J.R.

What is the benefit of that, is the flywheel dowelled or are they fitted bolts?

A cycling relay is one where the contacts oscillate on and off making a chattering or buzzing noise, sounds similar to an AC door release on an intercom system when someone "buzzes" you in.

I think we are wasting our efforts here, I'm happy to help anyone who will help themselves, no more from me. Yes ADR85, that is the steering cover/cowl/shroud we have been speaking of, I understand that it probably does not translate well. Good luck.

That wasn't your question or part of it, if you don't want it writing off then don't claim, if you want the money for the repairs then follow Roots suggestion and do them yourself with the money your insurers will pay you over and above the retained salvage value, I have been doing that all my life. I have had zero income since Covid and will not see my pension for a few years yet, if someone hit me up the back making the car an uneconomic repair the above is exactly what I would do once again. If you dont have the ability to do the repairs then you are back to looking for someone to do them using second hand parts. I answered your question about how to prevent your treasured car being written off, I'll add something else for nothing, resist forcefully any attempts to take away your vehicle by either your insurer or the TP one, at that stage you will have lost everything including your ability to negotiate the salvage retention. I underlined the words because the insurers agents will act like it is no longer your vehicle and you need to be very forcefull to disabuse them of that notion.

Yes, dont make a claim.

That has resolved a mystery that I had never understood until now. I bought my dongle and software from Gendan in the UK, I was told that I could download the French language version from Rosstech but they told me I had to contact the French importer who like many French businesses does not answer their phone or respond to E-mails. I can see now it would have been a lost cause.

Thank you to you as well.

Skinny rubber band tyres?

Remove the steering column cowl/shroud, noise may stop, use your eyes and ears. If not remove the wheel, use your eyes and ears again. There is not much left to say, you have to roll up your sleeves and get amongst it and use your senses or be taken for lots of money.

I have never heard of "flat spotting" being used in relation to alloy wheels.

You wont need to remove it, just use our eyes and ears and on your vehicle not Youtube.

I finished it before your intervention.

Ask them, I'm sure they will come up with something creative like you have failed to submit it for an inspection that they wouldn't make and would not have removed the bumpers if they did.

Which one? There are two. Badly worded, there are two switch contacts from brake pedal operation, one for the ECU the other for the brake lights, I cant recall if they are two contacts in the same switch housing or seperate switches, if the latter you will need to specify which one.

Thanks for the explanation regarding Motability, I recall now that you mentioned Direct Line.

I already did.

Hundreds of people, failure or intermittent operation of the door lock microswitch is very very common, most people dont realise as it does not affect the courtesy light but will lock the keys in the car in the circumstances you describe, as most people remove the keys they are unaware until the worst happens.

A follow on question, for those of you with Motability or leased vehicles, if you had one or more or several prangs that were your fault would your monthly rental fee go up in subsequent years to reflect the loss of NCB assuming they were not self insured? What about when you get the next lease vehicle?

When you have a lease vehicle is it actually fully comp insured in the same manner that you would a private vehicle you insured yourself? The liability to 3rd parties be they other vehicles, their drivers, passengers, your passengers etc would be the same but if you dent a wing or even write your vehicle off and its your fault does the lease company claim on insurance or are the larger ones like Motability self insuring? Financially with a big fleet like that it makes sense. My vehicle I bought from a salvage broker, it was written off and he told me there was no insurance claim and the V5 would not be marked as a Category S, it didn't bother me as those markers happily dissapear when you reregister a UK vehicle in France but when I got the V5 in my name what the broker said was true plus it never showed up on any of the vehicle searches. I'm certain it was a local authority vehicle, possibly Forestry or Coastguard, was serviced MOT'd and maintained in Scotland, it has a fleet number in large vinyl letters on the drivers door shut, I speculate it was leased, its the sort of vehicle that would be self insured.

Exacerbated by the rake of the windscreen, if you looked up at say a motorway gantry sign it would be clearer than the road and traffic ahead of you. Even single laminated glass distorts very slightly. Regarding being mistaken for the Flics, My car is Skoda Pacific Blue which is the exact same colour and shade as the Gendarmery vehicles, in all my time in France I have never seen another private vehicle in anything close to that colour and I think it is not a colour option for any VAG vehicles in France, it very frustrating to be following someone driving spiritedly only for them to then slow down to 80km/h, I overtake them then they get grumpy, tailgate me and then overtake, one even gave me the bras d'honneurn having a RHD car our eyes are close together when they pass me.

Do you realise that the fuse card is printed backwards? Well its not but its printed for a LHD vehicle. I think the manual might be incorrect as well, not that I ever read it 😀 Someone on t'internet has produced a mirror image of the fuseboard layout which you can print off and put in place of the original chocolate teapot.

Sorry, not biting.

They are getting far too complicated for my liking. I appreciate that its all these tiny incremental things that give the overall improvements in economy and emissions but we are so far away now from the simplicity and reliability of a basic diesel engine, the numerous sensors and actuators are not to me worth the problems they can bring.

You would get a very audible warning from the top end as the hydraulic tappets compress long if there was low oil pressure long before any engine damage. An exception would be if you lose oil pressure on the track at full throttle and 6000 rpm on a long fast corner but for a road vehicle driven normally by someone who is in touch with their engine like yourself there really is nothing to be worried about unless you rag the car to within an inch of its life most times you drive it. Many maybe even most drivers simply ignore any warning lights and they are usually the ones that end up with damaged engines. Deservedly so.

"The piston cooling jets can be activated in either the high or low pressure stage of the oil circuit. An additional oil pressure switch (F447 Oil Pressure Switch, Level 3) detects the oil pressure in the additional oil gallery and monitors the functioning of the piston cooling. The oil pressure switch closes at an oil pressure of 0.30- 0.6 bar." I bet that gallery was where they tapped into with their oil pressure guage if they actually did test anything that is rather than just make up a story.