Turbocharger

Blimey! That's about 2 m^3/s under the car and 2m^3/s through the footwells! How do you measure it?

I'm not sure - I don't remember any of it. I must have been asleep

Oi - you all leave Fi alone! I only called them wombles to get a bite from Fi - it's always awkward offering people advice because they normally "know better" and her mates correctly suggested that I would be better off with hazard lights on. The nice thing about this breakdown was that I could pick my spot behind a bridge stanchion, out of harms way. The wire fell off the injector pump on my Discovery in lane 3 once - I managed to get that across three lanes, up a sliproad, left at a roundabout and into a layby on junction 13 of the M5

Depends on how you look at it. Those ARB bumpers are solid bits of kit. How would the notable resilience of a LR wing have coped with the same incident without the extra steelwork? I'd bet it wouldn't look like a Defender any more...

I'm amazed nobody's covered the most obvious solution yet.... In terms of probabilities it usually comes just before Fridge mentions M*gasquirt.

There's a talk tonight in Reading on road charging schemes, hosted by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers: Road Pricing in the UK Date: 21/02/2007 Time: 19:00 - 20:00 Event type: Technical Lecture Event status: Active Venue Address: Shire Hall, Foster Wheeler Reading RG2 9FW United Kingdom Speaker: Dr. John Walker Description: To make best use of the road network and to reduce congestion and pollution drivers need to use their cars less and public transport more, to drive at less congested times, and to use alternative routes. Road pricing is one way to encourage this; it helps to control demand for road space, and also produces a revenue stream for investment in transport infrastructure. The UK Secretary of State for Transport has confirmed the Government's intention to introduce road pricing into the UK - though the timescale is uncertain. The talk outlines the reasons for international interest in road pricing, describes the systems and technologies used, and covers developments in the UK, Europe and world-wide Additional Information: Following a PhD at Reading University and a postdoctoral Fellowship in solid-state physics at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris John joined Racal (now Thales) as a Technical Manager in 1980. He led the company into the Government-funded DIRECTS Road Pricing demonstration project, and was an Expert Advisor to Transport for London in their Congestion Charging technology trials. John is on the Executive Committee of the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s Automotive and Road Transport Technical and Professional Network, for whom he has organised five international seminars on Road Pricing. He is the editor of two books: “Mobile Information Systems” (1990) and “Advances in Mobile Information Systems” (1998), and of two book Series, “ITS” and “Mobile Communications”, published by Artech House. His current role within Thales is business development in the road-pricing field, working closely with other Thales companies in the UK and France. For more information please contact: Ritchie Denver Tel: 0118 9133816 Email: ritchie_denver@fwuk.fwc.com http://nearyou.imeche.org.uk/events/event.htm?eID=660

Ah, y'see, I was speedin' an all too but it's ok cos my mate's a racing driver and he showed me how to drive with one eye on the rev counter so I'm definately an advanced driver, I can lap my local villij quicker than Dave from the pub and he's got a Sooobaru. Clever, perhaps not, but is it actually illegal? For legal reasons I will obviously point out that my passenger took the photo over an extra-wide bonnet.

There's something fishy going on here. I've never seen a plate like this before, now two in a week (this one on the M4 near Bracknell): Clearly the government are experimenting on me by creating history and then supplying evidence to support the idea. Which of you aren't real people?

Stevie Wonder's design "classic"?

Well, you can see that it picks the whole car up and starts to push it down stream... What's the volume of a footwell? They filled up quite quickly.

The police called at my parents' farm to report some loose livestock, and walked between two identical white Volvos with the same numberplate on both. He'd written one off by running it into Gloucestershire, bought a replacement in the same colour and transferred the reg across. Since the old one was being used as a (wonky) farm wheelbarrow, there was no need to take the plates off... Worryingly, the fuzz didn't say a word.

I think he's added an aftermarket crack in the inlet manifold, from what he said to me just before Christmas...

I have a switch on the gearstick and a switch on the bonnet slam, as well as the remote socket there too. The electricity for a MM is very simple, supply 12v and switch it to one wire for 'in', the other wire for 'out'. Since I fitted the switches I don't even carry the wanderlead in the car any more, it's too much faffing.

Yeah, imagine, making a B out of 13 or something like that, eh?

