Barry

Is it electric hydraulic or belt driven hydraulic? Check the basics first. Is there oil in the reservoir? If it’s belt driven, is the belt present and in good condition? If it’s electric, check the fuse and relay.

Niki Lauda recovering in hospital after lung transplant. https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/137804/lauda-recovering-from-lung-transplant-surgery I wonder if it was related to his 1976 crash.

For me (Northern Ireland), our most famous car was the DeLorean DMC12. John DeLorean built this car in Belfast. Sales flopped and he decided to start selling cocaine so he had extra cash to inject into the business to save it but he got caught. There’s many good documentaries about it. Some of the Irish look on him as a drug dealer, some look on him as a good guy who tried to save jobs. It all depends on who you talk to. My second nomination is the Clan Crusader. I know most of you will never have heard of it but it was a Hillman Imp based kit car. Massively successful on the hillclimb scene but outside of pikes peak, most people know nothing of hillclimbing. We also had factories building Ford Sierras and Mk5 cortinas but that’s irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.

I sat down at the table to have dinner with my wife. I said, I think I made an exciting discovery today. She said, shut up, you have been working for Land Rover for 6 months now, that joke is getting old.

I’ll offer another view. The Rolex sub is probably the most timeless watch design ever and worth it. But, the value is gone when you can buy a high quality replica in karama for 300 dhs. It’s almost impossible to tell the difference unless you’re a watch connoisseur. I love watches. I can’t afford a Rolex but it’s easy to spot a fake if you know what you’re looking for. Anyone can make a nice watch case. The original Rolex movement has the second hand moving 8 times per second. It looks seamless as though the second hand doesn’t stop. The fakes move 4 times per second. Its subtle but look and you will see.

It was a car wiper system but it’s the biggest car wiper system in the world. Not everything in life is about money. A man needs to have principles and morals. Mr Kearns was trying to protect the patent system. What is the point of patents and intellectual property if anyone can steal another persons ideas without consequence. I don’t know about this, I need to read about it now. Thanks.

