maithri

Wow, a Beetle? Older the better, a 1303 is more power but a lot more trouble as well, try a real classic if you can. Maithri

Hi All, Back here after a long time, The peugeot 206 a veryvery popular and stylish car in the uk market. There are many different engines, the diesel 1.4 and 1.6 turbo's are at a premium here as they do well over 50mpg (around 95 KM to a 4.5 l gallon) using common rail diesels. The maintainance is cheap needing servicing only once every 12500 miles and a fuel filter chnge once every 3 rd service without using extremely expensive long life oil The petrol engine ones are also very efficient using multi point injection. They are very resilient to corrosion and has decent handling and equipment levels like air con- electric windows remote locking etc. The technology in european cars nowadays are way ahead of most Jap cars so maintainance in SL may be very hit and miss. If you find a well looked after example you will be thrilled with the comfort levels and handling as well as the power outputs from relatively small engines. If you are bold go for it-in the Uk it is way ahead of the Toyota's, Nisans, Mazda's and the Honda's-Mitsubishi sells very few small crs here. Maithri

Guys, One of my neighbouring businesses modifies and tunes Subaru's, the owner is a serious enthusiast and a proper petro head! His wife recently treated herself to a brand new Fiat 500 Abarth, Just the same grey paint as in one of the pictures above, what a great little car! Fantastic and even gets the husband impressed, Fiat makes some really great cars, specially little ones, the punto is outstanding! and for any Japanese Tin box fans-don't even try to compare, not in the same league, to mention a cherry in the same conversation as in a 500 is sacrilage! And yes I did own a cherry once a 120 A and been in many fiats including the Bug Fiat mentioned above, all cars with character unlike the the soulless Jap cars. No offence Maithri.

I have many years experience with tyres used in the UK, starting from the poor quality rubbish all the way to the top brands-without exception they must be balanced after fitting on to the rims. I have seen a brand called CEAT sold in the UK once they were associated with Pirelli, now it is an own brand of a major tyre and exhaust etc.retailer in the UK. I would be proud to say Sri Lankan tyres were fitted to my car but, here in the UK we have not seen any yet! Maithri.

Guys, A BMW maf sensor is a known fault and un likely to be damaged by a K & N filter oiled properly. I would just change the Maf sensor and also make sure the Lambda is switching properly - use a scope if available. Maithri. PS Clearing anything from our so called clearing agents after importing to SL will make most sane people go mad!

Hi, I agree with gihan, the coolant running past the throttle body is actually not needed in SL due to the very high average temperatures. Air drawn through a venturi will get cold so throttle body icing is possible in a country where a very cold air temperature is present, like Japan, Northern USA, UK,Northern Europe etc. In SL this is very un likely to cause a problem even on a very cold day in Nuwara Eliya it stii is above freezing! So a by passed coolant line at the throttle body has little significance and absolutely no bearing on a emmision test done on a stationary vehicle in Colombo where under bonnet temperatures must be horrendous-more in need of a charge cooler than heat in the inlet air pipes. Maithri.

Guys, I just picked up a friend from the airport on their return from SL, they tell me that the speed limit is no longer enfoced in the country,is it true? Now we get to see the full potential of the Viking with Hino power! Maithri.

Hi all, Nitrogen is an inert gas so is safe and also the pressure is more accurately maintained when the tyres heat up under extreme driving conditions. I very much doubt any improvements will be noticed by the driver or the passengers in the vehicle during normal use. In my openion it is an expensive way of inflating tyres with little benifit to the user. Maithri. P.S. I believe helium was mentioned as a joke!

Hi all, Coming from a society that thinks it,s cruel to put kids in seat belts I am not surprised some moron decided that the seat belt rule applies to all cars. Belts are only safe when properly installed and correctly used, not welded or bolted to anything that looks strong enough and used with poorly adjusted webbing and half broken seats. The rule should apply to cars fitted with seat belts as standard or with belt mounting points built by the car maker as standard. So cutting off or unbolting the cruel belts is not used as the soft option. Retrospective laws are unfair un democratic and eventually ignored when a sensible judge is persuaded the whole idea is stupid! So even though I support a seat belt law where ever people use cars to ask the driver of a Model T ford to fit seat belts is crazy as well as un realistic, the law in this instance is an ass! I hope some one in authority clarifies this law before it becomes useless as a result of a legal challenge. Maithri.

