What's made you not grumpy but not smile either today?

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Partner fell out of bed this morning, around 2:30am. Got one arm tangled in the bed frame. When trying to help her, she pushes against you, so a few minutes of trying to extricate her, and my heart was racing. Called an ambulance at 2:37, it arrived at 6:35. Now that arm won't straighten, probably temporary, as there's no pain, and her one leg is struggling to support her when transferring from loo to wheelchair, having been bent under her for four hours.

Quite a few years ago, at a bowls match, one player took a swig from his tin of drink, and got a wasp to the back of the throat. Someone had to take him to A&E a bit sharpish as it swelled, threatening to suffocate him. Returned about 4 hours later, very sore, but otherwise OK. Beware opened fizzy drinks.

I'm so sorry to hear that, At least she's not in pain and I hope she gets some mobility back soon. Mrs J's Aunt - She was fiercely independent and lived alone - fell off the kitchen steps when trying to get at a high cupboard. She lay on the floor all night and was found next morning by a neighbour. We got right across to city, through rush hour traffic, before the ambulance got there. Unfortunately she never really recovered and passed away a wee while later.

The females in our family have always been prone to severe reactions. Daughter swells up something horrid if stung or even bitten by an insect and they seem to be particularly attracted to her. We can be out for a picnic and she can get multiple bites when none of the rest of us get even one! Mrs J has an intolerance to kiwi fruit, gives her an anaphylactic reaction. she had one quite mild reaction a number of years ago, then a couple of years ago she had a really bad event which nearly did her in - rushed to the hospital in an ambulance and it was touch and go! She was told then that if it happens again it'll probably kill her. Trouble with Kiwi is you can't tell if the juice is in something like a fruit salad even if you can't see a slice of the fruit itself. So she just has to avoid anything which isn't one fruit only. Pity because she really enjoyed a bit of Kiwi fruit.

 

[PuntoHowTo]

Now that arm won't straighten, probably temporary, as there's no pain, and her one leg is struggling to support her when transferring from loo to wheelchair, having been bent under her for four hours.

Please also consider, especially if the arm and leg are on the same side, it could be a sign of a stroke/TIA, and get her checked out accordingly. I know you say its because of her arm and leg being tangled and bent under her, but at the same time this assumption could mask something more serious.

 

[StevenRB45]

Found this interesting no one else may..



I've been expecting inlet valve cause coking at some point..it is DI after all.

However maybe not...for 2 reasons.

1. look at the position of the injector spray and the inlet valves.. the injector is near horizontal and they are quite literally in the line of fire.
2. When cruising the inlet valves are open with a fuel mixture in the cylinder on the compression stroke in Atkinson cycle operation. This reduces pumping loss..but also forces fuel mixture out of the inlet valves which will be boosted back through under normal running.

Perhaps the combination of these and lack of any active EGR might make this a DI engine that doesn't need regular cleaning..

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Found this interesting no one else may..



I've been expecting inlet valve cause coking at some point..it is DI after all.

However maybe not...for 2 reasons.

1. look at the position of the injector spray and the inlet valves.. the injector is near horizontal and they are quite literally in the line of fire.
2. When cruising the inlet valves are open with a fuel mixture in the cylinder on the compression stroke in Atkinson cycle operation. This reduces pumping loss..but also forces fuel mixture out of the inlet valves which will be boosted back through under normal running.

Perhaps the combination of these and lack of any active EGR might make this a DI engine that doesn't need regular cleaning..

Atkinson cycle operation is very interesting (and has various versions developed over the years - see Miller cycle for instance) As you mention, It's basically a way of reducing pumping losses by keeping the inlet valve open well past BDC thus allowing some of the air which was drawn into the cylinder during the induction stroke to be forced back into the inlets. If you do this then there's not so much resistance on the piston as it compresses the air on it's upward stroke which means improvements in fuel economy may be possible. I learned about it many years ago at college, so it's been known for many years, but it takes variable valve designs to make it work as it needs to go back to normal valve timing for situations where power is required. I first really got interested in it when I was going to buy a Honda Civic estate with the 1.8 litre i-VTEC engine back in 2016. Unlike other Honda VTEC engines, this is not a performance engine - but still quite powerful enough - which utilizes the famous VTEC system of valve actuation to achieve a form of Atkinson operation. It's a very interesting engine and I was "desolate" when we found it was impossible for Mrs J achieve a satisfactory driving position - we bought the Ibiza instead. The fact that this form of operation pushes gasses from the cylinder back into the inlet during the compression stroke means that, depending on injector timing, there may be the possibility of allowing fuel to reach the back side of the inlet valves which might? reduce inlet valve/tract carbon fouling?

 

[StevenRB45]

Atkinson cycle operation is very interesting

Just trimming this down, the injector fires during the induction phase... however the inlet valves remain open during compression phase so you would think the inlet valves come into contact with neat fuel during induction and fuel/Air mixture in the compression phase during Atkinson operation.

I actually did consider the Honda the 1.8 produces very similar real world performance to the 1.2 and they are similar money. 2 things stopped me, 1 the Toyota came up first and 2 the Toyota is a higher torque engine at official figures and the Torque peak is 2500 rpm lower...at dyno figures it's a much higher torque engine. Official figures 116hp Dyno just short of 130, official torque 185nm Dyno 218nm, the discrepancy does at least explain why it feels little slower than the C3 which is much lighter.

After the Mazda I was a bit reticent to have another NA VVT petrol screamer as a family car especially in an estate that you'll load up. It's fun going full VTEC yo on your own but in reality 4 or 5 up and a boot full of crap needing to get up in the revs to get it up and away gets wearing. That if you're pegging it to 4 or 5k up hills to maintain speed before a shift your passengers tend to think you're an arse, while the turbo can maintain the speed without the obvious display of effort.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Just trimming this down, the injector fires during the induction phase... however the inlet valves remain open during compression phase so you would think the inlet valves come into contact with neat fuel during induction and fuel/Air mixture in the compression phase during Atkinson operation.

I actually did consider the Honda the 1.8 produces very similar real world performance to the 1.2 and they are similar money. 2 things stopped me, 1 the Toyota came up first and 2 the Toyota is a higher torque engine at official figures and the Torque peak is 2500 rpm lower...at dyno figures it's a much higher torque engine. Official figures 116hp Dyno just short of 130, official torque 185nm Dyno 218nm, the discrepancy does at least explain why it feels little slower than the C3 which is much lighter.

After the Mazda I was a bit reticent to have another NA petrol screamer as a family car especially in an estate that you'll load up. It's fun going full VTEC yo on your own but in reality 4 or 5 up and a boot full of crap needing to get up in the revs to get it up and away gets wearing. That if you're pegging it to 4 or 5k up hills to maintain speed before a shift your passengers tend to think you're an arse, while the turbo can maintain the speed without the obvious display of effort.

Absolutely agree re N/A vs Turbo. When I started looking for a replacement for the Ibiza - with it's small but powerful for it's size, turbo DI petrol engine - I pretty much convinced myself that I wanted a Jazz. I'd been looking after my daughter in law's Jazz and was very impressed by the way it was put together and general quality. However, when I actually drove one I realized how much more I liked the "lazy" low rev punch from the turbo engine. I took quite an extended drive in the jazz and it was quite nice cruising along on country roads and in town but I disliked the way you had to build speed and really wind it up before overtaking. The Civic, being a larger capacity engine, was much better in this respect, but still needed to be above about 4,000 rpm to really get up and go. I liked the car so much I could have lived with that though.

 

[StevenRB45]

For me I was just considering my use case which is if I'm on my own I'll be in the Citroën, if I'm in the Toyota it'll be loaded up. So while given my history I like to work for performance the situation is it's not correct for this application.

Odd thing to say I didn't particularly consider liking the car when I bought it, it was the right price, right age, right condition body wise and interior and the right spec and not offensive to drive.

It wasn't however particularly good just liveable, I didn't particularly care given the plan was to beat it to death if anything if you're planning to kill a car then not liking it much is a good start.

Being me though I ended up spending time and effort going through getting it to my liking and fully serviced up etc. Doing that I've realised it was pretty badly hobbled when I first got it. Mainly down to square/unbalanced budget tyres and the alignment being cross eyed. Having whackamoled the various minor issues the previous owner left me with it's a different and actually surprisingly nice car.

As a result I'm not ok with just killing it anymore which is shame but may end up being cheaper in the long run. One of those things driving another one would have probably highlighted this one needed work...but when there's usually a max of 3 for sale nationally it's not massively realistic. Also test drive was max speed 60mph on poorly surfaced country roads it only got really interesting/worrying on freshly surfaced motorway where it was obvious something was going on.

 

[portland_bill]

Please also consider, especially if the arm and leg are on the same side, it could be a sign of a stroke/TIA, and get her checked out accordingly. I know you say its because of her arm and leg being tangled and bent under her, but at the same time this assumption could mask something more serious.

Thanks
She had a visit from a specialist nurse yesterday. Spent over an hour with her, and seems happy, but is following up later in the week. Partner is brighter today, and arm movement is improving slowly.