JadeyBlitzen

I guess it's something to do with their compound. I've seen it happen in all Michelin tyres I've had on my cars.

So I was in the market recently to get some new tyres for my w212. Tyre size 245/45/17. It originally came with pirelli p7 cinturatos. They were the most expensive I came across for this particular size at 72000/- each (around 54k with discount). The dealer told me not to go for pirellis citing poor service from the agent Toyota Lanka (someone correct me on this). bridgestone turanza er300 was the second option. Autodrome had an offer at the time. Not sure if it's still on. So each Tyre came in at 46k. the car previously ran on Michelin pilot preceda 2s. Very decent tyres. Quiet and comfortable. D*MO has them in stock at 43k a piece including wheel alignment. I was only put off by the usual Michelin trait of losing large chunks of rubber on the edges with age. Finally I settled for continental contisportcontact 3's at 39k a piece. They are of Malaysian origin and fitted standard to Malaysian and Indian assembled mercs. They are a little noisy but considering the price I'm happy. The agents too offer good service in case of failure according to the agent, which matters when you are spending this much on tyres. another thing I learnt while shopping was about the "MO" tag on the sidewall. This in my case meant it was made specifically for Mercedes or Mercedes Original. Similarly you get AO and BO for Audi and BMW respectively. As spectacular as it sounds it doesn't mean a huge difference in performance as the tyre doesn't differ that much from the same Tyre in a different size in terms of architecture and compound. But I guess it looks and sounds cool. Also it's worth noting apart from the pirellis the other models are succeeded by better models in more developed parts of the world.

The answer to your question depends on how committed you are to the car you buy. If you are not a committed car owner and hope to pump petrol in one end expect miles to come out the other, buy a 0 mileage jap car thats very popular right now with a decent warranty, from agents or a reputed importer. And sell it off before it gives trouble (e.g. wagon-r, aqua, fit, axio, vezel) If you are ready to commit i.e. don't mind putting in a bit of time and effort to look for parts or sit on a garage bench, or simply put, if you got good contacts in the local car scene, first of all congratulations on being a human being. You've just opened up the pandora's box of local cars. Now you can buy the sort of car that makes the typical sri lankan motorist run the other way. you know the type who start a conversation asking "meka thel keeyak karanawada?" The cars range from performance or left field jap cars to the less obvious euros and classics. Maybe the odd american or korean here and there. This sort of car will most of the time hold its value if not appreciate, it'll definitely put a smile on your face everytime you take it out, all in exchange for a little bit of tlc.

Done! Thanks for letting me know.

You should get 8-10 depending on how much you drive in traffic. All cargo models got harder springs and less weight at the back so you can't compare the ride to that of a decent car. But you can try swapping the rear springs to ones from a Noah (they are taller and sometimes have more coils). If you go for a complete noah conversion on top of that, the added weight (150 kg) will give you the most car like ride, if not better. With noah springs even a decent set of seats should sort it out. But since you are coming from cars I strongly recommend going for a complete Noah interior as things are pretty utilitarian at the back otherwise. However the downside with all these additions is the performance will have a noticeable effect. Therefore the fuel consumption will go up too. If you do a full Noah conversion with an original petrol engine you'll get 8 km/l. Petrol kits are 200k to 300k cheaper.

Lots of locations in and out of the camp. I took this in this pine forest next to the track. The only downside, apart from having to get prior permission to enter the camp during non race days, is the roads inside are unpaved and you'll get the tyres dirty real quick. There's another fantastic pine forest just outside diyatalawa town as you enter from haputale end.

About time some basic rights like these were restored.

I read on a local photography blog that one particular individual was approached by a cop when he was taking shots of the race course pavilion at night using a tripod. He was told to get permission from the UDA iirc I read on another site a government one iirc that you have to pay something like 25000 for taking photos or filming for commercial purposes. No idea how the wedding photographers work around this. Eitherway the shots aren't for recreational purposes so it would be a waste of time if we were turned away once we showed up for the shoot.

Nice shots! Any idea if we need permission to have photo shoots of cars in public places like galleface? If so where to get it from? From what I hear its impossible to shoot with a tripod in urban colombo without prior permission. so I haven't even bothered.

Haha good times. btw how was puddle of mudd? I think I saw you outside Water's edge

9 mil??? realistically speaking the cars should be changing hands at the 7.5 mark or less (at least the early 2010 ones). Either way the prices should take a big hit when the all new model comes out next year. The way mercs are getting bolder and bolder these days I'm expecting the new one to be the biggest step forward in e class history. Or not considering how the E was always kept very conservative.

If I had 8m to spend on a car at the moment it'd be a Mercedes W212. However prices will drop when the new model comes out next year.

