a quick flick right, before accelerating up the open NSL stretch that leads to and over the motorway before the 30 limit in Rooksbridge.
However as I crossed in front of the van I could see the nose of a CLS steaming towards me lifting under full throttle, I guess the driver wanted to head south, the same way as the van and thought he would nip around the outside of the van at the roundabout. We both braked, I could hear a chirp from the Mercs front wheels as it stopped, must have been a fag paper between us. A close shave, IIRC I took a quick second to indicate the lowest prime number to the driver of the Merc and carried on my way.
Strange thing in hindsight is that I am sure it had a V12 badge on the front wing behind the front wheel though afterwards recalled that the most powerful CLS is a V8, I have checked this am and it is the CLS63AMG with a 6.3 ltr V8, perhaps it was a Brabus or something or perhaps I was mistaken and it was a new S-Class. Read more
the
amount of flash cars makes you want to cry.
Cry stevied? Bit sensitive, what?
Such sights cheer me up no end.
ive got my vans mot next week and need to know if a split rear wiper blade will fail? next question , if it does can i remove the whole wiper arm because the rear windows are blanked off? thanks Read more
rear wiper blades are not subject to inspection on a mot test
Guys
I have acquired a '98 Lanos 1.6i as a runabout. The car has been regularly serviced (100k), is generally fine, but is a bit hesitant when cold for about the first 5 mins. Slight press of the throttle before moving off causes the revs to momentarily drop to about 600 rpm, before they pick up and you can move off. This makes it easy to stall and a bit tricky in the traffic in the morning. After 5 mins or so the problem goes away and it's quite easy to drive. I haven't had it long enough to know if this is made worse by wet/cold mornings but it has been pretty wet lately.
Is there anything simple I can try out myself to try and rectify this?
Thanks Read more
I`m inviting you to think `out of the box` regarding internal combustion engine design and its application in a motor vehicle.
Really out of the box that is :)
What would be possible if a choice were made to go in a certain direction, to stay with internal combustion over the next 60 years.
I`m inviting you to suspend the logic of current ( fuel cell etc) future car development and consider just what `would be possible technically` with todays internal combustion engines If the millions of pounds spent on fuel cell cars had been ploughed into improving the thermal efficiency of internal combustion engines.
Why? just for the sake of it and because I suspect we will never see what the full, *ultimate, potential of the possible fuel/thermal effeciency of internal combustion engines are before they are replaced.
*Ultimate? Well lets say the next 60 years or so.... Why? well, consider the Mallard that fantastic A4 Gresley Pacific that must have seemed like riding a bullet back in the 1930`s... What if you put a group of engineers on building a new one now.. with a space shuttle budget.
An engineers machine....... vastly better construction, tolerances etc, but 60 years of progressive development time lost.
Now apply that thinking to todays typically common rail diesel car and its systems. Its got the latest computerised diesel fuel injection and systems, way beyond what we thought would be possible back in the 60`s.
Its on the M1 and has been in the outer lane for an hour, heat pours of the exhaust,the radiator, the whole surface of the engine and the
sump radiates heat. Its summer, none is needed for interior heating and its all wasted, what is that? about 55/60% of the fuels energy?
We look at the Mallard now and consider what would be possible staying true to the basic principle of the external combustion engine, if we wished.... Titanium/special alloy reduction of reciprocating mass in the con rods, much higher pressure boiler. Oil fired or to take it to the limit a nuclear reactor as heat source. Its still an external combustion steam engine, but wow! not as we knew them.
As we look at the old Mallard and consider just what `could be possible, if we wished`.... The engineer of tomorrow, another 60 years into the future considers our internal combustion cars of today. What would be possible staying true to the internal combustion engine principles?
Given that the last 200 years have taken us from the blacksmiths forge in what seems like a logarithmic progression into special alloys , materials and expertise, what are the possibilities now and for that enginneer of the future who is looking back at our engines as we in turn look back at the Old A4 Gresley Pacific?
