Ask a Shiter

[Chas4545]

Old Renault van sort of Transit sized, 04 with a mahoosive lifting tailgate - so, why cant I lock the friggin tailgate ????  Is there some secret to it???

 

Many thanks for any helpful suggestions.

[3VOM]

Clio mk2 1.2 16v. Won't start, turns over briefly then stops, never fires. Code reader can't connect to ECU to check for any faults. Possible suspects are crank sensor or ECU connections. Any thoughts?

[cobblers]

They're know for crank sensors, but it should turn over and over and over without firing if that's the case

[Danblez]

Clio mk2 1.2 16v. Won't start, turns over briefly then stops, never fires. Code reader can't connect to ECU to check for any faults. Possible suspects are crank sensor or ECU connections. Any thoughts?

It shouldn't do this, there is almost certainly an issue

 

HTH.

[Guest Hooli]

Wet wiring to the ecu where it's rubbed through from the plastic cover?

 

Wet fuse box behind passenger headlight?

 

I approve this idea.

 

When my goona of doom was just wet enough* in the ECU it'd fire for about 1sec & cut out.

[clayts450]

It depends how confidant you feel, personally I'd have a couple of lessons as driving styles have changed a lot in 18 years and everything is much quicker now.

 

£36 for a 1.5hr lesson or re-read the Highway Code, take some 'mock theory tests' and pass them with flying colours then watch some Youtwat videos from the same instructor (very good BTW - https://www.youtube.com/user/garpbarp ) and chance it on a Sunday morning after buying some Nissan chod..... no contest.

 

Me this coming Sunday

 

 

I ooze confidence me....

 

P.S.

 

Me this coming Sunday (edited version)

 

[Sir Snipes]

What's with the minuture wheel, usually spotted in tankers?

[somewhatfoolish]

If the tanker has a dense liquid loaded(or a full load depending on capacity) then it may exceed the axle loading of the tractor unit if it only had one rear axle. If it had 2 fixed rear axles it drags around an unnecessary axle(tyre friction, axle bearing drag etc), so a bright spark invented the lifting axle to overcome this; the different wheel size is just a refinement of the same idea with the added benefit of the part-time axle being lighter and cheaper.

 

Edit to add; I think that's a powder tanker, the densities of powders can vary widely so this configuration is very advantageous.

[Stanky]

A maths question. I may have asked this before, so sorry if I'm repeating myself.

 

Generally, a tyre from a brand is cheaper in a small size. So, for the sake of shiteness a Mastersteel Clubsport (yeah, right) 175/70/r13 from tyreleader costs £26.09, whereas a Mastersteel Supersport (lets not get carried away, eh?) 225/50/r17 costs £42.80

 

So, the supersport is 67% more expensive than the clubsport.

 

Now, the Clubsport has a rolling circumference of 1752mm and the Supersport has a rolling circumference of 2000mm according to this: http://www.willtheyfit.com/index.php?width=175&aspect=65&diameter=13&wheelwidth=6.5&offset=40&width2=205&aspect2=50&wheel_size=17&wheel_width=9-5&offset2=20

 

So, the supersport is 14.5% greater rolling circumference.

 

Does this mean, that its a false economy to buy the 17" tyre (all other considerations aside) because while over a fixed distance it will rotate fewer times, therefore wear less (14% less?) it costs 67% more to begin with? So a smaller tyre turns more over a given distance as the rolling circumference is less, assuming the % difference in circumference > % difference in price (and assuming you have 2 sets of wheels already) its better to buy the smaller wheels?

 

Or have I failed to consider something here?

 

 

https://www.tyreleader.co.uk/car-tyres/mastersteel/clubsport/175-70-r13-82t-511581

[D Spares & Tyres]

Clio mk2 1.2 16v. Won't start, turns over briefly then stops, never fires. Code reader can't connect to ECU to check for any faults. Possible suspects are crank sensor or ECU connections. Any thoughts?

Possibly the wiring as mentioned before

 

More than likely though it is the control box ( mounted below glovebox )

[Guest Hooli]

A maths question. I may have asked this before, so sorry if I'm repeating myself.

