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It's time have some intermediate fun with a drive from Pyramids to Iftar Bowl in Area 53 area. This area is best known for its rolling tall dunes and massive drops. So get ready for lots and lots of fun with an overdose of adrenalin. When: 20 April 2018 Meeting time: 1400 PM, the convoy will move sharply at 1415 PM Where: Bidayer Shops GPS Coordinate: https://goo.gl/maps/zV7uCUyrgGn Level of drive: Fewbie - Intermediate Type of Car: Any proper 4x4 with front and back tow hooks and 10 inches of ground clearance. Plan: Drive, challenge and enjoy until about 7 PM What to bring along: Evening snacks - whatever you like with little extra to share, water, liquids, smiles, stories, enthusiasm and willingness to learn. Approximate finish time: 7 PM Please RSVP on below calendar

From being a young kid, my dad god bless him always beat it into me about the importance of wearing a seatbelt. I didn't understand until I skidded a corolla down the side of a mountain on its roof and thank god I wore it. It's second nature to me now. I'll reach for the seatbelt before I even put my hand on the door handle to close it or if I'm driving, the belt goes on before the key even goes in the ignition. I see a lot of this here and it makes me sick, kids jumping around all over the car not strapped in. Heads sticking between the 2 front seats. Kids hanging out the sunroof. People say inshallah. I believe in the will of Allah but I also believe you have to accept a bit of personal responsibility for your own actions. Allah wants you to protect your children so do it. Strap them in. What if your kid was hanging out the sunroof and you got rear ended? Your kids body would be in the car and their head would be rolling up the road in front of your eyes. What if you got rear ended and your kid was in the seat but not strapped in? Your kid would fly through the windscreen and end up splattered on the road. There comes a time when you need to take some personal responsibility and I wish this was better enforced here. People with unbelted kids should be banned from driving for life. Everyone knows the rules. lets move to adults. How many adults don't wear their seat belts in the car? The law says only front seat passengers need belts. Wrong! Everyone in the car needs to wear their belt. It only takes one asshole in a car not wearing their seatbelt to bounce around unrestrained and kill everyone in the car. I wish more people would realize this. Watch this video and see the true consequences. If you're driving and someone doesn't want to belt up, tell them to get the heck out of your car. If you're a passenger and someone refuses, consider getting out yourself and taking a taxi. Don't compromise your own safety for some complacent asshole. People die in car accidents in UAE every day.

Go with whatever vehicle manufacturer says in term of the specification and get from reputable oil change service station and not just drum dealers - you know what I mean. Go to Mobil 1 (my first choice) or Castrol service center in Dubai and Sharjah they can change in less than 30 minutes. https://goo.gl/maps/qy65Fx7BXVt

Injector cleaner additive sir? Only 15 dirhams. A lot of it comes down to ignorance. And I'm not saying ignorance as in being stupid, I'm using it in the the true sense of the word as in lacking knowledge, not yet been properly educated on certain matters. Far too many people swallow whatever marketing and advertising bs is fed to them without doing any proper research or looking at proper scientific studies. Oooo the "mechanic" in the petrol shop said it's good so it must be good. People forget that people selling these products are salesmen, their on commission. This is why we have people in UAE changing their oil every 4K rather than following the vehicle manufacturers service schedules which would save them hundreds or thousands in the long term.

There are conditioning sprays out there which may work to an extent but I wouldnt expect a massively increased life of rubber products and I certainly wouldn’t rely on them when it comes to something like a timing belt on an interference type engine. If these products were so good everyone would be using them to save labour times. Belts are cheap, change them when you need to.

