February 2009
My MOT pass this morning gave a Lambda reading of 1.15 (pass range 0.95 - 1.30).
The tester commented on the high level and the highest pass range he'd seen.
It got me wondering what exactly is it measuring and what it's level would be without a cat fitted?
Other readings:
Fast idle. CO-0.02%(pass-0.5). HC-44PPM(pass-200).
Natural idle. CO-0.01%(pass-0.5). Read more
Lord Ahmed has been sent to jail for 12 weeks after admitting to dangerous driving.
He'd been sending and receiving texts minutes before he crashed into a broken down car on the M1 and the driver was killed.
12 weeks? Doesn't seem very long to me. Not much of a deterrent, either.
Why so short a sentence, anyone? Read more
well it would appear that if you have lord at the beginning of your name you get of lightly.
I always thought the QC's always looked after their own !
ask yourself this, if it was joe blogs in lord 'what-ever' shoes would he have got few weeks behind bars ?
I doubt it, more like 6 months
In a similar vein to the thread about silly news items, I got to thinking about two signs seen in the past.
In the early 70's in London on the Underground: "Dogs must be carried on the Underground"
In the mid-late 70's on the counter at the reception desk of Trust-House Fortes hotels: "No smoking rooms available"
What either of the above actually meant is known only to God.
Not a lot to do with motoring except perhaps someone may be inspired to quote more relevant examples.
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Saw a flatbed truck a bit since. On the tailboard 'Bloggs and sons , Paris ,New York and Matlock. (But mostly Matlock )'
In a sunday paper's catalogue of the usual trash..'For estate cars, a wooden folding dog ramp' Well that one won't cost much to feed and should be able to sleep anywhere !
Ted
my radio,horn,hazards and interior lights will only work when headlights are switched on.then if i lower dash dimmer slightly they don't work,sometimes get buzzing noise from fusebox,any ideas? Read more
sounds like an earth fault to me but dont ask which one, any other little signs that have happened lately that you have noticed
if anyone can help i will be amazed, simply out of ides now,
got a 2001 51 focus 1.6 automatic estate, temp gauge seems to so what it wants when it wants, one min it sits fine in the middle then shoots up in to the red although the engine does not overheat,
i have checked the radiator for blockages, had the cooling system flushed through so there are no air locks, thermostat has been changed, so has the tempreture switch between the ht leads, the water pump has been taken off and changed, the car has been to an electrical place to check for fault codes and the ecu but they have found nothing wrong,
have just used silver seal on the engine to seal the head gasket (if there was a problem with it) have even taken the dash out and changed the temp gauge needle thingy with the one off my wife's (who's works fine) and now im out of ideas
if anyone knows of something ive missed or what it might be your help would be greatly appreciated Read more
Had a problem with a pcb had a break in the board replaced the board all ok. you could try changing the whole unit from a scrap car to see if any better.
Have a read at this and can I say that this is no joke. The only decent roads in and around Glasgow are the motorways. The roads are rapidly falling apart. I travel a reasonable amount and Glasgow has by the worst roads in Scotland. I cannot think of any road that is in not need of repair and you report a fault they turn up in a low bed truck and chuck some tarmac at the hole and basically the guy uses his tacky boot to stamp it down. Then a week later it?s back to square one.
tinyurl.com/bjc7qh
Mods HJ has cleared the link.
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People in Edinburgh would be quite happy to have potholes instead of the vast amonut of roadworks throughout the city to install a new tram system.
One junction - at Portobello - has taken 9 months to replace a roundabout with traffic lights - and the council say it won't be finished until end April.
In Florida last year, in the two weeks we were there, they built a flyover across the interstate, and landscaped all the area aorund it!
IIRC when the bridge in Minneapolis collapsed, they built a replacement in 3 months!
So I reckon Glasgow has it fairly easy - providing they include cave trips / mine shafting as a new commonwealth sport, they'll be well prepared!
Hi there
I'm not used to discussing mechanical things, but am fed up with my turbo not working so am going to try! My local garage had a look and couldn't see anything 'straightforward' wrong that they could fix straight away. They said they would need to replace the whole thing (expensive). They did ask about the new ECU I had fitted two years ago at a VW dealership. They said to check that they put in the turbo one, as if they didn't then there wouldn't be a signal to tell the turbo to work. could this be right?
