Lieutenant Scott wrote:
On Mon, 30 Apr 2012 23:15:48 +0100, Rod Speed
wrote:


Our system does some pretty rigorous emissions testing
on annual car rego checks and that didn't show up higher
wear than normal.

Aren't you leaving gunk and bits of ground steel in the sump though?

He is, but Australian cars are engineered and expected to take neglect
and abuse. ;-)

The smaller lumps of metal and carbon will get stopped by the filter
until it blocks totally, then the relief valve will open, and the engine
will rapidly die. To check on engine wear, you need to sample the oil,
and I doubt very much that is done at the annual test. With modern
electronic engine control, wear doesn't show in the exhaust emissions
until it's very bad, by which time, it's too late.

I only stopped using that car because I was stupid enough
to not bother to fix the windscreen seal leak. I knew it could
get a wet floor after very heavy rain and it eventually rusted
a hole in the corner of the floor and I was too lazy to fix that
given that it had given 35+ years of service fine.

I get a new windscreen every year or two. My car seems to attract
stones flicked up by other vehicles.

You drive too close to the vehicle in front. If you stay at least the
recommended two seconds away outside built up areas, then very few
stones will be flicked up far enough to stay airborne that long and hit
your windscreen. I've only had one windscreen damaged by a stone in the
last 300,000 miles, and that one fell off a lorry that I was overtaking.
A friend of mine once had all the side windows *and* the windscreen of a
coach smashed by gravel when a vehicle on the other carriageway swerved
onto the central reservation of the M11, but you can't do anything to
stop that, and it's only happened to an acquaintance once in over thirty
years that I am aware of.

--
Tciao for Now!

John.