General driving discussion

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blackcat20 said:
Tertiary road over a mountain in the middle of winter, ice on the roads, ended up losing control of the car and sinking it into a huge bank of snow.
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A couple of years ago in NZ we were supposed to be driving from Taupo to Wellington and it snowed overnight before we set out. The govt, in its infinite wisdom, closed Highway 1 (known I believe as The Desert Road - not sure why as we didn't get to drive it) because it had snow on it. When interrogated about alternatives, the guy manning the closed highway suggested we drive back 10km, turn up a mountainside road, drive over one of the volcanoes in the middle of the island and down to the National Park Highway on the other side. Of all the stupid diversions - it was snowy and icy on that road. It would have been safer and faster to go back to Taupo, have a hot breakfast or lunch and wait for the road to reopen. We did not know what he was suggesting until we were committed to it. We saw no less than three cars on their roofs and several in the ditch. They were all idiots in 4WDs who think that having four driving wheels made them invincible, and did not slow down appropriately (we kept being overtaken by these clowns). They had no idea how to drive in those conditions.

I probably would have crashed the car. My husband knew what he was doing. Though the journey took three times as long as it would have otherwise, and caused a nasty bout of Nervous No2s for me. I was petrified, having lost it one before in a car in the snow in Canada.
 
Quickstatus said:
Yes understand all that, but there would be an error which I can't seem to find anywhere. I guess the error can be variable and may depend on weather, clear line of sight to satellite, doppler shift .- not sure if this is corrected for in consumer gps.
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This is sorted by using multiple satellites and only accepting the most accurate. It is also possible to have differential GPS stations on the ground and this is done where very accurate information is required and there is the possibility of issues caused by mountains etc. For aviation a GPS RNAV approach almost gets you to the same minima as an ILS which is (normally) 20 ft AGL and .5 NM from the threshold.

Also GPs are positional speedometers (measures average speed) and not the instant speedometer found in vehicles. So the basis of measurement is slightly different. This may be important in that Radar speed detectors are instant speed detectors
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Correct but never more than a couple of kph out and corrected very quickly. i.e. if driving at a constant speed then they are accurate.

docjames said:
Which of course applies to new cars as they are sold, however tyre wear / replacement will impact this.
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My Chrysler 300C has an accurate speedo :)shock:) and it only changes by about 1-2 kph as the tyres wear so fortunately not much of an issue there. I've used the same tyres each time so no comments re different tyre types.
 
suze2000 said:
A couple of years ago in NZ we were supposed to be driving from Taupo to Wellington and it snowed overnight before we set out. The govt, in its infinite wisdom, closed Highway 1 (known I believe as The Desert Road - not sure why as we didn't get to drive it) because it had snow on it. When interrogated about alternatives, the guy manning the closed highway suggested we drive back 10km, turn up a mountainside road, drive over one of the volcanoes in the middle of the island and down to the National Park Highway on the other side. Of all the stupid diversions - it was snowy and icy on that road. It would have been safer and faster to go back to Taupo, have a hot breakfast or lunch and wait for the road to reopen. We did not know what he was suggesting until we were committed to it. We saw no less than three cars on their roofs and several in the ditch. They were all idiots in 4WDs who think that having four driving wheels made them invincible, and did not slow down appropriately (we kept being overtaken by these clowns). They had no idea how to drive in those conditions.

I probably would have crashed the car. My husband knew what he was doing. Though the journey took three times as long as it would have otherwise, and caused a nasty bout of Nervous No2s for me. I was petrified, having lost it one before in a car in the snow in Canada.
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Losing control of the car on the ice was one of my scariest driving moments. I did nothing wrong; we had chains on and were crawling along but hit a patch of ice and that was it. Did everything possible to make sure we didnt go over the side of the mountain and instead landed in a big snow drift facing back up the hill. Had to wait till a ute loaded with blokes happened by to help get it out and we were back on our way. But never again.
 
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Had my speedo checked at accredited facility in Bexley NSW.

VW Golf
Tyres 38psi Brand new tyres
Old worn tyres will reduce actual speed by 1-2kph

Speedo 40 Real 37
Speedo 60 Real 55
Speedo 70 Real 63
Speedo 80 Real 73
Speedo 100 Real 91
Speedo 110 Real 101

real speed 113 speedo 122
 
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Re: The totally off-topic thread

Inaccurate speedos in new cars drive me to distraction. It's not accidental, nor is it an effect of tyre wear. Each maker picks an error that they like, and you're then stuck with it.

