nta16
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Everything posted by nta16
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TMB's post has reminded me - Tom, IIRC you put you did a bounce test on the dampers but have you had them inspected or road tested, particularly the front ones, they may be contributing to your aliments, or not, but worth checking properly just in case.
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No, no, not you causing confusion, probably me but I'm too confused to know if its me or not, and if so by how much. I was surprised a yung 'un like yerself would know of V2000, and yes it was, no idea what came available when as I don't think we could afford to rent a colour TV let alone a VCR. Most people think of Betamax and VHS both inferior, at the time, and later to the V2000. The success of VHS lead to the restriction of CDs as the two losing companies didn't want to be caught out again. I've got a (proper) Super VHS VCR sitting unplugged under the telly if you know anyone that uses such stuff now.
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This confirms the example, it's not a VHS, look it up, you have to learn to understand, then when you know it'll be of (no) little use in the future. Too late, but blame me, I'm om a different point of the spectrum to many regulars here. 😆
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Yes and that's my point you know about computers yet still you need to learn it. I know how to operate a V2000 VCR (you'll need to look that up) but it's no longer the 1970s when also I learnt about computers too, main frame, punch card not quite Babbage but ancient now, I'll give the Ross Tech a miss thank you. I am not knocking that and think it's great especially for those that need or want to use them or learn how to use them. Personally this sort of thing doesn't interest me but I don't mind others enjoy it, I just look at the page as presented. - <body class="ipsApp ipsApp_front ipsJS_has ipsClearfix ipsApp_noTouch" data-controller="core.front.core.app,nbenhadverts.front.global.global" data-message="" data-pageapp="forums" data-pagelocation="front" data-pagemodule="forums" data-pagecontroller="topic" data-pageid="502931"> <a href="#ipsLayout_mainArea" class="ipsHide" title="Go to main content on this page" accesskey="m">Jump to content</a> <div id="ipsLayout_header" class="ipsClearfix"> <header> <div class="ipsLayout_container"> > <img src="https://www.briskoda.net/forums/uploads/reactions/Crying_Emoji_Icon_2_70x70.png" alt="Crying" data-ipstooltip="" title="Crying" loading="lazy"> <span class="ipsReact_name">Crying</span> </a> </li> <li> <a href="https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/502931-dodgy-obd2-reader/?do=reactComment&comment=5647107&reaction=7&csrfKey=3e104d6a4a5679f74936529a1c37ac81" class="ipsReact_reaction" data-role="reaction"> <img src="https://www.briskoda.net/forums/uploads/reactions/Groan4.png" alt="Groan" data-ipstooltip="" title="Groan" loading="lazy"> <span class="ipsReact_name">Groan</span> ds"></div> <iframe name="__privateStripeMetricsController1040" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" scrolling="no" allow="payment *" src="https://js.stripe.com/v3/m-outer-23335cd0c833d03926d94e8fb5cb0381.html#url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.briskoda.net%2Fforums%2Ftopic%2F502931-dodgy-obd2-reader%2F%3Ftab%3Dcomments%23comment-5650818&title=Dodgy%20OBD2%20reader%3F%20-%20Skoda%20Fabia%20Mk%20II%20-
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I'll take that as a genuine offer and thank you. I was thinking of the Ross Tech VCDS type of presentation that to me seems to suit those who like computer type of things, numbers, system input allocation, to see the nut & bolts and workings. And perhaps for some to have something that gives a level of separation and exclusivity by having barriers, stages that must be passed, keep the wrong sort from being tempted to use the tool and maintain levels of superiority. For me It's too computer nerd type in its presentation and legacy of techie old fashion knowing what numbers and jargon. Very ugly looking and user-unfriendly, unless you like that sort of system. Personally I don't want to learn any old legacy type system when I have available much better presented newer systems that lay the information easily in front of me and I don't need to know its workings and requirements just 'push the buttons' as required and these tools get better and easier to follow. I expect the tool to work for me not the other way round. I don't want to learn how a tool wants me to allocate information to it I want the machine to help me sort a problem on another machine. Could also be a matter of interest or total disinterest, I don't like football so have no idea what the offside rule is now I knew it in 1969 but I don't need to know it now.
