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Greetings from the Canada!


oprn
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I see! If you look closely at the one headlight it has hundreds of tiny cracks that do not appear to go all the way through the plastic.

Loving this little car! 42 mpg running on the highway at 100 - 105 km/h. Was hoping for a bit better and would likely get some better at lower speeds but this is quite acceptable. I can't believe how roomy it is inside! There is more leg room than our Jettas!

I have named this car Franklin after the children's book about Franklin the turtle. It's roundish, green, not the fastest car in the fleet and the name seems to be sticking! 😄

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Auto box's are not the best for fuel ecconomy, especially with a small engine -this may be as good as you get

Was it that scum bag importer who serviced the Lupo last? -  Check your spark plug type, gaps and colour, clean throttle body - check air & fuel filter have been replaced

16v engines also prefer the higher octane fuel, a bit more cost but should give a few more miles.

 

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3 hours ago, oprn said:

I see! If you look closely at the one headlight it has hundreds of tiny cracks that do not appear to go all the way through the plastic.

Loving this little car! 42 mpg running on the highway at 100 - 105 km/h. Was hoping for a bit better and would likely get some better at lower speeds but this is quite acceptable. I can't believe how roomy it is inside! There is more leg room than our Jettas!

I have named this car Franklin after the children's book about Franklin the turtle. It's roundish, green, not the fastest car in the fleet and the name seems to be sticking! 😄

Yeah, the lacquer (yes, i can spell now!) will fill all those tiny crazings. They do completely disappear as the stuff melts into the surface. But they have to be bone dry without a trace of moisture (from rubbing back).

Make sure you service that box. New fluid will make a big difference (two different fluids- amsoil atf and ep75w90 diff/gear oil).

That's American gallons I'm guessing? Like 3.79 L from memory? 42=50MPG uk style. Should be better- like 65-75, but with a nice new air filter. I bet loads of people are stopping to have a closer look at the car?

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From what the poor guy has been through, i don't think the process will be repeated.... the importing processing compliance stuff cost more than the car! I think it's just gonna be used as a letter delivery thing- RHD in a LHD country.

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Yes the auto box is definitely going to give us a few mpg less. Unfortunately there seems to be a shortage of real transaxles in Japan! No we use Imperial gallons here in Canada the same as you do.

I met a chap Tuesday in Calgary that has just imported a silver GTI. Our first choice would have been a diesel with a 5 speed but our importer was having problems finding one. 

Yes I think we will be hesitant to import another car until we find a more honest shop for the inspections.

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You can get manual boxes from just about anywhere in europe, but it's not just that you'd need to do a conversion. Ideally you'd have a donor car right next to the one you're working on. Same goes for swapping the steering over, from RHD to LHD. Have you thought about buying a European car (germany/france/belgium/spain) as a scrapper? And best of all you'd have lots of parts to sell to anyone else in Canada.... the car could potentially pay for itself. And no painful registration process...... 

The company i use to ship globally globally are these people. Between the US and Southampton costs about £600 for a car if you do all the paperwork yourself. https://www.2wglobal.com/global-network/fleet/fleet-overview/

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At the moment we are content to just use the car as is for the mail run. If the auto box fails I would consider doing something like that. As for the  RHD to LHD conversion, we bought it purposely for the RHD so the Missus would be on the curb side of the car to stuff the mail boxes. This saves her from getting out in the traffic at each site and walking around the car to do her job. Her contract with Canada Post states that  her vehicle must have an automatic transmission and a bench seat so that she can slide over to the right at each stop and avoid getting out in the traffic. The only vehicles that fit that requirement in this country are pickup trucks that get from 11 to 14 mpg. With the price of fuel now Canada Post does not pay enough to make the job viable with that kind of fuel consumption.

We started with a little 660cc Daihatsu  truck that averaged 34 mpg on the run but it soon ran into engine problems trying to go even 90 km/h on the road. The next one was a Suburu Forester that had the speed capability but only averaged 25 mpg on the stop and go job. Both of these vehicles were 4 wheel drive and worked well in the mud and snow. These were both brought in from Japan without experiencing the inspection problems that we had this time. 

So far the Lupo is getting 35 mpg on the run but we will see how it fairs when the bad weather hits.

Maybe next time we will import a diesel Lupo from your country!

Edited by oprn
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If you can bypass the crankcase fume breather. You just have to do that simple mod.... you'll get 5% better milage straight away :)

Gotta see a pic of it on the road amongst all the other big stuff where you live

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Thanks Reedo! Yes it's a fun car to drive and we get lots of lookers and comments wherever we take it. 

Now a question about oil filters for this 1.4 liter. Is it a common one to other models of VW? Anyone have a part number for it please?

Thanks Merv.

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030115561AB

this website is handy....

https://nemigaparts.com/cat_spares/etka/volkswagen/lu/231/

But, chances are that the threaded flange on the filter is a standard fitment. It'll be a metric thread. When you pull off the old one clean it up and go down to your local parts store. Certain they'll have something that fits. The only significant difference between filters other than thread and seal size is the non return valve design and release spring pressure. And most engines run the same oil viscosity which operates at the same temperature and pressure. This is assuming you can't get the exact right one locally.

It's "litre" :)

 

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Thanks!

I am in the habit of changing oil every 5000 km and we have 3000 km on it since we got it. The filter on it now may or may not be the correct one as it was put on by the fraudster who did the pre-inspection work. Although if it doesn't leak and the engine is still running it must be close.  

As this car did come with an owner's manual all in Japanese, my next question is about suitable oil. My gut feeling is 10W-30 for summer, 5W-30 for the cool weather and possibly 5W-20 for the dead of winter when it gets down to -35*C. Also what do you chaps use for an engine block heater? This car will not have one.

