WarpSpeed

The less you need to do whilst driving here the better/safer you will be.

Automatic wins hands down every time.

Except then she'll be putting on make up, or playing with the phone, or tending to the fussy children, all dangerous distractions that have naught to do with being a safe driver in fact are worse. It's not unreasonable either to initially assume the OP might be a female since this sub-forum is predominantly male. Since the OP is female I've considered undeniable driving distractions in that light that regardless of how factual will probably be regarded as sexist in some way. Just to be clear the only change I had to make though was to substitute "rubbing the missus leg" with "putting on make up" but heck being Thailand even that may apply, who knows? Not for me to judge.

My pick-up is manual and my wife's car is automatic, I will switch from one to the other with no bother. I was once told by an elder in my younger days....never drive an automatic if your own car is manual...."Why" I asked..."because it will make you lazy" he said....once you have driven the automatic, you will never want to go back to the manual,555. He wasn't far wrong....driving an automatic is very easy and suitable to city driving in Thailand where there is a lot of stopping and moving due to the high density of traffic. You could rent one out for a day or two just to get the feel of it and see what you think.

Good luck either way and I wish safe and happy driving for yourself and your toddler. GB.

No he wasn't wrong at all, people constantly deny that there is any exercise value to driving a manual but yet what is their primary reasoning behind not having one? Not having to clutch and shift, there is far more benefit that comes from doing those several hundred times in a given trip and with both feet and hands all working together then there is with an automatic by their own logic where you mostly just use one foot. In fact I just got an idea, I'm going to see about an app or one of those meters that measures the amount of exercise one expends use it to measure while driving and have a real world comparison, but at the age of most of the members posting here and their fitness levels it's certain a little exercise would be far more beneficial to them.

Hire an auto for a day in your own country ... after a short while you will 'hopefully' wonder why you drive a manual!

I bought a manual Nissan Almera here in Pattaya 3 months ago and I,m more than happy with it- drove back yesterday from Trang 945 kms averageing 85 kms/hour and my fuel consumption was 20.8 kms/litre (58+mpg) two persons plus luggage and I,m normally first away at the lights and passing slow moving waggons uphill is a doddle as I can just change down through the gears-manual every time for me auto,s are for women drivers

Talking entirely too much sense Peter.. Some people will never get it, the only thing beneficial to having an auto is the fact that you can do other distracting and dangerous things with the other hand like texting or holding a phone or....................... I can also take my foot completely off the brake at long lights and just rest until I need to move.

^Fortunately for me adjustments are just natural and easy, I found my driving there from the states originally, to be far more liberating, as I suspected since returning back I'm far more uptight and stressed driving back here again. Additionally it's far from JUST Thailand, knuckleheads and texters the world over.

I just rented a car last week for a week. Being from America, where 95% of the cars are automatic, and shifting is only for the poor, I was happy to find a car to rent that had an automatic transmission. I drove 1500 kilometers, and the car was fine, except it would take 15 seconds to go from 0 - 80 kpm. After that, very good. .I had no problems.

yes for the poor, Also include the Subaru WRX STI, Mitsubishi Evo and a countless number of other decently priced performance cars.

http://www.carpages.ca/blog/2014/11/11/2015-volkswagen-gti-6-speed-manual-and-dsg-review/ More nonsense, it is far easier to find a manual here then it is there, at least in real performance models not base models.

I find it hard to understand why someone would hire a driver.....why compound the dangers of the Thai roads by actually paying for someone who is almost certainly less competent than oneself?

If it were me, and the choice was getting onto Thai roads with zero experience or hiring a professional driver affiliated with a hotel or somesuch which would allow me to take in the scenery while also tending to my young child, I know which I'd plump for.

I believe the OP mentioned he has experience driving in LOS and besides I'd still trust my own driving over ANY Thai or any other driver for that matter regardless.

New cars are changing, but normally Manual cars were the basic model = No safety features at all..... would you want to drive a car with no airbags or ABS and then would you want to carry a toddler in such a car ?

