HauptmannUK

Unsurprisingly the article is poorly written. 1000mg sodium = about 2500mg salt (obviously varies somewhat depending on the composition of the salt - other minerals, impurities etc.). Hence 5g/day of salt = about 2000mg/day sodium.

Speaking as someone who's had many cylinder heads skimmed over the years (probably into the 100's) here's my take on it... 1. Get the head chemically cleaned and pressure tested prior to skimming. No point in skimming a defective head. 2. Petrol cylheads can usually be skimmed with valves in-situ. On most Diesels the head is flat and valves project beyond the head surface so the head will need to be stripped. 3. Since most Diesel heads are flat skimming does not increase compression ratio. 4. Some aluminium Diesel heads have hardened steel inserts in the head casting. These heads cannot be skimmed. 5. Blocks can be skimmed, and the machine shop I use in the UK can accommodate large V-blocks, but its relatively rare and may not be possible with linered or 'insert' engines. 6. Takes under an hour on the miller to measure and skim a head. Cleaning and pressure testing also well under an hour (assuming the head has been stripped). I would think in Thailand a couple thousand Baht would be more than enough.

My wife is still waiting for a letter I sent to her from the UK by airmail in 2012....

I was asked for my passport one evening last year in Jomtien, close to the police station at the beach. Copper was looking at a young Russian's passport and then turned on his heels as I walked past and asked me for mine. I showed him a scan on my phone. He then asked me where I was staying. Then waved me on. Youngish copper who was polite and spoke pretty good English. No suggestion of a 'tip'.

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Little 'heads up' on something that may affect some UK mobile phone users living outside the UK. Recently been in touch with a friend of mine who is married to an Indonesian lady. The go to Indonesia couple of times a year for three months at a time. He has a UK SIM on the 'Smarty' network. He's had this SIM for several years and receives SMS messages in Indonesia. He recently wanted to do a bank transfer which required a code by SMS from his UK bank. He didn't receive the SMS because Smarty suspended his service. They now suspend service if they detect a SIM outside the UK for more than 60 days in 12 months (see below 8.1 j ). He has contacted Three network and they say they now have a similar clause.

Ok. Slightly involved answer. ENGINE oils become contaminated with combustion products. Most contamination takes place immediately after starting and during the warm up phase. This means that a vehicle may cover a low mileage but have heavily contaminated oil (e.g. the old lady who drives one mile to the shop, one mile to her friend, one mile to see the vicar etc etc). The contaminants include acidic combustion products which cause engine oil seals to harden and crack, and soot and ashes that gum up rings. The advice for ENGINE oils is therefore to change according to manufacturers time and distance recommendation - whichever comes first. Obviously use your common sense though - for example I have a small collection of cars back in the UK. Some of them only get used a few times a year - I use my judgement. TRANSMISSION oils are a different matter because they do not suffer contamination by combustion products. They shear down with use. So in general its more appropriate to focus on mileage interval. ATF's are a bit different again. Heat is the enemy of ATF's (oxidation and breakdown of friction-modifier additives) so you need to be conservative in the case of an auto used in hilly country or for towing, and maybe change at 2x the manufacturer's interval. CVT's are particularly sensitive to oil breakdown because the engine torque is transferred from the input shaft to the output shaft via the microscopically thin oil films between the belt and variator pulleys. I am not a fan of 'lifetime fill' - I would change any 'lifetime fill' oil at 100k km...

You don't mention the vehicle manufacturer. You really need the handbook to confirm. The most common requirement is NOT to screw the dipstick back in, but its not universally the case. E.g. Briggs & Stratton advise the dipsticks should be screwed in to take the oil level on their engines.

As someone who has been in the business of selling secondhand vehicles (in UK) the built in naVigation systems cause us huge issues. Customer buying 3+ year old vehicles invariably want the maps updating. It can be hugely expensive and often 'dealer only' - some German brands also require OS updates and you can be looking at GBP1000 for the software/maps and several hours of labour at main dealer rates! Anyway, for the OP - Toyota have used various units including Clarion, Pioneer, Denso - depending on model and year. I suspect you may have a Toyota Navigator branded Clarion unit using Garmin maps. You *might* be able to get a free update by foLowing the instructions on this Garmin OEM supplier link using Garmin Express on your PC. Its a fairly involved process and I've no idea how recent their latest maps would be: https://aoem.garmin.com/toyota

My grandfather and father were UK motor trade (haulage business, car sales and service, motorcycle sales and service). Both were avid motorcyclists so I kind of have it in the blood. I first got on a MC at something like 10 years old. Ridden just about every kind of MC in the 50+ years since. Rode competitively back in my 20's (got expensive and broke a couple of bones so packed it in). For a whil I imported bikes (grey market) as a little sideline business in the late 90's and early 2000's. Was a UK DSA Direct Access MC trainer for a while. In Thailand I never travel on two wheels. Life is cheap here and motor/cyclists are way down the hierarchy. Its a hostile and unsafe environment with way too much bad stuff going on that is outside of your control. Without thinking too hard I can recall a half dozen MC fatalities known to me in the last few years. Last October a friend of mine over in Saraburi was killed. He was hugely experienced and riding a route he took every day. An SUV came barreling out of a small side soi without looking and just went clean over the bike. I doubt my friend even saw the vehicle that killed him. Just a few weeks ago a French acquaintance was killed. I've also come to realise that many of these fatalities are not reported in the news. I was at the scene of a collision in Jomtien where a young Russian lad was killed. Never saw a word about it in the news.

