Your fleet running reports

[NotoriousREV]

It doesn’t, as I’ve discovered the last couple of days !

It just that it starts MUCH better with glow plugs.

I honestly thought in the last few years they had done away with them entirely, clearly I’m behind the times.

Dave!

When it gets down to about freezing MrsREV’s 420d displays a message to wait for pre-heating and shows the old coil warmup symbol for a few seconds. Otherwise, it doesn’t appear to use them much. I think they fire them up when you unlock the door now and that covers most temps.

[mr_jon]

Aye, I think they are still fitted even to the most modern engines. It's kinda weird to think that they wouldn't be?

[V8Granite]

It doesn’t, as I’ve discovered the last couple of days !

It just that it starts MUCH better with glow plugs.

I honestly thought in the last few years they had done away with them entirely, clearly I’m behind the times.

Dave!

When it gets down to about freezing MrsREV’s 420d displays a message to wait for pre-heating and shows the old coil warmup symbol for a few seconds. Otherwise, it doesn’t appear to use them much. I think they fire them up when you unlock the door now and that covers most temps.

That would make sense, most cars prime the fuel pump when you open the door so doing everything else would be easy.

I don’t use glow plugs on my Defender in the UK, I just crank straight away as unless it’s about minus 10 or so it’ll start instantly. It gives a little love puff on start up but it’s a fixed opening pressure, timing so that’s to be expected. They probably still need it for emissions at starting.

Dave!

[mik]

It doesn’t, as I’ve discovered the last couple of days !

It just that it starts MUCH better with glow plugs.

I honestly thought in the last few years they had done away with them entirely, clearly I’m behind the times.

Dave!

When it gets down to about freezing MrsREV’s 420d displays a message to wait for pre-heating and shows the old coil warmup symbol for a few seconds. Otherwise, it doesn’t appear to use them much. I think they fire them up when you unlock the door now and that covers most temps.

Need to check your Manuel, but I am pretty sure they are always used - they are just quicker to heat up now so don’t bother with a warning light. Unless it is teh brassmonkeys, in which case they need to be on a bit longer so the warning light is illuminated to remind you you’re piloting a compressionigniter.

[scotta]

It doesn’t, as I’ve discovered the last couple of days !

It just that it starts MUCH better with glow plugs.

I honestly thought in the last few years they had done away with them entirely, clearly I’m behind the times.

Dave!

When it gets down to about freezing MrsREV’s 420d displays a message to wait for pre-heating and shows the old coil warmup symbol for a few seconds. Otherwise, it doesn’t appear to use them much. I think they fire them up when you unlock the door now and that covers most temps.

Do you find it turns over very slow when its cold?

[Matty]

My Elise does not do this....

I can sell you a solution to this. Special forum price for you.

Refurb is coming along - you appear to have lost 0.01kg in rust/filth from the underside, so it all counts.

[scotta]

My Elise does not do this....

I can sell you a solution to this. Special forum price for you.

Refurb is coming along - you appear to have lost 0.01kg in rust/filth from the underside, so it all counts.

Im going to change tact on that bit. Ive been using variouswire discs on the drill and dremmel but that just seems to be vaporising the dirt and making it go EVERYWHERE in the garage so im going to give the rest a good scrub with alloy wheel acid first before i start with the power tools.

[mik]

Leaf blowers come in handy for cleaning purposes in such a scenario.

[V8Granite]

My Elise does not do this....

I can sell you a solution to this. Special forum price for you.

Refurb is coming along - you appear to have lost 0.01kg in rust/filth from the underside, so it all counts.

Im going to change tact on that bit. Ive been using variouswire discs on the drill and dremmel but that just seems to be vaporising the dirt and making it go EVERYWHERE in the garage so im going to give the rest a good scrub with alloy wheel acid first before i start with the power tools.

Do you have any good blasting places near you ? I had a pair of old style school chairs done for £30 as they chucked them in with other stuff. Saved me a few hours of work.

Dave!

[Matty]

Leaf blowers come in handy for cleaning purposes in such a scenario.

You'll have to excuse the obvious innuendo, but surely you should be sucking, not blowing? Wouldn't a blower just throw it all around the garage? Fine outside when you can just blow it into next doors garden, but not in your own gaff, surely?

[mik]

Wait til you can roll the car out and then try - it is quite controllable - blow crud to garage door and hoover / sweep into bin

[NotoriousREV]

I honestly thought in the last few years they had done away with them entirely, clearly I’m behind the times.

Dave!

When it gets down to about freezing MrsREV’s 420d displays a message to wait for pre-heating and shows the old coil warmup symbol for a few seconds. Otherwise, it doesn’t appear to use them much. I think they fire them up when you unlock the door now and that covers most temps.

Do you find it turns over very slow when its cold?

Not that I’ve noticed. Sounds like a dodgy battery?

[scotta]

When it gets down to about freezing MrsREV’s 420d displays a message to wait for pre-heating and shows the old coil warmup symbol for a few seconds. Otherwise, it doesn’t appear to use them much. I think they fire them up when you unlock the door now and that covers most temps.

