rum4mo

Naw, one is enough, this one just needs to actually “try” learning more about how things work, by doing lots of jobs on his own car. That car is booked in for a small service in 8 days time, so plenty time to sort the electrics out, even including finding out how to do that - no? Well okay probably not, then it needs an MOT, and then back under its cover until next year! The trouble is, that car, when all missing screws etc are in place and it’s logged faults read and issues cleared, and probably a new exhaust manifold, could make good money if a buyer could be found, right now in a buyer’s, at least a wise buyer’s eyes, it is just a typical Lotus, ie lots of trouble usually serious, so that means only being worth probably 1/3 of what it could be. I don’t mind a challenge or helping someone get a good result, but they need to show me some commitment before I start to help them, and that includes trying to use the proper diagnostic tool that came with the car, I even found what is meant to be the computer prog that supports it, sometimes you need to be brave enough to take a risk! Maybe I should just keep quiet about replacing the rear brakes, clean the front brakes, change the brake fluid and even change the Haldex front diff fluid along with cleaning the pump screen - on that daughter’s Leon Cupra, but I’ll probably be a kind father while finding out how to service the front diff.

Yes I realised I should have said M100 some time later. Battery seems okay today (child minding duties!) but CCA measures 400, tester says - REPLACE, shame the Halfords receipt from last year was not filed correctly! Anyway seeing as the rains have arrived I don’t think nosing around under the rear handbag storage area is going to be my plan for today!

This guy also had an Elan, the M200 version, ie "best handling front wheel drive ever" so experts claim, anyway, having 2 Lotuses and starting to get his bachelor bungalow completely rebuilt, did mean one of them had to go, unfortunately it was the cheaper one that was sold quickly, to another Lotus enthusiast had had missed that one left time it went on sale and grabbed it this time round! One man's loss etc, at least he has my daughter to keep him company, though he does not like her Leon Cupra - just not traditional enough, "not a proper car" but it does start and go and you don't need to fold yourself up to get inside it! The battery was removed from the car, that 8amp RAC branded semi clever charger got it charged back up, capacity according to my battery tester has dropped from 550A CCA to 425A CCA and it declares that "battery is good - recharge". So, then it was subjected to a "refurbishing" cycle, ie de-sulphating charging program, and completed that without my daughter's CTEK MSX 5 getting too hot, so I've suggested that he give it another of that type of charging cycle to see if that is enough to revive it more. That car is being treated to a "disconnect" thing for convenience until it has been serviced and MOT'd - in the mean time I'm suggesting that he digs deep and gets hold of a suitable Lotus workshop manual, I think that they do exist on ebay from time to time - and look around that car for the security device(s) and get up to speed info wise on them - this is an S reg car so a series 3 I think GT - what ever that implies. I'm imagining maybe wrongly, that all the wiring will be in "stylish" plain black wire, and who really wants to chase down faults on that sort of thing!

Anyway, my maybe obsession for feeling the need to know what the charging is doing on which ever of the cars I am driving, older daughter's partner has a fairly "new" it seems Lotus Espirite - it tends to sleep under a fitted cover, always connected to a small CTEK, well it is due its MOT so it needed to be wakened up! "click click click" was all that was heard - battery had been replaced last year after its previous battery died for some reason, suspected to be lack of maintenance while it hibernated/was stored at the local "top or only Lotus Indie's premises" - that was annoying, I grabbed the plug in DVM out of the Polo and stuffed it into the Lotus's ciggy lighter socket - 10.2V - not good! So his first task is to remove that battery and charge it up probably using my "not too smart" newish RAC 8Amp charger, then I can connect my battery tester on it to see if it looks okayish or now, like the previous one dead! Then he can move onto looking into if there are parasitic draws - like "what exactly is the security device?" Off course, LOTUS does stand for something rather unfortunate! The "steady bar" thing fixed to the alternator is nylon!!!!! Maybe part of the "much lightness added" - I asked him about that, as it was a failure during its only outing last year (screeching of slipping alternator) that forced it back into hibernation, he said many people commented about that nylon strip while many said "no issues" from it being nylon. I prefer cars that have their engines in the front as you can reach things a lot better, plus I think cars that you can almost reach under them!!

I think that my older daughter spotted slight frosting on the windscreen of her Barina(sp) ie Corsa a few times when she was working in Perth.

Could be, but I think that without saying it, I was meaning most of the other "respectable" or trusted battery brands, I made a slight boo-boo when reordering on ebay, I got it into my mind that it was Sony branded batteries that I had bought in the past - I was wrong there, but the Sony branded batteries seemed as good as Panasonic - though the seller did ward me that Sony were leaving that market so next time it would need to be another brand. I've never trusted Ikea for batteries, so I avoided that error.

Yes but I was thinking , maybe what we consider to be, ambient temperatures in Oz, so "AC on" ="Compressor on high duty cycle/displacement".

