J.R.

You dont need to "get everything as hot as possible" it will make no difference, a regen will not initiate before the engine is up to operating temperature, it wont happen any quicker or better if its hotter than that, but hey if you really believe that it will then you might as well drain out half of your coolant and engine oil.

I did not explain regarding the resale as it wasn't relevant at the time but given the recommendations for PSA & Renault I should qualify that the market that I have uncovered in France where people pay (IMO) well over the odds for a RHD vehicle is to the ex-pat non French speaking Facebook generation, those that are unable to cope with buying a vehicle from a French person or garage or the bureacracy of importing and registering one and who cant cope with LHD. From my limited exposure to these gift horses they have an aversion to French companies and their products especially vehicles although they probably have reason in that regard RHD vehicles are worthless to a French person, as so they should be, if I tried to sell a RHD PSA/Renault van in France I would be stuck with it. Van owners in my target group tend to drive Transits, Vitos, and the Vauxhall/Opel ones. Interesting to learn that VAG are so overpriced, are they more reliable? My 90hp pre PD diesel Alhambra was bulletproof.

I need a van for a year or so, I am selling my UK property and will have to move all my stuff (very little) and the contents of my garage/workshop (loads and loads) to storage in France, I will register it in France and hope to make a profit at the end like I did with the Octavia 2 but that would simply be the cherry on the cake. It needs to be something that was sold & homologated in France, ideally not a model that had a different spec or name in the UK to France like a Vauxhall being an Opel although that may be a red herring. Voluminous with a side loading door, bulkhead although a trap for long stuff would be usefull, under 2m height for the péages & with a decent towbar as it will be towing an unbraked site hut type trailer (Roulotte de Chantier) which has no suspension. Diesel I presume unless I am missing something. Given that I have VCDS and all the experience I have had for 20+ years has been VAG diesels startng with a 90hp Alhambra I think it should be from the VAG stable & the more it has in common with my past vehicles Octavia 1 & 2 the better. So what would you folks recommend, I dont know what they sell for but if it was a car then I would be looking at £1000-1500 because a good one of those would sell for double in France, however second hand vans seem a fortune here for really beat up examples so possibly up to £3K, if those figures are stupid for something reliable then please say so, I only have experience in the economics of cars & not vans. At the other end of the scale for a nearly new vehicle there is no big price differential as the list prices are probably similar, were I looking for something that new to keep for 20 years I would buy a LHD in France. So what do you guys suggest, what has been your experiences?

The one I currently have has LED's for rear illumination, they are not needed as the camera has excellent low light resolution and even the puny non LED reversing lights are more than enough, if they were I/R leds then I could have reversed in stealth mode but they are normal white light LEDS and were illuminated all the time the camera is powered which means all the time the ignition is on if you take the convenient feed from the rear wiper motor like I usually do. Not good having a very bright white LED light facing the rear when you are driving forwards at night. I cant for the life of me recall how I resolved it, I think there must have been a seperate wire as I did not run another feed from the reversing lights, in any case the LED array is no longer working and the camera works just fine at night.

Until the court case is heard I am not allowed to comment on my defence for not knowing one hole from another.

Anything off Ali-Express that replaces the tailgate handle or number plate light, they all work great and cost less than €10 delivered, have installed a couple both worked well & were easy to install.

I see what you did there! Its been derailed!

With the benefit of hidnsight that can be seen by comparing the two photos.

Its the towbar relay. Whenever you indicate the relevant relay contact opens to allow voltage to the relevant pin on the socket, if no current is sensed as flowing through the contact (trailer not connected) then the beep should not occur. It may be a failure of the module but they are much more reliable than the old type with a winding around a reed switch, its more likely water ingress and/or shorted wires in the trailer socket, there usually is no strain relief and the contact screws can also come loose.

Did they give you a knowing look at the casualty department? 😁

Where is cobalt and lithium used in refining of petrol in greater quantities than battery & EV production?

Absolutely, a hill be it uphill or downhill is just another flat road as far as the levelling systems are concerned, there is zero requirement to adjust the headlamp aim. Delete the erroneous sentence below and it reads correctly This system helps prevent headlights from pointing too far up or too far down when driving up or down hills

ScoutJCB. We can all agree on the Hella statement, the second unattributed one again makes no sense, if the second sentence was removed it would be correct and mirror the Hella statement, I think the author was projecting his thoughts rather than facts. The notification I recieved of your post contained the following which has since been deleted: As i crest a hill or hit the valley floor i see the adjustments in the lights - I assume this to be the same on the OCt3 as I thought they were adaptive, they certainly were on my Oct 2 and does on the wifes MINI as well. That happens on my fixed lights 😀

Stop start.

