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Can I offer a note of caution to anyone who has insured or might be thinking of insuring their vehicle with One Call Insurance. We're currently in dispute with them over a repair to my wife's Karoq after a deer ran out in front of her. They're refusing to accept the quotation for repair from our local VAG approved bodyshop. They say they're only prepared to pay £30 an hour labour whereas the local bodyshop charge is £60 per hour. They seem unable to provide an alternative VAG approved bodyshop which is not surprising at £30 an hour. Their attempt to send us a company to perform a 'smart repair' on our drive also indicates they have no understanding of the potential for further structural damage under the plastic bumper, let alone the damage to the washer system of which we've already advised them. Removal of the front bumper also necessitates recalibration of the ADAS. Something which seems to be beyond their ability to comprehend. Our experience suggests they are to be avoided.

That is good then because if you only fill up at filling stations & not on an industrial site the other taxi drivers and delivery drivers will know where was serving H2o in the diesel or whatever.

I have not studied them but would say that there would be less load from the valve springs not opening and closing. Are the valves closed or partially open in the situation you describe? Closed valves would create engine braking and also draw engine oil up past the rings. I got my first car for a bargain price because the seller my BIL, 10 years older than me said the engine was foutu, running on 3, smoking and rattling like a pig, his diagnosis piston and big end failure. I knew better and in 5 minutes had it running like a jewel, well as much as a Vauxhall Viva engine could, without spending one penny, the stiffnut tappet adjuster on an inlet valve had unscrewed, I pinched it up in the vice and reset the valve clearance, no misfire, no more oil burning, no more rattling. He was incandescent with rage because the precocious cocky s0d that I was at 17 took great pleasure in telling him my great news!

Turns out the fuel pump is gunged up due to bad fuel

No definitely diesel and done around 100 miles.after £30 of fuel

Refuelled in the morning and as the day went on itvstatted feeling a little ropy . Its going into the garage this monring hopefully for them to drain the fuel and flush it out No error codes showing

I've decided most people are stupid. It is known that currently chargers can get busy on holidays and the like, but people just pile into the same honey-pot charging locations thinking it will be fine, instead of engaging brain and looking for an alternative BEFORE setting off. For instance, Tebay services currently have 2 50kW chargers north bound and there will be queuing on busy days, yet the services before at Burton-in-Kendal have 8x350kW chargers. Guess which one everyone piles into because its 'nice'? One day there will be plenty of chargers everywhere, but until then a little planning would solve a lot of issues.

@Gerrycan I believe if you don't have start/stop or an AGM/EFB battery then you will have a fixed-voltage alternator which can do nothing with respect to regenerative braking.

As more switchover to EV, they could actually take some pumps out and repurpose the lanes for fast charging with queueing built-in.

I was going to say remove a row of parking spaces to make way for the queuing space. But remembered peak times parking spaces can also get very full. Seeing so few people use service area petrol stations, may be the answer is to install chargers there and even remove a few pumps. Queuing pathway already built. I like the ticketed queuing system idea from Toot. But actual solution is to install more charging plugs. If location has limited grid connection, share the power like Tesla V2 superchargers or Kempower. The more charging plugs the less cars have to wait in a queue. Throughput may not have improved, but it will take a lot longer to get to needing to queue.

Skoda Fabia Vrs SE 2007 number 079, 161896 miles, MOT till 1/7/24, currently sorn'd, 5 previous owners, l’ve owned the car since 14/10/18. Very good condition for the age, there are stone chips here and there and age related marks but generally a good sound car, very good underbody, original paintwork, bodywork, leather interior in very good condition, wheels in excellent unmarked condition, never crashed, regularly serviced by myself, oil changed every 6k miles, cambelt done at 150000miles, new clutch, flywheel and master cylinder fitted 120000 miles, new discs and pads all round fitted at 122000 miles, 2 recent new front tyres, driver and passenger front electric window mechanisms replaced within the last 2 years along with other wear and tear items over the years. Everything works, the rear wiper, A/C, 2 remote key fobs, l have the original radio, cd changer still under the seat, quite a bit of history and receipts, owners handbook, service manual, Haynes workshop manual, a good straight car, original plate l have just put back on the car as seen in the pictures, reason for sale, l’ve bought a newer car, if your looking for a good example of these fast becoming a collectable cars its definitely worth viewing. The original dealer registration plate l recently paid to put back on the car to authenticate the car is a genuine Vrs SE as shown in the pictures. £3295 Based in Chorley, Lancashire

Seeing as the batteries are mounted low down under the floor and the van appears undamaged at that level, I doubt that the batteries were involved in the fire, it was I suspect more of a conventional car fire than an EV fire. Perhaps further information will come forward in the fullness of time?

