Stoofa

All down to personal preference really. I've got a Thinkware front/rear setup - paid the dealer to fit it and they have done a fantastic job at hiding all the cables for me. All hardwired in, with battery low voltage monitoring etc - so I get some parking protection until battery reaches a particular level and then it shuts off.

Just the waiting game now. I went to see the people at my chosen repair centre - really friendly bunch and the chap came out and explained exactly what they would do and how the repair would be completed. Said would look to repair over replace as then original seals are in place etc. He was also saying they had worked on an Octy with similar damage a couple of weeks before and it had come out excellent. Repair centre sent quote over to Avivia and the repair has been authorised - the problem? Repair centre is so booked up that the very earliest they can get me in is 9th August. So at the moment I'm potentially looking at a two-month wait before it actually goes in and then the repair time - if they have to wait for parts etc. In the meantime I've had a full geo check done on the car in case the wheel was knocked - that all come back clean. I guess in two months time all of the paper work should be sorted out and I won't have to stump up my excess - as I'd like to think that would have already been claimed from the at-fault driver.

So - as soon as the accident happened I went onto Aviva and started the claims process - my statement, third-party details etc. I was then taken to a "Your Car Repair" site where I could choose my repairer from their list of approved. I have chosen: Axiom Repair Centre Ltd (Peterborough) - appears to have some good reviews online. Provisional date is 14th June - earliest possible selection. The "Guaranteed Hire Car" option is the only optional extra I pay for when it comes to car insurance (having a car is very important). So the Aviva website took me through to selecting a hire car. I was able to choose from 4 categories (page told me this was based on my policy allowance) - the top one being "Merc/BMW 3 Series", then "Standard Car", "Medium Car" and "Small Car" - just selected "Standard Car", which indicates Vauxhall Insignia or similar. That is also booked from 14th June via Enterprise - the page made it very clear "This hire car will be provided with no cost to yourself". I have supplied in the region of 10 photos, at various angles and distances from the damage via the Aviva repair portal.

Hi All, Had a couple ring my doorbell yesterday afternoon - they had managed to reverse their car into mine. It has been an eternity since I've had any kind of major damage on a car. Insurance process kicked off - provisional date of 14th June (yer, over two weeks until it goes in). This is gonna come back to me in great condition right?

Cheers for the reply. I think I'm now declaring this issue above and beyond my knowledge and I'll seek and pay for an expert to come out and fix. I just went back out to the car and I cut the plug off the end of the two cables - so I was left with just a brown and a blue wire. Ran the multimeter over that and got the exact same results - nothing until both engine and lights are on, then seeing 0.05v. Took out a brand new bulb and popped a wire at either end of it - nothing. So, I'm waiting on some new numberplate modules from a similar car, confirmed working. I've already bought in replacement plugs - once everything has arrived I'll shop around and find myself an auto-electrician to fix. Won't be cheap, buy hey-ho.

Hi All, I may see this post deleted as I'm sure I'm possibly breaking some rules - this is a question on a Mk4 Polo (2007) but assume it's all going to be very similar on the Fabia Mk2. So, newly purchased - only one of the two number plate lights was working. Took both units out, the working one has all the wires going to it, the non-working one, the plug is damaged and there is no sign of the cables anywhere! Had endoscope out, tried everything, but just cannot find the missing cable. So, it was suggested that I could run two cables from the existing, working, light over to the other one and get it all working. Long story short, without doing much to the car (simply threading the cables across ready to be spliced in) the existing unit has also stopped working. Found the fuse, looked OK, but replaced anyway - still nothing. I have now ordered a pair if new light units, confirmed working etc. While waiting for these to arrive, I got the old multimeter out (set to 20v DC), just to make sure there was some power there. Engine Off, Lights off - No reading - Expected Engine Off, Lights on - No reading - assume number plate lights don't illuminate when engine off. Engine On, Lights on - Definite reading, but I think I'm seeing like 0.05v, which in my mind seems very low. I can replicate the above every time, so I know I'm not touching what I shouldn't, that there is definitely a voltage reading when the engine is running and the lights are on. But 0.05v? I mean, it's only a bulb? My plan was still to cut the two wires running to the remaining plug, splice in two new cables, add a plug at the end of that and run both number plate lights from the one feed. But if 0.05v (if I'm reading it right) is not correct, I'll get an auto electrician in before I start potentially making things worse. Cheers All.

