MikeT

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Everything posted by MikeT

  1. Contacted my M-B dealer for a quote on some work for the car and they indicated that my hyper noisy serpentine belt tensioner is no longer available for the 450 cdi. That's rather surprising, as parts were reputed to be available for M-B and smart for a.....LONG time.... Anyway, does anyone have experience with a decent aftermarket tensioner, and if so, what is the brand and where did you get it? TIA
  2. There are tons of various brands available online, so getting one will not be a problem; however I'm just surprised that Mercedes apparently has no stock. It used to be said that you could get 40 year old Mercedes parts no problem. Maybe that was the old days.
  3. Same. Not sure who the webmaster is nowadays, but he's the one who gets the advertising banner money.
  4. Maple Bay BC. Pingu and wife, For2 couple and us. Good times!
  5. On the west coast, the tune Eddy does at Flying Tiger makes the acceleration adequate, and gives 155 km/h on flat road.
  6. Same here.
  7. The engine was made in Daimler's Berlin engine factory. It was based upon the gasoline "Suprex" engine that was also made there, but ironically it ended up being a far better engine than the Suprex. Renault and Mitsubishi had nothing at all to do with it. Mitsubishi made the gasoline engine for the 451; the 451 cdi engines were based upon the 450's diesel. The 453 had Renault engines.
  8. That's totally bad news, best wishes to him. Met him and many others in London Ont. in 2010. Nice guy.
  9. There is no brake proportioning valve on this car - it relies on ABS to meter out brake force. If you are having premature ABS engagement, look to your tires first, and front brake calipers next.
  10. The "dumpster lid" plastic roof would be safer!
  11. It should always be parked in R because there is a lever interlock - the car's only security feature.
  12. Gap of a couple of years.... Only hit 3642 km in 2021; just a touch over 2000 in 2022. 2023 was a bit of a cycling writeoff (only 1600 km) due to a gall bladder removal, weather, a 6 week trip to Europe and one of my two bikes cracking its frame. The latter was covered by the Cervélo lifetime warranty but bike tech has moved on so much since 2011 that none of my stuff would fit the new "free" frame. So I got a very large discount on this 2024 Caledonia: Looking forward to its 1:1 climbing ratio, 12 speed cluster, bigger tires and disc brakes. Okanagan Granfondo 2024 awaits.
  13. Another pandemic year, but still I've managed to get out for 1514 km so far. Not half bad. The Granfondo Axel Merckx is usually in the middle of July but this year it's in late September. I should have over 3000 km under the wheels by then!
  14. Hi Glenn! Happy holidays to all.
  15. There's no automated inactive member dropping....but many members here haven't been here for a decade or more.
  16. 200 km later I can say the engine's just fine, thanks.
  17. Our 405 needs some repairs that - at this point in time - tell me it's time to retire it and get something new. It has life left in it to be sure, but it needs a driveshaft, two new shocks on the front, a ball joint, 4 new tires, front pads and rotors......I am just thinking that I don't want to pour money into a losing prospect. The km is a little over 360,000. So I am looking at a few options. First the Cahier des Charges: [*]seats four comfortably, five adults in acceptable comfort [*]lots of rear seat headroom and legroom [*]lots of luggage room, more than the 405 preferably (and it has a huge trunk) [*]airbags all around plus side curtains [*]Maximum price with tax around $36,000 [*]good fuel economy potential [*]good car for highway road trips [*]manual gearbox [*]car only to be used infrequently, mainly for road trips We were considering a few cars: Audi A3 + looks good + good safety - only available with muscle-bound 200 HP engine - cost is above my preferred range - middling fuel economy - headroom and legroom issues in rear Toyota Prius + fantastic fuel economy potential, even on highway (4.x range) + reasonable legroom + massive gov't rebates ($4000 total) - rear headroom issues - trunk is smaller than 405's - brain-dead automatic transmission - safety is optional - need $4K option package to get stability control and sidebags Mercedes-Benz B 200 + good fuel economy rating on highway (6.7) and city (9.2) + tons of rear seat room, head and leg + looks OK, even though it's a van + price has been reduced to under $30,000 for 2008 model, without de-contenting it + heated seats available for $550 (used to be $200 more) - service costs will be high - no CDI!!! We would have considered a VW TDI wagon had they been available, but that is not gonna happen. As far as power and so on, I would find the 136 HP engine of the B 200 to be adequate....the car is supposed to do 0-100 in about 10 seconds and have a top end of 196 km/h, which makes it slightly quicker in both respects than my 405 was. That should be fine for our purposes. Any thoughts/words of wisdom?
