Some Concern About How To Take Care Old Car

[sunny747]

HI all,

i drive old lancer ecar 1993 with LPG. i have been driving for 1.5 years without any major problem and pretty satisfied as it is quite cheap to maintain.

although there is no problem but i want to change some parts for safety reason. When i bought it i changed brake pad, clutch pad , some wires/ black pipes, air filter, valve, timing belt, new Fan , 2 pair of fresh tires etc.

Ever since i drove 40,000 km on LPG. i flash and change engine oil every after 5000 km.

for last few days, i keep hearing some noise coming from above the real wheel specially on rough roads. Because of this reason, they can't align tires at cockpit and my tires are getting friction ed.

i went to garage and they said i need to change the boot arms , but i don't know what is it. can anybody shed some light on it? is these expensive?

There are so many belts beside the engine, do i have to change it after some time? what else shall i change for safety purpose?

thanks so much,

[stingray]

HI all,

i drive old lancer ecar 1993 with LPG. i have been driving for 1.5 years without any major problem and pretty satisfied as it is quite cheap to maintain.

although there is no problem but i want to change some parts for safety reason. When i bought it i changed brake pad, clutch pad , some wires/ black pipes, air filter, valve, timing belt, new Fan , 2 pair of fresh tires etc.

Ever since i drove 40,000 km on LPG. i flash and change engine oil every after 5000 km.

for last few days, i keep hearing some noise coming from above the real wheel specially on rough roads. Because of this reason, they can't align tires at cockpit and my tires are getting friction ed.

i went to garage and they said i need to change the boot arms , but i don't know what is it. can anybody shed some light on it? is these expensive?

There are so many belts beside the engine, do i have to change it after some time? what else shall i change for safety purpose?

thanks so much,

I guess the bushes (each side one) are gone in the arms. Should cost about 600 Baht plus labour, maybe a hour. So not expensive. Waterhoses belts, should be changed yearly in this hot climate. Fill green anti freeze in the radiator, prefent the engine from rusting inside. Another good thing about green anti freeze is: Water leaks can be dedected easly because of the green colored marks where the water is leaking. If you have only pure water in your radiator, sometime you are not beable to see small leaks. Change the water thermostate (valve) as well. Make sure the electric fans for the radiator and those sensors working well. Check the electric fans on the radiator for movement in the bearings. Remember a defective engine cooling fan can cause damage to your engine. Timing belt should be replaced after 80'k. Check wheel bearings, brakes, shocks and theyr bushings. Check ball jounts and drive shaft bearrings, espscially the rubbers arround the bearings.. Crached rubbercovers causing defective driveshaft bearings, because grease will escape and dirt goes in to. Make sure all the vacum hoses are in good condition and not leaking. If you don't know about cars, buy a repair manual, maybe Chilton or Haynes.

Usually not for sale in Thailand, but can order easly by internet overseas.

[sunny747]

after 54 views, i get a reply. thanks so much. really needed this one. Thank you so much stingray.

green color coolant is a great idea. i have red one now which is not changed in 6 months already.

so here is the summery that should be checked :

• Waterhoses belts

• Fill with green coolant

• water thermostat (valve)

• Check electric fan for the radiator and sensors

• Bearing with the radiator fan

• Timing Belt every after 80k km.

• Wheel bearing (changed recently)

• brakes

• shock (how do i check the shock? it feels very hard inside the cabin while on bad roads)

• ball joints and vacuum hoses

[Datsun240Z]

Red coolant is used in all aluminium blocks.

Blue one for cast iron, with aluminum head.

Green if have not heared of.

Water can be used in a hot country like Thailand, but is not loved since it puts much corossion on inside.

You do not need to worry much about all those points Stingray sums up. But it's good to check them. Buying a Haynes or other book online ( like Stingray stated ), will help you very much, so you can do it yourself.

