***** Motors chat - round 12 *****

Dartz wrote: »

They'll be on instagram soon enough sure..... driving like that.

Or in the obituaries D.

And now for something completely different... I have a squirrel occasionally taking up residence under my bonnet. Yep. Checked the oil earlier(I check it once a week, along with all me fluids(missus!!), being old style) and noted on a flat part of the inner wing I see a big pile of tree seeds. OK sez I, can't recall driving over a forest, but anything's possible. Then I note the cap on my window washer has been used as a chew toy to sharpen their little rodent teeth. And there's a load of the feckers around where I live. And I found squirrel poo. So...

I googled, as you do and found this can be a major problem as far as damage goes, especially for cars built over the last five or so years, where in order to appear "green" manufacturers have been coating wiring in a soy based organic plastic. Which is apparently effin cat nip to rodents of all sorts and they can cause thousands of quids worth of damage overnight. Luckily my wires are ye olde stylee rubber so I should be safe there. Should. I sprayed some anti rust wax that smells minging and added a load of pepper from a grinder onto the waxy stuff, so hopefully. Unless the furry pricks see that as seasoning. :mad::D

Nah M, I saw the little bushy tailed bastard running away from under my car as evening drew in. I wouldn't mind a rat, at least rats are honest and get a bad name. Squirrels have better PR

Apparently at this time of the year squirrels have a couple of residences. One a kinda permanent one and another they store seeds in and use occasionally at night. Under the bonnet of cars is ideal for the second purpose.

Might be worth a punt for the oil change, though yes it would make diff/gearbox oil changes a breeze. Could come in handy if you ever needed to pump water too. I know a chap who got one a while back for helping with his aquarium(s) setup. I figure an electric pump is a handy thing to have to hand on a shelf. Especially at that price.

In the last few years I've used one of the plunger vacuum pump yokes to change my oil. I know a fair few folks don't put much store in them, but I find it good. Every fourth oil change I go the old school sump way and having compared the two the pump takes the exact same out, if not a little more. On my engine. I've heard they can be specific to engines and with some they don't do a full drain.

To be fair I change my oil(Millers race nano stuff) every 4k, so it's damn near the same colour it went in, to the degree that after it comes out of mine we put the "old oil" into a mate's turbo diesel van and it works like a charm. And his engine sounds quieter and runs smoother compared to the standard oil. So even if the pump left some oil, it doesn't be long in getting diluted by the new goo.