Barry

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/mclaren/97731/three-seat-mclaren-bp23-hyper-gt-confirmed-in-first-image

Driverless cars on the road are a stupid idea but this machine takes things to a whole new level! http://7days.ae/uae-cops-eye-speedy-robot-bike/96721

The last era of properly built mercs. I used to own a 190E of similar vintage. Fantastic thing. It was like driving a sailboat on the road, just wafting along. Before I came to UAE I was asked to restore a 2 door 500 SEC but I never got around to it. I can only imagine if you had one back in the day it would have been something pretty special. It still is something pretty special today but now it's within reach of the ordinary working man. I love old mercs, have worked on and restored many of them including pagodas, fintail saloons, pontons, 600 SEL with the famous 6.3 V12 engine (had air suspension before it was cool!) 190 SLs, even an original 300 SL Gullwing. One of my favourites was a W114. Half way through the rebuild just after the bodywork was finished, the owner decided he wanted to fit a rollcage, racing seats and full running gear from a 190E Cosworth. That was a fun car!

There's always the option of removing the end of the valve and replacing it with coconut shell 😂

@Rahimdad it could run for a long time and not have many issues or it could run for a short time and have many issues. I wouldn't like to speculate. Some of the potential issues of a leaking valve could be, Intial low power. You're only running on 5 and a bit cylinders rather than 6. CO, NOx, HC etc readings will be off. Bad exhaust gas readings picked up by the lambda sensor can cause fuelling issues, leading to more bad running. Bit of the valve could break off and fall into the cylinder, damaging piston crown and or cylinder wall. Bore wash. Because the fuel is not being burnt properly, it can remove the lubrication and cause scoring. Again, because the fuel isn't being burnt properly, some of it can end up in the sump mixed with the engine oil. If the oil isn't changed regularly, this thinner oil/fuel mix doesn't lubricate properly and can damage all sorts of things. Again unburnt fuel. It can enter the catalytic converter and decrease efficiency. There is a chance of head/block distortion if the cylinders are running at different temperatures.

The timing is 100% spot on. I know because I did it myself and I have 100% faith in my work. After cleaning the lifters, refitting the cams and fitting new timing belt, tensioner and pulleys, I spun the engine twice, checked the timing, spun it twice and checked it again and everything was good. When another professional investigates properly, they will come up with the same diagnosis as I did, main misfire caused by a leaking exhaust valve on the centre cylinder on the drivers side. Some of the other valves aren't good but this one is the main problem which I advised on before carrying out any work. No amount of magic potions or quick fixes will cure this. The only solution is to remove the head and repair the valves.

Peugeot 305 van

I saw one of these, didn't think to take a picture. Must be pretty rare as I've never saw one before. And surely only having 2 doors defeats the point of a Camry?

This is good. When I came here I was shocked by the amount of rubbish lying around. People just seem to drop everything on the ground even when there is a bin 10 metres away. Sadly though, these are also the same people who would shit in their own garden at home and it will be very hard to train them to civility.

Just when I said there's no estates....

http://www.lro.com/news/land-rover/1502/how-to-fix-a-land-rover-with-a-potato

Some good points very well made. I never would have considered the Avanza or Inova as an estate, more of a MPV the the lines of the Renault Scenic or Espace. Speaking of Nissan, check out some of the JDM estates such as the Stagea GTRs. Basically a Skyline Estate. Family drift bus 😍I remember loads of Bluebirds on the road when I was a kid. They never seemed to cope well with the Irish weather and salt on the roads and most of them seemed to be rotten after 3 years. The last one I saw was in a scrapyard about 2 years ago having not seen one for maybe 15 years and it wasn't in healthy shape. I don't know about the SUV bling bling thing, maybe it's just a matter of taste but I think something like RS4 or C63 estate looks way more classy than a Patrol.

It just occurred to me that I haven't seen any estate cars in my time in UAE. Where I come from, they're everywhere. They're practical and fast. So any reason as to why they're not popular here?

There is a reasoning behind Teajays logic. If oil in automatic gearboxes hasn't been changed for a long time, say 100k+, sometimes it can be better just to leave it alone. Fresh oil can dislodge all the built up deposits and crap in the gearbox which can then circulate around and block up valves etc which can stop things from working properly. It can and does happen. I recently had a lot of problems on a Dodge Avenger where this was the case. I'm not saying that people should or shouldn't change their oil. They should go and read specific information and reports about their own vehicle and make informed decisions. There is no such thing as a "sealed for life" gearbox. This is something that was created by the vehicle manufacturer to save money in the short term and sell parts in the long term. If you go direct to the gearbox manufacturer, wether it be ZF, Allison or whoever and check out the specific gearbox model, there will be a service schedule for it. No gearbox is unserviceable but sometimes it's not as simple as just dropping the oil out, changing the filter and refilling. It is very important that correct procedures are followed or damage can occur. These procedures may include special flushing or filling techniques and computer resets or relearning programmes.

Bananas in the differential 😂 I wonder what this guy would say if I stuffed bananas in his transfer box and told him I just saved him 27 dhs 🤔 On another note, I have used eggs in an engine before. I drove 4 heats in a banger race in a Vauxhall Carlton. The car was pretty banged up from pushing people out of my way and the radiator was leaking a bit. I wanted to enter the destruction derby at the end of the day but I couldn't do it with a leaky radiator as the head gasket would blow in no time. No spares to hand but I had the groceries in the back of the van. I'd heard about putting eggs in the cooling system to stop leaks but I'd never tried it. It was the last time the car would be out before it would be scrapped so I had nothing to lose and I wanted to enter the destruction derby so I thought why not. 6 eggs in the cooling system and what do you know, it actually worked!

Sometimes that doesn't even work. Recently i done some work on a supercharger on a mini so I needed supercharger oil to refill the gear case. First port of call was BMW/Mini. They told me the oil wasn't available as the supercharger was a sealed unit and I had to buy a complete new supercharger. Obviously I knew that was a lie because I had just taken it apart and fixed it so I wasn't going to waste any more time on that company. I did some further digging and got the GM equivilant part number for the oil I needed. An Eaton supercharger is an Eaton supercharger no matter what vehicle it is fitted to so I wasn't bothered which company the oil came from. I visited/called at least 10 different GM parts suppliers and gave them the part number. They all just said not available, can't be ordered. Just because they didn't know what it was, they weren't interested in it. I ended up having to import it from the USA myself.

That is pretty impressive for something achieved using only free tap water and a bit of time compared to spending money on terraclean or seafoam.

Nissan recommend a 30k interval for changing. To me that seems a bit extreme and I would change on condition.

You can get an ever cheaper one for $10-15 that works on android phone or tablet. Check aliexpress.

I just discovered this on the interweb today. Never seen one in real life and never heard of it before but I think it looks not too shabby,

@desertdude yes, I'll give you that 😂 It really can be a nightmare to get the parts you need sometimes. Even common stuff like oil filters, sorry sir, need the chassis number, have you got a sample? There's 3 different types etc etc

Todays weather forecast - hot and sunny

One thing I've learned since I started working on cars and machinery is that experience is good but nobody knows everything and every day is a school day. Good to hear you're making some progress @Gaurav you should never be scared to open an engine if there's a problem that needs fixing though. If it's put back together properly there will never be any issues. I'm guessing problems you had before with idling and overheating after rebuilds where down to the incompetence of the mechanic. The most important thing when putting an engine back together is cleanliness. If you're putting heads back on and the mating surfaces are contaminated with oil, grease, dirt there will be issues. Too many people here try to overcome issues by covering everything in shellac and silicon. In all my years, I have never ever put shellac in an engine and never had issues.