The grumpy thread

[HarmonicCheeseburger]

34 minutes ago, Remspoor said:

I am so glad I do not live in the  UK these days. Tories and 20MPH zones , go to fuck.

@Kiltoxis this your doing to promote Amis?

[artdjones]

Wouldn't it make more pollution and emissions for cars to drive at 20mph in 3rd rather than 30mph in 4th?

[Metal Guru]

1 hour ago, Remspoor said:

I am so glad I do not live in the  UK these days. Tories and 20MPH zones , go to fuck.

Well the SNP have done it already in Scotland.

[Mally]

1 hour ago, Remspoor said:

I am so glad I do not live in the  UK these days. Tories and 20MPH zones , go to fuck.

I blame @Kiltox and AMI.

Hope he gets done for speeding.

[AndyW201]

Used the Merc at the weekend, parked on the drive yesterday, no problems.

Horrible grinding, scraping noise this morning when reversing off the drive,

Aye, that'll be why then.

Fucksakes...

[Yoss]

52 minutes ago, artdjones said:

Wouldn't it make more pollution and emissions for cars to drive at 20mph in 3rd rather than 30mph in 4th?

The Southampton City Council website makes no mention of emmisions, it appears to be merely on safety grounds. There's also no mention of how it might be enforced. 

Green Skoda with its 1.6 16v can comfortably do 20 in 3rd but blue Skoda which is standard would really rather be in 2nd. It will do it in 3rd but is labouring a bit but its happier in 2nd. So am I expected to drive round in 2nd gear? 

[HarmonicCheeseburger]

42 minutes ago, Mally said:

I blame @Kiltox and AMI.

Hope he gets done for speeding.

Getting a ticket for speeding in an Ami is the type of thing you request in A2 size format so you can frame it!

[AnnoyingPentium]

1 hour ago, Metal Guru said:

Well the SNP have done it already in Scotland.

It's particularly bad in the Borders Council areas. At least over on the South West it's not as common, and only really for especially built up areas (say the centre of Ayr for example), with most still being 30mph zones thankfully, which means I can navigate them in 5th gear. A lot of these used to be 40mph zones before, and were, in my opinion, a bit better for it then.

[Metal Guru]

57 minutes ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

It's particularly bad in the Borders Council areas. At least over on the South West it's not as common, and only really for especially built up areas (say the centre of Ayr for example), with most still being 30mph zones thankfully, which means I can navigate them in 5th gear. A lot of these used to be 40mph zones before, and were, in my opinion, a bit better for it then.

There was some talk about making rural roads 40mph in Scotland. That would be a blanket 40 in the Borders apart from the 20s in towns.

[wuvvum]

4 hours ago, Remspoor said:

I am so glad I do not live in the  UK these days. Tories and 20MPH zones , go to fuck.

There's plenty of 30km/h zones in built up areas in That Europe.  No Tories though admittedly.

[Ghosty]

I'm a bit more broke than I thought, and if the MX5 fails an MOT and/or doesn't sell soon, I'm fucked - start of February I will have £0 to my name.

Fuck. Need to account for visiting Reb this month too which costs a fair bit in travel.

[LightBulbFun]

3 hours ago, Yoss said:

The Southampton City Council website makes no mention of emmisions, it appears to be merely on safety grounds. There's also no mention of how it might be enforced. 

Green Skoda with its 1.6 16v can comfortably do 20 in 3rd but blue Skoda which is standard would really rather be in 2nd. It will do it in 3rd but is labouring a bit but its happier in 2nd. So am I expected to drive round in 2nd gear? 

what about the Routemaster! that probably would be right at home bimbling along at 20Mph with its standard low speed diff

 

[Talbot]

8 hours ago, Yoss said:

So am I expected to drive round in 2nd gear? 

On a residential road, one assumes so.

TBH I don't see the issue with this.  As long as the more major routes remain at their current 30/40 limits, reducing the limit on a residential road to 20mph makes good sense.  It won't make a blind bit of difference to journey times, but might reduce the peak speeds that people are doing past houses.

What gear a car happens to achieve 20mph in seems somewhat irrelevant.  And no, I don't see how driving at 20mph can produce more emissions than driving at 30mph.  The power needed to achieve 20 is less than 30 (obvs!) so there should be lower CO2 emissions and probably fewer other emissions too.

