LongTom

News Just In.... I'm also reliably informed that Wardley, in Gateshead, NE10 is quite nice, about 10 mins by car from the Nissan plant

Well, according to my colleague, Boldon isn't too bad, avoid most of Sunderland that's closest to the Nissan Plant, most of Washington is OK as is much of Houghton. As you've a few months until it starts I'll see if I can narrow it down a bit.... I guess people's idea of an OK area is likely to be influenced quite a bit by where they grew up/are currently living lol

I know a few folks that live in that area, I can ask them where's good and not so good if you like but probably won't get a reply before Monday? When does the internship start?

I'd echo what JohnRS says, particularly wrt public transport (or lack of it) to the factory. The Nissan plant complex is absolutely huge (particularly if you include the various supply chain manufacturing companies nearby that provide parts to the actual manufacturing plant) so you can think you're living quite close but actually have a fair old journey to actually get to the entrance gate ;-)

Well, just a bit less than £130 later and I have a new OSR brake disc backing plate and a new battery fitted. Not too bad I suppose.

The pressed metal stone/heatshield that fits behind the rear brake disk on my 2010 Twindoor has come loose and is rattling andbeing scraped by the brake disc. Fortunately I was only about a mile from home when this happened so I made it back with no collateral damage having been done. Is this a known fault? Does anyone have any idea how much this is likely to cost to get it fixed? I assume it's a reasonably simple task once the wheel and brake disc has been removed (I've just had the wheel off to check but don't fancy dismantling the brakes on my drive as it'll be dark soon and I want to watch the football on telly)

On the basis of "recommend what you own..." Michelin Cross Climates would get my vote, I've been running a set for the last year (22k miles) and still have around 4mm of tread left on the fronts and 5mm on the rears. When these are worn out I'll be replacing with another set without any hesitation. There's a review and feedback thread on these that I started in this section of the forum :-)

Thanks Nathanio

That looks really handy, can you post a link to where you got the LED strip from please?

Laurie61 My mileage is probably around 80% motorway/dual carriageway and most of the rest rural A and B roads, I don't really like urban driving much and try to avoid it if possible (fortunately I live in a fairly rural area so this isn't too difficult) and I try to do most of my short (sub 5m) journeys by bike.

Having had my MOT carried out yesterday (straight pass, naturally ) I thought I'd do a quick update on my (nearly a complete) year with Cross Climates fitted. ​Well it's a bit dull and uneventful really, they still grip well in pretty much all conditions*, they still give good steering feedback, they're still quiet and they still have 5mm tread left on the fronts and 6mm on the rears after 20k miles. I'll certainly be getting another set of these when the time comes. *The only time they let go a bit was when I had to perform an emergency stop (from 40mph) in damp and slimy conditions but I've not yet found a tyre that can deal with stopping the best part of 2 tonnes in those conditions without testing the ABS a bit.

I had something similar over the weekend (there is a thread on here somewhere but can't work out how to post a link). I reset the unit by turning it on and then holding the Setup button until the screen went black, the unit then reset itself and is now working normally. HTH

After much Googling and fiddling by torchlight I've managed to fix it by turning the radion on and then holding down the SETUP button unil the screen went black, this made the unit reset itself. It now appears to be working as normal so I'm optimistic that a 3 hour round trip tomorrow will be accompanied by some bangin' choonz (and a bit of BBC R4 Drama on the way home).

Good afternoon folks, Yesterday the Bolero headunit in my 2010 MY Superb partially died, I let it rest overnight but unfortunately it appears to be unable to function fully this morning. It still turns on but won't play CDs or the radio. The radio is silent and I can't select any of the preset stations via the touchscreen. If I select Media to play a CD the display show the dialogue box with "Please Wait...." text but doesn't do anything else. I appear to be able to eject and load CDs in the normal manner. The display still tells me if I use the seat heaters, adjust the temperature, turn on/off the aircon etc. Has anyone else experienced anything like this? Is this likely to be repairable? Would it be worth disconnecting the fuse for the Bolero unit for a while to reset it? If it is irreparable is it fairly straightforward to fit a replacement unit? Thanks Tom

Michelin CrossClimate tyres have been discussed at some length elsewhere and since the reviews were almost entirely positive I thought I'd give them a go as I needed a new set of boots on the mighty Superb anyway. Well, I'm about 2k miles into a set of 4 and so far I'm very impressed. The 1st thing that struck me was that they're very quiet, much quieter than the Bridgestone/Pirelli combo that was on the car when I bought it 20k miles ago. They grip really well on wet and greasy roads when accelerating, braking and cornering. They performed admirably over a dozen or so miles of mixed slush/mud/snow on North Yorkshire Moors B roads last weekend (I wasn't rallying about the place but at sensible speeds they inspired a great deal of confidence) even though there were 4 largish adults plus a boot-full of outdoor gear on board. On the odd occasion I've encountered dry roads over the past couple of weeks they appear to perform at least as well as the summer tyres they replaced both with regard to grip and noise. They feel really nice and smooth through A road corners and give good feedback through the steering wheel. I'm doing around 18-20k miles annually (around 75% on motorway) and I'd expect a set of front tyres to last at least a year, time and miles will tell how well they wear over the longer term. They each cost around £8 more than a mid-range summer tyre. Based on my experience so far I think that's an absolute bargain.