January 2012
The Saab museum has been saved.
http://www.saabsunited.com/2012/01/p4-west-saab-museum-saved.html Read more
I'm in the market for some brakes and tyres, but prices vary immensely.
Can anyone recommend what alternative to genuine ATE brakes that VW use. Reading various forums and articles, Mintex seem to be OK but Im not prepared to mortgage my house for a new set! Read more
When I was driving home from work yesterday afternoon, for some distance I was travelling behind a black 59-plate BMW 3-Series, which had two strip stickers on the back, just under the little 'lip' the boot has. The stickers said 'police training'. The car was doing well over 70mph, didn't have any grille lights that I could see when I passed it, and he never nicked anyone. He wasn't accompanied by a marked vehicle either.
Is this standard practice? It looked like someone with a black Beemer had got a couple of strips of elastoplast and printed on them using a laser printer. Fishy. Anyone seen it before? Read more
The poor old Mazda speeds very well I'll have you know!!
...
Just curious about the technical limitations that stop this being possible.
Or is it possible but not suited to use in cars? Read more
3 way cats don't help, but it's not an EGT problem. 3 way cats can't reduce NOx if there is oxygen in the exhaust. That is what killed conventional lean burn. If you run slightly lean (say up to an AFR of 25:1) cylinder temperatures are high enough to generate NOx. If you go leaner, spark ignition doesn't really work.
HCCI can operate at ultra lean mixtures which keeps cylinders below about 2000K so NOx production is low-hence no need for 3 way cat.
As above really.
I realised my mistake quickly. I BRIMMED it with normal diesel, then stuck some diesel additive that mentions lubricating fuel pumps on the bottle into the tank too.... Read more
Relax. It's a relatively low pressure rotary injection pump. No problem.
As others say no problem. VW diesels in seventies reccomended petrol as a winter additive to prevent waxing.
Just came across this article. I lived in Southe East London, and the exhausts from the old buses were terrible, but they were exempt from the Low Emmision scheme!
www.autocar.co.uk/blogs/anythinggoes/archive/2012/...x Read more
To well informed people this is hardly news. I commented on here last year how buses get away with murder in the pollution argument, the driver of a 1.2litre Fiesta doing 10 miles a day gets the punishment while the stoneage diesel buses clogg up and down the place all day (usually with nobody on them) pouring out gases like theres no tomorrow.
The writer of the article has a point, it is politically uncomfortable to actually acknowledge public transport is a big offender (particularly if you look at it proportionately). Its always been easy to blame it on the motorist but hopefully the tide is turning. I wont hold my breath though.
Anyone have any info, on whether british built jap cars are any more or less well built than japanese built, japanese cars, I'd have thought with their quality systems, they'd be much the same? Read more
About 15 years ago I worked for a company that transported finished cars from the Nissan factory at Washington. At the time quite small numbers of Primeras were built at Washington for export to Japan - these went through a significantly more rigorous quality control process than cars for any other market.
When we first started working with Nissan at Washington and Toyota at Burnaston we found them to be a nightmare to work with, because their quality processes were so demanding compared with the other companies manufacturing in the UK.
Have I missed something or are Network Q no longer offering the lifetime warranty?
This appears to have been replaced by a 3 year warranty, certainly according to the search options on the website. So the only way to get the lifetime warranty is by being the first purchaser of the vehicle. This would be punitively expensive given the high depreciation on most Vauxhalls.... Read more
Manufacturers can only insust that servicing is carried out to specified standards, not that it is carried out by a franchised dealer.
The problem is that 'lifetime warranties' don't refer to your lifetime, they refer to the expected lifetime of the component in question under reasonable use....
Hi,
I have the same question to Honest John too..... Read more
Thanks for your views.. just to clarify, I'm not mixing the two offers..the 2 offers from AccessToyota are irrespective of the Touch and Go system (no linkage whatsoever, cofirmed by Toyota and Toyota financial services)...In Q3 of last year AccessToyota had a particular offer, in Q4 another one and in Q1 this year another one..
Decision to finance the car is a decision at a point in time, and at this moment I can choose to finance it through a bank, pay cash completely or finance it through Toyota Financial services...the dealer is not even a concerned party here... as the finance agreement will be between me and Toyota Financial Services and the dealer receives the money the day they deliver the car (like they would receive from a bank or if I had paid cash)...
Hi All,
I'm hoping this is just my paranoia kicking in, but I've just purchased a 307 SW 2.0 HDi 136 '56' plate.... Read more
Thanks! This puts my paranoid mind at ease!
Browse
I found Mintex "Brake-in-a-Box" on t'Internet. Matched discs and pads all in one box. Got 'em from a supplier in Failsworth, just a 20 minute drive from Ramsbottom. Done about 30,000 miles on them and I like them. Much better 'feel' to them than the original ones fitted by Ford on my Fiesta 1.4 Tdci. Oh!- and they were the cheapest replacement set that I could find. I actually went for 'cheap' and got something that I like!