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The plugs are to match the engine and its set up, 'hot' and 'cold' plugs are relative to the requirement, IIRC the iridium plugs you fitted were ones on the manufacturer's list for a factory standard Felicia with your engine they were not 'hotter' than required for standard. This assumes the plug manufacturer has the correct information in their database. Whether they are more, or less, suitable than the listed alternative I do not know, whether they are more, or less, suitable than the alternative for your car can only be out by testing in same circumstances with alternative plugs. If you want to buy and install a different set of plugs this will give you the comparison and perhaps show how much difference the plugs are making to your cold start issue.
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A battery in a low state of charge will not help particularly when looking for starting or electrical faults, you want to start with as much charge as possibly as the diagnostic work can and the drain on the car itself will deplete it's store. Same with testing equipment, you don't want low battery on those that causes issues and prevents you from completing the job. Same as starting out on a drive of unknown distance you'd check you'd got plenty of fuel. IIRC Tog1966's car isn't start/stop so that's one thing out of the way, charging the battery fully is as can be done or measured with what is available and to start with the battery at measured full given the quick drain as seems to be now just makes sense to me - otherwise potentially the car is just parked up with the battery further draining, why not use this time to give extra reserve, a known starting point and confidence these give. Just good preparation as the time and opportunity is available.
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Good idea, I think one corner at least has been covered already - but better would be two spare or different wheels to eliminate the difference of the two different sets of tyres, or as I put before if the set of four wheels can be swapped over with a set of four on another car to see what wheel/tyre problems transfer to the other car from Tom's four wheel's. ETA: and what problem(s) remain on Tom's car with four different wheels/tyres.
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Tom, like many you misunderstand what a trade-in is on a car like yours, the dealers have no sentiment about the car like you have, they are in business not a hobby. A trade-in is just another way of money off the car you are buying. If your car is worth selling to them they look at what profit they can make on it and possibly depending on what you are buying a that it's also a change of stock. It may be, just random figures now not relating to any cars, that you are offered £1,000 trade-in but you might have got £1,200 if you'd have haggled and not traded your car in as sometimes they don't want your car for many reason and it may cost them to move it on or dispose of it. You don't need to tell them what's wrong with it and you can true fully tell them you don't know if asked but they most probably won't ask you, depending on if they want your car or not as a trade in they might not drive it or even start it up just like all modern things look things up on a computer. When dealing with official registered traders they are considered the experts not you and indeed this is the case. Don't try to be as bad as some others just because someone has more money than you doesn't make them bad, you have a lot more money than many others would you want these people to take advantage of you because you have more money than them. If you were selling your car privately and I asked what faults you think or know it has and you didn't tell me, so lying, that would give me recourse to action against you later when I find out. Have you checked to see if there are any known peculiarities to your model, year, age of car that might give the effects you have? Whether they are the problem or just part of it buckled wheels and large differences to front and rear tyres will not be helping the matter. I'd go to a good tyre or suspension place to have your geometry checked as they should also pick up any steering issues if you tell them the problems you are having. They could also give you opinion on the weight balancing on your buckled wheels and how best to use the tyre set discrepancies.
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That's a very big loss. Starting it up a few times whilst not actually driving it anywhere is never a great idea as starting the car is the biggest pull on the battery but if you are trying to diagnosis then you might need to which is why you need the battery in a good state of charge otherwise it will not help with the diagnosis and could actually hinder especially if you drain the battery more. and possibly create more problems. ETA: One of the reasons I had to recharge my neighbour's battery was because he starts it then and leaves it idling on the hardstanding for a few minutes or sometimes drives it around the block, less than half a mile, and then leaves it for another week or two before starting it up again for a few minutes. A good run isn't always the best way to recharge the battery if the run isn't long enough and during that run you use a lot of electric load but it is better for the car than just sitting idling. Recharging the battery fully off the car (especially as you have some sort of drain on the car it appears) would be best if the battery is too low, you could do that instead of or before your run tomorrow if you still need to go on the run. Having a new fresh battery is certainly helpful now for use, diagnosis and recharging and gives more confidence. Then its the usual look for the drain with a meter and pulling fuses one at a time or if you have access to a higher level scan tool you may be able to speed things up. To give you an idea of how much you are losing so quickly figures from my neighbour's Ring battery charger/tester. - 12.7v - 100% 12.5v - 90% 12.4v - 80% 12.3V - 70% 12.2v - 60% 12.1v - 50% 11.9v - 40% 11.8v - 30% 11.6v - 20% 11.3v - 10%
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I am not sure the spark plugs make that much difference other than being new and clean they probably operate better than old and dirty ones. Only way to tell for sure is to put in some new plugs that are "colder". You do need to make changes one item or step at a time and then thorough testing if you want to find what is best for your cold starting. Then you must accept whatever is best for cold starting might not be best for hot starting or overall use but you can only really know from full testing of all the variables which could be a very long process as consecutive cold days and consecutive hot days can be unpredictable out of their seasons (and within nowadays). I do not know what it is like where you are but it is far too early for warm summer weather here. You might be best investing in a good level scan tool or program/App and recording live data, I do not know how much information you can get from your car but I wonder if it might be enough to really help speed up and clarify matters for you. The programs seem a bit more sketchy for earlier cars but cover the essentials and more usually.
