modern clutches

[Carledo]

I had a VW Polo Mk1 from 1986 to 1990 and it was the most unreliable rusty car I ever owned. I guess things have changed.

You must have had the only one then, the old "breadvan" was usually "tough as old boot" as the adverts (with Burt Kwouk) used to say. The brakes were rubbish and oil leaks from the head gasket used to ruin alternators but they seldom rotted, even well into old age. I had several and never scrapped one for rust, even at 20+ yers old.

Steve

[alangraham]

Well there's a sad tale here. We'd married in 1984, got mortgaged with £500 in the bank for emergencies and when our Sprint overheated and needed a new timing chain and adjusters it took all our money to repair it. My wife insisted the triumph had to go so we sold our maroon automatic with 60,000 miles for £600 in 1986 - it was all I could get. I'd paid £3500 for it in Dec 82 with 18k miles.
It was a good thing I handed the keys over in the dark because tears were running down my cheeks.
We used the money to part exchange it for another V reg car - a VW Polo Mk 1. Sensible choice apparently. I'd only had it 2 days when it died on me. The boot door disintigrated with rust along its entire width and the wheel arches rusted through. It was a weird colour - Florida blue. It always had a hesitation, even after I swapped the carburretor, and several times over the years I almost got cleaned out when it hesitated emerging from junctions.
We couldn't afford to change it again for several years so I was stuck with it, and even my wife agreed in the end that the Triumph had put it to shame.
It went to several VW garages to be put on their computers - but none of them could fix its flat spots. Then it put me in the dark when its switches burned out.
So here we are in 2016 and the mortgage is paid off, I can afford a new car and still run a Dolly 1500. The night I sold the Sprint I told myself that one day I'd have another Dolly.
One thought - do all these new cars all have engines that switch off at standstill? What an awful thought and what wear must take place on starters and ring gear. Can these horrible devices be disabled?

[Carledo]

I don't think ALL cars have that stop start device and the couple I've driven, you can turn it off, which was a good idea on one of the ones I drove cos the starter was wrecked! A 2011 Mercedes A class it was, the starter was over £300, plus I lost the £75 surcharge on the old one cos the nose bearing carrier was smashed AND it took nearly all day to change, the back of the engine/gearbox assembly had to be lowered off its mountings about a foot just to get to it! I was not impressed and the owner even less so!

Steve

[SprintMWU773V]

First thing I do in my car is switch off the start stop thingie. If it's in Sport mode it switches it off automatically!