Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

A girl asked me today if I thought getting a used Mini Cooper would be a good idea. You know what? I told her to buy a Suzuki Swift instead.
 
What are the torque figures for them? And weights? I'm betting the sporty one weighs less and makes more torque, which is what really matters.

Wrong. What matters is if you can do this with it :

Auto%20op%20twee%20wielen%20-%20Transporter3.jpg
 
Those tires must be filled with cement, no deformation at all.
 
What are the torque figures for them? And weights? I'm betting the sporty one weighs less and makes more torque, which is what really matters.

S8 4.2 vs A8 6.0:

S8
360 ps @ 7000 rpm
420 Nm @ 3400 rpm
1730 kg

W12
420 ps @ 6000 rpm
550 Nm @ 4250 rpm
1940 kg

The S8 is lighter, has a manual gearbox and sporty suspension, the W12 is more powerful but heavier, has a tiptronic automatic and a wallowy comfort suspension. Which one you find cooles depends on what you want in a car. I know I care about handling and manual gearboxes, so the S8 is the one for me.
 
Last edited:
My check engine light has been on for 4 days, but nothing seems to be wrong and it does that periodically.
 
My car beeped at me and displayed a warning light last night, so I pulled over and dug out the manual, fearing the worst. It was just tire pressure... must be getting colder.
 
So now to figure out what caused the misfire? Plug, wire, coil pack, valve, valve spring..... who knows.

I don't feel like taking it to a mechanic. Where's Edd China when you need him?
 
Must be the new government bureaucracy. After all, if the government pays $10,000 for a toilet seat and $8000 for a hammer, you should happily shell out thousands of dollars for a safety triangle from Government Motors, right? :p

The best part is that nobody seems to have bothered double checking any of this before taking it live. Doesn't that just inspire confidence that they're going to assemble your new car with that same level of attention to detail?

I'm going to guess that their system doesn't support decimal places in prices, because all the prices make perfect sense if you put a decimal point in.

Whatever, though, the overpriced options have disappeared from the web site.
 
Have you looked under the hood yet? I assume so since you know which cylinder is the culprit.

No actually. I just pulled the code so far. I can't imagine I would find anything by looking under the hood anyway.

I should mention I was having this problem in the same cylinder 3 years ago back while I was having starting problems as well. The plugs were all replaced at the time and I eventually had to get a new ECU to solve the starting problem which also cured the misfire. The mechanic did say though that a valve spring in cylinder 3 was "getting stuck" and that he "lubricated" it. Why he didn't actually fix it I don't know, but the problem hasn't occurred again until now.
 
Last edited:
I only ask if you looked under the hood because I remember having a misfire and noticed that the spark plug wire had actually come off the spark plug.

He probably lubricated it with a hammer, or whatever was laying around that was heavy
 
There's a Ford Escape that parks in my Windsor, Ontario neighbourhood that has a bunch of "Buying Canadian Matters!" and "Out Of A Job Yet? Keep Buying Foreign!" type stickers on it. That's fine, nothing wrong with that belief.

But, errr, the Ford Escape is built in the United States.

:think: :think: :think:

Come on...... If you're going to admonish people to buy goods built in your own country, you could at least set a good example by driving a Ford Edge or Flex, which are built in Canada.
 
Just got pulled over by the cops for taking the XJR around a corner sideways in the rain. :p
 
Did he want a try at it too? :p
 
My favorite kind of cop. :D
 
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s53OpkKKf24[/YOUTUBE]

:blink:
 
Top