rustic

Well, that's what it's all about ...lol

Well our Greenline Yeti diesel, has broken the 50 mpg barrier, and no looking back. Now 4400 miles on the clock since December. The Maxidot has shown 58 mpg, but Brim to Brim, we actually get 52 mpg The actual mpg had improved tank on tank, each time better than the previous tank. So the theory that mpg improves with mileage is proven in our case, as each week our journeys are virtually identical, with the same driving conditions, and 65 mph average on the motorways. So next target, 55 mpg on a full tank lol...

When we were thinking of buying a new car, in October last year, we looked at the Yeti, and a Citroen C4 picasso, but also noticed one of these... We were actually tempted, but it goes against the grain as I always said I would never buy a new model of a car again. No proven history, expensive dealer only, replacement parts etc. Now... the side panels are clipped in, and you can buy a replacement set quite cheaply in different colours too, so a bit like your iphone cover. What made this a show stopper for us, was the fact that the rear seat was a bench seat, so no 40/60 split. The key selling point to this car is the fuel economy, so all weight where possible was reduced, so this meant that it was impossible to incorporate a split rear seat without increasing the strength of the rear floor and of course increasing the weight. It would be a great second car though, or when commuting long distances, but without too many DIY projects or outdoor activities in mind.

I like interesting problems like this. It might not be the ferrite cores, as these are normally fitted to reduce the high frequency interference from going into the mains. However they are normally cemented in place as you say. What will be in there is small pulse transformers, that operate at very high frequencies, these might have loose cores. Now my first thought is, are you interfering with something else in the circuit. For example, are you connected directly to a ring main 13 amp socket, and not an extension lead? What else shares that power circuit? any electronic equipment, even on standby on that circuit? There might be some resonance in the supply. Sometimes at night, I hear my bedside light start buzzing, it has an energy saving bulb, and this is picking up interference from other devices in the house, or even next door. Now if you live in an industrial area or areas where they use large motors, or welding machines, then this interference will get through to everything in your home. I have known flourescent lights buzz at the same speed as a grinding machine being used in a workshop 50 metres away. I would be tempted to take the charger to another location, a friends house and try it. Now... when items are manufactured to meet the CE regulations, I wonder how many of the essential modifications are actually fitted to production units, so that they all meet CE approval, and not just the one submitted for approval. Also some items are " cloned" and some companies don't see the need for the extra cost of thermal fuses or chokes to reduce emf emissions. Look at the press, and you will see loads of electronic equipment recalls due to faults, from fakes some of which can cause fires. Hope it helps, best regards, Richard

My bike rack attaches to the tow bar bracket, not the tow ball, so mine is a bike rack, and as such I can still attach a trailer with it on too. Now my question, if it is a non wheel bike trailer, then how would the automated tarrif on the M6 toll road charge you? My guess is it won't see it as a trailer, as it doesn't on my car, even with two bikes on. So what rules are the Midland express way using? I guess if you were stopped at the toll booth on the M6 toll, with your " bike trailer" on, I bet you wouldn't offer to pay double, just because you class it as a trailer... No, I still see it as a bike rack, as it uses the car's suspension, and doesn't move in relation to the car, so is part of the car. If it is listed as a trailer, then you are limited to 60mph and not allowed to go into the outside lane of a three lane motorway. So you want to still think this is a trailer? If so, drive as if it was lol. If you get a chance, can you give a link to these rules. So the next confusing part... If your lights are obscured by the bikes, you have to have a seperate lighting board and number plate, so... should the lighting board have the reflective triangles on, depicting a trailer, or should it be without, if it's a bike rack ? After all, most sold lighting boards are fitted with the triangles, so technically should be removed if it is a bike rack, but left there if it's a trailer... The big question... Oh dear... my bike rack attaches to the tow bar, and I have a lighting board... so should I have red triangles on the board?

We had a citroen Picasso, 1.6hdi, it was 10 years old with 120 k miles on the clock, when we sold it, the recommended belt change was 150 k miles, but sooner if short distances, as that is classed as harsh driving. Of course we never changed it. I understood rightly or wrongly, that it was more mileage related than time. But that depends on the manufacturer. We did a risk assessment, and since the car was old and not worth a great deal, we were able to take a chance. A wrecked engine and we would have sent it to the scrap yard, no worries. However with a young car with such a low mileage, you have to consider the cost going forward, and spread the cost over the next few years that you want to keep it. So budget the cost going forward, over the next five years, then the price doesn't look that bad.

