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metalgears
What's some latest breakthroughs or technologies that are helping us combat global warming. Whatever happened with the whole hybrid car thing. When the hell are they going to catch on?
Answer
Although many (but not as many as you might think) call me green and liberal, I actually quite like bike, cars and the technology that goes into them. I have also followed the developments in these for many years like the failed Vectrix motorbike and the Toyota Prius, While I don't agree with a lot of Jeremy Clarkson's (from Top Gear) ideas on many things, I do agree with him on the Prius it just doesn't work as an idea, it's to expensive, is not that green and has fuel economy (for all that cost) that is not as good a similarly sized European diesel car. But this is still new technology as an exercise in getting people used to the idea of electric (albeit partially electric) vehicles the Prius did have an effect. But now we are starting to see more serious vehicles like the Volt, were the Prius could cover only about 1km in fully electric mode, the Volt can cover more like 40 miles, kick in the small engine used to recharge the battery and it can cover more ground for less fuel than any diesel. Still expensive but not as much pound for pound as the Prius.
Both Mitsubishi & Nissan have now launched fully electric small cars, charged from the grid, such vehicles emit (even if the power is coal based) ~25% of the emissions of running a car directly on petrol to cover the same driving distance, a 75% reduction in Co2 emissions, If the power source is something greener like hydro or wind than the emissions are far far less.
A move away from coal to wind and solar is going to have other flow on effects, improved air quality, better quality of life for those with asthma or respiratory problems.
Deniers rather boring and repetitive claim is that "alarmists" want us to live the way we did in the old west or even cavemen days, when in fact it's is improved technology that will aid us in fighting the problem of AGW. Car for instance made of carbon fiber, make the car lighter, 50-60% lighter and even with a petrol engine the fuel saving are great, as a lighter car needs a smaller engine to travel at the same speed, a lighter car needs less breaking to stop, lighter suspension, a smaller fuel tank all are benefits of reducing the mass and a car with a smaller engine and fuel tank could have the interior space of a large car thanks to these size reductions, a car made of much lighter (but stronger) materials like carbon would also make a better electric car, as under it's skin the Prius is the same steel construction of the decades of cars that have gone before it, the Rocky Mountain Institute have already built such a car, the technology is not new and it works, but car companies are quite conservative and don't want to change and it take to economy of scale that major manufacturers get through building by the 100's of thousands to bring prices down. If you look at the cost of the motor car before ford introduced the production line. When cars where still hand built, such cars cost several times the average salary of the time, scale that to today and a Toyota Corolla would cost several hundred thousand dollars.
http://move.rmi.org/markets-in-motion/case-studies/automotive/hypercar.html
Although many (but not as many as you might think) call me green and liberal, I actually quite like bike, cars and the technology that goes into them. I have also followed the developments in these for many years like the failed Vectrix motorbike and the Toyota Prius, While I don't agree with a lot of Jeremy Clarkson's (from Top Gear) ideas on many things, I do agree with him on the Prius it just doesn't work as an idea, it's to expensive, is not that green and has fuel economy (for all that cost) that is not as good a similarly sized European diesel car. But this is still new technology as an exercise in getting people used to the idea of electric (albeit partially electric) vehicles the Prius did have an effect. But now we are starting to see more serious vehicles like the Volt, were the Prius could cover only about 1km in fully electric mode, the Volt can cover more like 40 miles, kick in the small engine used to recharge the battery and it can cover more ground for less fuel than any diesel. Still expensive but not as much pound for pound as the Prius.
Both Mitsubishi & Nissan have now launched fully electric small cars, charged from the grid, such vehicles emit (even if the power is coal based) ~25% of the emissions of running a car directly on petrol to cover the same driving distance, a 75% reduction in Co2 emissions, If the power source is something greener like hydro or wind than the emissions are far far less.
A move away from coal to wind and solar is going to have other flow on effects, improved air quality, better quality of life for those with asthma or respiratory problems.
