My new vege-banger...

[joshwa]

This is my new Rover 220 SDi - with Cd player - £370 taxed till May, MOT till July so quite pleased, 121000 miles. 5 good tyres.



(plus a picture of the little one ... awww)

The only (main) problem was the rusty drivers door - the paint was literally coming off as I washed the car lol

Other less important problems:
- Intermittant wiper setting doesn't work (it will wipe half the screen then stop)
- Rear wiper doesn't work
- Fan settings 1 and 2 weren't working - fixed this with some resisters off ebay (for £5)
- and the engine light comes on sometimes when accellerating, but as soon as I stop accellerating it goes off again.

Changed the oil, oil filter, and air filter - and waxed the boot - it's looking more red, and less orange now which is good. I've checked the coolant, brake fluid, power steering fluid, washer fluid topping up as necessary and all the tyres are at the correct level. (although the front ones look like they're not, I suspect it's because they're cheap tyres).

Any other DIY things I should do to keep it running smoothly?

I will be getting some vege-oil tomorrow from Bookers. (£8.30 for 15 litres, so roughly 55p a litre )

Some pics of the car after giving it a clean:

[Tumble]

Good bit of Tim-Worm on that door Josh

[Funkstar]

"Yeah, that tyre's fine dad"

[joshwa]

LOL

He loves splashing in the puddles, and seems to have a fascination with car wheels as well...

I've been to all the local scrap yards for a replacement door - Rover 200s are quite plentiful - but none in my colour / and if they are in my colour then they've been 3 door versions so far.

[SilentDeath]

try findapart or one of the online places.. most of them can deliver...


But unless it fails the mot I would just leave it.. doors are a pita to fit.. as you have to change the locks over... (if you do get one from the breakers ask if you can have a key for that car, and give them the reg number.. extra key but it saves lots of work..)

[MaddAussie]

welcome to roverbreakers.com

[J4MES]

'Dad, either the cars leaked or my pee smells like fish and chips'

[Howard]

Can I just ask... Why? What's wrong with your passat? It's a diesel, so it does 23507855MPG while being as fast as a Ferrari, right?

[joshwa]

Can I just ask... Why? What's wrong with your passat? It's a diesel, so it does 23507855MPG while being as fast as a Ferrari, right?

Yep

Well 48.5mpg on motorways with cruise control. We've still got that for the missus (and baby and as it's safer). But have to pay £1.10 a litre!

I wanted to run a car for as little money as possible, and wanted to try out this veg-oil stuff too, see if it's actually possible, see how much it costs, and see what it's like.

It's also brought up some interesting conversations with friends regarding the future of car power... apparently it has 82% less co2 emissions compared to running diesel, and is also from a renewable energy source, whereas diesel/petrol/oil will eventually run out one day. (and it can be sourced from european farmland that was previously unusable because the euro government said so...)*

It costs 55p a litre, and could cost 0p a litre if I can get free waste veg oil from the local chippy (will try one day), and filter it, and the Rover 2 litre diesels give around 50mpg or more.

So everytime I use this car instead of the Passat, I'm saving money (excluding insurance, tax, mot etc).

* Source of information: BBC iPlayer - Money Programme

[mycarsavw]

... and seems to have a fascination with car wheels as well...

Wonder where he gets that from

Can I just ask... Why? What's wrong with your passat? It's a diesel, so it does 23507855MPG while being as fast as a Ferrari, right?

[Funkstar]

It's also brought up some interesting conversations with friends regarding the future of car power... apparently it has 82% less co2 emissions compared to running diesel, and is also from a renewable energy source, whereas diesel/petrol/oil will eventually run out one day. (and it can be sourced from European farmland that was previously unusable because the euro government said so...)*

Rhetorical question here: I wonder what the carbon footprint is for the production and distribution of that vegetable oil is compared to the production and distribution of regular diesel, including the canister the oil comes in

I can't help thinking it is similar to imported fruit and veg. Everyone is obsessed about food miles, yet trucking in large quantities of tomatoes (for instance) actually produces less CO2 than heating green houses to grow them here. You also have the farmers market vs. the supermarket argument. Where a bag of supermarket potatoes has a smaller carbon footprint than those sold at a market by a "local" grower, simply because of the shear volume being transported at any one time.

Like I said, rhetorical question, but it would be interesting to see if there were any figures for this

[joshwa]

The Money program - on one side of the argument - said that the plants absorb co2 from the atmosphere potentially making the plants carbon nuetral - but that's ignoring all the transportation etc.

If the corn/veg is grown in the UK, then surely that's the best, most environmentally friendly solution.

The oil I use - I put the empty bottles in the recycling bin.

[Funkstar]

It's probably right that veg oil is better, probably better in regards to sooty emissions too.

Once you start to analys these things though, it isn't as clear cut as you first think

[schmunk]

sooty emitions

[Vimeous]

The problem with growing fuel is the knock-on effects in other areas.
It has already caused a massive rise in grain prices as farmers move to more profitable fuel crops vs food crops. It put our canteen supplier out of business last year!

It will be interesting to watch the long-term effect on the food mountains of old and the ability of western sources to continue to supply food aid for example.

No denying its a fantastic idea though, I hope it works out!

[Rave]

In the long term I don't believe that biofuels will solve our energy problems- in fact they won't even come close IMO. They could even have a very negative effect by raising the cost of grain to the extent that poor people go hungry- there's some evidence of that already.

But, on a personal level, if it saves you money, why not? If demand for bio-oils increases to the extent that the price goes up greatly, then it'll become uneconomic and you can stop doing it.