The owner of Castrol Company, once said: Changing to oil so often, is really not necesarry, since actually oil can go in an engine it's whole life. He used to same oil for 400k on his Mercedes Benz. He stated it was all a money issue, for the world economy. I believe the man.

[sunny747]

Red coolant is used in all aluminium blocks.

Blue one for cast iron, with aluminum head.

Green if have not heared of.

Water can be used in a hot country like Thailand, but is not loved since it puts much corossion on inside.

You do not need to worry much about all those points Stingray sums up. But it's good to check them. Buying a Haynes or other book online ( like Stingray stated ), will help you very much, so you can do it yourself.

The owner of Castrol Company, once said: Changing to oil so often, is really not necesarry, since actually oil can go in an engine it's whole life. He used to same oil for 400k on his Mercedes Benz. He stated it was all a money issue, for the world economy. I believe the man.

yah, i'll try to get the books. May not be tough as i'm working for the book company.

well, the owner of castrol company can test on his Benz as he can afford to buy another one if the engine is burnt. : ) . but for me, i better stay safe and keep changing engine oil .

[sunny747]

one important question. shall i not put water with coolant?

i usually do this at the Shell.....i saw them putting water and coolant. then about the engine corrosion?

[ballbreaker]

one important question. shall i not put water with coolant?

i usually do this at the Shell.....i saw them putting water and coolant. then about the engine corrosion?

Shell is doing it right. Most coolant additives state a 50/50 mix with water.

[neverdie]

Good on you Sunny for maintaining your vehicle, it will luv you for it & possibly return many happy motoring years.

Green coolant is common in these parts of the world. You will notice on the back of the can/bottle many of the manufacturers of this product allow for mixing with water.

Don't forget your tyre pressures, check them often, its an area of regular vehicle maintance that seems to be forgotten around these parts. Best to buy your own gauge & check it yourself, as it seems to be commonplace to overinflate tyres at the petrol stations.

[katabeachbum]

No need to change oil every 5000 km. 10.000 km if you run petrol, and 20.000 km if you run LPG., or every 6 months. Change filter same time. Should start the engine 5 minutes on petrol every morning. Petrol in cold engine lubricates the fuel line and engine head valves.

[Datsun240Z]

There are also, I don't know in Thailand, Long-Life oils. Can go up to 70.000 km.

[neverdie]

No need to change oil every 5000 km. 10.000 km if you run petrol, and 20.000 km if you run LPG., or every 6 months. Change filter same time. Should start the engine 5 minutes on petrol every morning. Petrol in cold engine lubricates the fuel line and engine head valves.

There are also, I don't know in Thailand, Long-Life oils. Can go up to 70.000 km.

Whilst I'm not going to disagree with you gentlemen, it may be the case that the vehicle is being used on very short trips & not often & perhaps the more frequent oil changes are for this reason.

[Lickey]

Another check worth doing often is makeing sure that air has a free flow through the radiator matrix, you can check this by holding a light or torch near the fan and looking through the front grille, all areas should be clean for max efficiency, if not, clean with a medium presure water hose or an airline, from the inside out, that way, bigger pieces of debris will not be pushed further into the matrix,

[Datsun240Z]

No need to change oil every 5000 km. 10.000 km if you run petrol, and 20.000 km if you run LPG., or every 6 months. Change filter same time. Should start the engine 5 minutes on petrol every morning. Petrol in cold engine lubricates the fuel line and engine head valves.

There are also, I don't know in Thailand, Long-Life oils. Can go up to 70.000 km.

Whilst I'm not going to disagree with you gentlemen, it may be the case that the vehicle is being used on very short trips & not often & perhaps the more frequent oil changes are for this reason.

Yes, your right

[sunny747]

When driving on hot sun, my AC seems to be working fine. But under little cold or cloudy weather, the air flow gets stuck. then i have to turn off the Ac and keep the fan blowing.

after a while, i notice some white air comes out and the air flow gets better. I can then turn on the AC.

it never happens on Hot sun.

what could be the reason ? any idea?

