Ask a Shiter

[andy18s]

for the sake of £3 go buy the boiled linseed oil...saves all the dogs coming around to lick your bumpers clean

Efa

[Eddie Honda]

I had a poke around under the bonnet and there are two things which look like they could be temp sensors, very close to each other. 

 

I'm obviously missing something because it would make no sense to me to have two temp sensors so close together

 

IMG_20180701_210735.jpg

 

As per previous post, if it's anything like the Citroens, the two things which look like temp sensors on the thermostat housing ARE temp sensors. It doesn't need to make sense because French.

 

[New POD]

Just picked up my latest rusty vw - a late model T25 caravelle. 

 

The bumpers are delightfully* faded to blotchy grey. The single marque owners forums tell me to replace them at a cost of £360 (plus postage). Maybe not. 

 

I therefore turn to the more budget conscious forum and ask what products/household goods/shoe polish/bodily fluids you recommend to get faded plastic bumpers looking a little better? 

 

On www.mk2cav.com there was a how to restore plastic bumpers.  It involves a plumbers blow torch. You heat the plastic to the point where its just starting to become tacky.  This restores the chemical inbalance and puts the world back on it's axis.  Failing that, I have used boot polish.  The liquid stuff that comes with a foam applicator pad. 

[New POD]

Rings a bell. Maybe POD or Supanaught? but I could be totally wrong there.

 

Not me.  I have a desmond from coventry (lanchester) polytechnic* in production engineering with manufacturing systems, which qualifies me to be the cannon fodder of the car industry in the west midlands. 

 

*became a University the year after I graduated. 

[rusty_vw_man]

 

Thanks all for bumper improving suggestions, chickened out of the blow torch method, and the children had eaten the supplies of peanut butter.

 

However, boiled linseed rocks - before and after shot included. It's so good that for some reason it's turned the whole world upside down, but you get the idea.

 

Thanks all!

[omegod]

I believe linseed can be quite volatile so be careful where you store old soaked rags etc

[Guest Hooli]

^^^^ tru dat, it's been known to cause fires.

[rusty_vw_man]

^ Thanks I read the warnings on the back of the bottle. Being a sensible* member of society I left the rag in direct sunshine, with some kitchen paper to see if I achieved spontaneous combustion. Nothing. Disappointing. 

 

I then tried heating it in a tin can, but still nothing. 

 

Finally just tried setting fire to the rags, but they burnt in a disappointing fashion. 

 

Overall it appears safer than the bottle suggested.   

[Guest Hooli]

That's be my approach to it too, you need to see how dangerous it is to allow for it.

[Supernaut]

Was there a shiter with an environmental management degree (or something similar) looking for work in the north east?

Hullo!

[New POD]

A mate of mine has a problem with egr valve :

2001 Accord SE Executive 2.0 VTEC.

 

www.autocodes.com/p1491_honda.html

 

Any ideas ? Quick fix ?

[twosmoke300]

The port in the heads can block causing an egr low flow code

[artdjones]

Which means taking off the inlet manifold,if it's the same design as a 1.6.

[twosmoke300]

Similar. Iirc there is a sandwich plate between the head and manifold with a weird maze shaped groove cut into it that fills up with soot

[loserone]

Hullo!

I'll be in touch shortly (once the advert goes live)

[108]

Right. Just sold a car and the Norn Iron fella who bought it has paid me mainly in Norn Iron banknotes. He insisted they were ok to bank in English banks, but google doesn’t really help.

Will NatWest tell me to FRO with my notes?

This should not be a problem in any bank as they are Sterling notes.

 

It can be great fun in shops as the NI notes are issued by local banks. So you can be faced with sterling notes with Bank of Ireland printed on them.

[Fabergé Greggs]

Is a ZX 1.9D auto a terrible idea? 

 

What kind of MPG's do they do? 

[davehedgehog31]

Is a ZX 1.9D auto a terrible idea? 

 

What kind of MPG's do they do? 

No

 

Don't know sorry, but I would imagine 50 to be easily achievable with minimal consideration.

[rusty_vw_man]

Since you fixed my fading bumpers, I have another query, this time about rubber matting.

 

The van has very germanic wipe clean rubber matting over the floor and cab area. The vertical bits no longer stay where they were supposed to - scene answer is to replace (not sure why I bothered asking).

 

Contact adhesive doesn't seem to work - it smells nice, and it makes me happily light headed, but the rubber falls back off in a day or two. Any ideas (not accepting peanut butter as the answer this time though) about a suitable glue which will hold and resist the gentle warmth of the interior in summer? 

 

Also, the mats have flappy bits that cover over things you might later want to open, these have all torn along the crease line. Anything better than gaffer tape to put these back with?  

[Tickman]

Is a ZX 1.9D auto a terrible idea? 

 

What kind of MPG's do they do? 

 

I had one just over 20 years ago. It won't set the world alight with performance but perfectly able to do the job needed.

 

I cannot remember MPG's and it would be skewed by the fact I was using it to teach people to drive in it.

[somewhatfoolish]

Also, the mats have flappy bits that cover over things you might later want to open, these have all torn along the crease line. Anything better than gaffer tape to put these back with?  

There is high temp contact adhesive available, often recommended for upholstery jobs for the reason you outline, things falling off when the glowy thing in the sky is persistently glowy.

[Supernaut]

Have the values of small Malaysian pickup trucks taken a sudden leap in the past month or so?

[dave21478]

Call an ambulance, man - I think you are having a stroke or carbon monoxide poisoning or something.

[Stanky]

Why do modern brake drums on humdrum cars (peugeot 107 for example) have fins/ridges rather than a smooth outside like they always used to?

 

I thought it was for special regenerative brakes like Priuseseses have, but the rear brakes on a 107 won't do this will they? They can't get hot, so its logically not for heat disipation, strengthening ribs maybe?

[Dead_E23]

I bet it'll be so they can use less metal by fitting something more like a pie tin than a brake drum.

[Des]

I reckon the ribs are to control distortion.

[drum]

Help.

I've lost the keys for the Oldsmobile. They might be in the boot.

As well as using the key to open the boot, there is a remote button in the glove box. It needs the ignition to be on.

 

Can I hot wire this switch by taking a live feed direct from the battery?

Any other suggestions?

[dave21478]

 Taking a live from the battery with a length of wire should work unless its switched earth or something dumb like that. Alternatively If it has a stereo, temporarily connect the ignition live and permanent live feeds together which should power up the switch and release circuit.

[tobyd]

re: brake drums and fins, i'd have thought this was for cooling. didn't oldendays race cars have hopelessly massive drums with fins?

 

Its still probably less hassle to have rear drum brakes than discs (VAG group piss poor effort anyone?) and just jazz them up a bit?

 

 

 

 

This was roughly what I was thinking of? Watched a morbid documentary on the 195x le mans 'everybodies dead Dave' crash and some of it talked about how the Jag couldn't beat the merc on speed but was more reliable (195x recording of the engine flat out is astounding) and had disc brakes so tried to win by forcing the merc to blow up. instead an awful lot of people died. good watch but sad times.

[Stanky]

Yeah like that, but smaller - 12" diameter maybe?

 

I couldn't see how they'd be for style* in something as ruthlessly costed as a 107 though, it must have some kind of purpose otherwise they'd just use the normal flat metal cylinder they've used since the 1920s?