Barry

It IS possible to read DTCs on some Japanese cars without a scanner too. For example, Subaru, there is a sequence you can follow by using the headlight switch and trip reset button which will cause a red light on the dash to flash in long and short pulses, a bit like a Morse code. These can then be interpreted to the DTC if you have the workshop manual or there should be lists on the internet somewhere. Toyota has a similar system where you can count the flashes of the check engine light but to enable it, you need to jump the terminals in the diagnostics box under the bonnet. Same with Honda, you can jump 2 pins on the OBD port and count the flashes on the dashboard. I’m pretty sure similar methods work with other Japanese cars but you just need to look up what is specific to your car.

@robert Limavady, NI

What's wrong with Sunnys? I present to you the Nissan Sunny/Pulsar GTi-R. 2.0 turbo intercooled, 230 BHP, 280 Nm torque, 5 speed gearbox coupled with a 4WD system and 0-100 KPH in just over 5 seconds. Japanese pocket rocket.

Rotarys are one of those engines that you either love or hate. I think they're great in theory, you can get crazy amounts of horsepower from something the size of a large shoebox. I looked at RX-8s as a cheap track car a while back, you can pick them up for as little as 1000 DHS in the UK but it didn't take me long to figure out why the cheap ones were all cheap! In the UK, we had a couple of rotary engined bikes in the late 80s early 90s. The Norton Classic which was air cooled then later the Norton Commander which was liquid cooled. The police ran the Commanders for a while. Cool old bikes but you don't see them on the road anymore, maybe only very rarely at a show.

@husain1 Why does anyone bother doing anything? It's because they are passionate about it and what they enjoy doing. Personally, I prefer shows like this rather new car shows where it's all bigwigs scratching each others bums and talking about how much money they made last year. Shows like this give you the chance to show off the work you done to your car, how you made it much more special than a car somebody just took from a showroom, it gives you the chance to meet like minded people and discuss new ideas and generally see what's going on in the modified car scene. It's always fun to watch the diff/drift at shows and even take part if you have the right car. When was the last time you went to a new car show and saw someone smoking off a pair of tyres just for the fun of it?

Koeningsegg/ValveFree are European companies but I think the reason you don't see it on mainstream road cars like VW, Audi etc. is that because the technology is still relatively new and therefore expensive, it would make it cost prohibitive to start fitting it to ordinary road cars although, I can see it becoming more commonplace in the next 10-15 years. A lot of people diss the Chinese but they forget that they're one of the fastest developing nations in the world and I don't doubt their ability to take this technology to the next level. I don't know why there aren't more Chinese cars on the road here. I see a few Great Wall pickups and Geely cars and they all seem perfectly fine to me. I think people don't trust stuff sometimes because it is 'Chinese', good old fashioned racism, but these days everything is made in China. Even my iPhone says Assembled in China on the back.

Chinese car maker Qoros have unveiled their Qamfree concept car at the Beijing motor show. This camless system has been developed by the Swedish company FreeValve AB who are part of the Koeningsegg group. Rather than using a camshaft and follower system to open and close the engine valves, it uses pneumatic hydraulic electric actuator technology (PHEA). This is a fantastic design, especially for tuners because rather than having to change mechanical parts to change valve lift, timing and duration, you will simply have to adjust a few parameters in the vehicles ECU. In theory, it's possible to have a button on the dashboard to push that can turn a vehicle from an economical town car to a full on race car in under a second rather than spends days or weeks rebuilding the engine. FreeValve are also claiming a 12-17% reduction in fuel consumption under laboratory conditions compared to the latest 2.0 litre direct injection engine with variable camshaft timing. They aren't the first company to have such an idea though, BMW, Fiat and Lotus have experimented with camless technology in the past but rather than PHEA, they used electromagnetic solenoids which can be heavy and slow. FreeValve are the first company to take such technology and make it viable.

