Barry

@Rahimdad I only source standard parts for my jobs. If someone wants to bring their own non standard parts for modifications I’ll fit them but other than that I don’t get involved. There’s too much that can go wrong and I don’t like hassle in my life. 

With regards to power increase and fuel consumption, the only person who can give you an accurate answer is the tuner but as a general rule of thumb, more power is more power. If you are currently having problems with throttle response this is something that should addressed first before you even think about tuning. 1700 is a good price if includes a custom tune on a rolling road. There are people who will load a generic map onto your car for 500 or less but it will never perform as well as a map tailored to your individual car. 

On 6/2/2020 at 8:23 AM, Denizzalbayrak said:

I saw a Niva in Al Quoz couple months ago. I guess it was in front of Ramy.

That one seems to be there all the time. My workshop is just around the corner. I’m guessing one of the Ramy employees owns it because it’s there so much. 

On 6/2/2020 at 6:35 PM, Frederic said:

My former neighbor drove a syangyong Rexton which was a good looking SUV equipped with all bells and whistles and Mercedes engine. And a lot cheaper than the competitors.

One of my neighbours at home had a Rexton with the 2.7 engine. He drove it for maybe 10 years with no problems outside regular servicing. It was a pretty good 4x4 with good spec and a nice bit of luxury for what was a relatively unknown brand. He said it was the same engine as the ML but all the parts were slightly changed so the only interchangeable parts between the Rexton and ML were the head studs, how true this is I don’t know. I always believed they had the same engine but he told me this and I never had enough interest to check and confirm or deny it. 

On 6/3/2020 at 1:41 PM, sertac said:

I totally missed that.  Than it is useless.

Still good for pulling donuts 😬

1 minute ago, desertdude said:

I you still want to. I can pull old strings and get it done.

Let me know. It's not cheap though

What kind of bikes do they have? Do they have 2 wheel also? And how expensive is not cheap?

We went to the one in Bidayer last year. I used to have a race spec 650 Banshee so their ATVs were a bit underpowered for me but it was my fathers first time on one and he enjoyed it a lot. If it’s your wife’s first time I would recommend doing this first and getting a feel for it before renting something and heading out into the open desert. They’re small automatics so you don’t have to worry about clutch or gears and a guide will teach you and lead you round gently so you can get a feel for it safely before you go for a more hardcore option. 
 

Here’s my father enjoying himself

I’m sorry you’re having problems with shitty mechanics but it seems to be a common problem in UAE. A lot of people have very little technical knowledge and only seem to know jugad they have learned on the job. 
 

If you believe you have a small head gasket leak, insist on a chemical sniff test. It takes 2 minutes and will confirm if there is combustion gases in the coolant. 
 

Holes in pipes is easily tested by doing a coolant pressure test. 
 

In both of these cases, you will notice you’re coolant level going down. Have you noticed this? The level should be checked when the engine is stone cold. 
 

If you cant get the problem sorted send me a DM and I can have one of my guys look at it for you.

10 minutes ago, Wrangeld said:

You are 100% correct. Niva. 

Did you drive it here or in another country? I’ve seen 2-3 here. I like them but i don’t think it would be great to own one here. Getting parts must be a nightmare. 

2 hours ago, Wrangeld said:

I love a bit of Russian mechanics - Lada Riva is one of the most capable 4x4s I ever drove (if you like snow and ice). They are all built like tanks and can survive a nuclear holocaust. It has to be said, however, while China is doing a lot better with the cars they produce, I am a lot less convinced by Russian engineering unless its in a tank or a missile

Lada Niva. The Riva is a small 4 door saloon. 

I have a good production guy if you’re interested and he isn’t hard to pay

After some more digging, it's actually a Sun Wasp Overlander. Engine is supposed to be a Villiers twin 2t 249cc. 

@desertdude It's back home so no issues with paperwork. I can do an IVA test and register it then do whatever with it. 

Your friends Vespa isn't too much of an issue. Strip it, put it in a crate and send it out somewhere as spare parts. Then you can assemble it, register it and bring it back in legally. There are ways to do things. It will cost a little bit but if he loves the bike its possible.

