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Bos

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Sorry for the OT post , but as some of you already know one of our forum members, Matt (Snailracer) is taking part in the Mongol Rally , and I just thought you may be interested in an update.

They are driving a Fiat Panda (kindly donated by Paul W) and after leaving Hyde Park on Saturday afternoon have fairly flown through Europe and are currently in the Ukraine and should shortly be into Russia.

I will update as much as possible, but i am currently only in touch via text messages.

Team Snailracer

Mongol Rally

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saw some of the competitors on the M4 on saturday morning, on their way up to London for the start, said to the Mrs they were on the Mongolia rally.... and she said they were going the wrong way for mongolia... :rolleyes:

When i asked her where Mongolia was... she said she thought it was near Angolia.... :rolleyes::lol:

....and she teaches physics and chemistry to the scientists of tomorrow........

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They have just today entered into Russia, the Panda is giving a few little problems, firstly Matt had to remove a prop after the transmission became noisy, which solved the problem but now they are back to 2WD, also the brake pads needed changing, and they have had a couple of flat tyres.

They are glad to be out of the Ukraine as apparently the Police have been a nightmare stopping everyone , Matt was stopped for 'speeding' and given an on the spot fine of $50.

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Another update (hope you're not bored yet).

They are currently in Kazakhstan, just about here. Which is more or less about half way, although I think they have seen the best of the roads as Matt says it is now better to drive off the roads than on them :unsure:

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Following my problems the other day I got hold of SP2 and things are sort of working again now - delayed the inevitable reinstall till I get a bigger hard drive!

But I have a little problem with Outlook Express. SP2 has a new version of Windows Messenger built in to it, and it insists on signing me in to the MSN Messenger service every time the computer starts up, which is a pain in the butt because I don't want to! If you run MSN Messenger and sign in on that you get a message saying you have signed out as you signed in at another location, and after that it is ok, but it is a bit of a pain. My laptop does the same (never noticed it before!).

Any ideas?

Ta

S.

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Another update (hope you're not bored yet).

They are currently in Kazakhstan, just about here. Which is more or less about half way, although I think they have seen the best of the roads as Matt says it is now better to drive off the roads than on them :unsure:

Blimey! never realised multimap went to 20,000,000 scale and beyond!

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Thing is I use OE at work as well and I like to be able to shunt messages around between them by just copying whole folders, I guess you can't do that with different programs.

Might check it out anyway though - any other good OE replacements worth looking at? I am 100% converted to Firefox instead of Internet Exploder

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Thing is I use OE at work as well and I like to be able to shunt messages around between them by just copying whole folders, I guess you can't do that with different programs.

Might check it out anyway though - any other good OE replacements worth looking at? I am 100% converted to Firefox instead of Internet Exploder

Actually, you can do something even better with Thunderbird... if you have a USB memory stick you can use a modified version called PortableThunderbird to take your whole program, settings, accounts and mail with you wherever you go! Simply plug in the USB stick and run the app. Check www.portableapps.com for more info.

Another way is to make Thunderbird look in a specific location for it's profile. We can then copy that profile from one machine to another.

First install Thunderbird on your home PC. Setup your accounts and download any mail. Then click 'Start', 'Run' and type '%appdata%' (without the quotes), this should open an explorer window to a directory in your Windows profile. Open the 'Mozilla Thunderbird' directory (working from memory here, might be slightly different) and look for a directory that ends with '.default'. Copy the contents of this to a new directory, something like 'c:\mail' and to the same location on any pc you want to use Thunderbird on. Install Thunderbird on the other PC's you want to use but don't run it yet.

Then, the easiest thing to do is alter the shortcut that starts thunderbird and add the following to the end of the command line: ' -profile c:\mail" so it should read something like 'c:\program files\mozilla thunderbird\thunderbird.exe -profile C:\mail'. All you need to do then is keep the directory up to date like I assume you do now.

This was rushed slightly, I'd recommend using the PortableThunderbird version if you can but if you'd like any more help with the modified profile directory trick then drop me a PM... if not, I'll just stop rambling :P

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Thanks

I've discovered the solution.... there is a Microsoft knowledge base article on it here, seems like a known issue.

Basically you have to open regedit and then insert a new registry key in the appropriate place. Found that this evening - done - and fixed :)

So I can now open MSN Messenger when I want to, and the damn thing doesn't log on when I don't want to (i.e. every time I open Outlook Express)

I've downloaded Thunderbird though, will have a better look at that at some point too

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I've got a Fiat Punto with one plug not getting any HT

The coil pack appears to have two coils, each with 2 HT connectors and an LT connector.

I understand that on the coil unit these HT connectors are connected together, wasted spark or something.

By swapping wires around I found it is the actual HT outlet that isn't providing HT, but looking with an ohmeter both coils meter out identically.

I'm guessing that the HT outlets on a coil are just connected together, but why should they meter out the same, yet only one supply a spark? :angry:

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I've got a Fiat Punto with one plug not getting any HT

The coil pack appears to have two coils, each with 2 HT connectors and an LT connector.

I understand that on the coil unit these HT connectors are connected together, wasted spark or something.

By swapping wires around I found it is the actual HT outlet that isn't providing HT, but looking with an ohmeter both coils meter out identically.

I'm guessing that the HT outlets on a coil are just connected together, but why should they meter out the same, yet only one supply a spark? :angry:

Dunno - but I reckon you could spend longer trying to figure it out than it would take to go down the scrappies and get a new coil pack. Can't imagine they go for much.

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Dunno - but I reckon you could spend longer trying to figure it out than it would take to go down the scrappies and get a new coil pack. Can't imagine they go for much.

No transport unfortunately, courtesy of a car theif and Cornhill Insurance

Probably make a claim on the warranty - I paid £80 for the car after all.

:blink:

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The system works by literally firing the spark from one plug through the head and back up the other plug to complete the circuit.

A quick way to test the system is swop the coils over, if the spark fault remains on the same plug then the ECU is shot (very common fault on Puntos unfortunately). You can buy one from Fiat or a repairer.

They DO NOT need to be programmed, just plug it in, start the vehicle and allow it to warm up. Once the fan has cut in, rev the engine 3 times over 3000rpm to complete programming.

Speak to these guys:

ecu technologies ltd

unit 103 anglesey court

towers business park

rugeley

staffordshire

ws15 1uz

01889 575057

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The system works by literally firing the spark from one plug through the head and back up the other plug to complete the circuit.

A quick way to test the system is swop the coils over, if the spark fault remains on the same plug then the ECU is shot (very common fault on Puntos unfortunately). You can buy one from Fiat or a repairer.

They DO NOT need to be programmed, just plug it in, start the vehicle and allow it to warm up. Once the fan has cut in, rev the engine 3 times over 3000rpm to complete programming.

Thanks for that, sounds a bit rum!

I effectively swapped the coils over by swapping the HT and the LT leads over and the fault stayed with the same (front) coil, but I would have thought if the coil was open circuit both sparks would be affected, sounds like a short to earth on that HT connector. I'll double check tomorrow.

The more I see of modern cars, the more I want my SIII on the road!

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