Phil-E

Automatics in small cars can be a bit of a gamble certainly. They're usually either automated single clutch or some ancient 4 speed auto. Suzuki still use a 4 speed auto to this day. I recently had the (dis)pleasure of driving a Vauxhall Corsa 1.4 automatic that we borrowed for a few weeks. God it was awful. 4 speed auto that didn't lock up till nearly 90kmh! The DSG is a great gearbox. It can be jerky from a standstill as mentioned above... but once you're used to how it drives this can be avoided and it super smooth and the gear changes can't be felt when pootling along. I recently measured the clutch thicknesses using VCDS and my 1.4 TSI with 112,000km has used less than 2mm on clutch one (up to 7mm is within spec) and clutch 2 has used zero! So plenty of life left in it yet.

Xenons require diagnostic equipment to re-adjust. The car should be parked on a flat surface and be empty with no additional weight in it. The xenon controller is then but into basic settings mode and the lights go to a standard middle position. Then the lights are set to the correct position and the settings are saved. The car then registers this position as being the middle position to reference to using the height sensors on the suspension.

There's absolutely no need to tell your insurer. It's oerfectly legal too and you're allowed to use up to 2,500 litres tax free a year. And yes the fuel pump is mechanical driven off the belt. That's why the modern stuff can't run on it as they have an electric lift pump in the tank and then a high (very high) pressure common rail pump on the engine.

After messing about with rubbish ISP provided routers I eventually but the bullet and abought a TP-Link mesh system as it was on sale a couple of years back. I've never had such stable and fast WiFi before. Our flat is quite large with the bedroom right down at the other end of the flat. Thankfully we have proper gigabit ethernet wired into each room so the WiFi nodes (3 of them) are all interlinked via ethernet. I get our full 100mb right down there. The ISP DSL Router is then stuffed in a cupboard out the way. I do like how the router works though. It has a built in DSL filter and built in DECT base station. So you just pair the DECT phones directly with it. Also has an answerphone and I can retrieve the messages via an app. The only disappointing this is the lack of modem or passthrough mode. I've had to just add the mess WiFi IP to the firewall exception so all ports and traffic are passed through for the TP-Link firewall to deal with.

I think it depends on the fuel pump fitted. I used to run a Peugeit 306 1.9d on it years ago. But it had the strong Bosch pump (there was a version with a weaker Lucas pump). I ran it on new veg oil since it was only costing about 40p a litre at the time. But I didn't a 70/30 oil/diesel mix in the summer and a 50/50 winter mix. Still saves a big chunk of money each fill up. I'd even once driven to a ski resort in the mountains in Germany and still had the 50/50 mix in. Car still started and ran fine on a morning even with -18c night temperatures.

I think there are different options for the battery. You can either just let it do what it wants (it will use the battery but also recharge with regen etc). There should be battery hold modes and battery charge modes where it will not use the battery if you want to save it for a certain part of your journey (city driving or crawling motorway traffic for example). As for home charging, this is where the UK is really behind most other parts of Europe. Here in Germany almost all residential properties had 3 phase already and have done for donkeys years. This is due to the fact that electric is favoured for ovens and hobs etc where 3 phase is used. Also quite common to have electric instant water heaters that run on 3 phase rather than using a costly gas boiler. So electric chargers are much simpler to install since 3 phase is already available.

Would a caravan suit at all? The advantages being more space, no separate MOT, tax, insurance etc, you get to drive your car rather than a van, fuel economy is often better than a big van and you have your car with you once you're parked up.

And also as a side note regarding smart home and bulbs etc. I can highly recommend Home assistant on a raspberry pi if you're looking for a central control point (and app) for all your devices. Also the option to ditch the hue bridge and buy a ZigBee dongle was a big plus for me (it's been more reliable, more responsive, can add bulbs, remotes and sensors from many different manufacturers and a much higher device limit).

