Wet Cabbage :(

[djimbob]

Modern cars aren't any more reliable, they've just improved the manufacturing tolerances to the point where they can almost guarantee those massive FTP's don't happen until just after the three years fleet buyers care about.

 

Touch wood, my (twenty years old this year) Citroen has only stranded me once. And that was fuel to a fuel/distance estimation failure on my part.

 

Have you not just contradicted yourself there??

 

Those manufacturing tolerances that almost guarantee no FTP's in the first three years have a huge trickle down effect on the rest of the life of the vehicle.

 

I know we love old, unfashionable shite on here, but to deny the blindingly obvious is rather odd, a twenty plus year old car, straight out of a time machine, serviced as per the manufacturers' instructions, will fail more often than the modern equivalent under test controlled conditions, never mind that you spend every other evening setting the points and greasing the king pins, of course you can keep anything on the road daily given that kind of diligence!

 

Kudos to all who do love and cherish their shite, but in twenty years time you'll find out that the newer the car, the better made it is with regard to reliability, millions of office workers can't all be wrong

[HH-R]

I do 3k in my Horsey Horseless every month and the AA have given me a special "no callouts" award.

[406V6]

I'm probably unusual among the contributors here as I've driven the same car as a daily driver for 16 years since it was brand new and now with 140k on the clock. I don't see any difference in reliability between now and when it was new. I maintain the car properly and keep it in a garage when not in use like your standard old giffer, both helping to keep it in good shape. Of course consumables are wearing out now and have to be replaced like pads & discs, exhaust but that will happen on every car and can be replaced when convenient. As far as I'm concerned these don't count when you talk about reliability. There are occasional silly little problems in the old car that didn't happen when it was new like the indicator sound stopping working for an hour and then working again but they don't affect how the car drives. The most recent non-consumable problems that affected my ability to drive the car were a couple of coil packs playing up last year (considered consumables on the ES9J4S engine) and 3 years ago some fuel rail seals started to leak but the car remained driveable.

[jonny69]

Are there any decent condensors for sale, anymore?

 

Electronificated ignition is more reliable in the sense if you fail to service, the car carries on and on. Just no warning at all if it fails, like any electronic boxes, something I hate. 

 

Short answer is you're going to struggle. The ~£5 off-the-shelf ones are too low quality to rely on. Distributor Doctor ones are guaranteed good and are apparently carefully tested before they go out. I probably got unlucky and got a duff one.

 

The problem is it's a component that demands a lot, needs to be incredibly high quality but simply isn't in use much any more. Almost all condensers currently come from China in bulk and aren't made to good enough standards. I doubt they're tested before they come out the factory but, even so, something that is tested at room temperature for steady capacitance will not be an indicator of whether it will work at high frequency, at extreme high or low temperature, in the damp, and while being heavily vibrated. It's a lot to ask from something.

 

The rub here, though, is those electronic ignition modules are also cheap crappy Chinese electronics and I have my doubts about their longevity. As with DanTehCarpiMan, I keep a set of points in the glove box with an unopened untested replacement DD condenser. This is the manufacturer of the electronic ignition that suggests to do this - they have that much confidence in their own product!

[xtriple]

I had Boyer Bransden sp?) electronic ignition on my old Bonnie and it was brilliant. It transformed an unreliable piece of shit into a bike that would start first or second kick every time it was used even if it had been stood for a few weeks.

 

I had electronic ignition put on my Toyota Crown back in the very early 80s and it failed catastrophically and due to the placement the installer chose, set fire to the bloody car! They put it right by the big glass bowl fuel filter thing on the inner passenger wing.... what a mess!

 

I always used to say 'you get what you pay for' (yes I am a miserable boring old fart) but these days, even that is no guarantee of quality. So many parts are from China/India or wherever is the cheapest to produce and is utter crap! All these horrible parts can really colour you view of a classic car as a car to actually use as opposed to sitting and admiring while it rots in the garage!

[Eddie Honda]

The rub is any company could get a Chinese outfit to make decent ignition components, it just that they are capitalist bastard scum and don't want to pay!