Ah! The 'Do Gooders'.... They are overridden quickly enough when it suits - protesters trying to block the road during the Coronation were removed and arrested within minutes. When they hold up commuters nothing can be done. The UK does not have to follow the rulings of the ECHR - and in the past has ignored rulings (e.g. votes for prisoners) but slavishly follows their rulings on immigration...

This is all about jockeying for position in the Conservative Party. Braverman is the latest in a long line of blowhards who talk tough but fail to act. The UK might like to start cracking down on illegals by introducing a biometric ID card for all legal residents.

This is all about jockeying for position in the Conservative Party. Braverman is the latest in a long line of blowhards who talk tough but fail to act. The UK might like to start cracking down on illegals by introducing a biometric ID card for all legal residents.

If you drive around rural Thailand and you can read Thai you'll observe that almost every other telephone pole or power pole has some kind of advert on it for money lending. It seems to be mostly unregulated and out of control...

I can't remember transfer case change intervals off the top of my head. Isuzu will have a service schedule sheet showing recommended change intervals - just refer to that. In the UK it was something like an initial change at 10k miles and thereafter every 40k miles..... but you should have a schedule in the car handbook - if not then ask the dealer or Google. 10kkm is unnecessary for transmission oils.

Stick with 10k services. I've been involved in the motor trade for many years (UK) and was an MoT tester (UK roadworthiness inspection) until 2018. 'Fluids and filters' was always my mantra to customers. Diesels contaminate their engine oil pretty badly and combustion by-products in the oil tends to harden oil seals and gum-up rings, which leads to problems over time. Transmission oils also shear-down over time and their additive packs deteriorate (antifoaming agents, zinc dithiophosphate EP additive etc). Manual transmissions and transferbox/diffs will therefore benefit from fresh oil every 100kkm. Autos more often, especially CVT. Services should also include a check of brake, suspension and steering systems. In the long run scheduled preventative maintenance and checks are cheaper than unscheduled repairs.

Rama II has been under construction for 20+ years - its a lethal road IMHO. Some very dangerous driving on there. Truck and bus 'brake failures' are extremely rare and almost all cases occur when brakes overheat on a long downward incline. Truck and bus air brakes are held off by air pressure. If pressure drops below about 30psi a warning buzzer sounds and the brakes are applied by springs. Its fail safe. I once had some road debris damage a brake line on a truck I was driving, I heard the warning buzzer and had time to move to the left (UK road) before the brakes applied themselves.

Very sad to hear about the demise of another UK expat and fellow motorcycling enthusiast. In the last year two of my British acquaintances have been killed in motorcycling accidents - take care out there...

Since my wife and I have to visit the UK quite frequently I use the one year multi-entry 'visiting Thai family' visa costing about £150 from London embassy with no requirement have money in Thailand. I keep about ฿400k in my Thai bank for emergencies over here (and its probably too much given I have a couple of credit cards with quite high limits). At some point we'll probably stay in Thailand for the whole year and I'll go for the retirement visa. At the moment its easy to get 6% in UK, but irrespective of that there is no way I will 'donate' 800k to the Thai banking system. I will use an agent. If Thai Immi. increase the deposit amount beyond 800k I suspect there will be a massive move to agents. Who in their right mind is going to leave, say, ฿1.5M sitting in a Thai bank with virtually no interest?

10th place in Asia-Pacific doesn't sound like much to boast about....?

My wife loves blue cheese...

Your Toyota dealer will sell you a Toyota-branded front and rear dashcam set (it appears to be a rebranded Chinese Toguard unit). Its a neat setup. On the other hand you could fit a Nextbase - they have various models available inc. with GPS (which records speed and location along with video). In the UK my car dealership is a Nextbase sales/install agent and we have fitted several hundred over the last few years with barely any comebacks.

Are you talking about nam pla ra or nam pla? The latter is very inoffensive and I use it a lot. As a condiment I find the 'Abalone' brand delicious. Nam pla ra, on the other hand, is quite pungent. I have developed a taste for it however and often use it as dressing on som-tam Lao, Korat etc., and on Western-style salads. I'm a big fan of blue cheeses (especially Blue Stilton - a popular British cheese) and I detect some of the same flavours in pla ra. You need to choose brands carefully, some are overly salty. I prefer the long-fermented slightly sweet pla ra.

I imagine Toyota have specc'd siffer springs (leafs on rear - added a leaf too?) and corresponding higher-rate dampers (shock absorbers). Dampers should be matched to the spring rate of the springs so that 'critical damping' is achieved. Not sure how well chosen the aftermarket setups are. IMHO overly firm springs on these pickups are a safety hazard and causes the vehicles to be skittish on bumpy roads. Coupled with bump steer from leaf-sprung rear its not a good recipe...