freemansteve

Hmm, that does look like the power wires are offset, which is right, and what I was curious about. They are a bit thin though compared with standard filament ones, which look 'doubled up', but I can't see that it would be a lack of contact that is causing the issue.... Unless someone tells me I'm wrong, there is not a CanBus system for lighting on these cars, so I think I'd rule that out too..... Honestly, I'm thinking something weird is going on with electrical noise from your new LEDs. LEDs usually do have electronics incorporated in them that act as regulators, so that the actual internal LEDs receive a constant voltage, no matter what your car produces under various conditions, in order to be a constant brightness (and not burn out). The regulator could be the source of noise.... Hard to say. Send them back and a get an eBay refund is my suggestion. Maybe look on Autobulbs Direct for a branded LED. Nice tile floor, BTW.

If anyone wants a torque wrench, and it is a must for any toolbox used for cars, these are pretty good for the money. Not professional grade, which are £££, but they have a calibration certificate and are good value. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000RA13KO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Probably overkill to fix a door, whether dropped or if the b-pillar latch has shifted. You will likely need Torx bits though, for any driver you have. I don't recall the sizes that might apply.

Unless a belt change has been documented, I'd assume you'd be best changing it.... Clutch may be fine - try it, if no slip or noises then no need to do anything. Depends on whether 124K miles are town or motorway miles! For £2K I might look at other cars with lower mileages....

I forget to ask - your DRLs, are there several bulbs each side, in the main headlamp unit? I have assumed it was like mine (5 LEDs each side), but maybe it's different on your car..... EDIT - I think older cars have one bulb each side.....

Ok - I may have said something misleading.. I assume your car is the same as mine re- the headlamp rotary switch, so the first position is sidelights, (front and tail), and the fronts should be bright as you say, but only when the ignition is on. The front sidelight/drls should go dim with the ignition off, as in them becoming parking lights. Also, when the ignition is off, setting the indicator stalk to left or right should turn on the left or right pair of parking lights, front and rear, but only if the main lighting rotary switch is off (fully left). When you turn the rotary switch to the fully on headlight position, with the ignition on, the sidelight/DRLs should dim. Can you confirm all this for the filament bulbs, to eliminate everything bar the LEDs? I'm still not sure yet why the tail lights go out...! NB 'Dim' being what would be 5W on a filament bulb; the 21W filament would be pretty bright for a parking light but fine for sidelights-only, when driving, ie same as DRL but with the rear tail lights on too. The seller says you have twin-circuit LEDs. Can you post a photo of one the LEDs and also of one the filament bulbs, showing the little bent wires on both sides ? I'm wondering if there is an issue with fit in the bulb holder for the LEDs, or an error in what you were sent..... Can you also post the URL for the seller on eBay?

I've just done a quick search, and I think the DRLs use "580" bulbs, which are 21W / 5W twin filaments.... That's how they can be bright or dim - they get switched depending headlight on/off or sidelights on/off. Your LEDs probably should be LED 580 bulbs too, with twin circuits. Check that. I'm still not sure why the rear lights go out! Do the sidelights work as expected when using the LEDs?

Interesting point about DRLs being bright (no headlights, no parking lights) compared with being dim (headlights on or sidelights on indicator stalk)..... I just checked mine, and it has factory LED DRLs which do appear to go dim when headlights are on (needs ignition on) or when a sidelight is on (indicator stalk set L or R, and ignition off) as said above. The interesting point is if you have filament bulbs for DRLs, how do they achieve hi/low brightness. I don't know, but there are several possible way to do this - 1) Switch between 12V and say, 6V to feed the lights - but this doesn't seem likely to me, or 2) switch the bulbs from all in parallel to pairs in series and then have the pairs in parallel, or 3) Switch in a resistance to limit the 12V feed to the bulbs, which seems inefficient, but is a common thing to do for heater fans!, or 4) Use twin filament bulbs with each filament being a different brightness, or 5) feed the bulbs a PCM signal and say 50% duty cycle to reduce brightness. Not all of these schemes are likely to work with LEDs (unless the original system was designed with LEDs in mind), although 5) has a good chance. Nevertheless, it doesn't really explain why the rear lights go out when the headlights are on! I'm thinking your LEDs are noisy and upsetting a relay.... Send them back.

