Scooter

Had you guys seen this recent vid of the aftermath of a E10 accident?

Colombo, u talkin about the Insight II? The S (Second) position shifts u down into a lower range of gear ratios and gives u better engine power for acceleration and for takling gradients and gives you increased engine braking on a descent. Honda recommends u use S on steep hills....up to u.The L (Low) position drops the gear ratio set even further and gives u maximum power and braking for really steep hills. It's a bit of a weird car,too, cos it will give you "kick-down" even in L. Remember that you have to fiddle with the button on the gear shift going from D to S, and from S to L, I haven't played with the paddle-wheel shifters much in the Insight but I think you drop it into L from S by holding the two shifters down at once! (That's if the driver can remember) Yeh, Jadey, the Honda recommended oil weight is 0W-20 right through the temperature range to +40C...the stuff is like water! Don't like the car...its's too bl**dy complicated for me and I would have the horrors owning an older one. One I drove recently even had some madness on it that told u about tyre pressure! Don't ever see non-Honda mechanics being happy with this sort of vehicle. JMOT And by the way, don't worry about towing a trailer with an Insight....it voids your warranty, TRUE!

A 2003 post from AL on SL auto history..... Re: Automobile Automobile industry in sri lanka Author Harshan Senadhira Date Created 11/6/2003 2:35:00 AM Message Normally Sri Lanka having an automobile industry which based on imported vehicles and majority among them are reconditioned Japanese vehicles. But from the 80's there were some car assembling projects has taken place. Fiat and Mazda cars has been assembled by UPALI Corporation of Sri Lanka. But it was over in mid 80s. When considering passenger vehicles and heavy vehicles the majority from India. TATA,ASHOK LEYLAND are in top. But other vehicle brands are also exists such as ISUZU, MITSUBISHI, UD NISSAN, BENZ, BRITISH LEYLAND, RENAULT. When heavy vehicles taken into consideration there are some brands which are assembling in Sri Lanka. For an Example LANKA ASHOK LEYLAND(passenger busses and lorries built on indian ASHOK LEYLAND chassis), ISUZU (Lorries assembled by Sathosa Motors Sri Lanka), COLOMBO-RIDER ( Passenger busses built on Chinese OPTARE and ASHOK LEYLAND chassis) Another pioneer automobile cooporation in Sri Lankan automobile industry is D*MO. They also building passenger couches on imported chassis(TATA and MERCEDES-BENZ) Recent tend is to manufacture automobiles in Sri Lanka apart from assembling. The first company ever built a automobile in Sri Lanka is Transmec engineers co. They've lauched a mini car and a mini van which are coming under MICRO brand name. But still they are trying to capture the market(refer www.######). Over the decades Sri Lankan automobile industry has evolved, the records says there's an increase of the number of vehilces registered per year. The reason behind the increase of number of automobiles being registered is maily increasing of population and poor public transportation facilities. Even thought Sri Lankan car market based on Japanese vehicles there's an emerge of European vehicles these days. For recent 1-2 years of period that has been increased, mainly PEUGEOT,FORD,MERC,VW,BMW are there and few number of JAGUARS, ALFA ROMEOS and considerable amount of AUDI s are also there. PEUGEOTs are the mainly available europian car in Sri Lanka. Another interesting fact I can see on the automobile industry these days are people tending to buy small vehicles such as DAIHATSU-HIJET, MITSUBISHI-MINICAB .. those are very economical vehicles not more than 600-800 CC of engine power. so vehicle importers mostly importing such small vehicles these days. INDIAN MARUTI cars also got popular with the rise of fuel prices. Interesting fact of Sri Lankan automobile industry is diesel vehilcles are popular among people since there's a significant diference between petrol and diesel prices. Hope you got some points if not don't afraid to mail me on [email protected] -Harshan Remember this one, Sylvi? Who is Harshan?

Chill out, relax, grab a toke, cuddle a chick, we ain't got time in life for all this hassle - Peace Man!

