Cars have definitely changed

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Things like door shells are likely the same. They might alter things like wings to take different headlights and so on.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Austin Healey Sprite and MG midget....

IIRC only the radiator grilles differed.

And some badges.

[Tim Streater]

Same for the Austin and Morris Minis. The Wolseley Hornet and Riley Elf variants had some different body parts, however.

[Bob Eager]

A few years ago:

Ford Galaxy, VW Sharan, Seat Alhambra

[Andrew]

Austin and Morris minis.

Austin, MG, Vanden-plas 1100's

[Andrew]

The throttle position sensor on a Honda Jazz is a Bosch product, and it costs over £400, and you need to do something to the ECU after you have changed it.

[Andrew]

But the battery may need changing more often. It's the number of start cycles that seems to be important.

[Andrew]

I would have thought most of them are, like water temperature, mass airflow, absolute manifold vacuum level and others.

The problem is they tend to use a 5 volt and ground supplied by the ECU (car chassis not good enough), and an analogue return. (thats what my old Astra F did).

All this passes through more than one multi-way connector and to save money these are rarely gold-plated. Over time the aluminium/alloy (or whatever) pins and sockets might get damp and allow the analogue value to change slightly with the inevitable intermittant problem.

The average older, grease-monkey won't have a clue. I have even seen them spraying WD40 into muli-way connectors !..

Sometimes just pulling the connector apart and pushing it back together wipes the surface patination off the pins and the problem disappears, but this usually also involves an expensive component change too (which was never the problem).

[Andrew]

Half a mile !!!.. FFS, that's a gentle stroll.

[Chris Green]

Citroen and Peugeot share chunks of body. For example the Citroen XM had the same sub-frame as the Peugeot 607 (I think it's the 607), this apparently constrained the body shell stylists somewhat.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Do you know the cost from Honda and from a Bosch dealer?

Quite likely the ECU has to re-calibrate after a sensor is changed.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Do remember the load on both the battery and starter motor is much lower on a hot restart than from cold. A cold start can take approx 5 times the current.

[T i m]

Hillman Imp / Singer Chamois?

Many Fiats / Ladas (early adopters of such things)?

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

I think that might be similar with the Corsa C and the Meriva A?

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

I think it was only the badge(s) that was different between my 2001 Rover 218SD and the Honda Concerto I believe it was based on? I'm not sure if there was ever a Pug diesel powered Concerto though?

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

Yeah, I knew about them ...

Didn't know about them. Mind you, I don't suppose there is anything wrong with having an MG badged 1100 as there isn't a VDP badged Allegro. ;-)

Morris 10 / Hindustan 10 in 54. Was that the oldest (I can't imagine it was).

Cheers, T i m

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Remember MG stands for Morris Garages, and the very first MGs were simply modified Morris. And they've shared the basic mechanicals of 'lesser' saloons ever since.

[T i m]

Didn't know that.

Like the MG Metro or before that (Magnet)?

Sure.

As an aside I was watching a 'How it's made' on Nascar cars the other day. It looked like they were all the same (bits of panel tacked onto a tubular frame), just with different colours and stickers ... or maybe this was just one car builder?

That said, if they all have to conform to a very tight spec they might as well be made in the same factory. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Long before that. The first MG was based on a Morris Cowley chassis in the

1920s.

[Tim+]

Um...

Cars don't get much uglier (Nissan Juke excepted)

Tim