[katabeachbum]

No need to change oil every 5000 km. 10.000 km if you run petrol, and 20.000 km if you run LPG., or every 6 months. Change filter same time. Should start the engine 5 minutes on petrol every morning. Petrol in cold engine lubricates the fuel line and engine head valves.

There are also, I don't know in Thailand, Long-Life oils. Can go up to 70.000 km.

Whilst I'm not going to disagree with you gentlemen, it may be the case that the vehicle is being used on very short trips & not often & perhaps the more frequent oil changes are for this reason.

OP started out with saying 40k km in 1,5 years. Running on LPG gives very little pollution and acid to oil, so main reason for replascing it is water/condense. 6 months/20k km is sufficient.

There are long life oil available in LOS, but oil needs to be replaced every 6 months anyway when running on LPG so its a waste of money.

[sunny747]

No need to change oil every 5000 km. 10.000 km if you run petrol, and 20.000 km if you run LPG., or every 6 months. Change filter same time. Should start the engine 5 minutes on petrol every morning. Petrol in cold engine lubricates the fuel line and engine head valves.

There are also, I don't know in Thailand, Long-Life oils. Can go up to 70.000 km.

Whilst I'm not going to disagree with you gentlemen, it may be the case that the vehicle is being used on very short trips & not often & perhaps the more frequent oil changes are for this reason.

OP started out with saying 40k km in 1,5 years. Running on LPG gives very little pollution and acid to oil, so main reason for replascing it is water/condense. 6 months/20k km is sufficient.

There are long life oil available in LOS, but oil needs to be replaced every 6 months anyway when running on LPG so its a waste of money.

HI,

but i see them draining thick black oil from my engine after 5000 km each time they flash.

why is it so black?

[katabeachbum]

HI,

but i see them draining thick black oil from my engine after 5000 km each time they flash.

why is it so black?

If it was an old diesel, yes, but running LPG is nomally very clean, no soot at all. Do you replace oilfilter each 5000 km too?

Another reason could be too rich LPG mix and perhaps too high idlespeed, which is not uncommon on vacumsystems. How much LPG do you use on 10 km?

[sunny747]

yes i change oil filter ever 5000km also. SHELL changes it of their own, doesn't even ask me. i didn't check how much LPG i need for 10km but i know i can drive 300km (in Bangkok) in 500 baht. Thats how i count actually. For me , i can fill up my tank by 550 baht.

[katabeachbum]

yes i change oil filter ever 5000km also. SHELL changes it of their own, doesn't even ask me. i didn't check how much LPG i need for 10km but i know i can drive 300km (in Bangkok) in 500 baht. Thats how i count actually. For me , i can fill up my tank by 550 baht.

300 km at 500 baht. about 15 baht/litres for LPG. Should be 8-9km/litres which is normal for this car on LPG vacum.

Then I would continue changing oil and oilfilter at 5000km as long as the oil is black when its replaced.

[Lickey]

How much do you top-up engine oil between changes?

Are you cruising or thrashing it sometimes?

& black at 5000ks? your car otherwise has a valve guide problem or a oil control piston ring problem,

Do you actually see them change the oil & filter?

Is the dipstick clean when you check next day or black?

Next time, ask them to put flushing oil in and run it for aout 30mins, this should clean all the internals ect, [dont know if they have flushing oil here?]

Sorry for all the questions, but it will help others understand about the black oil, Cheers..

[Datsun240Z]

Quite normal for the oil to become black quickly. Doesn't change anything on the quality though, people tend to believe when it's black it's not good anymore....

[stingray]

When driving on hot sun, my AC seems to be working fine. But under little cold or cloudy weather, the air flow gets stuck. then i have to turn off the Ac and keep the fan blowing.

after a while, i notice some white air comes out and the air flow gets better. I can then turn on the AC.

it never happens on Hot sun.

what could be the reason ? any idea?

