stalling, throttle (gas) cuts out and then restarts

Yep, agree with that - and I understood how they worked without any training. Just a part that could only work properly one way.

Electronic systems are my main lament of modern cars and maintenance/repair.

Rob

[...]

For the average owner, they have improved almost every aspect of car ownership in a way that couldn't have been imagined 40 years ago.

Chris

I was rather impressed by this escape from the desert in a half a 2cv:

That's more a case of "appropriate technology" for that environment. A stone axe may be easy to fix but that doesn't necessarily make it better than a steel axe.

Most of us here in the UK though are very happy that engines are much more reliable, powerful and cleaner running than they ever used to be.

Tim

[...]

Yep, and over the life of the vehicle, cheaper and more convenient.

3,000 miles service intervals, engines with a life expectancy of 40K, steering and suspension components that might well require attention annually, charging systems that simply couldn't cope in the winter, drum brakes with manual adjusters that needed tweaking every six months to even have a hope of stopping in a straight line, manual chokes that required careful nursing in order to make progress when cold... - no thanks!

Chris

And trying to get Fords started on cold winter morns;!.

And the sill's needing welding on anything with Ford or BL on it at 5 years olde..

Topping up the battery which seemed never to charge that well by ye olde DC dynamo..

But...

Petrol at 1/6 per gallon ...

** NOW THOSE DAYS CAN COME BACK:--)))...

[...]

I had a trick with the manual-choke Fords of that era; When parking for the night, pull the choke out just before turning off, and they would start up first touch of the key in the morning.

... or Rootes or Vauxhall or pretty much anything else.

The theoretical output of a typical dynamo is 17A, although you would never get more than around 15A. The load of a car from then with the lights, heater blower, and wipers on was around 25A. During the winter months, night-time running would always deplete the battery charge, even at speed.

Not sure how far back you are going there, but I remember thinking after an increase in 1963 that a gallon plus a shot of two-stroke oil for my motorcycle was becoming unaffordable at 5/-!

Chris

Yep, agree with that - and I understood how they worked without any training. Just a part that could only work properly one way.

Electronic systems are my main lament of modern cars and maintenance/repair.

Rob

Petrol is 'only' 20% more expensive now than it was 30 years ago. In

2009 it was 10% cheaper.

Rob

En el artículo , Chris Whelan escribió:

Hard to see how being forced* to pay 80 quid to a main stealer to push a button to reset the airbag light on my Mini is an improvement :-)

Thanks for the help you gave me with that recently, by the way - much appreciated.

• found a local guy who will do it for a tenner, it's just getting a round tuit. Also watching an auction for the reset tool on eBay.

Smiley noted, but you weren't *forced* to pay 80 quid - you can get it done for a tenner. And with respect, it was self-induced...!

In the meantime, you have the benefits of safety features that have improved your chances of accident survival by several orders of magnitude when compared to the original Mini.

FWIW, I'm old enough to remember when alternators were first introduced. At that time, dynamos required regular attention and maintenance, and the doom-tellers were predicting massive increases in repair costs due to how expensive alternators were, and how they would need specialists to repair them.

It never happened for two main reasons.

Firstly, the reliability was *much* higher than a dynamo, so many owners never saw a failed alternator. Secondly, non-OEM repairers quickly found out cheap and simple ways to fix them.

Within a couple of years of their common use, I was able to diagnose and replace diode packs, brushes, bearings, and even sliprings, quite easily and cheaply. In the meantime, the world was saved from the scourge of the truly dreadful mechanical regulator.

Now, alternators will often last for 100K miles or more, or about equivalent to three dynamos and one regulator box!

Chris

En el artículo , Chris Whelan escribió:

I do think though the vast majority of car owners not savvy enough, confident enough, or with insufficient time would stump up, and this is what the dealers rely on.

You live and learn. :-)

No arguing with that.

I remember my original 1973 Beetle had a dynamo, and aftermarket alternator upgrades were available.

Mum broke down in it in Chester once and called out the AA. The patrolman asked her where the battery was, as he didn't know, nor did she. (It's under the back seat.) When he eventually found it, it was dry as a bone - it had never been topped up with water. Bunged some distilled water in, jump started it and it ran for years after that on the same battery until the tin worm did for it.

Maybe, maybe not. Drivers took a lot more care without being nannied by airbags and crush zones. These days they don't give a toss knowing that if they crash it is unlikely they will get seriously hurt.

We used to have many less cars on the road doing much less miles at lower speeds but the number of killed/serious injuries was absolutely horrendous (so they were not careful at all), now vast numbers of crashes involve no or minor injury only, and the figures are seriously reduced and dropping every year.

1941: 9,169 killed (not many cars about) 1960: 6,970 killed (not a lot of safety equipment) 2011 : 1,901 killed

Remember back in 1974 sliding round a curve on some hidden ice towards an oncoming lorry and thought "this is it, goodbye world!" but I just managed to control it enough to hit the lorry's front wheel and spun several times coming to rest in a field.

Was OK apart from being shaken up a bit or more!. Was picking glass particles out of most everywhere for days afterwards but the worst part was explaining it to her Dad who was not much pleased that I'd almost slaughtered his lovely daughter;!..

As to the Mini it was split on most every seam and joint, it looked like it was on a production line wanting welding back together!..

Since that time large estate cars with a decent amount of crunch-able metal around please..

Some years later after we split I still knew her as a friend, she was involved in a low speed collision with another car. I spent a Saturday bending the front to the Mini Metro back together again with a pair of mole grips, pliers and bare hands, that thing was made out of Coke cans not Tin ones;!....

Mine on ye olde Audisaurus has done 17 years now:)..

Yes well there is the time/age/distortion continuum to contend with;!...

So when was petrol cheapest relative to average earnings then?...

Not had much experience of them apart from getting a third party repairer to do the ABS unit on our olde Volvo a couple of years ago for around a 100 quid rather then the 700 odd Volvo wanted.

Problem is diagnoses and or lack of the relevant software..

Maybe there are other factors. My daughter was in a serious smash and there is little doubt that she wouldn't have lived if it hadn't been for modern medicine who put her back together. The car (Seat) just folded but the airbag totally protected her head and although nearly every bone in her body was broke there was no head damage whatsoever.

Who used to have to pay to have the car Krypton tuned every 3000miles.