Barry

Who knows what the Renault drivers were smoking when they dreamed this up. I know a few Renault employees in France and most of them spend their days drinking red wine and smoking hashish. Someone had the bright idea to cut the rear passenger seat out and drop in a 2.9 v6 engine coupled to a 6 speed manual box. 3 different models were built, the king having 285 bhp. An insane amount of horsepower in such a tiny car. These cars were produced is small numbers and many were written off due to inexperienced drivers. Original examples command a high premium now.

Who’s that handsome guy, second from left, army pants and sunglasses on his head

New lineup announced. Matt Leblanc is gone Andrew Flintoff Paddy McGuiness Chris Harris Is it just me who thinks top gear should be killed off? TG was a proper informative car show, even back when tiff was a presenter. Even before that, it showed proper reviews of cars that people would actually buy and real information like telling people cars had contactless electronic ignition and telling them the service schedules. Then the holy trio came along. Clarkson, May, Hammond. The real information was gone but at least it was entertaining. Is it time for the BBC to admit Too gear is a failed format and is beyond rescue?

Does anyone remember actual “wing mirrors”? I love classics and I’ve had a few cars with actual wing mirrors where the mirror was mounted on the wing, way up front near the headlight. Who ever thought that was a good idea?

If you live in Sharjah the grass really is greener on the other side 😂😂😂😊😊 Trust me. My first job in uae I spent 6 weeks sleeping in the back of a Toyota Tundra in a garage.

This one is sure to throw the cat into the pigeons. If someone says they only work on one particular make or model, or cars from a certain country, I’d say they aren’t a good technician. Sure, you can stick to one marque and know it inside you but if you have to work on something else you won’t have a clue outside basic mechanical knowledge. This is why I don’t trust any garages who are Japanese only, German only etc. A good tech should be able to fix anything. Opinions?

I would like to say I’m fairly well travelled, I’ve been in a lot of countries. The only place I have ever been where it is acceptable to ask a random person you just met, how much is your salary, is the uae. Nowhere else would this be freely discussed or would it be acceptable. Try asking this question to someone in Germany and they would likely tell you to foxtrot Oscar. My default answer has become, enough to pay my bills and save a bit. So why is it acceptable here?

As an ex trucker driver, I can say that the rear view mirror is for girls. Learn to drive without it. What happens if you have to drive a van with no rear window or a pickup with a load on the back? If you haven’t got enough spacial awareness to know what’s going on around you using your side mirrors, you probably shouldn’t be driving.

Show me some crap cars that are fast. Here is my first nomination, Volvo 850 T5 estate. Totally crap and boring but extremely boring and fast. The police in UK bought a whole fleet of them to chase stolen cosworths on the motorway. Second hand ex police examples command a high price now due to their regular servicing, uprated suspension and brakes, and supposedly chipped engines.

MAF sensor code is irrelevant in this case. It’s a symptom, not a cause. The wrong airflow from the throttle body is causing the MAF sensor to report a problem. There’s a few possible causes for this. The throttle stepper motor is faulty, the wiring to the throttle stepper motor is faulty, there is a loose wiring plug on the throttle stepper motor wiring or the most unlikely, the ecu is faulty. Because you can scan codes, I will assume you have some technical knowledge. The first thing you need to do is make sure the throttle body is clean. And I mean surgically clean. The tiniest bit of dirt can jam it. After cleaning, you need to use your computer to do the idle relearn procedure. Depending on your computer, it can be incredibly simple and is just a matter of following the instructions on screen. Then get someone to push the throttle pedal and see if their action correlates to the movement of the throttle butterfly If that doesn’t fix it you need to physically inspect the wiring loom for breaks. These could be anywhere. Especially where the loom rubs against something else. Check the connections. Both at the throttle body and throttle pedal. Contact cleaner spray is your friend. Check the voltage at the plug connecting to the throttle body. If it’s good and goes up and down when the pedal is operated, there’s a good chance the stepper motor is faulty and needs replaced. Always check the wiring before spending money on components. Remember that after touching anything on the system, cleaning, removing and refitting plugs etc, the idle relearn procedure is required. Especially on a Nissan. They are very sensitive to stuff like this. These are a few things you can try yourself which can fix it. If you aren’t competent, further investigation will require a proper technician. And I mean a proper technician, someone who actually knows about cars, not one of the cheap mechanics in rashidiya or Sharjah industrial area. If in any doubt, show this advice to your mechanic. Don’t accept ok ok for an answer. This is the proper process.

Please share scams you know of that happen in Dubai to make other people aware. This one one has happened to me at least 4 times. First time I felt bad because I had no cash and couldn’t help. A Saudi car pulls up next to you and asks for help. They explain that they have no money to get home. (How did they get here if they have no money?). Another story they use is that their mother is in hospital in Dubai and they need food. It’s basically people from Saudi coming to Dubai, assuming everyone is rich and trying to beg from them, especially white people, because every white person in Dubai is rich right? None of them do normal jobs like mechanic or electrician? I got wise to this scam the second time. Last time, the Saudi started begging from me in English so I just replied in Irish language telling him random things like I love football and I like milk in my cornflakes and gravy is awesome on fries. He rolled his window up and sped off. These people are a scourge on society and should not be encouraged. Obviously they keep coming because some stupid people keep giving them money. Stop it!

