What's made you grumpy today?

[portland_bill]

Also quite surprised at the price of the hybrid given the smaller pug 208 is 23 odd with the same powertrain. If it's reliable might be worth looking one up in a few years.

I was out in a Skoda Octavia hybrid last week. Just about a year old, the hybrid system had developed a fault, and had shut down. No regenerative braking, no electric assistance or electric only mode. At least the car continued as a 'normal' car, effectively just ignoring the hybrid system.
I've seen a video on YouTube, where a Lexus with a failed hybrid system effectively became a brick. The car would not function as a normal car, until the hybrid battery was replaced, effectively scrapping it.
Seems a good idea to ask, how would it act if a hybrid fault developed? The Skoda, due in for repair this week, just became a heavier car, carrying around its battery and electric motor as luggage.

Personally, I think hybrids are a better future than pure electric. Smaller battery, less weight, and just regain some energy when slowing, and no emissions around the city centre.

 

[StevenRB45]

I was out in a Skoda Octavia hybrid last week. Just about a year old, the hybrid system had developed a fault, and had shut down. No regenerative braking, no electric assistance or electric only mode. At least the car continued as a 'normal' car, effectively just ignoring the hybrid system.
I've seen a video on YouTube, where a Lexus with a failed hybrid system effectively became a brick. The car would not function as a normal car, until the hybrid battery was replaced, effectively scrapping it.
Seems a good idea to ask, how would it act if a hybrid fault developed? The Skoda, due in for repair this week, just became a heavier car, carrying around its battery and electric motor as luggage.

Personally, I think hybrids are a better future than pure electric. Smaller battery, less weight, and just regain some energy when slowing, and no emissions around the city centre.

To be fair my level of surprise at nearly new VW group product suffering mild electrical misbehaviour is about the same as opening the curtains to rain.

I doubt it will cause an issue in terms of motive power given the hybrid drives an electric motor attached to the gearbox but at times it also functions as a pure i.c.e. car.

However that particular gearbox is a new dual clutch...also the engine attached is a heavily revised version of the one I have. So now has a variable vane turbo, it also has a timing chain.

It may seem strange for someone who has wet belt to be sniffy about a timing chain but last time PSA did timing chains they made a wet belt seem like a fantastic idea. At least the wet belt is known quantity at this point with an easy way of avoiding problems (i.e. change the flipping belt every 4-5 years and don't run the wrong oil).

So at the moment I'm not that concerned hybrid side...the mechanics are a bit new and unproven however they've fitted it to literally everything so I'm sure we'll shortly find out if it's a dog. I hope they've learned from last time they did timing chains....and that similar to last time they did an autobox they've bought in a market standard one rather than making their own...

 

[bugsymike]

I still remain unconvinced that manufacturers have any reliable long term replacement to ICE engine technology.
If they had not been forced into it by the environmentalist lobby, it wouldn't have happened.
It has done nothing for reliability or pricing for the consumer.

 

[StevenRB45]

I think the error in that thinking is regarding a modern ice car as reliable long term...

I'm not averse to electric cars on the basis I'm not hugely concerned about it needing a new battery any more than my current car needing a new engine but there's significantly fewer moving parts and interlocking systems on an electric car to bork.

 

[bugsymike]

I think the error in that thinking is regarding a modern ice car as reliable long term...

I'm not averse to electric cars on the basis I'm not hugely concerned about it needing a new battery any more than my current car needing a new engine but there's significantly fewer moving parts and interlocking systems on an electric car to bork.

Being old, I miss simple ICE engines that were easy to strip and rebuild and parts were readily available and cheap.
EVs are sold on their being good for the environment (some would argue, though I don't know enough to do that), how quiet and fast they are.
Most people are happy as long as they can hear their radio and hold a conversation, speeds double the legal limit are never going to be used by anyone who wants to keep their license.
When coupled with the costs involved I remain unconvinced.
Plus being a cheapskate, I could never afford a new one and I foresee large bills involved with running a 10 year old+ one, most of the cars around our area are well over 10 years old.
Watching some TV programs about large SUVs etc. with around 500bhp may be entertaining, but I was brought up in a time when 39bhp could exceed the speed limit and the car fitted in a parking space without idiots smashing doors in the supermarket car park.

