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The Don

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Everything posted by The Don

  1. It's because of the Facebook link in the original post you quoted. That straight way puts it in a moderation queue.
  2. I think the jury is still out but the chances of picking up the virus from a metallic surface like a car is very remote. I certainly wouldn't bother washing the car every time I drive it. I would however wash my hand thoroughly when I am done with driving. The CDC has published a paper confirming that surface based transmission is very low compared to live person to person contact / proximity to an infected person. I would definitely run the car for about 1/4 hour every 2 weeks, even if it is just to start the engine and move it around a little. Car will come to temperature pretty quickly in our climate. Investing in a trickle charger might not be a bad idea considering how expensive batteries are. I won't worry about fuel much. Yes they break down and leave deposits but that takes quite a long time. I recently started a car with ancient really rotten petrol. It needed some encouragement but once started ran fine. Note it was a carb car and yes the carb needed a clean. If you have high pressure petrol injection I would be a little bit more concerned.
  3. Is it just me but doesn't the front look a lot like the new Hilux with that kit?
  4. DIY is always the best. It's really what these restore projects should be about. I did find an uncle in Piliyandala who seems to know his way round carbs. Might be a good contact if you ever need professional help.
  5. http://www.pocuk.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1454002
  6. Probably very late, but Shantha who is carburettor banda's son isn't too bad. But he is clearly not the artisan his father was and most times reccomends replacement over repair. He does have a good parts supply though. Did you get your carb issue sorted?
  7. I owned a K11 Micra for quite a number of years in the UK before I bought my current car. It was a 1.0 manual and when I bought it it had 88,000 miles. When it was scrapped it had 125,000 and the only reason it was scrapped was due to rust on the rear axel which would cost more than the car to repair. But to this day my friend who had given my car to still regrets scrapping it. It was the most reliable car I've ever owned. Went everywhere and apart from the rust problem (and a noisy belt adjuster due to wear) had no issues at all. Everything still worked. Wasn't that comfortable and the 1.0 engine wasn't economical but the 16V DOHC chain driven engine was bullet proof. Never missed a beat. Only ever needed break pads, a battery and periodic oil changes. The K12 has nothing on it in terms of being a hard as nails little car. Looks nicer, spacious interior but finicky EPS and lots of plastics in the engine bay
  8. I guess you have correctly figured out you need a new battery. It's tricky to change the battery while keeping supply to the ECU due to the risk of short circuit. And risk might outweigh the benefit. So maybe it's best to swap the battery the old fashion way and let the ECU relearn and re calibrate itself over a number of driving hours. The bigger issue could be if you have an original head unit. Some of they require a key code for anti theft reasons, you might not have been supplied with when you bought the car. I think there are solutions around this as well.
  9. I don't want to start the new year with locking threads or giving people warnings. I also don't want to waste time cleaning up threads. We are all adults here. So kindly behave like ones
  10. The reason why I asked about the material is to consider it's ability to cause damage to engine internals. Sadly a bit of valve can, so a thorough inspection is necessary on the piston chamber and the piston itself. The economical way is to use a small endoscopic camera, which I'm sure some workshops have but most will not. While you are doing that do a compression and cylinder head leakage test. (they are not the same). This will tell you if there is damage / premature wear caused to the cylinder walls that you can't really see from a camera/ visual inspection, particularly when it comes to values. If compression is ok and no leakages that is a positive sign. The reason I asked about the engine is to consider the possibility of damage caused by small shavings/ particles thrown off out of the exhaust port into the manifold such as a turbo. Thankfully in your case these particles would just flow down the exhaust. And it goes without saying the engine oil needs to be flushed so all particle material is removed. This in the long term can cause premature wear so its imperative this is done. I understand you had certain expectations. But there is an extent to which people can provide a learned opinion based on a few sentences written by somebody. As we do not practice astrology or have a crystal ball, all we can do is guess. And I think across the responses you've had, I think you have gotten a pretty decent set of responses, even if you did not think yourself. On the matter of respect, please remember you came to us asking for advice. So while the responses might not be to your satisfaction, please consider the fact they are given with good intentions. It is up to you to use your intelligence and decide which advice to take and which not to take. This is the case with any forum international or otherwise. Whether you continue to stay in the forum or not is completely up to you. But if you do please be considerate and respectful of other members and they will do the same to you. Attitude doesn't get you anywhere.
