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Re: Citigo - 300 miles later.

Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2016 3:28 pm
by sussex2
The vast majority of drivers won't be in the least bothered about a rev counter; quite a lot of them won't have a clue what it does.
It's not unusual to meet people who have been driving for years who cannot/won't read one of the things.
A great many of them change gear by speed irrespective of the situation or need.
It's a by product of how people were taught to drive, and as pure assumption on my part, may still be.
Being an old fart I still won't take a cold engine over 3k revs even though newer engines are (supposed) not to need such delicacy.
The MX5 I use daily warms up nicely in less than half a mile so even the above is of little use these days.

Re: Citigo - 300 miles later.

Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2016 4:00 pm
by akirk
sussex2 wrote:Being an old fart I still won't take a cold engine over 3k revs even though newer engines are (supposed) not to need such delicacy.
The MX5 I use daily warms up nicely in less than half a mile so even the above is of little use these days.


Is it not oil temperature which is more important?
If so, that warms up slower than coolant which the gauge usually measures...

Alasdair

Re: Citigo - 300 miles later.

Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2016 4:08 pm
by sussex2
akirk wrote:
sussex2 wrote:Being an old fart I still won't take a cold engine over 3k revs even though newer engines are (supposed) not to need such delicacy.
The MX5 I use daily warms up nicely in less than half a mile so even the above is of little use these days.


Is it not oil temperature which is more important?
If so, that warms up slower than coolant which the gauge usually measures...

Alasdair


I'm sure you are right but I feel better doing it that way :)
Perhaps by the time the heater on the MX5 is melting my shoes the oil has warmed up as well.

Re: Citigo - 300 miles later.

Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2016 4:33 pm
by jont-
sussex2 wrote:Perhaps by the time the heater on the MX5 is melting my shoes the oil has warmed up as well.

Wouldn't bet on it. And even if the engine has warmed up, the gearbox/diff will take longer.

Caterham is a PITA with it's gearing (3600rpm at 60 in 6th :shock: ), but does mean the oil warms up fairly quickly as you haven't got much choice but to use a reasonable amount of revs.

On a modern car the "temperature" gauge will be an ECU output anyway, rather than a proper gauge :roll: (so it will sit bang in the middle from "not quite cold" to just below "it's f***ed")

Re: Citigo - 300 miles later.

Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2016 1:51 am
by Pyrolol
I actually noticed with the RX-8 that the gearbox oil would never reach full temperature until the car had been taken above 4krpm a few times.

(By never I mean after driving below 4k for hours during the rebuild running in.)

Re: Citigo - 300 miles later.

Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2016 6:25 am
by jont-
jont- wrote:Caterham is a PITA with it's gearing (3600rpm at 60 in 6th :shock: ), but does mean the oil warms up fairly quickly as you haven't got much choice but to use a reasonable amount of revs.

So, I thought I'd pay a bit of extra attention this morning on the drive to work. The Caterham doesn't have an oil temperature gauge, but it does have a mechanical oil pressure gauge, which is a good proxy (cold oil is thick, which means high pressure, warm oil is thinner. In particular, the oil pressure at idle drops from around 60psi to about 30psi (25 if you've been driving very hard), while at RPM it changes from about 75/80 to 60-65ish ).

While the water temperature was up to "normal" within about 3 miles (mostly NSL), it took a good 10 miles (again, quite a lot of which is NSL) before the oil was up to nearly normal temperature. If you're travelling at lower speeds/RPM, I would expect it to take longer, and similarly if the outside ambient is cold it will take much longer.

Engine is a little 1.6 K-series FWIW, without any fancy dry sumps/apollo tanks, so it's "normal" type oil capacity. The cooling system on a K-series is notoriously small of capacity.

Re: Citigo - 300 miles later.

Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2016 10:30 am
by TheInsanity1234
So. I've covered 10 times the mileage I did in the initial post. I'm now on 3k miles and counting in my car.

My thoughts?

- I've washed it once. It seems to wear dirt incredibly well on the Tornado red paint, and you only really see the dirt when you're about to step in the car.
- The above is good, as the car seems to attract flying bugs to its front end with all the power of a large slab of meat being put in front of a ravenous dog. I cannot count how many times I've needed to wipe down the headlights and windscreen to ensure they're both relatively clean.
- The headlights are wonderful...ly dreadful. However this is nothing to do with poor design, and everything to do with the fact the headlights appear to be set incredibly low. They seem to illuminate a shorter distance than the Yeti's headlights on dipped beam. Must find out how one goes about re-levelling the headlights.
- The steering is amazing. It's a bit numb, but it's very nicely weighted and seems to offer enough feedback to get by.
- Suspension is very comfortable, and it handles the bumps around here with ease - despite being the lowered version. I often wonder if the standard suspension would be more comfortable, but I suspect there would be more body roll in the bends.

I've taken it to Essex a lot of times, and I've even taken it to Wales. It has handled everything I've encountered in it so far with remarkable capability. I'm often stunned at how much crap I can put in the boot despite it seeming very small.

Basically, I love it and I've not encountered a better way of spending my money :gear: :car:

But, and there is always a but.

It could do with a sunroof. I'd swap the heated front seats for a sunroof. I'll wait until the winter before deciding whether the heated seats are worth it or not.

Also, an update for you all. I discovered this morning that I've just been accepted into the University of Liverpool to study a Physics Msc! :mrgreen: :D

Re: Citigo - 300 miles later.

Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2016 2:22 pm
by akirk
TheInsanity1234 wrote:Also, an update for you all. I discovered this morning that I've just been accepted into the University of Liverpool to study a Physics Msc! :mrgreen: :D


I didn't want to broach the sensitive subject of results - though I was hoping that articulate as you are on here you should have no issue... Well done :)
My commiserations to Liverpool :D

Alasdair

Re: Citigo - 300 miles later.

Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2016 4:58 pm
by TheInsanity1234
akirk wrote:
TheInsanity1234 wrote:Also, an update for you all. I discovered this morning that I've just been accepted into the University of Liverpool to study a Physics Msc! :mrgreen: :D


I didn't want to broach the sensitive subject of results - though I was hoping that articulate as you are on here you should have no issue... Well done :)

I didn't get in on good grades, I got in on sheer luck! :mrgreen:
I had 3 Bs from my A-levels, which wasn't enough to get on the course I wanted which required AAB or equivalent in UCAS points, but my Further Maths AS level was a D, which was just enough in UCAS points to meet the course requirements, so I'm in! We need a woohoo emoticon on here! :mrgreen:

akirk wrote:My commiserations to Liverpool :D

Alasdair

Rude! :mrgreen:

Re: Citigo - 300 miles later.

Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2016 9:32 pm
by Bumblebee16
Congratulations! My daughter has just passed her 2nd year of Physics at Sussex and loves the course (she gets her brains from her Dad).

I was excited last week because my Renault Clio had travelled 100,000 miles - I've had her from almost new (it had 58 miles on the clock when I bought it). She still looks good after being cleaned, despite being black. No sunroof, no heated front seats and now no air-con, but I still love my little car!

Happy motoring and good luck at Liverpool.

Debbie