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Thankfully most of the people who post here embrace it in the manner intended though. If you don’t like it, don’t spoil it for other people eh?

So I got a call from my local dealership yesterday asking if I'd still be dropping off my Superb today at 10am for the diagnostic. I confirmed and asked how much it would cost to replace the timing belt. £600 was the reply so I told them that I'd leave it for now. I than rang around a couple of garages for alternative quotes and the best I got was from a local specialist who quoted me £525 to replace both the water pump and belt. My thoughts were that if the pump couldn't be fixed under warranty then I'd take my business elsewhere. But then I recalled the that the technician that I'd spoken to previously had told me that the labour cost to replace the belt would be less, as they've already stripped the parts down to check the pump. So I rang the girl back to inquire if this was the case and was told that they'd only be able to confirm the costs after the technician had stripped it down. Great! So I dropped my Superb off with them this morning, hoping that they'd diagnose the water pump as faulty. To be honest, I was expecting them to say that it's perfectly fine, they can't find any issues and I owe them £109. Then surprise surprise, at 2pm I got a call from them telling me that the pump was indeed faulty and would be repaired under warranty. Fab news, what about the timing belt though? Well with the reduced labour cost and belt kit that'll come to £332.44. Would you like us to go ahead with that? DAMN RIGHT I WOULD! So I've left it with them and it will be ready to collect sometime tomorrow. So all in all I think that's a pretty good result. Now I just need to sort my claim out for unplanned hotel costs with the European AA. 🙂 Mart

This caught my eye today, the 1's making the spacing look unusual:

Stop clicking on the thread, duh.

It was a joint effort between my Grampa and I since he's got experience with fitting tow bars.

There's a point where percent charge at home on EV tariff vs percent charge at public chargers. If you go over that point, you are better off buying dino-juice. Always got to remember, for most people, rapid charging is rare. I used to do it once in a blue moon in Leaf, I don't foresee needing it for our normal day-out in the Tesla, only during actual road trips. So I personally don't care about rapid charging prices, I only care about the service associated with it: many stalls per loc, toilet, restaurant, etc. Also got to remember, destination charging is usually much cheaper or sometimes free if you can get on them. ABC = always be charging.

My beloved Yeti was totalled by a driver coming out of a side turning. The Yeti rolled three times, ending up on its roof. Luckily, my wife escaped with only cuts and bruises and the other driver has admitted fault; the police will prosecute. I bought the Yeti as an ex demonstrator with 2,000 miles on the clock for £19,450 in January 2018. The insurers offered £16,929 this week (September 2022) so that is only a drop of 13%! It was a L&K 2.0 DSG automatic with only 36,000 miles. But I was chuffed with the payout. Treasure your Yeti!

Mine appreciated; albeit briefly. I bought it privately in February 2020 with 32k miles on it for £11,750 and c. 5 months ago, WBAC offered me £14,500 for it with 45k miles on it. The last time I checked, they'd dropped that to £10,500; probably because it had rolled over from being 5 years old to 6 years old.

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything. Just for info. - To save virtual ink and screen space, you can shorten the eBay link to just the item number. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265881626043 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265872809553

just had notification from the lease company that my car is ready for collection/delivery to me. Just need to book a convenient time with them. vrs iv estate, canton, dcc, pano roof. ordered may 2021, i hope it’s not broken when it arrives.

Cheeky swines, There is a 2-in-1 release update that will take it up to 1762 Then once at this next level, the same release can take the 1762 to 1896 After 1896 updates should be OTA (they might still release offline packs for dealers)

...and some long lasting memories too, win win

Yes there are, but the tappets make direct contact with the cams. What most people refer as "tappets" are actually various forms of slack adjusters.

The Renault Zoe has achieved over 400 miles in some maximum range exercise, the only problem is this was achieved with an average speed of 20 mph I recall. As long as there is no minimum speeds, which there are not many in the UK I gather, then take it real slow, an electricity grid pricing protest rather than a fuel pricing protest. A long queue of EVs driving at 30 mph on Motorways and A-road protesting at the extortionate pricing at DC charging stations. Glad to see quite a few of the 22 kWh AC stations are still at 39p a kWh or so, I can get about 2 miles of range added for every minute attached to one of those.

Yup, my Dad explained that one to me whilst rebuilding a 1275 A-series, about 50 years ago. Not actually any such thing as tappets, usually rockers with lifters of some variety. "Adjusting the tappets" just refers to setting the gap (if required) between the rocker arms and pushrods, or lifters. The old man reckoned the name probably came from the tapping noise they made if incorrectly adjusted.

I'm sure that millers is good stuff but I won't be using it. They need numbers to back up the octane claims and alarm bells ring when in 2 places on the same page they claim different increases.

Personally ‘lifetime’ is a stupid term for these belts. Baffles me. personally I would be sticking to 100,000 miles and maybe 5/6 years at most. regarding replacement costs - it’s hard to say as some vehicles have no variable timing, others have it on a single camshaft and some now have it on both. I have personally changed many of these without the official tool and just been very specific with my markings and timing and can comfortably say I’ll do them without the official stupidly priced tool. I wouldn’t charge more than £400 that’s for sure - but can’t be more specific without a reg and vin.

In which case he doesn't know that the pistons, or even the piston rings, are shot. Change your garage.

I think the CTEK range is what is commonly used to maintain batteries.

It's a brushless AC motor so the coils are stationary, I'm convinced it's the alternator voltage breaking down under load.

What does the battery read before and after starting?