@Frederic I read that. Nice article.

It's not actually too bad of a job. Looks worse than it is. Once I find out what engine is supposed to be in it, new engine parts are available and any bike specific stuff can be fabricated. 

I'm going to restore this,

It's a 1957 Sun motorcycle. I think it's a Hornet with a 99cc Villiers single cylinder but I have no paperwork to confirm and there is very little information about these bikes online. The engine is missing and all I have is the frame number. I want to put an original engine in it but it has to be the correct engine type. If anyone has any information or knows where to start looking, the help would be appreciated.

Try another key. If it still doesn’t start, could be a faulty receiver 

If anyone can testify about brits being awkward, I can. I’m irish, they have been causing trouble for us for 800 years. I can tell you many stories where I have been put in jail for nothing other than being irish. Fk em. Live life. We are all here trying to live a good life and do good things and help our fellow man. Let’s smash colonialism.  

49 minutes ago, desertdude said:

Last clean up drive I went to I almost got arrested by Omani border patrol. 

Needless to say that was the last kachra drive I attended.

You can’t start a story and not finish it 

I remember going on the last cleanup drive. It broke my heart seeing the way people just drop their shit everywhere but the highlight for me was finding so many bullets. 

It’s sad to say but you can clean and clean and clean and the assholes will always come along and litter again. All you can do is keep doing it and hope to inspire people to change their ways. If you’re planning to organise something again, count me in. 

That is a sad story. I am sorry for everyone involved. We like to think of ourselves and having fun but we hall have friends, we all have family, and that’s what we should be thinking of. 

The way I look at it is, would you take your road car to the autodrome and thrash it every weekend? Maybe once or twice but if it’s going to be a long term hobby, you need a dedicated car so if it gets wrecked, you still have something to drive to work in. 

Causes of overheating when driving are 

Faulty water pump

Thermostat stuck closed

Blocked radiator

Weak or incorrect coolant

Pressure loss, ie bad radiator cap, loose pipe or a hole in a pipe

Also just to reiterate a point made by @desertdude don’t trust the factory dashboard gauge. It’s designed to always read normal through a wide range of temperatures. Otherwise the mechanics would have their day ruined by people panicking thinking all their cars are going to blow up. I assume you were taking the temperature from OBD?

Anyway, and this is for all you off-road guys, you should have a separate aftermarket temperature gauge installed if you’re going to be working your engine hard. They aren’t expensive and they’re easy to install the sensor using an adapter kit where you splice a hose and put the adapter in the join. 

I use aftermarket gauges to supplement the factory gauges in almost all of my cars. At bare minimum, temperature, oil pressure and voltage. These are important tings to monitor and as you watch them over time, you will learn what is normal operating range for your engine. There are some sexy mounting pods available too. 

Also, there is a difference in running hot and overheating. An engine running hot is no problem, it’s designed for it. Overheating is when the engine gets so hot it blows steam from the radiator cap. 
 

I don’t know why your mechanic is suggesting to change the AC pressure switch. My guess is that he doesn’t know what’s going on and is more than happy to spend your money trying parts to satisfy his experiments. 

2 hours ago, Gaurav said:

Yes it did, and it wasn't a plastic bush, it was a metal nut fallen into the gear oil. Luckily nothing happen.

How does a metal nut just fall into the gear oil?

@Gaurav didn’t this happen to you before also? I remember reading an article about a plastic bush that fails on the linkage that causes this.

7 minutes ago, desertdude said:

You think like a criminal! Lol Ironically these were they exact same cars used in the famous wafi mall heist. I know the old time residents will remember that clearly.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.emirates247.com/news/emirates/wafi-mall-dh14-7-million-heist-pink-panther-in-dubai-court-2016-06-12-1.632783%3fot=ot.AMPPageLayout

I remember reading about this. Even with modern ANPR technology it would be so easy to pull off just by switching cars once you got outside the city. It would take a massive set of balls to make the initial robbery part happen though.