Turning heat into energy... Imagine a car engine with the exhaust running through a heat exchanger,a fully insulated engine exterior (as on a domestic hot water tank. The cooling system set up to store the heat with only emergency flow through the conventional radiator.
All of this heat being stored in a matrix of special material.. How could that be used to provide energy on or off board the car?
An example of systems, but what of the engine, surely in 60 years it would be a totally sealed unit, what would it take to achieve that?
If we chose of course... and as an exercise in just what would be possible if we wished it :)
Of course these are the ramblings of a simple, old school, home mechanic.....
Regards
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In fact in the anorak far extremities of the net I stumbled across a group that designs modern 'virtual' steam locos, carrying forward the design and technology process from when it ended in the real world in the late 1950's / early 1960's.
I have often observed cars being driven slowly and sedately, and irritatingly so when it is unecessary. Very often the driver is middle aged wearing a flat cloth cap, and accompanied by a lady of similar vintage.
An opposite extreme was one late 20-ish chap I had lifts with who wore a cloth cap and a pair of his wife's kid leather gloves (he said that it gave him a better grip of the steering wheel). He used to play cat and mouse with the police, thinking it a great game. He would accelerate like a plane, using maximum revs in each gear. I heard later that he had been given a 12 month ban. Read more
Correct Micky, although it did so because the leading car { a Citroen, I think } crashed on the last leg with the Hunter close behind. As I recollect, the Hunter was not really modified either, I think it had a gearbox out of the Sunbeam Tiger, but otherwise standard. It surprised most people in this part of the world.
Hi Honest John.
I have a cavelier K reg, last week as we were going up a hill the engine died.
It still turns over but doesnt spark up!!!! My 1st thoughts were the Plugs,rotor arm or mabe the ignition coil,so have changed the plugs, leads rotor arm and ignition coil.......but still no joy!!!
Any ideas??? Thanks maverick36 Read more
Ah yes, once upon a time those plastic drives were good for business (or at least a bit of lurk outside the workshop on a breakdown!). Funny how the foreman found the time to do breakdowns on sunny days, but not on rainy days!
Number_Cruncher
I have a year 2000 Vectra automatic which I have started having a problem with. When I slow down and stop the car used to go straight into neutral but it has recently stopped doing this and remains in gear so I now have to keep my foot firmly on the brake to stop it from creeping forward. Does anyone know what the problem could be? Read more
Yes brake lights are working but will get auto electrician friend of mine to check brake light switch to see if faulty. thanks for that.
Hi,
I have a 52 plate 406 110 hdi. 40K miles There is a problem with the temperature gauge. The gauge usualy rests half way but can swing down quite suddenly then back up again to center.Sometimes it will go down to zero and stay for a few seconds, This can be accompanied by the "engine coolant to hot" warning and the "stop" light flashing on and off
I am sure the engine is not over hot as it usualy happens about ten minutes from a cold start but runs for a lot longer with the needle at half way most of the time.
There is another minor isue.The rev counter normaly sits at 0.8 at tickover but sometimes goes up to 1.0 for a few secs then settles down to 0.8 again.this seems to be at or around the same time as the temp gauge swinging around
I would be most grateful for any help on this.If it is just a dicky temp gauge or similar then it can swing all it likes - I hope nothing serious as I am skint
Thanks
Mike
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Mike
Facing an intermittent fault, on a system this complex - a code read.
An eyeball check of the cooling module and it's wiring is something that you could do yourself and save the cost of accessing it. Just remove the wheelarch liner.
do timing chains actually stretch? some old duffer in the pub reckons the pins in the links wear out but the actual links dont stretch, so he says the timing chain shouldnt jump off the sprockets, unless they are worn to near enough smooth, what makes me ask is my t/chain rattles like a gooden but ticks over like a dream , and never misses a beat , im trying to put off changing mine cause it looks like a shed load of hassle.. opinions please!! Read more
SNIP, it was a general question!!!
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Where's it gone? It was there earlier this morning. I know I didn't dream it!
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L\'escargot.