Lpgc wrote:
Diesels sound crap, kick out crap from the exhaust and are crap to drive.
The electricity used to charge electric only vehicles (and run everything else that runs on electric) comes mostly from power generation plants that burn fossil fuels, this is likely to be the case until (and if) fusion reactors are invented. If fusion reactors were in place tomorrow the electrical supply infrastructure would still need upgrading before the majority of homes could have an electric vehicle.
Countries need revenue from vehicle fuel tax on the one hand but want everyone to be green on the other hand. If it currently costs a motorist something like 15p to drive a mile in a car and government get half the 15p in revenue, that's 7.5p gov gets for the average mile driven. As a nod to green gov allows reduced taxation on green fuels such as LPG and electric vehicles. If there comes a day when everyone runs an electric vehicle, the electric will have to cost at least 7.5p for every mile driven plus whatever extra needs to be factored in to cover the cost of upgrading infrastructure.
The savings enjoyed by running electric vehicles may only last until the electric vehicles get better and start to become more mainstream. While-ever anyone produces petrol, LPG will also be produced and governments that like to nod to green will tax it less heavily than petrol. We could even see a situation in future where it costs less to run a vehicle on LPG than electric... Electric cars are not totally clean, they shift the problem from vehicle exhausts to power station exhausts. Then we could talk about (ref Brian's post) what it takes to get enough lithium to produce batteries for all these electric vehicles and copper for electric cables and transformers.
In the future maybe we'll have to take our dead in our electric cars to recycling centres for rare earth element extraction lol. One of the biggest problems with regards oil use is the rising demand from developing countries like, say, China and India. What would happen if developed countries took a hard line on this - 'Sorry China / India, we developed first and have become accustomed to our way of life, but we're not going to let you do the same as we have/do with oil because there isn't enough to go round'. War? OK. So what if we say to oil producing countries 'We know you only have oil to offer and have based your economies and standards of living on selling oil to the West but we're not going to buy any oil in future, sorry'. War? Well maybe they'll start turning oil into more plastic products such as ships ,etc which become much cheaper than current metal ships but the new products bring problems of their own (plastic on the sea bed etc). Then we might say 'Sorry still no good, you're still causing pollution'. Is it war yet? If only we had nuclear fusion, and that Star Trek technology for producing food etc out of thin air (that runs on lectric).
Simon
My 330d was one of the best cars i've driven. It wasnt noisey, it was smooth and refined, had oodles of torque from idle and was effortless to drive with nearly 300hp on tap when required. I've also driven a small 1400cc 3 cylinder diesel in a ibiza and it was SIGNIFICANTLY nicer to drive than an identical 1.4 petrol, which would barely pull itself up a hill. So i'm not sure i agree that they're terrible to drive. The emissions are another story ofcourse, but no-ones disputing that.
We've already had days where more than 50% of our electricity generation has come from renewables... Coal stations are expensive and are only turned on when really needed. The grid is getting greener all the time, and as a result so is the miles driven in an EV. The next big step change is grid level storage which is the big thing thats being worked on, various schemes including batteries and heatpumps and compressed gasses.
You make a valid point on taxation, but unlike petrol, its near impossible to tax electricity in the same way. I suspect we'll end up with some sort of mileage or road based charging in the long term.
China and india are already rapidly rolling out renewables, faster than many western countries infact!
This is the dot i can see on the box itself:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zh45w6b7l9n60xd/2017-07-20%2020.20.34.jpg?dl=0
If i rotate the steering a bit, this sticky out bit appears:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3wzbigw3ywpeqve/2017-07-20%2020.21.37.jpg?dl=0
So i presume those are the marks. Whats the best way of lining up the steering? Do i just undo the bottom UJ and slide it off?
Well the bolts arrived today, i'm away at the weekend and being able to move the rangey while i was away would be handy, so i set about trying to finish it off tonight after dinner.
First problem was the body had moved across, and didnt want to move back. In the end i reattached the drag link, and just hauled on the steering and that pulled it back across so i could get the panhard bolted in.
Torqued everything up with the car at ride height.
