All Activity

@Alasdair1 I did want to get a diesel but considering this can be such a bargain I don't mind the slightly lower fuel costs and smaller engine. I don't really carry many passengers but would like to embark on a long trip with my partner one of these days and last thing I'd want is the car crapping out on me for something overlooked. Since its salvage I don't think it will have any service history at all...

It's a while but I always have it changed with the timing belt

You can use blowers without having aircon switched on, however, you may find your car mists up. At least that's what happens to mine when I switch A/C off

One can see why Trump wants Greenland !

I think we would be not too bad in the English Midlands but north of Birmigham could be not pleasant weather wise. 4 wheel drive vehicles will be needed much more. Was quite impressed with Toyota's system on the 4 wheel drive Prius. Only 10hp to the rear just to get it moving and keep moving. Much easier to do on an EV whereas on an ICE car means big weight increase and big in the already inefficient power to movement figures and cost.

Hmm, that puts a slant on it. Just how much have we in our part of the world helped the warming by the exporting of our manufacturing to the Middle East, for instance, in the pursuit of greater profits, i.e., corporate greed? If we never did, then there would be less pollution being created in the Middle East and far fewer goods being shipped around the globe, and there would be more jobs created locally. Now I suggest that we should get back to the electric traction topic; good or bad, it's all about exchanging ideas and opinions.

These days the costs of repairing cars are mad so many good cars are automatically written off. If its got a full or good service history and been repaired properly it should be ok. Timing belt these days is I think 130k (loads of different opinions) but I still do mine every 5 years/60k to be on the safe side. Have had mk2 octavias for years and no major problems. My current is 1.6tdi and old one 1.9tdi. Excellent cars to drive. Thinking of going petrol soon as I dont do long runs anymore and DPF is getting past it. Alasdair

Is it possible to use heater on its own or must always be with aircon running?

Climate models from organizations like the UK Met Office suggest that if the Gulf Stream system collapsed, London's average summer temperatures would drop, and the intensity of normal heatwaves would soften.

@Alasdair1 I did run it by my current insurance (AA) and it's not really much of an increase. I don't think they'll refuse to insure a CAT N car with just bumper damage. Confused.com also offered 700/year -East London - 15k miles a year - SDP&C They said the underwriter will insure it and I don't really mind the CAT N marker as it's just a front bumper replacement - I agree it is a bit of a worry, but that's what test drives and in person viewings are for. if he's really iffy then its a day trip to a different city and enjoy some local galleries. I'm more so looking at what to look out for during inspection. previous owner before this person had it for 11 years, so it seems like they got into an accident and insurance paid them out for it? If it was me I'd take the money and get myself an upgrade... I think it will still be a good car, If I can get a good look at suspension, engine components, take it for a nice drive and know what to look out for I'll be fine and wouldn't mind spending four thousand on what is ideally a really well spec'd car with almost everything I want on it.

When was the coolant pump last changed?

Meant to add that the fact he hasn't disclosed its a cat N would worry me. Alasdair

Just a little more info about removing the rear bumper, based on my recent experience of doing just that on my 2009 pre-facelift Elegance 1.9 TDI PD hatchback. You do indeed need to remove both rear light clusters so that you can remove two pieces of trim that are covering up two screws each side. These pieces of trim just snap into place. I also removed both rear wheels - one at a time - to enable me to access the four bumper screws in each wheel arch. You also need to remove enough of the boot's felt lining to expose two nuts on each side of the boot, that are attached to bolts mounted on the exterior of the vehicle (but hidden under another bit of trim that wraps around almost the entire bumper). See the attached photos of these bolts and nuts. I initially tried to unscrew these bolts from the outside but that can't be done. I'm afraid the photo of the two exterior bolts on the left hand side of the vehicle appears twice. I couldn't delete the duplicate.

It is the slowing abd stopping of the Gulf stream that warms Western Europe that worries me due to the melting of the north pole and Greenland ice blocking the Gulf stream. Eastern Canada is much cooler for the same latitudes as the UK. Life will be very different in the UK ! China and Russia already working on using the Artic ice free route to move their goods even quicker to Europe.

Pete As usual thx for responding and taking an interest I really do appreciate it. Yes, I agree. I almost put your thought into the update post. I agree it could be that there is a separate a/c problem and that is a fact, it's just that I think the change in the way the car warms up and the failure of the a/c seemed to coincide but I may be wrong. It's just that the cooling fan NEVER comes on and I don't become aware of any fan operating at any time during my local, non traffic jam and up and down the A1M to the next junction type driving driving. Evrn n this incredible heat we've been having the temp gauge has just remain bang on normal. Thanks also for the offer to plug in to vcds and when all options are exhausted through this forum if it's ok I may take you up on that. Are my conclusions correct in the previous post regarding the command wire or could it still be a wiring fault? Perhaps there is a relay that's gone faulty when I switch the air con on.....? I just don't know Regards Tom

Yes, that's the one, but was it all of it?

