"smart" motorways

[QUOTE=DaveMcT;4518191


The smart motorway refuges/Laybyes are at least tucked away so once in there, the car is much safer from rear ending. That's not to say you can always reach one just saying its not black and white.[/QUOTE]

they are so small though ypou have to slow to a crawl before you go in one so still a chance of someone going into the back of you, they also look thinner to be so even less room to open drivers door, government say to climb over and get out passenger side but not everyone is fit enough to do that.

Fair comment. Its also a traffic offense to drive out of those laybys without Road Womble escort.

Where the F do these rules/regulations/etc come from. I know the old "Ignorance ofo the law is not a defence" adage but I would like to see the official and factual regulations on this "driving out of refuge areas".

Next thing we will have is dual carriage way and motor way "traffic wardens".

"A refuge area can only be occupied for 30 minutes." Ticket applied and the time limit will of course be adjusted to be national response time less 1 minute.

Simple solution. Break down in a live lane and try as hard as you can to NOT recover to a safe zone. This would be so easy to get away with as actually a very high percentage of drivers never look at their dashboard etc. and would drive on regardless.

Lets see if the EU/UK introduce new laws/regulations that if you ignore a dash warning light you will be fined/sent to prison.

Bring It On

The volume of info being presented on the modern dashboard/info system screen has now reached ridiculous proportions even in terms of just the warning lights - EPS, ABS, and so on ad infinitum - In my opinion it has now reached the stage where the average driver has very little idea what most of them mean and how they should react/take action if one lights up. For instance a common misconception I run into frequently is that if the wee oil can symbol lights up it means you need to top up the oil!

I like being able to see all these lights and, with my past experience of motor vehicle repair, I probably know what more than half of them mean! but for your average Joe Bloggs I think probably two large highly visible lights - so you couldn't miss them if they illuminate - one in red and one in yellow/orange. The red one would light if something had happened which could cause immediate serious damage and cause immediate breakdown (total loss of oil pressure. boiling/low level of coolant. that sort of thing) The orange would illuminate for anything else for which it would be safe to drive a short distance to reach safe refuge. All you would know at that time is what action to take immediately then, when safe to do so, you could perhaps press another button which would bring up a diagnostic text on a screen such as "Coolant boiling/low coolant, or perhaps, No/low oil pressure, or whatever the recorded problem is. If you were totally lacking in technical knowledge you might just choose to call your breakdown provider at that point. A more enlightened person might see if the coolant could be topped up, or whatever. As things are just now you'd be very lucky to be attracted to any of these displays especially whilst negotiating a busy "Smart" (not so smart in my opinion) motorway.

The Jaguar XJ-S had two very large warning lights across the top of the instrument display, one red, the other yellow, which flashed to attract attention to any actual warning light. They were often a real pain due to 1970s unreliability, but nowadyas that should be less of a problem.

We are heading towards Jock's wish with some cars. When some warning lights illluminate, messages pop up, beeps sound. Sadly, the messages are written by engineers, so the average driver will not understand. We need two simple messages. Red - Stop now, Amber - Visit your garage as soon as possible, at least within 12 hours.
Warning lights are aleady coded, with green being information, yellow as something to be awware of and take action soon, and red as do something now. Sadly, that is often not clear from handbooks, and few instructors explain it to new drivers.
Front foglight is green, as can be on anytime.
Rear foglight is yellow as legal rules apply.

Sadly many drivers struggle to grasp the difference between pressure and quantity, so as Jock says, top up the oil when the oil can light tells them to. Think how many times you've seen someone put fuel in, then return from the kiosk with a litre of oil and just pour it in, never touching the dipstick. Must be oil light prompted I think.
This is perhaps why so many cars are losing the dipstick and going electronic oil level check every startup.

The big engine manufacturing companies need to up their game VERY quickly. They can't simply stop making engines without going broke. But even if they could, there are simply not enough low cost batteries for the industry to go straight to electric cars. They need to move @rse or they'll lose all of their profitable markets to EVs and that will crash the industry.

I dont like the things (especially how Toyota do it) but hybrids are the only option. But they could be done the way BMW did it with the i3. Battery EV car with a range extender engine. Just fit a bigger engine and use it only at its most efficient to keep pace with energy usage. Best of both worlds.

Konisegg has a great engine design that's gone nowhere. The Freevalve uses computer controlled valve actuators so has no camshafts and saves at least 20KG in weight while making 50% more power from the same cc capacity.

Ilmor had a five stoke engine. Two normal cylinders exhaust into a third larger cylinder so more heat is extracted giving around 20% better fuel efficiency.

To be honest I liked the way GM did it with the Chevy Volt/Vauxhall Ampera as far as PHEV's go anyway. ~40 miles electric only range + 1.4 petrol to run as a generator for when the batteries too low (it is always driven by the electric motor, the engine only charges the battery), obviously you're trading electric only range for connivence of being able to refuel anywhere.
If they'd fall in price a bit faster I'd consider one, my daily commute is only 17 miles round trip.

Which reminds me of a concern I have about the lack of a dipstick.
When you change the oil on such an engine, how do you know when the oil level is correct without starting the engine and potentially causing damage (if too low or over full) ?
The only method I can think of is to measure the amount of oil put in, which would be inconvenient and reliant on knowing the correct amount required.

I like you’re posts as I always learn about things I never knew about, the free valve engine is not that far detached from what fiat did with the twin and multiair, fiat kept the cam but put a time controllable system between the cam and the valve, by means of oil pressure created by the cam then an electronically controlled valve to pressurises an engine valve actuator.

The free valve engine appears to still be in development, but because of the push for electric cars it will probably never see production.

The 5 stroke engine, is also very interesting, it reminds me of the old multi cylinder steam engines where by the steam from the first cylinder is fed into the next larger one, the principle is essentially the same. Again because of the push for electric cars it will probable see development money dry up.

I think they will enter development
But not for personal cars more likely to end upon the plant side of things along with generator's and other equipment that isn't possible to run on electric only

Back in the 1980s, the US military called for a (so called) adiabatic engine. This was intended to retain heat inside to reduce the heat signature around the engine (no radiator) and improve fuel economy. Fuel logistics are a big problem for any army.

Cummins did a lot of work with ceramic linings. When it worked, efficiency was high and indeed there was no radiator heat signature. Exhaust gas from stacked pipes was hot enough to divert heat seeking missiles over the vehicle.
The big issue was reliability but I suspect it could have worked with turbo charged, cylinder ported 2 stroke diesels. Diesel is now the work of the devil so good luck there.
https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2019/0...stion-engines/

That is the method used. Drain the oil for long enough to ensure all is out, then refill with measured quantity. It is what isusually done with any engine, after which we check it with the dipstick. I've never needed to add any more after checking, so no dipstick is not an issue at that point.

Despite a min and max on the stick, I like to top up when the oil gets half-way. Less oil works harder, so deteriorates faster, so topping up when only half-way down helps prolong oil and engine life. With the electronic sensors, I've no idea how low the oil gets before the system demands a top-up, possibly different with each manufacturer.

My Dads old E90 320 burns a bit of oil (as many do...) and has electronic oil level. When the level has gotten low it usually shows the top-up message after about 1-2 minutes of running.