 

[StevenRB45]

While I was brought up on stories of my dad's original mini...which he bought new in the 1970s.

I can't help but feel it's nostalgia rather than the cars being any good, that was scrapped at 7 years old despite his best efforts at staving off rust.

Our current car is 7 and despite my wife's best efforts to pound it into the ground with a shovel it's to all intents and purposes a new car.

Yes, if I had the mini I could fix it myself but the floor would have been ventilated by now, also it would have stopped every time there was heavy rain due to water getting in the ignition coils.

I have no interest in a 500bhp 2 tonne TV screen but there's something to be said for the default state being working fine...

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Being old, I miss simple ICE engines that were easy to strip and rebuild and parts were readily available and cheap.

And so say I. Many modern engines are "unreconditionable" except perhaps? by a few very specialist engineering establishments, certainly not something to contemplate doing in your shed! Some you can't even slacken main bearing caps because the crankcase distorts and others can't take a rebore because the cylinder walls are hot metal sprayed with specialist coatings which reboring would remove. and so the sorry tale goes on.

EVs are sold on their being good for the environment (some would argue, though I don't know enough to do that), how quiet and fast they are.
Most people are happy as long as they can hear their radio and hold a conversation, speeds double the legal limit are never going to be used by anyone who wants to keep their license.
When coupled with the costs involved I remain unconvinced.
Plus being a cheapskate, I could never afford a new one and I foresee large bills involved with running a 10 year old+ one, most of the cars around our area are well over 10 years old.

Yup, I think they are going to be short term keepers in their present form, especially the batteries which will be so expensive to replace that the car will be scrapped if something goes wrong out of warranty. Buy it new on one of these finance packages and change it every so many years before any age related problems occur and/or the warranty run out. Mind you i think the same thinking can be applied to the latest generation of small turbo engined vehicles. Their engines and ancillaries are so complex with so much expensive stuff that can potentially go wrong, that keeping one into it's old age is going to be quite a gamble.

Watching some TV programs about large SUVs etc. with around 500bhp may be entertaining, but I was brought up in a time when 39bhp could exceed the speed limit and the car fitted in a parking space without idiots smashing doors in the supermarket car park.

Around us most car parking spaces are too narrow for many modern vehicles - with one exception. All the Aldi stores seem to have parking spaces maybe a quarter wider than most others. Well done Aldi! Still too small for these crewcab pickup or outsized SUV behemoths though.

 

[bugsymike]

While I was brought up on stories of my dad's original mini...which he bought new in the 1970s.I can't help but feel it's nostalgia rather than the cars being any good, that was scrapped at 7 years old despite his best efforts at staving off rust.
Yes, if I had the mini I could fix it myself but the floor would have been ventilated by now, also it would have stopped every time there was heavy rain due to water getting in the ignition coils.

I agree about the rain and minis, I made a perspex cover for the grill on one of mine with large ventilation holes for airflow , but well away from the distributor.
In spite of having over the years, a Mini 1000 saloon, and 850 ? Auto, a pick up, a van and possibly others I have forgotten, I still used to take the pi** out of proud owners of early ones, by casually mentioning a conversion to 12 inch wheels instead of the standard 10inch. When asked of the benefits of the extra height, I said it was to stop Great Danes dogs from pi**ing through the windows.

 

[vexorg]

Being old, I miss simple ICE engines that were easy to strip and rebuild and parts were readily available and cheap.

Yeah.... and then there's the audi ICE v8 timing chain(s)....

 

[StevenRB45]

I agree about the rain and minis, I made a perspex cover for the grill on one of mine with large ventilation holes for airflow , but well away from the distributor.
In spite of having over the years, a Mini 1000 saloon, and 850 ? Auto, a pick up, a van and possibly others I have forgotten, I still used to take the pi** out of proud owners of early ones, by casually mentioning a conversion to 12 inch wheels instead of the standard 10inch. When asked of the benefits of the extra height, I said it was to stop Great Danes dogs from pi**ing through the windows.