Is this happening every time? Surface "rust" on the disks - all you need is a rainy evening and there will be some surface blemishes to knock off the following morning.

You should not be able to turn off the DRL's - they are a legal requirement in the UK on any new car seeking Type Approval since 2011. Prior to this they could be disabled, they were added, but with no legal requirement could be turned off.

Recently had Goodyear AS6's fitted - 235/35/19 - I run these at 40psi.

This reminds me of my Mk2.5 - Went to my car one morning to find a pebble in the centre of the rear window. As it turned out, there wasn't a single rear windscreen with the diversity aerial etched into it in the entire UK - so I had to drive with plastics covering the rather large whole for nearly a fortnight while one was shipped in...... Anyway, I digress. Window replacement company come out, just want to get the job done as soon as possible. Every single time I opened & closed the hatch the annoying noise of sliding glass could be heard. As far as they were concerned, window replaced, no longer their problem. As it happened, my car was in at Skoda having some other work done and I mentioned the issue. They said they would take a look. Basically one guy spent an hour with various pieces of trim off, opening and closing the boot and getting more and more glass out until all you could hear were maybe 2-3 tiny chips moving around. They charged me an hours labour, but I was happy to pay. I can's see the Mk3 being much different - all rather time consuming.

I thought I had a similar issue - I've got Thinkware front & rear cameras fitted and soon after their install I noticed that the car wasn't doing stop/start anywhere near as often as it did. My cameras were installed by the seller, hardware/parking kit, etc. Anyway - service came up on my car about 6 months later, ran the battery through the tester and there was a cell out. I'd seen no symptoms of that at all - car was starting on the first turn etc. Had a new battery fitted and now the car stop/start as much as it did before the cameras were fitted.

It really isn't awful driving on 19s at all. I wasn't looking for 19" when I was shopping, just happened that the one that ticked all the right boxes had the pack which included them. I went from a Mk2.5 on 18" wheels to my Mk3.5 on 19" wheels and I've certainly not noticed a harsher ride at all. Tyres are obviously more expensive - especially if you're like me and will only buy/fir particular brands and models. But when you're getting 40k miles from tyres, that doesn't crop up that often.

Using "incorrect sized tyres" is always going to have the potential to increase risk, why wouldn't it? The wheel manufacturer will say what size tyres the wheel was designed for, using anything "out of specification" is not using the item in accordance of the manufacturers recommendations - not going to take long for an insurance company to get out of claims there. I also believe you are vastly over-estimating just how many people have incorrect sized tyres on their car - there is a certain demographic who will mess about in this area, but the vast majority will either not care (they bought the car as new or from a reputable dealer and continue to have the same size tyre fitted when required) or do care (in which case they will make sure the tyres are the correct size and are the brand the owner wants). Insurance is not interfering with the drivers choice of tyre - they are interfering where incorrect parts are fitted to a vehicle and so they should be.

I lost the rear window on my Mk2 vRS a number of years ago (at a time where there wasn't a single one in the country with the antenna etched - so I had to drive with makeshift plastics in place for nearly two weeks). I ended up with glass inside the tailgate which the eventual glass installer informed me "wouldn't all be removed". The sound of rattling and sliding glass was an annoyance to say the least. My car went into Skoda for some reason soon after and as I was quite friendly with the team there, they said they would take a look - they added on an hours labour, but they effectively stripped everything back for me and rescued all but a couple of little chips (that you could just about hear when you closed the boot) - money well spent as far as I was concerned.

To remove them, get on your back and under the car - you'll find some lovely bolts/allen screws that need removing (cannot remember which off top of my head, been a while since I did them) - 4 each side from what I remember. They are difficult and awkward. You've got a tiny amount of space to work in and being located where they are - there is dirt around them. I did WD40 on everything before starting. I lost skin across the majority of my knuckles, I left most of is on the underside of my car, drew blood, swore worse than a sailor.......... Make sure you clean them up, give them a good base coat and then a few layers of paint - I used a heat resistant engine block spray paint on mine - nearly a can on each one, coat, dry, coat, dry - until the can had no more. Really because once they go back on, I've not zero intention of taking them back off again for any repair work.