treks

1 hour ago, Gaurav said:

Because it seems they all are made in same factory and different brands putting the front grill and tail light for branding.

Or in this case, the lack of a grille even for appearances' sake. 

All I can add is this- SUV's are getting uglier by the day, no matter who makes them. 

On 11/7/2019 at 9:26 PM, desertdude said:

Transport isn't fashion  

I respectfully disagree. If transport weren't fashion, manufacturers would never sell their fugly SUV's. 

There was a case here recently where a car (neither a Tesla nor a Pinto) caught fire after an accident that did not involve another vehicle. The first guy to arrive on the scene  found that the car was completely engulfed in flames but the driver was still alive, although he was on fire and badly burnt. Since the guy who happened to be the first on the scene could not get close enough to the burning car to open a door or break a window without sustaining injuries himself should he have tried to pull the driver from the burning vehicle, he shot the driver in the head through the windscreen to save him from more pain. 

He was arrested and charged with murder after reporting his actions when the first emergency personnel arrived, but the judge ordered that the case be withdrawn and thrown out of court based on dashcam evidence that showed the "callous murderer, according to some media)  trying to get close enough to the burning car to render assistance, but could not without getting burned himself.

The judge called the man a "compassionate soul", and ordered the State to pay for the man's therapy and legal costs. The State did not appeal the ruling.  

It can happen that the various corrosion inhibitors in different brands of coolant  react with each other to form an acid that attacks seals and/or mating surfaces under gaskets and seals. Other times, and depending on the mixture, coolant additives can cancel each other out, so you may think that your engine is protected, but meanwhile, the coolant mixture is destroying it from within in various ways, and the first time you notice something is wrong is when you start getting coolant leaks. 

So no, mixing coolants is never a good idea. 

16 hours ago, Gaurav said:

New custom made with same working specs as the old one.

The various colours on the old radiator core is clear evidence of circulation issues through the core. However, I don't think the fan clutch imprint on the core is the real cause of the water pump failure- from what I can see here, the fan clutch barely touched the radiator. 

But I do agree with @Barry, a proper pressure test is the only way to find all the leaks. You also mentioned sometime back that you had found a gritty substance in the coolant- which is likely the result of having mixed various coolants, and the most likely cause of the damage to the water pump seals. 

2 hours ago, syedyaseer said:

Gentlemen. 

Just want to know if one can drive Manual car holding automatic driving license. Any legal issues? Also did any carnity member tried to convert automatic to manual in Dubai? If yes process please.

Do you mean converting an automatic car to work with a manual gearbox? If so, forget it- much cheaper to simply apply for and get the right licence. 

17 hours ago, desertdude said:

Might as well get a Nissan van. I know I wouldn't want to be lugging around friends and family in an Innova and look like an airport cab driver while at it. 

There is a reason luxury SUVs exist 

True that. Now if only they'd not make them so damn ugly...

23 hours ago, Gaurav said:

@Barry @shadow79 @treks what do you think of PCV in the above video....? Could be a culprit....?

PCV systems can be notoriously finicky, as @shadow79 correctly points out. 

The best thing to do here is to put a vacuum gauge on the dipstick pipe- it is likely that the engine vacuum is excessive, which must be checked against service information. If it is, the PCV system is sucking oil out of the engine, and the only way to fix that is to check the entire system for anything untoward. However, a good starting point would be to replace the PCV valve.

Here are mine- 

1) Astronomy - I've been it doing for 45 years.

2) Cosmology- Ditto

3) Writing about astronomy and cosmology on a freelance basis for clients all over the world

4) Delivering talks and lectures to the paying public- the person or organisation that hires me gets to to choose the topic. 

Great job on the paint job, but the tread blocks on your front tyres are wearing unevenly. Pity you can't polish that away

In my (local) experience, the power and torque of this LC is more than enough to carry a load of 800- 900 kg from anywhere, to anywhere in Africa and back. The biggest advantage of the V8 is the fact that it makes most of its power at very low RPM, which translates into super reliability, which is the primary consideration when you are planning a long overland expedition. 