The age of individual personal mobility will eventually draw to an end.  This is possibly the very beginning of it.

[Metal Guru]

1 hour ago, Talbot said:

On a residential road, one assumes so.

TBH I don't see the issue with this.  As long as the more major routes remain at their current 30/40 limits, reducing the limit on a residential road to 20mph makes good sense.  It won't make a blind bit of difference to journey times, but might reduce the peak speeds that people are doing past houses.

What gear a car happens to achieve 20mph in seems somewhat irrelevant.  And no, I don't see how driving at 20mph can produce more emissions than driving at 30mph.  The power needed to achieve 20 is less than 30 (obvs!) so there should be lower CO2 emissions and probably fewer other emissions too.

The age of individual personal mobility will eventually draw to an end.  This is possibly the very beginning of it.

Surely it’s the rpm of the engine that largely determines emissions rather than the actual speed of the vehicle? So if you have to drive in 2nd gear for 20mph at say 2000 rpm but 3rd at 30 would be 1500rpm, there will be more emissions at 20mph.

Also if you have to drive say 2 miles through a town, 20mph will take 6 minutes, but at 30 it will only take 4 minutes, again more emissions at 20 mph.

[Talbot]

16 minutes ago, Metal Guru said:

Surely it’s the rpm of the engine that largely determines emissions rather than the actual speed of the vehicle? 

No.

It's the load on the engine.  RPM is largely not relevant at very light throttle openings.  It makes a bit of a difference at WOT, but the difference between 20 and 30mph is 2/10ths of very little.

Also... why on earth would you be at 2000rpm in any gear?  3rd at 1200rpm would be fine.  The engine is only making about 3-5hp to make the car move at 20mph.  Even if you did decide to be at 2000rpm in second, that would still be using less fuel than to travel at 30mph.

Also.. this is only being done on residentail roads.  You wouldn't be driving for 2 miles on a residential street.  Even if you were, you'd never maintain 30mph for it the whole time.  Average speed in a residential area is about 15mph if you're lucky.  The plan here is to clip the top off the maximum speed, which will make very little difference to journey times.

Your theory that the longer a journey takes means higher emissions is completely wrong too.  CO2 emsissions are based on the amount of hydrocarbon burned.  NOx emissions will be almost non-existant at such low power, and other emissions will depend far more on the engine than the manner of driving.

[Yoss]

5 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

what about the Routemaster! that probably would be right at home bimbling along at 20Mph with its standard low speed diff

 

Ha ha, yes it was very short sighted of me to sell it. On the way up the gears I would change in to fourth at 20 and wouldn't change down until 15mph. At 20 in third you were revving the nuts off the thing. 

1 hour ago, Talbot said:

On a residential road, one assumes so.

TBH I don't see the issue with this.  As long as the more major routes remain at their current 30/40 limits, reducing the limit on a residential road to 20mph makes good sense.  It won't make a blind bit of difference to journey times, but might reduce the peak speeds that people are doing past houses.

What gear a car happens to achieve 20mph in seems somewhat irrelevant.  And no, I don't see how driving at 20mph can produce more emissions than driving at 30mph.  The power needed to achieve 20 is less than 30 (obvs!) so there should be lower CO2 emissions and probably fewer other emissions too.

The age of individual personal mobility will eventually draw to an end.  This is possibly the very beginning of it.

In pure mathematical terms it should by your logic produce less emmisions at 20mph but at the same time will do so for 50% longer but real world driving is not led by maths (I know, before anyone jumps in, everything in the universe can be explained by maths).

I guess once we're all driving electric cars the problem of what gear to be in will be irrelevant. 

As I said originally it won't make much difference round the residential roads but I'm surprised that Shirley Road and Hill Lane weren't excluded as major routes. Some other roads are exempt. Winchester Road and Burgess Road which are technically the A35 and link the M27 to the west and east of the city but ironically have so many traffic lights 30mph is virtually impossible. Perhaps that's why they exempted them, they are naturally 20mph roads anyway. 

Another major route is The Avenue, the main route off the end of the M3 to the city centre. It was reduced to 40mph to 30mph at the start of covid to, try and encourage cycling apparently, and it seems to have made little difference. Most people still travel between 30 and 40. I just go with the flow. I suspect in reality the 20 zones will be the same. 

