240 General: New (to me) 1980 Volvo 244

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Stephen Edwin

And then we have international traffic, especially HGV filling up huge tanks at lower EU prices. Do they pay anything to drive in the UK apart from a few tolls if they are successfully collected. I don't know. Who bears the road costs of EU traffic in the UK .........



.

For HGV the EU operator does:

https://www.gov.uk/government/public...d-rates-tables

[Stephen Edwin]

Originally Posted by Othen

For HGV the EU operator does:

https://www.gov.uk/government/public...d-rates-tables

Well that is something then. Good catch Othen.


Comrade Stephen Edwin


.

[Bugjam1999]

Hi- on the subject of spares, some headlight glass for your pretty rare headlights just popped up on Facebook.

Cheers

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Bugjam1999

Hi- on the subject of spares, some headlight glass for your pretty rare headlights just popped up on Facebook.

Cheers

Good afternoon,

That is interesting and may well be worth following up. I don't have a Facebook account (or any other social media type things - I'm too fixed in my ways for that) - is there any other way I could see the ad (or maybe the guy has a phone number or email address I could use to contact him?).

Stay safe,

Alan

[john.wigley]

Originally Posted by Othen

Do you really keep accurate records for costs, mileage and fuel consumption John? I am nothing but impressed.
Alan

I was self-employed for many years, Alan, and needed to do so for taxation purposes. It is only a very simple spreadsheet that I have since continued purely out of interest.

What it has shown me is how dramatically the relationship between fuel, fixed costs, repairs and servicing has changed since I retired. When I was working, fuel was by far my biggest expense; now it is the smallest. Fixed costs were ammortised over a much higher mileage, and servicing was done on mileage. whereas, at 3000 miles per year, it is now time-based.

Tracking fuel consumption, especially when doing upwards of 1000 miles per week, can reveal trends that may indicate that all is not quite well with the car. I once detected a leak from an incorrectly fitted fuel filter on my 944 following a service that way, so it has definitely paid off!

Regards, John.

[Bugjam1999]

Originally Posted by Othen

Good afternoon,

That is interesting and may well be worth following up. I don't have a Facebook account (or any other social media type things - I'm too fixed in my ways for that) - is there any other way I could see the ad (or maybe the guy has a phone number or email address I could use to contact him?).

Stay safe,

Alan

I’ve sent them a message asking for a number- I’ll pass it on when they reply.

Cheers

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Bugjam1999

I’ve sent them a message asking for a number- I’ll pass it on when they reply.

Cheers

Excellent, many thanks.

Stay safe.

Alan

[Othen]

Originally Posted by john.wigley

I was self-employed for many years, Alan, and needed to do so for taxation purposes. It is only a very simple spreadsheet that I have since continued purely out of interest.

What it has shown me is how dramatically the relationship between fuel, fixed costs, repairs and servicing has changed since I retired. When I was working, fuel was by far my biggest expense; now it is the smallest. Fixed costs were ammortised over a much higher mileage, and servicing was done on mileage. whereas, at 3000 miles per year, it is now time-based.

Tracking fuel consumption, especially when doing upwards of 1000 miles per week, can reveal trends that may indicate that all is not quite well with the car. I once detected a leak from an incorrectly fitted fuel filter on my 944 following a service that way, so it has definitely paid off!

Regards, John.

That is an excellent story about the 944 John, I bet the service manager got a shock!

Like you, fuel has become a much smaller expense. Between 7 vehicles (3 cars, 4 bikes) I should think I do no more than 12,000 miles/year (less this year with the kung 'flu). I don't keep records, but if I average 40 MPG across the fleet that is about 300 gallons of various premium petrol, diesel and Morrison's very cheapest per year, or about 1,400 litres - say £1,500. Most of my vehicles have stopped depreciating now, but the capital loss on the two mainstream cars (Porsche and Skoda) would come to quite a bit more than £1,500.

Stay safe,

Alan

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

PS. What is wrong with your Volvo Dave?

Painfully heavy fuel consumption Alan.

Until about the end of August last year, it was doing about 26-27mpg, even on my short runs. Then after checking the air filter one day because i kept getting whiffs of petrol and then checking/adjusting the CO (as i thought to 1%) and renewing the air filter as it was black, i put the slight power loss down to running leaner.

Imagine my surprise when a couple of moths later at the MoT, it showed up 0.46% CO!
A bit lean - the specs are 1% +/-0.5% CO which means it wasn't far off but i think just lean enough to cause pinking which the knock sensors would have picked up and retarded the ignition timing accordingly.
Retarded timing will cause heavy fuel consumption and also running lean will mean the throttle needs opening wider for the same speed which in turn, reduces the efficiency.

Anyway, i didn't think much more after the low emissions on the MoT until recently. I then remembered the knock sensors and deicded to investigate. It read 1% CO on the Gastester but i accidentally tapped the top and the needle dropped to 0.3-0.4% CO instead.

I tweaked the mixture back up to 1.1-1.2% and the engine is now much smoother and more eager, hopefully the timing is no longer retarded and it's more efficient!

I do have a couple of other things to investigate if the economy doesn't improve but so far, that seems the most likely bet!

Originally Posted by Stephen Edwin

And then we have international traffic, especially HGV filling up huge tanks at lower EU prices. Do they pay anything to drive in the UK apart from a few tolls if they are successfully collected. I don't know. Who bears the road costs of EU traffic in the UK .........



.

The trucks might have huge tanks but they also have a voracious thirst - 7mpg is a good average for most trucks, 4-6mpg probably more normal so the range is only about 500 miles on a 100 gallon tank. That means at some point they will need to fill up over here so they don't get a "free pass" as it were.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Painfully heavy fuel consumption Alan.

Until about the end of August last year, it was doing about 26-27mpg, even on my short runs. Then after checking the air filter one day because i kept getting whiffs of petrol and then checking/adjusting the CO (as i thought to 1%) and renewing the air filter as it was black, i put the slight power loss down to running leaner.

Imagine my surprise when a couple of moths later at the MoT, it showed up 0.46% CO!
A bit lean - the specs are 1% +/-0.5% CO which means it wasn't far off but i think just lean enough to cause pinking which the knock sensors would have picked up and retarded the ignition timing accordingly.
Retarded timing will cause heavy fuel consumption and also running lean will mean the throttle needs opening wider for the same speed which in turn, reduces the efficiency.

Anyway, i didn't think much more after the low emissions on the MoT until recently. I then remembered the knock sensors and deicded to investigate. It read 1% CO on the Gastester but i accidentally tapped the top and the needle dropped to 0.3-0.4% CO instead.

I tweaked the mixture back up to 1.1-1.2% and the engine is now much smoother and more eager, hopefully the timing is no longer retarded and it's more efficient!

I do have a couple of other things to investigate if the economy doesn't improve but so far, that seems the most likely bet!

Good morn Dave,

It does seem odd that a leaner mixture might reduce fuel economy - but I suppose that is just an unintended consequence of electronic control systems. I hope that has solved your issue - 27 MPG is a good result for such a big car.

Stay safe,

Alan