J.R.

This is my second (Aliexpress) reversing camera fitted to a Skoda and both show the towball, its a real game changer for coupling the trailer and also for giving towball poisoning to inconsiderate parkers

I dont think that they are illuminated, its probably the daylight passing through the red bulb tint & being reflected by the reflector. I have just rewired the latest trailer to my fleet, the running lights on the mudguards show white to the front & red to the rear (2 coloured lens) the front ones white only. Unpowered & in daylight the front ones looked red, it was the light hitting the red crimp connectors inside and being diffused by the reflector lens. Yellow continental bulbs in headlights gave the same effect.

What a crock of sh1te Are any electrical loads drawn from the 12v battery while the vehicle is being driven in electric locomotion mode? If so and if they are significant ones and if the charging of the 12v battery while plugged into the mains charger is a slow trickle charge then I could imagine a situation where a top up after a short run like 21 miles to charge the main battery would not be long enough to recharge the 12v one. Which would still be a C.O.S.

You understood correctly, the scare stories about France have been around since forever but they have become much worse with social media and especially since the B word. I have travelled regularly between the UK and France for 4 decades, as a single male driver usually in an overloaded vehicle often towing an enclosed trailer I get stopped more frequently than most at the border controls but its still maybe one in 25 times, Border controls some interest is illegal immigration and it all gose the other way at the channel ports, the Douanes sole interest is importation of drugs, firearms, tobacco etc and the evasion of import duties and TVA, they have no interest or jurisdiction over the documentation etc of the vehicle being driven. The Gendarmes & Police Nationale have enough on their hands to not be "bored", if you are stopped it will be for a moving offence, probably speeding the penalties are quite severe and their procedures very refined, there are centre d'entretien Gendarmerie on all the autoroutes, purpose built centres for detaining and processing offenders, you will be escorted off the autoroute to one of them and processed, you will not leave with your vehicle unless the on the spot fine is paid (there is an ATM there) if you have exceeded the limit by more than the allowed amount your vehicle can be seized and you will appear in court the next day or you may have to surrender your license, pay a huge amount towards a future court appearance and a co driver with valid license may carry on, your license being effectively suspended in France pending the tribunal decision. Having achieved their aim they are not going to be concerned that your number plate says UK and not GB or that you have a cheese sandwich prepared in the UK. You may be stopped at a mobile speed trap, they often use my car park to catch & process speeders in my village, in that case as a foreigner you will have to pay the on the spot fine but unless you were driving like a hoon or give them a hard time they are likely to send you on your way with a warning because they have so many others to process with for a French national very simple paperwork, they do give the business to the ocacsional Kevmobile or Mobylette that is a rolling death trap but thats to be expected, they never ask to see gilet jaunes or alcotesters etc, it simply does not happen to anybody under any circumstances. Nor do they ask to see that a driver wearing spectacles is carrying a spare pair with the required correction, that is another law, a sensible one that most sensible people would not need reminding of anyway, but again a law that is never enforced. All these regulations apply equally to motorcyclists whose machines simply dont have the space to carry all the equipment, common sense is required and it is shown on both sides. The Douanes do the majority of their searches on the péages and exits from the autoroutes many miles from the ports at which time the smugglers have usually dropped their guard.

Good point Wino.

Banned for what reason? Does stuff still have to be 110v or has that been relaxed with RCD fuseboards?

What is not normal is that your radiator fan would have been running on the slow speed before turning on the aircon. But then I dont know what country you are posting from it might be very hot there. In 15 years of driving Skodas I have never been aware of the cooling fan cutting in aside from when using the aircon or latterly DPF regens.

I'll take one of them so get in quick people, there are only 2 left I could have cut it off with a hacksaw quicker than extricating my grinder from its ammunition box and putting a new disc on it, as quick as typing this posting!! Sepulchrave I bet you have one grinder for cutting discs and another for grinding discs, the other two probably the same but 9" instead of 4.5".

I have just changed the batteries in my mouse and still the cursor is stuck on that photo of the headlight. My fault for choosing the black mouse because it looked cooler, will I ever learn!

Can you explain what "slaped" or "slapped" is supposed to mean in this context please? I have been away from an English speaking environment for 16 years & think that it must be some new slang that I am unaware of. Also I don't understand the references in bold to "red light" do you mean you stopped at a red traffic light and accelerated away fast when it changed to green or a red light came up on the dashboard?

I decline your invitation to get picky, you seem to have that side covered. Unfortunately as things stand I will have to quarantine for 10 days on arrival as my Phizer vaccinations were not done by the NHS. - I am a British citizen with a UK passport returning to my UK residence soon after July 19th I also have to print the passenger location form. I also have to book and pay for and have a printed reciept for the 2 and 8 day Covid tests, its news to me that I do not need to take a test that I have to purchase or be refused entry to my birth country. If my understanding is incorrect then I would be delighted to learn different. Finally will you please desist from point scoring & expressing your totally incorrect perceptions of what I am "clearly intending" I did not denigrate the Douanes nor advise people to ignore advice given. Your comments that I consider I have the right to ignore the laws of another country because I don't want to buy a few bits and pieces and "ignore all the laws of those foreigners, you're British and don't need to follow them" are beneath contempt, France is my country.