[Mally]

I seem to recall others with similar Builders problems.

I had my house re roofed 14 months ago, all is was well.

This morning there's water running down my downstairs wallpaper.......and upstairs when I check........and in the loft.

Leak at the joint of mine and next door, but I've got the water.

To his credit, builder turned up in half an hour. It's bouncing down.

Hmmmm. Been OK  last winter, there's a chimney next door at the point of the leak. May be something amiss on their half.

Might need scaffolding, leave it with me until the rain stops.

I feel another bill coming on. Rest of the block is tenanted. I'm not  well in with their landlord, and their roof was redone 5 years ago.

[somewhatfoolish]

18 hours ago, Remspoor said:

I am so glad I do not live in the  UK these days. Tories and 20MPH zones , go to fuck.

Soton got rid of their tory council in May and replaced it with a labour one; I'd assume this was the new lot's doing. Still a shit idea, mind.

[cobblers]

I'm lucky enough to only ever have had to drive in one 20mph limit and that's the one going into Matlock. If you actually slow down to 20mph there, someone will crash into you. Anyway, that's my anecdote, please subscribe for more useless motoring observations.

 

[Yoss]

16 minutes ago, somewhatfoolish said:

Soton got rid of their tory council in May and replaced it with a labour one; I'd assume this was the new lot's doing. Still a shit idea, mind.

Proposals for this seem to have started in October 2021 so the idea no doubt predates that. 

[hairnet]

ebay

needed to send something back and the people said yes we deal with that not the manufacturer (this made me happy - although i dont know if itll be fix or replace - id be happy with fix

give us item no and order no - did that

give us name addy and email - wouldnt that they would already know as they posted it the first time

so tried that and ebay said no - was on phone so thought it was that

again and no - ok fuck you wait till get home

tried here and got the red box - NEIN YOU VILL NOT SEND PERSONAL INFO VIA MESSAGE OR 8 VEEKS COOLER etc

did the space in the mail and punctuation in text etc

nope

wrote a note on phone and screeenshot and sent that as a photo

it worked

fukin palaver

[Remspoor]

19 hours ago, wuvvum said:

There's plenty of 30km/h zones in built up areas in That Europe.  No Tories though admittedly.

Zones,  not the whole city or town. And none near me.

[Remspoor]

10 hours ago, Yoss said:

I guess once we're all driving electric cars the problem of what gear to be in will be irrelevant. 

When will that be? 20 or 30 years after the last ICE was sold?

[Remspoor]

4 hours ago, somewhatfoolish said:

Soton got rid of their tory council in May and replaced it with a labour one; I'd assume this was the new lot's doing. Still a shit idea, mind.

When they implement this  later on we can all say sexual movements to the Labour party too.

Certainly a Tory idea. "Labour leader of the opposition, Cllr Satvir Kaur, criticised the lack of plan for enforcement."

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/southamptons-20mph-speed-limits-force-050000669.html

[red5]

If you want to do a comparative test get live data from ECU (EGT, EGR duty cycle, Inj duration, MAP etc). Drive at 20mph in 2nd @ X rpm . Repeat at same indicated road speed in 3rd @ Y rpm. Note readings. Get calculator. Get busy. 😁. 

Bear in mind formation of NoX is directly related to cylinder combustion temperature. Cool cylinder (water, EGR, low compression ratio) = massive reductions. 

You may find that higher engine rpm (then just off idle for example) uses relatively less fuel as it's more likely to be in the peak torque range which roughly equates to most go for fuel supplied. EGT readings are your friend here. And so on...

Then do all that again but display injector duration and rail pressure then drive in the gear/throttle position that displays the 'shortest'  and run into the back of the vehicle in front whilst watching your 'Emission-o-meter', but in an economic, low emission manner 😎

[Stanky]

Soldering. Specifically trying to solder tiny microswitches to tiny circuitboards, because the tiny microswitches came detatched. Because i dropped my keys.

I fucking hate soldering, I rarely do it so am cack handed, and I only have a shitty fucking silverline soldering iron with a too-short cable and a conical nib and its just wretched to use on anything smaller than sections of ferry hull.

