J.R.

The light coming on was awfully convenient for them don't you think? I bet if you were to turn up unannounced to take the car away they would start flapping and saying there is something they have to do urgently to your car before handing it over like reconnect the sensor connector they disconnected and do a print out of the logged fault code. Its undesirable to have an MOT done by a place that also does repairs but I appreciate that MOT garages like my pals who only do MOTs are thin on the ground, even more undesirable is allowing a main stealer to do it.

It comes out with patience, you have to unclip it from the bumper and then unclip the grille from it. I presume you want to fit the black Monte Carlo surround? They were expensive when I rebuilt mine so I repaired the broken chrome surround, abraded the whole surface with a Scotchbrite wheel on my polishing arbor then painted it matt black with a 2K clear coat to protect against stonechips. It worked for all of a few days before starting to chip, 4 years later it looks appalling, if you find a source of cheap black surrounds let me know, I am considering vinyl wrapping it, it cant look any worse than at present. I like the grey on the bumpers but would prefer the mirrors to be black but after my failure with the grille they can remain grey.

So dodgy insulation which could cause a fire of it breaks down, no replacement of battery but instead software update that will monitor the battery and if it identifies an insulation breakdown (presumably voltage drop from internal short circuit) it will discharge the battery to below 30% SOC. I would not like to be behind the wheel when it puts the heater on full and deploys full throttle against maximum braking knowing that while this is happening the battery is going into thermal meltdown, they should at least fit an ejector seat 😄

Dont they all have the PRV? An inexpensive combustion gas "sniff tester" will confirm a head gasket or EGR cooler failure.

No, I gave it up as a lost cause and was embarrassed to have even started when I learned it could never work without a daylight sensor. The other thing I have tried multiple long coding changes for with seemingly no effect is to try to create the Thatcham or other delay on the alarm, when running I lock my keyring in the car using a dumb key that I carry with me and which is otherwise hidden on the outside of the vehicle, the alarm triggers immediately when I re-open the door on my return bringing attention to an act I want to keep secret from onlookers.

Check for fault codes with VCDS or similar.

They do take a long time because they are so thermally efficient, I would get moderate heat from the heater after 4-5 miles in freezing conditions but the temperature gauge would never reach the 90°c normal indication unless I went up a relatively steep hill with a wider throttle opening. The temp gauge will spend its entire life stuck rigidly at 90°c even though the true engine temp could be anything between 70°c and 110°c, if ever you do see it go above then you have a problem. The next generation of TDi's with the sliding sleeve water pump reach operating temperature in winter much faster but bring problems of their own.

That immediately raised a suspicion with me. Who says they both need replacing and on what grounds? Have you experienced any problems?

Thats good to know, I had already enabled it in long coding and thought it wasn't working whereas in fact the CH is working and also protecting me from flattening the battery when I mistakenly leave the headlights on. It behaves exactly as you say, I had not realised that before making the coding changes I could have flattened the battery leaving the headlights on, I have already semi-killed a good Varta battery on the last car doing that.

I will try it, I dont like leaving the lights on, I know the battery will not go flat but dont want to be driving with them on the next day. Are you sure what you perceive as CH is not simply the timer to turn off the headlights mistakenly left on? The road lighting here switches off now at 22.30 so I will consider leaving the headlights on when I alight after that time if they stay on for a while as you say.

Yes, pull them out against a clicky type ratcheting action, the same should happen when you fit the unit (assuming the plunger is long enough) leaving the pushrod touching the pedal with the contacts closed (if NC type) with the pedal in the upper position, there should be no gap, its not a case of it being fully depressed but that it will extend and break/make the contacts when the pedal is pressed a couple of inches.

The UK house that I finally sold a couple of years ago was a close of 12 houses built in 1958, I don't think there were any EV's there at the time, I got planning permission for a new detached house on the land and sold half the garden to developers, I kept my house during the build as it would have been difficult to sell before the new property was finished. The properties were at the end of the cul de sac. They applied for a new electricity connection which had to have an EV point as part of the planning requirements, they were quoted the normal cost, one or two grand I think, later on they were told the cabling needed to be upgraded, that half the street would need to be dug up and they would have to stump up an additional £12k They challenged it, the work was done, half the street was dug up, they eventually agreed on a lower figure, I dont know by how much.

Does it not need programming with VCDS to activate the function? I know the options are there in the long coding, I tried several times to activate mine without success until I was humbled to learn that it was never going to work as my vehicle does not have the light sensor! OTOH my previous Octavia Elegance I think had CH and LH options in one of the Maxidot menus.