First, text format articles for this fire: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-67020502 Regarding the video. I have my opinions of the presenter, but it's not important. So I made it into a spoiler box. Let's look for ourselves, this does not look like a undercarriage battery fire: Regarding whether it is charging, this is a strange one. They were sure it's not charging, it would needed to be flashing green. But white light also doesn't make sense, because it's "welcome light" as in it should not be always lit. Also looks like the van's interior light is on for some reason. Search "Vivaro fire", there are indeed other news articles about ICE versions of the van catching fire. We know Vauxhall had a few Zafira fire problems before doing a recall.

Car locked and charger head locked in Green, when charging flashing red in middle of green. Never had it show white on any Stellantis EV i have driven other than charger not charging and not locked in but then i never used Wall Box PodPoint or other Wall Boxes or set timers for charging, i always start a charger & then stop charging. The White and Locked in i have never seen.

This time I put the peg in the cam and put paint dabs where the timing tabs are and on the backpeice. Armed with the knowledge of the little mark on the sprocket, I've knocked the crank pulley off, used the correct tool (choice 2) with the correct corresponding mark very near the peg (per photo) and lo and behold, cam is one whole tooth retarded w.r.t. crank. Easy done. (My excuse anyway). It's easy when you know how, innit. I shall be on with it, and report back the outcome. Many thanks for the replies so far. This Torsion Angle malarky looks interesting, but thats a job for when the mechanicals are in the right place. 16csvt

Yes got a locking fuel cap and I'm thw only one when fuels it As a taxi driver it could have been any garage to be honest

Maybe, nonetheless the undertray still has to be removed which can take half an hour to do properly without leaving a trail of smashed plastic and rounded and snapped fasteners littering the floor...

Thanks for the replies. I was pretty sure I did not have 'mild regen braking' but I was curious as to how intelligently programmed it was to actually make any sort of difference or whether it was just another marketing gimmick for those that had it, and whether it was partly responsible for the short battery life that some have experienced? @J.R.'s description of the engine operation ties in with my understanding that the direct injection allows it to operate without a throttle like a diesel does. Does this mean that the versions of the 1.4/1.5tsi that have ACT, where two cylinders valves are closed, have even less engine braking effect? My car does actually have a very intuitive stop/start system which only operates when the operating system recognises that the car is stopped for a reasonable length of time such as at a known long traffic light cycle or the rare occasion when I get caught at a crossing to let a kilometre long freight train through. Yep, you guessed it, I turn off the engine with the ignition key and manually restart seconds before the lights change . My wife hates me doing it . A couple of years back my wife and I fluked a two week break between Covid restrictions to the Northern Territories and also scored a hire car upgrade to a Toyota sedan hybrid, my first real experience with one. One of the things that surprised me with the Toyota was that during purely regenerative braking from high speeds (130kph speed limits there), into a much bigger battery, there was (again) far less retardation than I expected. Toyota must have recognised this as there was a gear lever option to add engine braking into the regen process (for steep hills?). Another surprise was how stupidly economical it was at those high speeds on flat roads where the hybrid functions contributed virtually nothing. A tribute to the efficient Atkinson cycle engine and the CVT transmission. If an estate version was sold here I would have bought one when we got back , but the Corolla sedan and even smaller hatchback did not quite cut it after living with the Octavia estate Tardis-like interior for so many years.

Pretty certain that Porsche have a synthetic fuel facility in south America... at Haru Oni in Patagonia, Chile. It uses carbon dioxide from corn or scrubbed from the atmosphere plus hydrogen from electrolysis of water to creat e-fuel using wind power. A couple of links below... Haru Oni hydrogen plant (siemens-energy.com) Haru Oni - HIF Global

Did I not say 'the services before' i.e. both are north bound on the M6. You are being deliberately obtuse when confronted with a fact.

That looks like a very old VW. And look at what the video poster is saying 🤯

If it's bad fuel, how can changing the filter make a difference? It will be the same "bad" fuel going thru the new filter. Had you just refuelled? Get it scanned for error codes.

