DSL

By quick, I mean only a few minutes for the ice at the bottom of the windscreen to be slush and able to be squeegeed out the way. No aux heater/FBH that I know about, just started her up, pressed the various switches for max demist, heated rear screen on and mirror heating on. Then closed the door & rear screen was ready to be cleared almost straight away, mirrors were cleared but they were folded in. And it was -4.something so deffo not melting on its own. In the light of CJJE’s experience with mirrors it might be a good idea to switch off folding on locking. PS Folding mirrors are now off.

I didn’t need any de-icing spray, I tend to let the car warm up enough via the engine then it’s easy enough to get the ice off sometimes just with the squeegee blade. If it’s too bad I just let the front windows warm up enough, the back windows will sort them selves out on their own, van style. I was very impressed with how quickly the mirrors and rear windscreen cleared. And as a pauper spec, no heated front screen, seats or steering wheel but after maybe 10 minutes running the car was plenty comfortable and I can confirm it’s fine driving the car with ski gloves on, no problem pressing & twiddling heating controls. So glad that’s not done via the touch screen.

My last car type, Disco 3s suffered badly from binding calipers, might be something to do with dragging it through lots of mud. The way I’d check if I suspected they were binding is to carefully test the outer face of the wheel with the back of my hand. Then if it was very hot then the skin and wheel wouldn’t actually make contact. If the wheel was luke warm after a reasonable (>10 miles) then all was well but if one wheel was a warmer/hotter than the others then that was an issue. Once I pulled over and the brake disc was glowing red, was only after a few miles from home so let it cool, turned around and limped home the called out the RAC and had the car recovered to a dealer.

What I was going to suggest. ^^^^^

At last some proper winter weather to see how she behaves when things get a bit cold and slippy. Karoq 2.0 Tdi 4x4 DSG for those that can’t see the profile. There was a bit of snow on the ground from yesterday but that started to melt and go a bit slushy before it got down to -5c this morning and froze the lot solid again. Then it stared to snow and has been snowing off and off all morning. Pics in the Karoq pics bit. And the observations. I was amazed how long, not, it took to get hot air through the blowers. I had been under the impression that it would take a while, from how long she takes to warm up under normal driving, but no, it was really quick. SWMBO’s petrol Jazz warms enough up in a few minutes, Skippy was similar. I don’t have a problem with it but SWMBO was really nervous on the throttle as it’s a but “brick on an elastic band”. It takes a bit getting used to cf her car so we were crawling a bit more than normal under these conditions. Fuel filler was a bit reluctant to open when went for diesel. Tools a few thumps to open and a firm push to close. I worked the plunger bit a couple of times to check it was working so just needed a bit of a coax to engage. Re driving on snow covered ice, absolutely no problem. Nothing was challenging but up our access road is snow over ice and uphill so can get interesting, plus a sharp turn into the drive. No problems. Being on full winter tyres is prob doing more than being a 4x4 version but good having both. No fancy snow mode (no idea how much difference that makes) and no way of knowing if in 4WD or 2WD but it all worked fine. And it’s stopped snowing.

A couple more snowy pics after a bit of a light dusting last night.

I don’t think I have any GPS based system on mine, no satnav apart from my phone which wasn’t connected apart from BT.

Was out on my Contis yesterday to see what they were like now things have turned a little wintery. Happy to find on both compacted snow and ice all was good. I even pulled over into a forestry access to see if I could get some wheel spin on sheet ice, wheel stubbornly refused to spin! Hard braking, where safe to do so, also didn’t even get the ABS kicking in! Well happy.

At least it’s a cheap fix. It is a bit annoying binning a virtually new set of blades but nowhere near as annoying as the racket they made.

Makes sense. Cheers. Not an issue, just a bit odd. Will see what it does next time I’m out.

SWMBO noticed that the clock was on Eurozone time, it was deffo 10am, not 11am when this was taken. I’m assuming that it’s a ghost in the machine but it begs the question, where does the car take it’s time feed from? I deffo didn’t change the time and pretty sure it was correct last time I looked. Basic SE so basic infotainment, if that makes a difference. Plus iphone on correct time.

From discussion with a local chap on a different forum, the verge/side of the road collapsed and he went over. It’s pretty narrow at that part for 2 cars, never mind a truck like that and another vehicle.

Even here we see regular cars in ditches, it often comes as a surprise that their car can’t break the laws of physics. Mind you, not as spectacularly as this plough I came across just S of Tomintoul a while ago. Note no peeps were hurt in the making of this pic.

Hopefully you’ll get a bit of the white stuff to try them out in. A little bit north of you this morning:

Is it fully “clear”, ie not dimmed, in the dark?

I bought 2 additional sets of 4 x Ratikons, one for £350 and one for £250 (plus £60 in diesel to go and get them). I like the simplicity of them, plus no need to worry re informing the InsCo. Reason I got 2 sets is it gives me a full sized spare in each the type, I’ll just rotate them round so the extra tyre gets used. And yes, that gives me 2 x unused rims that I’ll either keep as spares, flog or look for another set of 4 so I can have a set of 5 x Michelin Latitude Plus, then I’ll only have to sort out 1 extra. Man maths in action! Re the above Rials, yes they look good but I’d have to see them on a car to see whether I like them or not. I did look at Tiguan or A3 rims, I was just about to commit to a set of A3 rims when I managed to get the first set of Ratikons. And the rest is history! 👍

Up in the Heelands, Grantown on Spey to be specific. I’ve had mine on since end Sept, I like to fit them a little early as it’s easier to fit when you can feel your fingers. Mind you, got the garage that fitted the tyres to swap the wheels but did SWMBO’s Jazz on the drive.

Did someone say winter and wheels? These, Conti Winters TS850s Plus these, 17” Ratikons Makes these Then just add snow. Fair bit of snow forecast over the next few days so will get out in more than the light dusting above.

I was lucky, none of the all letter PIN (shouldn’t that be all letter word?) was an O. 😎

Mine hung when I first tried to get it running but hit the cancel button, kicked it off again and it worked fine. Recorded the trip I did, incl the bit where I got a little bit lost.

It was just a cursory look, was looking for 5TA915105B spec. Will have a more thorough look later.

I’ve seen posts where peeps have just bunged a new battery in and not reset anything, with no ill effects. It does become a bit of a PITA of a new battery requires a trip to a dealer or indi to reset the system. Batteries don’t look too expensive, ~£70 - £90, but the price goes up dramatically if you have to go in to a dealer for them to work their magic.

Ordered Friday, delivered today, Monday! I had visions of it being at the bottom of a very big pile of bags of Chrimbo post. Will have a play later today.

Did this first thing after leaving it for a decent charge yesterday, thanks fo the tip. I’m beginning to sound a bit obsessive re getting as much juice in the battery but, cf my cars of the past, this is a bit of a learning curve and nothing better to do. I’ve had a good read around the subject, and re disconnecting the J367 battery monitoring system and it varies from “no problems, I’ve run like that for umpteen tens of thousands of miles” to “it’s there for a purpose and removing it will invite the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse and plagues on us all at once” , hence I’m leaving it alone. Well for now. Immediately after unlocking the car the DMM read 12.45v across the terminals. Left it 20 minutes and then remeasured and it was up to 12.84v. Will see what the SS does today but thinking it’s just coz it’s cold and the battery was a bit low from lack of use. Paranoia mode = OFF!

MPG on a monthly basis is a bit meaningless. To me only meaningful figures would be mileage based. Well for my way of thinking anyway. Unless a car is filled up religiously on the 1st of every month.