What did you do today (2015)

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

Re my VW Passat, a couple days ago as i was driving home the clutch suddenly decided it did not want to come up level with the brake pedal anymore. A bit disconcerting as it was late and the next day i had to go to London. In the morning it was still the same so went to the Station and parked up and when we came back I found that the pedal was back up level with the brake pedal again! It is of course an hydraulic system.

Took it to the VW agency where I bought it in May and they took it for a test run and found nothing wrong, after some time waiting I was called to the desk and they gave me a date for the reloading of the suspect software for the engine management system. I now read that the new software is likely to make the engine performance worse!

Clive

[Bob Brown 1Participant @bobbrown1]

I wonder how much worse, power, fuel economy….

Bob

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Clive Hartland on 01/10/2015 08:15:50:

Took it to the VW agency where I bought it in May and they took it for a test run and found nothing wrong, after some time waiting I was called to the desk and they gave me a date for the reloading of the suspect software for the engine management system. I now read that the new software is likely to make the engine performance worse!

I would imaging this is inevitable – they have no-doubt traded driveability against emissions performance.

On the plus side, you may find the fuel economy improves.

Neil

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

I now read that the new software is likely to make the engine performance worse!

Their engines were unfit for purpose so they cheated, it's all a bit of a mess

[Nick_GParticipant @nick_g]

Posted by Ady1 on 01/10/2015 10:44:15:

it's all a bit of a mess

.

Is anybody really that bothered.?

Govornment agencies will pretend they are so that gives them an excuse to squeak and squark and justify their existence.

People will whine about the 'green' factor but when all this settles down 98% just want a reliable car. Having said that it 'may' have future implications upon road tax. Dunno.?

The only people that will lose long term are VW shareholders while the senior partners of law firms already have their wives scouting out second homes in the Algarve in anticipation of the easy cream they will be able to skim off.

2nd hand prices will dip for a few months then bounce back as the media cabaret gets boring. And VW giving very attractive deals on new cars that people who are looking for new car will find irresistible.

In typical Germanic style "there will be no problems, only solutions". – People have short memories. (when it suits them)

Nick

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

Yes I’m bothered – I commute from IoM to SE England on a regular basis – London stinks (very obvious after having a week or more of clean air) – even my place in SE now has much poorer air quality than a decade ago – London and I suspect much of the SE breaches EU clean air levels – Nox may not be as immediately lethal as the smogs due to coal fires of the 1950s (I’m old enough to remember these) but it is a killer + probably kills more than passive smoking does

[donkeyParticipant @donkey]

I Thought this seemed a good time to post.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Posted by Frances IoM on 01/10/2015 11:56:41:
Yes I'm bothered – I commute from IoM to SE England on a regular basis –

er isn't that much of the problem, so many people commuting long distances. Me included but I work from home whenever I can. However can't notice any difference between the smell within 1 mile of the M25 and fresh Atlantic air in the west country. Maybe it is too laden with fumes from new York. Much more problem from mould spores at this time of year and 'effing urban foxes, and urban cats.

[WindyParticipant @windy30762]

Posted by Windy on 30/09/2015 01:21:49:

Just stripped the flash steamer down after Sundays speed attempts at the last Kingsbury meeting of 2015

There was three flash steamer having a blast.

Nice to see Ian Berne old steamer going round then Bob Kirtley 121 mph and finally mine.

My first attempt was a disaster probably pump valves not seating after a few static bench fire ups it got back on form.

Second attempt with a new front wing which causes drag but stops it flipping managed 127 mph.

Tried two new propellers to replace the fast broken one and not sure if as good as original.

A not that good a third launch but speed built up then a screech as the new tube in the generator burst.

Will post a video of the three steamers running later when I have finished editing it.

A redesigned hull is required for next year to try to stop it becoming airborne and doing away with canards etc. to reduce drag.

Paul

This is the video **LINK**

[Danny M2ZParticipant @dannym2z]

Posted by Bazyle on 01/10/2015 13:35:56:

Posted by Frances IoM on 01/10/2015 11:56:41:
Yes I'm bothered – I commute from IoM to SE England on a regular basis –

er isn't that much of the problem, so many people commuting long distances.

Talking of commuting long distances, the AFL grand final is this weekend on Saturday arvo.

(Australian Football League) The finalists are West Coast Eagles (Perth W.A) and Hawthorn (Melbourne, Vic).