@Gerrycan My understanding is the regenerative braking is from the alternator ramping up its output in regen conditions - this requires the charging system to leave available capacity in the battery. Clearly the braking effect will be limited as the max. output of the alternator is a little less than 2000 watts (2.6hp)

Had a quick look through Screwfix power generators, all the portable ones are 3 kW. You'll be waiting for a very long time if you hope to recharge your EV with 3 kW. Even non portable 8 kW will take a long time. It's not much faster than overnight home charging at 7 kW. For context, Ioniq 5 or EV 6 can charge up to 290 kW, Tesla long range trims can charge up to 250 kW. Most EV rapid charge over 80 kW these days. Even my 9 years old Leaf rapid charges at 50 kW. Re queueing, dedicated Gridserve sites have roughly the correct idea. They use petrol station-like layout. Could do with longer approach as space for queueing. I estimate there's around 3-5 car spaces behind each row of chargers. Also good is that when exiting from charge point, one goes around back of the building and there is plenty of parking spaces. This removes the dilemma where the car charges too quickly and family member not ready to go. If there's space to move the car, people are more willing to do best practice and vacate the charging spot. Although from picture, I think one has to loop around once to get to charging entrance and then loop again to exit. Not sure what if there will be grid-lock if queue comes out of the charging area.

Does anyone know how this mild regenerative braking actually works? I try to drive economically, which means I avoid actual brake application as much as possible. I figure that using engine braking uses no fuel and is still turning over the alternator but does this mean that if brakes are applied, however lightly, this will signal the alternator to create a greater output to the battery and more resistive load? Does that mean that someone who drives like me will not be adequately charging their battery especially if being drained by engine stop/start? My basic spec 2014 manual 1.4tsi Octavia does not have stop/start, I'm not even sure it has regen braking. In fact I have remarked many times in this forum that engine braking is markedly less than other car I have driven. This is excellent for fuel consumption on the flat but a bit of a pain on long moderately steep descents where engine braking even in low gears contributes little or nothing to speed control and I have to use brakes more than others around me or any car I have used before. Yes I know that what brakes are designed to do but I have never 'depended' purely on brakes as I do in this car. Not having stop/start means I have a relatively inexpensive non AGM/EFM battery and mine needed replacing at just over 5 years, but gave plenty of notice. Theoretically I should be on the lookout for indications of ageing in the Australian made replacement but there are no obvious issues as we approach our summer. As a footnote I do not have any appropriate software or dongle so I did not update the system when I changed the battery. I do not know if I have the mild regen braking of the more 'advanced' cars but quite like the relatively simplicity of this car and its consequent lack of issues to date.

I can't comment on how an EV might have behaved in the described circumstances but I did note a brief mention on the Beeb coverage that the driver had some mobility issues (not the exact words) but no mention of what and whether these had any impact on the problems of control. So, was this a case of a rogue EV having a brain fart or a complication arising out of the mobility issues/maybe mobility adaptations?

It is hardly rocket science at motorway services type locations.. A filling station has an employee or 3 in the kiosk or shop and counter. A hut as Carparks had and still do with a human allowing cars to the changing area with the driver having taken a Queuing ticket with a number at the barrier as they enter the parking area will do fine at busy chargers. They are making enough money to pay a charger attendant £15 an hour. Like a number you get at a fast food place to tell you your order is ready.

I have downloaded the owners manual and the attached page give the status for the lights when charging. Vivaro Life, v.1 (rev 2), en-VX (Work nr_ PP-156102H_50).pdf

I watched about half the video which is a lot for me. One observation, a green LED will probably show up as white on a night time photo and also much much brighter than it actually looks to the human eye. Decades ago when I first started installing CCTV cameras with covert Infra Red spotlights on the screen image you could see a white beam like a wartime searchlight but if you were in the field of vision looking at the camera or looking at the scene live you saw nothing but blackness, I could also see the flashing IR beacons of aircraft taking off or landing at Gatwick which were not visible to the eye, all these images or those of leds show hyper bright on a screen image, I test TV remote controls with a smartphone and use it outside as a laser level capture device.

Does the red led light up when you push any button? Thanks. AG Falco

Correct, you can indeed have an ICE wav van, however let's not be hasty to make a judgement aspect on the merits of this video as we don't actually know what the complete picture is. For all we know, it could have been the only van that was available at short notice, or the only option at the time, he did say he had about a year ago, or indeed he might have selected it because it was the cheapest to run, I mean after you all keep on about how cheap EV's are to run when you can home charge, so maybe comments such as those may have swayed their decision-making, because as Geoff said, they wouldn't have loads of money at their disposal, and that fact is re-enforced by the fact they had no house insurance. So let's keep an open mind, like I always do. Its just like the recent ship fire The Fremantle Mantle, there are those who leapt into action and, most strongly defended and argued that EV's did not either start the fire or were even involved in it, and continue to do so, even though there are photos that show a torched Posrche Taycan on board which is a EV. I have always said that it was a strong possibility they were involved in the fire because of the grey/white smoke which is typical of a EV battery fire, if it was just normal ICE or even EV (but no battery pack involved) that the smoke is black and dense because of the plastics involved. For that, we shall have to wait for the official report to be released as to what the actual cause of it was.

