rustic

If you are registered disabled and have a condition that is declared from a list, then you can buy batteries for disabled scooters VAT free at the point of sale. That amounts to a saving of 20% However not possible if you are buying golf buggy batteries I guess. When I bought my second hand scooter, it needed new batteries, so I bought AGM types, half a minute filling in the form and instant VAT free. No written proof, just self declaration. The authorities do random checks.

Thank you. I took a sheet of 9 mm ply, 4'x2' sorry about mixed dimensions, shortened the 4' by a few inches so it would fit across the width of the boot when not in use. I put an upstand on three sides, about 40 x20 mm on both sides and across the 2' top. This sheet/tray sat above the two folded seats, so when the scooter was powered in, the weight of the scooter was on the ply and not on the rear springs on the seats. If you look at the pic, you can just see the start of the white painted ply. I have a bike rack that clamps to a plate on the towbar, and the unused plate forms the base for the ramp support. I have a hinged flap that goes across the bumper that protects the bumper. I can post more pics if required. Richard

I looked into a luggie, the range isn't that good, at best 12 miles over a flat level billiard table with no wind, so best to halve that for real pavements, with slight gradient etc So I thought... how much for a replacement battery, so I can double the range... charge the battery in a hotel room etc... £500 yes five hundred pounds for a second battery. Hmm... no sale thank you. I bought a second hand Revo scooter, from a neighbour, batteries had failed but I bought a set Vat free (if you have certain medical conditions you can get the Vat waved) and the Revo is great. 4mph 22 mile range. The Scooter weighs around 85 kg, it will break down to 6 parts, but I made/adapted some ramps and I power it into the car. I loose the left rear and middle seat, but just fold them down and lash the scooter in. I would guess 2 minutes to either load or unload the scooter. You can spend £1500 -£2000 on a hoist, but my ramps and adaptions probably cost less than £100 plus some engineering of course. I made an adaptor to fit on the tow bar, that the ramps clip onto, and so easy to assemble, my wife can do it to.

A couple of years ago I tapped onto the canbus outputs to the bulbs to drive my trailer socket / bike rack board. I also used the same method to bring on line the nearside fog light. I did mine similar to your circuit diagram, but on the input stage to my interface, I used opto isolators, so even if you put 240 volts or a high voltage spike onto the trailer socket, there is a minimum of 5000 volts isolation between the socket and the canbus, so no back emf spikes could interfere with the circuit. There was a lot of controversy at the time, you can damage the can bus... no longer under warranty etc etc, this is what made me move from a simple transistor driven circuit to an opto isolated unit. I used the darlington driver version of the opto isolator family to reduce the loading on the bulb circuit, after all, the circuit is driving nearly 2 amps +/- bulb tolerances, as you say, an extra mA will not be noticed as it's a resistive load. With my circuit, there is no leakage to the second foglight or trailer bulbs, under any fault condition. I support your circuit, it will work fine for the second foglight, it's just that I took it one step further as I was connecting to a trailer socket, with often unknown wiring or reliability if it's someone else's lighting board. Richard

If I was doing a track day at Silverstone, or long mountain descents then It would be sensible to renew the brake fluid more often. Even heavy towing can also overheat the calipers, if the fluid gets really hot, then any moisture could turn to steam, which will render the brakes useless. On race days, you often see brake discs glow red hot, in fact this is where ceramic discs come into their own. Some of this heat will be transferred into the calliper as the friction pads are very hot too. I guess if you have a brake calliper partially seize, and you didn't notice, then that caliper could overheat and boil off any moisture, killing the brakes and maybe all passengers in the car.

Yes I have one of those, but I didn't have a cap for my Nissan 4x4. so a quick visit to scrap yard... then modified it to be like the others. What I do, is remove as much of the fluid out of the resevoir as possible, a turkey baster is good here, then carefully add new, leave it a few hours for any bubbles to come out, but cap the resevoir, then start the bleed process. Oh and don't forget the clutch, as that can soon look very black if left too long. Clealy not as critical as the brake fluid, but if it has absobed water, then corrosion can occur. TIP keep a spray bottle of tap water handy, if you splash some fluid, do not wipe it off or you'll take the paint off, just simply wash with water. Yet another tip... the old fashioned way to bleed brakes was one person in the car pumping the brakes, down, stop, release etc but I have heard a few horror stories, if you put the pedal to the floor, you are pushing the master cylinder seals to boldly go where no other seal has gone before... this can push the seal over unsmooth bores, damage them or worse, invert them, this might require a new or reconditioned master cylinder. So what I do as a precaution, is place a brick or similar, wrapped in a bag or cloth to save scatching the brake pedal, place it under the pedal, and this allows the brake pedal to only go down say 50-60% of travel. Takes longer with short pumps, but it was good for me lol. To be fair, in the old days of minis, Ambassadors, land rovers etc I never had a problem with full pedal travel, maybe I was lucky. I just thought I would mention it. Richard

2 years ago I bought a litre of castrol Edge 5W30 for the long service interval, but it seems that Castrol are now promoting Castrol Edge 5W30 "Titanium" What is the Titanium bit, a metal harder than what's in the engine can't be right ?