Best battery in the current market. LMHO There would be ample information on the site about this.

And IMHO a 2003ish cvt equipped Jazz/Fit is probably best avoided as a purchase with it's age and it's potential for tranny problems.......Thai build quality not up to Japanese product...Thai factory very labour intensive compared to Japan and it shows. Great little cars though, just not at that age.

And there's more....being a small car, the A30/35 will require less preparation and painting time (not less standards!)and paint than a large vehicle. Means lower costs for the rebuilder and frees up cash for other nice things for the car! I think I'm convincing me that one of these should be my next project :-)

What about a little Austin A30 or A35. Cute. Small enough to be thought a 2-seater! Little bit different. Easy mechanicals, all A-series and standard British hydraulics (you'd enjoy the single cylinder set-up operating both rear brakes, I tell you!) and (God help us) electricals. So, means heaps of interchangeability of parts and plenty of tune-up advice and gear if you wanted to make it a little rip-snorter. And then, the body, pretty thick sheet metal, usual rust around the headlights, spring hangers and around the bottom of the vehicles, but all fixable without breaking your heart. Not a bad little car for a first project and likely pretty saleable when you get tired of it and want the Porsche. (By the way, did you see that Ferdinand Porsche, the 911 guy, died a few days back?) There were pickups and little vans in the A series but don't know if any on the Island. Did see a lovely little grey A30/A35 saloon in Colombo a while back.....gave the guy a wave and he gave me a happy one back.

Just an aside, my wife saw something like that on the back seat of the Ford a few years back and I had a hell's own job explaining and wriggling out of her pointed and somewhat challenging enquiries. Always had seat covers on the vehicles' seats since then. All a bit irrelevant I know. But that's life.

Ah, a diesel..mmmmmmmmm....av a peek at this yup, it's the Watermota Sea Panther based on a Ford Cortina block and bits and pieces....should fit in pretty easy...you'd get up to maybe 60kph down a steep hill with the wind behind ya on a sunny day and the tyres pumped up real hard and the corrosion lightening the body but, there ya go! Reconditioned Sea Panther motors are still available, so they say. By the way, with Cortinas, the word ain't corrosion, it's furgin rust! They were nice cars in the day though, particularly liked the 1600E...the package worked real well..sweet gearbox.

Here's a ripper little archieve for anyone booting one of the new FJs around. Has the owners manual and a fair bit of technical stuff included: http://brockandbecca.com/files/fj/index.cfm Site includes Owners manual The 800 page Toyota FJ Cruiser Workshop Manual in pdf form - it's the 750 tranny and the GRFE motor so info might be useful on other Toyota vehicles - download this one quick before it goes! The 2004 Vertronix Diagnostic Toolkit (intelligent tester) manual fot Toyotas in pdf form - useful for a range of Toyota products Big thanks, eh, to the bloke who put the archieve together.

Might be wrong - and ya know all these government policy makers wallahs talk to each other round the region -but the Jakarta multi-vehicle tax seems to be based on the vehicle address. Is that the model SL will grab? Other stuff coming outa Indonesia now is the idea of a big big tax on the car but a reduced tax if you only use the motor at weekends....nice,eh? Another good idea for SL? shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, don't talk about it! Jakarta faces same problem as Colombo...too many vehicles on too little road...some of the experts over there say their city is heading for total grid-lock by 2015.

Bump

Those run-flat tyres can be a real bugger in terms of replacement $$$$$$ cost and in terms of "I'm sorry,sir, we don't carry that one in stock and sure w'll get your one in, ...no problem atall,... our pleasure to help you....day after tommorow be OK?" Dharshana, are you after a MK2 Insight manual??? Here's the one for the latest model: http://techinfo.honda.com/rjanisis/pubs/OM/M81111/M81111OM.pdf The mulit-function display on this Mk2 car is so complicated it makes my brain hurt! Owners' manuals for earlier Insights are at: http://www.insightcentral.net/ but can be a bit tricky to download them.