  18. Update: about 12 days ago the alternator stopped charging and there was also a "new" noise from the poly-V belt. It snapped, fragmented/shredded on the way to the Nanaimo dealer and the car got hot too: 120°C or more, the temp warning came on. The temperature gauge in modern cars seems to dampen out normal temperature variations so the drivers don't get worried but this dampening meant that the temperature gauge showed 90°C one minute and 120°C the next. I thought I may have cooked it even though I shut the engine off within 10 seconds of the warning light. The smart was ahead of the broken down B200, with my son-in-law driving it... The root cause according to the dealer was the failure of the idler pulleys, which was making the belt slip and eventually overheated it to the point that it died. In the process the tensioner pulley "exploded" according to the work order! In the end the alternator was also damaged so I authorized its replacement - 340K km is a good innings for an alternator - along with the two idler pulleys as well as the tensioner pulley and belt. $2290 all in with labour. That's three months' payment on a new car, which I'd prefer not to have to buy right now. The engine seems fine after the getting hot episode so on we go towards 400K km.
  19. With the regular hybrid drive and gas 180 HP engine, the car would average a touch under 7L/100 km at 125-135 km/h mixed with city driving. The way we were using the car, we only had about 300 of the 6900 km on e-power only. If I had it in Canada it would be reversed - probably burning little fuel at all and mostly electricity - except for road trips.
  20. Driving this puppy around Europe this month and early November. Delivered new with 2 km on the clock, in my name until November 8th....then I have to give it back. We were 4 up at one point with our daughter Julia and her husband but they're heading to Iceland on the 23rd so from now on it's just Sandy and me. In Nîmes tonight, heading deep into Spain in 2 days. Autobahn A96 today.....traffic was too heavy for a proper opening up of the car to its 240 km/h top end, so this will have to do. I'll post a review about the car once I'm back. Pretty positive overall - plug in hybrid rather like a new Prius. Economical and fun to drive.
  21. Condolences.
  22. The trajectory here is following the trajectory of smart itself, a bit of a flash in the pan in Canada and even more so in the USA. The new Chinese "smarts" are atrocious things given the original brief for smart - I saw some in the UK, heading to dealers. The thrill of the new radical economy car in the Canadian market is long past; the current typical owner has it as a cheap thing to be disposed of once it needs a repair over $50. I'm not sure why other smart sites are more active. Maybe not being for profit and having pretty much absent site leadership and unclear ownership @CsC is part of the problem.
  23. No. Dealer or someone with a star machine and new SAM.
  24. Engine mounts I would guess....if they have never been changed, that will definitely be part of it.
  25. Erratum: the battery in the 508 is 11.8 kWh, not 17.8 kWh. Still, the Autobahn electric recharge would have been more expensive than gasoline.... I'd rather gargle razor blades than buy any Tesla. Too ugly, company owned by a fascist nutjob, mindblowingly godawful interiors, shit ride except in the airbagged S models. Nope. Range in the 508 on the small (for the 1750 kg car) 43L tank, with an empty battery was always over 600 km, reliably, driving at 130 km/h. With full battery, another 40-60. Still, we would not have the car here even if it was possible; it was not to our liking overall even though it drove well.