Paul52

Thank you. It certainly wouldn't do any harm, I'll get onto that.

My gadget to plug into the accessories socket arrived yesterday so I've been able to take a few measurements Voltage first thing this morning before starting the car was 12.1v, this then dropped to 11.9v when I turned the key in the ignition and dropped to 10.6v when the starter motor engaged and went straight up to 14.3v when the engine was running. After a 5 miles run the meter was showing 12.6v with the engine off, 10.7 with the starter motor turning and then 14v with the engine running. Hopefully someone has a better knowledge of car electric than me (it's a very low bar I've set, trust me) and can tell me if these look like reasonable figures for a healthy battery (it's just short of four years old) or do these suggest the battery's not long for this world, in which case I'll need to go back to the garage and see what happens under the warranty. Thanks for any advice.

This is a long shot but happened to me with one of my earlier cars - there aren't any loose or perished blanking plugs or gromets that could be letting water in? There was a blanked off hole under the spare wheel in the boot and it was just loose enough that in wet weather water would get forced up past it and once in the boot would find its way to a low spot so couldn't drain back out the same way. Visually the plug looked fine but prodding around I could feel a little bit of play. The other thing is it might help the more knowledgeable on this forum if you could give an idea of how much water we are talking about - a couple of tablespoons, a cupful or worse?

Thank you Zib. I'm back to my more usual pattern of 10 mile round trips each day and not had the problem since i first posted so I think I'm in the "see how it goes" phase. I'm old enough to remember the good old days when (a) if a car broke down it stayed broken until you fixed the problem and (b) you had a fighting chance of diagnosing and fixing the problem without a second mortgage. But in fairness I've had it 12 years and its been very reliable overall.

I asked for that!!! Well done!

Thanks for that RickT. I've got the Bolero unit so only AM/FM so it looks like the aerial I've seen will do the job. Now, is there a Yeti-specific air rifle I should be searching for? Problem is I'll probably have to shoot the wife before I can start on the squirrels 🙂

Owing to squirrel damage (don't ask) I'm looking to replace the stubby aerial on the roof of the Classic Yeti. To avoid buying the wrong part can anyone confirm the part number is 6R0035849. Thank you.

Thanks to all for the above. Annoyingly this morning the car started as normal - I was hoping the non-starting would keep presenting to help determine the cause of the problem. It's interesting to hear your thoughts on the park mode interfering with sleep mode. Don't know why, if this is the problem, it should appear now when the camera has been like this for 2 months or so unless it has slowly but incrementally each day taken capacity from the battery to the point it is now a problem. And it would explain why once the car has started I've not had a problem for the rest of the day, having put some charge back. And thinking about it, yesterday I did a longer run in the afternoon so did about 50 miles yesterday rather than my more typical 10 miles or so and perhaps put enough charge back in the battery to be sufficient to start. today Again, thanks for these thoughts. Before I go back to the garage I'll try switching the dashcam out of parking mode and see if the problem repeats. I've also ordered a cheap cigarette lighter (very non pc to refer to it in this way but we all know what I mean) voltage meter which should be here in a couple of days. Not very sophisticated but it might give me a clue as to the battery state first thing in the morning; I don't think I'd be safe/competent with anything more complicated. Warrior 193 I'm not sure what you mean by "Does your automatic idle stop operate normally". Are you referring to Stop/Start as I don't have this on my Yeti - one less thing to go wrong : )

On Thursday my now 12 year old Yeti had its MOT (no issues) and an intermediate service plus replacement of the brake fluid and an air-con recharge. Picked the car up from the garage and everything was fine. Took it out in the evening for a short drive, still OK. Friday morning it unlocked on the key fob without a problem but switching on the ignition all the usual dashboard lights came on, the MFD was very dim and nothing from the starter. Headlights were just a dull glow. I assumed a flat battery, although I don't know why this should have happened. Started first time with a booster battery and no problems the rest of the day. I spoke to the garage, that I've used for years, and they confirmed they hadn't needed to disconnect the battery for the work I'd had done and looking at the terminals I believe them. This morning (Saturday) again unlocked without any problems but when I turned the key in the ignition all the dashboard lights started flashing and the rear wiper swept back and forth - despite the stalk being in the off position! Again with the booster battery it started first time and has been fine the rest of the day (I've started without problems six times today). Following my own advice to others my first guess would be a battery problem and just a coincidence it's appeared immediately after the service/MOT. If it is then as it was fitted in September 2021 it's still within warranty and the garage has confirmed it would be a free replacement. I'll see what happens tomorrow and Monday mornings but if the problems persist I will drop into the garage and have them test the battery on Monday (although ideally they would try starting the car from cold, which will mean leaving it with them overnight). As a bit of preparation before I go back to the garage has anyone else had this happen and it has not been a battery problem? In two days I've had two lots of different symptoms make me think its not a specific electronic component breaking down as logically you'd expect that to show the same fault each time you start. Is this something that might show up in error codes (I can't read these but I'm sure the garage can). As far as overnight drain on the battery other than the standard things that keep the car alive when the ignition is off I've got a basic NextBase dashcam on a permanent live feed to be able to use its parking mode but I've had that in the car since mid-March so I think it's unlikely that's putting excessive drain on the battery.