Your air is freezing during low speed of fan (daytime not, because fanspeed is on high). You have to move the termostate regulator to minimum, because your AC doesn't cut off, so all getting iced inside the air box and tha airflow will blocked.

[philliphn]

Rinse the Radiator so that it is not clogged with dirt and dust. Then it will cool more efficiently.

[PXR5]

i notice some white air comes out and the air flow

I had this on my Isuzu Pick up (1983), 15 minutes later the starter had scrap value !

[Jing-jo]

No need to change oil every 5000 km. 10.000 km if you run petrol, and 20.000 km if you run LPG., or every 6 months. Change filter same time. Should start the engine 5 minutes on petrol every morning. Petrol in cold engine lubricates the fuel line and engine head valves.

The main reason you should run the engine on petrol for the first few minutes is to HEAT the water which is used in the vapouriser to heat the incoming LPG.

LPG uses separate fuel lines so not correct but yes does lubricate valves stems and heads plus valve seats but with LPG kits you should use a vacuum operated oiler system ( works by the engine vacuum sucking through a very small bore metered hose from an oil filled bottle to give the correct oil drip feed rate

This makes the engine last much longer if you engine has a cooling problem or a slitgh head gasket problem LPG WILL find it and make it very much worse a lot quicker than with petrol

to give you an idea how much it can save you

I ran a VW Scirroco in the UK for 4 years on LPG it had a MK3 golf Gti petrol engine (1998cc 115BHP instead of 1781cc 112BHP ) and a turbo diesel gearbox(much higher gearing 3,000 @100mph as opposed to 5,000rpm @100mph) which with the price of the fuel changed the effective economy from 40mpg to 132 mpg , comparing petrol at 132@Ltr as opposed to LPG 35@ Ltr

this example used was went petrol was at it highest while LPG was still at it's near lowest (29p @Ltr usually)

100miles @40mpg using petrol @132p@Ltr(£5.97 a UK gallon) and 2.5 gallons consumed =£14.925

100 miles @35mpg using LPG@35p@Ltr (£1.58 a UK gallon) and 2.85 gallons consumed = £4.51

the petrol fuel tank held 55 ltrs £72.60 to fill for 490 mile range or 14.8 pence a mile

the LPG fuel tank was 100 ltrs £35 to fill for a 775 mile range or 4.5 pence a mile

car to buy with the kit fitted £500

insurance 4 years £1000

mot 4 years £150

road tax 4 years £600

maintenance (DIY) £500 includes MK3 engine and turbo diesel gearbox new clutch and 4 years repairs/servicing all done by me

TOTAL £2750

mileage covered

95000 @ 4.5p a mile £4275

£7025 approx for 95000 miles

[email protected] a mile £14060

so a saving of £9785

Time spent in Thailand over the last 4 years

14 trips a total of 350 days airfares 14@500 each time £7000

leaving £2785 which works out roughly 500Tbht a day

so it's nice to know the British government paid for me to have a shag and a beer nearly every day I have stayed in Thailand over 4 years

Cheers Gordon you Moron

Trouble is now back in the UK the bastards are now wasting no time shafting me back

sorry for slightly off topic post in the second part but it just shows how much a little builds up if saving or chips away at your money if spending

[Jing-jo]

[

OP started out with saying 40k km in 1,5 years. Running on LPG gives very little pollution and acid to oil, so main reason for replascing it is water/condense. 6 months/20k km is sufficient.