You can always fit a black cable tie over the plastic, I don't think they will survive a car wash without some other method of attachment.

We had our 2014 1.6 greenline in for service last month, I said no emissions software update thanks, they said the fix hasn't been rolled out for that model.... Maybe this is a challenge for them, as this is or was their greenest model. If the French are so insistent on having the mod done, then maybe they will apply this rule at the ferry ports, and ask for a certificate of conformation for all cars entering France, or they will turn you back.

Wow something free from Skoda lol. The part no. For the rear light will be the same for all vehicles so the bulb gets fitted. Well mine is used as a rear fog light, I made a circuit to drive the bulb without affecting the bulb failure or canbus. It is totally isolated too. Mind you, not used it yet, as all to often seen, some people put their rear fog lights on when there is only a mist.

I think, looking where the corrosion has ocurred, it's due to the design of the alloys themselves. The edge where the corrosion starts, appears to be on a right angle, any cleaning, washing of the wheels will have a wearing effect on the edge, thus thinning the lacquer and allowing the ingress of water. Refurbishing them will not prevent it in the future, if my theory is correct. Most alloy wheels have neat flowing lines rounded corners, and corrosion on these starts after kerbing, stone chips or poor wheel handling during a service or tyre replacement. Poor design of wheel is what I think, which can only be resolved by replacement by an alternative design. So in my opinion, poor design, not fit for purpose, and should be a warranty replacement, in fact with good publicity, could be a total recall of that type of alloy on all their vehicles. Do they really want you to take this further? You don't see much rust on cars these days, but in the 80's corrosion always started on the edges of the seams, exposed thin edges of paint. I rest my case lol.

I hate the oil filler on the 1.6 diesel, it has a trough all around it, which traps sand and grit, dead flies, salt crystals, as soon as you open it, some of this can get into the engine. My service was due yesterday, so the day before I carefully removed the filler cap as if I was disarming a b*mb, and carefully cleaned the gunge from around the filler neck, with care nothing entered the engine, so if a handfisted technician removed the filler and washed off some of this gunge into the engine as oil was added, then where would it go? Hopefully into the sump, then oil pump, then captured by the oil filter, won't do the oil pump any good though. Very poor design. OH I talked to the main technician, we talked about the regen, and why we couldn't press a button to start it when the driver is ready, he thought it was a great idea... Remember, I suggested it first lol. He also said that a regen will be done when 330 start cycles have been completed, so think about that with auto start stop. I also had the wheel centres replaced, they had the dreaded white worm lol. I am very pleased with the Yeti, 31,000 miles in two years, no reported fault codes, tyres are wearing very evenly too. I asked them to swap tyres front to rear, maybe just in time for the bad weather.

What annoys me most is the inappropriate time the diesel decides to do a regen. We often drive 90 miles in one go, mostly motorway, and the regen often decides to do the regen 5-10 minutes from our destination. You can tell, as when you stop the car and get out it smells really hot, and the fan runs for several minutes. Why can't the maxi dot say... Regen due within the next 100 miles, press accept to start regen NOW. You could do this just as you get on the motorway and cruise at 65-70 mph as conditions allow. SImple to do, if no regen is selected by the driver, do one anyway when needed, but run the risk of incomplete regens. Richard

On a legal front, if you voluntarily accept the "fix" then you are accepting "a repair" them are you waiving any claim for future compensation? There are a lot of consumer goods customers caught out this way. Mine is due soon for it's next service, 2 years and over 30,000 trouble free miles, I will be writing on the order that I don't want the "fix" doing, and keeping it on record. Compensate me say £5k then I might consider "the fix". Has anyone got any evidence of low trade in values for these vehicles since the VW scam ? I do not trust any specification or documentation produced by VW they have already been accused of misrepresentation of goods, and are already paying heavily. Why should they now tell the real truth? Once you have been labelled a liar and a cheat... I will wait to see independent tests before I consider a "fix" Rustic

Depending on the type of eeprom, if you can remove it, you can buy eeprom programmers and copiers, some allow you to read the code. When linked to a computer with appropriate interface and software you should be able to produce the hex code. 30 years ago I had a hand held unit, you could edit certain text for use when printing titles, plus a lot more. Just an alternative avenue to pursue. Richard