Barry

No worries man. No offence taken on my side. It’s a discussion on a friendly forum and all opinions are respected.

@skumar83 I cannot vouch for reliability or quality of CAFU. I am not affiliated with them in any way. I just saw the trucks and looked into it and thought some people would be interested in discussing it.

5% additives isn’t bad. Of course we would all love 100% pure petrol but these days, engines need additives to run reliably. Engines need things like LRP additives to stop damage to the valve seats, octane boosters to stop pre detonation etc. As far as I know, please correct me if I’m wrong, the petrol in the uk is only 85% petrol now, most of the rest is made up of ethanol as part of the governments environment plan. If you want to run a pure fuel these days, the only option is to buy an older diesel with mechanical pump and injectors, no common rail stuff, and run it on vegetable oil.

I’ve been noticing some weird looking trucks in my area lately with CAFU branding. On the rear it says petroleum tanker take care. I did some research and apparently it’s a service where a tanker comes and fills your car, rather than you going to the petrol station to fill up. There is a service charge of 18 Dhs per fill but you can subscribe monthly for 45 Dhs for unlimited fills. What do you think of this? Is it something you would use? Personally for me, it’s not a proper fill up unless you go into the shop and get coffee and a sandwich.

Here’s another. Ford Sierra 1.3. Rare way back then because who’s going to order a new car that size with a 1.3 when you can have a 1.6, 1.8, 2.0 or even a cologne or Essex engined model? Complete poverty spec. Even rarer now. I ended up buying one maybe 20 years ago. Never come across another anywhere since. I bought it as a spares car but before I stripped it, I got it running and took it for a drive. I’ve had bicycles that accelerated faster. Part of me wishes I had kept it for the rarity factor. The other part of me was glad to have the spare parts. The last part of me wonders why anyone would actually spec it as a new car in the first place.

Error DC means there’s a short circuit somewhere. Could be a problem with a speaker or the head unit itself. If it isn’t happening regularly it will be hard to track down. If it is happening a lot, you can start by disconnecting the speakers one by one and see which one is causing the problem. If it still happens after that, it’s probably the head unit. At the minute, there’s not a lot you can do about it. Did water get in anywhere with the rain lately? Something to look at.

Driver wanted for immediate start. Must have full UAE driving licence. Manual would be an advantage. This is a full time position so visa and insurance will be provided. Salary 2,000 Dhs per month - negotiable later All nationalities welcome but must speak English

@Rahimdad send me a Whatsapp please and we’ll organise it. I lost my phone last week and lost all my contacts along with it.

MUT is a different communication protocol from OBD2. The pin layout, baud rate etc are different. OBD2 was introduced as standard in 1996 but japan didn’t introduce it as standard until 2000. It is possible to make MUT equipped cars communicate with an OBD scanner but it needs different leads and programming. Basically it’s a pain in the butt if you don’t have the equipment. You might be able to do the paperclip and flashing light method, I’m not sure but it works on Subaru. I remember plugging your Pajero in for the first time and connecting straight away. You also told me another garage wanted extra money to build a new lead to scan pajeros. Their computer must have been from a ford model t. This is why you need to keep your electronic diagnostic equipment up to date. I wasn’t using anything fancy at the time, it was a launch mini tablet. Even the newer phone apps are capable of reading MUT now, I think torque app is compatible. All this technology eventually filters down to the end user if you have patience to wait. If you want a proper diagnostic system, just buy the one I have. It will cost you 3,000 Dhs but it will be the best 3,000 Dhs you ever spent. You can read codes from any car and you also have the added bonus of programming functions, ie adding features that were paid extras like needle sweep on startup, closing windows with the remote etc. depending on the car. There is a lot of money to be made from switching random 0 to 1 and upgrading cars. The only thing I don’t like is that you can’t play with fuelling parameters and remap the car but that’s a totally different ballgame. You should drop by one day after work and have a play with this.

I know someone who has one, but the LC version. I’ve driven it and worked on it a few times. Comfortable and quiet, unless you’re thrashing it, then you get the nice V8 engine sound. Plenty of toys to play with too. My favourite thing was the air conditioned seats. Sitting on them on a hot summer day just makes you forget all your problems. The space in the rear is amazing. Even with the front seats back, a fatso like me is still comfortable. The car hasn’t given any trouble in the last 2 years I’ve worked on it, just regular servicing. It’s the perfect luxobarge. Might not have the same brand prestige as a Mercedes but it’s 5 times the car. I wouldn’t buy one with my own money as it’s not my taste but if someone was giving me one, I’d drive it happily.