Regarding the weight transfer on inclines, aside from the test hills at MIRA, Brooklands etc road gradients rarely exceed 6% and the majority are far less than that, also as the vehicle is inclined from the level position (C of G vector in line with suspension axis) the loading on the vehicle suspension reduces, part of the load being transmitted ditectly through the mountings to the wheels, at 45% the suspension springs are supporting half of the load that they would on level ground. If a vehicle were set up on a testing platform with an MOT type headlamp beam tester set up in front, if the platform were inclined to say a 10% inclination I doubt that the beam height would move visibly or measurably. Good to see definitive proof that the system reacts fast enough to react to squat and dive when accelerating and decelerating, the limiting factor of the motorised headlamp adjutment is the mechanical reaction time, the use of multi-LEDs would remove that, nonetheless there would have to be some lag in the system as when a vehicle hits a speedhump not only does it physically incline as the front wheels pass over which the suspension height sensors would not detect but it would compress the front suspension which the sensors would detect and that would tell the system to raise the beam height, the opposite of what is needed. Aside from people with LED bulbs or HID conversions badly aligned and/or without the levelling systems the only times that I am blinded by oncoming LED/HED headlights is momentary flashes on a bumpy road, something that always happened before with halogen lights, its just much more dazzling now especially for eyes with the onset of cataracts which cause no other vision deficiency. And in fact its worse after the operation because the lens implant does not have the UV filtering that the natural crystalin lens has, a black light UV note detector looks as bright as a normal neon tube.

An excellent posting, thanks for that Langers!

But what you say just doesn't make sense, sorry to labour the point but I have read so many times that these self levelling systems adjust for hills & bumps & dips in the road that it has passed into folklore and seems accepted by all. The ride height sensors, for that is what you describe will not measure any difference when a vehicle is travelling up or downhill, for all intents and purposes the ascent/descent is a flat but inclined road, when you are travelling up or downhill on the flat incline your headlights will illuminate as much in front as they would on the flat & level. Why would you want or need the beam to raise when going downhill? This would dazzle any oncoming traffic be it on the incline or the level road ahead of it. A system could do what you say by using data from an inclination sensor but I really dont see that there would be any advantage, only dazzling for oncoming vehicles in some circumstances. I think we can all agree that the system will level the headlights when the vehicle is loaded, if there is any info elsewhere regarding hills, humps etc I would like to learn. On my Yeti the headlamp height adjustment control is completely hidden behind the steering wheel and can only be seen by putting my head right down to the right, perhaps it would be visible if I had a functioning left eye but its not in the field of view of the instruments and controls like in the Octavias, also it does not have a panel light dimmer.

It feels hairy and matted! Its a great description of a clutch chirp noise though!

Under 120°c with decent correct spec oil is absolutely fine as long as it stabilises, if it continues to rise even slowly eventually on a long high speed journey you could have problems. One of my motorbike engined race cars was OK on medium and long circuits but on very short ones could not cool the oil sufficiently, water was fine but after 20 mins the oil temp would hit 140°c, still OK but not good for the oil or the longevity of the engine, on endurance races on the same circuit it crept up to 160°c and ran a crank journal.

No its a fused supply but rated at a very high current for the spare wheel inflator etc, the fuse for the trailer lighting would probably be smaller, its a question of protection and also not blowing the main circuit if there is a problem with the trailer wiring although with the accessory socket there wont be other important stuff on the same fuse.

The accessory socket in the boot area is a convenient high current source if you use a suitable in line fuse. The universal towing relays draw a slight current the whole time (in case you park car & trailer & need to leave lights on), this can reduce the main battery standby autonomy by up to 50% (the newer ones consume less) so it can be usefull to remove the in line fuse when not towing or when the car is left standing during a holiday away.

@ScoutCJB Do the levelling systems do anything when a vehicle is travelling up or down a hill? I cant get my head around what you would expect them to do. Levelling the beam when travelling down a hill sounds like a disaster for oncoming traffic and levelling when going uphill a disaster for the driver. So what circumstances is the system supposed to react to or is it simply for when the vehicle is laden where the considerate amongst us would use the manual levelling control?

The things that did what was written on the tin. I even fitted a towbar to the bumper of my Escort, it was a proprietary kit with shaped alloy plates to the bumper curvature.

A good idea and good choice of name.

Checking tyre pressures on line......................... I can quite believe that, nothing surprises me any more 🙄