Tales from a grumpy imigrant part 2

[Mich the Tester]

Is LPG in Holland still as cheap versus petrol as it was in the early 80s?

I had LPG on my Beemer there. It came into its own for trips back to the UK - with both tanks full I could make it home without refuelling.

Also I could only claim for petrol for receipts collected in NL, so it gave me a nice range on paid-for fuel.

Yep, still cheap, and worthwhile if you drive more than about 10,000 kms per year or if you have a car with a big engine. Some people claim it ruins the driving qualities, but I had a 318i with LPG and it was just fine; very slightly less power than with petrol, but not enough difference to be a problem, and I'm not really a sporty driver anyway. The only real drawback I found, aside from giving up some boot space was that all over Europe they have different nozzles for the LPG tank so I had to change nozzles when I got over the border. Oh, and of course in the UK it's difficult to find LPG, but then you just use petrol instead.

Apparently if you convert an older car (pre 2000 or so) to LPG you need to get hardened valve seats, but I think the LPG fitters are pretty well on the ball about this these days.

But nowadays diesel is more popular here in NL for newer cars, because diesel engines have improved so much and diesel's 30 cents cheaper than petrol here. Diesel engines also tend to last for ever; I've seen Mercedes and BMW taxis with a million kms on the clock and apparently they get an engine revision every 500 or 600k kms. I have a 2004 Jaguar S-type diesel now; it sounds a bit like a cement mixer on a freezing cold start but once it's warm it drives beautifully and is very quiet, and with 230k kms on the clock the engine seems as good as new.

[stek]

Tales from a grumpy imigrant part 2

Plenty of LPG stations in UK now, most Morrisons, the larger ASDAs and others. There's at least four stations within 2 miles of me at home.

Can get hairy out in the sticks though, and here in Dublin there's only one, tucked in a dodgy industrial estate in Tallaght run by a Pole.

[suityou01]

its a dead cert they will say that the value of the car, the strict road laws in Germany and therefore the supremely high bill that will come with getting that "dated" car up to scratch will mean that it's going to be scrapped.

Seriously Suity, save yourself some money, stop all further repair costs and either:

- look for a decent quality second hand motor in Germany if you think you're going to be there a while
- relocate to somewhere near client co. to save having to commute, thus no car required
- call up a car hire company and start negotiating a long term car rental that equals contract length

Not sure how I would fund a new car purchase at this present time.
If I relocate I would be paying two sets of rent in which case which seems daft. The 5 week appartment rental is up mid May.
Option C seems attractive, but the cheapest I have found is circa €200 per week, so even if I could negotiate a 50% deal on that with 10 weeks left to run on the project thats €1000.

The garage reckon, if the head doesn't need reskimming and isn't warped the gasket can be fixed, including the water pump change and thermostat for around €700.

In his words, "this is a common problem on this car, but the engines are bomb proof. If I see 50 cars with this problem, 49 of them would get away with just having a new gasket."

So I have a 2% chance of spunking my money in which case. Also owing to the high number of British guys here in Gutersloh, they all use him and he has a good reputation and is very very busy.

I shall get a call this afternoon letting me know the verdict, but from where I sit, to be back on the road for €700 is my cheapest option.

Thoughts?

[doodab]

Thoughts?

How far is it? I picked up a fairly decent 2nd hand bike for €200. That will get you in shape as well.

[sasguru]

Not sure how I would fund a new car purchase at this present time.

There was a whole thread where you claimed to have some special knowledge on how to make money from foreign exchange trading.
So it should be easy.
Unless, of course, it was all a ginormous pile of utter, utter garbage.

[Troll]

Garage called. Cyclinder head gasket is badly blown.

Head is being removed to reveal the full extent of the damage.

As opposed to the head gasket only slightly being blown?

curious how they have diagnosed that without lifting the head already

[doodab]

curious how they have diagnosed that without lifting the head already

Can often be inferred from the yellow sludge that occurs due to mixing of oil and water, or leaks from the interface between head and block.

[suityou01]

As opposed to the head gasket only slightly being blown?

curious how they have diagnosed that without lifting the head already

Not really. While revving the engine you can see the bubbles forming in the coolant if you remove the filler cap. The steam coming out of the exhaust was also a faint clue. If there were really good they could fit a device on the filler cap that checks for the presence of hydrocarbons in the emitted steam (I have seen this done).

So if a car was running on 3 out of 4 cyclinders, blowing bubbles in the coolant and chucking steam out the back what other possible failures would you diagnose then Mr Troll sir?

[DimPrawn]

There was a whole thread where you claimed to have some special knowledge on how to make money from foreign exchange trading.
So it should be easy.
Unless, of course, it was all a ginormous pile of utter, utter garbage.

Much like the car.

[milanbenes]

Suity,

apologies, I've missed a few episodes, where are you working now ?

How is your DaleFarm in Luton :-) love that shed you built in the back garden.

Milan.