@R9DCG Bad fuel from where, which filling station, what brand. Is it near Coatbridge? Hundreds of others will have filled up, so you call them, e-mail them, you get a District Manager and you tell them you are taking a fuel sample or having the RAC / AA or Trading Standards take. Or a Main Dealers. That is if sure you bought bad fuel and are not going to make a fool of yourself. Name where you bought bad fuel and Social Media do the rest. Others will be going to garages with issues.

Lancs transmission bury did all my dq200 work and are priced good

Agreed, but then you do happen to have a more sensible priced and HP powered car, there are those with dual motors and massive big f**koff HP outputs and battery packs that weigh so much more.

Exactly my point, it is fake news by someone who may be an EV hater, we really don't know for certain, either way it is giving EVs a worse name unnecessarily.

I think many builders are like that - there's a house being extended and renovated next door to my mum - they've been at it two years so far and it's still nowhere near finished - no cladding to the external walls, driveway and gardens full of rubbish and materials, walls not rendered, paving not laid, roofing not finished. The (second) builder is hardly ever there (the first went bankrupt). Meanwhile up from us there's another house that has been undergoing similar work for about a month to six weeks and it's nearly finished

http://bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-44537877 5 years pass, 6 since their big launch / photo opps in 2017. Links at foot of the article. That dude in the picture that is now the First Minister of Scotland was the Transport Minister, & the Justice Minister. He was done for no insurance driving north of Inverness. (Just a domestic matter, Lots on his plate. Snouter.) http://bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-38234763 The ELECTRIC A9 is still Sh!te in 2023 for EV Rapid Charging between Perth & Inverness and also further north. But then the A9 is ****e for any drivers or cyclists pretty much anyway north of Perth.

Could be diesel bug

Keep up at the back. The push back was when you could no longer First Register an ICE Vehicle. The coming years requirement to reduce the vehicles you do register that were nor zero emissions is still in place. BUT, now it looks like the Manufacturing Countries of vehicles have the EU looking at relaxing the Euro 7 emissions requirements. So the Fabia might be able to stay affordable as other Small / Middle sized cars without electrification might. Not cheap, just not that expensive that they would have no buyers. Lets see when the next UK Government are formed how they bring in income fro motorists in the 5 years or so they might be in power.

Let us know how you get on, best of luck.

Issue turned out to be the starter motor

There's an option in radio settings that changes the function of the arrow buttons. I think it also applies to the steering wheel buttons. Arrow buttons: - Setting the function of the function surfaces ■ Presets- Switch between stations stored under the preset buttons ■ Stations - Switch between all available stations of the selected broadcasting range

I know this is reviving a dead post but because nobody else had commented and the OP didn't provide any news about their eventual solution, I thought I would post the following: I had the exact same problem. This is how I sort of fixed it (to save me the trouble of taking the door panel off and playing with the motor unit). First, make sure the seal is properly seated inside and outside the door frame when the window is down - when viewing the top edge, there is lip hidden by the external rubber that you can expose by gently reflecting it - make sure it's under the metal frame of the door. When viewing from within the cabin, there is a rubber seal that sometimes gets pinched in where the sliding window meets the triangular window at the top, make sure its out the whole way around. When everything is in it's proper place, there shouldn't be in small indentations for ?pinches ?welds visible on the metal parts. Second, use something soft to fill some space at the top of the window. I used some surgical rubber tubing that is around 12mm dia but compresses toe 8mm dia. I suspect an extension cord power might work just as well. I cut a section and placed in at the top of the window where the glass would normally nest from front to back. Third - window pinch reset. Not much could be found specific for skoda, but the VW instructions didnt quite nail it but I sort of ham fisted the following solutions. Press window down completely so it returns to bottom position. Press bottom down button 3 times (you will see it retract a little bit more) Next do full-auto up. It will hit the rubber tubing/power cord obstruction you placed and then auto retract half way Hit auto up again - same thing Hit auto up again - this time it wont auto up and you will have to hold window up to make it reach the top and it will stay. When it is staying in the up position (with your finger holding it up) ensure the window is at a point that will allow your window to seal from weather but not push the seal/trim up too high. At this point - quickly release and pull up on the window button a few times (like 5 to 20 times). Afterwards - the window will fail to respond to button inputs on either the door or the master switches on the drivers panel - this is a good sign don't panic. If it doesn't "lock out" of user inputs, repeat the above procedure a again with more spamming when its in the new top position (you'll often hear the motor click without movement) I believe this lock out period is when its resetting its limit. Once it's failing to respond, remove the rubber hosing / cordage that you put in to limit its excursion. After a 3-4 minutes, the window will start to work again and should now stop at the new limit set - ensure you get full weather sealing. It took a few goes for me to get the right amount of "Gap" set but its now good enough that it doesnt look faulty. I can still see the small "+" sign on the B pillar window column but at least the top edge of the glass is no longer exposed. Hope this helps someone!