The keen fanatics are paying $3400 for the return airfare to Melbourne, and tomorrow (Friday) is a State holiday in Victoria (imagine a national holiday a day before the Cup Final). As all the local airlines are booked solid the people who could not get on the plane are paying $600 for a 48 hour each way bus trip – having travelled across the Nullabor plain before (including a 400 mile dead straight stretch with no bends) I reckon I know a bit about travelling long distances. Fit a very strong roo bar, a decent set of driving lights and hang a St.Christopher from the r/v mirror.

I just prepared some model aircraft for the state champs, they are coming to my home town this weekend – sometimes a bloke can get lucky!

* Danny M *

[Anonymous]

Finished these this morning:

Hooray for CNC mills!

Andrew

PS: I used the Bridgeport for some operations – quicker to have two mills running in parallel.

[RJWParticipant @rjw]

Finally bagged a very nicely maintained Cowells 90 lathe at auction today,
Complete with power feed attachment, Changewheels, 4x Toolposts, Faceplate, 1×4 Jaw chuck, 2×3 Jaw chucks, Revolving centre, Jacobs chuck, Collet attachment & 8 collets, Dividing head+ 4x Index plates, Indexing unit, Vertical slide, Tapping unit with boxes of BA taps & dies, Fixed & Travelling steadies, plus a deep 'lin-bin' type drawer unit stuffed with lathe cutting and boring tools, milling cutters, small taper & expanding reamers, micrometers, dividers, pin chucks, wobbler set etc etc, plus a big cardboard box full of sundry kit including a Clockmaker's Depthing tool, a couple of articulated bench vices and a huge beautifully made and scraped V block affair that I've not quite sussed the use of as it has several bolts into one side plus a central hole bored through it, still wading through it all yet and all for a shade under £600 including fees,
Very happy bunny indeed.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by RJW on 01/10/2015 20:07:54:

Finally bagged a very nicely maintained Cowells 90 lathe at auction today,
…
Very happy bunny indeed.

.

Well played, Sir !!

I hope you are very happy together.

MichaelG.

[RJWParticipant @rjw]

Thank you Michael, it's a beautiful piece of kit and definitely a keeper, I'm like a kid that won the toyshop at the moment and still pinching myself at my luck, wanted one of these for years but were always way too much money even without all the gear,
The underbidder said pretty much the same thing as you too, then slapped me on the back and actually apologised for bidding me up, didn't mind too much because it was worth way more really, I'm just surprised he didn't go higher being a tool dealer.

John.

[frank brownParticipant @frankbrown22225]

If you consider an engine, the fuel/air mix, speed and actual power delivered is a three dimensional graph.. So car manufacturers "map" these characteristics into four different maps. I saw this on one of the many automobile internet forums. One can easily see, that one map is optimised at "full power", i.e. the fuel/air mix is set for maximum power at good fuel economy (motorways), with a nod towards emissions. Then there will be a couple of intermediate maps and finally one at fast tickover (stops start driving) and low/no power from the engine, which luckily would coincide with the MOT emissions test. If you tried a proper dynamic mapping the the engine management would be always chasing what happened .1 seconds ago and the time response of the transducers could not keep up with this anyway as some of them are thermally based (temperature dependent resistors).

All that will happen is the engine higher speed mapping will modified to curtail the emissions at the expense of power out and fuel economy.

Frank

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

There has always been a tradeoff between performance, fuel consumption and emissions, going back decades. They require different conditions, not least because the fuel ratio for maximum power differs to that for maximum economy. We keep hearing about how manufacturers have designed the latest vehicle for improved performance, emissions, economy and refinement. Really – what's new? Simply the technology (mainly electronics and software) to enable better control.

Modern engine management systems are considerably more complex than the system you describe. The Euro 6 standards require multiple fuel injections per event (and per cylinder). There are typically something like 5 different injection phases for every explosion, which requires incredible fuel rail pressures (named "common rail" in diesel systems for some reason) and piezo injectors to achieve the precise timing and duration. There are "quite a few" more than 4 maps in these things (more than a dozen) and the "user manual" is several inches thick – and that's just for the vehicle manufacturer to program and calibrate their vehicle. The EMS in question seems to be the Bosch EDC16 (and possibly EDC17?) which is also used by other OEMs outside of the VAG group.

There are all sorts of additional technologies on modern diesels like exhaust gas recirculation, diesel particular filters, urea injection etc. Depending what is fitted to these engines will determine what options they have to recalibrate them to meet Euro 6 without unduly impacting the other qualities. It's likely to affect fuel consumption and possibly performance, lifetime and refinement. Time will tell.

There seems to be confusion about the term "emissions", particularly relating to CO2. Generally speaking, when you burn 1kg of carbon in the form of fuel, you end up wth 1kg of carbon in the by products. The amount of carbon in the CO and particulates produced is fairly small, so in simple terms, CO2 emissions are directly related to fuel consumption. They are measured using a different method to the emissions (NOx, CO, particulates etc) but otherwise, the only way to change the CO2 emissions is to improve the fuel consumption.