I didn't say it was to remove weight, I said it was to meet the emissions target. I knew it was to reduce the drag coefficient, but I think they were clutching at straws to achieve it. I assume that during the fuel consumption test, the car didn't go through a regen, as that uses quite a bit of fuel. Now it has been said, by others, that the regen can occur every 500 miles, which is basically a tankful, if this is the case, I do my MPG calculation based on a empty to full tank, so on average, it must hit most refuels.

It's a weight issue, so it can get into the lower road tax band, the greenline can not have a factory fitted spare wheel either.The suspension has also been lowered 20mm to reach the target, wow.. it must have been close. Now my greenline arrived without a towbar, or spare wheel, but I sourced both locally, fitted them myself and everything fits as it should be. Apologies for taking this off topic, but I can see it also coming up as a question on the Greenline. A quick note on the spare wheel, the Skoda spare wheel is 195 mm wide and the Greenline alloy wheels are 205 mm wide, so rather than buy the "Space saver" and then be limited to 50 mph, and then use it only to the nearest tyre depot, I opted to buy a full size steel 7" rim, from Skoda, and I sourced an identical tyre to the ones on the car. So I can travel to my destination at normal road speeds, at any time of the day, or night. I also bought the spare wheel boot floor kit, inc a jack, wheel brace etc the only modification was to place a 10 mm packing piece under the supplied side storage boxes, which raises the boot floor to allow the spare wheel to fit properly. Cosmetically, it all looks great. Note... The spare wheel kit takes up over a quarter of the available boot space, but the storage boxes underneath can hold quite a bit of kit. Just a quick note... if anyone has the "space saver" spare wheel on their non greenline yeti, has anyone actually tried to fit the much wider alloy in the place where the spare wheel was after a puncture ? The floor sits rather high, and is no longer properly supported at the sides... I also doubt that the fixing bolt will secure the alloy in place either, but since you will only be travelling at less than 50 mph to your nearest tyre place, I doubt it would be a major issue. PS you might get the impression that I am not a fond lover of these liquid puncture repair kits, or space save spare wheels, and you would be right lol..

When you mount the camera, you need it in the swept area of the rear wiper, that narrows it down a lot. With it being on the back door, and you often need to slam it shut, you need to be sure the camera won't fall off, or change it's viewing position.

Sorry I can't remember the size, but I know which set I used, so I could list the possible sizes in that set lol... helps to eliminate others though.If I recall, I used my bit mounted in a 10mm af socket with 1/2" drive, with a long breaker bar, they came undone with a bit of effort. If you are fitting your own tow bar, then may I suggest that you get a torque wrench, and a socket set that will take the torque required, not many of the 3/8" sets will be strong enough to tighten the bolts sufficiently. The tow bar fitting is only deemed to be aporoved if the manufacturers instructions are followed, and the correct torque is essential. The torx bolts go back into the holes in the car, I used waxoyl on my torx bolts when replacing them in the car, to stop corrosion, and help to seal the thread to stop water ingress. Edit... I have just been out to my garage, and looked at my torx set, now... when I removed my bolts there was some white mastic on the bolt heads, now looking at my torx set, on one of the bits there is some white mastic on part of one of the splines. The bit is marked T45 and has 6 points as per torx. NOW... I cannot 100% guarantee that this was the actual bit, but if Columbo was doing the investigation, I'm sure he would concur. But before rushing out and buying one, please wait for a second opinion... I could be wrong... Columbo was once lol...

I am interested... Who did it, how much? The problem then is with any warranty issues, I think the ecu logs any changes, so couldn't be returned to original spec easily, like just before you get loaded onto the relay wagon, on the return to the dealer... after say a break down...

Having polished mine and sealed it on day 0, when I do it again after the salt, do I start with polish and reseal again, or do I have to remove the sealant?

If you buy the materials, you can always redo areas that are vulnerable, eg lower parts of the doors and the bonnet edge. These are still subject to stone chips, and won't be covererd by any warranty. Do these say after the last salt goes onto the road, and you have washed it off, and then before the winter before they start to salt, and maybe once mid summer, but not on full sun. I am aiming to do mine 3-4 times a year... No difference to my normal car waxing, my other car is 20 years old... and still looks great.