Land Rover/Range Rover, it's 3% plus 3 kph. VW about 7% above 60 kph. Audi about 3%. GMH were about 6% last time I measured one. The cars know their true speed too. In the VWs it was possible to input odd codes to the entertainment system, and you'd get a readout of the true speed...on the heating display.

The upshot of this is that we get mobile road blocks, driving along in the right hand lane of our freeways, blithely blocking everyone else. Their speedo reads 110 kph, but they're really doing about 103. They won't move over, 'cos they think they are in the right, and you're a filthy speedster.
 
Re: The totally off-topic thread

jb747 said:
Inaccurate speedos in new cars drive me to distraction. It's not accidental, nor is it an effect of tyre wear. Each maker picks an error that they like, and you're then stuck with it.
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We have a 2002 Subaru Outback and a 2016 Outback and they both have exactly the same error and overhead by 4.5 kph.
 
Last year the old VW Golf required a timing belt change. This was a major job that required removal of the radiator and the bolts anchoring the engine to the subframe. I got strange looks from service department when I said do not reuse any rubber hoses , fan belt fan belt tensioner, rollers, and I wanted new hose clamps , bolts and especially the engine anchor bolts because after they were torqued there would be a bit of stretch and so retorquing these boots would only stretch them further, Oh and replace water pump and belt rollers because they were in the same area as the timing belt.

Why do service techs reuse exisiting parts when removing them is time consuming. Put a new part in!!
 
I've heard that no car speedo actually reads a lower speed than you are actually doing unless there is something wrong with it.

When I used to drive with my GPS on the dash of rental cars I noticed that all Toyotas were showing 3 kph higher on the speedo than the GPS. This was amazingly consistent. Nissans were 7 kph higher. I currently own a Nissan and it always reads higher on the speedo than any GPS. It also reads 7 kph higher than those overhead speed check signs. The only place I ever see them are heading south from Sydney to the 'Gong on the F6 and between Melbourne and Geelong. Would be handy on the F3 to Sydney's north.
 
I can see a pending court case about Speedo accuracy, sure you could use a fault speedo as a argument. Never calibrated or tested on any vehicle service.and no place to test the accuracy.
 
Re: The totally off-topic thread

I think his baby is going to be playing golf soon :) (LOL)

Quickstatus said:
At the risk of making this too off topic for the off topic thread by continuing the daihatsu thread,,

The 4 door (the sedan version) I think were produced from 1990 and it was the first time the engine size went above 1000cc. Previously was about 800cc - (quad bike territory). Though some were turboed.

Ok JohnK , Ive interspersed this thread with something completely off topic. You can now insert something about golf..
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Quickstatus said:
Last year the old VW Golf required a timing belt change. This was a major job that required removal of the radiator and the bolts anchoring the engine to the subframe. I got strange looks from service department when I said do not reuse any rubber hoses , fan belt fan belt tensioner, rollers, and I wanted new hose clamps , bolts and especially the engine anchor bolts because after they were torqued there would be a bit of stretch and so retorquing these boots would only stretch them further, Oh and replace water pump and belt rollers because they were in the same area as the timing belt.

Why do service techs reuse exisiting parts when removing them is time consuming. Put a new part in!!
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Good move to replace the water pump, our old 2001 Golf had a pump with plastic impellers which eventually crumble and give stange water temperature readings, was very difficult to diagnose, so we put a new pump in and changed the cam belt at the same time.
 
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the timing belts now come in a kit which includes water pump and I think belt tensioner and rollers. It's a big job requiring removing some engine mounting bolts so the new belt can go in.

For the tech heads the reason some high torque fasteners - bolts are single use iis this:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torque-to-yield_fastener

Any bolt with torque specs like "150Nm plus 1/2 turn" is one of these. Most engine mounting bolts, a lot of brake caliber bolts. Wheel bolts don't seem to be the case. And you can't use any bolt / fastener that fits - has to be an original part.
 
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The multi-function change philosophy also applies to the various belts on ride-on mowers.... :rolleyes:
Pity the dealer is a one thing at time model

Happy wandering

Fred
 
Re: The totally off-topic thread

Until they visit Europe, and hire a car..............

Quickstatus said:
my kids are learning in an automatic. I dont see the point of learning in a manual especially when all our cars are autos.
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