I balance and rotate my tires every 10,000 km, a habit I have had for many years. It seems to work well in terms of maximizing tyre wear and life.
I jumpered the pressure switch (two wire one) by getting an old switch, taking off the female plug, soldering jump wires to the back of it, filling it with silicone and then plugging it into the original male plug. (Putting it back to standard would take 30 seconds by swapping the plug onto the switch on the receiver/drier). Now whenever the AC comes on the condenser fans kick in as well, instead of the system waiting for very high pressure (therefore temp) in the system before engaging the fans. I did this as the coolant temp rise is quite noticeable with the AC running on 30+ degree days. This little bit helps fixing that issue as the fans run as soon as the compressor kicks in.
Mine usually sits around 88 degrees around town in warm weather, but with the AC on this would rise to say 92. With the fans running, it stays around 90, particularly in stop start traffic. On the road it makes no difference of course.
The trinary switch will still kick the fans into high gear if the system pressure rises too high, and eventually cut the AC out altogether if is rises above a set limit (and indeed won't let it activate if the pressure is too low).
I remember those!
Hence my comment. StrangeRover is getting 14mpg on the road, I’m getting 21mpg, I.e. 50% better economy.
I’m not saying running costs are less on petrol, we all know they are not. But I’m not sure they are as great a saving as some feel they are. What would you consider a reasonable time to depreciate the LPG installation cost, as that should be taken into account. Say £500 year over 4 years for a good multipoint system?
We are pretty used to fitting and running LPG here. You have to appreciate that Australia probably has the highest density of LPG cars in the world, against the number in the total fleet. It has been a common fuel here for 50 years and every service station carries LPG, or at least it is rare to find one that doesn’t. If you have LPG fitted to your vehicle in NSW, then your annual Pink Slip inspection (what you would call MOT) can only be done by a specialist LPG MOT station as the whole LPG system is gone through annually as part of the vehicle safety check.
@Symes do you have a link? Oh, and did you get the temp sensor plug off?
Gilbertd wrote:
You'll get a lot more in there that that. I've got the main bit full of LPG tank but in the space next to it where the polystyrene thing would have gone originally I've got some lengths of assorted sizes of heater hose, a set of spark plugs, a bag of assorted sized nuts and bolts, a set of ignition coils with leads, a bag containing the EAS emergency kit (Schrader valves, pipe joiners and lengths of pipe), a bag of assorted size jubilee clips, a spare serpentine belt, a starter motor, an alternator, a brake accumulator, my warning triangle, two tow ropes and a pair of heavy duty gloves.
And they say these cars aren’t reliable! Tosh!!
You will have to forgive me, but I have no idea what you are talking about!
I know LPG is cheaper than petrol but 233 miles on 75 litres is 14 mpg. I get that around the city on petrol and 21 mpg on the freeway at 110 km/h.
@Symes did you get the temp connector off?
I have tried to ring them, email them, left messages ..... seems they have a typical American myopic view on trade.
Squeeze the little clip so the locking tongue lifts and pull it off (which I assume you have done). Outside of that, unsure!
@karlos01 have a look at this chart.
What you need to do, with everything off, and the BeCM asleep, is get your digital volt meter and probe the back of each fuse, where the metal tabs are bare on the back of the fuse. Set the DVM to milivolts and measure the voltage drop. The chat gives you the current being drawn for a given voltage drop and a given fuse rating. In this way you can quickly go over both fuse boxes and see where the current drain is.
GilbertD will be able to confirm, but the only drains you should see, and those minimal, are for the BeCM and the radio permanent live, and (maybe) for the key unlock receiver (for want of a better term).
Is that the current going to the starter at idle? Major issue! However, if it is -30A as the meter tends to indicate, is it in fact the charge current going back into the battery? I don’t know about the diesel, but the V8 has a wire from the alternator to the starter, using the starter cable to link the alternator to the battery (why? Oh for god’s sake why?) on some of the early vehicles. Later ones seem to have been modified to take the alternator output directly to the battery.
Studs with brass nuts. Never had an issue getting them undone.
Most of our insurers here will give you a free windscreen per year, no deductible and no loss of NCB.
You can stop the crack spreading by drilling a tiny hole (say 1mm) at the end of the crack. Might save you having to worry about it until the weather is better.
In terms of catching a loss of coolant, I have an alarm fitted, which is bolted to the cylinder head. It gives a constant read out and you can set the alarm to sound at whatever temp you like. Unlike a sensor in the coolant, which will drop if you have coolant loss, the cylinder head temperature increases, so you get a warning pretty quick. Comparing this sensor to the water temp sensor, they are usually within a couple of degrees.
The $10 alternative. It might be worth considering.
Century are the premier battery manufacturers in Australia (in my opinion). This is from their site, some interesting comments. FYI: