Hiding in plain sight

A few years back I built a model of a workshop, along with some tools, among the tools were a pair of Footprint pipe tongs/pliers a bit less that an inch long, no sooner I had made them than one of the little fellows found them, and took them away, so I made another pair, now I'v got two pair (they only take an hour or so to make). That's a bit of 5 mm tube from a telescopic radio aerial in the vice. Sorry about the slotted screw in the vice, couldn't be bothered making a hex head bolt.

Ian S C

I like the vice very much.

Neil

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+1

MichaelG.

Used to be a time when you had to remove your engine and / or strip it down as a matter of course because they were so crap - I know because I spent years doing it myself. Nowadays most cars reach end of life without even the head needing to come off. If you buy a decent vehicle (dare I say something like a Honda, aka "the engineer's car", it will barely need you to lift the bonnet other than to top up the washer fluid. That's despite all the advances that have given us much better fuel consumption, almost zero noxious emissions and much better performance, safety and refinement.

There was once a time (back in the 70s and 80s) when you could lift the bonnet and see the road between the engine and the body. Now the engine bay (and the underarches, bumpers etc) are chocablock with stuff. The improved reliability comes despite that increase in complexity. Pretty amazing what has been achieved - by engineers of course!! It's nothing to do with the EU but instead the constant march of progress.

I've done hundreds of thousands of miles in my various Hondas without the slightest problem. I may have been luckier than some owners but by and large it's simply down to good engineering.

Murray

Not sure this is the right place, but will follow the trend. I have a Renault Clio Mk IV, with stop start.

Question, how long will the starter motor last if you live/drive in an urban area, and the CO2 saved during the life of the starter motor is probably less than the CO2 used to produce,deliver and heat the workshop where the new starter is fitted.

Are there any statistics to be found on CO2 for production versus CO2 saved during the life of a product?

BobH

I worked on a Chevrolet Camero once and you could stand beside the engine in the engine bay (it was a straight six). I have never seen anything so agricultural that was not on a farm. It was jokingly said that the last check on the Rover 800 V8 was to throw a handfull of rice into the engine bay and if any fell through to the ground then something had been left off.

It would be very interesting to know the total energy consumption of equipment, from manufacturing the item,it's useful life and the recycling it. I suspect the cost of manufacturing a product that has low energy consumption during its working life may offset some of the savings from it's low energy useful life. I think we maybe being conned as most of this low energy stuff carries a premium purchase price.

Mike

I have a series 2a 1970 landrover, if it misbehaves I threaten it with a 2lb hammer and hey suddenly it works again

British engineering at its best, but strangely I call it Herman

Mick H

> Are there any statistics to be found on CO2 for production versus CO2 saved during the life of a product?

Hi Bob,

Some interesting issues:

A large-medium car uses as much CO2 to make as to run, more or less.

Vegetarians like me can console themselves that not eating meat saves enough CO2 to offset using a car

Two people in a small car on a long journey create less CO2 than if they had gone by coach, and not much more than going by train.

One person in a big car produces more CO2 than flying...

Long and short of it, if you regularly have two or more people in a car with modest emissions (my LPG Astra or my wife's Diesel Mondeo) stop feeling guilty!

If you storm up and down in a ratty petrol landrover on your own, shame on you

Neil

All this talk of cars and their reliability reminds me of a (luckily) company car I was once provided with, reputedly the most unreliable car ever produced anywhere Vauxhall HB, and white at that. One year it did over 86,000 miles, mostly at emulating today's auto stop/start models before it was invented. It even let me down several times on Salisbury Plain, once in blinding snow. No wonder I took the family dog for company.

I too have stuck with Land Rovers ever since

Jerry

My clutch pedal went pop and dropped to the floor since writing the above message.

Hopefully it's just a master cylinder seal kit

Any Astra clutch experts out there?

Neil

One person in a big car produces more CO2 than flying...

Depends how many people in the aeroplane <g> I used to have a PPL and an hour or two tooling around the sky got through some galleons of juice...

My car is 20yrs old.. so environmentally sound compared to folk who chop their's in every few years. I keep it mostly 'cos I fit in it and not many cars I can wind myself into at my height....

I have a 1990 Renault 5 for 11 years that serves me well most faults I can do at home apart from a simple electronic ignition system.

With the millage I do why spend thousands on a car the 5 is not bad on fuel and legal speed?

Age is catching up with me and hope I can still drive due to a stable eye condition that the DVLA have studied for many years.

I hear some people say don't tell the DVLA anything but as insurance is void if you are economical with the truth I would hate to be responsible for injury to anyone due to my selfishness to keep driving.

As a dear family member was killed by a young person who legally should not have been driving my feelings are very strong on the legality of drivers on the road.

Paul

I'm with you Windy, a couple of years ago I had a minor stroke which killed the optic nerve in my left eye, I told DVLA and I had to have a test of my periphipal vision, it was okay and I was allowed to continue driving,I am now over 70 and decided to surrender my licence as I didn't feel safe and like you if I had continued driving and hurt someone else how could I have coped with that. I still have my Landrover and take good care of it, bought it in 98, took it to bits and rebuilt it, would only sell it if I could be sure that it would go to someone who would love it like I do,some people look at lumps of metal as lumps of metal,I don't they are part of my family

Crikey where did all that come from-- must be getting old

Reggards Mick H

Just going back to what Muzzer said a few posts ago about cylinder heads never coming off in the life of the car.

There are car manufacturers working on designs of 'cassette' cylinder heads. These are literally throw away items and the cost of a new one from the dealer will be much less than the cost of a a cylinder head rebuild.

One of the techniques used is to assemble the camshaft/s (a tube with shrunk-on lobes) in situ! ie thread the shaft through the journals whilst holding the lobes in position.

As someone who regularly repair things that were not designed to be repaired I think I would be beaten by cassette heads, Gone will be the days of tappet adjustment and valve grinding etc, except for classic car owners and the like (although I think that the first users of cassette heads is in the truck engine industry)

Ian P

The British squaddy may be able to strip and reassemble his gun in the dark, but I think I could strip and rebuild a Trident engine in the dark, riding it hard without a good warm up caused oil leaks also due to narrow gasket faces on the rocker boxes. Since the introduction of zinc coated steel fo car bodies it is the mechanicals that send the cars to the scrapyard now. I scrapped my Nissan that had done 177,000 miles and gone straight through every MOT because the alternator cam chain and water pump all needed replacing, my enthusiasm for fixing cars has waned and I have come to view them as disposable. Maintainability seems not to be a consideration on so much equipment now, in fact many things will not come apart without breaking something.

Mike

While we are moaning (or applauding) modern car engineering. Recently a shock absorber on my 06 Passat failed. The replacement unit would have cost me at least £300, with the labour on top of that. It seems they are "self levelling"?. I have moved a lot of gear in the vehicle (its an estate) and certainly its headlights never pointed at the moon. But on the other hand, might I have overloaded it? My son in law, rebuilt the rear suspension both side with the previous models springs and shockers - total cost £200 +labour.

Frank

I have fond memories of mending the gearbox of a Velocette Viper by the light of a roadwork's hurricane lamp at 2am, in the middle of nowhere between Bristol and Gloucester. A selector fork had broken, so we stripped the box, jammed it in top gear and reassembled it. Having push-started the bike I then rode all the way back to Alcester on the clutch, including stopping at traffic lights. That clutch was a sod to set-up (11 springs) but was a superb piece of engineering.