A week or two ago this video popped up my Youtube recommendation list and seeing a Pajero timing belt thread pop up on here, I thought I might share this here, getting the forums inputs as to what the opinion is here. It consists of doing a simple procedure before installing pretty much any belt on your car can and literally make it last for many many many miles more than its supposed to. Belt changed at 68k miles and now with almost 250k miles ( not kms ) on it, it still looks in very good condition, further digging around I also came across these And this So basically its this 303 aerospace protectant, I did some more looking around in other forums, websites, reviews etc etc and seems like it does have have a very good reputation every where and people seem to use it for a wide variety of applications from the above to even detailing tyres, interiors, restoring dull or greyed out plastics and even tough outdoor marine use and pretty much on anything but fabric. The white milky appearance of this not available locally 303 aerospace protectant reminded me a lot of the yellow STP Sun Of A Gun Protectant spray bottle which is available locally and looking through many videos came across one which actually uses that I dunno, I'm pretty much game for cheap ( which make sense to me ) upgrades or fixes. and till date don't think I've ever regretted anything as such. I dunno I might try this on one of my older much simpler engined vehicles, or maybe start off with wiper blades although in this country where you only need them for like 2 days in a year really wouldn't reveal much. So anybody thinks this is a good idea?

What you said. Plus the fact that most old school mechanics still believe that each can and bottle of aftermarket additive/miracle cure contains a little mechanic.

Totally agree Barry, btw law now changed to all passenger in car must be strapped and also 1000 AED fine for kids sitting in front. Recently my wife friend got that fine and I was very happy to hear that.

If i was you i would remove 20w50 oil from that mercedes right now. It is too thick and old tech oil for that car. And as i know if you make the car get used to the thick oil you may have problem later.

20w50 is too heavy for that engine. If there is a knocking or tapping noise the heavy oil is just masking it but the wear is still taking place.

Funny story, back in my safari days I wouldn't move until all the pax in the car were belted. This one time we had large FOC group from India. I asked everyone please belt up and then after a while I asked everyone is belted, most said yeah, but as routine I would also check via my rear view mirror. The pax a young lad in his 20s maybe in the third row seat of the land cruiser was still unbelted. So I specifically asked in a slightly raised voice. SIR you could please wear your seat belt. He looked up and said oh sorry yes yes. The he proceeded to pull the belt out wrap in a loop like a noose around his neck and then click it in. Ok now sir ... I was like

Well I'm not going to dissuade you from not going for a proper one i.e the V8 but let me tell you a small story. Back in the day both my brothers ended up with a mid 90s Camaro at the same time, Only one was a V6 and the other a proper Z28 V8. Man they were like two cars, even just starting both up felt so different, forget driving them. Every time we lifted the hood of the V6 I could help but feel sorry for my middle brother, the motor literally just ended almost where the hood started and huge empty space from the end of the motor to the rad. The V6 felt nothing really special tbh, specially coming from a Honda Integra, I was a total newbie at the time and had just gotten my driving license and other the real bad rear visibility the V6 felt not much different from the Nissan Sunny I had been training on to get my DL lol ! I could drive it without any issues or hassle. The V8 on the hand was a total beast, just the V8 note and vibes resonating through the car you knew you were in something special, so I would say go for the proper muscle car and all that it entails not a wannabe poser version. Hey you only live one Having said that I've driven this mustang a lot! Althought it wasn't mine but a friend owned it and we met and hung out everyday and he was always too tired from work and I drove it 90% of the time, it was even the same red as posted in the pic but with a white convertible top. Other than regular maintenance didn't really need much, although towards the end it developed tranny issues, gears started slipping and the trans oil would get really hot, so hot that once we dropped the pan and the ATF was actually bubbling! Anyways showed it to a few people and they all recommended expensive fixes so ended up selling it. For sourcing one I would suggest got to Ducamz they used to ( dunno about now ) have a lot of Jap imported Mustangs with 50-80k kms on the clock and jap imports as you must know are clean as a whistle and luckly for you most are V6s Also check out Chris Fxs channel on youtube, he has a similar Mustang and has done a lot to it. https://www.youtube.com/user/PaintballOO7

