maliths

Happy belated B'day wishes Peri. Hope you had a good day. MalithS

Hi, Never spray oil on the undercarriage because as others have mentioned this will harm any rubber items (boots, bushes, etc). Mineral oils actually will attack rubber so and seals, bushes etc will degrade. Its best just to wash the underside and leave it at that. MalithS

Hi, Check the bolt size and you can use this as a guide: http://www.tpub.com/content/filters/TM-10-4330-237-13P/css/TM-10-4330-237-13P_105.htm MalithS

Happy Birthday Fuzzo

Happy belated B'day Ripper

As far as I know the W202 was never made in India. It was the W124 that was made in India.

I agree. Its really not nice to put someone down just because their English is bad.

I very much doubt that you will do any damage changing the gear to Neutral but you will put a lot of wear on the gear linkages if you keep changing the gears all the time. I dont think this will increase the fuel economy. When you take your foot off the accelerator pedal (Auto gearbox) when driving the engine falls to idle speed so shifting to neutral doesnt really do anything. Why not try to buy a manual gearbox vehicle rather than trying to drive an Auto like a manual.

In triptronic mode the gears will only change at a very high RPM to stop damage to the engine or very low RPM to stop the engine stalling. These change points are not the same as they are when its in auto mode. so in triptronic you get the chance to change early.

Dilesh is right about raising the boiling point and lowering the freezing point. But the coolant also has a lot of rush inhibitors which help keep the corrosion down to a minimum. In a county like SL using water would be just fine but you will still have the rust issue (water can be very corrosive on the internals of the engine). So using a good coolant with rust inhibitors will certaily help keep the corrosion inside the engine to a minimum. Now which coolant is best is quite a hard question to answer unless some one has actually tried many types of coolant and compared them. Its safest to go with a well known brand as you can be assured that they have done the reasearch and developed the product. Buying some cheap coolant you risk buying something completetly useless which could be no more than a coloured liquid.

Basically a Manumatic (triptronic) is a traditional Automatic Transmission with manual input capability. They both work the same way (torque converters, etc) but the only difference of the Manumatic being the capability to shift gears when the driver wants to (if switched to this mode). The gear shift levers can be on the steering or on the centre console. Then you have a traditional Manual transmission and the Semi-Automatic transmission. These two are mechanically similar (clutch, traditional gearbox) but the difference with the Semi-Auto is that it has no clutch pedal and all you get inside the car is a Auto transmission like control. The clutch is controlled by a computer and mechanical actuator unit. So when the computer tells it to change gear the actuator operates the clutch and changes the gear. This variant can also have a Triptronic like manual input capability where the driver is permitted to change gears. All this does is do the clutch pedal work and changing of the gears using electronic actuators and a computer. Hope this helps. MalithS

I agree with Supra. I am not a fan of converting at all. Generally Diesel engines weigh more than petrol engines so the suspension will have more load on it which will compromise the ride and handing of the car. A car that comes with a Diesel engine will have suspension designed to work with that so by putting a Diesel engine to a Petrol car you will put more load on the suspension. Not to mention all the hassle with electrics etc.

You can find some thin rubber sheets and cut a new gasket for this or even use a silicone rubber sealant.

Must have been some pretty expensive cows

Yes this is very true. The VOC's inside cars dont get anywhere near the levels the email says. The VOC's are also responsible for the 'new car smell' you get in cars. This is when all the materials are new and they give off a lot of VOC's but this quickly drops off after a few weeks or months (as the paint, glues, plastic etc dry off). Even if you get a slight build up of VOC's in the car on a sunny day when you open the door this displaces a large volume of air to let the concentration drop quite a bit. Anyway using the A/C should be good as long as you dont have the re-circulate mode off as this will bring it fresh air from the outside.

Happy Birthday. Hope you have a great year ahead of you.

Oh yes its very much an ongoing process. You have to keep cleaning and polishing to maintain. A 40-50 year old car will always start to rust quicker than a modern car as a new car gets a much better application of paint when the steel is clean and new. There are quite a few good underbody treatments these are usually very thick rubbery coating applied to the underside which gives it a good thick coating leaving a rough finish. This rough finish also helps sound absorption/insulation into the car and the thick coatings help protect the steel from stone chips etc. Im not saying these arent good its just that my personal preference has been to apply a few coats of clean paint. On one of my cars I've applied a zinc rich anti corrosive paint all over the underside (the car being red and the paint also being red this went well together). To me this is very much easier to clean off than a underbody sealant with a rough finish cos the mud sometimes get stuck. I'm slightly OCD hence the preference to keep surfaces clean and smooth If you are likely to use the car frequently (everyday use) I think a good underbody treatment might make sense. The other thing is to provide plenty of drain holes so water doesnt get stuck inside doors/boot etc and even chassis sections. and make sure all these drain holes dont get clogged up by keeping every one clean.

Well it depends on how good a paint coat was applied. I mean if the surface was cleaned/grit blasted well it will not rust very quickly but if the cleaning was only manual hand cleaning (wire brush etc) it will likely rust again sooner. But all you can do is keep the vehicle clean (mud etc) and keep it out of the rain and moisture (hard to do in a coutry like SL). Clean the car underside when ever you get mud etc on it before putting it away. Personally I like to keep the underside of an old car clean by painting it and not putting a underbody sealant which gives a rough finish cos its easier to clean. Still I think a little surface rust will start to appear after about 10-12 years or so.

This is great. The price seems quite good as well. The only other one I've seen is the Dialog/IWS GPS system but that was like Rs.150k I think. Would love to see what it looks like.

If the oil isnt leaking and the clutch pedal is working it might be what Dilesh said - the clutch plate being stuck to the flywheel. You could try this: put the car in 4th or 5th gear then with the cluth pedal fully depressed turn the ingition (not too long) to start the engine hopefully the jolt might release the clutch from the flywheel. Be very careful when doing this and make sure there isnt anything in front of the car incase it starts to move.

What about the episode where they drove from Switzerland to the UK on one tank of fuel in each car. Cant remember which series it was. Ok found it Series 12 episode 4 http://www.topgear.com/uk/tv-show/series-12/episode-4

A car engine is usually designed to work with a certain amount of back pressure from the silencer. Damage to the silencer (leaks) will cause the exhaust gas to leak out which reduces this back pressure to the engine. The engine will need the right amount of pressure down the exhaust so too little or too much will cause the engine to run inefficiently. Performance exhaust work by reducing the back pressure on the engine making it easier for the engine to 'push out' the exhaust gases this also increases the exhaust gas velocity thereby increasing the heat transfer away from the engine bay. This makes the intake manifold temperautures lower thereby increasing the density of air pulled into the engine (more oxygen = better efficiency). Note that a performance exhaust will give you a little more power because of the reduced back pressure but this will come at the cost of slightly higher fuel consumption. MalithS

Hey Happy B'Day Milindu

The pine tree thing is called Magic Tree thats the best one I've seen and they last quite a long time.

Yes the new car smell is caused by VOC's in the plastic, fabrics, glue etc that are released from interior components when parts are new. The VOC's (Volatile Organic Componenets) can be very toxic to your health but fortunately these dissapear after a little while and even if you get a build up of this in a closed car on a warm day this will dissipate quite quickly as you open the doors as fresh air enters.