Blood Suckers

[Stevey Y]

Hi Gents, anyone else noticed the sudden surge in the number of parasitic claims companies dealing with the potential fleecing of VAG for over indulgent compensation, it sort of hit me in the face the other night when I had some misinformed !Removed! in the cab bellowing at me about how much I can claim through the emissions compensation scheme because I drive an Audi, I didn't bother to inform him that it was only for cars built 08-15 that would have been a shade to much education for the self appointed expert on Compo, his exact words were, you could get Fowsands of pands out of them, if the journey had been longer and the client more sober I would have put my theory forward.

How many of these owners of the targeted years of vehicles suddenly found via market depreciation that they could actually afford an Audi and went and bought one, then they drove round for the next few years marvelling at the reliability, economy and handling of their purchase then all of a sudden they develop a Thunberg type conscience at the mere mention of money, after they get paid out will they scrap these filthy polluting vehicles, probably not, lets face it folks its not like PPI where they were releiving you of thousands for something that definitely was not going to work, no, what people got was something that was usable and gave good service and in the final analysis if they were handing out prison sentences for dodgy motor manufacturers practises most car brands CEOs would be doing life, the bare facts of the matter are most everything you buy in life within its history will have some sort of rule bending attached to its production to enhance its appeal in the market place as well as lowering production costs, this saint like reaction from the motoring public is sadly endemic of the vile claims culture that is permeating society,

Stevey.

[Steve Q]

Funnily enough there's a similar thing with mercs also at the moment. 

Guess they're looking for new things to chase now the ppi compensation has ended. 

[Stevey Y]

49 minutes ago, Steve Q said:

Funnily enough there's a similar thing with mercs also at the moment. 

Guess they're looking for new things to chase now the ppi compensation has ended. 

Yes indeed, just seen the advert inserted in the middle of this thread, can't understand why the owners of the cars affected do it most of the people I carry that went for the free VAG retro fit reprogramming now moan about what a dog the car has become performance wise and I have even had many telling me the vehicle concerned does less to the gallon and they were going to sell it.

Have we really become that stupid that if something isn't broken we will try and fix it even if it costs more money in the long run, still I suppose you could use the money you get back minus the leeches third to fund the extra diesel when is all you had to do was wait until you got a newer model of the same with even more power and less road tax, try running Fords as a cab as I did and enjoy the Jackanory quoted mpg as well as the stratospheric VED hikes every year, I ended up getting an Audi as at the time it was cheaper than the equivalent Mondeo Vignale I went all the way to Oxford to see and had 20k less on the clock, won't be going back to any other make any time soon.BTW Sorry about the prose transgression.

Stevey

[Steve Q]

I worked at Volkswagen and hated it when we had customers in for the recalls. The amount of time it couldn't be done due to faults found on the diagnostic check just got customers mad. I would always advise people not to have the emissions recalls done as it wasn't worth the risk in my eyes. 

The road tax situation is a joke. I mean my Audi is now in semi retirement so doesn't do anywhere near the miles it once did but tax is still £250. That's the same with my old Ford escort which is slightly higher than that! And the escort only comes out occasionally, weather dependent of course. 

Yet a Prius can have free road tax due to hybrid yet the petrol engine is worse for the environment. 

[Stevey Y]

Correct at every level, its a known fact that petrol engines produce more C02 than diesels but from the government perspective its better to jump on the Nox band wagon as there are more diesel owners to tax to death, just look at the Ford CVH engines during the late seventies early eighties how economical they were, only problem was that these lean burn wonders C02 reading were off the Richter scale, that all stopped when CARB in America got more proactive globally with CATS and injection systems that were controlled by the ECU within very tight peramiters. 

Fortunately Adblue has scuppered their assault and attempts to tax us into oblivion, no one seems to realise they will start on hybrids next and when the have eradicated all fossil engines just look at the potential for making electricity the most expensive commodity on the planet.

[Steve Q]

Too true! But the other assault on older cars is the change of fuel mixture. For example the new petrol being produced has more sulphur in it which I believe can damage older petrol engines and fuel systems. As you say once they've got rid of petrol/diesel electric cars will not only be taxed to death but the cost to us both in electricity price increases as you stated, but also the increase in taxes due to the I creased need to build more power stations. 