  11. I've only seen part of the gazette. But I believe raw material such as fabric and steel is not subject to import restrictions as the former will also kill the garment industry. However as even Ideal/Mahindra import most parts from abroad, I do not think its feasible to continue production with restrictions on most other auto parts, at least for a few months. The government may grant the local assemblers an exemption at least with some limits to help them stay afloat. It is a bit sad that our value addition is still only tyres, exhaust, seats and battery. It is expensive to buy the body part presses, but I wonder if we can follow the Perouda model of buying the presses (and moulds) off a previous model, import the engine, gear box running gear, make the plastics, wiring harnesses in the country with the capability of replacing the kei cars, which are our biggest import. That in the current climate will only happen with international collaboration like Ideal/Mahindra because of the investment needed. But the market is there.
  12. As you are not interested in boring stories I will keep it short. Please specify chemical composition of foreign object, and pictures if you have any. And most importantly please specify your engine and any modifications done. On the crankshaft it is unlikely damage was caused to it by the object hitting the piston because the force of it will be absorbed by the piston, connecting rod etc before being passed onto the crankshaft. Checking the crankshaft for damage in most engines isn't hard. You can physically inspect it by removing the oil pan from below. Good luck PS. People give advice here voluntarily in their own free time. Nobody is bound to do so. Nobody also gets paid to do so. So it might put you in good stead to appreciate that, be patient and show some respect.
  13. The local partner Ideal also has a lot of money invested so I don't think they will just abandon it. It is available for sale now, though the timing was not helpful at all. And now exchange control measures will affect it even more. To me an automatic gearbox is necessary to really make it attractive to local buyers, so I hope they will consider one soon.
  14. As people have already pointed out this is a discussion forum not a service. To obtain a service you would normally have to pay. We are enthusiasts and some have expertise in certain areas. Others are here to learn and discuss. All advice / suggestions are given without any guarantees expressed or implied so take it as your own risk. On your particular issue the short answer any solid foreign object in the combustion chamber can cause damage to the internals. Combustion is a violent process, a controlled explosion. Any lose item in there will likely to get thrown about with great force while the engine runs. How much damage it may have caused is not something one can predict from behind a computer. As the movement of that object will be random, it is impossible to predict what it may have hit how many times. Maybe you have gotten lucky and it hasn't caused major damage. The only question that I can clearly answer is if the foreign object hasn't deteriorated, and you can be sure of it, then the damage is probably contained in the combustion chamber and items connected to it, so piston, chamber walls, valves etc. To speculate on what could happen if the item has broken apart, we need to know a bit more about the engine.
  15. Hydrogen is one of the most abundant chemicals available and the process is completely reversible so it is sustainable. You produce it via electrolysis and the fuel cell produces water. In SL government policy sadly is not guides by what it should be in terms of sustainability, pollution and associated health risks. It is governed by exchange control and loan payments. So sadly we cannot rely on policy for the correct outcome.
  16. I think the Picanto is a better option than the Viva. The Malaysian interiors didn't age as well, so the Korean has a little edge. The dealership is reasonable and you can find most parts outside these days. Body parts obviously aren't as easy to find as Japanese cars but not impossible.
  17. In terms of buying a vehicle from the UK, it is possible to side step the exporters but you need to wonder if there is a benefit in doing that. Most exporters only keep the VAT refund as their margin anyway. As a person you cannot claim the VAT back. Only a VAT registered business can do that and it takes a couple of months. Also remember the LC system does offer some protection and exchange controls might make it difficult to make payment any other way. Most UK car dealerships aren't setup for LC based exports. It is possible to buy a vehicle in the UK without paying VAT if you are buying it for export. But you have to be present in the country to do this and only certain dealerships have experience with this scheme. But it is possible. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/personal-export-scheme-notice-707
  18. A few things to consider. #1 There is an element of Sri Lankan value addition here. If there wasn't this car would be even more expensive. #2 Unlike Micro this manufacturing plan brought in foreign investment as its a joint partnership with Mahindra of India. #3 I agree on the gearbox option. Until they install an auto box, it won't be attractive at that price. It does need bigger wheels as well.
  19. This was probably the best Rover in many years but sadly could not save it from going down. This was designed under BMW stewardship though the engine I believe isn't BMW. Find out which engine it has before buying (it might be a Rover K series). I am sure you can find all the parts you need from a UK yard for cheap and the car seems to be in decent condition. Probably only engine and electrical work needed. Second when the Mini was made Morrin, Austin, Leyland and Rover were all just brands of the nationalised British Leyland motor company. So they were always made by the same company before BMW siphoned it off.