Hi Guys, VW's my special subject! I own a Golf GTI and used to work for a Main dealer (Agent). Yes I have driven the V6 4 motion MK4 The R 32 and everything in between the 1.4 and the R32. I have no special favourite but the R 32 is a car I would love to own. The 180BHP diesels are awsome and at 50 + miles to a gallon when driven normally and lots of power when needed they are great practical and fun cars that can cause some great upsets in the traffic light grand prix's. The so called pedestrian 115BHP versions with the PD engine can be easily chipped to get in excess of 130 BHP without any external evidence. But where are you going to drive any of these in Sri Lanka? Milindu is right he tested one here in the UK and enjoyed it, Hi Milindu hope to meet up next when you are in the UK. How ever the latest Audi A3 with the 2.0 liter PD engine is to me a far better buy, I drove one last year nd the car feels better built than a VW. These cars are as reliable as you can get, with cutting edge technology not found in Jap cars, No I am not dis respecting SL's beloved Jap imports but when it comes to diesels the Japanese are still in the Stone age compared to some European Makes. So have no fear buy the best your money will get you and avoid the low powered 1.4's and the 1.6's. You need a minimum of 1.8 with a turbo preferably to call it performance ot a diesel with 130+ BHP. Good Luck Maithri.

Hi, Just my 2 pennies worth, as you were driving in town and not doing a lot of constant braking ask your garage/mechanic to also look out for a wheel bearing(razor?) with excessive play, or even a partially siezed piston on a brake wheel cylinder or a caliper letting go suddenly. What ever you do have it throughly investigated as sudden brake loss in an automatic car can be very dangerous. If decending a hill in an auto please use the lower gear 2 or 3 rather than D even 1 if it is very steep to allow engine braking and use the foot brake sparingly only when needed. Maithri

I think Saturn has experienced what I was trying to say, that the car must be capable of and need the higher cost long life type plugs. NGK-R stands for resistor type plugs required in european markets for radio noise suppression I believe. NGK has an on line spark plug application guide, try this first and buy only the recomended plug for your car, not what your friend fitted to his as in extreme cases an incorect plug can destroy an engine. Maithri.

Hi, Tune up seems to be widely used in SL as a means of cleaning injectors using chemicals such as w**th, cleaning throttle bodies cleaning and re gapping spark plugs, and trying to at least clear learnt values from the ecu by disconnecting the battery. In pre ecu days-(my youth in SL) the points were cleaned and adjusted, the tappets/valve clearances nwere adjusted,carburettors were cleaned and timing if the ignition was set up as well as the fuel air mixture of the carb. Them days in the west we used to have Sun, Crypton etc engine tunining equipment with oscilla scopes etc to bring a more scientific angle and I used to be good at it with my Trusty Crypton 440! Nowadays the modern car allows very little adjustment, a chip in the ecu is mapped to carry out all the variable functions and all that can be attended to is the mechanical bits, so have the valve clearances set if non hydraulic tappets are fitted, clean the throttle butterfly and housing if contaminated by the oil fumes from the breather system, Use a good fuel system cleaner once every 6 months or so in the petrol tank . Re setting the ecu to factory basic setting is not really needed unless the idle is erratic as the system has adopted to drive at its premium level according to your driving style and going back to basic will mean time spent re learning them. As to the need for one or the required frequency and cost I cant help you with. How ever if your car runs well and is giving average fuel economy for a similar model I suggest you leave thing as they are and just stick to the throttle body clean, new plugs at the right interval and the odd can of fuel treatment in the tank. Maithri.

Hi all, Iridium plugs are to get a longer life, so the intervals at which you change the plugs are much longer and iridiums work well under high stress for longer in high performance engines. Fitting them to a normal small engined car is not really economicaly sensible as you will not have a parellel performance or economy increase.Also they replace Platinum tipped plugs-in my experience replacing normal copper core plugs with platinum plugs specially in a car from the past with a low energy ignition system causes over loading and poor starting, I am going back to the 80's and before, used in a mid to late 90's car replacing original platinum plugs should not be a problem. How ever using really expensive parts to save changing them sooner has to be an economic argument not an engineering solution. Maithri

Hi all, I was initially thinking of ignoring the incorrect term "phase" used, then felt it may help to explain the correct terms which becomes self explanatory. We call this re-facing or skimming-or even grinding. Thr job involves removing a very thin layer of metal from the face of the brake disc-the contact area with the pads,to remove the high spots caused by distortion of the brake disc. The same theory applies to cylinder heads as well. On another angle before you fit discs on to a car make sure the mounting flange is throughly cleaned and completely flat and smooth. Any un even patches here regardless of how small will cause the discs to warp(distort) after a short period of use and will ruin your new discs. If you had to use excessive force with hammer blows etc to remove the old rusted discs it may cause damage to the flange. Maithri.