Cheapest Petrol & Diesel Discussion Area

ssang

Maybe this has been said before, but I am amazed to see queues of cars in jams, in town, and stuck on hills in snow, with their headlights on. Do they not realize that the more a dynamo charges, the harder it is for the engine to turn it?

bigadaj

ssang wrote: »

Maybe this has been said before, but I am amazed to see queues of cars in jams, in town, and stuck on hills in snow, with their headlights on. Do they not realize that the more a dynamo charges, the harder it is for the engine to turn it?

Depends, all modern carrs, post 2012 I believe, are fitted with and have to use daytime running lights, which aren't optional in most cases.

forgotmyname

Quite often the DRL's are LEDs and the entire blackpool illuminated car draws as little power as a single old fashioned interior bulb.

I know people used to pull the sidelight fuses on Volvo's because they did mostly short journeys and even 2 small sidelight bulbs drew enough powerhave an effect over short journeys.

bigjl

ssang wrote: »

Maybe this has been said before, but I am amazed to see queues of cars in jams, in town, and stuck on hills in snow, with their headlights on. Do they not realize that the more a dynamo charges, the harder it is for the engine to turn it?

Dynamo?

Seriously.

And as said above these are more likely to be DRLs which as said are usually LED and will make less difference than having your radio on.

I-LOV-MONEY

What are DRLs ??

whowants2brich

Daytime Running Lights, because an EU directive states that cars with more lights are more visible during the day... Even if they are so bright that they dazzle others... So they must be on and cannot be turned off (aside from removing bulbs or fuses, which would be an mot fail...?)

Iceweasel

whowants2brich wrote: »

Daytime Running Lights, because an EU directive states that cars with more lights are more visible during the day... Even if they are so bright that they dazzle others... So they must be on and cannot be turned off (aside from removing bulbs or fuses, which would be an mot fail...?)

What a load of rubbish! - Sorry I'll rephrase that - You may be mistaken.

DRLs save lives - and they do NOT dazzle people during the day.

When other lights are switched on at night the DRLs go off.

There are some numpties with older cars who try to give the impression that they have a car with DRLs and have them wired up wrongly so that they do not turn off when other lights come on.

Then there are the ones with fog light and the rear lights on during the day too, all to pretend that they have a newer car with DRLs - these are the ones that are likely to dazzle.

Just wait for the correct operating of DRLs to be included in the MOT then we will have some fun.

At the moment fog lights and DRLs are not testable items - so the numpties with aftermarket DRLs wired up wrongly are not weeded out.

omendata

NEVER EVER EVER run your fuel tank on empty always at least half full.

Electric fuel pumps use petrol to cool the rotating spinning drum mechanism inside the pump - this can be really expensive to repair as it usually needs the fuel tank emptied and the whole pump and fuel mechanism removed.

I know as the previous owner of my car used to run it on dry and i've just had to replace the fuel pump.

Thankfully i am a good mechanic and the garage quoted me £250 - I got one second hand off an ebay car breaking advert and did it myself for £20 but it could cost you a fortune especially if you own a Merc or other posh nobs car.

spiderx

I run a 12 year old 7 seater Renault Espace which does great mpg as I usually only have 3 or 4 of the seats in at any one time , (it's like a comfortable van then!).. each of the seats weighs around 20 kilos or so ...so 20 x4 = 80 kgs of un-needed weight I am not driving around with. Bear in mind a lot of car manufacturers spend a fortune on R+D to save a few grams so knocking *0 kgs off the cars weight is quite significant.

spiderx

*0kgs should have read 80kgs of course !