The clicking relay could be down to noise from the LEDs. It could be a poor relay though... Identify the one that clicks 'differently' or more often, according whether the LEDs are in circuit or not. It may be cheaper/easier to buy a new one as a test. If not, I'd attempt to find one that's the same in a fuse box, and swap them over for a test. So long as they are the same physical size, same pinouts, and a similar current rating (and the same NO/NC variants), it may be worth a lights retest, with as few other electrical items switched on as possible (like rear screen heater, fans, heated mirrors etc) - not everyone is up to speed with relays, so unless you are pretty sure about them, this swap may not be a good idea.

Usually, this would be down to a poor earth or corrosion on bulb holders, but since you have retried the filament ones, this seems less likely - unless the new LEDs actually draw more current than the filament bulbs, which would be unusual (possible if they are very bright though). I'd try connecting only one of the LEDs at a time, and retesting by turning on the headlights. It might tell us something. Many LEDs have a diode bridge incorporated, so they can work in either polarity, but others do not and only work one way round. Trying with each LED unit in turn, switch polarity, retest with headlights, and let us know the effect (if any). Lastly, LED units can generate electrical noise, which can upset other electronics - some brands are worse than others. You may be better off returning them for a refund and buying a well-known brand (++£) if possible, from a big, established website-based supplier - eBay is not always a good source for Chinese electronics....

My Bad. They are actually Continental Eco-Contact 5's. Not relevant to the debate, and something was pricking my OCD, but they are fine tyres for now. Nevertheless, it is hilarious to see tyre reviews (of many tyres) where they offer completely opposite opinions on the tyres. Just shows that most 'data' on the web is fake (no repeatable science involved), and 'opinions' are easily bought! Although I'm not knocking anyone's personal tyre experience. It is likely that a specific tyre type, in a given size, will perform differently on different cars, owing to weight, body roll and general suspension setup differences, not to mention that the same tyre in differing profiles and sizes may also give quite different results on the same car! At least with tyres, there is not much scope for the entirely invented hyperbole you see in say, HiFi "tests" Arrgh, not wishing to start on that one....

Well, maybe that's right, but it also occurred to me that winter tyres are different for different countries and local conditions. The ones I had in Connecticut were super soft and almost as grippy as poor summer tyres in the wet, but maybe for UK, where there are far fewer snow/icy days the compounds used are more durable. Actually, the winter tyres on one of our cars in CT (a front drive) worked better than all-season tyres on our 4WD cars - certainly far better for braking and not sliding sideways, as you'd expect, but the 4WD had far better straight-line acceleration on ice! I'd say for the UK, the Cross-climates are a great compromise. No need for them (or belts/chains) down here in Cornwall though, but it can get grim up north, so for some, they'd do the job well. Still, no real need to have 4WD in most of the UK....

The cross-climates are definitely good in ice/snow, nowhere near as good as proper winter tyres though. I didn't have them long enough on a previous car to know what the durability was like though (especially in warm weather). TBH, unless you live somewhere with ice and snow that sets in for a long period, 'real' winter tyres will be scrap in a few thousand miles if you go over say, 40 on dry tarmac.... For occasional snow, it may be better use belts or chains of a type that are easy to get on & off...

Are you talking about when on 'delay wipe' or when on 'continuous'? Stopping wiping with the former is common in many cars.

My 2019 came with OEM-fit Goodyear Eco Somethings; 185/50/16. They seem perfectly good - grip, turn in, aquaplane resistance, emergency braking in the wet all seem perfectly fine. I run comfort pressure settings as the 50-ratio is arguably a bit stiff on ride. I have tried loads of brands and types in the last 45 years on many, many cars, but while stuff changes all the time, it's all swings and roundabouts and endless consumer marketing..... The thing is, when you replace old, worn-out tyres with new ones, they always feel amazing, no matter what they are. These days, I tend to just look at the wet grip rating and the price, as I'm no longer driving on the limit of lateral adhesion or doing 4-wheel drifts so much. Unlike quite a few people entering supermarket car parks at peak times, or on narrow roads where they can't see a thing ahead.... Just look for a good deal unless you are being bankrolled by Mercedes F1....