I used a Nest thermostat before I moved away from the UK. One main reason I went for Nest is that it supports "opentherm" which is a communications protocol used by many boilers. It's two wires (similar to a CAN bus system in a car) and the controller is wiresld to this. The massive advantage being is rather than you just setting a mixed temperature on the boiler and the thermostat literally just turning it on and off (like a switch), via opentherm the thermostat can dynamically change the radiator (and hot water temp via the app). This is where you make real money savings. As if the house is cold it can blast the boiler up to heat up the house quickly but then run on for longer at a lower temp. I also found it much more comfortable in the house. Then ability to change the radiator and hot water temp from the app was a big plus. I also the had some cheap Bluetooth programmable TRV valves on the radiator for some individual room control. Hive doesn't support this feature.

When you say "for use in Norway", do you just mean swapping headlights etc? If you mean a full conversion to LHD then it's totally not worth it. So many components to swap.

Yeah a remap won't affect the MPG readout etc. A tuning box reports incorrect figures to the ECU to the readings are out. But a remap actually changes the values of fuel injection quantities and boost pressures etc. The ECU still receives the accurate information and still calculates the fuel consumption as accurately as before (usually a few % out but this can be adjusted).

My wheel is ever so slightly off centre too. Non-car people probably wouldn't even notice it's that little. But the car doesn't pull to the side at all. It's perfectly straight. So my guess is that alignment has been carried out but the wheel wasn't quite straight. So although the wheel is turned slightly the wheels are correctly aligned. An adjustment would be required on both side to straighten the wheel and keep the car tracking straight.

What were they like price wise? Looking for somewhere Yorkshire based for when I'm next in the UK visiting family. Since remaps are so expensive in Germany.

I think there are some additional side mounted sensors required too?

I also got some complete replacement units for mine: https://www.ebay.de/itm/174143815622 No errors and they look great. Really bright and a nice even light spread.

I suspect there will be an official minimum tyre size, load and speed rating listed somewhere for your car. Here in Germany this information is printed on the log book. If you still have the Certificate of Conformity this information should be on there. I don't know how strict it is at MOT with tyre sizes and ratings and if they'd even notice. But in Germany on the TÜV they are super strict and check the size and ratings are suitable.

Are there any clattering noises at idle or any juddering? Any rattle or clatter noticeable when shifting between N and D?

But that's the only way to get it to show. Although mine shows as MPH and it's a German spec car... but assume you'd rather not have your dash in German?! 😁😂

This is a motor from it. It's just a direct drive through a worm gear it seems: And here is a complete rack. So you can see the motor is just mounted to it and there's no hydraulics at all:

What brands have you been using and how much you paying? Are you dimming them? I found previously that dimmable LEDs don't last long. I've been using smart bulbs for years now. The IKEA tradfri are very good from a price Vs reliability point. I've had some GU10s for about 4 years now that I've used now in 4 different kitchens (we've moved house a lot in 2 years!). They're still going well and the advantage of smart control/remote control and dimming is a bonus. I'm thinking that as the dimming is done with the bulbs internal circuitry rather than an external dimmer that maybe they last longer.

No not yet. But as more hybrids and light hybrids are coming out it's becoming more common as the higher voltages are available to power it. But the A/C compressors either have a clutch to disengage when not needed or in the case of VAG they run permanently but then have a bypass valve inside so the refrigerant isn't being compressed and circulated the whole time.

To put it into numbers. If you take the required HP to power an A/C compressor as 3hp minimum (can be more). A 12v DC motor would require upwards of 150 amps! I believe the power steering has a 50 amp fuse so uses under 50 amps.

No. An A/C compressor requires far more power and amps to run than a standard 12v system can output. The power steering doesn't have a pump. It's an all electric system where a motor drives the steering rack directly. Mercedes have done a system where everything is electrically powered (power steering, A/C, water pump and an electric super charger). But this uses a 48 volt system.

What's a tbci?

Yeah I think it runs rich, and the exhaust valves open longer or something to heat up the cat. It doesn't bother me too much. As once it's hiccuped once it's smooth as butter and never hesitates even at full throttle.