Well it wasn't just his minis though he had a cavalcade of various Fords and Vauxhall's and most weekends he would be tinkering with this or spray painting that or sanding it back or whatever. These were not old cars at the time either you're talking 3 year old maximum.

It wasn't until he got a fuel injected Renault 19 in the mid 90s that the car became family transport rather than a rolling project.

While obviously the Focus is dead he's spent less time looking after that car than every other car he ever had and it's lasted 4x as long.

 

[bugsymike]

Well it wasn't just his minis though he had a cavalcade of various Fords and Vauxhall's and most weekends he would be tinkering with this or spray painting that or sanding it back or whatever. These were not old cars at the time either you're talking 3 year old maximum.

It wasn't until he got a fuel injected Renault 19 in the mid 90s that the car became family transport rather than a rolling project.

While obviously the Focus is dead he's spent less time looking after that car than every other car he ever had and it's lasted 4x as long.

I did have an older Ford Focus 1.8 turbo diesel estate which was totally reliable inspite of high mileage, only issue was water ingress through the roof rails. A similar engined Mondeo I almost got to 200k miles when gearbox needed removing and I couldn't be bothered with the hassle, so weighed it in with a load of scrap metal inside it and got more than I bought it for at auction so cheap motoring, 42 +mpg at "allegedly" in excess of Motorway limit. That was an ex local taxi also.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

I agree about the rain and minis, I made a perspex cover for the grill on one of mine with large ventilation holes for airflow , but well away from the distributor.
In spite of having over the years, a Mini 1000 saloon, and 850 ? Auto, a pick up, a van and possibly others I have forgotten, I still used to take the pi** out of proud owners of early ones, by casually mentioning a conversion to 12 inch wheels instead of the standard 10inch. When asked of the benefits of the extra height, I said it was to stop Great Danes dogs from pi**ing through the windows.

Seem to remember later mini's had a small plastic deflector plate behind the grill specifically to attempt to stop rain blasting straight onto the dizzy cap?

Talking about "built in" problems, do you remember the valve cover condensation problems the Vauxhall Viva had? On examples which spent most of their time running around town to the shops and back etc, the build up of "mayonnaise" in the rocker cover was of epic proportions. This was due to the engine driven cooling fan being mounted very high up on the front of the engine thereby pulling large amounts of cold air straight in over the top of the rocker cover thus ensuring it stayed so cold it caused the moisture inside the engine to condense out on it. I remember a customer bringing in an after market kit which consisted of a deflector plate which used the top two bolts on the water pump and stood up in front of the rocker cover in an attempt to deflect the air flow from the fan. It was partially successful but only if the car wasn't used for very short journeys. Probably the cold Scottish weather didn't help?

 

[PuntoHowTo]

Yeah.... and then there's the audi ICE v8 timing chain(s)....

LMAO and if memory serves me correctly this is on the back end of the engine so the whole engine needs to come out the fly wheel has to come off to get to any of it, then there are dozens of oil filled chain tensioners which if just one of them fails the engine basically destroys itself. there are a host of other things like balance shafts thrown in to the rotating assemblies making it the worst engine in the world to work on. If its broken just put it in the bin and start a fresh

 

[bugsymike]

Seem to remember later mini's had a small plastic deflector plate behind the grill specifically to attempt to stop rain blasting straight onto the dizzy cap?

Talking about "built in" problems, do you remember the valve cover condensation problems the Vauxhall Viva had? On examples which spent most of their time running around town to the shops and back etc, the build up of "mayonnaise" in the rocker cover was of epic proportions. This was due to the engine driven cooling fan being mounted very high up on the front of the engine thereby pulling large amounts of cold air straight in over the top of the rocker cover thus ensuring it stayed so cold it caused the moisture inside the engine to condense out on it. I remember a customer bringing in an after market kit which consisted of a deflector plate which used the top two bolts on the water pump and stood up in front of the rocker cover in an attempt to deflect the air flow from the fan. It was partially successful but only if the car wasn't used for very short journeys. Probably the cold Scottish weather didn't help?