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I don't know about Honda's diesel engines but they make the best 4-pot petrol and a lot of them. Not all petrol Civics have anywhere near the S2000 engine specs. Personally I think the Civics going back decades were too big as a supposedly small car. I did have a Civic S (IIRC) as a courtesy car it had the detuned Civic R engine (which itself was a detuned S2000 engine at the time) and encourage to take it for a good run but it just wasn't my cup of Darjeeling so I only drove it home and back to the Dealership to collect my S2000 from being at the Dealership. I don't know how economical running a diesel is overall, when my wife got her diesel (our only) in 2008 I thought diesel fuel was still about a third cheaper than petrol and my mate was joking when he said it was (IIRC) only 1p a litre cheaper at the time. Had a bit of fluffing with the EGR but it didn't have DPF or Adblue and the few times I filled it I used V-Power "clean" diesel and got a cloud of silver-grey in stead of the usual black-thick-****. High mileage in some cases can be better than low mileage, its all about the use (or abuse), maintenance and condition a car that has done a lot of high mileage on motorways will have a lot less mechanical wear and tear than perhaps a car with a fraction of the mileage on much shorter journeys, think about the differences in one 200 mile motorway run and ten local 20 mile journeys. The scrupulous maintenance is required more for lower mileage. I agree now is not a good time to buy a car of any cost unless you have a great trade-in or sales of your present car. My idea was to totally widen your horizons on what cars you could look at, same as I had to when I bought my first Skoda in 1985 when Skoda were made a laugh stock in this country by the paper press who needed to keep the other car manufacturers that advertised with them happy. I was looking at accepted makes and models that I could afford and they were over priced and unreliable, on driving something different and unaccepted I found they were also great fun to drive (rather than passenger behind the steering wheel as many car were and are). We are at opposite ends of what we want in a car so I'm not the best to advise you and you'd not like the sort of cars I can think of. Sometimes it's a matter of acceptance, if you accept whatever car/vehicle you can get you can find the merits in and enjoy it. James Hunt, F1 Champion used to drive an Austin A35 van, like the one Wallace & Grommit have, before they were fashionable or a "classic".
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Yes I totally understand, I'm not trying to persuade you either way, earlier in the thread I put a few suggestions about what to do with your existing car but as understandable most here will be looking favourably on VW products I'm a lot less so and thought I'd show the over side and widen the options. Small cars used to be light and nippy yours is heavy and needs to power to haul its bulk which might give a solid feel but needs high speeds for any fun or excitement. Lighter, smaller engined cars with less complicated computer programs (brake lights causing computer problems, it's a bad joke) feel more fun with less weight and power needed to haul it and more chance of keeping the speeds legal. It's all your choices and preferences, I've no idea about small fun cars as the type I like haven't been about for a couple of decades other than perhaps ones you probably wouldn't like given your preference for your existing car. Below is not specific to your choice of cars but what I put recently and gives a general different idea only, you may totally disagree and dismiss it and that's fine, just offered.