I echo what @varooom said, also maybe do what I have done and buy a "plug in 12V DVM" and keep that in the "ciggy lighter" power socket, then only cost roughly £5 in UK money, good enough to keep you up to date with what is happening and maybe allow you to provide your Skoda dealership's workshop with some extra info. For the record, the charging system tries to keep battery charging to a minimum to save waste/emissions and dump lots of charging into the battery when on the over run/braking, so that means "seeing" 12.4V > 13.2V normally and just under 15V on the over run. I allow auto stop/start to do its things now and again and always if I've just missed a green traffic light. Having the AC on and requiring it to run the compressor will always disable the auto stop/start as other things will - but you have also included a high power usage, so that would certainly disable it. My wife's VW Polo is a 2015 car and has already changed the charging characteristics once from "as little as possible" charging to "always cramming in as much charge as possible at all times" lucky for me I had bought and was using that plug in DVM before that happened, as that car was out of warranty when that happened, I changed the battery serial number and that altered the charging characteristics back a bit towards what they had been before this happened, going by what my battery tester tells me, that battery, when well charged and after 6 hours of the car having been used, has dropped down in capacity ie in terms of CCA, from 640A EN down to 500A EN, but still gets classed as "battery good" and if left with auto stop/start enabled, will auto stop within maybe 1 mile having been travelled summer or winter! New AGM battery is waiting for when things start to go wrong and the original EFB battery has run of life - but that has not happened yet, mileage is almost 40K miles, that car's battery was connected to a CTEK smart charger during Covid lockdown periods, so it has been well looked after I feel.

Yes, so why can't the others not just start copying Panasonic etc, they MUST frequently be checking out the competition - or are they just lazy/stupid. I've only ever used Panasonic as if they are good enough for VW Group to stick with all these years then why bother trying any other brands.

Ah, the "dreaded" cap headed bolts, that certainly limits tightening torque! I wish that I had not asked, then I could have remained cheerful about that job until I bought the new bolts! I have done that job on a 2002 VW Polo without any problems, so here's hoping, for the future. Lucas/TRW callipers though, have you never fancied fitting an external return spring to the handbrake levers, I have on two cars, firstly the 2002 VW Polo when it became lazy to return after maybe 3 years, fitted them to the 2015 VW Polo as soon as we got it home new, to try to avoid any dragging of rear brakes, so far so good, but it gets its brakes serviced every year now that it is 7 years old.

A pat on the back for you for using new bolts, I can see that I'll be doing that job on my wife's 2015 Polo when the rear discs condition really looks bad. So they are hex headed no funcky spline stuff? I have not looked at these bolts yet, I've bought front ones though for when I replace the front wheel bearing! A pat on the back for you for using new bolts, I can see that I'll be doing that job on my wife's 2015 Polo when the rear discs condition really looks bad. So they are hex headed no funcky spline stuff? I have not looked at these bolts yet, I've bought front ones though for when I replace the front wheel bearings!

Good looking car, the rear discs will always look nasty after a few years, so that is okay. Worth a visit, as long as you know how to escape from AC.

AC is a reg'd car dealer so should always be safe to use, just be on your toes and keep what has been written in mind, when my older daughter used to hand her previous car, a late 2009 Ibiza into her local SEAT branch of AC she always had no trouble so really it will be down to the local workshop for or if they are good and the sales people, if they are being honest. Our first contact with AC was back in 2004, and that daughter fancied getting a small Citroen - the showroom was quiet but the sales guy, an Irish sounding man, would not deal with her while we were around, and that started alarm bells ringing in my head and her's so he lost a possible sale - the phrase "dogs and new tricks" comes to mind, and seems in many cases to be true.

Oh yes I know that, but why he could not spot the part I needed seemed a bit strange. I've never ever tried to use TPS as I know that they are not meant to deal with Jo Public, so I don't want to waste their time. 90% of the time that I phone up for parts to get ordered in, I deliberately avoid giving any car details, just the part numbers, doing that leaves me responsible for any errors, and that works for me. Edit:- that was a reply to @varooom.

One other thing that you could scatter your car cash on, as you live up in Scotland, is a set of winter wheels and tyres, so that your nice Monte alloys retain some of their initial beauty, and fit either all season or dedicated winter tyres - but that might only work if you live in a "nasty winters" areas are commute through one. Doing that has always worked for me and my wife while we were still of working age, less so now as both car's tyres will get binned as they are now too old and not due to normal wear!! Quality winter tyres can last 25>30K miles if only used for 6 months/6K miles a year.

