Skywing Service Slip Sample - Uh?

Life Cars & Motorcycles
21

[quote=“matte”]holy f that is an ugly car! I just checked out some of your flickr, and I’m not sure whether I should congratulate you on your purchase or extend my deepest heartfelt condolences for what must be pure torture driving and working on that rusting death trap.

please don’t take any offense at all that, I’m sure you got the thing for a song :wink:[/quote]

None taken.

It was cheap by local standards (15K). Arguably it wasn’t cheap enough, since it has zero market value, and I think the owners would have been very lucky to find anyone else to buy it, but I couldn’t get them to go lower and was embarrassing myself trying.

Unfortunately its not, by definition, possible to buy “worthless” vehicles for, er…what they’re worth.

Re “pure torture driving and working on that rusting death trap”, I takes me pleasure from the fact that the thing goes. A Lotus [strike]Elan[/strike] Elise (Oops, showing my age again) would almost certainly be more sensually pleasurable, but probably not more cost effective, especially with me driving it, in Taiwan.

Re working on it, so far I’ve done little apart from slow down the rust, which was quite satisfying, but generally old vehicles are much easier to work on than new. Metal in the oil suggests there might be a serious engine wear issue, but this is a disposable car so I don’t necessarily have to address that, though I’m interested.

Re “death trap”, that’s been said before in relation to a “control excursion” incident which I THINK was driver error. Any small 1980’s car with no rear seat belts, in fact any car at all, would match that description, but I’m aware of no specific safety issues with this vehicle, nor did I get any response when I posted on here asking for suggestions for things I should check.

Like I said, I quite like it, and [strike]its intermittant mobility[/strike] the fact that it goes is a source of wonder to the locals. :slight_smile:

22

I have some translation material for you.

1st service list contains:
Engine oil
Engine oil filter
Radiator additive
Timing belt
Timing belt tensioner
Metal coolant pipe
water pump
Coolant jacket plug
thermostat
distributor rotor

2nd list:
Crankshaft oil seal
Engine head reconditioning
Engine block reconditioning
Radiator cap
Oil pipe

4th list:
Engine oil
Engine oil sump bolts
oil additive
oil filter
air filter

5th list
Drive shaft
Engine oil
Engine oil filter
door lock
Rear light
oil additive
light bulb
brake linings
gasket kit
brake caliper
gearbox oil (they wrote gear oil and I suppose you don’t have a separate differential, so its likely gearbox oil)

The third list you already have the English for and not all of the contents of all lists were clear for reading, so some may have not been included.

It seems they have been using shitty oil as they keep having to add additive. It could be for this reason that you are suffering abnormal engine wear.

23

I have some translation material for you.

…(See item list above)…

It seems they have been using shitty oil as they keep having to add additive. It could be for this reason that you are suffering abnormal engine wear.[/quote]

Thanks very much Mr S. The main objective was to find out when/if the timing belt was done, but the other stuff is certainly of interest.

On the whole its quite encouraging, and seems consistent with my general impression that the car was in quite good mechanical condition. Although one can’t be sure exactly what was done, items like:-

“Engine head reconditioning” and “Engine block reconditioning” ( at 4805 and 4005 respectively, if I read it right) might explain why it isn’t using much oil, and the prices suggest it might possibly be worth considering getting “the pros” to do some jobs, something I wouldn’t consider in the UK.

OTOH the oil additive thing is strange. If I read it right, they’re charging 280 a litre for oil, so it shouldn’t be THAT shitty, and I’ve never heard of a main dealer (or in fact any garage) using oil additive.

If they were adding it based on poor oil condition, surely they’d just do an oil change instead, especially if they were using cheap/shitty oil?

It certainly won’t be part of any manufacturers service recommendations, and, however shitty the oil, I can’t think of any basis for doing it other than extreme wear requiring the addition of a viscosity improver (like Wynns on the UK market) to stop it smoking.

If that was the problem, there’s no sign of it now, so far.

24

You’re welcome.

A good oil needs no oil additive, which is why I doubt it could have been running on good oil. BTW the oil we sell retails for 300 to 500NT per litre, depending on quality. From the oil viscosity ratings mentioned in your service list, It’s likely to be very low grade oil.

25

Unfortunately the oil additive appears on the slips after the engine repair/overhall, which doesn’t really fit my model of extreme bore wear cured by the overhall.

If additive is stopping it smoking, I suppose I might see smoke after I do an oil change.

I’ve used Wynn’s (viscosity improver additive, looks like Tate and Lyle Golden Syrup) once, to get a Renault 5 through an MOT after failing on smoke. Seemed to work, but I also:-

Changed the oil (with Castrol GTX, not then regarded as shitty).
Cleaned out the crankcase breather filter. and (perhaps of most significance)
Changed the MOT inspector., so I can’t be sure what fixed it.