I've had mine 11 years come the end of May and no plans to get rid of it. Even for local runs I get 42mpg, a bit better on long runs but then it's usually laden with luggage and family. And even under those condition the little 1.2l engine has pulled me up steep hills in Devon/Cornwall and the Peaks with barely a gear change. I have to say after living with it for these 11 years I would struggle with a meaningful answer to "How could they have improved it". But I may be biased. My worry is writing this one off and not being able to get another.

Seeing the previous posts I'm wondering how old the battery is. So often we have seen on this forum all sorts of strange behaviours which resolve themselves when a new battery is fitted. And this can happen even when on paper the battery is still "good". For my money if the battery is five years old or more a new battery isn't going to be a wasted investment but it might save you going through all the hassle of sourcing and fitting a new head unit just to find you still have the same problem. (Although not Yeti related I've had a recent lesson on not over-thinking problems. I've had a worrying noise from my tumble dryer for a while. On the principle of common problems happen a lot I self diagnosed it as needing a new main bearing - not a lot of money but a faff to actually do the work. I decided to throw caution to the wind and get an engineer in to do it for me having been quoted £80 plus parts. Engineer duly arrived, listened to the noise, asked a couple of questions and did a couple of quick tests. Apparently the bearing is fine but as it is a condensing dryer with a heat pump there is a capacitor somewhere in the works that, as he described it, gives the drum an extra nudge to get it going. Apparently they lose capacity over time. His advice - leave well alone until it fails - if it ever fails - and then he'll come back and put a new capacitor in for the cost of the part. Possibly the best £80 I've ever spent as I'd have spent a day replacing the wrong bits so time and money wasted. Hence my suggestion of fitting a new battery if the old one is at or close to the end of it's life; you have certainty that if the problem persists it isn't the battery and it's not cost a lot of money or taken a lot of time).

I second Lanigraham. In years of following this forum there have been numerous occasions of weird behaviour in the electrics that were resolved by a new battery. I even experienced this myself - a new battery was probably the cheapest fix ever!!

Just my thoughts but I also have a 2013 Yeti with the Bolero, a car I'm very attached to but at the end of the day now coming up for 12 years old. I assume there must be other reasons why you want to upgrade as I believe map updates for inbuilt sat-navs are usually both expensive and often not terribly up to date. Having has an integrated (and out of date) sat-nav on a previous car and now a standalone unit I feel the latter has the advantage in that I can have it where it's easy to see without looking away from the road but that's just my preference. I recently faced a similar dilemma. My elderly Garmin sat-nav with integrated dash cam is becoming unreliable. I looked at the replacement model and it was over £400 and security updates were only guaranteed until July 2024 - yes, the middle of last year! So I've opted for a Nextbase dashcam (£180 fitted including SD card) and when the Garmin finally gives up the ghost I'll either buy a sub-£100 sat-nav or, more likely for the small number of times a year I actually need a sat-nav (other than to give me a more accurate measurement of my speed), give Google Maps, Waze or one of the other apps a try. Hopefully some of the more technically minded members will be able to give you the advice you are looking for.

I've got the Bolero unit in my Yeti and found it could at times be temperamental about the file information - something that would play without a problem on another media player either wouldn't play or played in alphabetical track list order rather than album track list order for example. So I do understand your frustration. So on the basis that I have zero expertise here but you don't seem to have anything to lose I wonder whether there is a clue in your earlier post "I am an Apple mac user (and) I used iTunes to export a playlist to my SD card and it worked a treat. Now a few years ago Apple withdrew iTunes and replaced it with the Music app". Could it be that in the conversion some piece of information isn't being transferred over? Is it worth trying converting a few tracks using a different converter? Perhaps something like VLC, which I've used in the past (but not for a while now) but seems well respected. And rather than just dragging them drag them straight onto the card I'd be tempted to put them into a named folder. Personally I'd probably set up two or three folders and put a track or two in each.