Hardly! With a job in London, a girlfriend in Bristol and half a house in Manchester, it's lucky if it sees any mud - the TracEdges are beating tarmac miles most weekends. The economics say I ought to get a cheap car but I like the LR and Ken Livingstone says I can only have one resident's parking permit so ... Good tip on the bearing though Boggy - I thought it was only good for bits but if it's rebuildable then I'll get a bearing and throw it in the shed as a spare. I'd fished a new belt out of the back and, in a moment of boredom, cut the old one into lengths to zip-tie them to pipes under the bonnet to stop them chafing through eventually. Then Keir arrived with the new alternator and I found the belt I'd carried for 3 years was too long...

^^^ He was actually working Yeah, working out how to bolt his lathe to his garage floor from the safety and comfort of his bed... PS I still owe you for an alternator

Since my aquatic adventures a few weeks back (see Woman trouble: advice sought) there's been a whining noise as the car goes along, proportional to the engine speed and George's level of sobriety. I fuelled her up (and then put diesel in the car) but the noise was still there, and was particularly noticeable this morning as I left Bristol for London. M32: "I'm sure that noise is getting worse" M4 J18: "Could be the alternator. Could be the water pump. It could be a camshaft bearing" M4 J17: "I hope it's the alternator, a nice easy swap. But I've got a spare water pump in the car." M4 J16: "Cor, someone's brakes smell bad. A bit like burning rubber, that. Why's my charge light on?" [some time later] M4 J16: <internal monologue> Uh oh, here come the wombles to tell me t... "Yes Officer Bungo, the hazard lights are switched on but I pulled the battery lead off just after the car filled with smoke" [yet more time later] M4 J16: <Sigh> "No, don't bother with your winch, it'll drive straight onto your truck so long as you don't overheat it. My thanks to the eventual heroes of this story, Titcombes Recovery for dragging me back to their yard so I could take the seized alternator off Pete at Christian Autos for supplying the correct part off the shelf - do you trust your vendor enough to give you the right part, first time, every time? Keir (TroddenMasses) for leaving his warm bed to drive around the SW of England chasing after me. With the help of the above, the total delay was about 2 hours.

Aah, bingo. That explains it, the 1963(?) format. And Mr Monster, I haven't said anything right since birth unless Mrs Turbo says I'm allowed to, and even then I'm wrong.

^^ That sounds like a good deal. I did the maths last summer and went with Green Flag. In fact, I was using them this morning (Thanks to Keir for freighting me an alternator to my breakdown too!)

Spotted in Kensington (of course):

Les - I had a NAD so no need/point intercooling it. I can't remember which engine the Pintle nozzles were from (a mate suggested it and sourced them for me) but I remember they fitted in standard LR injector bodies and with fuelling mods too it went very well (70mph on the flat from a NAD!)... ... but I did have to rebuild it after one of the piston skirts broke up climbing a hill at 55mph in 3rd Oh to be a teenager again. I wonder if IIA 2.25D injectors would fit a TD? I know they had a higher rate than S3 items (the IIA bodies look much chunkier on the side of the head) and they were a known tweak to your 2.25D - some highly tuned units were able to pull the skin off a rice pudding.

I had an LT77. It was ok, no racing transmission. Then I went 300Tdi / R380. Apart from reverse being in a different place I can't say I really noticed a marked difference. As John said, I snapped a mainshaft in my early R380. So I bought a later one. (and now I'm going auto, but that's for offroad).

Well, I've not done the maths but... I reckon that your long, floppy spring will be pushing with (say) 100lb of force when the wheel's dropped 6", and 50lb when it's dropped 7". By the time you're at 8" travel, it has dislocated and there's no more force, so no more traction. With Si's setup, by that point the short, stiff spring has dislocated and stopped pushing, but the long, soft spring will be pushing with around 100lb. The benefit is that, the soft spring can still be pushing with 75lb with 7" droop, and 50lb at 8" droop, giving you better articulation. On a steep drop with the numbers above you'd be better off up til the wheel drops 6" since you'd be using shorter, stiffer springs. From there you get less reduction in force with every inch of droop (on the soft springs). So yes, it would be worse off in the extreme case, but better than if you achieved the same droop/articulation performance with really long soft springs. I'm sure Si will be along shortly to debunk my interpretation of his technology...

I christen it the Shrekcover© because of the ears.

I had a Series 3. I now have a Ninety. I also had a Discovery. I went back to the Ninety. All were my daily drive (and at the moment, I live in London and my girlfriend lives in Bristol). For me, coil springs and power steering swung it. The S3 was fun but only a hero drives one every day.