I spoke too soon, the comedy gets better "Effectively" only in your imagination I wont be following your advice on that one thankyou. I made no mention of whether I agreed or otherwise, I don't ignore the laws of my country and your assertion that I do and my reasons for doing so are completely out of line. I do however know the laws of my country and when rubbish is being talked, I know that rather than back down the government decriminalised the offence (in your mind) of not carrying an ethylotest (I am teetotal by the way) be reducing the fine to zero. I know that the Douanes have neither concern for nor jurisdiction over insurance certificates, drivers licenses or health insurance cards. I know that the Critair sticker is not an obligation for any French citizen or foreign visitor and that its sole purpose is to be a visible indication for any Police Municipale stopping vehicles within the Metropoles on the high pollution days where certain vehicles are excluded, this has never happened (can you imagine the gridlock in Paris) because those who pay the money to advertise their emissions status simply stay away those days, there is no ANPR system to monitor it nor mechanism to send out fines. Most visitors driving in France would either avoid Paris or drive around the Boulevard Périphérique which is the outer limit of the Critair zone. And as for being fined for not displaying a seperate UK sticker..............

This is better than any comedy I have seen for a very long time If thats what turns you on then by all means jump through all these hypothetical or imagined hoops, put stickers on your boot and windscreen, carry a bootload of ethylotests and gilet jaunes (only N.F. marked ones of course ), fill your glovebox with documentation but I can assure you you will simply drive off the ferry or Eurotunnel in France and continue your journey unimpeded as you have always done, nothing has changed, you always carried the V5 and your insurance anyway. What you really should be concerning yourself with are the real and not imagined obstacles to being able to return to your country, arranging PCR tests and getting the results within 36 hours of travel, having internet access and a computer to fill out and print off the passenger locator forms, book and pay for day 2 and day 8 Covid travel tests.

You should break the threaded joint on the trackrod to the trackrod end before undoing the swivel joint, otherwise you will be trying to undo two non restrained objects free to flop around, with the trackrod in place you need just one spanner and one arm. Too late to say now but before removing the swivel joint nut you should try to tighten it a fraction of a turn first which will lock the taper if the previous person did not do it up properly, if its rusty on the threads the remove it completely, lubricate and have it running freely before breaking the joint if you intend re-using the joint, in your case not a consideration.

In 45 years of removing recalcitrant ball joints I have never had one that "wont pop back in" by using force, usually a trolley jack, enough to lock the swivel pin enough to remove the nut. Unless you have butchered and destroyed it then it will go back in to its taper, it came out after all and I bet its only moved a mm or so. Not being able to gain access or not having enough lift on the jack to compress the road spring to get the full force is another matter, top swivel joints on wishbone suspension require a different technique but that is not relevant here. One method that can work is if you have a clamp type ball joint splitter, if the throat is large enough then it can be used reversed to clamp up the swivel pin to undo a tight retaining nut.

Barely audible and if you have to switch off the engine for it to be "more noticeable" I think you are being unreasonable, all mechanical interactions create both noise and heat, the rubber of your shoe against the pedal rubber will create some noise as will a creaking knee joint The pedal assemby has a very powerfull spring acting against a cam which gives a control loading and acts at both the bottom and the top of the pedal travel, the rubbing components are plastic and that is no doubt the sound that you are hearing which is for me barely audible on the video, I do however have age related hearing loss at higher frequencies so it may sound quieter to me.

You have to unlearn your reversing habits from how ever many decades you have been driving, once you get used to looking at the image you will do it all the time unless you are in an open field with nothing or nobody around. After the useless wing mirrors that used to be fitted to cars I had to get used to using door mirrors for reversing, now its second nature.

You might hopefully be able to rig something up with tywraps, one around the connector, one around the sensor to act as anchor points for another two that pull it together. The connection needs to be retained with some axial force to maintain a good contact and also to seal. Alternatively you can depin and replace the broken loom connector.

Sadly I have to concur with that, I live in hope that one day I might be able to have a large KPH digital readout.

Thanks, that makes sense now. Its a similar deal for RHD cars here in France, I registered mine in France but only insured it for the minimum TPO knowing that my insurer or the Third party insurers would do the same thing in the event of an accident, some people paid a huge premium for fully comp cover and their insurers only paid them out €120 for a total loss on the basis that a RHD vehicle had no value other than scrap value. If they devalued mine by 50% from the LHD values I would still be ahead of the game but I dont trust the batsards, if I have a total loss then I walk away and buy a new car, an accident & I repair it myself, job done & dusted instead of paying lawyers and experts for decades to argue with each other. Good luck with your repairs, you are in the right place for second hand parts, my Yeti was an insurance write off and the expensive parts in 2019, dashboard, airbags, seat belt pyrotechnic charges etc came from Polish and other Eastern EU nationals set up in the UK, most late model accident damaged UK vehicles were then going to Poland etc to be broken & then the parts re-sold in the UK, most were very concerned for their livelyhood post Brexit

You need to start with a manifold set, about £30, then a vacuum pump, maybe £70, then the big cost, £230+ for a 13kg cylinder of R134a if you can find an Eastern European seller who will sell to an individual, post Brexit this might actually be easier. That has been my investment so far (a bit hazy on the prices) the next big investment and one that is a step too far for me is the euipment to recover the R134a gas, that is scarily expensive.

What country was it insured in where the insurer is reducing the payout because it is RHD?

When Filipe speaks of a "Break" he means an "Estate" version of the vehicle.

I bought dirt cheap ones from Ali-Express for my Octavia 2, they were a very good fit and looked very good but the material was more plastic than rubber, it was flexible enough to fit but became cracked by an impact, I can't rule out that it wasn't kerbed but a proper mudflap I would expect to be ripped off before splitting.

There is no question in my mind that the hissing noise you can hear is air leaking into the brake servo vacuum chamber, that is 100% why you are feeling what you are feeling through the brake pedal. Other than checking all of the vacuum hoses for splits and leaks, and the one way valve to the servo I cannot guess where the leak is occuring but if the one way valve is working correctly then any vacuum leak of all the myriad emissions devices should not bleed air into the servo so that valve would be at the top of my list together with any servo connections downstream of it. Its probably simply a perforated diaphragm.