WIN with LIQUI MOLY
Published: 23 October, 2018
With around 4,000 items, LIQUI MOLY offers a global, uniquely broad range of automotive chemicals: Motor oils and additives, greases and pastes, sprays and car care, glues and sealants. Founded in 1957, LIQUI MOLY develops and produces exclusively in Germany. There it is the undisputed market leader for additives and is repeatedly voted the best oil brand. The company sells its products in more than 120 countries.
LIQUI MOLY offer the right oil for every vehicle on the road. For modern cars oil is like a fluid spare part which needs to pit precisely to the engine. Using the wrong oil is like installing a wrong spare part. The online oil guide at liqui-moly.com tells exactly which oils are suited for a specific vehicle.
To brighten up the daily work in the garage, LIQUI MOLY published two calendars: a girls calendar and a motorsports calendar. The readers of Aftermarket have the chance to win 10 calendars. The winners can decide which calendar they prefer. To be in with a chance of winning, just answer the question below:
When was LIQUI MOLY founded?
A: in 1957
B: in 1990
C: in 2010
Winner will be chosen at random from the correct answers when the competition closes on 23 November 2018, and the winner will be notified by 30 November. The editor’s decision is final. No cash alternative offered.
- LIQUI MOLY Gear Oil Additive
It is a common problem, especially with older cars: The gearbox is notchy and changing gears becomes more difficult. Often the reason for this is wear. LIQUI MOLY Gear Oil Additive reduces friction and wear and facilitates changing gears. The active principle is its solid lubricant and it does not contain any chemical agents. This makes Gear Oil Additive a good choice also for very old cars, because there are no chemicals which may harm their sealing or other parts of the gearbox.
www.liqui-moly.com
- Exol unveils new anti-freeze range
Exol has launched a new anti-freeze range, featuring four products covering heavy duty and passenger vehicle applications. The new range features Antifreeze HD (Green), Antifreeze HDX (Blue), Antifreeze SOAT (Lilac) and Antifreeze OAT Universal (Clear). The range has been formulated based on special OAT inhibitor technology, produced in response to the evolving technological development of cooling systems in modern vehicles, while ensuring long coolant operational life.The coolants also contain the additives required to protect a full range of different vehicle types, offering year-round protection, while performing well in challenging conditions.
www.exol-lubricants.com
- And the worst MOT tester in the UK is… YOU
To save money and raise efficiency, the DVSA has turned to automation. They no longer need an army of Vehicle Examiners wandering from MOT bay to MOT bay. Instead they are collecting data all the time.
Let’s say I am the boss and my business is low on revenue. I beat up the manager and he in turn influences the tester to fail everything coming through the door. The customer is now stuck with no MOT and I have some simple high yield repairs.
Here’s where it gets interesting. The DVSA computer is monitoring individual tester behaviour and looking at averages. The pattern is really easy for a computer at the DVSA to see because it’s just not possible that lots of cars fail on the same items every day. The DVSA’s fix is to target garages where data shows they are hunting for work and send in a VE to crosscheck. He needs only to wait nearby until our tester issues his favourite fails and then arrive to retest the car.
We all, as testers, now have access to our TQI. Lots of testers that I speak to have the sentiment that this data is all rubbish but, here is the rub. The DVSA have a team of very capable data processors looking at this data and writing algorithms that alert them to trends that need investigation.
Take my example of one of my longest-serving testers and allow the DVSA computer to tell me every car that he has tested in the last two weeks of November for the last seven years and add in that we only want to know about cars tested after 4:30pm. We find only one car; a Y reg (2001) BMW 320i convertible, always tested after 5pm with a longest test time of thirty-two minutes and shortest of twenty-seven. Guess what, it’s my guy’s brother-in-law’s car!
For me the horror is that the car has never failed an MOT. It’s also never been in the workshop for any repairs. It looks absolutely dogged out and is on around 180,000 miles. Worst still my guy has never once even advised anything on this car. The VE would assume Barry’s guy is prepared to let things slide at the end of the day, so maybe he plans to visit me after 5pm on a Thursday.
Conflicting vehicle locations
This is a fun story from a close and trusted friend. My guy is at a DVSA IVA check and overhears a conversation by a couple of Vehicle Examiners. It goes like this; VE no.1 is suspicious of an MOT bay offering fraudulent MOT tests. He parks down the road from an MOT bay in Kent and checks which vehicle is logged on and being tested. He takes the registration number of the vehicle in question and calls the DVLA, identifies himself and asks if the vehicle has been seen on the DVLA camera system anywhere in the last half hour. The car was last seen on the M25 twelve minutes ago near Watford in Hertfordshire over 70 miles away.
So, our VE is in Kent and the car is in Hertfordshire. If this works today in a manual sense how long will it be before computers can do this to every single test? Talk about an easy way to stop fraudulent MOTs, just using computers that the government already own.
- Changes in tech and training covered by IAAF Industry Briefing
The impact of technology on the garage sector and the changing face of training were just some of the topics covered at the first Independent Automotive Aftermarket Federation (IAAF) Industry Briefing of 2019.
- EV professional standard discussed by industry experts
The Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI) hosted an Electric Vehicle Advisory Group meeting on Tuesday ( 5 February). The forum with cross-industry experts was designed to begin the process of agreeing appropriate Professional Standards dedicated to protecting technicians working on electric and hybrid vehicles.