Well, hill hold on the clutch used to be a major part of the driving test, when you see some drivers, you wonder how they passed their test in the first place. Mind you, some don't know what indicators are for... So what happens if you take your test in a vehicle with hill hold...?

So having spent £72 on sill protectors, what can you put over them to stop the sill protectors from being scratched ? lol...

Well, I fitted my own tow bar to my greenline yeti... easy to do, so any good towbar fitter can do it. I bought mine from Towsure, fully EU approved so cannot affect the car warranty in any way. Bumper off, remove crash bar 7 torx bolts fit tow bar, four bolts, then cut bumper to suit bar, or otherwise... The wiring is another job, and not for the inexperienced. I use mine for a bike rack, and /or a small camping trailer. Now if you only wanted a bike rack, and the lights on the car are not obscured, would you need a lighting board...? probably not... So in theory you wouldn't need the extra wiring. However... At MOT time, any tow bar is tested with the electrics so think about that aspect. It's the electronics for the lights that can cause an issue, now if I was towing a caravan, I would have gone for an after market full system that interacts with the stability control and reversing sensors. But for my system I did my own interface, that samples a very small current, and is optically isolated from the canbus, so there is no way that any external voltages from the trailer electrics can back feed into the canbus, unlike some systems. There have been a few posts on here about that and the affect on warranty so that's why I designed my own interface. The main wiring loom of the car was not touched in anyway. The tow bar on mine is fixed, and to be fair, I quite like that, as when the crash bar is removed, there is very little stopping the rear plastic bumper from deforming before hitting the actual steel work of the tow bar. Personally I wished it had some form of foam insert, to take any small parking knocks from incompetent drivers that are unable to park properly. Also with having a fixed tow ball, it does not interfere with the operation of the rear parking sensors, mine is the face lift city version, others might be different! Hope it helps.

I agree with Great Yeti, a very good explaination. I have installed second batteries, in other vehicles, the installation has to be done with great care, as currents can be high, and if connected without care of the wiring and circuits involved, can cause great damage. With car batteries, currents as high as 600-1000 amps can flow, so wiring has to be capable to carry this current, or interlocked in such a way as the existing wiring operates within it's design criteria.

I must admit, when travelling on our boat, I consider tidal flow on the rivers, and plan our journey accordingly. It can make a huge difference if your top speed is 5mph and the current flow is 3 mph.So, maybe, as we now have the time, to consider "When" to make that journey, I'll have to watch the weather forecast and maybe delay it by half a day. Equally on the way back. Now that will make a huge difference to drag, and should save fuel too. Normally, we just expect one journey to cancel out the another, but with planning... hmmm... Now if we can convert our roads to huge tubes, with the air flowing at 70mph, so no wind drag... In the future with automated steering, cars can be end to end only mm apart travelling in trains...this reducing drag. Mind you they do that going south on the M40 around Oxford in the early morning already... lol

I have to admit that my consumption has been a bone of contention. We have the Yeti Greenline, so we should be getting great figures, but nowhere near what Skoda claim. We have done less than 2500 miles since new in December, 90% of runs have been free flowing motorways, initially at 60-65 mph as running in, and no fast starts of use of too high a gear as it seems to labour. Initially it was doing around 46 mpg.. brim to Brim, but Maxidot " claimed 55 mpg... the little liar.. lol. The last fill up, we were driving at 65-70 as it seems to have started to loosen up, and we got 48 mpg. I was told that it will be a while yet before the fuel economy improves, also it has been cold wet and windy, so loads of spray, which takes energy, 50% of driving with headlighs on, heater on, with climate control... also the aircon is working in the back ground. Most of our journeys have been in excess of 50 miles, and has included a Scotland trip too, 850 miles. We have been two up, but we are not the lightest of people, most had the boot full of luggage, we also carry an after market full size spare wheel, jack, and tools and we have a tow bar, all heavy extras that were not " weighed in" with the Yeti Greenline. I too drive as if we have no brakes, and I anticipate and drive to the speed of the car in front of the car in front.... etc We don't have the drag and weight of the 4x4 system. So overall, I should be satisfied with the consumption so far, but we were hoping to get 55 mpg on these types of run. I am confident that when we have a few more thousand miles on the clock and the air temperature rises, and the roads are dry, and we drive more in daylight, that the 55 mpg might be within reach. We have the start stop technology, but to be fair, we drive so little in towns when the engine is nice and hot, that it rarely cuts in... or should I say... cuts out. It is supposed to have regenerative braking too, so the battery is charged whilst decelerating... thus saving power and fuel... Not sure what this difference makes, and also we have lowered suspension, by 20 mm to help with the air drag coefficient. I guess every little helps, and they did all this so I could have free road tax this year lol...

