numskull

Wouldn’t a blocked heater matrix result in heat reduction on both sides of the car, not just the drivers side?

I don’t understand why these cooling system issues happen on some units and not others? 🤷🏻

Yeah, buy new ones. I got a couple of sets of these Chinese copies and they’re still perfectly fine after a couple of years. For £8, you can afford to replace them regularly.

Don’t go anywhere near National Tyres in Kingston on Thames. Lie with impunity and damage alloys. On the other hand, Halfords Autocentres in Surbiton were excellent.

Yeah, I’m just thinking ahead. Given the last full service, DSG, Haldex and diff fluid changes came to over a grand, I suppose I should’ve realised it was gonna be expensive. As an aside, our son has a 2004 Mercedes CL500 (he’s getting avg MPG of 27mpg which is not too shabby and has just got 35 on a run from here to Bath) and it needed the suspension and ARB bushes replaced recently at a Merc specialist (which has given a massive improvement in handling which is great) and that work, plus a big service was £1,600; would’ve been £2,400 at a main dealer if they actually knew what to do. He mentioned to them he was thinking about getting an SL500 and the guy said, well, that service and suspension work would have cost you £3,500 on an SL. Ridiculous. Yeah… he’s keeping the CL!

Holy feck!!! 😳

OK, OK, so I’ve been the most “anti” one of these, but I’ve gone and ordered one. My bad…. 😁

Great. 🙄 Do you recall how much it was please, Colin? Hopefully, ApertureS my know re. my question.

Anyone know if the water pump on a date/mileage schedule on a 2016 280?

Very true…..’ish 😂

Well, when we bought the MKII, I was thinking about selling the MKI then, but because I loved the car and it wasn’t worth much and we’d spent a fortune on it too - we had the usual oil pump failure and that was replaced with the revised pump, plus the turbo, intercooler and associated pipework were all replaced as they’d been damaged, had the usual leak via the air filter housing which ruined the convenience unit, so we had the housing sealed with the correct kit, had the whole interior and carpets removed and dried, replaced the convenience unit, the associated wiring harnesses, replaced the parking sensors etc. all of which was done at a main dealer - and it was in excellent physical shape too, so I just kept it. It was only when I retired and we’d bought the 280 and traded the MKII, that common sense (and SWMBO’s protestations) finally prevailed and so we sold it, but to a person who really wanted it and I’m delighted that it’s being loved, looked after and used by someone else and it is in even better shape now.

When I spoke with Ctek before I bought the charger, they confirmed that the battery can be left on the trickle programme indefinitely. This was important as I intended to use this on our MKI PD140 when the then fairly new replacement battery lost its charge over a few months and I wanted to keep it healthy…. and I was fed-up with running the engine for an hour on idle to keep it charged! I used the charger for about five years, between 2016 and 2021 and during that period, I used the battery conditioning programme once annually. It was only ever off the charger to get it MOT’d or when I took it out for a run every 6 months or so. When I was in the process of selling her to a fellow Briskodian, I moved the car from the garden drive to the front drive and it was then off charge for around a month as I was now using it on the 280. When it came to starting it for the roadtest, she started immediately; it’s now on its third owner and still on the same RAC battery. So I’d say that’s quite a good recommendation for the Ctek tech.

Throughout lockdown and during the 6 months when I was unable to drive following that, the car sat on the drive in the garden connected to the C-Tek. It’s back on now and started without a problem this morning.

Another thing to go pop…..🙄

That or the flap unit has failed. I suspect mine is on the way out as it’s creaking like billyo! 🙄

Perfect AS; I look forward to meeting up when you’ve cracked it matey! 👍🏻

Update I had the battery tested by the RAC earlier today - results are below. So, there is nowt wrong with the battery. In fact he was quite surprised that a 7 year old 680en battery was showing a test rating of 671 and it was holding its charge OK. However, it was only showing a 47% charge, which he supposed was caused by very short local journeys, which I confirmed to be correct so he told me to shove it on the C-Tek overnight and take it for a decent run tomorrow using as little load as possible and then put it back on the charger for 24 hours. Finally - and this was interesting - he said when it does fail, he confirmed that firstly, the replacement battery would be adapted to the car and secondly, they would replace the current EFB with an AGM unit, primarily so the RAC can be assured it should outlast their 5 Year battery warranty, as they still experience early failures of OE EFB units.

Thanks for the link and that puts my mind at rest. Yeah, I’m well aware of the RAC sales targets for batteries, however, I’m in the market for one.

Yep, I agree, hence the questions re the RAC.

It’s the original battery so close to 7 years old. No idea what type it is, but I’ll take a pic this morning and post it.

Had the first battery warning on trying to start the car this morning at -5c; definitely struggled to start. Was fine after running for a few minutes, but we have a big trip coming up need to have it replaced. I’ve just noticed that I have battery replacement cover included in our RAC membership, so I was wondering if anyone knows if they’ll replace it with a proper like-for like unit (no idea which manufacturers the RAC branded batteries are) plus do they have the tools and experience to adapt the battery to the car?

Does anyone have an estimate of the cost of the BCM and the DCC controller so early models can be modded?

Well, to be accurate, I quoted a selection by the OP from his post you quoted in your post…. …which I’ve now corrected. WOW!!! So they didn’t know what the fault was on the previous 1/2 doz visits hence why they were unable to resolve the problem (nah… there’s nothing wrong there/they all have that feature/do that) but, quite miraculously, now, they do and guess what… this one (which they’ve admitted now there is a fault and therefore there has always been a fault - keep hold of that) does not involve replacing the head unit. Brilliant. And utter boolocks; dealers simply lie with impunity and quite incredibly, a straight face.

WOW!!! So they didn’t know what the fault was on the previous 1/2 doz visits hence why they were unable to resolve the problem (nah… there’s nothing wrong there/they all have that feature/do that) but, quite miraculously, now, they do and guess what… this one (which they’ve admitted now there is a fault and therefore there has always been a fault - keep hold of that) does not involve replacing the head unit. Brilliant. And utter boolocks; dealers simply lie with impunity and quite incredibly, a straight face.

You shouldn’t’ve waited 2.5 years but you know that. You should construct an email, giving a précis of the issue, then in bullet point form, giving the dates and numbers of loss of use days you have experienced; ignore courtesy cars etc. because they are not the car you paid to drive. Call SUK and ask to speak to their Customer Quality Manager, Emmaline Bruce (how you “manage” the “quality” of “customers” I really don’t know!). Don’t take no for an answer, as they’re masters of dodging, delaying and deflecting. When you get to speak to her, or their nominated subordinate, follow-up with the email, including Bruce, and time bound it for a response with a solution (you want a new unit of course) so 5 working days should suffice.