 

Generally, a tyre from a brand is cheaper in a small size. So, for the sake of shiteness a Mastersteel Clubsport (yeah, right) 175/70/r13 from tyreleader costs £26.09, whereas a Mastersteel Supersport (lets not get carried away, eh?) 225/50/r17 costs £42.80

 

So, the supersport is 67% more expensive than the clubsport.

 

Now, the Clubsport has a rolling circumference of 1752mm and the Supersport has a rolling circumference of 2000mm according to this: http://www.willtheyfit.com/index.php?width=175&aspect=65&diameter=13&wheelwidth=6.5&offset=40&width2=205&aspect2=50&wheel_size=17&wheel_width=9-5&offset2=20

 

So, the supersport is 14.5% greater rolling circumference.

 

Does this mean, that its a false economy to buy the 17" tyre (all other considerations aside) because while over a fixed distance it will rotate fewer times, therefore wear less (14% less?) it costs 67% more to begin with? So a smaller tyre turns more over a given distance as the rolling circumference is less, assuming the % difference in circumference > % difference in price (and assuming you have 2 sets of wheels already) its better to buy the smaller wheels?

 

Or have I failed to consider something here?

 

 

https://www.tyreleader.co.uk/car-tyres/mastersteel/clubsport/175-70-r13-82t-511581

 

I like the logic...

 

But when tyres get hot they wear quicker & given the same load & speed a smaller tyre will get hotter than the larger one. I've no idea if that evens it out, but it has to be a factor.

[catsinthewelder]

The larger tyre is also about 30% wider so fast cornering should wear it out less but it will have an increased rolling resistance leading to poorer fuel economy.

[andy18s]

Don't forget your increase in rolling circumference will also raise the gearing by the same 14.5%

So you would need a drop in actual road speed to bring it back down,or start saving for those fancy new speeding fines you have over there...

[JayW]

Any ideas on this one? Here's the area in question:

Unless I'm missing something obvious here, it appears that your property ends at the face of the wall her fence is screwed to. It also appears her grass encroaches half a brick onto your property as the kerbstone is at halfway point in the width of your garage wall.

 

Ergo, 4" of that grass is on your property and that's more than enough to get a 3" post and boards in for a small fence without narrowing your drive!

[gordonbennet]

What's with the minuture wheel, usually spotted in tankers?

 

Weight saving, all of our tankers have small mid lifts and alloy wheels all round, overall we tare up to a ton lighter than some that sub for us on all full size steel wheels, axle design can be lighter too due to lower axle weights involved, we average around 15 tons tare and our loads are mostly 28 tons which takes us to 43 tons give or take a few hundred kgs, which means we run don't have to worry about being overweight on an individual axle.

You can't legally run at 44 tons gross in this country on 5 axles anyway.

 

Other advantages include more chassis room for hydraulic tanks and pumps and still have a decent sized fuel tank plus blowing/sucking equipment if tractor unit so equipped...the tank pictured is a vacuum tanker as well as being pressure rated, the ribs give it away without them the tank would collapse under vacuum, i think its a liquid tanker cos it has no hydraulic ram on the front for tipping and no visible rear stability legs.

Our tipping powder vac tanker carries a hell of a lot more equipment, vacuum pipes as well as pressure pipes for blowing loads, it tares a full ton more.

 

Most tractor mid lift or tag designs you can manually dump the air pressure of them (transfer the weight onto the drive axle mainly) when loaded to help with grip, some designs will actually lift the axle completely loaded under about 20mph, my MAN does this, which helps cut down drag on tight turns too.

 

The only real downside of the small mid lifts is lower axle gross weight, they can be as low as 4.5 tons, mine is 5.2 tons IIRC, and careful adjustment of the 5th wheel position is more critical that if the mid lift were full size (around 7 tons gross allowable), we are very careful about axle weights for obvious reasons, VOSA never usually look twice at us cos we run absolutely by the book and the vehicles are seriously maintained.

[rantingYoof]

MOT is tomorrow. I am going to do some very basic prep today (i.e. level checks), and also clean the windscreen wipers which I think just need a wipe down to stop them smearing.

 

However, I have two questions relating to something that I've seen on other cars but have not experience on a car I've owned before...

 

First of all, WHAT IS?

