The Don

Where did you do your wheel alignment? Most of the time the issue is incorrect camber or toe. A lot of wheel alignment places are such slaves to their computer screens they cannot see what is blatantly obvious. So take it to a place like Car Care in Wellawatte, who will do the alignment manually. Did you have this issue before the tyre change? This can also happen due to uneven tyre wear, and manufacturing defects in tyres. My car had a similar issue but went away after tyres were replaced in the front.

Ironically hydrogen does not mean the EV is dead. Infact Hydrogen powered cars are EVs with hydrogen fuel cells. What it produces is ultimately electricity which is used for propulsion. So most of the car remains the same. What you might get is probably another hybrid or a plug in hybrid because in most places charging from mains is a lot cheaper than producing your own electricity. But the bottom line is this. 1. Batteries in cars are here to say. Even in conventional petrol powered vehicles they will be used for various energy recovery systems as used in formula 1. So most cars are going to be hybrids of some inclination. The fact is it vastly improves the thermo dynamic efficiency of a vehicle. 2. Electric vehicles are here to stay. Its far less bulky to use electric propulsion via motors than use ususal mechanical axles and diffs in a lot of scenarios. Fancy electronic diffs a lot of modern cars with traction control have will give way to simpler electronically controlled propulsion. What we might end up are a number of variants to suit different uses. Full EVs will probably not be the norm until you get induction charging through the road itself or a similar technology, or until batteries become hyper efficient and very quick to charge. These are exciting evolving areas of science.

Crosswind touches on a very important point. There is a reason why electricity prices are the way they are. So in Sri Lanka it is not practical to power electrical vehicles off the grid, as the cost of bulk produced electricity is too high and frankly too dirty. These are usually the main reasons used to promote EVs everywhere else but in SL they are not valid. So until we find a solution to our power crsis (and at the moment it isn't clear what it is as coal polutes too much, we can't really build any more hydro power plants without seriously damaging the ecology around those areas, which quite frankly have suffered a lot during the build of the last hydro plants, nuclear start up costs are too high and gas/diesel plants costs too much to run). I'm not sure if you guys saw the recent presentation by Elon Musc where he presented a solar solution with their new battery. Its too early to say if its practical but certainly the cost outlay is a lot less than current solutions available in SL, and with energy efficiency increasing, and we having all year round sunshine it might just be enough to take pressure off the central grid so we can survive on what we already generate. The reason why the US will soon be self sufficient in oil and gas is not just due to an increase in production (due to shale gas). It is because demand has also fallen due to increased efficiency and changes in attitudes.

Lighthearted entertainment

You are taking the thread OT. I asume the current engine you have is a 4G13 carb version. Changing to a 1500cc in your case is relatively simple as the 4G15 EFI (there is a carb version as well) will drop right in without needing to fabricate anything. You will definitely need 1. Engine 2. Gearbox 3. Wiring loom 4. ECU 5. Fuel pump and possibly fuel tank if the fuel pump cannot be installed into existing tank 6. New engine compartment fuse box which will complement the wiring loom. 7. Air filter box and lines Apart from this you might need 1. New Radiator (if the 1500cc version has a different one, which I don't think is likely but needs to be checked) 2. Engine mounts (again you can probably get away with this) 3. Instrument cluster if your current one does not have the lights needed for the EFI system like check engine. I have a feeling they are the same with certain lights disabled but needs to be checked out The cost, I have no idea. Probably going to be six figures. A 4G15 carb model will be much simpler to drop in as you would probably only need engine and gearbox.

That was removed due to allegations, that it was misused by users to target certain members for personal reasons. So now we have the "like" functionality, which shows who has "liked it".

Both probably.

Damn thats my local shed. I've not had an issue with them yet but then I keep my eyes on the meter and always pump by value not by liters or upto full tank.

You are responding to the wrong dude.

We do not have historical data for electric cars of this nature in Sri Lanka. The Leaf is indeed the first electric car from a major manufacturer to be marketed directly at consumers. There were consumer electric cars before the Leaf like the Reva G-Wiz but none of them really got strong market penetration. The key issue for the Leaf is lack of infrastructure. I do not think there are many quick charge stations available in the country, so you are reliant upon your own electricity for charging which takes quite a few hours. So we are unable to predict the future, hence why Sumandasa's services are required. We also cannot implement infrastructure as this needs to happen at a national level either through public funding or private investors. There was talk of A*W getting into that business. At the moment on domestic tariffs the cost of running is too high for the car to be cost effective. So that requires a change of policy by government to make it practical. Last we do not know how well the leaf will last in the long term. Its electronics are probably not as complicated as a full hybrid but its complicated nevertheless and they have not been around long enough to see how resilient the battery is to local conditions. So at this point Sumandasa's point of view is as good as anybodys

If you seriously do not know about something, please don't comment and mislead people. The costs of maintaining vehicles vary by brand, fuel type and technology, country of manufacture and when it was built. This is because cost is relative to the availability of spares, the expertise required to do maintenance, maintenance intervals and the complexitty and demands of the vehicle itself and finally to a certain extent country of manufacture. For example the cost of maintaining a Toyota Prius Hybrid is not the same as a BMW i8 Hybrid. Its not even the same as a Honda Insight Hybrid. I can go into detail why, but I think your misunderstanding is far more basic.

