Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
When the old trumps the new
MODERN technology has a lot going for it, I have to admit. A lot of good stuff, but then also a lot of bad. And too often to be ignored, the bad stuff is bad enough to frighten you off.
When you are in my position of being able to drive a classic car back-to-back with a modern model, you are able to compare the rides. And, yes, I’ll be honest, there is little comparison.
The classic has vibrations, noises and smells the modern cars do not have. There is a certain amount of harshness in the ride and the whole body of the old car that you just simply do not have in the new.
Today’s new cars are really as smooth as cream compared to a classic, no matter how well the classic has been restored or kept.
But don’t let something go wrong with the new car. And they do have problems; do not think for a moment that they don’t.
I have to share with you the sad tale of a good friend and colleague of mine who recently bought what appeared to be a well looked after, clean and neat Jeep Cherokee CRD.
He had to take care of one rust spot on the roof, but otherwise the vehicle was in fine fettle and ran well, too.
He was particularly taken with the fuel- efficient and powerful diesel engine and the smooth comfort of the car.
That was about 20 000km ago. Now, with the vehicle sitting at 200 000km, a major repair looms. There are signs that the clutch assembly needs replacing, which is a common thing, of course, but wait for it… the flywheel, too.
Yes, I am pretty sure there are a lot of us who innocently continue with life today, safe in the knowledge that flywheels do not get replaced unless something really rare and drastic has happened. I was one until this week. Well, this is no longer the case. This Jeep Cherokee, and several other vehicles, especially diesels but not exclusively, have what is known as dual mass flywheels.
This type of flywheel is made up of two flywheels of the same diameter as a single flywheel, with each half weighing as much as half the single flywheel.
They are then fitted together in a flexible way so that they can oscillate in relation to each other to absorb vibrations along the drive train.
Even if an engine is properly balanced it still vibrates. One source of vibration is when the engine is run at low engine speeds and wide throttle – conditions when an engine “labours”, as we often say.
This is when you slow down too much for the gear you are in, but instead of changing down you step on the gas to pull out of it.
And apparently, doing that often enough is one cause for the dual mass flywheel to pack it in. The two halves begin to separate and a terrible noise (and vibration) develops. Apparently, diesel engine vibration is up to four times worse under these conditions than that of petrol engines.
My friend only had the car for a small part of its 200 000km life and I know him as a technically neat driver, so the problem had to have developed much earlier.
My 1967 and ’72 Alfas have single, solid flywheels and there is nothing wrong with them. Of course, they are not as smooth and vibration free as the Jeep, but that
‘My friend only had the car for a small part of its 200 000km life and I know him as a technically neat driver’
has never bothered me before.
My friend now has to prepare to fork out R8 000 just to buy the flywheel. One private workshop said it would have to check the car to see what was wrong – for a paltry R15 000. To do the clutch job? R15 000. Funny, that.
In Australia, going by the chat rooms, Jeep owners do not have a lot of good things to say about the dual mass flywheel.
Typically Australian, most of the comments are not printable in a family newspaper.
So now the Aussies sell a kit, including an old-school solid flywheel and the clutch kit complete, for about AUS$1 500 (about R13 900). Which is quite steep.
Those sorts of figures put the fear of death into me, so I called someone who knew someone who could custom cut a flywheel out of billet steel. I was told: “Give him the sample. He would probably be able to make a solid flywheel for a few thousand bucks.”
My friend is seriously considering this.
I mean, really. Sometimes I think the motor industry thinks up new nonsense just to milk motorists more and more for less and less.
It boasts about the development it does, but too often it unleashes technology upon us and makes us the guinea pigs.
There I was, actually seriously looking for a used Jeep Wrangler because I really like those little critters. But no, it is back to an early 1990s Hilux for me now. At least I know they have the old school flywheel, among other things.
I can still fix those things without special tools or huge bucks.