Older Cars.

[cabcurtains]

I think Robert understood you too, he was reminiscing about the good old bad old days

Kingo

Am to young for them John :P

[Parts-King]

and I'm too old to remember them.........pmsl

Them were the days..........when we were on nights

PDI's on Toyota KP30 and KE/TE30# when we had to fit the seatbelts and carpets. I used to get £6 squid in me hand to underseal a car in my sparetime at night, used to s*it myself in a dark garage on me own at night, with the mice running under yer feet. I once heard a funny noise so slowly slid back some huge double doors, only for the local plod to be on the other side doing the same....................Not sure who jumped the highest :D: The good old days when the mice would eat yer butties first before you got chance to have a look what was on 'em

Sorry, that was completely off topic!

Kingo

[Boro Sera]

not totally off topic though - the advancement of car technology ( and PC/health and safety rules and regs ) kill off this sort of nocturnal activity!

[wattfield]

Back to the Old Car question..........my Rav is 14 years old and still going strong....

My Land Rover needs a bit of work, but should be back on the road soon.......but you can forgive that when it's 44 years old!

[Robert6920]

I think Robert understood you too, he was reminiscing about the good old bad old days

Kingo

cabcurtains, I was just reminiscing about things that happened in my past, and definitely not yours

Unfortunately, I am older than I think, so I can remember the "good old days"

[geomowat]

Modern cars now are too reliant on technology... I see Fifth gear the other day and the Renault Megane, to change the front headlight bulb is a dealer only service and can cost £££££

Yes, I could not agree more and that is why my RAV4.1 is getting close to me giving up on it after another couple of hundred pounds not solving its high tickover problem. The test rig says that it is all working properly, but the idle is still 1,300rpm and when I got the garage to check the emissions today, the CO would not pass an MoT

Days have gone where a good mechanic can listen to the engine and determine what the problem is... now he needs a Bachelor degree in Information Technology and a computer system that NASA would be proud off... all just to see what is wrong with the vehicle.....

Between dividing my time in Scotland and London I run three other cars: 36 year old Swedish, 43 y.o. Scottish (!), 55 y.o. English. When any of these go wrong, as they inevitably do, I can usually fix them, if not, a garage has no difficulty with a diagnosis. With the RAV4.1, I do not have the necessary information or test rigs and the professionals seem to go blank when the machine tells them all is well when it clearly is not.

And this new Carbon C02 will push more people to drive older cars below the thresh hold of the tax.. good thing I say but also has it's down sides.. older cars are not too up there with safety features either...

True on the safety features, but two of mine do not even have seat belts! On the green front, however, think of all that energy that these old cars of mine have saved being expended on replacements?

George

[bothwell_buyer]

Back to the Old Car question..........my Rav is 14 years old and still going strong....

My Land Rover needs a bit of work, but should be back on the road soon.......but you can forgive that when it's 44 years old!

oooooo - snap.

but my landie is a 1963 and awaiting a 200tdi engine. Until then its too smelly to use!

The 2 94 RAVs are ok - the 2nd undergoing a long term engine swap same as the 1st. Looking forward to the day I get it back as its in better nik!

The Humber still awaits my attention - sad.

[bothwell_buyer]

out of interest, what is the situation with Cat converters and cars?

I know a new car has to be fitted with one, but if if fails, is there a requirement to fit a new cat or can a non-cat exhaust/bypass be used and still pass a subsequent MOT?

Thats a good question Hoovie, i doubt it has to have a cat, but the chances of passing the MOT on a post 92 "J" car will be pretty low as the test requires a very low level of emissions to get through it. Without a Cat i cant see many passing, also a lot of Lamba Sensors will get upset with the emissions being high and trigger the EMW Light.

When i had a UK 95' Celica ST 202 GT, it didn't have a cat pipe and it wouldnt pass the MOT with it off, but it would when the was Cat was on. A guy at ATS used to swap the pipe for the Cat for a £10 each time. Happy Days

The beast runs wi-oot a cat and passed the mot. Then again the enjun is tooooned tae purrrfecshun almost.

For those whit cannae unnerstand.....

the 3SGTE engine installed has been tuned very very carefully, and with its balanced custom straight through exhaust, and injection system, burns fuel efficiently avoiding the necessity for a cat to be fitted to the outlet side. What ho, and jolly dee. Murrays yer man tae win ra tennis (sorry - cuidnae help it!)

An aside o that, it runs like a bat oot o hell!

Yup - I even look like meatloaf!

[flexy7]

Just to play Devil's advocate :D

How many people who had 70's and 80's cars ( like I did :P ) remember being on first name terms with either their AA / RAC operator or local garage mechanic? Or spending each and every weekend under the car, trying to keep it running / sorting out the lastest problem?

Was a journey over 100 miles something to thought about before hand? "Do I need to take oil and water, how about a spare fan belt, just in case? "

I had a Y-Reg Audi 100cs that was fantastically reliable right up to the day my other half wrote it off ! ,I have pictures but won't post them (Unless anyone asks) because of possible moaning from members. The only time I had a break down of sorts was when I got a blow out on that twisty road just north of Barcelona. With reference to Toyotas, I always buy Toyotas of around 8-9-10 years old & Ive honestly never broken down ever in any of them. My current Camry is so easy to maintain aswell.Both my CarinaE & Camry just sailed through their MOTs with no work required!