"I would say the average owner age around here is 70". That's depressing - I now see 70 in my rear view mirror even though my wife says I behave otherwise. I'm thinking about being buried with my Yeti - like a Pharaoh with his favourite chariot or a Viking in his longship - although I don't know how the Co-op feels about such things

Thanks Gumdrop. That's an interesting option - I wish I'd known about it before I'd booked mine in at Halfords. Would have saved me £40 and even I should be able to put a plug in a socket without wrecking anything!

Thank you both. I think Halfords may have wired to a non-permanent live fuse as this morning after I'd driven a bit all was OK. I'll go back and talk to them. I opted for the permanently on option after having my number plates nicked whilst parked at the side of the road! Nextbase do say there is some wizardry that will turn the camera off before it drains the battery but that may be "until you find out otherwise". Thanks again.

For years I've had a sat-nav with built in dashcam that's served me well but it's on its last legs. The current equivalent is ridiculous money so I've opted for using Waze or Maps on my phone on the odd occasion I need route guidance and a dashcam for self-preservation. I bought a Nextbase GW322 from Halfords and got them to hard-wire it in - I'm past wanting to crawl round cars in near freezing temperatures. But I'm finding that without the engine running the camera will switch on, go through the logo screen and as soon as there is a live image it switches off. It seems crazy to only be able to change settings with the engine running! Before i go back to Halfords has anyone else experienced this? Late one evening I had to go out to the car and it was showing a low battery warning which does make me think it's been wired to a fuse that isn't permanently live. Oh, I did try Nextbase customer support. Let's just say I found it lacking - a chatbot giving a stock response that doesn't help solve the problem. Thanks for any thoughts on this.

Yes, sorry to be negative but for a while ours seemed to be OK before finally failing. I've just dug out the invoice from the garage (October 2022). Briefly, the garage reported open circuit to tailgate latch. strip out tailgate test microswitch - OK test tailgate latch - working intermittently, broken wires in top of tailgate. remove loom and repair. (They just added an extra wire to the loom rather than replace the loom) still working intermittently. Retest and tailgate switch faulty. Replaced with new switch. All has been well since. Labour was £250, the new switch £40 and the final bill with VAT was £360 so for budget purposes you could say now £400-£450? This was at a local independent garage. No-one likes bills for their car but for the work involved I didn't think this was bad (it was worth a lot not to have to keep climbing over the back seats to release the catch) and overall, at now 11 years old, the Yeti has proved pretty reliable and problem free.

This happened to me. I got fed up with crawling into the boot to open it from the inside. Garage finally tracked it down to a broken wire.

I'm just impressed that Chills was able to find and resurrect a 9 year old post!!

Mine is the Classic Yeti Elegance with bi-xenons so I dread to think what replacing a pair of light would cost with the labour involved. It does make you wonder where the slogan "Simply Clever" came from.

I also seem to recall a Renault Caravelle from around the same era - quite a decent looking sports car.

Nice to know there are still some R16 around. My first one was a 1965 model (bought of the car lot at the back of my flat in about 1977 to replace a Mk 1 Ford Escort estate with the 1100 cc low compression engine. Let's just say not a pleasure to drive and leave it at that. My wife had a back problem and her doctor recommended one as that's what he had). When we bought it it was what might be best described as battleship grey. We had it resparayed in Ford's Olympic Blue which looked fine on the can in Halfordds but was rather more eye-catching(?) when applied to a whole car!! Rust was the big problem with Renault at that time, my last R16 was replaced by the R20 - think giant hatchback - which I bought with several inches of snow over it. But it proved to be a good buy - reliable, economical (bearing in mind the 2 litre engine) and nearly as comfortable as the 16's had been. But rust was its downfall. Never go to try the Fuego - which I guess was Renault trying to steal Ford's Capri market.

As we seem to have drifted off topic....my vote goes to the Renault 16. Superbly comfortable, amazingly versatile interior (this was a car first produced in 1965) economical and with the novelty of lifting the bonnet to see the gear box in front of the engine feeding directly to front wheels. I had five, all second hand and getting on in years. Their main downside was a propensity to rust.