I ordered at Porsche Verovskova, and car is ready for transport in factory, it’s not in Slovenia yet, unfortunately. I wouldn’t bet on tomorrow with my luck 😉

I had to run a tank of 95 when the shortages a few months ago meant that Tesco didn't have 99. Hard to be 100% certain it wasn't psychological but the car didn't feel 'right' to me either - especially climbing up a particular hill that I often drive up. I'm now using CostCo's premium stuff which is 97RON and it seems happy with that - no noticeable loss in feel nor change in consumption and this morning it was only 157.7.

Yes, they are analogue outputs (0-5v) not switches). I am also now of the opinion that these do not need adaptation! All a bit confusing in the online manuals though as they still mention adaptation!

Maybe this set-up doesn't require any such adaptation? Are they not pressure sensors, rather than pressure switches? i.e. they actually output numbers

Thank you now . Need to remove them to see thay I get the right lenght bulbs. Got new ones for the front and new air and cabin filter 🙂

Just spat out a list as far as I can remember so I screen shot the chat and made my own record.

CTek seem to be favoured in the MX5 community for laying cars up over winter...

Please note - I am not a mechanic or expert in anything. Each to their own, that and the all black one I see down the road look very plain and stubby particularly in those colours. Personally I think you would need a big hammer to add interest to the body and panel shapes. A difference to what appeals in different areas and countries perhaps. ETA: I think your car looks fine and the protective stripes lined up with the bumpers looks fine too.

Hi all, I'm looking into buying a Mk3 Monte Carlo and was interested to know how feasible / expensive it is to install paddle shift on a DSG model? Until recently I've only been considering manual options, but would quite happily switch to automatic if paddle shifts were an option. Thanks

I just tried Nige's link out of curiosity, and at a glance the only difference to what a Skoda dealer emailed me is that this has a production date where the dealer version only had a delivery date. Quite a significant difference in this case, made on 16/11/04, delivered 01/03/05. PDF link was sent within half an hour of purchase.

Going straight to a 190 map will do nothing if the turbo is badly set up or not even working. Your SDI statements leads me to believe that there is no boost, but you need to identify this first. By all means swap the turbo back, but how much work is involved compared to only looking for an actual boost value. What is the EGR code telling you and was the present before you swapped all those items out, as that code could be instigating limp mode. EGR map out can be quite simple but you need to identify root cause of the overall issue before modifying things that could then add other issues to your original.

VCDS Can show how many times it has been flashed by OBD port, if the ECU was bench flashed, the counter can be defeated and rolled back to look like it hasn't. If the car is scanned by ODIS diagnostic then checksums are sent off to the mothership, and if they don't match, then it set's a new PR Code flag for the car TD1 for example. I don't think tuner's can fool this, could be wrong.

Seat of the pants is often enough if you know what a standard car feels like, or do timing maybe with a Draggy, or get on a Dyno. In the UK if you are not declaring a mod because you are playing ignorant and making out you have no idea that used car was mapped then you remove badges like APR with slashes behind. Not that that means if the Loss Adjuster or Police / Crash examiner cares, they can and might well have the ECU checked, as VW Group or other with a Warranty claim have done on occasions. With Insurance Loss adjusters they might well check your social media posts and with Insurance Loss Adjusters ask to check your debit / credit card account. That is them looking for that purchase of a Remap from a 'Tuning company' after you had bought the car.

Certainly with VCDS there is a way to see how many times the ECU has been flashed, but AFAIK it's not possible to tell if those are official dealer updates or a tune.

You can’t get 99 octane easily in Northern or Southern Ireland, so when I go there I use this, which does do what it says on the bottle and is far more effective than the Redex I’d previously used.

I've got a NOCO Genius 10

I can recommend the Ring smart charger.

Made the car feel like a 270 without flaps !!

Anything will be a classic if you wait long enough. But for some more common cars you might have to wait a very long time before it becomes an investment. Better to buy something you will love to run as your classic, if it increases in value then that is a bonus. We've a car (JCW Mini coupe) which we've bought with a view to it being a future classic, but that is secondary to it being something the Mrs has always wanted to own (again).

I heard from the dealer today. My VRS has arrived and I can collect it next Tuesday. Yay!!

Ouch. I see you also have 1,5 e-Tec. Looks like I should expect mine somewhere around April-May or even later, given that I have a few "problematic" options..

Interesting trip home! The car ran flawlessly for the first 2 hours then started to lose boost again. 500km covered with about 12 stop/starts needed and lots of driving with no throttle.

I dont think that comes down to gender. The people that work in the showroom/aftersales 99% of the time have about as much knowledge as a 10 page powerpoint presentation when they first joined that covers the bare minimum. Male/Female doesnt matter theyre main job is simply to book vehicles in and not provide any technical knowledge. That being said, sometimes the 'technicians' have just as much knowledge as front of house staff... ie, none.

Any rigid glue you use will break unless the area is prepped properly. I think the best solution that never fails that a DIYer can do is cable tie stitching.

Finally got the wheels refurbed! I went with gloss black in the end and I'm happy with my choice, I really struggled to find a photo of the Extremes in black on a Race Blue car so hopefully the below photos will help someone else in the future. Unfortunately the weather was awful on the hour drive home and now the car is filthy so I need to give it a clean. Initial pics below, definitely needs lows now though!

2 days to go

@varooom you still have to learn a bit about RNS510 series It's NOT possible to go from 5xxx to 6xxx, 6xxx (as a matter of fact there are only 2 firmware from this series - 6270 and 6276) is dedicated for hardware versions H14, it will not work with older version (C3/C4/C6/C8/C10/C12). @foru2justnvyour unit is version C6, 5238 is the best firmware for you, Downgrade is possible - you must enable downgrade first in 3rd SETUP screen (keep SETUP button as long as 3rd screen pops up).

I am downloading some firmwares to check out the contents. Have to report back later once downloaded.