J.R.

By its nature it cannot be a full MOT test but simply a look over for anything obvious visually, in fact its just a con to get the car with them so they can fleece you, in this case by making you think it would pass with them when you probabmly had doubts elsewhere because of the juddering brakes, it was not a benevolent gesture, they always intended reaming you when the actual MOT came, well done for not falling for it. I would not expect a pre-MOT test to include the brake roller test or the emissions test or even using the jacking beam front and rear to lever suspension linkages, check wheel bearings and swivels etc, these are all the things that take time and are dirty hands on tasks, I think for most people a pre-MOT means a look over, it had more value in the days when cars fell apart with rust, if the floorpan or subframe was dropping out and the repairs clearly uneconomic then you would save the cost of the test fee before scrapping the car. Now a free pre-MOT test is just bait to entice the customer into their web.

Warping no, that would only show up on a roller test, in fact what shows up as vibration when driving and the pulsed reaction force on the brake tester is not warping but a thickness variation around the disc, a warp alone would manifest when driving at speed but not on the slow speed brake tester, the pistons would move back and forth in unison without varying the clamping force, its just easier to describe a disc that judders without run-out as warped. I was sceptical about the garages report as its one of the parts of the test where there are no pass/fail parameters and up to the judgement of the tester so open to abuse to generate work, the driver would normally be well aware and it turns out that Kodiaqsportsline was indeed.

Europarts or Eurocarparts?

But they can nowadays with the open style of alloy wheels, look how many people complain that the discs are rusting in the unswept areas where it really makes no difference, look how many people obsess about repainting their calipers, its a shame they dont make the same scrutiny of the working surface of the disc and the pad thickness when given the guff that their brakes are 75% worn out. In fact its a pity that peoples default position is not that everything that comes out of the mouth of a service receptionist is a line until proved otherwise. That was not aimed at you Kodiaqsportsline but a general comment.

Did it actually fail the MOT on the rear discs Kodiaqsportsline? What did the failure certificate say? Notwithstanding that I think you have found a very good solution and thanks for sharing it, it deserves to be promoted.

Maybe you are the person for me to ask Amanda, you seem to have a way of explaining things that I understand. I'm always making definitive statements that I end up doing a U turn on, I was never going to get a smartphone, a cheap Chinese head unit would do me with its built in shatnav, I didn't need or want, or understand come to that Android Auto, Carplay or whatever. So here I am with a shonky head unit that kind of works, no functional bluetooth remaining after removing the original radiowhich was fine when I didn't have a smartphone or bluetooth on the old phone. Now that I have one (smartphone) I realise that often Google maps are better than the Chinese sick note shatnav and that something like Waze would be even better especially for finding actual businesses rather than addresses, also it would be good to use the bluetooth on the phone to recieve and make calls, at present I dont make them and its disturbing for it to ring for an incoming phone. The head unit has some USB ports and I ran a USB cable up to the dashtop cubby for charging a phone, it does not appear to have any means of mirroring (if thats the right term) the phone (AA or carplay?) is what they do to have your phone screen on the satnav display and you can use that to access the phone functions as you would using the phone screen? Can that be done by connecting the phone to the USB cable or does it need an adaptor like yours? I hope that I have managed to explain what it is I'm hoping to be able to do without having to replace the head unit, I dont mind plugging the phone in, it does not have to be wireless connectivity plus I assume that when plugged in it would charge. Over to you or anyone else that may be able to guide me or tell me its just not possible & that I have done the buy cheap by twice thing again.

Thats what I meant in the first line.

How did it do it, by the day, date and year settings? Was there a way of telling it what country the vehicle was in or did i just assume the UK and you had to adjust the time when in Europe on CET?

Later I feel but its all a bit vague, I only owned a couple but I welded up hundreds (no exaggeration) the A panel (door hinge panel) was a frequent one and it changed with the new doors with wind up windows as the hinges were no longer external, I think my Mini was one of the first of that MK3? variant, its reg was GWB 361J so a 70/71 IIRC.