Do you find it turns over very slow when its cold?

Not that I’ve noticed. Sounds like a dodgy battery?

It might be on the way out. But it always starts - even after being sat for nearly 4 weeks when we went to australia. Shrugs. I might stick it on the conditioner overnight. Her car doesnt get much of a run usually. IT will get about 100 miles on it tomorrow though.

[Barry]

Not that anyone really cares but my Ioniq Electric arrived today, currently trickling juice from my house so I can travel further than 30miles from my home (it arrived with 67miles range left.. thanks Holdcroft).

First impressions, it's not an attractive vehicle but it's got a certain quality and charm about it. Nice "Iron Grey" metallic paint, quality interior materials, buttons and beeps everywhere, more airbags than I care to count, connectivity up the wazoo. A thoroughly modern machine. Drove it to local bike shop cafe for a test run, in silence. No resistance in the steering at all, very odd at first, brakes have regen included so that's wierd, acceleration is "fine", smooth and relentless in a gentle kind of way. It'll stick with 90% traffic easily I feel. Lane Keep was on, which was unnerving as it first tried to steer for me. That's fking off now.

As a daily runabout appliance it'll be very pleasant I suspect.

Now for the upside. The Civic is paid up insurance wise, so I asked the insurance broker to add the Hyundai as a second car, which they were happy to do. Policy due in Oct, £192 to add it on. This means I can currently justify keeping the Civic until at least October before i reassess my use/needs for it.. so, range on the EV less of an issue for now, I'll use Civic if I suddenly have the need to drive more than 200+ miles without a break.

Had the granny charger (13a home plug) on it for an hour now and gained a whole 2% so that clearly won't do for regular use. Next job is a home charger install, and since OLEV changed the rules they have to be smart chargers now (giving the provider the access to restrict charging rates remotely, would you believe) they're all £450+ AFTER the grant. That buys a lot of petrol.. Altho it does mean I start journeys with a full tank, so no hassle having to top up when I want to go somewhere.

[Swervin_Mervin]

Nice one Barry.

Don't forget to keep the doom-mongers informed of how often you reailse you can't do a certain journey, or get stranded somewhere without charge etc, etc.

Re: smart chargers - sounds suspicious, but AFAIK it's also as much about ensuring you retain flexibility of charging with some of the more flexible tarriffs that are coming out. Again though, I know the tin-foil hatters are making out that smart-meters and chargers are so that they can plunge us all into darkness when we don't do as we're told.

[integrale_evo]

Last week I started driving sensibly to see what sort of mpgs I could get from the mito if driven like a normal human.

I then couldn't be bothered to fill up last weekend so turned into a bit of a game of chicken to see if I could last all this week too.

Drove the journey home today with the range showing just dashes and the fuel light on. Got to 1/2 a mile from my preferred petrol station and a beep and low fuel warning message appeared.

I wasn't particularly hypermiling just driving like a normal person, keeping up with traffic, the odd overtake, mixed roads with a lot of cross country twisties and several cold starts / windscreen scraping / heated seats use.

Averaged bang on 40mpg over 320miles. Not amazing, but fine.

Found it more economical in dynamic mode, the throttle response and way it builds boost makes it far more flexible in the higher gears. Also noticed how poor the mpg was on the instant read out for the first few miles before it had properly warmed up.

[NotoriousREV]

My Mito used to annoy me that the low fuel warning light and low fuel warning message appeared to be triggered by different systems. Sometimes the light would come on before you got the message and sometimes it was the other way round. And blanking the range when the fuel light comes on is fucking stupid, that’s when you need the range read out more than ever!

[Rich B]

Nice one Barry.

Don't forget to keep the doom-mongers informed of how often you reailse you can't do a certain journey, or get stranded somewhere without charge etc, etc.

its ok, he has another fully functioning car to rely on.

[Mito Man]

Yep the dial turns on when you have 5 litres left. The screen warns you when you have 60 miles I think so it depends on your recent driving as to when that one beeps. When I’ve been driving solely in London it will give the low fuel warning with over 1/4 tank remaining.

[Barry]

Nice one Barry.

Don't forget to keep the doom-mongers informed of how often you reailse you can't do a certain journey, or get stranded somewhere without charge etc, etc.

Re: smart chargers - sounds suspicious, but AFAIK it's also as much about ensuring you retain flexibility of charging with some of the more flexible tarriffs that are coming out. Again though, I know the tin-foil hatters are making out that smart-meters and chargers are so that they can plunge us all into darkness when we don't do as we're told.

The car does its own scheduled charging times as it happens but yeah, I'm not worried about the grid turning my charging unit down, the grid can handle what's coming. I'd love to go solar/house battery but at current prices it's at least a ten year payback period.. Not worth it.

Range wise, the only trip I've done in the past year that this car couldn't handle would be the Scottish longweekender. I'll do boring updates as and when it needs it.