Then got stuck into that drop link. It came off easily enough. New one went on fine. I couldnt decide which side of the bar it went on. It originally was mounted on the outside, with the nuts on the inside. It seemed to me that it would fit better the other way round, as when fitted that way you couldnt get a spanner on it to hold it still. In the end i put it back the way it was, but i thaught i should probably check and see!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/bo7cx6kw6p0fshd/2017-07-20%2019.49.16.jpg?dl=0
It seems stupid, as it specifies a really high torque figure, but with it mounted that way its pretty much impossible to counter hold the top balljoint while tightening.
Went for a test drive, seems better, but not sure its 100%. However the steering box isnt centred and the drag link isnt adjusted at all, so i'll wait until thats sorted first before passing judgement! What was noticeable was a drastic reduction in bodyroll. Who'd have thaught!
In terms of overall experience, diesel will surely win out over LPG. LPG might just pip the cost per mile numbers in certain circumstances, but for the vast majoirty of folk who want to buy a standard unmodified car from a dealership with a warranty, LPG simply doesnt feature.
The problem with hydrogen is numerous. The electricity used to produce it (with your two electrodes) has to come from somewhere, and its MUCH more efficient just to directly use that electricity. Once you've got the hydrogen, you need even more electricity to compress it, then store it, then move it around using trucks or ships or trains. Its just a really really inefficient use of energy. And if you put it into an ICE, you need to package seriously substantial tanks. And once you've got it into your combustion engine, about 70% of the energy you get from burning your fuel gets thrown away out the exhaust pipe and radiators. Fuel Cells are not quite as wasteful, but you still have all the issues of producing, storing, moving and dispensing hydrogen which unfortunately arent particularly easy to fix.
Its MUCH more efficient to charge a battery (lithium charging is extremely efficient, most of the losses are actually in the power supply!), and simply power an electric motor to drive the wheels.
Its also MUCH easier to cleanly produce electricity in a big plant, than it is to cleanly burn fuel in millions of little engines. Even more so for short journeys where your combustion engines running super inefficiently. Furthermore, the electricity plants are remote, and thus not filling our cities with combustion byproducts, and we can use renewables like wind and solar with no combustion required at all.
The problem is theres lots of utter bullshit being spread by big oil and the media as well as many of the large car companies who have billions invested in combustion engines and dont really want to see that disappear, that you only really begin to realise once you start looking into it properly. Tesla have given them all a bit of a scare really, and they're now all scrabbling to get EV's to market.
I guess only time will tell, but i think a lot of people get their eyes opened once they actually drive a proper EV. I certainly did. And my reasons for buying mine werent any sort of green environmentalism. Wife wanted a newer car, and i wanted something non-shit. We couldnt afford to buy a nearly new car with decent engine, but when we realised the fuel savings offered by the EV meant that half the lease cost essentially vanished, it suddenly became quite viable. I had a short test drive and it seemed fine, so we went for it.
The chemistry used in a car is somewhat different to whats used in a phone but fairly similar to most laptops. Its pretty robust.
I think your really underestimating what a vehicle fire in a normal ICE vehicle is like, the batteries wont really make any significant difference, if its going to go up, its going to make a big mess in the process. Liquid fuels can also leak (and fuel tanks are usually plastic...), and spread around on the floor, spreading fire, the battery pack cant do that.
The main limiting factor at the moment is manufacturing capacity for the batteries. But ofcourse, as demand increases, so does the production. The cost of batteries is constantly falling as more manufacturing capacity comes online, which suggests, at least at the moment, theres no real supply issue for lithium.
The charging is a wee bit complex and is the bit that takes some understanding. There are various "speeds", the fastest chargers (called rapids) might fill the battery most of the way (on the typical sized pack available today) in about 30minutes, realistically the time you'd spend stopping for a pee and a coffee at a motorway services. Fast chargers vary from 7 to 22kw depending on supply and vehicle ability, and thus charging time on those varies substantially. Cars themselves also vary as to the maximum power they can draw on the fast chargers.
For me, it does a lot of my journeys without issue. I leave for work with a full battery, its usually down to 40-50% by the time i arrive at work depending on the weather. I plug it in while working, and when i finish its full and i set off home again. And realistically for a lot of folk, the range of the current models is fine for the majority of their driving. If your barreling up and down a motorway doing hundreds of miles, then sure diesel is still the best option. But for a lot of folk, and especially two car families, an EV can work well, even with its current limitations. Once the Model3 and other cars arrive in the next few years, we should see another step change in usefulness.
holland really loves its EV's at the moment, the tax breaks are so severe all the cabbys are running around in Teslas...