 

 

Secondly, HOW FIX?

 

I know that lights can fade or mist-up; this looks like them fading in parts. There are obviously some scratches which even I can identify.

 

I don't think that this affects the way they work (i.e. it doesn't stop the lights from, er, lighting the way), but I think they'd look better if I could get some kind of fix going. Is it an urban myth that toothpaste works well on bringing lights back to shine?

 

Many thanks,

 

 

An idiot.

[bub2006]

Bleached plastics. You can buy headlamp restore kits or toothpaste and elbow grease. Both vectras we had have done it and so is my c2. Tadts

[KruJoe]

It's UV damage caused by sunlight, and no threat to your MOT. Yes, its appearance can be improved, costs and results do vary, however. Personally I've never made time to try owt on mine.

[gordonbennet]

Metal polish such as Peek or Solvol do a good job of restoring plastic lenses, always assuming the fade is on the outside, about 10 minutes aside will do it, but you must protect the newly refinished plastic with some good quality wax polish, people reckon you should use a special anti UV polish, i haven't tried this anti UV stuff so can't say if it's a must do.

 

We never had any of this trouble with glass headlights, the ones on the Merc now 21 are still are still like new, mind you proper headlights were near enough vertical and didn't stretch half way up the wing to the windscreen, all modernz etc.

[DVee8]

Father in law has spotted a car he quite fancies.

 

It is on Ebay,but the seller has 0 feedback,has only been a Ebay member for 3 weeks.

 

It is a classified ad.He hasn't noticed the 0 feedback or a member for 3 weeks just I LIKE THAT CAR.. Now i know you have to start somewhere.

 

Is it somthing that should start the alarm bells?

 

The car,the ad.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hatchback-2010-Mercedes-Benz-B-Class-2-0-B180-CDI-/152539112593?hash=item23840a2491:g:YCMAAOSwcgNZDgfd

[andy18s]

Well he's done a good job of telling you what toys it has,no mention of what the car is like....

Wannabe Mike Brewer

[Hendry]

MOT is tomorrow. I am going to do some very basic prep today (i.e. level checks), and also clean the windscreen wipers which I think just need a wipe down to stop them smearing.

 

However, I have two questions relating to something that I've seen on other cars but have not experience on a car I've owned before...

 

First of all, WHAT IS?

 

headlights - 1.jpg

headlights - 2.jpg

 

Secondly, HOW FIX?

 

I know that lights can fade or mist-up; this looks like them fading in parts. There are obviously some scratches which even I can identify.

 

I don't think that this affects the way they work (i.e. it doesn't stop the lights from, er, lighting the way), but I think they'd look better if I could get some kind of fix going. Is it an urban myth that toothpaste works well on bringing lights back to shine?

 

Many thanks,

 

 

An idiot.

 

Its quite common on moderns with plastic headlight lenses, and if it gets really really bad it can cause an MOT failure, stuff like Vectra Cs are bad for it. Ive just done my headlights, 20quid for an autoglym kit from halfords, comes with everything you need, except a drill, probably an hour to do both headlights and the results are amazing. 

[bub2006]

I'll look for that kit hendry, my wife's vectra c and my c2 are a bit shite. The vectra is terrible if I'm honest. Have you a full name if what to get?

[dave21478]

Father in law has spotted a car he quite fancies.

 

It is on Ebay,but the seller has 0 feedback,has only been a Ebay member for 3 weeks.

 

It is a classified ad.He hasn't noticed the 0 feedback or a member for 3 weeks just I LIKE THAT CAR.. Now i know you have to start somewhere.

 

Is it somthing that should start the alarm bells?

 

The car,the ad.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hatchback-2010-Mercedes-Benz-B-Class-2-0-B180-CDI-/152539112593?hash=item23840a2491:g:YCMAAOSwcgNZDgfd

 

Literally nothing about the cars condition, not even MOT date.

Verdict - Bellend.

 

I wouldnt discount it though....some all most many people are just completely fucking clueless. No fucking way would I buy it blind though....would want a decent inspection first.

[rainagain]

some[/s] all most many people are just completely fucking clueless.

Yep, when I went to my 307 SW, not only had they advertised it as an estate and not the SW, they didn't mention things in the ad like it had a service history including a bill for a cambelt change.