I called VW and they said the model they put in (WO38 906012 L) was the right one. Due to my ignorance in these matters, I have to take their word for it.
Any thoughts?
Many thanks,
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Most places charge an hour's labour for a fault code read, so £60-£100 depending on where you go. It's helpful that you have a VW because there's excellent aftermarket diagnostic software available (VAGCOM) which allows independent garages much the same access to the management system as a VW dealer. Any good independent garage or diesel specialist should be able to pinpoint your problem.
The 1898cc capacity is universal across the VW TDI range of this era. This engine came in two flavours 90 bhp, 110 bhp, but a 99 car could have the 'next generation' 115 bhp version (known as the PD engine and with a six speed manual gearbox). If yours is a five speed, it's a 90 or 110, if it's a six speed it's a 115.
This from the new Highway Code:
Q6. What should you do if you drive up to a junction where the traffic lights have failed?
A6. When traffic lights are not working, treat the situation as you would an unmarked junction and proceed with great care.
This appears to be new and sensible advice. I thought the previous theoretical rule was that you were breaking the law if you ignored failed lights?
Note it says "failed" or "not working", not turned off. So lights stuck permanently on red can be deemed to have "failed" ? Read more
I pulled up at a set of tempoary lights on red a few miles from home that I hadnt seen before. Some of the interminal gas works in the east mids. It took only a minute or so of waiting to get tooted at and swore at by drivers behind saying they were broken! As if I was to know eh!
Just been watching a bit of The Joys of Motoring which I recorded a few nights ago.
In the prog, Tristram Hunt drives a Bullnose Cowley and mentions the book 'In Search of England' by the journalist H.V.Morton. Morton was employed by , I think, The Daily Express, to go out into England by car in around 1929/1930 and report on what he found. His car of choice was a Cowley. This has long been a favourite read of mine and I would recommend it to anyone who hasn't read it. It can usually be found in charity shops for a few pence. Morton also wrote other 'search' books, Wales, Scotland, London, Lands of the Bible, South Africa and several more. I now have most of them after some years hunting. They take you back to a different time, when petrol was bought in cans and B&B was five bob a night...delightful !
Ted Read more
It would be easy but not quick ;-) e.g...
Using the online beta of TomTom Route Planner it's about 765 miles and almost 14 hours from Lands End to John O'Groats setting out now. That will be using motorways and traffic info. TomTom on my mobile phone says avoiding motorways is 925 miles and 20.5 hours. Which route would you take?
When my mother was a child they used to travel from South Wales (the country/principality and not the town in Yorkshire) to Blackpool. That was a mammoth journey. Once made worse by the blanket on my grandmother's lap ending up unravelled and wrapped around the drive shaft. She'd noticed it happening but didn't like to mention it. Bless ;-) Took a while to cut off with a razor blade!
Arrange the following with those at the top being of greatest importance.
These are mine:
1. Value for money
2. Handling/Performance
3. Reliability/Quality
4. Running costs
5. Active safety
6. Passive safety
7. Ride quality
8. Interior space
9. Luxury equipment
10. Aesthetics
.........................................
53. Brand image
.........................................
96. CO2 emissions Read more
If you avoid the obvious and well publicised (here at least) lemons of the car world, most offerings are surprisingly reliable these days. Such is the general level of reliability that I think it's fair to consider other factors first - certainly fitness for intended purpose.
So, here goes for my priorities:
Suitability for intended job
Safety
Value for money
Efficiency
Scope for main-dealer avoidance (pattern parts, diagnostic software etc). No coded parts.
General knowledge of weaknesses and fixes - implying a reasonable market penetration
Long life (galvanised body essential)
Reliability
Limited obsolescence - some Third World offerings have very short model lives
No obvious "sillies" like scooter wheel spares
There must be others, but my general philosophy is to buy a suitable, efficient, well made and easy to fix vehicle, look after it and keep it a long time.
659.
Browse
The lambda reading may be caused by the smallest of leaks in the exhaust or the probe not being far enough up the tail pipe. A minimal air leak on the analyzer will also cause this. the air leak can be so small that even whilst the analyzer has to pass a leak test each morning a tny air leak will increase lambda.
being a carburetted model I suspect the throttle spindle is leaking causing very low co reading & increased lambda.
I wouldn't worry about the HC for an older vehicle as its still well within limits