I have an EV, and tbh its really quiet nice. You need to drive one to experience it. Not a silly hybrid thing either, full electric no combustion engine at all.
Theres lots of nonsense spouted about them, including the comments above about fires. We forget that we're all already driving around in cars with tens of litres of readily combustible petrol onboard. A lithium ion battery is no more dangerous, and infact probably MORE robust with the design of modern lithium packs. Theres also less energy in your typical LI pack than there is in your typical car fuel tank...
It makes sense as a propulsion system. The power delivery is seriously impressive, its smooth, its quiet, effortless torque and your always got maximum power on tap with instant throttle response. If you want to clean up the carbon emissions of ICE cars, you need people to buy millions of new cars. If you want to clean up the carbon emissions of an EV, you need to replace the power generation with cleaner options. The latter is happening anyway and growing all the time, thus the EV gets cleaner over its lifetime, and the ICE gets dirtier.
It also charges overnight, and is full in the morning ready to go. No need to visit a fuel station or stand around in queues. Now granted, most are range limited and that causes issues for longer trips, but that will improve. Mine will do about 70-80miles on a charge. But that does all my commuting without issue, theres a charge point at work as well, so its full when i leave. Its a bit marginal if i visit my folks, especially in the winter, but i'll either just plug it in when i get there, or take the petrol car instead on the longer journeys. Its also costs about 3p a mile in electricity. The fuel savings are so large its paying for half the car.
Hydrogen is a waste of time, Its only being tabled because it allows the oil companies to continue their model of charging you to pump fuel into your car, and my the car manufacturers as it can be burned in a combustion engine. The energy involved in producing the hydrogen is bonkers and it makes no sense at all from an environmental POV. we might as well just keep burning petrol.
A wee tip, if your struggling with a photobucket image thats been held hostage in another thread or something.
If the link is clickable, click it. It'll load the photobucket website. On my PC this at first shows the same placeholder image, though sometimes it does just show the image. Once the page has loaded, hit shift F5, and the page will reload and the image will appear :)
If the image is not clickable, right click it and choose "view image" or "open image in new tab" depending on browser. Again, this should load the photobucket page directly, and should show the image. If it doesnt then again shift F5 should bring it up!
For hosting my images i have my own webserver, but i often find myself using dropbox for quick snaps as the photo automatically syncs them and it creates a public url with a simple click.
If your going to host images from your home connection, sign up to a dynamic DNS service, which means even if your IP Address changes, the name still points at your new IP.
Gilbert: yep, i hope so. I think it really needs the balljoints done on the end of the axle case. the top drivers one is creaking a bit when you turn. But i'll get this round of stuff out the way first!
i have air and a good Ingersoll Rand impact gun, but i've never had much luck with siezed bolts like this and an impact gun.
I guess i should have tried it, but i didnt.
For the nut and bolt it wouldnt have fitted anyway i dont think, but the axle case side probably would have gone in.
had dinner then went back out. It creaked another turn or so then released a bit and got steadily easier. Once apart its clear why it was such an arse, someones reused an old bolt, and slathered the rusty mank in loctite.
Finally got the bar off:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7yrf4mi3pumjka3/2017-07-18%2019.21.09.jpg?dl=0
Ruined bushes:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/o878oorg56l48bx/2017-07-18%2019.21.20.jpg?dl=0
Used a hole saw to cut out the old rubber, then hacksawed the case and hammered it out with a chisel (screwdriver)
Managed to press the new bushes in with the vice and a big extension bar over the handle!
Ready to go back on:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/xyez6g3tdfltd3y/2017-07-18%2020.19.05.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7i796qauix4za4g/2017-07-18%2020.19.13.jpg?dl=0
I'm going to order replacement bolts and a new nyloc to replace the ones on there, as they've clearly been wildly overstressed removing them, and clearly been off and on at least once before as well.
bleh. things fighting me the whole way.
An hour with two breaker bars finally got the nut and bolt off. 1/8th of a turn at a time.
