AndyB365

I think when my driveway's free I'm gunna have to get it on axle stands and leave it running to see if there's anything leaking. Thanks for the replies guys, I'll let you know in due course what the craic is now that I've got somewhere to start.

I haven't seen any smoke out of the ordinary at all, nothing blue or black

Thanks for the reply, I had the car on a lift only a few days ago and I made sure to check for oil leaks so I'm confident nothing's dripping but as you say there could be one or more much slower leaks so I'll have to have a root around the engine bay again to have a look. The car ticked over 94,000 yesterday and my driving tends to be quite short journeys averaging about ten miles each but I do make sure to give it a run out when I can of about 50 miles every week.

I've had a nose around for a similar thread that might answer things but can't seem to find anything. Whilst driving home today I had the low oil level light come on. Bearing in mind I had another car before this that barely used a drop of oil in 5,000 miles or so, but that wasn't turbocharged so I'm kind of in the unknown here personally as I don't know how much bearing it has on the oil usage. I put about half a litre of oil in to get it within the minimum requirement of the dipstick a couple of days after buying the car and have since done around 3,000 miles, those miles crept up on me quite quickly and after getting that light it showed the oil level was about ready to drop off the end of the dipstick. I've put a litre in now to get it back within tolerances but I'm surprised it used that much in that many miles. So my question is, what's considered normal for the old turbo VRS? And should I be worried about the amount it's used? I'd put the oil consumption around 750ml for those 3,000 miles. Yes I know I'm a wrong'un for not checking it more often Thanks in advance guys and gals.

I wish I could have a respray for free haha, just need another 350k on the vrs. The previous owner was having a great time :') "Double your money?" god loves a trier.

Would be rather nice some time down the road, considering the previous owner of my car decided to keep half the paint haha

Can't believe the amount of work they've put into that car now, full new vRS interior, new paint and other little goodies. I'd be surprised if that car doesn't see 750k or even a million if someone looks after it.

I've had a sticky caliper before and if it's bad enough to cause a smell you'll notice the drop in power I'd say. You'll also feel some heat from the disc on the wheel that sticks in comparison to the other side wheel (wouldn't compare front and back as front discs tend to generate more heat). If it's not that my first guess would be wheel bearings mate. Get the car up on a jack and roll each wheel by hand, feel for that vibration and any play in the wheel itself. If ones bad you'll notice it in comparison to the rest.

Some of us are just cursed man haha. Aye I'm about twenty minutes drive from Newcastle mate.

Get your own little light show, who needs cheap eBay show lights when you can just have a buggered brake light switch haha. Yeah for stuff like that that needs to work day in day out and reliably I would go with dealer parts. Hilariously enough as part of the bad luck I mentioned further up the thread, I had a Mazda 3 until the end of April and at random points when it was parked the hazards would flash. It didn't ever drain the battery but it was bloody annoying. I'm convinced the bad luck is following me

Ah fair enough. Mine would probably benefit from a new switch for the few spare quid it'd cost but for the mean time I'll see how it goes. As long as it works and continues to work I'll consider myself lucky

Any idea as to how far the pedal had to travel before the lights would turn on?

Would it actually reset and calibrate? It seemed to be just an on or off sort of deal. With my current bad luck I'm really reluctant to take it out because I'm told they're easy to break haha

Potentially, but if it's been in there since the production of the car I'm tempted to say that the little plastic stick that gets pressed when the brake pedal is up has worn down to the point where this happens. I don't know what tolerances they need though. It is entirely possible to accidentally kick that bracket however and bend it upwards. Don't know what the previous owner was like but she's left some glaring problems with it so I'd say she could well be careless enough to belt that as well.

It's fixed! In the end all I did was bend the little metal bracket that holds the brake light switch down so it met the brake pedal a bit more firmly. It only moved by about a millimeter or two but it's enough to stop it activating when the pedal is off. Would never have thought in a million years that that would be the cause of the throttle cutting out and the battery going flat over night. A little purple £7 switch under the dash. Thanks for all your replies guys, I wouldn't have had a chance to figure this all out by myself.