Nimz, you really need to be more proactive. At the moment I can see your thinking process is all over the place, and you are not thinking the problem through. I think getting advice from multiple sources might be part of the issue, so the best thing to do is take the advice with a pinch of salt including ours and do a bit of research. NEVER EVER EVER depend on just one opinion, however expert it might be when making a decision that will have significant financial implications. Always get a second opinion. If you have already done a compression test, get it done by somebody else again. If ANSU has checked the injectors, get somebody else to check them again. All they will do is connect a fuel line to the injector and then trigger it by connecting wires to it. If a guy does not know how to do this, dismiss him/her as somebody who does not understand EFI systems. http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/how-to/a8520/cars-101-how-to-do-a-compression-test-14912158/ http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-check-an-engines-cylinder-compression.html Google is your friend!!! If you want to turn psi into bar, again Google is your friend! 100psi is around 6.9 bar And to anybody wanting to give advice, please read the thread from the start rather than making random comments based on one response. If you want a reliable compression test done, and your local garage guy does not have a guage, take it to Edirisinghe Brothers. What is obvious up to now is there is extra hydro carbon being burnt in the combustion chamber. What is not clear is if it is oil or extra petrol (injector leak) and if it is oil, what is the source of oil (piston rings or valve seats). Compression loss can occur for the following reasons 1. Leaking valves (valve guides or seats) 2. Leaking piston rings 3. Issues with the head gasket To fix any of the above you have to take the head off, so you will need a new gasket set, and while the engine is open you might as well replace the piston rings and valve seats. So its roughly the same repair, unless the piston chamber is worn to a point you need to either rebore or resleeve, which is an extra cost.

cars do pop up from time to time. Most went from the original owners who bought them brand new to their second owners once they got their new permits. Its not a car people sell quickly. Most hold on to theirs for a while. You just have to be patient.

Can you stop responding to really old posts please.

I was quoted around 25K for bumper to fabricate in SL using copper. I asume the chrome plating costs would be extra. If you find somebody to repair dents and rust and prepare for rechroming would you please let me know please. The reproductions in my case are quite expensive.

I replaced an engine with a top end hydraulic tappet issue on my Mirage. A couple of years after I can now hear the same tappet noise in the new engine too. So basically I have to get it fixed properly anyway. In this case I'll use a known fix of modified tappets and swap them in, and probably recondition the old engine as well and fix it back in.

I dunno man. While wooden might feel better, its the design of the gear shift knob that is more important than the material. Personally I feel wood is a little out of place in the plastic jungle that is the presea interior. Since its wood, what you need to do is to apply a little bit of pressure from the top and slowly screw the knob in. If it is close to the correct size it will screw in. It will create a new path to the knob through the wood. Its either that or the shift shaft has a different taper pattern to the inside of the knob or the attachment mechanism is different. Sometimes its not screw in.

Does the wooden gear knob add any value? It sounds like it needs to be widened slightly and the groove re cut into the knob. Either that or you are just doing it wrong

They will be if the fuel dispensing system had a link to the accounting system which it does not in SL. Fuel is dispensed separately and the recording of sales is manual. That is where this problem comes around. If the two were linked you will have to steal petrol to be able to cheat people at the pump as the receipt will be generated from the values recorded by the pump not the attendent. But believe me even with this system there are scams. The only solution is to be vigilant.

There isn't such a thing as a good place to buy an engine. They are available in Delkanda, and at various yards all over the country. They are also available in the area called engine watte in panchikawatte. But personally unless its massively more expensive, I'd suggest repairing the existing engine. This is because the condition of a user engine is unknown and they wont give a warranty.

The digital clock time is supposed to be kept by the battery while the car is switched off. So the issue is a but puzzling. The fault seems to be in the mechanism your clock uses to preserve time. In the old days, there will be a feed to the clock sometimes even if the car is switched off, but the display is sometimes turned off. Some clocks have a mechanism to keep a bit of charge to keep it going like a slow flow capacitor. What time does it show after 8 hours? 00:00?

Yeah sounds decent. Thats why they are expensive. The razors themselves would be a lot lot cheaper.

Happy birthday and welcome back!

Are the razors integrated with the hub? For the clutch kit a genuine Exedy kit will also suffice, but it needs to be genuine. If the hubs are integrated into the razors it might cost pretty penny I'm afraid.

How would anybody know the reliability and overall maintenance cost of a car that has just been released beyond whats already discussed on this thread? How can we see what might happen in 7 years? This sounds like a job for Sumanadasa.... At the moment your guess is as good at mine. The issues relating to the interesting auto box has already been discussed. It will definitely not be as smooth as the Viva, though probably more fuel efficient.