08-01-2017, 09:55 PM
Beautiful (if loud and a bit smelly). Best of this is that it´s so simple yet seemingly unortodox.
My eldest had a brainwave when he was six and the motor had two flat tyres - front one a slow puncture and the other an unfriendly gang of teens passing who decided to balance the imbalance at the rear...
As I scratched my head, he simply told me to use my bicycle pump to reinflate the tyres - and it worked, even if it did take upwards of 300 strokes of the pump to work. We made it to the nearest EuroMaster for a puncture repair.
Another was years ago when two of the local lads were wondering why one´s E100 Corolla was only making a click when they turned the key in the ignition. "Bounce it up and down at the front" I said. They wouldn´t so I did... car started immediately. Solenoids need a shake now and then!
I didn´t like having to turn up the heating control to try to reduce the excessive heating of my 1.6 engine when I was driving my 306 home for the first time (300 miles) when the temperature was already perfectly comfortable, but it also worked.
Relevant to this time of the year, my Dad was one for preventing freezing and warming the car quickly by draining the engine of our (always really crappy) car by opening the radiator plug when parked up at night and refilling in the morning using water from the hot tap (not the kettle). I don´t think this is possible on newer cars given expansion tanks and sealed systems etc., but it used to work on a Fiat 128, Toyota 1000 and old Escort 1100, but that was then and this is now!
My eldest had a brainwave when he was six and the motor had two flat tyres - front one a slow puncture and the other an unfriendly gang of teens passing who decided to balance the imbalance at the rear...
As I scratched my head, he simply told me to use my bicycle pump to reinflate the tyres - and it worked, even if it did take upwards of 300 strokes of the pump to work. We made it to the nearest EuroMaster for a puncture repair.
Another was years ago when two of the local lads were wondering why one´s E100 Corolla was only making a click when they turned the key in the ignition. "Bounce it up and down at the front" I said. They wouldn´t so I did... car started immediately. Solenoids need a shake now and then!
I didn´t like having to turn up the heating control to try to reduce the excessive heating of my 1.6 engine when I was driving my 306 home for the first time (300 miles) when the temperature was already perfectly comfortable, but it also worked.
Relevant to this time of the year, my Dad was one for preventing freezing and warming the car quickly by draining the engine of our (always really crappy) car by opening the radiator plug when parked up at night and refilling in the morning using water from the hot tap (not the kettle). I don´t think this is possible on newer cars given expansion tanks and sealed systems etc., but it used to work on a Fiat 128, Toyota 1000 and old Escort 1100, but that was then and this is now!