The "mayonnaise" was a 60s problem, when ever you did the valve clearances in a service you had to scoop out loads of it. Better oils and hotter engines seems to have helped these days.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Yeah.... and then there's the audi ICE v8 timing chain(s)....

What a nightmare! and all on the flywheel end too so no hope of doing it without lifting the engine out of the car. Just look at all those chain guides waiting to fail! I'd love to know what the final bill was.

If memory serves me one of the smaller performance orientated Golf engines (5 or 6 cylinder I seem to remember?) was constructed like this, with the timing gear on the flywheel end I mean. Very silly in my view.

 

[Cheest]

Yeah.... and then there's the audi ICE v8 timing chain(s)....

A case of Engineers hating Mechanics?

 

[vexorg]

A case of Engineers hating Mechanics?

It's the hidden 4 chain that made me laugh most.
Even sealing up the end cover must be a pain.

 

[portland_bill]

Because my partner is in a wheelchair, we have an alarm system, that will summon help if needed. She wears a button on her wrist, that when pressed alerts the alarm. It automatically dials out to a call centre, who will connect and speak to her, and will send help if needed, or if no reply.
Connected to this are two smoke alarms. If/when these go off, as well as the shriek, it alerts the call centre, who will try to speak to us, but will also alert the fire service, before confirming if needed.
The original system connected through our phone line, but new systems have their own SIM card, so are independent.
Tuesday, an idiot arrived to install the new system. Set up the base station, clumsily, inadvertently pressing the alarm button before he intended. Had to apologise to the call centre, then had to alert them again to test the wrist button.
He then removed the two smoke alarms, which had been screwed to the ceilings one downstairs, one up. But the new ones, he affixed using two sticky pads each. These are heavy duty pads, but I did query whether they'd stick, and was assured they were fitting them all like this. Which does not reallyu address the question of adequacy. Once stuck, each had to be tested, so much shrieking, and talking to the call centre each time.

Today, 3 whole days later, the upstairs one fell off the ceiling, landed on its head, which is actually a very sensitive button, so went off. Luckily I had just arrived home, so could answer the call and have it cancelled, before the big red truck arrived. I expect the downstairs one to fall off sometime.

The smoke alarms have holes to facilitate screws, so I will have to fix them properly. I really do not need another incompetent idiot making a mess in my ceilings. Sadly, these things seem very sensitive, or perhaps it still has a headache from falling, but even handling it carefully, it shrieks, and we have to talk to the call centre to have the alarm cancelled. Looking forward to that joy tomorrow. If the second one does not fall off overnight.

 

[bugsymike]

Because my partner is in a wheelchair, we have an alarm system, that will summon help if needed. She wears a button on her wrist, that when pressed alerts the alarm. It automatically dials out to a call centre, who will connect and speak to her, and will send help if needed, or if no reply.
Connected to this are two smoke alarms. If/when these go off, as well as the shriek, it alerts the call centre, who will try to speak to us, but will also alert the fire service, before confirming if needed.
The original system connected through our phone line, but new systems have their own SIM card, so are independent.
Tuesday, an idiot arrived to install the new system. Set up the base station, clumsily, inadvertently pressing the alarm button before he intended. Had to apologise to the call centre, then had to alert them again to test the wrist button.
He then removed the two smoke alarms, which had been screwed to the ceilings one downstairs, one up. But the new ones, he affixed using two sticky pads each. These are heavy duty pads, but I did query whether they'd stick, and was assured they were fitting them all like this. Which does not reallyu address the question of adequacy. Once stuck, each had to be tested, so much shrieking, and talking to the call centre each time.

Today, 3 whole days later, the upstairs one fell off the ceiling, landed on its head, which is actually a very sensitive button, so went off. Luckily I had just arrived home, so could answer the call and have it cancelled, before the big red truck arrived. I expect the downstairs one to fall off sometime.