This is the story of how a simple circuit cost some of the major car manufacturers millions of dollars. An American engineer by the name of Robert Kearns was driving a 1962 Ford Galaxie convertible. This car was equipped with 2 speed wipers, slow and fast. Mr Kearns realised that this system was no good. When there was a light drizzle of rain, he would select the slow speed but the rain was so light that the wipers were dragging across a dry windscreen, making a horrible noise, wearing out the wiper blades and putting unnecessary strain on the wiper mechanism. Windscreen clearing ability aside, the constant tick tock tick tock was distracting drivers and making them fall asleep whilst driving. Mr Kearns realised that the wipers need a dwell period. Where the wiper would sweep the windscreen, rest for a bit, then wipe again. So he set about to devise a solution. This was no problem for Mr Kearns who had previously graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Detroit and went on to earn a masters degree in Engineering Mechanics. When studying for his PhD, he set about working on a new wiper system in the basement of his home. This took a long time as he was concentrating his efforts on his degree but after many prototypes he finally came up with a system he was happy with. Another system with variable wiping speed had previously been developed by a company called Trico. Their system was far from reliable though. It was pneumatically operated and over complicated and had a high failure rate. A few other companies developed similar variable wipe systems but the issue was always reliability. Mr Kearns had perfected it though. His system was so simple and had minimal failure points. One transistor, one capacitor and one potentiometer. All these components worked together to introduce a dwell period where the wipers would stop between sweeps which could be adjusted by the driver. He even envisioned the first early rain sensing system where the wiper speed would be automatically be adjusted by the amount of drag on the wiper blades. This system was so simple, affordable and cheap to manufacture that Mr Kearns saw the gap in the market and decided to start marketing it to the vehicle manufacturers. Mr Kearns had driven Fords his entire life and had massive brand loyalty so Ford was the natural first choice for him to demonstrate his new product. He had installed the system in the aforementioned Galaxie so he brought it along to show. It turned out that Ford had been trying to develop their own system with limited success. Ford put Mr Kearns system through their own testing process and decided to implement it in 1969. As soon as Ford understood and refined the system, they dropped Mr Kearns and told him they had no further interest. Luckily for Mr Kearns, he had the patent for his circuit granted and published in 1967. His rights to his bespoke design were enshrined in law putting him in a profitable position. Mr Kearns was pretty shocked when in 1969, Ford turned around and introduced the first electronic intermittent wiper system. Not long after that, GM jumped aboard along with Chrysler, all using the same system designed by Mr Kearns. A bigger shock came for him in 1976 when he found out his system had crossed the globe and was implemented by Mercedes Benz. He soon lost heart of becoming a major supplier and started a war with Ford. He launched a lawsuit in 1978, seeking 141 million dollars in compensation from Ford but they fought back, claiming the design wasn't original because all the parts were readily available on the market. Mr Kearns fought back justifiably, arguing that it wasn't the components, it was how they were combined and this is what justified his patent. In 1982, he filed a similar case against Chrysler, amongst 26 other companies including, Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Honda, Isuzu, Nissan, Peugeot and others. For Mr Kearns, it wasn't about the money, it was about protecting the patent system. If someone invented something, they should own the rights to it. The manufacturers had plenty of time and money on their hands and were prepared to spend it, even if they were in the wrong. By 1990, Ford owed Mr Kearns 325 million dollars. They offered him a settlement of 30 million but he rejected it on the principle that they refused to acknowledge that he designed the system. Eventually in 1990, the courts ruled in Mr Kearns favour, saying that Ford had infringed his patent unintentionally. He got 10.2 million for this and 2 years later, Chrysler were also ordered to pay him 11.3 million. Chrysler tried to appeal but in 1995, the appeal was rejected and they were ordered to pay Mr Kearns 18.7 million plus interest. By this stage, Mr Kearns was so tired of fighting lawsuits that he missed out on filing paperwork to sue many other manufacturers. The rest of the lawsuits were dismissed in 1996 but but by this stage, he had spent all his money on legal fees and countless manufacturers were using his system on tens of millions of cars. The monetary fees weren't the only issue. In the course of all this, Mr Kearns wife left him, all his business partnerships broke down. The fight to be recognised for what he invented had taken everything from him. On February 9th 2005, Mr Kearns died of brain cancer. Until the day he died, he always had a Ford parked outside his his house. Not many people know about Mr Kearns and the life he led but in 2008, there was a movie released called Flash of Genius which would spread his story to the world, widely available on most torrent and streaming sites.

Speakers aside, upgrade the cables from the head unit to high quality oxygen free cables.

My advice, when buying any second hand car, make friends with a mechanic. Get them to come and look at the car with you. They will pick up on problems that you will miss. Even better if that mechanic has a computer to scan the car. Every fault found is a bargaining chip. As an ex mechanic, I say be nice to any mechanic friends you find. If they come to look at a car buy them a few beers and shawarma.

No disagreement here. The CVTs can run high miles but there are a lot of complaints about them failing at low miles. I guess it just depends if you like gambling.

@Allstar really? All those pickups come from Oman? I never knew that. @desertdudeI mean old models of cars. Not ones with the same name that have evolved.

Twattery of the highest degree. https://m.gulfnews.com/news/uae/crime/online-video-challenge-can-lead-to-dh2-000-fine-23-black-points-in-uae-1.2255768

The Duster is a Romanian car built by a company called Dacia. For the MENA market it is rebranded as a Renault because the majority of people won’t buy a car if they think it’s Romanian. The French badge adds a bit of flair. Engines are from the Renault range, along with the suspension. Mostly Clio parts. The running gear is Nissan. If you can, avoid CVT versions. Google Nissan CVT problems and you’ll see. It is a cheap and cheerful car and parts are available. A problem can be finding a mechanic to work on it. Most of the mechanics here, if it isn’t Japanese, they aren’t interested. But it is an incredibly simple, basic car with not much to go wrong. The 4WD version is competent on rough roads, if a little harsh, but it’s not the sort of car you want to take dune bashing unless you want to spend serious money modifying it. All in all, it’s a pretty reliable car but because it’s so simple, it can feel bland and uninspiring. I wouldn’t say no to owning one myself but it would be purely white goods, there would be no real love in the relationship.