Lots of hot air and half truths being vented, inevitably. To me, the question is whether Bosch provided this feature for the other OEMs and if so did any of them abuse it too. Presumably that will come out eventually.

Murray

[Michael CheckleyParticipant @michaelcheckley34085]

Andrew, Nice machining and a clean design. Are these for the ECU for your Burrell`s?

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

the comments circulating within one of the more knowledgeable programmer’s forums are that Bosch did write the code at VW’s request but they were told it was intended for development tests – strong suggestion is that it was mainly the recirculation that was altered but as many point out the actual code is copyright and under American law (the DCMA ) it is illegal to circumvent the encryption there to protect the code.

If indeed EU models are breaking the significantly less stringent EU standards for Nox then it makes a mockery of the recently introduced clean air zone in London

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

RJW, no it's no surprising the opposition dipped out when he did, he would buy low, and sell high, maybe 1200 quid, but he would also sell separately, the tools etc, probably at about the price he paid for the whole lot. You did well, and a lathe that well equipped I would expect to be well looked after, it might have done a fair bit of work, but probably not 40hrs a week.

Ian S C

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

Posted by Frances IoM on 02/10/2015 09:17:22:
….the actual code is copyright and under American law (the DCMA ) it is illegal to circumvent the encryption there to protect the code.

If indeed EU models are breaking the significantly less stringent EU standards for Nox then it makes a mockery of the recently introduced clean air zone in London

As I say, lots of opinions and not a lot of facts. Not sure how the US copyright laws come into this, mind.

The US stds aren't significantly tighter at all. You've probably never driven behind a US diesel pickup and wondered why they don't like diesels over there. Most (all?) of the diesel cars over there are German (VW, BMW and Merc) ie "not from round here", so the hurdles are pretty high. It's not the emissions levels that are the challenge, it's implementing the on board diagnostics (OBDII) that tell you if a sensor, actuator etc has failed in a way that might impact emissions.

Take a look at what the USPA site states and compare that with the Euro 6 levels for diesels. In particular the CO, NOx and PM. Just bear in mind that the Mercans use g/mile (mixed systems!!) and the Yurpeans use g/km (SI units). The category for diesel cars and light trucks in the US is the bizarrely named "Tier 2 Bin 5" entry.

Diesel cars used to bring tears to the eyes and a nasty burning in the throat. They are now almost impossible to detect unless you look closely at the badge or listen carefully. And they are 30-35% more economical than petrol (ie produce 30-35% less CO2 if you like). Same is true of petrol cars – recall the awful stink you used to get following a cold car just 15-20 years ago?

And lots of rubbish talked about how EVs will reduce emissions and CO2 – well yes, but only at the point of use. You still have to generate electricity and unless you have a surplus of cheap nuclear or hydro power, that generates lots of CO2 and other nasties. We did have a plan to capture CO2, starting at Drax but have decided not to bother after all.

Murray

[Bob RodgersonParticipant @bobrodgerson97362]

Today I ran this up for the first time in a long while. I built this engine over 10 years ago intending it for a model aircraft but never got round to trying it out.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Just saw a Traction Engine on its way to Buxworth [Bugsworth] for the 'Steam Party' … long queue of traffic behind it on the A6.

It was excellent last year: hopefully similar Tomorrow & Sunday.

MichaelG.

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

Posted by Bob Rodgerson on 02/10/2015 14:46:30:

Today I ran this up for the first time in a long while. I built this engine over 10 years ago intending it for a model aircraft but never got round to trying it out.

1:1 scale I assume

Most impressive. Is that your own design?

Cheers,

Rod

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

Re the Passat, Today I went to my bees and the entrance is a slope and I could not get enough power to climb the slope and had to roll back and take a run at it, later on the way home I had trouble pulling away at junctions and decided I would visit the VW agency to check it out. I barely got there ! Sure enough the clutch is slipping and that seems to answer a number of questions that have been happening over the last few days. So a new car with 2700 miles on the clock has a duff clutch and I am not happy at all. I now have a courtesy car and its a Polo and petrol. I will let you know how it all pans out.

Clive

[Bob Brown 1Participant @bobbrown1]

Clive,

I think if it had been me I would have deposited my toys on the ground and demanded something better than a Polo considering the low mileage on the Passat. I would expect a clutch to last 100k plus but does depend on the driver, I can not remember the last one that went on me and my pervious car did 200k before I scrapped it due to a piston/s ring failure.

Bob

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