Right - renting a manual is practically guaranteed to get you the lowest spec model w/out any safety features. Seeing as safety is the OP's main concern, it looks like they'll need to 'learn' how to drive with just two pedals

Ho hum .. My missus and I had 2 babies in Thailand and never owned a nasty auto, the babies or the toddler isn't going to benefit from any of those "safety features" you or anyone else here is speaking of in a higher spec rental except something like a BMW limo or similar with 8 or so airbags front and rear and backing cameras/sensors etc. so why pay the extra money for that purpose? In any case he's just going to have to be an aware, alert and defensive driver and buy a good car seat and USE it! Hopefully the toddler is no stranger to one already? Anyway no more debate about it, you can follow knee jerk over-reactions or not, I've given my point of view, I'm out..

Hire an auto for a day in your own country ... after a short while you will 'hopefully' wonder why you drive a manual!

No don't because you'll never get any REAL sense of the package there that is offered in Thailand in performance so it's apples and oranges and even still it's doubtful, if one can handle a manual well, mostly he'll wonder why anyone drives an auto on a small bore engine'd car that can't get out of it's own way on those occasions when you need it to in the first place? No need for unwarranted safety equipment when you have the ability to avoid being someone else's bumper and not their mistake. Again OP it comes down mostly to your comfort zone and the location of where you're going to do the most driving, city or country.

^ Yes, wouldn't phase me one bit, I'm a confident driver.. But as to the OP, whatever you're comfortable with is best to hire, are you going to be doing a lot of city driving or country? I wouldn't care either way but some less confident drivers may find driving an auto to be easier and less bother, especially in city traffic.

Uh huh, now it's beginning to get more clear, that sounds very Thai like..

Running lean makes the engine run hotter, doesn't it ?

Yes....

Got the verdict yesterday - turns out the head was in fact cracked. The mechanic told me that the head shop had told him they thought it was cracked, but he didn't believe it, and in an effort to 'save your money' as he put it, he decided to try it out. Well, as it turns out the head was cracked..

So, he said he would go back and get a second-hand head from the same shop where they ground my head, for 2,500, plus an additional 500 for another gasket set, and he wouldn't charge me any additional labor as it was his mistake. He showed me the bill so far was about 10,900, so with this additional 3,000 he promised he wouldn't charge me over 14,000. Should be finished in a few more days.

So, as it turns out there was something wrong with his repair, but perhaps I'm partly to blame for giving him the impression I am so parsimonious that he should take risks with the repair..

Honest admission on your part, I think somebody mentioned the distinct possibility of a cracked head way back somewhere? Now, the thing is, heads generally crack due to overheating, so hopefully THAT problem has been addressed and the cycle won't repeat itself. That's why the advice to get so many things done right the first time is so critical, it's not just unnecessary and costly steps, but doing it twice to finally get it right always is. So then they never really did run it a full 15 minutes even or like I mentioned quite frankly that was never enough time, but so why was it stalling? What relation did that have to the current circumstance of it having a cracked head? Or is it that they discovered it still overheats after solving the stalling issue and running it longer?

OK CQ I feel your frustration and what I'm going to say may not help that much but here's the thing though. When you begin to unbolt a lot of things like this from an older car it's very difficult NOT to do some other damage to older components, especially when they've been over heated. When removing the head for example you must remove all the necessary parts like manifolds, carbs, spark plugs, hoses, belts, wires, etc. and many of these parts are plastic as well these days. In this case removing the carb, moving it around, not opening it up to clean it out, and maybe laying it down or just bumping it can loosen up debris that has built up inside or was sitting in the bottom of the bowl for example undisturbed until now and maybe it's moved through the system causing your problems, but honestly it's really unfair to blame such things on the mechanic.

I'm speaking from personal experience as just recently I had my cars front end aligned after I bought new tires and just got through replacing all the front end suspension bushings top and bottom. The tech had an issue with getting my car up on the alignment rack as I watched and he had to use boards to extend the ramps but he had already hit the bottom of my car on the alignment rack before that. Once the alignment was finished he test drove the car and he never mentioned that now I had a nasty sounding bump underneath while accelerating or decelerating that was not there when I brought the car in originally, he knew that because he also test drove it before he aligned it. We lifted the car, checked underneath I was also part of that and it was reluctantly (on my part) concluded that the drivers side spring seat had moved during the alignment while lifting the weight off the suspension. Though I was doubtful, it was plausible because I had to disconnect the top of the struts to replace the upper strut bushing and bearing and hadn't driven it that much after the repair so the spring may not have been well seated. We moved it, the sound was similar and it then seemed to seat but when I took it again there was still a problem but it was not consistent either. I was afraid he might have damaged my diff, either when he hit the rack or while he was test driving it, he was a young guy with an interest in the VR6 performance and had never driven one before, mentioned he drag races his Mitsu, so you know how it goes?