I noticed my first ever regen last week, I stopped at my destination opened the door and there was a very high temperature smell from underneath, the rad fan was blowing too... So I thought this was a regen, but clearly not completed, but the next day we had a 100 mile journey. I anticipated that we would have plenty of fuel to do the return journey, when we arrived.... But when we started the return journey, it barely had enough fuel to do 109 miles, so too close for comfort, so an earlier refuel than planned was required. So how much extra fuel does a regen use? How often? How long does it take? and the obvious question, with those two factors above, what is the impact on fuel consumption overall, I bet the Government fuel figures don't take this into account when calculating them. Can I ever achieve the fuel figures that Skoda claim for my Greenline? I think that these figures cannot ever be achieved !

For anyone considering buying a chainsaw, so readily available from Lidl and the like, please have a think... First time out, you might not hold it firmly enough, it kicks back, and depending on the direction of cut it might kick towards your face, or go over your shoulder, it might remove your left arm, or cut into your neck, or you might loose a leg. Take a look on Youtube, or not if you are squeamish... Now, buy the chainsaw for £50 by all means, but buy the safety gear first and spend another £450 on that..... Not such a bargain now is it. You might look like the "Black Knight" from Monty Python... " only a flesh wound !" I think these chainsaws should be banned from general sale to the public, after all, the purchaser in the past, might have been used to a simple bow saw... Both achieve the same job, but one is a lot more lethal than the other. Training is essential...

It's not just second hand cars that sit there for years. New cars too. It was around the late 70's early 80's our company bought two Austin Maxis, brand new... But after a year, on both cars the front wings rotted through. On further investigation, the rubber mounts that support the rear bumper had actually perished. A serious investigation followed and it was found that the cars had actually been built over 2 years before, and were left standing in a muddy field all this time. These days most parts, especially plastic parts, even tyres, have date stamps on. If the car company is really using "just in time" manufacture, then some of these parts might be less than a month old when you buy your car. British Leyland, Rover or what ever they were called at the time practiced just too late manufacturing techniques, in that due to industrial action, many parts were unavailable, cars were placed outside in the elements until the part came back in. We had a new Austin Ambassador at the time, it was poor, don't give a damn workmanship that spoilt the brand. After a year, the clutch slave cylinder failed, still had sand from the casting process in it. Clutch failed, fell apart, clutch cover fixing bolts loose. Oil pressure failure ... pump fell apart on remmoval, all screws loose. Alternator failed.. stray screw had dropped into the field coils and shorted out the field to earth Front wheel bearings appeared to fail, spring band not fitted correctly and came off causing a whine at speed. Quality control... what quality control...?

We have one of those Karcher window cleaners, also great for cleaning mirrors, totally smear free.We tried everything, but when the sun got to a certain angle you could see the smears. Not any more. Shower glass too, and tiles, but... there is a risk of damaging the blade with excess grout, so use an older blade.

Too much fluff in the drier is a fire risk. There have been a lot of fires caused by tumble driers. Every now and again, I vacuum out the drier, having removed the filter. Some still gets through, have a look in the discharge pipe. We never go out leaving the tumble drier switched on, we always give a minute of cooling... then switch it off.

So if I ever have an engine running issue, where can I buy Genuine Skoda diesel? lol What has genuine screen wash got to do with it, although I have noticed that some screen washes state clearly "suitable for fan sprays" or similar, does that mean, by default, that some are unsuitable? Sorry for the slight hijack, but I didn't think it was that important to start a new thread, but on my FL yeti, when you press rear wash, it takes several seconds for the flow to start. So, is this a feature, with no non return valve so the wash water returns to the pump, so can't freeze in winter? if so great idea... Or is it a fault with the non return valve which is allowing the fluid to return to the pump.? Ohh need to get it sorted lol. Just wondered, not worried about it, but what is standard?