J.R.

Sorry no, you will have to use your eyes and common sense like I did. The brushes will come as part of a replacement regulator assembly which is at the back under the cover that you have photographed, you will probably be able to get another couple of thousand miles out of yours by freeing them off or tweaking the wire braid to give them a little more travel whilst you await the new regulator. You have not given your location, spare parts for alternators are not 'were not) available in my country but freely available in the UK.

Good point re the door loop wiring, I decided that the microswitch must be wired to the lock module and the comms to the body control module would be via the twisted pair canbus (or Linbus?) wiring and that a fault there would manifest itself with several other door and window related problems.

I never suggested that the bolts suffered wear and tear, it was very clear that I spoke of a rotary (oil) seal, the bolts coming loose were a consequence of the alleged worn seal and having dropped your trousers to a main dealer you will never get to know if that really was actual source of the oil leak. The independant garage would have nothing to be defensive about other than their service being blamed which you didn't. Your chicken and egg scenario might be valid but in another sense, I believe there is some oil pressure operated actuator on the camshafts, I dont know the engine well but have read of several of these failures, others hopefully will confirm but could it be that the bolts hold the actuator and its seal(s) and that them coming loose would allow oil leakage? I would know the answer to that if it were my engine because I would have done the work myself.

Lubrication creating differential movement between the pulley and shaft, keyways and dowelling were all rendered obsolete with clamped joints using stretch bolts in the quest for cost reduction, it works well unless partnered with oil. You should consider yourself very very lucky that the bolts did come loose and gave you some warning, had there been a traditional keyes or dowelled fixing then the first you may have known of the leak would have been bent valves piston and perhaps cylinder head damage when the cam belt failed.

I reckon it will be the Celtic Tuning agent that did my remap (CT cars?) they had very good and consistent Google reviews.

I think he is calling just about every tuning company or rolling road operator with a vested interest liars and in my experience he would be correct 95% of the time without even looking at their claims. But all the time there are people willing to swallow their claims the religion (and fighting) will continue.

£101 for an £8 cambelt, they certainly have a sense of humour! So nothing to do with a faulty manufactured bolt then. Aside from piston rings, crankshaft bearings and camshafts its hard to think of anything more obviously deemed a wear and tear item than a rotary seal, or do you still consider that its not fit for the purpose because you have found a sympathetic consensus?

The problem was almost certainly a failure of the door locked microswitch, you un(dead)locked the door with the keyfob, opened the door which the vehicle did not recognise, put the keys inside even in the ignition switch, stepped out and closed the door to get something, the body control module not having been informed that the door had been opened then deadlocked the car again after the time delay locking the keys inside. I made up the scenario details but I bet it was something like that, you are not alone if that is any consolation.

Cant answer your question but I hope that you dont mind if I ask one myself. Did breaking the window actually assist you in opening the door/getting in the car or was it collateral damage from replacing the latch? If the former how did you get the door or any door open? Regarding the number 9, does your other window have a different number or any number come to that? Could it be a code for semi tinted glass?

No, it will have no bearing. I understand your logic though regarding the image.

You could fit in and drive an original Mini and be able to operate all the controls safely, let alone the current one unworthy of its name and getting more so. That said you would have had more space around your knees, elbows etc in the original than many new cars, maybe even your Superb, thats how bad things have got. A passenger in an original Mini, even one your size could reach his legs across and operate the controls at the same time as the driver.

Are cars more expensive in Germany Lee? Is it LHD or RHD?

Over $60K to replace an untouched undamaged battery pack on a car less than 1 year old that cost less than that to buy!!! 😯 All because of a couple of minor scratches on the sheet steel battery protection underguard. That is one salvage that I would like to buy! Actually it isn't the newer the salvage the more it will depreciate in your ownership if you keep it, best to sell on ASAP. And people wonder why EV insurance is going through the roof!

😯

I am all ears, what equipment is that?

That is why new shoes have a chamfer on the leading edge and a good mechanic will recreate this before refitting worn ones, the self assistance I mentioned is the raison d'être of leading brake shoes and it is a historic fact that brake servos became commonplace with the introduction of front disc brakes. The leading shoe movement is a force multiplier in exactly the same linear fashion that a vacuum brake servo is. I never said that the leading shoe system increases brake line pressure, it does not need to.

