stevie_b

I noticed he referred to terms like "slow lane" and "fast lane": this doesn't help. What lane you should be in isn't a function of what speed you're doing. It's a function of whether you're overtaking or not.

I'm glad some authorities are trying to do something about it. That and not indicating are things that are contrary to the highway code, inconvenience others, and don't benefit those to do it. Just lazy habits. Introduce compulsory driving re-tests every 10 years for all drivers! Off-topic, but I was recently knocked off my bike by a driver who has a medical condition that meant she shouldn't be driving. I fell in front of her car after going on the bonnet, and luckily she braked. If she'd had an epileptic fit or something like that and jammed the accelerator on, there's a fair chance I'd be pushing up daisies now. Did I mention that all drivers should have to re-take a test every 10 years?

Mark, did you take the exhaust manifold heat shield off? Maybe I could have persevered with a mirror and doing it by feel, but even so that heat shield is a snug fit to the block/ manifold. With more patience maybe I could have touched the drain plug with the heat shield in place, but I don't fancy my chances of being able to slip a tool in there. Sounds like you may have managed it though.

Thank you very much. This could be useful as the basis for a sticky how-to thread about it.

I did drain it from the rad, but like Chris said it leaves a lot of coolant still in the system. I drained off 4.7 litres from the radiator drain, which I left on until it wasn't even dripping anymore. With a capacity of 9 litres, that's only half of what's in there.

Thanks for the tips. Zaheer, could I see the guide you've written please? Pictures etc make learning the job much easier.

I'd like to change the gearbox oil in my car for the first time. I've had it done by other people before. Never having changed any gearbox oil in my life, is the procedure to change the W58 oil similar to changing the V160/161 oil described here? -> http://www.mkivsupra.net/vbb/showthread.php?35935-FAQ-The-manual-gearbox e.g. does the car need to be level when doing it? Does the engine need to be on when draining the oil, or only when refilling it? I've searched for a guide on changing the W58 oil but couldn't find one.

Thanks Scooter. With your directions and photo, I think I can pinpoint where it is on the block, although I've still not seen it. There's 2 bolts on the heat shield that just don't want to give up. They're rusted on. I don't think I can access the drain plug without taking the heat shield off (not even from below), so I've sprayed it with WD40 a couple of times, but I think I'll have to skip draining the block unfortunately.

I'm doing a coolant change right now, but I can't find the drain plug on the engine block. I've seen the diagram in the workshop manual, and I've also seen photos of the area. I've looked in various threads, including this one: http://www.mkivsupra.net/vbb/showthread.php?301785-Changing-engine-coolant-including-fluid-in-heater-matrix http://www.mkivsupra.net/vbb/showthread.php?249869-Can-somebody-help-me-identify-the-location-of-the-engine-block-coolant-drain-plug and this photo that someone posted up: http://www.mkivsupra.net/vbb/attachment.php?attachmentid=135329 but I can't marry up when I'm seeing in these photos/diagrams with what I've got on my drive. Do I need to remove any parts to access the drain plug? I've taken a couple of photos of my car: is the drain plug in either of these?

I love you

And you know just what to do

TG in its car-review years occasionally had features on bikes.

Not a personal recommendation, but I found these guys: https://www.eurorescue.co.uk/index.htm I have UK cover with the UK-only part of their business. I've not had to call them out yet, so no idea if they're any good when it really matters.

I've been told I look a bit like Coulthard, and for that reason I fully support him becoming a TG presenter.

I think it's got a fighting chance of being better than TG: The Clarkson Years. I'd put money on it not being a documentary, car-buyers'-guide style format like it was when Tiff Needell and Quentin Wilson were part of it. Despite this, many people will complain that it's not a documentary, car-buyers' type of programme. There were several things wrong with recent TG. You only have to read the threads on here to realise that: 1: Sunday evening post at 7.50pm: "TG is on soon! Woop!" 2: Sunday evening post at 9.02pm: "That's 1 hour of my life I'll never get back" Then go back to step 1 every week until the end of the series. Chris Evans (or rather, the production team) has a golden chance to revamp and refresh. Pieces like Star in a Reasonably Priced Car were good to begin with, but became formulaic and boring. I suspect Clarkson would have got death threats on Twitter if he'd tinkered with the format.

Good video, I enjoyed that! That machine's huge.

Them seats alone probably cost as much as my entire fleet of cars!

My renewal has just come through with Direct Line, and I think they're trying to milk me. I can save about 40% by taking my business elsewhere.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]202324[/ATTACH] But who is Number 1?

Lambo as a runaround, good times!

It's an existing project, long term development. A LAMP-style application, but with C++ instead of PHP/Perl. I'm looking to clear a backlog of relatively basic tasks.

Hmm, the message on here is pretty clear, here be dragons. I think I'll find another way to get the work done. Thanks guys.

To clarify, is it normal to have the fan kick in whilst stationary but (and here's the crucial bit) when the temp gauge needle is bang in the middle? My experience with other cars is that the electric fan kicks in when the gauge reads roughly 2/3 or 3/4 to the red mark.

Hmm, as I feared. If I do it I'll need to be extra-diligent, which of course costs time and money.

Yes please Wez, interested in more details. The development is maintenance of a web app, MySQL backend with web pages written in C++ (more like C with STL)