  20. I am sorry, I had a chuckle reading this. I haven't really explored the options and most likely it is less than the JDM. But the Thai brand new import's stereo is in English and it sort of does the job. I wonder if these units are a straight swap. In time there will be UK market used units as well with more options. But great to read the efforts on getting the JDM units to work and sorry to hear about SD cards being stolen. This is why I hate the Ro-RO method of transport, even if it is cheaper.
  21. My wife's car had issues with the stock Dunlops on her Honda. Basically the sidewalls seem not as strong and cause wear on both sides of the tyre while the middle was ok. This rendered the tyres unusable earlier than necessary. The problem isn't just the tyres. In SL tyre shops do not inflate tyres to their recommended tyre pressures supposedly for comfort reasons and this is probably the biggest contributor, not the tyre itself. So I think Dunlops are fine, just run the pressures the manufacturer recommends (its on the driver side door column).
  22. The GPS locator is an anti theft device. If they are supplying it, they will most likely install it as well. It wont be visible to passengers and will be hidden behind existing panels.
  23. My take is there is no point being too precious about the car. As long as insurance takes care of damage/ theft, you should just consider enjoying it. After a while you will realise the time effort spent to protecting it outweighs the benefit you get from it. We have resorted to self insuring our daily runner (3rd party) because once we counted the hassle and the deductions of having a comprehensive policy due to the car being a bit old, and the frequency of claims, made more sense just to pay for the damn repairs than pay for comprehensive insurance year after year. The car lives a hard life and accumulates bumps and scratches regularly and can't afford much downtime. So it only really stops for regular maintenance and repairs The rest is considered war paint.
  24. The same engine is used in multiple vehicles, and tweaked for the characteristics required for that vehicle. For example the 1.0 turbo engine used in the Swift RS is also used in the Vitara. But the way the engine is managed is not the same. Suzuki would tweak the engine to deliver more torque at lower rpms compromising fuel efficiency a little as the Vitara is a heavier car. I don't think the ECU programming for a vehicle is based on country of manufacture, more on the vehicle and application. However in larger markets there will be market specific customisation And as the programming is static, each of those ECUs will have a different part number (hence when replacing you can't just base it on the engine). Also you can't really say one is more superior than the other It's set up for the specific requirements of the vehicle and market.
  25. @iRage I think another reason some of the options are not available even for selection is the origin of manufacture. As some models imported new to SL now come from Indonesia/Thailand whatever developed for those markets is essentially what we get as well. On the options I can see the benefit of adaptive cruise control and cruise control on motorways. I'm yet to use a car with adaptive cruise control but I use cruise control quite a lot, even in SL. The adaptive will deal with the issue of encountering traffic on the way. I'm not a big fan of emergency brake, because sometimes the best cause of action to avoid an action is not to brake or brake lightly. Also the system completely ignores the situation behind you which you are taught when learning to consider (at least in the UK) before slamming on the brakes unless an extreme emergency. Finally as you point out a massive pain for the car to keep breaking when it thinks when three wheelers, motorcyclists etc are filtering quite close to you not to mention pedestrians. On the issue of the permit, I think the OP should consider the following. #1 Buy new if at all cost effective but try to stick to models which are not too different from the JDM. That will ensure a good supply of spares and body parts and keep long term ownership costs down. The CRV is a good option in this sense. #2 Consider the agent. I've dealt with Toyota Lanka and Stafford and both seem to be decent. Note Stafford does slap an agent commission on top the purchase price and there is a long wait, and personally on Honda's I do not consider warranties that important (to be honest this will hold true on most Japanese vehicles, except hybrids where the battery warranties can prove useful). Warranties are essential if buying a European vehicle. So on japs carefully consider third party importers as well. #3 Make optimum use of the permit. Buy something of which the duty figure is close to the permit exemption. #4 If possible avoid made for the Asian market vehicles. It's not because these vehicles are bad, it's just we do not yet have as big a supply of spares from these markets, plus they are a bit like us so don't really throw away vehicles, so have to rely on the agents for new. This is somewhat true of Korean vehicles as well though things have improved a little. The other reason is some of these made for asia models are made for a lower budget, so won't have the same interior build quality of their international cousins. Often mechanical s are derived from other models so rarely an issue.
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