Oh, those... They are just showing the rear seat belts are not fastened. Buckle either in and the symbol changes for the appropriate belt. I think you may have previously not noticed them when starting the car.

What "oblongs"? Are you referring to the tyre pressure indicators?

Hope the "software update" works out. It has been decades since I last believed in this as a plan for the future with any software, but I shall be happy for all if it works out!

No big deal to figure out how to spec some brackets/interposers to raise the height, but fully adjustable will be harder! EU breaker yards are the place to check. You only need the undercarriage, not the whole seat, I would think. It's a bit of a 1st-world problem for a cheap city car! You might also ask on the VW Up! forum, which is comparatively massive to this one.

Is that fitting to a 2018 model or from a 2018 model to something else? And are you asking about front or rear? Either way, I guessing you'd need the appropriate bumper (front, or light unit for rear) and the parts, plus all the wiring, relays etc (if not present).... Someone may have done it though! If it starts to look expensive I'd say that I've hardly ever used front foglights on any car I've had, as they don't seem much use compared with just slowing down!

That'd be the same in most cars, if you'd been moving, or otherwise had spun up the gearbox. If you start from 'engine on', you have to disengage the clutch (at least on my model) so nothing in the box is spinning, and then if you immediately engage reverse, and it's still notchy, I'd then think there was a fault.

No this is not a known Citigo/Up/Mii thing as far I know, and from my tiny experience of driving only two examples, one mine (and a loan car I had), reverse engages as smoothly as any other gear, or almost any other car. TBH, I am assuming there is a genuine problem, but it is hard to speculate about the cause without trying it out... :( I have learned that if someone tells me something isn't working right, then they are almost always right! There are, I suggest (maybe the forum has other ideas?), only three possible things that will make a normally decent, gear change feel notchy, and we are talking about a static gear change here. One, there is some clutch drag, which is usually most noticeable with selecting reverse (no synchromesh); two, the linkages to the gearbox are misaligned, or there is slack in the control rods in the gearbox; three, there is a damaged gear or a worn bearing in the gearbox. I'd certainly try another garage or dealership that might possibly be less dismissive or, dare I say, less misogynist.....

Garages often make out that it is somehow just down to the driver when there is a problem - it usually means they don't really know what to do. The 'box on these (at least recent ones) is genuinely not a bad one for a small, city car. I have however had many gearboxes that were far slicker, and even more that were rubbish (by poor design or poor components)! Mine always selects reverse cleanly, unless I hurry to get into reverse when coming to a halt, which clearly is not the issue here. Gear "grating" is often down to clutches not 100% disengaging, which causes the gearbox shafts to not stop spinning. This is usually worse on reverse because it has no synchromesh, but is 'masked' a bit on the forward gears.... I have also had cars where selecting certain gears was hard owing to badly adjusted or slack/worn linkages between the shift lever and the gearbox, but I admit haven't looked at my Citigo to see exactly how it connects up. Sounds like the part your garage replaced was a "let's make a guess and try something" approach to sorting out those linkages. Did they check the gearbox oil, for level, cleanliness (no metal dust in it) and quality? Is it possible a previous owner put the wrong oil in? (I suspect not as the car is practically new, mileage-wise, and gearboxes rarely need attention!). I'd seek a second opinion.... Also, normally when the clutch is engaged you get a slight noise from the shafts in the gearbox - this should stop when you disengage the clutch (ie press the pedal) - all manual cars do this but some have better sound insulation than others! If it is very noisy, then there may be a worn bearing or some other damage.

Yikes, scary stuff... I guess you'll be checking breaker's yards ? I assume you've tried a battery disconnect to force a system reset?

Silica gel bags will take a while to work, as they are meant soak up free water vapour in the air, and if water is still getting in, the bags will not keep up. I'd get the car dry as dry as possible, with heater and aircon on, and find/fix every source of water ingress, rather than buy gel bags....

That's a very valid point. Capital outlay is one thing, but "total cost of ownership" is another. Depends on usage pattern, how long you keep the car, whether you service the car yourself (for ICE, it's more likely, so if you use a garage, the cost may well be more) etc. not to mention charges for driving ICE In cities that will soon become more common, should you be living in a city....