It’s the second wheel bouncing off the roof that gets me.

Which “old” cars are still in production today? Heres a few I can think of, Lada Niva, started production in 1977, still available in many countries and largely unchanged. Spotted a couple around Dubai and was pretty surprised. Can only guess the owners are from the Soviet bloc. Peugeot 405. Started production in 1987 in Europe and ended in 1997. However, you can still go to Iran or Egypt and buy a brand new one. Hindustan Ambassador. Started production in 1958, still possible to buy a new one now in 2018. Morgan 4/4. The worlds longest running production vehicle, started in 1936. Land Cruiser 70. Started in 1984. In your local Al Futtaim today. Lotus 7. Started in 1957, still available today under the Caterham brand.

What about the 1.3 4E-FTET from the Starlet GT? 133 BHP and 157 nm of torque. Pretty decent for something that small. Very tuneable too.

Technically not a hatch but still deserves some love as it’s hatch derived. 4 door 306 Sedan. They moved the b pillar back and fitted the doors and rear quarters from a 3 door. Classic Ecosse bodykit too.

I love a good Dimma kit.

If it is a sticking valve changing the oil probably won’t do much. It will need hooked up to a flushing machine.

Why use old technology when you can use new? It’s like having a car with points that need to be adjusted every couple of months when you can replace it with an electronic unit and be done with it. Upwards and forwards. Modern synthetics come with additives that help adhesion to moving parts after switch off so that first couple of seconds where the oil is pumping up to the head isn’t so much of an issue nowadays. Even years ago people were using additives from companies like Slick 50 and Molyslip to combat this. Also, I think if an engine has started knocking, it’s a waste of time trying to use thicker oil, the damage has already been done. A set of bearings is the price of a few gallons of good quality oil and in a lot of cases they can be changed in a couple of hours just dropping the sump off for access. Once the clearances have increased, the oil pressure drops. When the oil pressure drops, protection drops, parts wear more, pressure drops, parts wear more and it continues in a vicious circle until the point of catastrophic failure. I myself had an old car that would sometimes drop to 3-4 psi because of a crankshaft problem. I used to mix a pint of 80w90 in the engine oil just to keep the engine running. I was planning to fit a bigger engine so I didn’t care what happened the old one. It eventually snapped the crankshaft. I wouldn’t do this on anyone else’s car but it’s an example of how using thicker oil instead of fixing the problem can go wrong. A lot of the time it’s just masking the noise, a bit like adding sawdust to an old differential, but the problem is still there.

Expensive too. Especially the Golf. Collectors items. Heres another mini AWD hatchback. Subaru Justy.

They edited the story. When I originally posted it, it said she drank the water from the radiator.

Fiat panda 4x4 VW Golf Country

Just finished the matrix trilogy. Wifey has never seen any of these old movies (isn't it weird that they're old movies now?) so I'm revisiting them all and it's good picking up on a lot of stuff I missed before. Anything new worth watching? Last cinema experience I had was horrible. I will never go to a cinema again. Screaming kids, people on their phones, talking loudly to each other etc. I even asked 2 people to go outside if they wanted to talk and they promptly shut up. You shouldn't have to ask for that in a cinema. Streaming FTW. If the movie makers don't like illegal streams, they should do something about the cinema experience. Set rules and broken jaws for anyone who breaks them.

I think the time has come to ask, who didn’t cheat emissions testing?