[Stevey Y]

Hi Steve, my grandads most used saying was you are never to old or clever to learn something new, today I have, I was unaware they had started adding sulphur to the new petrol and am I missing the point, the whole Dirty Diesel campaign was started off of the back of the large amount of sulphur in the fuel and once the fuel producers had eradicated that the powers that be started on the nox emissions which the manufacturers more or less cured.

Now it looks like they are going after the particle emissions post DPF this one is proving far more difficult to implement as the technology to do this costs hundreds of thousands of pounds and would wipe out most MOT stations financially. Grandads other saying was you can always tell when a politician is lying, their lips move. 

[Magnet]

As you say Essex Steve, everyday is a learning day, but I am of an age where I am easily confused! So Steve Q - ‘adding/higher’ sulphur content in modern fuels? I thought they were actively reducing it. 

Kind regards,

Gareth. 

[Stevey Y]

Hi Gareth, they can't eradicate sulphur from fuels completely as this will cause terminal problems with the lubricity of the fuel, sulphur is not in itself a lubricant but when burnt causes a reaction between nickel and other metals present in the engine metals to form a Eutectic alloy which has a very low melting point and helps with friction, self lubricity, as far as I am aware the current sulphur levels in European fuels are at best 10ppm.

Other countries in Asia have reduced their levels of sulphur to 50ppm in an effort to reduce pollution, in South Africa they tried to drastically drop the level of sulphur this caused problems especially with diesel powered vehicles causing premature wear and seizure of engines in older vehicles so they started to put mineral based two stroke oil in with the fuel to help with the loss of lubricity then developed the scar test for imported fuels to make sure the lubricity of such fuel met the criteria suitability for their country.

The problem with using two stroke oil as a lubricity agent is it works fine as that but when mixed with fuel especially diesel it forms an aluminium oxide which is good as a lubricant but a total failure when it clings to the inside of the injectors and clogs the injection ports which in most modern diesels are smaller in diameter than a human hair, this allied to the fact that the AUDI injectors are piezo operated and can inject up to five times in one cylinders cycle to control emissions and balance fuel usage between the other three cylinders, therefore it wouldn't surprise me if they had put some other synthesised sulphur product in the fuel to accommodate the newer engine designs and it did not work with older engines, basically it comes down to the discussion on this thread being about the duality of human nature when it comes to money.

Steve.

[Steve Q]

On 8/3/2020 at 5:58 PM, Magnet said:

As you say Essex Steve, everyday is a learning day, but I am of an age where I am easily confused! So Steve Q - ‘adding/higher’ sulphur content in modern fuels? I thought they were actively reducing it. 

Kind regards,

Gareth. 

Hi Gareth I could have sworn it was sulphur, but I do see your point. I'm sure there's something in the new petrol which makes it harder for older petrols to run on. 

[Magnet]

Hello Steve,

Leave the confusion to the crinklies! There’s a bit of concern re. increasing ethanol, but I haven’t mentioned it to my pair of same make 1930 s cars yet! 

Take care,

Kind regards,

Gareth. 

[Stevey Y]

21 hours ago, Magnet said:

Hello Steve,

Leave the confusion to the crinklies! There’s a bit of concern re. increasing ethanol, but I haven’t mentioned it to my pair of same make 1930 s cars yet! 

Take care,

Kind regards,

Gareth. 

Hi Gareth, I knew about the ethanol as I live near Dunton and a very drunk engineer was explaining that they had been trialing an ethanol fuelled Focus, great mpg, nil emissions only problem was fuel leaks because the ethanol had started to rot the granny out of the pipework plastic and metal and then turned its attention to the fuel pump seals, after a few months they gave up because it had started degrading valve seats and pistons, I think localised hot spots in the swirl bowls on the pistons were mentioned.

I can understand the concern with older vehicles as the internal castings were never intended to cope with the combustion power of ethanol, I once met a very old flight line mechanic who was in France at the beginning of the retreat to Dunkirk, he explained they were trying to get every available Spitfire that wasn't damaged back to the U.K. The only problem was lack of fuel, the standard hundred octane wasn't available so the French gave them this stuff called Essence B which as it turned out was full of ethanol, it worked to get them home but every pilot noted that when they throttled up the engine felt like it was trying to climb out of the airframe, the old guy explained that all the aircraft that used this fuel to get back had an immediate engine rebuild, ethanol can be lethal if used in the wrong dosing but I doubt the fuel manufacturers care much for older vehicles which I would consider to be made a criminal offence