Lets play MOT Bingo!

I'm 99% certain I'll be getting new front tyres after the curious case of the Locked Viscous... but I thought I'd lob it in and chance it. I'd rather get the tyres myself but I ran out of time after the reminder popped up on my phone. I think I'll set a month's notice next year and put it on pay day!

We had unofficial, unsanctioned, free for all mower racing at my Father's place once (he had a handy field).
It was won by the team that built a dune buggy out of two landrovers and tied a push-mover to the rear bumper :)

The only rationing that politicians will introduce is price rises. This enables them to do what they like because the tax payer foots the bill.

Tradeable carbon credits would be great in theory. Sadly they're a bastard to administer. I'd like to think we could make them work and use them to tax the greedy in favour of the (relatively static) poor.

I smell the influence of the motor trade. They don't want old vehicles passing new standards, they much prefer scrappage schemes.

I don't quite understand how it can be acceptable for the motor industry to build millions of cars per year and justify this production with a percentage reduction in tailpipe emissions.

Surely the environmental costs of construction need to be calculated and added to the tailpipe emissions over the lifetime of the vehicle to give true value for the environmental impact of car ownership. This would imply that a car that lasts longer will be less damaging.

I thought the TfL exemption had finished... I'd be glad to be proved wrong on that.

I think that the most likely outcome is that Urban areas introduce very fierce ULEV or Zero Emissions zones which can only be accessed by electric or human powered vehicles (ie Tesla/Leaf etc or bicycles, or bicycles with electric boost).
I can't see how we'll end up with enough power supplied to rural areas to make pure plug in vehicles realistic either for people commuting to town or making long journeys - but I can see Park and Ride schemes becoming the only real option if you live outside town but work there.

Out of town (where tailpipe emissions vs air quality isn't such a lethal issue) it would actually make more sense for people to run diesel than petrol as this gives lower CO2 per mile but that does create a clear urban/rural split in emissions requirements which I don't think would be supportable.

Ultimately I think that the freedom to travel that has been experienced since WW2 and the dawning of the jet age is coming to an end. Aviation is a massive source of pollution and there are no options available to power jet planes apart from simply mind bending quantities of kerosene. One day, perhaps, we'll be able to use Li-Ion powered aircraft but this has some pretty big drawbacks, one of which being the fact that a fully fuelled airliner is overweight for landing and you can't really dump batteries over the sea in the same way as you can dump jet fuel. So converting existing airframes seems like a no-go.

I heard on TV the other day that 70% of flights from the UK are made by 15% of the population. I'm assuming that's the richest 15% so it's going to be "difficult" politically to reduce air travel by significant amounts but it has to come if you accept that we need to reduce CO2 output and save the planet. I think we do, but we need all countries to sign up and we need to decimate a massive industry. Luckily that massive industry is mainly based in the USA and EU (and we sold our shares in Airbus years ago) so perhaps it won't be so hard for the UK as some others, despite being an island. We'll still have boats after all.

Back to cars.... Our V8 dinosaurs will limp on. They'll become increasingly rare on the roads and I suspect that petrol supplies will become severely curtailed as the Government pushes us towards electricity. There's going to be a difficult balance as it's not just cars but mowers, chainsaws, strimmers and all that stuff which will need to be changed over to battery power before Petrol can finally be switched off. I'm sceptical as to how green it will be to produce so many batteries, but I'm open to persuasion if a detailed audit can be done.
The big question for me personally is related to LPG. Firstly WHY isn't it being pushed as an alternative fuel? It gives an instant reduction in CO2 and other emissions compared to Petrol. Secondly, how long will it last? Because as soon as it costs as much as petrol (possibly before then) I'll be unable to afford to run my Jeep or my P38 regularly and I'll be looking for a hybrid or pure electric car just like everyone else.

Votes to ban the troll? I'm bored of him now. His noise to signal ratio is off the chart.

Is she a bit smoky? :)

DaveW, I think you have to accept that when the threads go quiet it is not because you have persuaded people of your point of view.

I have a boat!
It's diesel powered... but hey :)

Davemilner wrote:

Thanks guys it's appreciated.. hopefully a kind member will help me out soon 😁

Well, I'm closer than Heathrow!!! Malton YO17 but that's still the wrong side of the Pennines... I'm in this weekend if you fancy a trip!

Personally I'm neither for nor against Greta or any climate change activist. I think there's a lot to be done and we all need to address the issues. I don't care enough about Greta to bother researching her or to get upset by her claims.
On the other hand, I don't think that replacing fossil fueled cars with EVs is realistic or even desirable in the timescales being discussed. We're going to need to re-invest in public transport with the twin priorities of making it both ubiquitous and green. How the hell that can be achieved is not up to me.

In the near future, I'm pretty sure that fossil fueled vehicles will be taxed off the road or simply banned. I just hope that there's a viable alternative in place when it happens. Sadly, it looks like the personal freedom to take off in a vehicle and simply travel for the hell of it is likely to disappear* but if that's the cost of keeping the sea off the land I guess we'll have to pay it.

*with the exception of touring on a bicycle which is good fun, but not quite the same thing

There's one__ in .......

every

pub :) .......

Dave, have you beaten BT yet?
Do you still own a P38 yourself?

Here's some more science!
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/055d/88887123275e802183a568845b7e0e8acc91.pdf

I need to make a 4.6 stroker for my Jeep! You can get kits that give about 10.7:1 compression.

Go for it! I'm sure you'll be welcomed in any school. Especially as you're a scientist.

I'm sure they'll find a use for them, Merry Christmas :)

Well, she's running again. I logged in to have a look at the faults in the BECM and found these:

PO333 Knock Sensor Fault Bank 2
Drive Cycle B
Occured once
Signal too low
(not currently present)

P1668 = Anti Theft Alarm Serial
Link Fault Drive Cycle A
Occured once
Signal Too Low
Fault not currently present.

Then I tried starting her and she fired first hit. I cleared the faults for the hell of it and they didn't come back. Does the Anti Theft alarm cause a no -start? Does anyone know the cause?

She was quite rough until she warmed up a bit and on the "Roughness" page of Motronic pot 4 was showing values up to about 7. The misfire count was 0 all round.
I suspect it's time for some spark plugs, so I'll whip a couple out to have a look.

While I was in there, I had a poke around - what is "Moisture Detection"???

Anyway, I've got a running car - I'm just a little wary as it's a fault for which I don't have a cause.

EDIT: Immobiliser was showing "Disabled"

I didn't realise they'd crank when immobilised, thank you folks!
I'll have a go at this tonight when I get in, I'm missing my heated seats already :)
The Jeep is feeling smug now it's back on DD duty, so it'll probably find a way to let me down too!

The Duchess is being a little minx again!

After running perfectly as a DD for a couple of weeks she refuses to start. She has sometimes needed a couple of hits on the key when starting from cold, but has always started, nearly always immediately.

Suddenly she won't start at all. She cranks fine but there's no hint of any pots firing. Th8s is just a whinge really as I haven't bothered with any diagnosis yet but I'll post up results as I get round to them.
I'll start with a Nanocom scan, fuel pressure and try taking a spark plug out to test for a spark.

My money is on the CPS right now but that's a flat out guess until I have any data. I'll check before loading the parts cannon!

If anyone has suggestions on what to test, please let me know (apart from my head for still running this vehicle! 😀)