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It's about the tyre design, construction and compounds rather than just size, plus differences in suspension set up including tyre pressures. I am NOT a good driver but a good driver will have a car with the right tyre size to power moving very swiftly on public roads without breaking the speed limits, holding momentum with balance and handling, reduced braking, keeping the weight right. One piece of performance and tuning you can transfer to the next cars is driving training. ETA: And it's about having perhaps matching tyres with similar amounts of tread, different makes and models front and rear could give and a slidey ride and more so if one set is near enough new and full tread and other set is old and at bare legal minimum, especially if not on warmed tyres and warmed dry roads. Until Covid I used to drive the Mid Wales and North (Welsh) Wales mountain roads on 145/80r13 tyres or 165/80r14, you can move the cars around more without flipper wide tyres, admittedly cars a lot lighter than third millennium small VWs. If the internet is right you've got 130? and then 228 of the proper stuff, IIRC my old car on 165/80/14 coped easily with about 190 and 220 of the proper stuff and giving fun at legal speeds rather than needing to worry about how high the dash gauge needles were, it's about how it feels not numbers on guages. A thousand pound a year - this explains why I'm so poor, if I'd only limited my spending. This shows how good modern cars are. An old Volvo advert used to boast that the average age of a Volvo was 17 years. All these period films and TV shows with very shiny pristine cars proves they not documentaries as many old cars were rusted away in 10 years and a lot earlier despite the constant servicing, maintenance and repairs. Good job you've not got a old over-priced over-valued car (a "classic") or a British car or worst still a old British car, £1k, in which month. 😄 Serious point is you don't want to be letting sentiment rule logic, once you've put all your money in the fruit machine you don't want to put your shirt in too because "it must pay soon". Some free advice for you that has cost me a great deal with cars, a lesson I learnt, after multiples of £7k, think of the car's value as zero, then you won't be tempted to throw more money at it to try to regain any value and not worry about getting it's resale value up to get rid of it, think it's worth nothing then whatever you can get shot of it for without paying for disposal of the carcass is a bonus and money you weren't expecting. Only time will tell you what good, extremely expensive, advice that was you were given for free. 😉
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Oh no, you've dun it now, got me going on a favourite hobby horse - warning miserable git man on soap box! The Polo used to be a small car, but decades back German cars like VWs got very overweight very soon so that was one factor to wheel size. But the main factors are fashion, wheels have got bigger as part of willy-waving, mine's-bigger-than-yours (penis substitutes for non-male owners) then to be Gangster and "to fill the wheel arches", they must be filled! Depending on the brakes 14" wheels would easily be enough even allowing for VW's excess weight on all models but how could you possible let people see such a diminutive part, the shame. I took a guess at 2005 for the year of the car and if the website is correct it shows 205/45R16 83V - 6.5J x 16, ET43. Some of the engine power is need to push these four tractor wheels and tyres against the road surface and they throw off more 'rubber' bits and give their wider hum road noise. They must be for semi-amphibious use, happily riding on water. For 14" 185/65R14 was the nearest I could get for tyre size, 14" wheels show as 6J1x14, ET43. The 185 are a little taller (within 3% for speedo) and give nominal 112mm sidewall against nominal 91mm for 16" tyre, a bit more 'rubber' cushioning on the potholes and smaller hopefully sturdier 14" wheel. run4mo (and I) will remember when 185/70 was the low profile for tyres, back in the last millennium, but somehow these skinny balloon tyres kept the fast cars on the road ,we were driving heroes, all muscle from the lack of power steering (other than the pedal under the right foot) . Admittedly the 16" V rated tyres are good for 149mph if the poor old engine has any puff left from hauling the car, the tyre width doesn't seem necessary for power or torque output but good to have plenty of spare margin perhaps. Ahhhhhh,I feel better for that. Someone put up a photo of an original Mk1 Polo parked next to a Mk4 ,see what a bully it turned into. 😁 ETA: You've only spent £4k in seven years(?) I thought you meant months, cumm'n yer not trying now. 😄
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It's a GT how could it possibly be on sensible sized wheels and tyres.
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You get what you pay for. When you see a decent system or scanner you'll realise the vast differences. Whatever you get you do have to check it covers the overcomplicated VW system and age of your car. And then you have to interpret and diagnosis from the information you get from the tool, often replacing the sensor(s) that gives the errors codes is the wrong thing to do, just shooting the messenger. A lot of the systems for VW seem to be very ugly user-unfriendly, suited more to those that like computers programs and excluding others by making things more complicated than needed. A higher level scan tool than these shows how easy it should be to use them. and no need to learn about over complicated legacy systems.
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Have a combustion check. You may have an engine problem and possibly an electrical or computer related problem, cheap unreliable sensor(s). This sounds bad to me, have you a positive sized connector on the negative battery post - put up a photo of battery connections - a poor quality connection could cause all sorts of problems, some of which you might have. Deal with the simple basic stuff first and you might save a lot of hassle and messing around. 2-3 mile journeys do the car no good and are not enough to warm the car for testing or live scan data of many issues. I missed why you don't have fuel but no fuel delivery and poor quality electric delivery would make starting the car, er, difficult, so another basic, you need fuel it you want the car to start and run. If nothing else this is an interesting situation you have brought here.
