J.R.

Why do you say clearly driver error? Having watched the video either he was a deranged killer (the motorcyclists and cars that he collided with) which is not driver error or could not stop the vehicle, that's my view but I'm interested to hear yours. Re the Tesla statement, " vehicle’s accelerator pedal was depressed deeply for an extended period of time, even reaching 100% at one point" could be a faulty sensor or mechanical blockage, as could the absence of a recorded braking input, both sensors being faulty, more like a comms problem, what is more revealing is that the brake lights came on yet they claim the brake pedal was not pressed and that he pressed the park button several times, it sure sounds like a runaway.

I read the whole article several times, like many others that I have also read on the subject I did not understand a single word 🤣 Please don't try to explain it to me, I'm a lost cause and from the little that I do know or understand on the subject I really don't want to understand any more Suffice to say that when I first read of the amount and cost of the electricity being used for this so called "mining" it sounded absurd and obscene to me, in the current climate all the more so.

I dont think that you have followed or understood what I was trying to explain, that the OP's vehicle probably has a battery management system whose aim is to not use fuel to charge the battery but instead use the alternator during braking and decelleration phases. Your figures are incorrect, no 12v vehicle battery will have 13.5v when not charging and with the engine running, it will be around 11.3v allowing for a partial charge leaving capacity for over-run charging and the voltage drop from the ECU and all the other active systems, significantly less as soon as the electric power steering is used although I expect the battery management system allows the alternator to charge under that condition. On a normal vehicle with a traditional charging system you may read 13.5v immediately after engine shutdown on a new battery but this will quickly drop to 12.7v as the battery cools and continue to drop slowly with the parasitic current draw. Unless you take the battery voltage after about 20 minutes and without waking up the canbus system (by shunting the bonnet closed contact) then you wont even see 12.7v, whenever I am doing a VCDS scan the terminal 30 voltage is under 12v. 11.3 volts is undercharged, or a partial charge for a battery management system vehicle, it will not result in a dead battery, it needs to drop below 10.5v for a long period for damage to occur, not transient volt drop like when cranking, the battery management system will not allow this to occur. In any case the 11.3 volts is a transient reading of the battery under a discharge load, the actual open circuit cell voltage measured without load (following the procedure) say 20 minutes after shut down I would expect to be between 12.3 and 12.7 volts, possibly slightly less.

I am going to put my money on the passenger side seat connector unless the normal driver is very short or the vehicle never carries rear passengers. Why? If there is only one rear seat passenger they tend to sit beside the passenger seat, especially taller ones who like to stretch their legs out under the seat to create airbag fault codes! VCDS or similar will narrow it down to one side or another. Another possibility, had the OP recently removed the glovebox and in doing so the connector to the passenger airbag disable switch?

Or they film you beating the thief, sorry that should be victim, senseless. The thief whose taxpayer funded lawyer comes out with a watertight excuse for why the innocent victim was beside your bike (he heard the alarm go off 😆) who gets acquitted despite a string of previous convictions whilst you get a prison sentence.

Celtic Tuning at Quintrell Downs Cornwall I recommend. They have dealers across the country and also mobile fitters (or at least they did) I used a local dealer for a remap and their main base for an emissions rollback when I was in the area and I would highly recommend them.

Or worse still (perhaps) to have the means to buy a new compliant vehicle or perhaps sons/daughters buy it for them only for them to find that they cannot operate or live with a games console on wheels, it would freak me out even at my age.

It can't be any of your suggestions as the OP has stated it came on for no reason The vehicle must be haunted 😆 Editted, I see you have already corrected him 😳

Does the starter motor have an individual earthing lead? My memory (which is fallible) is telling me no but the main battery cable and alternator cable are connected there. I'm sure someone will either confirm or correct me.

I thought they might but was only speaking of where I live.

There is a greater discharge & hence voltage drop with the engine running especially when you turn the steering wheel (if the battery is not being charged). I am not sure about the OP's vehicle but if it has the battery management system for the later emissions standard then it effectively charges on the over-run as a sort of regenerative braking, most of the time driving on the throttle the alternator is not charging and 11.3 volts sounds about right, it only maintains something like 80% charge to allow for the regenerative charging.

Sorry I meant downstream, between the filter and the carburettor is there any metal tubing? Good move re the secondary filter if there is a metal tube between the two, that way you can see where the debris is coming from.