Like MD said this really is the end of an era. I can still remember how I used to tune in to MTV back in 2002/3 after watching auto vision on Monday evenings to watch season 1 of top gear. And this year I was just relishing the fact that this will be a longer season and then this happens. Somebody said its all because clarkson didn't want to change his name to Jennifer. Someone else said the beeb cant let him go because the license money comes from all tv users in the country and they need someone controversial like him entertain some of their license payers. Anyway its over for good now. We'll be seeing a lot more of clarkson in time to come but top gear is dead for sure. Chris Evans is a chilled out guy and all that but the TG team won't be the same even if hammond and may do decide to work without clarkson. However I don't know what hammond's and may's contracts say but there'll be big money wherever they team up with clarkson. If someones takes the small risk of starting a big budget show with this trio the world will be a much better place again. And it'll definitely be a private company so they don't have to please the "public" whenever clarkson's being clarkson.

Thanks guys

Big milestone in life for me this month. And two relatively big occasions as a petrolhead. My two die cast 1:18 4x4 collections at home and uni came together to form one. and I got to go away in a rather special car thanks to this one gentleman who happens to be a big car enthusiast himself.

Has he disconnected the lines from all the sensors? if there aren't that many lines (usually the most important is the one coming from the turbo/wastage to one specific sensor, usually clearly marked as the boost sensor) you can guess and connect if you are confident enough its the right one. I faced the same problem with a different engine some time ago and cos I couldn't find a diagram (highly unlikely for jdm cars) and whatever pics I found didn't cover all the lines from beginning to the end I went to a shop that had a similar engine for sale and plugged everything in a similar manner. If all else fails thats your best bet.

Try u&h down slave island. They are good at sourcing difficult to find sizes. But do go for a decent brand like toyo cos bargain low profiles (around 45) have a higher tendency of blowing up when you hit big bumps at speed. This probably what caused the damage to the tyre you mentioned earlier.

Sounds like this is for a Prius. My opinion is running such tall and wide rims its pointless looking for lrr's. obviously the person who fitted these did so for the performance and visual enhancement and placed it above the fuel savings and other practicalities. Lrr tyres at best return around 3% in fuel savings. Most don't give you anything noticeable at all. You can save much more by simply going for smaller, narrower and lighter wheels. Each kilo you lose on a wheel feels like losing 10 off the car. I'm not telling you to change your wheels. It's just looking for lrrs with such an aggressive setup is like using solar energy to light up a nuclear power plant. Im sure such a tyre exists. But it won't be worth it. Better to get a decent set of performance tyres and enjoy the extra grip.

@The Don actually you are right. The ambient temp sensor is on the left side of the condensor as shown in the link below. http://www.toyodiy.com/parts/p_J_2013_TOYOTA_AQUA_NHP10-AHXNB_8715.3.html?hl=88790B My mistake.

Usually it's two wires that connect the temp sensor for its just a resistor. Are they in pairs or is it just a bundle? Also do they have sockets on them? I'm assuming two of them are for a fog lamp or a horn. Anyway tape them up and tuck them in a secure place if they are exposed. Can't really expect this to solve the problem. We could check the start button next.

I think it's better if you start by figuring our what's wrong with temperature sensor. It's behind the front bumper at the bottom right corner of the condensor. If its not there locate the two wires that connect to it that come from under the front headlight. Make sure it's not touching anything. If its faulty replace it. It's not that expensive and might be cheaper brand new. Missing temp sensor could mean the car was in an accident and this area was damaged. This is one of the overlooked parts when repairing cars. Anyway lets not assume the worst and see what we can do for the time being.

you sound like someone who's never driven a car with a manual gearbox. I mean all cars slow down when you take your foot off the accelerator and its just planetary autos aren't very good at this in town speeds. The issue is your throttle control has gotten bad from driving autos for so long. cvt's are brilliant. especially when it comes to saving fuel. this is mostly thanks to this engine braking you find unfavorable and the fact that it always stays at the lowest rpm possible when cruising. get used to it and you'll hardly use the brake on open roads so theres relatively less wear and tear and the fuel usage will also go down by a big margin from not having to use petrol during engine braking. As for those concerned with the lack of kickdown its just psychological thing. jerky downshifting and gradual rise of rpm and engine noise gives you the impression of acceleration but because of the infinitely variable nature of ratios in a cvt box it'll select the best ratio for the demanded power and take the speed up from there. Personally when I need a boot full of power I accelerate hard and then let go of the pedal a bit. This gives a more satisfying surge and doesn't bring up that annoying continuous engine roar cvts are famous for.

The low compression on one piston and this tractor noise you mentioned makes me wonder if the valves aren't seating properly as opposed worn piston rings. Also could you explain this knocking noise better? does it happen on all rpms or above a certain rpm/load? Try letting the car shift at different points in the rev range and see if there's a specific point where the knocking picks up and peaks. I'm guessing when you say it doesn't happen when the engines cold you are talking about when the blue temperature light is on. Anyway the more I analyse this issue the more I keep coming back to a faulty vvti system.