November 2007
Whilst trying to escape XFactor and associated programmes I found this link:
www.lubedev.com/smartgas/
I don't know whether Mr Lou LaPointe came up during previous discussions but he is an advocate of adding pure acetone and other ingredients to fuels to increase MPG up to a claimed 50%. He claims that this can be achieved by the car owner by slowly increasing the additives until the best figures are achieved for that particular engine and using the same fuel source of 'good fuel'.
His article is somewhat long winded and he does tend to repeat certain facts. He suggests that oil companies and vehicle manufacturers are ridiculing and suppressing fuel saving techniques for greater profits to the detriment of the environment. He even suggests that vehicles that are fitted with average consumption display devices are capable of decreasing consumption if the figure becomes too good!
Some may describe him as paranoid but he does makes some interesting observations.
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Fullchat Read more
My mum really needs a small care with automatic transmission. I have often heard there are problems with them. The belt drive ones in particular. Can anyone recommend a reliable one? I am looking at 1 to 2 years old.
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Fiat Panda, Hyundai Amica, Kia Picanto and Perodua Myvi -
all get good reviews on HJ CbC, Peachorlemon or Parkers/Whatcar owners' reviews.
Autotrader has:
06/56 Panda auto 14k miles £5450
06/06 Amica auto 400 miles £4995
06/06 Picanto auto 3k miles £4995
07/57 Myvi auto 1k miles £6750
Seeing as the forum search seems a bit vague these days i thought i would let anybody who runs a ka to be aware that the heater resistor located in front of the passengers feet tend to get hot and burn out,ok in normal turn of events you undo the one philips screw pull it out and replace it,but,the one i did today with the proper resistor pack still attached had obviously got so hot probably previously to the new pack being fitted that the cables had actually all burnt and the protective coating unsleaved itself,no fuses had blown but a fire waiting to happen me thinks,definately worth a check if you have one of these in the family
{resister typo in header amended} Read more
First post so please be gentle!
HJ gave the new Mazda 2 a glowing road test report so I sent off for the brochure. Mazda also sent a glossy copy of the Autocar Road Test report which was great apart from a comment in their review of the car's braking ability:- "the 48.3m needed to stop from 70mph in the dry is a little worse than average, but the wet distance - a scary 73.7m - is poor."
I need some advice as to how "scary" this braking distance really is.
This new model has Anti-lock Braking, Electronic Brake-force Distribution and Emergency Brake Assist, it's also a relative light-weight car. It has 258 mm ventilated disks at front and 200mm diameter drums at rear - this is standard for all engine sizes.
Comments or comparison with other small cars braking distances would be much appreciated - many thanks. Read more
That made me laugh
:-)
Recently purchased a 220cdi estate my wife to use , It has been good with excellent fuel economy but cranks forever before it starts especially when hot. It broke down this week and as my wife is a nurse needs to be reliable. I have since purchased and fitted four new glow plugs but the old ones looked like new when removed. I also recollect finding a can of Bradex easy start under the seat after purchasing the car !!
Any ideas would be appreciated as my wife is panicking and wants her old car back!!
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TR
If you're thinking of having a go yourself, get a manual and read-up on the safety precautions of working on something with 20,000 lbf/sq/in [1350 bar] inside it.
I wouldn't try and remove any glowplugs - they break off and that's £1500 gone to get the bit out. If it won't start hot, then the plugs don't come on then anyway.
I have just received my first Photocard driving licence (I'm almost 70 years old) to replace the old style one I have had since the early '1970s.
I knew that the new, so called 'improved' one was in two parts i.e. the card and its paper counterpart but there is no way I can carry that fairly large sheet of paper in my wallet - which comfortably took the old style one.
I therefore propose just to carry the credit card-sized part - in any case I have no endorsements that would have been listed on the paper counterpart.
It seems a pity that some sort of chip could not have been incorporated into the photocard, thereby containing the necessary information which then may have made the paper portion redundant.
Does anyone else in fact NOT carry their driving licence on their person or if they do, do they carry both components?
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Recently hired a car in Canada, and wasn't asked for the counterpart - the plastic card did the trick!
JS
My daughter is having trouble with this switch. The heated mirrors have recently stopped working and yesterday she found that adjusting the left door mirror the switch worked fine but when the switch was put into the right hand position both mirrors moved.
I guess its a switch problem which we intend to order from VW next week.
Has anyone else had this problem and how easy would it be for me to replace it, rather that paying VW dealer labour charges.
Any advice welcomed.
Many thanks
Colabora. Read more
This may not be a switch fault.The movement of both mirrors when the r/h is operated is normal and is a characteristic of this model and a lot of other VWs.The heating circuits to the mirrors is initiated by pushing inwards (against spring action) the mirror adjust joystick.hth
Out of Parkers and Wise buyers what ones would you say where more near the trade guides for accuracy? Read more
No idea as to the veracity of actual 'raw' data the various guides (commercial & otherwise) use, but I tend to average several values from any free sources I can find, careful to make sure I'm comparing apples with apples, as it were, by getting 'trade-in' xor 'trade' values adjusted for mileage. When I've done this in the past & quoted to a dealer what I'm expecting as the 'unsweetened' p/ex price, I've been pleasantly surprised that on being shown the 'CAP' or Glass's price it has varied only slightly. Whether the dealer can or is willing to achieve that price is another matter , but does it establish in negotiations an irreducible or fair value for your p/ex.
why isnt any one moaning about the fuel prices? £1.06 for a litre of unleaded , with the pound/ dollar at an all time high £1.00 = $2.10, we are being conned big time, dont we buy oil in dollars any more ?
SLT Read more
Revolt noW!
we have enough revolting people in the world now...thank you very much........;-0
every now and then (about twice a year) i get billed to the tune of £12.67 by severn trent water authorites for a car parking space ( i dont have) at the flats i live at , i always park in the street on the cobbled side of a double yellow line which is private property that belongs to the trendy bar / ale house, it really frustrates the traffic wardens, i often watch them ringing head office to see if they can ticket me, ha ha ha, there are clamping notices on the bar exterior walls but the proprietor never bothers Read more
the £12.67 bill you get twice yearly is to cover the amount of rain that has fallen on your parking space and then gone down the drain ,i have to pay 3 of these twice yearly at work,wait till we get taxed on the parking spaces that we have as per the rates valuations we've had to fill in every other year thats now in the hands of the inland revenue,another stealth tax? oh yes
milky if you aint got a parking space ring the authority up get a confirmation off them and dont pay this draconian charge
Browse
I generally subscribe to the view that the free-market is real test of the value of something and given the long term escalation in fuel prices, the market for a simple acetone dispensing kit must be huge.
The absence of any such kit on the market tells its own story about whether acetone has any impact on fuel efficiency, but I would be happy to be proved wrong.