I've worked with a lot of old school mechanics before I came to UAE, proper old school 60+ year old guys who where scared of fuel injection and thought ECUs were the work of Satan. I had a long stint in the restoration industry. I learned a lot of neat tips and tricks but nobody ever recommended spraying stuff on belts to make them last longer. In my opinion, it really is a pointless exercise considering the minimal price of replacement. If I had to recommend one thing to spray on rubber parts it would be silicon spray. It's fantastic on bushings, door and window seals etc, it can prevent them from drying out with regular application, but belts, nah. Change it. They're dirt cheap and you can buy from companies like Gates who produce belts for a lot of the manufacturers for dirt cheap. I've seen many cars running 200k miles and never had a single belt changed, fan belt, water pump, alternator, even timing belt but I've also seen them fail at 20-30k on brand new cars. Which poses a question, do sprays offer a placebo effect with regards to belt longevity? You could have been spraying your belt for 100k but who's to say it would have ran for that long anyway without it? If I seen some proper scientific studies rather than look wow shiny, I might change my mind but for now my opinion stands. You also need to be careful spraying stuff on belts, deposits build up over time. Which can especially affect flat and toothed belts. The sprays can collect dirt which builds up and keeps building up at every application which can lead to slippage. If your timing belt decides to jump a tooth, all this extra lubrication and misfitment can just as easily cause it to jump 5 and let me tell you, grinding in 24+ valves by hand isn't fun.

Meh. I never give the advice of professional mechanics a second thought myself. They are all idiots who have no clue what they are doing.

I agree, wd40 does work on neoprene belts. However, the hydrocarbons and petroleum oil in it is pure poison to both natural and synthetic rubber, so just make sure you never use it on any belts that contain even a smidgen of rubber.

LOOOL ...no not really, if that was the case, I'd be long dead by now. I imagine they have slightly less traction in wet weather but I've driven in wet weather with those, without actually realizing any loss of traction, but then again I'm a very careful and cautious driver who is not into any shinanigans on public roads. In dry weather they have very good traction since its softish rubber and the thread pattern is somewhat semi slick type-ish, also very smooth on the roads dude to the same thread pattern, and also because of that they wear very evenly. Also the only tyre I can remember with a AA Temperature rating, good for such hot climate. Very good performance in the desert. Even with high pressure. They are manufactured by Sumitomo Tyres in Japan ( Same plant as Dunlops ) so quality is not an issue and they are cheap, so really the best tyre IMO for my kind of driving and usage. If they came in a 19" size I'd probably have them on my Range Rover too

Well when it comes to such CB DIY things, I don't take professional mechanics advise too seriously because after working for so long professionally the are set in their ways and disregards anything which does go according to book. Also there are a lot of old skool mechanic tried and tested tricks that are forgotten now, this seems to be one of them. I think gaurav has at least an open mind about this, and I would be game on trying this whenever a belt change on any of my vehicles came up next. Yes would'nt mess with this on something like a timing belt just yet. Other than that. A further look at this 303 Aerospace protectant it seems very promising, a lot of heavy duty marine use and also car detailers seem to swear by this stuff. Anybody seen this stuff locally ? Would love to give it a try

Mate it is the smart. But ill give you that. Many of them classics have three headlights. tucker 48

I am not against and nor in favor of the belt treatment, although it sounds VERY PROMISING and there is no harm in trying once on the exterior belts like AC, Steering and Fan. Of course not with timing belt unless fully convinced. I'm using WD40 on all my belts first squeak I hear and to be honest, I think I have delayed the change period. I do exactly what above video showed but with WD40 when the vehicle is off, I spray generously as far as I can reach and wait for 2 minutes and start engine and let it run for 15-20 seconds and spray again with engine off - do it 3-4 times until belts become moisturized and all squeaking has gone. I'm using Pajero for 7 years now - only long ownership car, rest all I flip within 2 years. First two times I changed all my belts within 2 years time, and now since 3-4 years, I haven't changed them. I know before few people jump about WD40 so here what it says it can do and yes it's composition is rubber and leather-friendly. https://www.wd40.com/img/WD-40_2000_uses.pdf WD-40's main ingredients as supplied in aerosol cans, according to U.S. Material Safety Data Sheet information, are: 50% "aliphatic hydrocarbons". ... <25% petroleum base oil. ... 12–18% low vapor pressure aliphatic hydrocarbon. ... 2–3% carbon dioxide. ... <10% inert ingredients.

I’ve actually worked on one of these, Alfa Spider. The brakes were always overheating when driving hard so we swapped it all for a 2 shoe setup from a Ford Cortina.

This sounds like snake oil. Unless a credible evaluation is made and published by a reputable laboratory showing that this stuff can repair a timing belt on the molecular level to restore it to the state it was in when it was new, this will always be snake oil.