Pleasing planet Earth

Perhaps it’s rather too fashionable to moan about motoring today, its costs and its annoyances, and maybe some of it is a result of the present circumstances, without mentioning the dreaded C-word. But it’s difficult not to feel hard done by at times, and one of those instances came up recently when it was time […]

Changing your tune: Should you remap or get a tuning box?

There was a time when tuning was the preserve of louts in modified Saxos, cruising around industrial areas to the beat of drum and bass. Now, though, tuning has become more mainstream, with the ability to improve not just performance, but also cut fuel consumption. You can even get tuning set-ups that prioritise torque, power […]

Magic Mazda update

Hello again, Doc,Well, wheels have rolled, and my fuel pump has sucked and squirted another tankful of diesel through my Mazda2’s engine, so itís time to take stock again. In fact, wheels have rolled well, this time around, to the extent of a pleasing 728 miles between fill-ups. With my on-board computer (OBC) saying I […]

Bruvver with bovver

Hi Doctor.  My brother, who lives in Spain, has had to have a new DPF and ECU on his Toyota Yaris D4-D. It has done some 93,000 kilometres. There was a similar problem around 2,000 kilometres before and the dealer just did a forced DPF clean. But this time he was doing 100kph on the […]

Automatic reply

You are always a good read Doctor, the bit of the magazine that I always turn to first, but donít tell the others! I am a fairly practical chap (he writes modestly! Doc) and I understand the principles of most car engineering, but I am confused by the references to different types of automatic gearboxes. […]