Deniers rather boring and repetitive claim is that "alarmists" want us to live the way we did in the old west or even cavemen days, when in fact it's is improved technology that will aid us in fighting the problem of AGW. Car for instance made of carbon fiber, make the car lighter, 50-60% lighter and even with a petrol engine the fuel saving are great, as a lighter car needs a smaller engine to travel at the same speed, a lighter car needs less breaking to stop, lighter suspension, a smaller fuel tank all are benefits of reducing the mass and a car with a smaller engine and fuel tank could have the interior space of a large car thanks to these size reductions, a car made of much lighter (but stronger) materials like carbon would also make a better electric car, as under it's skin the Prius is the same steel construction of the decades of cars that have gone before it, the Rocky Mountain Institute have already built such a car, the technology is not new and it works, but car companies are quite conservative and don't want to change and it take to economy of scale that major manufacturers get through building by the 100's of thousands to bring prices down. If you look at the cost of the motor car before ford introduced the production line. When cars where still hand built, such cars cost several times the average salary of the time, scale that to today and a Toyota Corolla would cost several hundred thousand dollars.
http://move.rmi.org/markets-in-motion/case-studies/automotive/hypercar.html
Why does my 2001 Nissan Altima engine surge when at idle?
chelzcer
When at a stop sign, the car surges forward repeatedly. When I put my foot on the accelerator it seems to calm the surging temporarily. What could be causing this?
Answer
Wow odd because I have a 2001 Nissan Altima GXE Limited Edition (hopefully that will change by the end of this week though).
I would be very surprised if it is the exact same thing, but I had a similar problem. I am used to the car's fan turning on loudly or it to raise or lower its RPM while stopped for a while, but a couple months back I had a bigger problem.
When I was stopped at a light or a stop sign for more than 5-10 seconds the RPM guage would jump up about 500 RPM sporadically. This would continue once every two seconds until I accelerated, at which point it was gone. This happened a few times but it became much much more frequent until it was everytime I stopped. Also it was happening worse and worse over time.
What really annoyed me about this problem was that as it was surging up and down the car was kind of lunging with it a bit. If I was reversing out of my driveway it was like I kept tapping hte break or something because the entire car would be lunging with this surge in RPM.
Finally I got it checked out and the news was not good. It was a leaky intake valve. The valve was leaking air so when we were stopped it was pumping the air in, but some was escaping causing the car to sputter and lunge and do crazy things. It is VERY IMPORTANT that you get it checked out because if it is the same problem then it could be a catastrophic repair if the valve breaks. To just fix it, it is still not going to be cheap. Expect $800-1000. I hope this is not the issue, but they sound very similar.
My 01 altima is having more and more problems (not as huge as this one, only around $500) so I am getting rid of it within a couple of week. It has 95,000 miles on it and it is not doing well at all. My girlfriend has the identical car (by accident not by design) with 47,000 miles on it and it is doing fine (even though the few repairs it needs are big ones). I'm just saying that I wouldnt throw huge amounts of money in the car after a while.
Sorry to ramble. If you do get it diagnosed please let me know what it is as I am curious. Even if I dont get best answer if you could add it in. Thanks and best of luck :-)
Wow odd because I have a 2001 Nissan Altima GXE Limited Edition (hopefully that will change by the end of this week though).
I would be very surprised if it is the exact same thing, but I had a similar problem. I am used to the car's fan turning on loudly or it to raise or lower its RPM while stopped for a while, but a couple months back I had a bigger problem.
When I was stopped at a light or a stop sign for more than 5-10 seconds the RPM guage would jump up about 500 RPM sporadically. This would continue once every two seconds until I accelerated, at which point it was gone. This happened a few times but it became much much more frequent until it was everytime I stopped. Also it was happening worse and worse over time.
What really annoyed me about this problem was that as it was surging up and down the car was kind of lunging with it a bit. If I was reversing out of my driveway it was like I kept tapping hte break or something because the entire car would be lunging with this surge in RPM.
Finally I got it checked out and the news was not good. It was a leaky intake valve. The valve was leaking air so when we were stopped it was pumping the air in, but some was escaping causing the car to sputter and lunge and do crazy things. It is VERY IMPORTANT that you get it checked out because if it is the same problem then it could be a catastrophic repair if the valve breaks. To just fix it, it is still not going to be cheap. Expect $800-1000. I hope this is not the issue, but they sound very similar.
My 01 altima is having more and more problems (not as huge as this one, only around $500) so I am getting rid of it within a couple of week. It has 95,000 miles on it and it is not doing well at all. My girlfriend has the identical car (by accident not by design) with 47,000 miles on it and it is doing fine (even though the few repairs it needs are big ones). I'm just saying that I wouldnt throw huge amounts of money in the car after a while.
Sorry to ramble. If you do get it diagnosed please let me know what it is as I am curious. Even if I dont get best answer if you could add it in. Thanks and best of luck :-)
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