[OT] Prius bashing

[Doctor Drivel]

Not quite. The inherited wealth bunch have connections in corridors of power. That is why the land issue is suppressed.

[Bob Mannix]

AFAICR one of the problems on throughput to Paddington is that the service is primarily 125 trains. These are designed as is, with a fixed number of units, and carriages can't be added (easily) to increase the size of the train. Thus, not only is throughput not maximised but people are put in the iniquitous position of buying a season ticket at great expense from, say, Didcot or Reading in full prior knowledge (shared by them and the operator) that they won't actually get a seat on their way to work (ever, more or less). The lack of investment in new trains and infrastructure (even double deckers) is hampering the optimal usage of the railway system we have got.

[Adrian]

This one's called 'System 4' - and seems to be sold by one of the Mini specialist parts suppliers also...

Any recommendations ? - Might it be a useful precaution to use something like this ??

Yes - that's a possibility. I do have a good friend who's a bit of a Moggie expert, I'm sure he could locate and modify a head for me.

It becomes one of those 'where do you stop' type of exercises, doesn't it ?

Uprated engine, discs all round, brake servo, new gearbox...... and so it goes on. Don't really want to start down that particular slippery slope !

Thanks for the comments Adrian

[Adrian]

Interesting.... I wonder why the dealer would promote the fitting / use of these devices - as I say, he's very well known and (presumably) has a good reputation to preserve.

Ah well !

Thanks Adrian

[Adrian]

Adrian ( [e-mail]) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Well, they don't actually *hurt* anything...

... and they're *very* profitable...

[The Natural Philosopher]

Oh I dunno. Ive got a 115bhp spitfire in the garage..not much of thee original 3-4 donor cars is left untouched. My dream was to nick the engine and transmission from a Nissan 200sx for it..

[dennis]

Safety hampers train throughput. If you accept the same death rate as cars you could double the number of trains.

[Huge]

I dunno. I only noticed it was a hybrid 'cos of the absolute silence as he manouvered into his parking spot. And even he thought the irony of towing a 5 litre race car with a hybrid was amusing.

Me, I think hybrids are stupid for all kinds of engineering reasons. I have no intention of buying one.

[Julian]

Quite right! Leave it the way nature intended, they're far too nice to turn into a rice burner. Do all the above items and you haven't got a Minor anymore, You would also hurt its value.

Julian.

[Huge]

Until you end up with these ...

?v=E6OBHu02MKUBTW, Adrian, check the timing. My Moggie used to creep out of adjustment all the time and needed it setting about once a month. The static timing is dead easy to set on a Moggie.

(My present [petrol] car doesn't even have a distributor!)

[Huge]

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Because the profit is large and it's difficult to prove they don't work. But given the enormous amount of publicity over the years about these devices I'd guess he's either an idiot or charlatan. ;-)

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Not so - apart from some very rare versions. Sensible updating - like a slightly more powerful and efficient engine combined with gearing more suited to motorway use and decent brakes will increase the value of a common version. This isn't turning it into some type of hotrod - just the sort of things that would have been done if the Minor had continued in production. The later Marina was really still a Minor in many ways and most of the mechanical bits from that can be fitted easily.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Rhetorical question for our Prius lover. Who's probably only ever had a demo drive - if indeed that.

Of course he claims it hasn't got a CVT gearbox, so probably also claims the engine isn't an internal combustion one...

[Adrian]

Right - I'll do that. Still not the right sort of day for outdoor car maintenance - the rain's stopped but it's blowing a gale now....

Yes - that's the kind of 'fixed by the dealer only' deal I'm trying to get away from.

Still smarting from the grief and aggravation caused by the failure of a £5 fuel sensor on my old Merc A-class. Because the sensor decided to fail, the ECU shut 'everything' down - at 8;30 am in the outside lane of the M25 just before the big bridge - en-route for a transatlantic flight. No 'ah well - we'll just let you limp to the hard shoulder' - just 'off'. Not good....

There's something to be said for the 'low-tech' approach !

Regards Adrian

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Rose tinted specs, I'm afraid. The chances of a Minor breaking down are much greater than a modern car. Only thing is it may be easier to fix. However, most would replace the points with an electronic system - to prevent the thing going constantly off tune. It's easy to 'convert' back to points if you feel the need to carry spares.

[Dave Baker]

I think low tech cars are just as capable of doing that, maybe more so. I had an old A reg 1.1 VW Polo briefly as a stop-gap car a few years ago and it was fine for a hundred miles or so and then began conking out abruptly on an ever more frequent basis. Usually at speed and therefore usually on a dual carriageway or motorway in the least convenient place possible. I remember one time in the outside lane of the M40 in rush hour traffic leaving me to dart through the other two lanes at 70 mph onto the hard shoulder with a stone dead engine. 5 minutes later it would start straight up as if to say "What, me??" and then it would conk again a few miles later.

I spent weeks working through every bit of the electrics and carbs to no avail. The one thing I didn't look at was the fuel filter because the previous guy had just put a new one on it. Turned out the petrol tank had so much rust in it the new filter was already blocked and that was all the problem was. Let it sit for a few minutes and the crap fell back to the bottom of the filter and it would start and then as all the crap got stirred up again when you were driving it would block it back up. I bought a couple of cheap plastic filters for a quid apiece, changed them over a few times and cleaned the used one out each time until all the rust had been caught and it was actually quite a nice little car from then on. Hardly a fireball but 50 mpg was a considerable compensation.

[Huge]

Doesn't the drool tend to gum up your keyboard?

[Andy Hall]

Great, isn't it....

That's because it's a non issue.

[Huge]

:o)

Ahh, it used to have. I've had proper engine management fitted recently. It uses software, which I understand, instead of whirling bits of metal, which I don't.

W-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-lll. I spent a lot less time under the TVR than I ever did under my Mog, and TVRs aren't renowned for reliability.