I agree about the price though- it is super expensive.  

I can think of a few issues here-

1) The pull was in the wrong direction

2) The pull was too hard

3) The tow rope was attached to the wrong side of the towed vehicle

4) The towed driver kept his wheels pointing straight ahead- he should have turned into the direction of the pull  

8 hours ago, Frederic said:

Amazing, but these things are pretty expensive.

Buying a secondhand Mercedes Sprinter and converting it to a camper myself has always been on my bucketlist. Anyone who is a bit handy can pull this off:

http://wonenineencamper.com/camper-bed-diy-zelfbouw-mogelijkheden/

In the UAE unfortunately, its really hard to take these things offroad. There are however these offroad camping trailers coming up now which are supercool, but again rather expensive:

https://hiconsumption.com/best-off-road-camper-trailers/

 

I used to build these part-time on contract in a part of my shop-

https://www.bundutrailers.com/

12 hours ago, Gaurav said:

Guess the offroad driver: 299,792 kilometers per second speed driver.

You guys are driving in a vacuum?

20 hours ago, Javier M said:

It did, I was driving it. But I guess the only way to find out is by testing it after I get it back.

I'm intrigued. In what way did the vehicle behave differently? Serious question.

On 9/1/2019 at 5:11 AM, Frederic said:

Very strange indeed. You might want to get the diff bearings checked too. If there is excessive play in those, that might be the reason why the teeth chipped off. 

In case of regular overheating you should probably see a blueish color on the teeth too. I don’t think that’s the case here.

You mentioned that the car behaved differently off-road. The damage must have been pretty severe by then already. 

Did you use your diff locks recently or kept them engaged while driving? Using rear diff lock for anything else than recovery causes severe stress and friction on the axle and it’s components. 

 

 

 

 

I agree for the most part, especially about using the diff-lock on hard surfaces, but chipped gear teeth won't affect performance. 

17 hours ago, Derick said:

And how come Audi, Mini, BMW, Hyundai, Kia above Nissan and Mitsubishi. Is that a joke or giving more milk to crying child.

Blame it on Nissan's ridiculous and incredibly bad CVT transmissions. 

10 hours ago, desertdude said:

Oh I bet Barry is going to have something to say about this.

If I were still active in the car repair industry I would have had something to say about this, too. But I am not, so I won't. 

What I will say though, is that I am glad I know enough about cars so no mechanic can f^&%k with me when I take my cars in to have something done.  

7 hours ago, Rahimdad said:

I feel sorry for EV stuck on Sharjah to Dubai or vice versa traffic in the middle of summer with AC on full blast which takes battery. Just imagine you run out of battery on a hot summer day in traffic.

I'm not technically inclined, but normal cars dynamo charges the battery, I've even heard Porche EV uses energy fro brakes. These are components within a car which could help recharge the battery on the move. Or am I wrong?

You are right, but the overall contribution of regenerative braking is very small. 

Replacing cars as we know them with electric cars on large scales (i.e., within 20 years as some governments are planning to do) is a pipe dream, and will remain a pipe dream for at least another 100 years, or the oil runs out- whichever comes first. 

Arguing about where to charge an electric car now seems like a very minor issue given the fact that the world does not have the generating capacity to charge hundreds of millions of electric vehicles. 

Most developed countries can hardly supply their local demands for electricity as it is, so where even the rich countries are going to find the money to build dozens of additional power stations and the required infrastructure to charge EV's is a bit of a mystery.  

10 hours ago, Barry said:

Carol Shelby died in 2012. It’s not a real Shelby. It’s just ford trading on his name. 

The only "Shelby" in this car is the color scheme. 

2 hours ago, Barry said:

This good advice and no offence intended, but the no spark triangle mechanics look for is air/fuel, spark, and compression. You need these 3 things to make an engine start. 

...and perhaps an alternator that has not been whacked with a hammer to keep it running.

Let's start with the basics- does the engine crank (turn over) when you turn the key to the "START" position?