The smoke alarms have holes to facilitate screws, so I will have to fix them properly. I really do not need another incompetent idiot making a mess in my ceilings. Sadly, these things seem very sensitive, or perhaps it still has a headache from falling, but even handling it carefully, it shrieks, and we have to talk to the call centre to have the alarm cancelled. Looking forward to that joy tomorrow. If the second one does not fall off overnight.

The trouble is this batch of idiots are the ones teaching the next batch that come along, so it can only get worse for standards of competence, a bit like parenthood in some cases.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Because my partner is in a wheelchair, we have an alarm system, that will summon help if needed. She wears a button on her wrist, that when pressed alerts the alarm. It automatically dials out to a call centre, who will connect and speak to her, and will send help if needed, or if no reply.
Connected to this are two smoke alarms. If/when these go off, as well as the shriek, it alerts the call centre, who will try to speak to us, but will also alert the fire service, before confirming if needed.
The original system connected through our phone line, but new systems have their own SIM card, so are independent.
Tuesday, an idiot arrived to install the new system. Set up the base station, clumsily, inadvertently pressing the alarm button before he intended. Had to apologise to the call centre, then had to alert them again to test the wrist button.
He then removed the two smoke alarms, which had been screwed to the ceilings one downstairs, one up. But the new ones, he affixed using two sticky pads each. These are heavy duty pads, but I did query whether they'd stick, and was assured they were fitting them all like this. Which does not reallyu address the question of adequacy. Once stuck, each had to be tested, so much shrieking, and talking to the call centre each time.

Today, 3 whole days later, the upstairs one fell off the ceiling, landed on its head, which is actually a very sensitive button, so went off. Luckily I had just arrived home, so could answer the call and have it cancelled, before the big red truck arrived. I expect the downstairs one to fall off sometime.

The smoke alarms have holes to facilitate screws, so I will have to fix them properly. I really do not need another incompetent idiot making a mess in my ceilings. Sadly, these things seem very sensitive, or perhaps it still has a headache from falling, but even handling it carefully, it shrieks, and we have to talk to the call centre to have the alarm cancelled. Looking forward to that joy tomorrow. If the second one does not fall off overnight.

I'm not sure what the situation is down south with you guys but up here in Scotland it's been a legal requirement, since September '22, to have multiple, linked, fire and heat alarms in your dwelling https://www.mygov.scot/home-fire-safety. So far noone has actually come round to see if your home complies but I've been told that if something happens where an insurance claim needs to be made then non compliance with this new law gives them the excuse to invalidate your cover!

In new builds they are wired installations but for retrofit it's a lot cheaper and easier to go with separate battery powered wirelessly linked units - which is what my fireman friend advised me to do. Before this I had a Co alarm near the boiler and a smoke alarm in my hall and one on the upstairs landing. Battery powered on 9Volt renewable batteries. Now I have a smoke alarm in the living room, a smoke alarm in the hall and another on the upstairs landing. I opted to have one in the garage too as it's integral with the bottom of the house - our bedroom is above it. Then there's a CO alarm in the living room, where there's a gas fire and another near the boiler, all wirelessly linked. Setting them up was "good fun" as one unit had to be defined as a "master unit" and all the others slaved to it to make the wireless linking work. Trouble is that the linking procedure is time limited so it took me two or three goes at it before I got it all working. Got there in the end though. Being linked, it only takes one device to sense a problem and it triggers the whole bloomin lot! The noise of them all sounding at once is pretty deafening!

The kits all came with sticky pads but I elected to use screws to mount them. These units are supposed to last 10 years minimum and have non replaceable batteries. I just felt I couldn't trust sticky pads to last that long. I'm trying to remember what it cost to buy them and I think it was in excess of £200? I elected to buy units which could be programmed more than once because if one failed - faulty battery or whatever - a new one would have to be programmed to the system so the "master unit" needs to be able to accept it into the system. Cheaper ones seem to be able to be programmed only once so you'd be replacing the whole lot if just one unit failed.