 

As my OH said though these things are important to me and people like me but not to the majority of other people who don't know/care about cars.

 

Watch any current car ad and most of them mention nothing technical about the car and everything about how you can hook your iphone up to it, etc

[DeeJay]

MOT is tomorrow. I am going to do some very basic prep today (i.e. level checks), and also clean the windscreen wipers which I think just need a wipe down to stop them smearing.

 

However, I have two questions relating to something that I've seen on other cars but have not experience on a car I've owned before...

 

First of all, WHAT IS?

 

headlights - 1.jpg

headlights - 2.jpg

 

Secondly, HOW FIX?

 

I know that lights can fade or mist-up; this looks like them fading in parts. There are obviously some scratches which even I can identify.

 

I don't think that this affects the way they work (i.e. it doesn't stop the lights from, er, lighting the way), but I think they'd look better if I could get some kind of fix going. Is it an urban myth that toothpaste works well on bringing lights back to shine?

 

Many thanks,

 

 

An idiot.

 

 

 

 

Have a look on Youtube, loads of posts comparing products and "how too use best".

[sierraman]

MOT is tomorrow. I am going to do some very basic prep today (i.e. level checks), and also clean the windscreen wipers which I think just need a wipe down to stop them smearing.

 

However, I have two questions relating to something that I've seen on other cars but have not experience on a car I've owned before...

 

First of all, WHAT IS?

 

headlights - 1.jpg

headlights - 2.jpg

 

Secondly, HOW FIX?

 

I know that lights can fade or mist-up; this looks like them fading in parts. There are obviously some scratches which even I can identify.

 

I don't think that this affects the way they work (i.e. it doesn't stop the lights from, er, lighting the way), but I think they'd look better if I could get some kind of fix going. Is it an urban myth that toothpaste works well on bringing lights back to shine?

 

Many thanks,

 

 

An idiot.

You can sort this for £3.50. Buy a tube of Autosol, brings them up a treat, if they are really bad you might need some 1200 grade wet and dry. Don't waste £15 on these kits you get in Halfords etc.

[Stanky]

MOT is tomorrow. I am going to do some very basic prep today (i.e. level checks), and also clean the windscreen wipers which I think just need a wipe down to stop them smearing.

 

However, I have two questions relating to something that I've seen on other cars but have not experience on a car I've owned before...

 

First of all, WHAT IS?

 

headlights - 1.jpg

headlights - 2.jpg

 

Secondly, HOW FIX?

 

I know that lights can fade or mist-up; this looks like them fading in parts. There are obviously some scratches which even I can identify.

 

I don't think that this affects the way they work (i.e. it doesn't stop the lights from, er, lighting the way), but I think they'd look better if I could get some kind of fix going. Is it an urban myth that toothpaste works well on bringing lights back to shine?

 

Many thanks,

 

 

An idiot.

 

Shameless self promotion:

 

http://autoshite.com/topic/22688-stankys-fixerating-of-vehicles-thread-fao-saab-people-ys3f-blower-question/page-3?do=findComment&comment=1101508

 

£10 all in, turns out the polarity of my drill has reversed somehow so ignore the comment about needing to run it backwards.

[Matt]

How does longer stints of driving effect you lot? Doing over 100 miles in a day is very atypical for me but I've done 13 hours over 600 miles this weekend and I feel pretty unaffected by it so far this evening. Saturday was a bit hellish with pouring rain all day and heavy traffic* but today was about as good as you could hope for. Maybe 600 miles over two days is small fries compared to some of you, but I'm curious.

 

*I was going south so it was people rubber necking at the scene of the poor biker that got run over by a truck on the M6 North.

[Bianconeri]

Literally nothing about the cars condition, not even MOT date.

Verdict - Bellend.

 

I wouldnt discount it though....some all most many people are just completely fucking clueless. No fucking way would I buy it blind though....would want a decent inspection first.

It is far more important to many people to have loads of driver-distracting electric gadgets than have a car in good condition isn't it?

 

The dealer for my modern still can't understand why I asked for the bluetooth phone system to be disabled. Its use may be legal but it ain't ethical.