I always thought "litre" was the French spelling! 😕 These regional disparities can be a bit confusing...

litre/liter

tyre/tire

wing/mud guard/fender

bonnet/hood

boot/trunk

petrol/gasoline

panel beater/body man/autobody technician

paraffin/diesel? 

fender/bumper?

wing nut/idiot

Ok just kidding on that last one! 😁

 

 

Edited by oprn
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Paraffin=kerosene=jet fuel=lamp oil=engine bay cleaner :)

you're confused? You're in a bilingual country that completely baffles us english speaking lot from the UK (i speak for myself)! I've never understood how one country can have two completely different languages, in one culture.

yeah you'll have to conjure up some clever block/sump heater based on what you can get hold of locally. Never gets that cold over here. I'd be curious to know how the auto trans will handle -40c. How many watts of power do block heaters use? I guess it's not to keep the block warm, just at a temp that isn't silly cold. So it keeps the block above say -5v or something? I know very little about living in extreme cold.

you might be able to get an english manual from someone scrapping a uk spec car. Someone on here may have an old copy knocking around.

i'm amazed that you've already covered 3k km already. You'll be doing some big numbers within no time.

@Rich is there anything that you'd check for reliability on the 1.4. Weak points?

Edited by mk2
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The vast majority of our population is not bilingual! Most of us speak one or the other myself included. As for one culture, guess again. The extreme eastern seaboard is English but they have their own culture and dialect that is in some cases nearly unrecognizable to us Westerners. They are separated from the rest of Canada by the French province of Quebec who have maintained a unique culture of their own unlike any other part of Canada. Central and Western Canada is for the most part pretty well homogeneous in both language and culture with little regional differences. Then of course there are numerous native languages and cultures that were at one time nearly extinct but in recent years due to much more liberal thinking are starting to make a bit of a come back. And the waves of immigration from various parts of the world these days...

Back to Lupos, yes you are correct in thinking the block heaters do not take the engine temperature very high. They range from 800 to 1500 watts generally. At -40 and a high wind they do very little good at all! Blocking the wind by using an shelter of some sort makes a big difference. Even a sheet of plywood on the windward side can help. Our Jettas of late have used a stick on heating pad on the bottom of the oil pan and they work reasonably well. The Jettas though have a plastic shield from the factory that covers the whole bottom of the engine bay. This Lupo does not. Is it missing or did they not come with one?

I would say that about 95% of the cars on the road these days are automatics so no the cold does not effect them.

The part number you supplied me for the oil filter did not come up for my local parts supplier. Same with the model and year of the car so a dead end on that so far. I will try to get a number off the present filter next.

Yes we live in a remote area. Sandra put 200,000 km on the Forester in 3 years mostly just with work. I generally log 180,000 every 2 years with my work, then there is our pleasure driving at the weekends! We will be testing the longevity of this Lupo!

Two weekends ago we put about 1800 km on this car through the mountains in 3 days going to see our Grandchildren.

 

IMG_0896.JPG

Edited by oprn
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Very interesting info. There must be a lot of political/cultural pressure with one side naturally trying to dominate. 

Yeah there is a shield, which I've always thought is essential to stop bits flying into pulley channels and to keep as much away as poss from bearing seals, power steering pipes (which rust) and the alternator. But there have been some interesting findings from other people on here. The shield is a lightweight, fragile, weak thing, which probably was cracked by an inept grease monkey trying to get to the oil filter and then simply left off.

With those sort of milages, it'll be very interesting to see all the long life issues that crop up. Stuff we rarely see over here on this little island. Someone on here posted something about joining the rare 1M miles club, in an SDI lupo a few days ago. Very impressive. My guess would be suspension, steering, transmission and wheel bearing components (ignoring all the regular service items). Oh, and the driver's seat! Let us know how it pans out. A lot of people have been following this thread....

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Political tensions wax and wane here for sure with there always being an active separation movement on the French side. They very nearly pulled it off a couple decades ago.

I do not buy new vehicles. I let someone else take the depreciation hit, sort through the warranty issues and prove them reliable. I tend to be the final owner having run them out. This is a list of the vehicles we have had over the last 20 or so years.

83 Dodge minivan 320K - broken camshaft

89 Dodge minivan 170K - multiple electrical problems rendering it undrivable and unrepairable even by the dealership.

92 Chev pickup truck 416K - low oil pressure and various electrical and rust issues

04 Jetta TDI 470K - deer hit - total loss

04 Jetta TDI wagon 340K - roll over - total loss

00 Daihatsu 180K - 2 engine failures, not taking the highway speeds 

92 Jetta petrol 360K - presently needing a head gasket

02 Jetta TDI 320K - going strong, daughter in post secondary school

00 Forester 270K - running good, son using it now

03 Dodge truck diesel - 480K - runs very well, rusty body

In addition to those miles, the company I work for supplies a pickup truck that they rotate out for me every 3 years with between 180 and 230K on them. This is truly a vast, largely unpopulated country that I have only seen about 1/4 of in my lifetime. I hope some day to at least get to the eastern seaboard to have experienced it from coast to coast. The western seaboard is 17 hours driving from us but the eastern side they tell me is about 37 hours away.

Our Jetta TDIs all had that flimsy plastic engine shield that did not stand up very well. I replaced them with an aluminum skid pan and will try and do something similar with the Lupo. 

 

 

 

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Powered. Saito .82 4 cycle if that means anything to you. It was originally a low wing bird and when I added the second wing it became readily apparent that a larger tail group was needed. Being a bit lazy I just added the needed size to the control surfaces and reduced the travel.  

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Why did you add the upper wing? Curious. I like the way you extended off the lower wing ailerons. But usn't it tricky to set everything up once the top wing's been off? Did you ever get MDS engines in Canada?

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