That car has 230,000 miles on it, I've been bringing it back to it's glory, but it still has older, high mileage parts on it of which one is the diff. so it's very possible, though I was not having any previous issues or signs of them prior. I brought the car back that afternoon after picking up my boys from school (it's close to their school across town) and politely asked the shop owner whom I thought I had a good relationship with having been there previously, to have another look for me as I was concerned about the diff and I wanted to find out and don't have mechanics (except myself) and lifts at my house. He was very belligerent and uncooperative to say the least. This car, based on it's mileage and such has had a new clutch in the last 25 or so thousands miles before my ownership. I can tell because of some other related issues when I bought it that the tranny has been recently removed, one reason I got a good price on it (longer story) though it has been mostly well maintained mechanically. I stopped at a VW shop on my way home that I had been wanting to stop at previously to see what they had inside as well and mentioned my problem because I wasn't convinced it was the diff and had to be sure?

The tech there had a look at it with me and we did some tests I couldn't really do by myself and found it had seemed it had a bad drivers side mount, too much play when the engine was in gear and we rocked it forward and back. The mount is quite expensive on that car though not very hard to change, I was going to inspect it and see if I could modify it until getting a new one shipped for less money and was removing the old one when I found that the mount was loose from having had the tranny out for the clutch in the past. Tightened 2 bolts but checked all others too and problem solved, but the alignment guy has now lost a good customer because he was a real hard arse about it instead of just giving me a few minutes to suss it out and work with me on it, not even fix it necessarily, I would have done that myself just like I did, I would have gone back and told him but his attitude initially has put me off.

In the end, my point is, that the problem was there prior to the alignment it didn't just loosen up that much due to any of his or my work but it hadn't shown up previously because of all of the worn bushings and out being of alignment that had been placing constant pressure on that mount and so it never really moved until that pressure was relieved by new suspension bushings, tires and alignment bringing everything back into spec. So new problems CAN crop up on older cars that may have already been there and I have a fair sight more knowledge then you do and still got caught out.

The car's no longer overheating. I've neither the time nor the knowledge to micromanage this work. Regarding this new problem - the main point is that it is an entirely new problem. The carburetor, along with every other aspect of the engine, was working perfectly before this repair, other than the overheating.

When I overheated the car just a couple of weeks ago, it was only for a few seconds - I immediately stopped the car when the needle climbed into the danger zone. Not so the previous owner, who had overheated it severely many years ago, and supposedly avoided subsequent overheating by assiduously adding water ever since (also he drove the car very little in the last 4-5 years). Thus, if 'everything in the car was cooked' it was odd that the car ran perfectly prior to the work just done.

I'm sorry CQ but if they can't run it for longer then 15 minutes before it stalls then they can't really give it a proper test. It may not be overheating as quickly as previously due to a multitude of damage causing sudden overheating but it may just have been partially fixed and not completely and that's why it needs to be run longer and under a heavy load on the system, I.E. long idles, A/C on full, etc. You didn't answer any of the other questions I posed either? You do seem to be getting a bit defensive in your responses when people here are taking their time to try to help you with solutions and advice though. In order to give proper advice it's necessary to have an exchange of information, especially when you have so little knowledge on the topic, it's not an interrogation, well it is of sorts but not intended to be judgmental at least not in my case, can't speak for everyone.

IMO the fuel pump or fuel system is still the more likely culprit of the eventual stalling given it's progressive nature and not some "tube" in the carb without knowing what the tube is though I have an idea what it may be? I don't want to speculate, or why it is supposedly so damaged and how it got that way, and why it can't just be cleaned out, re-installed and then checked? If it has mineral deposits that built up inside it for example then there is likely water in your tank and needs to be flushed as well or soon there will be a repeat of the same problem or worse.