I've made a total pigs ear of the job and can't face having another go. I can just about solder wires together though a combo of 97% luck and 3% having some mega old lead solder which makes up for my utter ineptitude.

So I shall be unlocking the car with the key for the foreseeable future then...

[Yoss]

1 hour ago, Remspoor said:

When will that be? 20 or 30 years after the last ICE was sold?

I'll certainly do my best to make sure that is the case. 

1 hour ago, Remspoor said:

When they implement this  later on we can all say sexual movements to the Labour party too.

Certainly a Tory idea. "Labour leader of the opposition, Cllr Satvir Kaur, criticised the lack of plan for enforcement."

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/southamptons-20mph-speed-limits-force-050000669.html

Satvir is now the leader of the council since the last local elections (which I assume were in May, three months after the date of that article) so she could now do something about the lack of enforcement but I doubt there is the budget for it. £X will have been allocated and I doubt there is any more money. I expect any money left will be spent on little round 20 signs. Someone will do well out of that. So that article does basically admit they won't try and enforce it and it will be down to the goodwill of the public. So it won't make any difference. 

I like Satvir. I've met her a few times on the doorstep canvassing before elections and she has been to visit us on our picket line. She seems a genuinely decent person. She told me she will be replacing Alan Whitehead as labour candidate for Southampton Test MP at the next election. Alan has been our MP for 25 years and will be retiring and he is why we have a tiny red dot in a sea of blue. She will definitely get my vote. But I digress... 

 

9 minutes ago, red5 said:

If you want to do a comparative test get live data from ECU (EGT, EGR duty cycle, Inj duration, MAP etc). Drive at 20mph in 2nd @ X rpm . Repeat at same indicated road speed in 3rd @ Y rpm. Note readings. Get calculator. Get busy. 😁. 

Bear in mind formation of NoX is directly related to cylinder combustion temperature. Cool cylinder (water, EGR, low compression ratio) = massive reductions. 

You may find that higher engine rpm (then just off idle for example) uses relatively less fuel as it's more likely to be in the peak torque range which roughly equates to most go for fuel supplied. EGT readings are your friend here. And so on...

Then do all that again but display injector duration and rail pressure then drive in the gear/throttle position that displays the 'shortest'  and run into the back of the vehicle in front whilst watching your 'Emission-o-meter', but in an economic, low emission manner 😎

Hmm... So how do I get the data out of this? I'm not quite sure where to connect the wires. 

But seriously I get your point and you may well be right. 

[wuvvum]

1 hour ago, red5 said:

You may find that higher engine rpm (then just off idle for example) uses relatively less fuel as it's more likely to be in the peak torque range which roughly equates to most go for fuel supplied. EGT readings are your friend here. And so on...

My old Cadillac STS was more fuel efficient at a steady 50 than at a steady 40.  At 40 the engine was barely above idle and wasn't running in its most efficient range.  I imagine a lot of cars will have similar traits at certain speeds.

[red5]

20 minutes ago, Yoss said:

I'll certainly do my best to make sure that is the case. 

Satvir is now the leader of the council since the last local elections (which I assume were in May, three months after the date of that article) so she could now do something about the lack of enforcement but I doubt there is the budget for it. £X will have been allocated and I doubt there is any more money. I expect any money left will be spent on little round 20 signs. Someone will do well out of that. So that article does basically admit they won't try and enforce it and it will be down to the goodwill of the public. So it won't make any difference. 

I like Satvir. I've met her a few times on the doorstep canvassing before elections and she has been to visit us on our picket line. She seems a genuinely decent person. She told me she will be replacing Alan Whitehead as labour candidate for Southampton Test MP at the next election. Alan has been our MP for 25 years and will be retiring and he is why we have a tiny red dot in a sea of blue. She will definitely get my vote. But I digress... 

 

Hmm... So how do I get the data out of this? I'm not quite sure where to connect the wires. 

But seriously I get your point and you may well be right. 

Two flow sensors. One inlet, one return.

Somewhat cruder/more fabrication required  but do-able. 😁

[Yoss]

29 minutes ago, red5 said:

Two flow sensors. One inlet, one return.

Somewhat cruder/more fabrication required  but do-able. 😁

Thanks, I'll take your word for it!