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I'll start the chorus - "It's just a coincidence". Will the others join in, cum on, 🤣 Don't celebrate too soon, you've been told it won't be the car battery by others and they might be right if the alarm or other car systems have other issues. And bear in mind even though a battery is new it's still just a store that with heavy use and/or abuse can be depleted possibly getting you back to square one. Be nice if you could report back in a month or three and say if the situation is the same - or it would bring great joy to some if you could report the alarm issue has returned and it's not the car battery. Think of their little faces lighting up, how could you deny them a little joy. Yeap not a bad run at all. With the older cars they'd last longer but those didn't have so much of the unnecessarily complicated (VW) computer programs ready for hidden cheats. This battery won't last as long because the previous battery had its life with a new car with new parts and components, with this battery many of those parts and components are now 11+ years old so must have some wear on them. If the previous battery was playing up for some time it'd be a good idea to test the charging system, that would have been working harder too to make up for the battery, to make sure it's n good state of health to help the new battery cope with its demands and not upset any of the car's other systems. I've been charging my neighbour's very small car battery (obviously not a German car) for 26+ hours and the green light come on after it got dark and cold outside, oh well, it'll wait til tomorrow, as long as it's not raining otherwise Thursday, no panic rush charging in this household. 😁 He won't min, especially when he sees he got his car cleaned and polished during the wait.
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Tom, as others have covered one side I'll cover the other - no matter you've spent before you must consider that as in the past, the amount of money is irrelevant, it's gone, it's what you have now as condition of the car and how much more you're going to spend. You don't want to be putting good money after bad. Take it from me I've done it a couple of times and both in multiples of what you have, all lost money I could have used on much better things. I wouldn't repeat those mistakes now and wish I hadn't then but you can't alter the past only the present and the future perhaps.. You might not appreciate what I've put now but possibly later you will understand what is vitally important today can be totally forgotten about in the future with other priorities, life, experience and perhaps age. Good luck with however you precede.
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Great. I was just a little surprised with the 5psi and only noticed it on W tyres. Probably me misreading. It can be difficult to find a good garage and mechanic, those that are usually have have more work than they want or can handle so have long waiting times. Sometimes a specialist place is required for something like this a sports type place, not always expensive as you think because they get so much regular return work from the vehicles being used in sports. Have you had the car's four wheels geometry checked at a decent tyre place. It used to be the place to go for alignments was the Porsche dealerships as they had so many problems with one model (Boxster?) that all their mechanics got a lot of training about geometry, but this was many years ago and Porsche labour rates are high. The multitude of things could be minor or non-existent, just when diagnosing you have to have an open mind and not rule things in or out until you run checks or tests, if someone only looks for certain causes and it's not those then the issue will remain unresolved. Only you can decide if you want shot of the car, if car prices are still OTT then it may be better to hold on plus you're staying with what you know - but if it's doing your head in all cars are only money-pit lumps of metal anyway. If the wheels are the major or only cause of the wobble perhaps you can get them sorted or changed. If your in a club with like-minded members perhaps you could arrange a wheel swap and see if the wheel swap transfers or eliminates the problem to any extent. How do you know the wheel(s) are wobbling, do you see it or feel it and how? Briefly, what are the other issues as there might be so relationship?
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I'll stick my neck out and say no it won't be a coincidence. ETA: Nige8021 posted whilst I was typing so some overlap from me. Provided the new battery was good and same for all your cables, wires connections and earths and you haven't depleted the new battery's store of energy then that's the battery dealt with - what you need is a good level of scan tool to test the sensor, pump (and perhaps alternator depending on state of new battery charge now) and wiring and wiring connection issues both electrical and communication. You don't want to be guessing at what it might be when a good level of scan tool (or even perhaps physical inspection by someone who knows what they're doing) will narrow down or pinpoint the problem. There are people on here who offer to use their scan tools (various levels) to help to try to narrow down the possibilities, always also consider there might be more than one fault that needs attention to any problem - but I'm not saying this is necessarily the case here, I can have no idea about this, and probably not but a good scan comprehensive scan should help pick up anything else too.
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Thanks for reporting back. What was put in was an override switch, normally this is put in by over cautious drivers as the chap may well have been. Being cynical it could also be put in to cover a fault in the cooling system but I don't think it looks like it in this case. Yes let us know how you get on.
