There was a recent article in the Institute of Engineering and Technology magazine that said that if the takeup of electric cars goes at even 50% of the rate some people are predicting, the UK power infrastructure will collapse by 2022. That isn't all that far away either, only 5 years time.

davew wrote:

OB's comments made me think of something too: When ("in the near future......") we are ALL driving Electric cars cars perhaps we can play the sound of a nice V6/V8 etc through the car's Sound System (sychronised to the speed/acceleration etc). A "hum" just does not do it for me....

I know someone who normally drives big V8's (or, in one case, a W12) and he bought a BMW i8. When I said that if I had a car that produced 350 bhp, I'd want the soundtrack to go with it and apparently BMW have thought of that. The stereo system can be programmed to give engine noises and you can even choose what you want it to sound like. But, as he pointed out, only the driver can hear it so you can't open the windows and floor it through a tunnel just to listen to, and give everyone else, the benefit of the noise it makes. After a couple of weeks he decided he didn't like it so has gone back to using his de-catted, mapped to 720 bhp, Audi RS7 with it's adaptive exhaust that opens up to straight through pipes when given some welly (and sounds absolutely glorious).

I actually agree with the view (even more so as it allows everyone to have a good chuckle about the impracticability of electric cars). If they are going to let her charge her car at work then surely everyone else should be entitled to a contribution to their commuting costs too? Everyone else is paying for their own petrol or diesel to get to and from work so why shouldn't she? No idea how much electric these things use on a charge but I'd think it's a reasonable amount. We had a problem some years back about tax in kind for us engineers who have a company vehicle which we keep at home. They had to re-arrange everyone's work area so where you live is part of your work area otherwise the taxman wanted us to pay tax on the travel between home and work area. They were classing it as home to office mileage so a benefit in kind.

Dragging this discussion back from the dead following a conversation at work yesterday. One of the women at our place has a Nissan Leaf but lives at what she has now found is the limit of the range for a two way trip. When she got the car she was assured that it would do the round trip on a full charge easily. Not a problem she thought as we have charging points for some of the specialist vehicles with auxiliary batteries to keep them topped up when not being used so she figured she could plug her car in there during the day. First time she did it someone queried it and that caused all sorts of discussions. Upshot is that she has been told that under no circumstances can she plug in to charge it during the day. The argument being that nobody else gets their fuel costs for commuting to work and back reimbursed so why should she? There could well be a tax implication too. She has now found that if it is raining so she needs to have wipers and headlights on, unless she drives at 50mph or less, she doesn't have enough battery power to get home. Despite being a dyed in the wool tree hugger, she's considering changing the car as once winter arrives she is likely to need lights on for both legs of her commute and isn't sure the car will actually make it.

By the way, under the new tax rules introduced in April, even small engined diesels will now have to pay £140 road tax rather than the £20 or £30 that they would have done previously.

I actually met him many years ago and he's a really nice bloke. Into his cars too.

If the solar sensor isn't working, the HEVAC just thinks the sun isn't shining.

and how would you know that?

I certainly do want it but also not sure how to get it to me, I'll drop you a PM.

HEVAC does a self check when you turn the ignition on (one of the odd noises you hear is the blend motors being wound from one end of their travel to the other) so if a fault isn't apparent, there's no book symbol. Then there are other things that it only notices when it starts to get up to temperature so the book can come on them but if everything is working as it should, then no book.

Problem with electrical faults is there is nothing you can see going up and down or round and round. I've worked with electrics and electronics all my working life and sometimes you get faults that seem to defy logic until you find what the actual problem is and can then work out why it showed the symptoms it did. Most people would just stick a meter across a battery, look at the voltage and, if it is low, immediately blame the alternator. It's only when you check between ground and the alternator itself you see the true picture.

I would suspect the dodgy earth was showing a lower voltage than expected (if the test done was to measure the voltage across the battery it would suggest a faulty alternator) so it hasn't fixed itself, there was nothing wrong with it in the first place. If the new one you got had a short circuit rectifier, it would cause the battery to go flat and would also back feed the ignition switched circuit (via the sense wire) and cause the two relays that should be ignition switched to be permanently energised.

On the one and only occasion I've driven a diesel (quite recently), I noticed it did seem willing to kickdown at the slightest opportunity. Revved to 3,000 rpm before changing up too. I figured it's just a characteristic of the different power delivery to what I am used to. There's times when I think my V8 hangs onto a gear for too long and doesn't kickdown soon enough. I think they are just different that's all.

Ahh, but it's got two bends in it, although, as OB says, you can fit a straight length, it doesn't actually need the two bends they just make it look neater. I always slit the hoses lengthways with a Stanley knife to get them off the heater stubs so as not to put too much strain on the O rings. For putting them on I bought a tube of silicone grease from Maplin (as that is what Mr Land Rover says you must use on ABS sensors) and found that it is often used as a lubricant for rubber (according to the book of Wiki, that's what's used on condoms even). A smear of that on the inside of the hose and it slips on easily, even a 19mm bore hose on the heater stubs and that big lump of steel on the inlet manifold at the other end.

Exhaust repaired with bandages or even a bean tin and a jubilee clip, isn't a fail or even an advisory as the only reasons for failure are a leak or insecure. If the note has a number in brackets after it, then it's an actual reason for failure, if there isn't a number, it's a manually entered comment.

All, or most, places do a test, fail it, then do the work then a retest, it makes there figures look good and there's no retest fee as it hasn't left the premises. I took my daughters acr in to have two tyres fitted and an MoT. Rather than fit the tyres and then test it, they tested it, failed it on tyres, then retested it. My local guy got a VOSA inspection and they were concerned about his high rate of passes. He was asked what he did if someone came in with a blown lightbulb (which is the most common failure but he seemed to never have any fails on blown bulbs) and he told them he just fitted a new bulb. He was told he should issue a fail, fit the bulb and then issue a pass.

Martyuk wrote:

Hmm, looks like I'm out of the contest for the red Vogue too... since I'm already in the '3 P38 club'!

Yeah but you've got the space. I've run out with 3 P38s, a Maserati Biturbo Spider, Dina's Merc, the company van and I picked up a Discovery last weekend that I'll be selling on behalf of someone else. At least 2 of them have to go before the end of the month as there's a Volvo P1800ES sitting in a container about to cross the Atlantic too.

You buy it then, you've only got 2......

No, No and three times, No. I've got 3 already and really don't need any more (bloody blend motor is putting up such a fight on the Ascot at the moment I'm getting really pee'd off with looking at a book symbol.....).

First one looks like someone was so impressed with the body mods, they took an axe to the bonnet.

I would agree that it's a red herring, one side of my heated screen has been progressively failing since I've had the car to the point now where it doesn't work at all on the drivers side. I would have expected an open circuit fault to show but there's no faults on the HEVAC at all.

I'd say the pair of relays is not only to protect the tracks in the fuse box but also the relays, when working the heated screen does draw a hell of a lot of current.

The lockup clutch will only drop out if you are travelling slowly, once you are at a reasonable speed, it stays engaged. To give you further engine braking, the fuel injectors are switch off on a closed throttle above a certain set rev limit, so the engine isn't even firing to give you more engine braking. Even on LPG, as it slaves off the petrol injectors, if they are off, so are the LPG injectors.

For a quick overtake, I just poke the Sport button when getting ready and then floor it. Not only does it hold the revs in each gear longer but it seems to make it kickdown that much quicker.