If the plunger should extend as the brake pedal is pushed then the new one was either not long enough or incorrectly fitted/adjusted, my guess is the latter given that the original one now exhibits the same fault. Did you extend the plunger(s) before fitting? Were there any problems refitting the connector?

I am going to start using your name for the sensor, its correct and much less to type than what I have used up to now - "differential pressure sensor" which was also confusing as it needed to be proceeded with DPF to avoid misleading people into thinking it meant the transmission differential. Delta P it will be then, if only I knew how to type Greek letters!

Thanks for the info, I'm surprised by the self discharge at higher temperatures, it's bloomin hot here, over 30° for the last couple of months, a fully charged battery on an unused vehicle would lose 30% in the 1st month dropping to 4% thereafter. The other surprise is the 5% loss in the 1st 24 hours after a recharge. The big problem with these vehicles is that they never had great autonomy even when new with 22kw and 33kw battery packs. I'm sure one will end up in my hands sooner or later.

No, nothing specific yet about EV's, I've been exposed to a lot through this forum but until I get any hands on experience (how I learn best) I would not be able to tell the nonsense from the real in some instances.

Why are you asking me these questions? I am the last person to know the answers but I would like to.

I'd want to get this message understood, and cleared if possible, before doing anything with the knee airbag. Agreed. Not if the warning has nothing to do with the shunt resistor bodge which I am sure is the case, as you said above the OP should resolve the problem regarding the seat belt pre-tensioner before making the knee airbag operational again. I am suspicious that he is being fed a line and that the airbag was shunted because it was faulty or perhaps the real problem is the airbag control module showing up errors for the connected devices, we have one or two handicapped people on the forum one with a prosthetic leg, would there ever be a circumstance where a knee airbag should be deleted for a handicapped owner? If it was not faulty, if the "device" is inserted in its place then removing the device with the battery disconnected and plugging the airbag back in should be OK if the airbag was not faulty there is no danger with doing it with the battery connected but that would bring up a MIL light requiring resetting with VCDS or equivalent. You did not answer my question is the airbag warning light illuminated?

I was asking myself the same questions about the hundreds of ex La Poste and other utilities Renault Kangoo EV's languishing in fields near to me, certainly the first generation had leased batteries, most French are god fearing and those that bought these not so bargain vehicles carried on paying for the battery rental for the guarantee, but Renault will only replace the battery if it drops below 60% of original capacity and they have some very optimistic testing equipment! I have been put off for the time being because the sale of these decomposing vehicles by the garage that is buying them from auction is tied into the government "prime à la conversion" where the government will pay from €1500 - €5000 (means tested) but you have to PX an old diesel or petrol car so its yet another aid scam. It used to be far more generous than this but was reeled back in February of this year which was when the fields of vehicles overflowed and they started renting land from neighbouring businesses. I am hoping that it will be removed completely next year because as with all these things many people are getting scammed, at that point I will see if I can get one cheap before they go to the scrapyard. Which brings me to my questions regarding the battery packs. Do they self discharge and will they become irreparably damaged after a certain time? Does an old battery with reduced (storage) capacity take less electric to charge or the same amount, maybe even more and then quickly lose that charge? An illustrative example would be filling a fuel tank where the pump charges you for more fuel than you drive away with and it also having a leak. On these older basic vehicles (utility vans) is there a battery condition display or test function? If not how does the motor trade test the health of an EV battery? I have drop testers and internal resistance testers for traditional lead acid car batteries.

It does nothing.

Do you really have to press the button a second time to stop the engine cranking? Usually you hold down a start button and release it to stop cranking, if that is how it should be then maybe your start button contact is sticking or giving a double pulse if its a start/stop button. I have only had one on a racecar, no desire to have the pointless function on a road car, another thing to go wrong.

Seat belt pretensioners are not airbags although they both use pyrotechnic charges and are triggered by the same controller. I did not know that airbags could be deactivated other than the passenger dashboard one for when a baby seat is used on the front passenger seat, this is done by using the ignition key in the switch within the glovebox (on my vehicle) are you sure the warning is not because that is switched off? A VCDS scan would reveal all, do you have the airbag warning light illuminated? If so you will need VCDS or equivalent to find out why and turn the light off (its latching) after the remedial work has been done, I think you should start there because the previous owner has been mucking around with the safety system if he is to be believed. Have you checked the V5 for a category letter to make sure the vehicle was not an insurance write off? Knee airbag deactivated sounds like someone not willing to pay to do the repairs properly and have used a shunt resistor instead of the airbag.

Are you certain that 8.4 litres is not a typo? Its nearly double what I would expect.

Self composting brake disc backplates, probably rear, first one usually kerbside.