In my opinion, injector cleaner is snake oil, something for people to sell and make commission. The only way to really clean injectors is to remove them and use ultrasonic cleaning and even then, it's something that rarely needs done. The colour of old oil can be an indicator of needing to change it. Sometimes you might buy a car without service history or maybe you just plain forgot the last time you had it changed. The simplest way to tell is rub some between your finger and thumb. The oil, even if black, should have a reddish/brownness to it and it should be 'slippy', after all, oil is a lubricant. If it's black/black and sticky it's definitely time to change it. Changing oil early won't do any harm but leaving it too late certainly might. I've seen people on an American truck forum saying that the engine oil has to be changed every 3000 miles. That's a bit severe in my eyes, especially in these days of synthetic oils where the service intervals are becoming further and further apart, there are some VW oils where they say the oil will last for 20k miles before it needs changed but personally, I would never leave it that long on my own cars.

I thought y'all might like a glimpse of the classic car scene from my home country. I haven't seen any of these models of car since I've been in UAE.

Indeed, but my answer of Japanese has a lot more to do with reliability than just oil leaks. I've never owned an American car and with good reason, from working on them I find them to be shoddily built from cheap materials. I've owned plenty of German cars, I have a real passion for older VWs but from working on newer VWs I'd never own one, they're always broken. Same goes for Mercedes and BMW, I've owned older ones but I'd never buy a newer one. I've owned loads of Japanese cars, never really had any passion for any of them but they always just worked when I needed them to. In my opinion, Toyota build the best cars in the world. Still doesn't mean I don't find them lacklustre and dull though.

An oil change is an oil change, it isn't rocket science and somewhere like this would be a quick and easy place to have it done. It's very important that you make sure they use a quality flush, use the correct grade of oil, change the filter and stamp your service book when they do it. Especially with such a young car, flushing is very important as it will decrease the changes of sludging further down the line. I don't suppose you have considered doing it yourself? It's one of the most simplest and cheapest jobs you can do on a car yourself.

Hi @treks It's always good to hear and debate differing opinions I put to you this point, just take a walk through the garages in the industrial area of Sharjah, even the DIP area of Dubai, there are a lot of them using pirate copies of original software for diagnostic/programming work. The legality/morality of this is a different point, but a copy of a disc will still cover the functions of the original disc. After all, the original disc is still a copy ripped from a manufacturers computer somewhere. I fail to see how using a copy of software can cause harm. Sure, it might not be up to date, it might not be able to read the ECU of the latest model out but it will still perform the job the user needs to do which is the end objective. I don't subscribe to the opinion that only "a competent mechanic who understands the operating principles of the control systems that relate to a fault code" should be able to read and interpret fault codes. Everyone should have the right to repair/attempt to repair their own car. If they screw it up, that's their tough luck, there is enough information out there to attempt most jobs. You are correct, there are thousands of fault codes but all one has to do is scan the ECU for these codes and type them into Google and there will be hundreds of other people who have experienced the same problem, possible causes, possible fixes and solutions. Even on YouTube, one will be able to find thousands of instructional videos enabling them to work on their own car. No technician knows or can remember every single fault code and I've seen plenty of "qualified" guys still hitting google with their fault codes. The forums are and always will remain the best source of information. Everyone has to start somewhere and this applies to computer diagnostics too. I still remember the first proper mechanical job I did, changing the brake pads on my 1993 Ford Sierra Sapphire. I was working in a parts department at the time and hadn't got any money to pay a mechanic so I attempted it myself. I pushed the brake caliper piston back without opening the cap on the brake fluid reservoir and flipped the seals on the master cylinder. Yeah, stupid mistake but the Internet wasn't a thing in those days but on the plus side I learnt how to change a master cylinder and bleed a braking system through so there is no air in it. Same applies to diagnostic systems. When OBD fault code readers became widely available cheaply, I bought one and taught myself how to use it. I eventually bought a better one then a better one before I knew enough that I could just get a USB to OBD lead and some software and do some programming work. Now I'm a self trained diagnostic technician to earn my living. Enough so that Mercedes Benz hired me in my home country even though I had no formal qualifications after high school. But my original point stands, everyone has the right to work on their own car, be it mechanical, electrical, diagnostic etc. Surely that's the whole point of internet forums such as this? So people can share their knowledge with others.

One thing I've noticed since I've come to Dubai is the clothing most bikers wear, especially the delivery guys. Shorts, t-shirt and helmet. No protective clothing at all. No leathers, no boots, no gloves. I've come off my bike a couple of times back home. The first time, I was wearing a helmet but was only wearing jeans and a t-shirt. Having no skin on my back and having to sleep on my stomach for over a month was not fun. It's not a mistake I would make again. So what makes these guys invincible? And if you ride what do you wear?