Talarod is just a source just like one2car is which is what your link is from, they're not the dealer or the private party seller, you have to call the seller from the listing and see what kind of deal they'll make? If you use google translate you get a rough idea of what is being said. Google translate says contact dealer for price, so likely high, it's questionable why a 2011 has red plates though too unless those are just for listing purposes? Maybe the car is a repo and they don't want the previous owner to know in case they're looking for it? I'd be cautious on that one IMO. Red plates definitely covering another tag. For my taste and money though I'd have to have THAT car with a manual, it has a nice, rich looking interior contrast though.

Sounds most probable to be an overheating fuel pump, clogged filter, clogged line or fuel jet, water/dirt in the fuel, meaning it's working too hard to push fuel, maybe the pump is bad and is over-working to get anything to the engine, pressure eventually drops off, can't keep up with fuel demand and the car stalls, it still hasn't been that long since hundreds of gas stations went under water from the floods and I doubt if any serious efforts were made to cleaning out their underground holding tanks or even testing the fuel quality for that matter. I honestly doubt it got so hot as to have varnished the fuel in the system, that'd be a new motor for certain and would have shown long before this as would many other failures. But, ultimately what you're saying is that they are unable to drive it for more then 15 minutes so the overheating factor is still uncertain to have been resolved since it needs to run for more then just 15 minutes to give it a full hardship test..

I would also never leave my car for ANY mechanic on those rare occasions when I need one but most especially a Thai mechanic, without constant checking and oversight on the work progress and process, but that's me I know what to look for but this job was a rather big one if done correctly and a lot of important details could be missed or completely passed over altogether.

After rereading; What is their supposed suspicion of failure with a small tube? It's just a tube, what could possibly fail with it? If it's dirty clean it out? Why do they believe it has failed in some way and what damage to it did they show you to indicate it may be the problem?

This has got bugger all to do with motoring in Thailand IMHO. Just another thread to attract the usual suspects, full of anecdotal tales of people being treated differently than they would expect to be treated back home.

The OP hasn't even bothered to provide links to his two cases in question so more speculation, ranting and bashing.

Bugger this, I'm off to check the 'new Fortuner' thread... or my tire pressures.

In large part why I'm seldom seen posting here these days. I'm amazed your protest was even allowed to be displayed frankly, see how this post goes?

Guys whatever the problems are, they date from before this specific overheating episode! As I stated above the previous owner had similar problems.

No doubt the lack of water and thus the most recent overheating was the result of head gasket issues dating from before I owned the car. In addition, I only allowed the car to reach the hottest temp on the gauge for less than a minute - the previous owner apparently drove quite some distance with the engine hot.

I visited the mechanic today and he was well along the way towards finishing the process, having ground down the block and sent the head for grinding to the machine shop. He's also doing the valves - grinding and reseating or something like that. The same shop recently did this same work on a friend's mid-1990s Corolla and the total ran to 14,000 baht, which sounds fairly reasonable to me (but my friend didn't remember if there were additional parts fixed beyond the head gasket and valves). My friend has been driving that car for a few months since the job and says its quite good.

If all is well after this you've still probably got a bargain.

Those extra parts should include a new timing belt and tensioner, which will please some members. Whole head gasket set, valve seals, oil, filter and coolant as well.

And water pump...

^This is most probable, maybe even cracked the head at this point though less likely with an aluminum one, also I would never replace a head gasket without turning down the head even a tiny bit, just taking too much risk of it happening again real soon thereafter. I believe as I understood it the engine was cold when the OP first refilled it as he had left it over night so there was no need to take so long to fill at that point, you only do it slowly and while it's running when it is overheated at that moment.

Yeah Clare but as Issan says, it's really not that difficult to diagnose a head gasket, oil in the water or water in the oil, both pretty easy to tell by merely opening the oil filler cap or the radiator reservoir, water has to go somewhere? It's going one of those 2 places also if it is a head gasket if the reservoir is opened while running and there is ANY water in it after a short amount if time it is very likely to blow air back into the reservoir which normally shouldn't be happening.

Good to hear this is not the same car you recently bought, I was thinking maybe you were duped on that one?

If you see water on the ground then you have probably have a leak in the cooling system.

Depends on what point you see the water on the ground. The AC drain produces a large amount of water after it has run for a while and then park the car.