Don’t get me started on Donald trump or his followers. But seriously, some people are stupid and natural selection takes its course and should be allowed to. 20 something people were wiped out by a train in india a few days ago. How much intelligence does it take to know not to sit on a train track to watch fireworks? If these people can’t breed, surely the world will be a better place. I gave up on social media a couple of years ago. The way I see it, Facebook is only for nosey people wanting to spy. And the majority of people only show good stuff on it. You think everyone spends their days on the beach beside burj al Arab? People rarely post real stuff. The people who really matter are the ones in your phone contacts who you can call and speak to any time. Some person following you on Facebook or Instagram who you only met once at a corporate event is just a borderline stalker.

Use 4H for regular desert driving. 4L is a last resort for when you get stuck. Disable TCS. No need to use locks unless you’re stuck. Join the Carnity off road club for the best off road advice, https://carnity.com/clubs/off-road-club

Personally I don’t see the issue with it. I remember attended pumps in Ireland when I was a small kid but it was phased out a long time ago and I always put my own petrol in. Whole big deal out of nothing I think. If you’re too incompetent to fill petrol, you probably shouldn’t be operating something as complicated as a car.

56k connection and a 5mb download limit. Maybe. Woohoo. Can’t wait. When they stop blocking Skype and stop throttling streaming from outside sites, maybe I could get excited about uae internet. For such a “modern” country who want to be world leaders in technology, their internet connections are archaic, overpriced and outdated. Yalla 2020, then people will see.

Currently staying in sports city. Haven’t seen rain anywhere in Dubai for over a year. I was sitting on the balcony enjoying a beer and a cigarette and it started raining. Imagine my surprise. My flat is 6 floors up so I have a pretty good view of what’s happening on the roads around. Two of my favourite hobbies are car spotting and eejit watching. After the first few minutes, one guy decided to stop in the middle of the road and put his flashers on and hold up all the traffic. Ensue much angry honking from the traffic light watcher brigade. What the heck is wrong with some people? It’s just a bit of water. I’d love to take some of these eejits back to Ireland in January and see how they cope with 3 feet of snow on the road.

Fiat Seicento My friend bought one of these in the early 2000s. I laughed at him and asked him why. He told me it cost him £80 (400 dhs) per month. Then he took me for a drive in it and it all made sense. 750kg with a full tank of petrol. Sure, it took 3 weeks to get up to speed but if you kept the momentum going, you didn’t even have to slow down to go round corners. I know handling like a go kart is a cliche but it really did handle like a go kart. Still wouldn’t want to have a crash in one though but fun little car to drive. Micheal Schumacher enjoyed it enough to sign his name on a limited edition of the car.

What I think is way worse than sharing information on WhatsApp is when someone posts a question on a forum, gets advice, then doesn’t come back to update what happened in the end. I’ve seen myself trawling through forum threads to find hundreds of possible answers but nothing definitive. Eat and leave seems to be the order of the day for a lot of people.

The purpose of a bull bar is to protect the front of the car from impacts, primarily animals hence the name bull bar. In Australia they’re called roo bars. It can also save your front bumper if you come down a dune too fast and hit the bottom. A lot of people stick them on their mall crawlers because they think it looks cool.

Do it. I drove a swb turbo diesel Colorado (European model) for a while and it was amazing. Best turning circle of any 4x4 I’ve ever driven. Never had any problems other than a shitty mechanic pouring stopleak into the cooling system which meant changing the radiator, cylinder head and heater matrix. Also had to weld the chassis due to salt infested roads but that will never happen here.

@Jeh I’ve seen those before. It was a similar shape but different colour and the wheels were exposed. I’ll take a guess and say it was a pod heading to sustainable city but I can’t find any information on it anywhere. For everyone else,

Congratulations @Gaurav Bhai. I hope you enjoyed the special membership prize in the mail as much as I did 😉

This one goes back to where Sheikh Mohammed installed the 2 antennas on the back of his G Wagen for his radios. Everyone else thought if his highness did it then it must be cool. Look at most of them, they aren’t even connected to anything. There’s a similar fad in Ireland where people stuck huge CB antennas on their roof but they don’t even have a CB radio in the car. Form over function.

I’d also like to add something else to this. Remember Jason was out with us a few months ago, new Jeep Cherokee, he had a problem where his SRS system activated after a bump and his seatbelt tensioner fired rendering the SRS system inactive in the event of an accident. Maybe one person should be designated as technical and go through absolute newbies cars and make sure TCS, SRS etc systems are disabled. Having a proper technician on drives would make carnity unique, something none of the other clubs have.

Welcome to the amnesty thread. The place where you want to know the answer to car questions you were always afraid to ask. Sarcasm or stupid answers will not be tolerated. Ill start by asking the first question. Why is every mini here referred to as a Mini Cooper? Even if it’s just the basic model? A mini is a mini. The Mini Cooper is a John cooper developed special that is different from the regular mini. I have even heard someone say Mr Bean drives a Mini Cooper. No he didn’t. He drove a Leyland Mini 1000.