October 2008

cindersifter

In the road test it states that the 18" tyre gets more of a bump from potholes and bumps than the 17", and also that the 16" tyre is the least affected.

I always thought that the bigger the tyre, the comfortable the ride.

Could someone explain please. Read more

Peter D

With the increase in rim diameter the tyre profile is reduced to retain the tyre outer diameter and the speedo calibration For example 195 55 16, 195 50 17 and 195 45 18. The sidewall is much smaller on the latter and makes the car prone to pot holes, cats eyes etc etc. It's al a case of balance, no pun intended. Regards Peter

colin882

hi i got a 52 reg 2.0 110 hdi and it started missing and not reving above 2200rpm so i unpluged the MAF sensor and away she went again, so i went and brought a new sensor and plug'd it started up and it started missing and not rev again. Anyone got any help or advice? thanks Read more

colin882

oh well most of the time u are!! lol

i'll try get it onto a code reader tomorrow then, and in the mean time drive round with the MAF unpluged!

mattbod

Just wondering if there are any in our little community who have experience of U.S cars of the 80s. A friend of mine in the States of British extraction has seen an Oldsmobile Diesel saloon with 80k genuine miles for the equivalent of about £1500. He says it runs sweetly and is a curiosity for him as it's unusual. Apparently though this engine 5.7 litre 125 hp is infamous for bad reliability and is touted as the car that caused the U.S market to show such resistance to Diesel passenger cars.

Do you think there is a market for Diesels in the U.S? I know that VW sold a few TDIs over there a while back but stopped? I would have thought the yanks would love modern Diesels as they seem to like low down torque. Read more

mattbod

I have noticed though that VW has launched the 140 bhp common rail Diesel in the Jetta in the U.S and are selling it as a green car to rival the Prius.

mattbod

Just an addition to the previous thread on motoring writers. I have just been looking in my local bookshop and found two new books released with a selection of articles taken from Car magazine from its glory days. If you are interested these books are published by Anova Books. I used to enjoy this magazine a lot, especially as a young lad growing up in the 80s. I think it is very disappointing that current car magazines do not seem to have anywhere near the quality of writing that you used to find in Car Magazine. I was shocked to pick up a "best selling" car mag affiliated to a well known t.v programme and find the artcles expletive ridden and just generally poorly written, happy days eh. I wish i could get hold of some old Car magazines from the 80s, I threw all mine out years ago! Read more

mattbod

If any of you guys have a few that you don't want I'd be happy to take them off your hands. I'll leave my details with pugugly. Just interested in the mid 80s mags as reading that book brought back such happy memories of when I was a kid and owning a car wasn't a crime. Iwonder what old Len Setright would have made of the current situation. I would have loved to see him live long enough to review the Prius.

ktntech

Hi Everyone,

My bluetooth and voice control has suddenly stopped working. Everything else on the steering wheel controls works fine.

Has anyone got any ideas? Read more

ktntech

Thanks Simon,

Went back to the dealership and they fitteded a new buetooth module. All fixed and working again.

Thanks

midlifecrisis

Spending far too many hours on the internet searching for a Focus for 'er indoors. I got sick of looking at them today and decided to search any make between certain price levels. Cane across a Corolla 1.4 vvt-i T3 (55 reg) for under five grand at a Toyota dealer.

Simple question. How does it compare to the equivalent Focus. Read more

jbif

recommendation to get something Japanese


see www.honestjohn.co.uk/news/item.htm?id=5247
Toyota Corolla Most Reliable Used Car
Sat, 27 Sep 2008 07:19

CountryBoy

Hey guys. Just wondering if you can give me some advice.

On Monday afternoon I unfortunately hit another car in a car park of a shopping centre and badly damaged the paintwork on the rear side bumper. I thought about waiting where I was, but I was blocking the road so went off to quickly find a place to park. I had no pen with me so didn?t take the Reg. However by the time I had done this and returned to the scene, the car had gone. Clearly, I want to compensate the driver for my poor driving and for the damage caused. I have emailed the car park management about the incident (and the car details of the car that I can remember) and they have said they have had no reports from the driver to them. I am going to the Police Station tomorrow morning (Wednesday) to report the incident.

Am I taking the right actions regarding the incident?
Is there any way you could suggest that could help me to find the driver?

Any feedback would be highly appreciated.
Read more

Pugugly

It may mitigate it, you're quite right.

billy25

hi All,
just come across this!

tinyurl.com/6msmfw

if this isn't the "ultimate" snob gadget, in your opinion what is?

Billy
Read more

Alby Back

The Oerlikon company, subsequently Oerlikon-Buhrle, diversified quite a bit in the latter half of the 20th century. One of its more unusual aquisitions was the Bally shoe company of Switzerland. It sold it again after a few years.

Funny old world really.

oilrag

During re-generation,with particulate filter equipped diesels, do injectors really blast fuel into the cylinders on the exhaust stroke, wetting bores and contaminating oil?

Or is there a separate injector just upstream of the DPF?

Is there a better engineering solution to cleaning a particulate filter?

From the engines perspective, is DPF the mechanical equivalent of `fouling your own nest`and if so, why?

Anything else you can think of describing the system as?

Regards Read more

Bagpuss

But the thread is about diesels and yet another undeveloped wasteful troublesome expensive device being
foisted on us by greedy car firms and venal politicians.


Well, considering that Diesel Particle Filters were first introduced in passenger cars in 1985, it's not as though the manufacturers haven't had time to get their act together.

Unfortunately, the approach initially adopted by the EU of relying the manufacturers to do something voluntarily about diesel emissions didn't work as noone unilaterally wanted to pass the cost on to a customer base who refuse to pay for something that cleans what comes out of their exhaust. So the EU eventually took the big stick approach instead.

As someone living in a city, I'm pleased something was done about it. The drop in air quality here over the last 10 years is noticeable and I'm sure it's not coincidence that this coincided with the boom in diesel powered cars.
movilogo

Is there any scientific reason behind it or just as it is?

In contrast, motorcycle chains are often on left! Read more

L'escargot

>> Even penny farthing bicycles were designed to be mounted on/from the left.


Click on my link. It says "To mount, the rider had to first place his left foot on the step above the back wheel and push off with his right foot, after gaining speed he stood up on his left leg, slipped forward into the saddle ..."