There are long life oil available in LOS, but oil needs to be replaced every 6 months anyway when running on LPG so its a waste of money.

absolute crap !

you can extend the oil mileage when running on LPG as they are NO additives like there are in Petrol and the fuel burns a lot cleaner

oil remains much cleaner for a lot longer check with all the reports from truck and bus companies that use LPG

I use to work on Helicopters and got my oil from my car and my pickup regularly checked by spectrographic oil analysis unit on the base

Car running LPG after 20,000 to 25,000 without change started to show breakdown and a little contamination

whereas my VW caddy pickup using very similar engine but fuelled by petrol the oil started to get contaminated after 5000 miles sufficient to cause problems and started to breakdown after 10,000 miles

You can easily extend the life of a good quality oil by fitting a bypass oil filter that filters down to several microns I pinched one of the Spey jet engine ones (2 micron type similar to here http://www.purolator-facet.com/ascave.htm )and rigged it up via a bleed off.

In 95000 miles use there was probably not even enough crap in either filter or the filtered sump oil used during that mileage to half fill a small egg cup whereas the petrol driven car subjected to the same checks had enough gunk for at least a full coffee cup.

This pickup only did about 50,000 miles during this time as opposed to @95K the LPG car did.

The main oil filters were split open and using EFDC techniques all the debris were washed into and then passed through a filter paper trap then allowed to dry spread over the filter paper covered with sellotape and inspected under the microscope and the oil bypass filters were also stripped and checked in the same fashion.The oil was hot drained into a stainless tray then poured through a funnel lined with filter paper

The time difference between the LPG car and the petrol car oils drained through the filter was considerable as was the amount of debris remaining in the filter paper.

The VW Scirroco is now no longer here due to body corrosion but the pick up is and so when I return from my next Thailand trip the Scirroco's engine and g/box are going in the Pickup along with a different design of tank,a Non void Toroidal (solid doughnut type) as opposed to cylinder.

Hopefully then the government will have sorted out the LPG tax and the fact the pick -up will soon be 25 years old NO road tax old #

even cheaper motoring! :D

[Lancashirelad]

The VW Scirroco is now no longer here due to body corrosion but the pick up is and so when I return from my next Thailand trip the Scirroco's engine and g/box are going in the Pickup along with a different design of tank,a Non void Toroidal (solid doughnut type) as opposed to cylinder.

Hopefully then the government will have sorted out the LPG tax and the fact the pick -up will soon be 25 years old NO road tax old #

even cheaper motoring! :D

Sorry to say but i think you're going to be disappointed. All the way back in 1997, very quietly in a budget, they closed the door on the 25 yr old free historic vehicle tax. Those that were already in the scheme stay in (Pre 1 January 1973) but no more vehicles will become eligable as they reach their 25th birthday.

[Jing-jo]

The VW Scirroco is now no longer here due to body corrosion but the pick up is and so when I return from my next Thailand trip the Scirroco's engine and g/box are going in the Pickup along with a different design of tank,a Non void Toroidal (solid doughnut type) as opposed to cylinder.

Hopefully then the government will have sorted out the LPG tax and the fact the pick -up will soon be 25 years old NO road tax old #

even cheaper motoring! :D

Sorry to say but i think you're going to be disappointed. All the way back in 1997, very quietly in a budget, they closed the door on the 25 yr old free historic vehicle tax. Those that were already in the scheme stay in (Pre 1 January 1973) but no more vehicles will become eligable as they reach their 25th birthday.

Thanks for that

Typical British Government trick change rulings that people can save money on quietly and suddenly

Any change they may make with a big fanfare is usually a shafting the public tax in disguise as so often time seems to prove :D

they have also gone back on their word to not increase the tax levy on LPG plus have juggled the lower tax classes for LPG vehicles so now no big savings to promote LPG and my pickup cant get reduced tax now either but will go ahead with conversion as will save money and reduce my two footed carbon foot print

So no more government sponsored shagathons

cant really complain averaged 10 trips away from UK per annum for 24 years all at the governments expense luckily none in desert getting shot at.

[sunny747]

Rinse the Radiator so that it is not clogged with dirt and dust. Then it will cool more efficiently.

how do i rinse the radiator? what is the process? does Shell do it? if yes, approximately how much does it cost?

thanks so much.

[Lickey]

Already described how to to do in POST 12, cost, minimal,