Started on the other side now. ended up popping the new track rod back off its taper to get access, and again about 1/8th of a turn at a time. This sides even worse, i can barely move the breaker bar, and it keeps going "BANG" and jumping so my backs done in from all the jolting.
also found this:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/mnfv0xmcxr0hb8l/2017-07-18%2018.22.08.jpg?dl=0
Which certainly wont be helping the handling...
Looks like 5 years sat in a shed does wonders for the balljoints!
It cant be to stop the nut coming off, as you say the bolt would just back out and it would fall off anyway.
My initial guess was to stop the factory putting the bolt in the wrong way round. But i cant really understand why it would matter if the bolt was in the other way, theres nothing in the way of it!
i had the tracking done at kwikfit the other week, after fitting the rear bar, so we can assume that bits right.
I guess i'll centre the box, pop the UJ off and centre the wheel, then set the drag link.
Just to confirm the two bumps/slot on the box likes up with the bump on the smooth collar on the input shaft?
Rave just says "line up the marks" and doesnt explain what they are.
Its not a castle nut. Its a normal nyloc, but welded to the chassis is a piece of folded wire thats stopping me getting a socket or spanner onto it...
As per Mr Oranges pic :)
I'll give it a belt with a hammer.
I'm trying to remove the panhard rod.
On the drivers side, theres a nut and bolt. i can get my breaker bar in on the bolt head, but the nut has like a bent wire loop welded over it stopping me getting anything onto it. Before i get medieval on the wire loop, is there something i'm missing?
can someone move this to the right section please :)
I've just installed a new front track rod, and am looking for some pointers on aligning the steering box.
the box has a sorta line/nub thing on the side of it, and the input shaft has a smooth collar with a bump on it.
If i line the bump up with the line, the steering wheel is miles out, about a 1/5th of a turn to the right.
the wheels are also steering slightly to the right.
Have i got the right marks, and given the steering wheel error, i presume i need to remove the wheel and centre it? Then if i wind the adjuster on the track rod to lengthen it, that should bring the wheels streight?
ta :)
i dont think it prompts to enter the EKA, you just do it anyway once it ends up in that "press remote" state?
depends on your motorfactor. Mines completely useless.
I went in looking for a replacement sump plug for the Autobox, clearly their computer isnt going to list the auto, but i hoped we'd be able to find an engine sump plug with the same thread.
He stared at me with a blank face going "cant do anything without a reg" "we dont sell gearbox drain plugs" proper robot spec. I ended up standing in the shop, on Google, trying to find a car that had the same thread. In the end i discovered the BMW 330d used the same thread size as the autobox, and gave him the reg of the one i used to own. Then he sprung into life and went and fetched it no problem.
I then asked for some Copper washers as i wasnt sure if the new plug was going to seal properly (it came with an alloy washer on it), nope dont do them. the only thing they had was a big "garage kit" with about 200 washers in it of all different sizes and it was about 30quid.
You used to go into these places, and they'd have the computer, but they'd also have the old paper books, and those usually had some generic cross reference etc in the back of them so if you werent quite sure, they'd get the catalog out and you could have a look thru it. The bloke behind the counter actually knew cars, knew what you were asking for, probably had an idea of alternatives etc etc. Nowadays, the folk that work there seem to be no different to the folk operating the till in Tesco. They dont actually have a clue.
The computer software my local place uses will perfectly happily allow you to do a manual lookup, you can input make, model, year, engine etc and it works fine. Feeding it the reg simply pre-populates the fields automatically, but they will actually refuse to do a manual lookup if your looking for a part off a different car or whatever. I've had him refuse, then ended up standing in front of him googling the car make and model on my phone, and pulling a random reg from ebay before...
These days i try to avoid using them, i normally order online, or from EuroCarParts, and only go there when i really need to. Half the time i go there they dont even have what i need either.
Maybe unlock with fob disarmed it?
Seen that a few times on VAG cars. The VAG bottles go yellow/brown over time with staining from the coolant, so swapping in a new clear one is a common mod to tidy up the engine bay, and the last one i changed was covered in hairline cracks and crazing. I'm amazed it was holding coolant!
I also had a fairly decent coolant leak on my A4 after a similar split appeared in the plastic coolant elbow that comes off the back of the cylinder head. Almost completely invisible on the outside as it was along a moulding seam, but on the inside you could see a distinct black line.