Yup, that's pretty much how the Honda "TRK" stuff works. Honda says that a tyre-fitter can suck/clean the sealer-gunk out if a "proper" repair has to be made but I hear that repair shops are saying patches can't be applied if the gunk has been used. TRK also pretty useless if a side-wall gets chopped up. That's not to criticise the TRK approach but it can mean that you are stuck on the road with a flat tyre and no bl**dy spare-wheel! So what do you do???? There's reportedly a move afoot by car manufacturers to not only eliminate the spare wheel but also the jack/wheel-brace from new vehicles - all allegedly to save-weight. In some markets owners are insisting on a space-saver spare (with all it's own problems eg speed restrictions) or a full-sized (if possible) spare be fitted. Dharshana, did your Insight come with a jack and wheelbrace? PS Pointless bit of info, but the spare-wheel on the Insight Mk I shouldn't be removed to save weight as the spare was designed to be part of the rear crumple protection zone!

Don't worry, guys, be happy - could be worse. Last month's gossip from China Car News: "In a bid to lower the number of cars hitting Shanghai roads every month, the Shanghai Municiple Government came up with a license plate auction system where license plates go up or down in price depending on the car buying situation within the city. Shanghai is so far the only city that has introduced a license plate auction, Beijing has introduced a lottery system that gives rich and poor alike the opportunity to drive a car within the city, the Shanghai system favors the rich only. Shanghai’s plates reached a staggering 58,625 RMB or $9,380USD per plate over the weekend, which was an increase of 5% over February 2012′s figures." Reckon the team up on Wijewardana Road have been genned up on this idea by the Chinese road engineers yet?

Sure it's a 4G91? Got double camshafts? Might be wrong but do those have hydraulic lash-adjusters? If it has the hydraulic valve system there is no manual “valve” adjustment available. You might have to open up the cam-cover and clean and inspect the lash-adjusters. (That'd be fun!) They might need a bleed or maybe even replacement of some. Anyway, here's the Mitsubishi 4G9 engine series workshop manual for you to have a study: http://www.lilevo.com/mirage/Manuals/4G9%20Series%20Engine%20Workshop%20Manual%20PWEE9101-ABCDE.pdf Good luck fixing the noise.

Overcome by the excitement of it all, I am.........

The last dozen posts all help me better understand why, these days, I'm finding the bhp forum a much more interesting sub-continent place to visit for motoring discussion. Tx, Cali.......

And now Vietnamese petrol!

Fair go, Sylvi, one a me Koori mates what drives a real nice '72 Charger - orange , she is with the original 6 pack carbie st-up and only a bita rust around the bottom of the 'guards and the tranny jumping a bit - is real upset like with the comment on Oztralia only 'avin less history that what the USA has. He recons that his folk were down here over 40,000 years ago. He says, just cos they weren't too big on the 'ol writing stuff and were a bit focussed on oral traditions and all that, it's grossly unfair to discount their history here in the Land of the Dreaming Serpent in favour of the White Settler stuff from 1788, like. . Anyway, that's what he said....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Portawall-Volkswagen-White-Wall-Inserts-14-15-tire-/270939554795?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item3f154183eb&vxp=mtr

Love Scotty's take on the ownership costs on older Prius hybrids. Might (grammar note: using might for possibility ) just be lucky that we're not importing these junkers to SL. It's stuff like this that seems to keep folk - except for the socks and sandals brigade - world-wide away from buying second-hand hybrids.

The Homer, the Cedric, the Fairlady...oh happy days....I can't wait to see the Datsun marque back....I've still got half-a-litre of rust convertor and a few cans of Bondo doing nothing at the back of the shed

Look at the good news, tea in the UK is going to be cheaper, hang on....Tesco ain't dropped the price...whaz goin on, eh...dunno???