Barry

@Cheffy Working conditions are terrible for a lot of mechanics here. Sleeping in makeshift accommodation, no kitchen, no proper washrooms, working in a boiling hot garage with no AC, working 12 hours a day. The poor guys are just constantly tired and are in no condition to think straight when it comes to fixing anything. Then the fact a lot of them are only getting paid 2,000 or less, why would they care about the job they're doing. I went to a lot of interviews in garages here and turned down a lot of job offers before I finally found a place that was good to work.

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It's the same as doing a compression test on a petrol engine but instead of screwing the tester into the spark plug holes, you remove the injectors and use those holes instead. If it's going to be a pain to remove the injectors or it's an engine where you can't remove them like a VW PD, you can also remove the glow plugs and test through there but you need to shut off the fuel supply or disconnect the injector wiring.

It's surprisingly easy to do too. A guy showed me a simple program once, he added a list of all the usernames then a list of all the most commonly used passwords then the program starts trying all combinations and before you know it, you have access to the majority of peoples accounts. There's not much you can do to protect yourself. I use different passwords for every site I use as if they get one of them, at least they don't have access to all my accounts everywhere.

El Camino in Al Quoz today. SS model too. Very cool but you need a mullet and a mustache to drive it!

Wow the big 110 Defender is seriously cool. I've seen pics of the big Jeep before but never the Land Rover.

The easiest and best thing you if you want a turbo can do is phone around the scrapyards in Sharjah and see if you can find someone with a crashed 308 GTi and ask them to sell you a front cut, complete with engine, gearbox, wiring, ECU, key and switch etc. then swap everything over onto your own car. They come with a 1.6 turbo engine and around 200 BHP. Fitting a turbo onto your own engine will be a real headache. Before I came to Dubai, I was in the process of turboing my Peugeot 205, diesel though but I'm also going for the 200 BHP mark. I spent a fortune on parts and most of them weren't easy to find as it's such an old car. Maybe I'll finish it someday.

Is it the 5.6 V8? You should be getting 14.5L/100Km. If all your mileage is spent in the city crawling through traffic it could explain it but if it's cruising miles, there could be a problem and it might be worth performing a scan on it just to see how everything is running.

There is a known problem with the throttle bodies on these engines, read this,

http://www.fordproblems.com/trends/electronic-throttle-body/

Was the PCM reset after fitting the new throttle bodies?

I'm not sure how to describe the new Rolls Royce concept car other than offensive to the eyes. It's like some sort of mad Boyd Coddington on acid creation.

BMW are considering making a saloon version of the Mini. When they started building their new version of the classic Austin/Rover/BL Mini, a lot of Mini purists weren't happy because of the sheer size of it, claiming it lost the spirit of what a Mini was supposed to be, a Mini. I wonder if they will rename it the Maxi in a nod to the old Austin Maxi? What are your opinions on the new design?

Has anyone been at the Emirates National Auto Museum and what were your opinions of it? I remember watching a TV show about the Rainbow Sheikh a few years ago and I said if I was ever in the Middle East I'd go there. So now I'm here and planning to head over there with the missus in the next few weeks. Is it an all day thing or like 30 minutes and you've seen it all? 

Also, what other car related attractions are there here? I see plenty of Ferraris and Lamborghinis on the road every day and I'm bored looking at them so the more obscure and offbeat the better!

What were the fault codes? If you can post them we will have a better idea of what's going on.

Also, you mentioned that the fuel filter was changed. Diesels are prone to airlocks in the fuel system after a filter change if the correct procedure wasn't followed during changing, i.e. filling the filter/housing with fuel before fitting, following the correct bleeding procedure. There is also a chance that there is an issue with a seal or pipe near the filter/housing which is causing the system to draw in air which could explain the problem you mentioned but again, knowing the trouble codes would be a great help.

@Ahmad Al-Azhar Good luck bro!

A few days ago I was having some work done at my local garage. A lady came in and asked for a seven-hundred-ten.

We all looked at each other and another customer asked, 'What is a seven-hundred-ten?'

She replied, 'You know, the little piece in the middle of the engine, I have lost it and need a new one..'

She replied that she did not know exactly what it was, but this piece had always been there.

The mechanic gave her a piece of paper and a pen and asked her to draw what the piece looked like.

She drew a circle and in the middle of it wrote 710. He then took her over to another car which had its hood up and asked 'is there a 710 on this car?'

She pointed and said, 'Of course, its right there.'

I would ask the mechanic if it's actually a problem with the sensor or is the sensor working correctly and there is something else causing an air/fuel mixture which is causing the error code to show.

What kind of stuff do they fail you for?

@ethan The industrial areas in Al Quoz and Sharjah are usually pretty good for car spotting. I was out the back of Gargash workshop in Diera a few weeks ago and was surprised by some of the stuff that was just lying around, proper old stuff like Mercedes 170 and lots of old American stuff I didn't even know what it was. How do you just forget you have a car lying around? lol

Is there any chance the wrong grade of oil has been used and is messing with the chain tensioner?

The car in the video is reported to cost 1,400,000 USD, that's over 5 million Dirhams! Unless your first name is "Sheikh" your best bet is to build something yourself or buy something like a Wrangler and mod it.

Have you ever heard of Formula Offroad in the Nordic countries? Something like this would be ideal. All you need is a chassis, gearbox, axles, some beefy suspension and an LS motor from a smashed Corvette or similar.

We did that many moons ago on a beach in Ireland once with a plastic undertray tied to the back of a Subaru Legacy. The Police were less than impressed and we were politely asked never to come back again.

Also, the car in the video is the Mini Countryman All4 Dakar car.

Spotted these beauties today. Charger R/T is a particular favorite of mine. Always makes me sad that whenever I see stuff like this it's usually abandoned in an industrial area somewhere rather than being driven and enjoyed.

Probably my most favourite car of all time. Good memories of my dad racing them when I was a child, one very special one in particular with a Lotus Twincam engine from a Cortina running twin 50 Webers. A guy in my hometown bought 50 of the Chinese ones and I've only heard good reports so far. Haven't seen one up close yet but I'm going back for a week in October so hopefully get a good look at one.

How about posting some pics of incredibly cool cars spotted around the Middle East?

I spotted this Datsun 240Z from my window this evening. It's the first one I've seen with this type of bumpers. I don't see too many classics out and about in Dubai. People seem to love their new Mustangs and Camaros more.