Then it is not a valid comparison if you had driven the car in the days before as the graph indicates to me. What I believe I can see on the previous days is the battery voltage dropping quickly after the engine is shut down and the battery cools then discharging at a similar rate to the new one. On December 10th I (believe) can see a short journey with what looks like a restart, perhaps with the vehicle paused with the ignition on or the keys in the ignition, on the 11th it looks like another short journey and possibly a restart right at the end, nothing on the 12th, on the 13th the new battery fitted with one start to make sure everything was OK before shutting down. Very useful to have the data available though.

A petrol engine will have less autonomy due to the ignition system, a later diesel less autonomy than an earlier simpler one.

Not so, assuming yours is a diesel engine they can cover a couple of hundred miles in daylight if you are aware of the problem and dont use electrical equipment unnecessarily and still restart the next day. I had the alternator light come on (MK1 Octavia) on the M25 travelling to Dover to return to France, I took an educated risk and carried on, left the engine running at customs checks etc, it restarted at Calais and took me a further 95 miles, a total of say 150 miles the last hour with the lights on and it still restarted the next day. Your warning light does what it says on the tin, tells you the battery is not charging, put a charger on it and investigate the fault, dependant on how many miles the car has done it could be worn brushes like mine was, a very easy cheap repair.

Your car is out of warranty, they have no obligation to compensate you. Everyone agreeing that this should not have happened is meaningless, the MTBF (mean time before failure) is a statistical average figure, for a given component some vehicles will suffer early failure some will go on for ever. You should ask that question of those making the claim, my answer would be no.

Let em cry as long as its not on your shoulder, if it is then some tough love will be needed. I expect we have all learned from our mistakes and regret ever thinking/saying that our parents knew nothing, were out of touch etc. I was gobsmacked to see someone saying that a 2016 car could be had (if you were lucky) for £12K, 3 years ago I bought my 2015 as a write off, spent £800 on it so in all it stood me in £4K, at the time an undamaged example was not a lot more and but for the fact that all cars cost so much more in France it would really have not been worth my time, effort and the risk involved. Now it appears that a car effectively 2 years older than mine was (then) is worth more than double what a good example was back then.

My diesel Alhambra had I think a diesel heater, the previous petrol Galaxy had a rear heater unit which I always assumed ran from the engine coolant but in hindsight there were no long coolant pipes visible, the Alhambra did not visibly have this heater and there were no controls for the rear but one day after a cold start I noticed smoke coming from under the vehicle, it was exhaust fumes from a tiny exhaust pipe mid way along the vehicle, I concluded it was something to heat the diesel fuel on cold days. I never gave it a second thought till this year as I am now using a Chinese Diesel Heater to heat my workshop, the exhaust pipe and its gases look and sound identical. These heaters are a clone of the Webasto ones made for motorhomes Would the Alhambra have had a diesel cabin heater and could the petrol Galaxy have had something similar or was I right in thinking it was to heat the diesel for the engine?

Indeed, there was never a need for servo assisted brakes until front disc brakes became common, twin leading shoe drum brakes are self servo assisted!

I didn't, you did! I thought perhaps it was a typo: Not at all, the first law of thermodynamics is irrefutable, I simply explained that unless your system was low on refrigenant charge you would not notice the de minimus consumption other than in the height of summer in a hot region, certainly not now in the UK. I understand and am experienced with vehicle and domestic AC systems, I made it my business to do so and have invested in the test equipment, vacuum pumps and gases, I was encouraging you to have your system charge checked if you believe that it is noticeably reducing your fuel economy in the current cold weather. You can lead a horse to water.........................................

Regen charge? Is that not the regenerative braking system that supposedly gives your vehicle better fuel consumption? I was referring to the charge of refrigerant gas in the air conditioning system. You would not know that it is "pretty consistent" without regularly checking the high and low pressures with a manifold test and comparing them to the tables, although it should be consistent, the charge (weight) would not vary day to day, the system pressure does according to temperature and humidity.