It's a beautiful, luxurious machine but would I buy one? No. The constant running repairs would bankrupt me.

Thank you. It's nice to be appreciated

As Saleem says, the main problems that occur with these DSG boxes come from the clutch kit and mechatronics unit. Sometimes it's possible to recode them but more often than not, they're just fit for scrap. A lot of garages who aren't familiar with DSG gearboxes don't realise that changing the oil and filter in the box should be done every 40k miles. People sometimes overlook this due to the extra cost but these people should ask themselves which is cheaper, a filter and some oil or a new gearbox? Prevention is always better than the cure.

The quoted figures of of 173 BHP and 225 nM from a 2.4 litre engine seem to suggest it comes from the factory tuned for economy but I would expect it could be safely remapped to produce 220 BHP. Although 173 BHP in a 1600 KG car leaves you with a power to weight ratio of 108 BHP per tonne which is more than adequate in a family car. The sort of people who buy these MPVs tend not to buy them to do track days.

@harryd I would love to start a business like that but sadly I'm skint. Technicians salary is pretty low in Dubai, especially when you consider the amount of specialist stuff we're expected to know and the fact we have to constantly read, train and keep up to date with new technologies. However, if someone else wanted to take on that idea, I'd be more than happy to help.

I would love to start a business like that but sadly I'm skint. Technicians salary is pretty low in Dubai, especially when you consider the amount of specialist stuff we're expected to know and the fact we have to constantly read, train and keep up to date with new technologies. However, if someone else wanted to take on that idea, I'd be more than happy to help.

Jack car up, remove wheels, fit the wheels that were originally on the front to the back and vice versa. 10-20 minutes if you have the proper tools such as a vehicle lift and air gun. But as stated, this can only be done if the front and rear tyres are the same size. The size will be stamped on the side of the tyre and look something like 245/40 R18. 245 is the width of the tyre in millimetres, 40 is the depth of the sidewall in millimetres and 18 is the size of the rim in inches. Why they mix metric and imperial sizes on tyres I don't know. A few manufacturers have tried to use strictly metric sizing in the past but it never really took off. There is no recommended mileage to rotate your tyres at. Tyres wear differently on different vehicles according to factors such as how the car is driven, tracking, environmental factors etc. and rotation should be done based on a visual comparison of wear between front and rear.

Can you post a picture of it so we can see? Too much polishing isn't good for a car. Every time you polish, you're effectively removing a small layer of paint. A new layer of clean paint is exposed and this is where the shine comes from. Any detailer worth his salt will check the entire car with an ultrasonic paint depth gauge like the one below before he even plugs the buffing machine in. Some parts of the paint may be thinner than others and require a lighter touch when polishing. The other picture I have posted is typical of where the polishing has been so severe that the paint has been burnt through. It's more important to use a high quality carnuba wax to protect the existing paint layer than it is to polish it every day. When I started driving I was very proud of my first car and polished it 2-3 times a week. The car always had a mirror finish and you could see your reflection in the paint but it wasn't long before patches of grey primer started showing through the white and eventually I had to repaint the entire car. It was a hard learning curve but then again I'm a mechanic/electrician, not a detailer. Something else I would recommend is to use the two bucket method when you're washing your car. Keep your soap and water in one bucket and have another bucket with just plain cold water in it. Every time you dip the sponge the the soapy water and wipe your car, dip the sponge in the bucket of plain water before you dip it back into the bucket of soapy water. This way your sponge and soapy water is always clean, you're not rubbing dirty water and sand round your paint every time causing lots of fine micro scratches.

The fault occurred when you washed the engine? It's possible that the sensor is ok and you just have water in the plug causing a short. The first thing I would try is disconnect the plug, check for signs of corrosion on the pins, spray some WD40 into both sides and reconnect it. If the EML is still on, reset it and go for a drive and check. Worth looking at, could save you a few Dirhams.

Have you considered doing a track day at Dubai Autodrome? There will be information on their website. Failing that, and not that I condone it, I have seen a bit of action taking place on the road from Sharjah to Oman but you have to ask yourself if it's worth the hassle and if you have enough wasta to deal with it if you're caught.