Maybe we and our European neighbours should be spending much more on an international effort to actually get the heaviest pollution nations to remove the biggest polluters from their countries so that mankind everywhere can benefit and make it less about our own air quality, which has improved beyond all recognition of what it was in the 50s to 80s and our lifespans have all received a massive uplift as a result.

You could do with plugging it in to VCDS to check whether the A/C is being actively shut off. If it is, there will be codes that indicate why. Whereabouts in the UK are you?

Depends who did the repair and how well it was done. From memory CAT N i think is the new CAT D so value is probably 30-50% less than market price. Check what the current value of an undamaged similar car. Also check what insurance you can get. Even if the seller hasn't declared it it to you it will have a permanent CAT N marker and when getting quotes you have to mention it. Alasdair

Sorry for the delay, OK, yes -the radiator fan comes on after switching on the AC. When I tried it just now, the air con started working again and stayed on as long as I was stationary, so it seems to be something happening once I've been driving it for a bit (e.g. 10 minutes or so..) If that provides any useful clues! Thanks

The haze that was causing 30 to 40k life shortenings in the uk and millions worldwide ?

The way I'm reading this is that the only reason to think the fan system isn't working correctly is that switching on the A/C doesn't trigger movement. Might there not be other faults in the A/C system that are meaning it doesn't work? I have VCDS and would be happy to plug it in, but we're not neighbours, I live near Swindon. I do pass near you, I guess, from time to time when visiting family members in East Anglia though.

UPDATE I'm afraid I'm still having no success. I have researched quite a lot but still am unsure what the problem is..... The cooling fan module has now been replaced with absolutely no change. So, the position is that the fans do not rotate under normal running conditions. The car is not overheating and reasonably quickly gets to 90 degrees on the gauge where it remains (so there is a chance that the car is not switching on the fan because it doesn't need extra cooling). Still no air con. If I disconnect either of the temperature sensors the fans both rotate at full speed. My understanding is that this is correct. Logically, then it seems to me that because this happens the command wire from the ecu must have integrity as it does cause the fans to operate when the cooling sensor information to the ecu is removed. Unless there is a fuse that I have missed (bearing in mind that the voltages at the connector for the cooling fan unit are correct), there is command from the command wire (when sensors disconnected) then all i am left with is an ecu fault which at the cars age and mileage will condemn the car to the scrapheap (a real shame because the rest of the car is great) and after owning it since 2008 I will be sad to have to do this. For what it's worth I don't think it's an ecu fault (just a feeling.....loool) but I suppose it will have to be if I cannot find anything else. From what i can gather broken command wire is common where the wiring loom passes near and around the stater mot and underneath the battery tray but as i said above the fans turn on when the sensors are disconnected so i do believe this indicates that the command wire is good. I think the car needs to be looked at by vcds but, of course I don't have that access. So, if anyone out there can offer advice/possible solutions I would be very grateful. Thanks all Regards Tom

Not the only cause of warming "The climate-model experiments make the mechanism unmistakable. When only greenhouse-gas levels changed, the models produced one warming pattern. But when only aerosols were removed, a clear east–west temperature split emerged—exactly the pattern that bends the jet stream into strong stationary ridges over Europe. In fact, the authors write that in summer "the decline in aerosol forcing has been an important driver of the observed excess warming over Europe." Clearing away Europe's pollution haze directly added a chunk of extra warming beyond what greenhouse gases alone would cause."

Carbon is the enemy. Biofuel is a paperwork con. Still it is dumping carbon into the atmosphere and recent heatwaves, fires etc will give even more impetus to rediubling the pace of removing vehicle that emit carbon. The island we share will our Irish cousins are offering huge scrappage amounts, over 10K Euros, and this might be a better way to get ICE vehicles off the road rather than just new EV price reduction on sales to those changing one EV for another. Public charging prices can be very cheap, especially with a TESLA subscription which is quite cheap and soon pays for itself and means one can access prices similar to home charging without the hundreds of pounds some of gave to fork out for hone charging equipment where as public charge users only pay the cost of energy in most cases appears to me. BE EV chargers also do cracking deals if one does not like David Coleman, I mean Elon Musk.