The problem is not everyone is a car enthusiast like us. For the majority of people, cars are just white goods. They just don’t care.

Need a towbar with a ball hitch. I need a small trailer shifted from Al Warqa to Al Quoz. This

Maxiscan is a nice little tool. I’ve had a couple over the years as backups. IIRC you can display graphs on them which is useful. You can get adaptor leads for them for cars with different connectors like old Mercedes and BMW. The only thing I don’t like about it is that it doesn’t have Bluetooth. I plugged one into a Peugeot with a bad ECU and it fried the IC in the scan tool. Definitely better than any phone app I’ve tried though. Look on eBay for Delphi diagnostic software. You can get the CD ROM for around $10 and a Bluetooth dongle for around $40. You’ll have to use your laptop but it’ll open up a whole new world for you. I have the latest Launch X431 with all the adapters for literally every car. Anyone who is interested is welcome to come and have a play with it.

Seen both versions of the bohemian rhapsody. Don’t waste your time with the censored cinema version, just stream it. Rami Malik was awesome as Freddy. But don’t expect it to be a Freddy movie, it’s the story of queen up until the live aid concert. As a queen fan, I’m a bit disappointed. I have all the albums. I’ve read all the books. A lot of the movie is exaggerated for the sake of cinematography. Don’t believe everything you see when you watch this movie. The story is cut off after the live aid concert. Its worth a watch for entertainments sake. Real queen fans will be able to pick the holes in the story though.

I need someone with a towbar for a few hours on Saturday. All costs will be covered plus whatever extra you need.

Same. Cortinas were everywhere, when the Sierra came out it was uncool to own the older cortina so most of them disappeared. If you have a 4 door cortina now, you are a god in the classic ford scene. If you have a 2 door, you are the local mayor. @treks you had some fancy cars in your place too. If you could collect all the XR8s and ship them to uk, you could live like a king.

You know, the type of car you only see once in a lifetime, even if it’s a special edition of a regular car, share it with us! Just came across this for sale. 2 door Mk4 Cortina. I saw one maybe 15 years ago. Was super rare then, never expected to see another.

Nail. On. Head. The majority of people don’t care if the problem gets fixed, they just want the CEL turned off for the lowest price. If you won’t do it, somebody else will. I miss working on cars full time sometimes but on the other hand, selling your soul for 50 dhs here and there just isn’t worth it when it comes to your integrity. I’ve always prided myself on doing a good job but in uae doing a good job is rarely recognised unless it’s cheap and cheap + good doesn’t compute. Luckily, we have a Venn diagram to demonstrate,

Here’s one from home. I guess you could say it’s a bit “shitty”.

Very true. The last few years have certainly been an education. You think to yourself an extra few degrees warmer isn’t much but in reality, it can mess things up in a way you would never expect. Have an Altima in the shop at the minute needing a dashboard replacement because the original melted. Never had to deal with shit like that before I came here. Big change from standing outside working on an engine at -15 with the snow beating off my ears.

Sounds plausible but if you’re going to that length it’s probably better just to run megasquirt or something similar along with a wideband sensor. Gives you more things to play around with too.

It all depends on how many sensors are on the exhaust system. Most older stuff has one upstream of the cat and one on each manifold, then you can do what you want with the cat, cut it out, jump up and down on it, set fire to it. If you remove the cat on newer cars with downstream sensors, that’s where your problems start.

It took me a while to get my head around the fact that batteries only last a year here, 2 max. I’m used to them lasting 7-8 years at home.

I like the little d. Reminds me of what they do with the Subaru sambars turning them into mini vw type 2s.

Probably changed on age rather than mileage. If I had a car that age I’d be changing the belts and gaskets too or you’ll be forever chasing your tail fixing things one by one. I know of a few Integrales in Dubai. Most of them are stashed away in garages or in bits. It was rust that killed most of them in Europe. A few people cherished them and kept them garages and good ones command a premium now. The daddy of all deltas, the group b s4 The new Delta is a horrible turd,