Thanks for that Classic, I knew that I had read something like that before regarding a spanner but could not recall the details. It's interesting and revealing that you are the only one aside from myself to have wanted to know the "why" rather than blindly accept what they have read or been told.

Wise move re the tank, hopefully it's just debris and not severe internal corrosion. Do you think the filter was clogged or that some debris got through the element to the carburettor? I hope its the former. Is the fuel line upstream of the filter plastic or does it have some metal piping? If the latter that is where I would now be looking, I have spent far too many hours removing and cleaning the float chamber needle valve or idle jets from corroded fuel lines upstream of the filter on a couple of vehicles.

What is your rationale for doing it in that, or indeed any order? I completely agree with the comment regarding the sparking.

Whatever you do do not follow this perhaps well meaning but very bad advice. You risk damaging the alternator regulator, at worst frying the ECU or other electronic modules. And should you decide to ignore that warning do not connect the new battery with reversed polarity

But you reported an initial decrease in fuel consumption after the cam belt change: If that was the case then any subsequent increase in fuel consumption is likely to be something else but I strongly disagree with the suggestion that faulty preheat plugs will make any difference to the MPG let alone a great difference, maybe, just maybe in the first 30 seconds after a cold start but not thereafter. But for the above a drop in fuel economy after a cam belt change is indicative of them incorrectly setting the cam timing, I'm not sure if your engine will report "Torsion Value" in VCDS but that is a good way to check, otherwise its down to looking at the timing marks, or checking the inlet and exhaust valve clearances to either side of TDC on the firing stroke.

I will when I can get over that bloke who said I need to go to Specsavers!

You don't say what but KenFowler did: Do you agree with that? If so then what would £1,5000 read as to you? Would it not then have to be £15,000 or £1,500,0 but with an additional 2 numerals? I may indeed misread the comma for a decimal point but to add to the confusion and give myself some justification in France a comma is used for the decimal point!

Perfectly normal for the Terminal 30 battery voltage to be 11.4 volts if the ignition is switched on for the connection of a diagnostic device.

Comma or decimal point does it make a difference? As for Specavers, I have lost the vision of one eye through 5 seperate detached retinas and glaucoma and have significant problems with the other eye, I am going to have cataract surgery soon but it carries a risk of total blindness if anything goes wrong as I no longer have the other eye to fall back on. On a computer screen or keyboard I cannot make out the difference between a comma and a decimal point or an insect on the screen, if it moves around its the latter.

If only it were 15 seconds on the Yeti or I were able to reprogram it to that. When I park up to go running or hiking I put a spare key without immobiliser chip in the fuel filler flap and lock the keys (hidden) in the carthe logic is that a thief could get in but not drive away. When I return and open the drivers door with the dumb key the alarm goes off instantly, I have tried all the probable programming options in VCDS without success, does anyone have any ideas?

Absolutely. In mathematical terms it is £1.50, one pound fifty pence, as is £1.500, £1.5000, £1.50000000 etc, the additional zeros are superfluous and do not alter the value.

Your logic is spot on, thanks for steering my thought process. Having gone to evening class a couple of decades back to study for and then sit the IEE 16th Edition I can tell you that logic and understanding was not on the menu for 95% of the employed electricians who made up the rest of the class and who had already failed the exam several times. An "Open Book" exam where the answers to all the questions are contained within the wiring regs which you have with you to consult, all it is actually doing is to prove that you know how to read a book, and use the index to find the relevant section that you need, the questions are multiple choice, 4 answers, the pass mark is only 60%, this means for every question that you know you have answered correctly you can guess another and will end up with a 62% pass mark. I had only attended maybe 4 or 5 of the 26 classes after working out what the deal was, I was using the book each day when working so did my learning that way, the exam was 2.5 hours and you could leave after 1 hr 15 minutes, I had finished the paper after 35 minutes, spent another 10 going through checking my answers and then twiddled my thumbs before leaving at the appointed time. The others had arranged to meet in the pub after the exam so I waited for them, one said to me "I don't blame you for walking out mate, I would have done the same but having failed it so many times and having probbaly failed again this time if my boss heard I had left early I would be sacked", the others were of the same view, I could not tell them that it was so simple that half an hour was all was needed. Most worked for firms of contracting electricians and the qualified person would sign off their work, they needed to pass so that they could work on jobs alone and sign off the work of others.

Should that not correctly be "they would complete the neutral return of any active circuits via their body to earth and experience an electric shock"?