I think it (the punch) was planned and orchestrated but as you are an industry insider what is your perhaps informed view?

I doubt that I have spent that amount in total for all my repairs and servicing in 40 years of motoring including tyres. The 7 years before that were buying, doing up and selling bangers at a profit every month so I did not include them because in fact the net cost of those repairs cost nothing and generated a profit. Equally I did not include the money I spent on repairing the various write offs I have bought and run for years. It's a different world out there and much of what I read scares me in terms of what is seen as reasonable motoring expenses these days 😒

Is that the calculated or actual level? What readings are you getting for DPF differential pressure?

Mine was a 71 pre Clubman with the wind up windows and concealed door hinges but had been really messed around with, it may have been removed, I was sceptical that such a small shield would work compared to all the elaborate aftermarket fetishwear but it worked perfectly in the worst conditions.

'kinell! 😒

To be safe I think that you should declare to the insurers that you have thought about changing the colour, after all that must be classed as something with intent or conspiracy to make a modification and it was posted on a public forum 😂 I'll get me coat..............................

Petes posting of how to do it was excellent, as I read it I thought what great advice regarding the photo for the belt run because I got it wrong the first time but it looked absolutely correct and I could not initially see any other way that it could be run. Seeing both the photos compared to the obstructed vision I had its very clear to me now what I did!

Ah sorry Mcririck, I had not realised you had a later vehicle where all the controls are on the tea tray, on earlier cars with a proper dashboard there is a button on the Climatronic marked ECON or on a simple Climatic equipped car like mine there is an AC on/off switch. In either case it does not switch the AC off 100% but it will not be sapping any significant power, just stirring the refrigerant around the system. My post on Saturday was not appropriate and in hindsight very abrupt, had you had an ECON button you would have understood.

The best solution which they actually produced as a spare part after a decade of pretending the problem did not exist was a fibre-board shield that looked a bit like the foam tray from a takeaway, it worked a treat but I don't think even then (77/78) they fitted them to production vehicles, they may have done right at the end.

No value, worthless, as their further postings show all too well.

I know exactly how you feel, I changed cars more frequently than my underpants, I bought the Octavia on a whim because it was very cheap the day before leaving for a new like in France, it meant all that I had packed into my then Seat Alhambra I had to try to squeeze into the Octavia. I was going to run it for a year or so into the ground, it lasted 12 years trouble free with me taking it from 188K miles to 325K miles and had I invested in VCDS I would not have had to scrap it then. But I had the itch like you, I was romancing a new girl who felt awkward being locked prisoner in a car and having to climb over the drivers seat 😀 the MK2 Octavia was dirt cheap and served me well for a couple of years and I sold it for 3 times what I paid for it, the Yeti was another itch and boredom during the lockdown, I really needed a project and £3200 for a 3 year old repairable vehicle was just too tempting and of course after that the value of second hand vehicles shot up as well. I have overcome the space problem by building up a fleet of trailers including enclosed boxed trailers and a hydraulic tipping Ifor. The Yeti will stay until the building work is finished and I will no longer need the 4x4, I think then a Roomster might fit the bill but they will be quite old then, I certainly dont want anything newer.

But your comments were not that it is possible but that the Tesla and all other EV's were designed and produced that way to be capable of functioning submerged and that any water infiltration must be a fault and the responsability of the manufacturer because you had seen a video of an EV driving through floodwater and not (immediately) conking out. I didn't need to see a battery pack disassembled to know that was tosh but it was nice to see the video to see exactly how they designed the pressure drop venting system, it was as I thought it would be. It was also nice to see your poor attempt at saying the words "I was wrong"

The Haldex controller sitting near the top of the rear diff on Skodas and other VAG vehicles does a really good job of sucking in ambient moisture and self destructing without the need for wading! It doesn't even get splashed.

Is that your way of retracting your previous incorrect comments?

My failed attempt at humour.

Yeah, that could have been VAG's Ratner moment, just what they needed after Emissionscheatgate! How could it have been a lower cost alternative if it had all the same parts with additional sealing and a de-activated switch?