A bit annoying needing/choosing to deal with Uncle Arnie's Car Emporiums. My older daughter bought a new pre reg'd SEAT Leon Cupra from them, a bargain price without a trade in it has to be said, she bought, maybe on my suggestion, a 3 year service plan, mainly as the car was warranted by SEAT for most of that period, it turns out she was sold Uncle Arnie's version of a service plan, but so far so good, last service deferred my her for a fortnight due to Covid - crap happens, his stupid website directed her to a local workshop that was not SEAT certified, I thought that was daft during warranty, anyway she included a few things that needed warranty attention while it was in. When she collected, which was sort of still during the last lockdown/restrictions, when she asked about the warranty work she was told that they don't have any VW Group diagnostic equipment so nothing was looked at, oh well. Younger daughter and her husband bought a use SEAT Arona down South and don't know much about cars, so I thought that I'd be helpful and organise buying a new security wheel bolt cover, a very easy thing to do, okay ebay sells them, but if I was also going to request a copy of "CAR DATA", I thought that I might as well just buy a bolt cover in person and while at the SEAT dealership, ask for a copy of "CAR DATA". So, I phoned SEAT Broxburn, got through to the parts department, and told the guy what I needed and gave his the proper VW Group part number - " oh we can't use that number our system uses a different way of working" WTF? anyway after I handed over the car reg number, he said that car did not have these bolt caps - I suggested that SEAT also or later changed that plan to fit 5 covers to each wheel to a 5 legged starfish centre wheel cover conbo, he said "yes but that is grayed out" so why can't he see what I needed as the correct alternative? Anyway, I terminated the call there and then as it sounded a lot like when I went out to collect any parts that he managed to get for me, "CAR DATA" request would be double dutch! Ebay worked for a "wheel set" of covers for that car though. Another AC moan, this time issue caused by AC Liverpool, my older daughter bought a used and as it turned out ex AC lease 2001 Ibiza, it was okay, it was delivered up to Edinburgh by AC as that branch had sold it, or for some other reason, anyway it came complete with -ve camber at one side and no or +ve camber on the other side, it had been subjected t many "strict" pre sale checks - and they missed that, cost me good money to sort that out! Then, a year when I replaced the front brake pads, I could not fit new pads into one side of one calliper - reason being, AC Liverpool had replaced the discs and fitted the correct version on one side and an earlier version on the other side so the "top hat" or "height" was wrong for that brake set up, I'd always intend to avoid dealing with AC if at all possible, the exception being when buying a new car - though maybe even then you could end up with a lemon that was being passed around the dealers, when you are working with AC. AC haters used to have a website but that got closed down, it was sad or even amusing to go onto it! Edit:- AC and maybe others, do seem to like to lure you into putting down a deposit on a car that is many miles away and with no chance that you will ever eye ball it before you go to collect it - a very crafty plan - no?

An experience maybe.

I'll ignore that suggestion, or just carry on with recharging it, that would be a horrible job and I do know that it is a possibility!

This question or project has been asked many times in the past, on the surface it looks easy and cheap to do, but don't be fooled, this would be possible, but at a high price.

The plan and design of the AC compressors in all these newer cars, and back to at 2002 in the case Polo and so Fabia, Ibiza and A2, is to have a variable displacement compressor and so they are driven constantly and their capacity is varied depending on the system demand - but they have a minimum capacity of roughly 5% this is built into the design so that a small amount of refrigerant and oil is always circulating round the system - to minimise leakage across all "rubber" ie porous areas. The other reason for changing from "clutched" fixed displacement compressors to variable displacement compressors is improve efficiency/emissions so the compressor output matches system demand. My older 2011 Audi S4 get next to no running throughout the year and it also has a variable displacement AC compressor, again its AC is only used when required and it has only ever been "topped up" by me 5 years ago, though I do plan to check its cooling performance this year and add in some more R134A as it must have lost some over the latest 5 years. I've never planned to top it up back to the original running pressures, only to improve the pressures over what they are when checked. This needing topped up every year has only developed over the past 3.5 years so I think that there is a crack or damage somewhere in the system, it would be handy if it was in the condenser, though so far I've not been able to detect any leakage anywhere are the under bonnet area.

I'll have the pad kit VW Group part number so I could try that.

My wife's 2015 was done this afternoon, person in front of me in the queue when I handed it in was also in with a Groupon voucher as was the in front of me when I collected it! It sounded like that that branch gets a lot of work from the local airport car rental companies - sorting out front wheel alignments! I really must try harder while there is enough gas in the system, to find where the leak site is, this is its 3rd annual regas!

A different/newer car, but I have noticed that any of the usual sellers of brake parts to the DIYer market, only sell pads that have wear sensors for the ATE callipers - for my wife's 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI 110PS which does not have any brake wear stuff when supplied into the UK market, it always seems a shame to need to chop off these sensor wires when in the past pad kits without wear sensors were always slightly cheaper than pad kits that did have wear sensors, which makes sense. Maybe with time, and I don't need new pads yet, versions without wear sensors will appear in the aftermarket, that 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI 110PS was fitted with Jurid branded pads at the factory.

If you are meaning the folding key with remote locking/unlocking functions - is it just the remote locking/unlocking functions that are causing trouble, or the "engine deadlock" otherwise called the immob side of things that are causing trouble?

Groupon was or had a recharge deal with ATS for under £40.