Which is why I gave an approximate location and many/most leaks will not expel enough water to even get all the way to ground, it's not so much the water lost while idling it's the water lost through evaporation and cooling cycles, as the water begins cooling from the second the car is shut down it creates a vacuum which sucks in air to displace the water that has emptied while running, it takes a rather big leak to show any water on the ground that is usually an obvious blow out of a hose or fitting but can be generated through a worn water pump seal in some cases, but not always, usually the bearing and seal have failed by that time and the noise is more outstanding then is the water noticeable. One has to be very cautious seeking out any water leaks as the best time to locate them (another good reason to add coolant as it has a dye specifically for leak location and smell) is when they are hot and water is being forced out, that is also the most dangerous time as if it happens to explode or your feeling around it can explode in your face or on your arms and burn you so OP be very careful.

FYI if anyone thinks that's a rare event just recently I was working on my VW GTI Vr6 and it has a nest of small coolant lines on the back of the head and while I was investigating another issue I had to move one of those hoses aside and the slight bit of pressure I put on it caused the fitting it was attached to suddenly burst and sprayed steaming hot water everywhere while I had to lean over the engine and was postured on top of it unable to move back quickly being, off balance to see what I was looking at. I was very fortunate that the spray towards my face was blocked by the throttle body or that would not have been a nice result, this tends to happen on older cars without warning at times which is why I'm telling about it now.

^^ KTM answered the question a second time.. I answered it in my first post as per the first line in my post you quoted. Because of the water pump location behind the timing belt cover water leaking may not be visible since the water itself is not visible. If it is leaking though, which is not so common with those water pumps they just quit from inside out, it will likely be leaking from under the passengers side forward under the timing belt cover area. Hearing water/steam hissing is a pretty good sign of a failed hose somewhere or like mentioned possibly a radiator puncture hopefully and not something more serious, not so good to hear after the fact from the previous owner who I understood was a trusted work colleague that it has a water loss problem for some time, that's rather crap.

Well there was no noise associated with the mishap, so perhaps that suggests it might not be the water pump(?), and the fan is an electrical fan, so no fan belt. Timing belt is obviously fine at the moment, as the engine can run without any other problem except for the overheating.

I tried starting it again later in the evening and it did absorb two large bottles of water (I poured it in slowly while the engine was running, as I believe is recommended?). It still got very hot within 2-3 kilometers, so I stopped at a gas station. Will try towing it tomorrow.

Yes fan is electric so maybe has a faulty temp switch or relay or maybe just the fan motor is bad, start the car and get it to temp and see if the fan is turning on? It should also come on almost immediately if you turn on the a/c if you don't want to wait for it to run to temp..

As for the timing belt, if the pump needs replacing, time to do the belt. Poured the water correctly, but that recommendation is only with a hot engine not one that has cooled already, but another thing to consider is the radiator cap having failed.

Broken fan belt.

Don't believe '93 Civic has a fan belt but electric but check if the fan is turning. Obviously coolant/water level. The items that can't be easily checked by yourself is the thermostat and pump.

This, fan first most likely the problem and I think it was a topic with this very car that thinking about replacing the timing belt was to be considered given it's age, the timing belt operates the water pump and while the timing belt seems to be still ok given that the car still runs, the pump may no longer be so if it is the water pump (but they're pretty stout in those engines) best to prepare for replacing several preventative parts you'll likely need to request because so many Thai's do things according to budget most mechanics don't even suggest them and don't even consider doing them all at the same time. Timing belt, water pump obviously, possibly timing belt tensioner and guides, I would, it's sacrificial in a sense and can break at anytime when high milage and if it does you loose tension on the belt, it skips a tooth and valve bending ensues making it far more costly and time consuming.

As mentioned not many caravan parks in Thailand and you will need 220V supply to run AC when sleeping.

I can just imagine a Thai driver pulling on of those going +130km/h, he-he.

How about this one, he was going at least 130Km/h as I had trouble keeping up with him.

20140528_155015.jpg20140528_155113.jpg20140528_154952.jpg

That's a 5th wheel too, very easy to tow and reverse. It is also the sport kind it seems with a bike/ATV compartment in the back to tow your toys with, be a lot of fun around Thailand to explore with no doubt, too bad so many here with so little sense of adventure and negative points of view, they're losing out on some of the best parts of life and Thailand. Why retire or live in a country that has such scenic nature and not take full advantage, instead just sit inside, in their comfy arm chairs posting negative comments without even really relating to the topic they're posting about?