It's definately pinking!

In news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com, Peter decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

no, HTH.

Cold oil, it tends to make gearboxes a bit tighter.

a Ka? Pinking? Hmm, are you sure it's not your earrings?

Other way round, advanced = pinking, retarded = sluggish as hell.

Beware, the Seat might have done more than 2 miles and your mum wouldn't like it.

The message from petermcmillan snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com (Peter) contains these words:

Why are you letting it labour?

The gears will only crunch if you're not mechanically sympathetic. When it's cold don't just slam it into gear, let it hover in neutral for around a second whilst selecting the next gear firmly but not forcefully. When it's warmed up it'll be fine. My Renault Master's like that, but only when cold, and I'm gentle with it when it's cold and when it's warmed up it's fine. I suppose it must be to do with the gearbox oil also needing to warm up to some extent to have a proper effect, or just circulate properly.

It's no good replacing the fanbelt if it's not tensioned properly. Mind you if it's been squealing for a while it will have probably weakened, so probably for the best - replace it and make sure it's nice and tight (but not too tight).

Well how about not letting it labour?

Well don't let it labour. Select a lower gear. Simple.

WTF?

No it's because you're not supposed to labour the engine. Use a lower gear.

Something's retarded.

Yes, but I doubt anyone who's heard your stories about it would want to buy it. Having said that, there's probably f*ck all wrong with it.

Why do you want to be a year old Seat Arosa TDI? You do about 6 frikking miles a week! Most of your problems you describe are due to the fact that you've bought a crappy underpowered shopping trolley and clearly don't know how to drive the thing. If you want something small, newish and with a bit more power, go for something like a 1 litre Micra. Much better engine, chain driven (I think), and gettable for under £4k with extremely low miles on the clock.

Peter

-- "The truth is working in television is not very glamorous at all. I just go home on my own at night and sit alone and eat crisps."

The message from "AstraVanMan" contains these words:

I think Peter might actually need to learn to drive.

I used to have learners like him - worried about the most amazing fine detail while missing the broad sweep of how to drive safely.

Things like "How do I switch on the hazard warning lights?" while negotiation the Hangar Lane Gyratory System, or "Now, that's a nice colour for a car" as we try to get through that ghastly junction just north of M4J4- that sort of thing.

Why pay around £4k for just 6 miles of driving per week? That's 312 miles a year. I do that every two weeks and drive a £210 Uno. Similar engine design as Peter's car too.

I really think Peter should just get it looked at by a mechanic. It's probably so damn simple to fix.

So that Arosa is like £4,800? Just get a mechanic to fix the Fiat thing and build up your no claims.

Warning This Post Contains Rough Guesses and WILD assumptions

Wow really... assuming that annual mileage your car tax (sorry 'road fund licence') costs you 38p per mile

Fuel 12p/mile

Insurance say £100 per annum 32p/mile

Works out at 82 p per mile...... Would a taxi not be cheaper?

A regulated fare in black cab for 4 miles is either £11.00, £13.20 or £15.80 depending on when you make it.

Peter vaguely muttered something like ...

Check, change, fill up the oil .. Make sure you use the correct grade ..

You can't drive then, don't let it labour ..

Just let a competant mechanic do a full service on it, and make sure you let him/her know your concerns.

Yes, I can't see the sense of it, but he wants something with that new car smell, and I reckon a 1-2 year old old shape ('93 onwards) Micra with less than 10k on the clock could still just about have that. Plus mummy won't let him get something newer.

It's probably not even broken. It just looks like he can't drive.

Peter

-- "The truth is working in television is not very glamorous at all. I just go home on my own at night and sit alone and eat crisps."

In message , Paul - xxx writes

And then get a competent person to drive it.

Here we go again - longest troll ever championship.

Peter - buy a moped, learn how to drive that first. That will teach you roadcraft and how to keep the revs up.

The message from "Tom Burton" contains these words:

Or a bicycle.

The message from "AstraVanMan" contains these words:

You can buy that in a can.

My feet were wet and the clutch pedal kept slipping. It also labours when the cooling fan came on.

The clutch pedal kept slipping? How does that relate to the engine labouring? You do know you're supposed to keep your foot off the clutch pedal except when changing gear, right?

Peter

-- "The truth is working in television is not very glamorous at all. I just go home on my own at night and sit alone and eat crisps."

Oh, I always go gentle with the gears, I probably wait a second, but I'll try a bit longer. This is a Seicento though and the gears are pretty bad at the best of times!

I've tensioned it a couple of times and I think it needs replacing.

I was in 1st gear! My left foot was slipping, so as I pulled away it flicked to the top and occasionally almost resulted in a stall. The other problem was when the cooling fan came on during manouvres. The load of the cooling fan was a lot for the engine, and I don't hear the fan until the car starts to struggle.

When your feet are wet don't the slip on the pedals? When I try lifting my foot slowly the stupid thing flicks up when they're wet.

lol

The Seat Arosa TDI won't be be underpowered, it's got loads of Torque!

I do know how to drive! What you're all saying is embarssing!

No, those Micra's are too old. I really want to get a new car if I can ever afford one.

Argh, no I don't!

I probably am guilty of that sometimes, but I think we all are. Believe it or not I'm probably the best driver in my family, and if you saw how my family drive you'd believe me!

No, I'm not a Blonde! In those situations I usually concentrating the traffic around me. Trust me, I'm really not that bad! One day I'll pass the IAM test, and prove all of you wrong, it may be a while before I join though :-(

The message from petermcmillan snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com (Peter) contains these words:

I think you're using the wrong term. Labouring is when the car's in too high a gear and thus the engine is running too slowly to cope smoothly.