I had a look at my long term MPG today, and it was a little over 40MPG. Nowhere near my headline figures, but a reasonable reflection of how I drive, and in the grand scheme of things, not bad at all, given the fact it will go acceptably briskly if I want it to.

If you are going to be driving on soft mud, you may want to reduce your tyre pressures by about one-third, ie. if you normally run 30psi-36psi you might want to reduce them to 20psi-24psi...but remember to pump them back up as soon as you get back on the tarmac to prevent the tyres from over-heating. Because you might want to reduce the tyre pressures when driving on soft mud, it's much better to have 16" tyres rather than 17" tyres because the 16" tyres can have more sidewall height than the 17" tyres. For example, a 215/65R16 has 10.75mm more sidewall height than a 215/60R17. Running low profile tyres off-road with reduced tyre pressures will make the rims far more likely to get damaged, hence it's better to go for 16" tyres rather then 17" tyres. Yokohama Geolandar AT G015 215/65R16 98H (Euro label E C 70dB) (3PMSF) (All-Terrain tyre) https://www.camskill.co.uk/m62b0s426p148189/Yokohama_Tyres_Car_Yokohama_Geolandar_AT_G015_215_65_R16_98H_RPB_TL_Fuel_Eff_%3A_E_Wet_Grip%3A_C_NoiseClass%3A_B_Noise%3A_70dB Alcar 9922 6.5x16 ET33 5/112 57.1 steel rims (from VW Tiguan MK1 and VW Touran MK2) https://www.oponeo.pl/felga-stalowa/alcar-kfz-9922 https://www.mytyres.co.uk/rims/details?vehicleId=62269191771657328&rimCode=ALCAR9922 Outside diameter of tyres 225/50R17 656.8mm 215/60R16 664.4mm 215/65R16 685.9mm (+3.2% compared to 215/60R16 and +4.4% compared to 225/50R17) 215/60R17 689.8mm (+3.8% compared to 215/60R16 and +5.0% compared to 225/50R17) Out of the above four tyre sizes, 215/65R16 tends to be by far the most economical tyre size, which is another plus point in this tyre size's favour. If you go for 215/60R17, then 6.5Jx17 ET38 rims (from the Kodiaq) would be a better option than the 7Jx17 ET45 rims. Bear in mind that these 17" steel rims weigh a lot more than the 16" steel rims. Another negative point for the 17" wheels is that in general 215/60R17 cost a lot more than 215/65R16. And yet another negative point, is that the 215/60R17 has an outside diameter even bigger than 215/65R16...making the gearing even further out from standard. Yokohama Geolandar AT G015 215/60R17 96H (Euro label E C 71dB) (3PMSF) (All-Terrain tyre) https://www.camskill.co.uk/m54b0s3735p164247/Yokohama_Tyres_Car_Yokohama_Geolandar_AT_G015_215_60_R17_96H_RPB_TL_Fuel_Eff_%3A_E_Wet_Grip%3A_C_NoiseClass%3A_B_Noise%3A_71dB Alcar 9021 6.5Jx17 ET38 5/112 57.1 steel rim (from Kodiaq) (this rim weighs 11.58kg) https://www.oponeo.pl/felga-stalowa/alcar-kfz-9021 https://www.mytyres.co.uk/rims/details?vehicleId=639488607098401904&rimCode=ALCAR9021

Sheerness, Grimsby, Tyne Pick the port nearest you then go onto a ship tracker website, look for vehicle carrier ships. Look for one that started in Emden (might do multiple discharge ports so someone looking might see it coming from another UK port

VCDS is ideal, let us know when the latest codes are read. Is there any chance that the fuel filter has been incorrectly replaced with a 4-bar rated one sometime? You should be able to see the pressure rating stamped into the rear end of the filter housing, just in front of the rear right wheel, inboard of the sill.

If you live in Scotland then rather pointless having summer tyres, unless you also keep set of winter wheels. If you want same tyres all year then get all seasons. Not that many in obscure size of 215/45 R18 I would pick any of Continental all season contact, Michelin cross climate 2 or Vredestein Quatrac pro +

Hello red2 Gaz