unclerichy

On my run to the coast a couple of weeks ago (80miles each way with a 50:50 single lane A road/motorway split) I got a reported 40mpg on the run out. On the way home I switched into eco mode, used coasting and drove like a granny as much as possible. 40mpg again. What a waste of time 🫤

Today I have been mostly spending £1,400+ on this year's MOT, service (including Haldex and brake fluid), road tax and some shiny new front wishbones. It had it's first 'real' MOT fail in 9 years due to the rubber bushings in the wishbones having completely disintegrated and unbonded from the metal. I say 'real' as I think I had one that failed due to a headlight alignment issue which was then corrected immediately. I'll also be getting new discs and pads in a couple of months. All that for driving around 4,000 miles a year. I must be mad 🤡 Oh, and tonight I'll be off to CostCo to fill up with petrol as I'm down to my last 40 miles.

I took advantage of the slightly cloudy weather this morning to wash, clay, polish and wax it. My cheapo Halfords polisher decided to almost smash itself to pieces just as I'd started polishing the bonnet so I had to do the rest of the polishing plus the wax by hand. Of course, my 'fancy' NXT wax had separated so I had to throw that away and dig out a very old bottle of Turtle Wax. It did the job but I forgot how hard it was to buff off. It now feels like someone is trying to twist my right shoulder off 😧

I finally got around to trying my 200GB MicroSD card in my Columbus as I've more music than fits on the 64GB card I've been using (about 70GB when I last looked). There are almost 10,200 tracks on it and after a few seconds the car popped up a message about being able to 'synchronise' that many files and I've lost the Yazoo folder off the end 😄 The folder shows up but it says that there are no playable files in it. (Insert pun about shouting 'Don't Go!'...) Surprisingly the database view (that I never use) also seems happy to let me search via album, genre etc.

On the bright side they can't steal the air from your tyres if they can't get the tyre caps off 😉

Probably just angry locals 😄

This popped up on my last MOT (8 years and 36300 miles). It seems that my NSF is getting the hammering as that's the one with the lowest tyre tread (by about 1mm) and it sometimes pops up on the MOT with a corroded spring too. Even though the same chap has MOTd it for a few years now some of the minor issues come and go without any maintenance being undertaken (maybe they do self-heal @J.R. :)). Go figure 😕

Weird. Attempt #2

Chucked on a lift kit for some proper off-roading... No, of course I didn't 🤭 - this is the stance after I rotated the tyres and before I moved it back and forth for the suspension to settle.

Had mine in for a minor service (oil+oil filter), new spark plugs and MOT and that came to £423 from an indy garage earlier this week. I didn't have the air/pollen filters replaced as I can do those myself when necessary. I've only done 6k since the last change. They did mention that Haldex is now down to 2 from 3 years but again I'll tell them when I want it as the car is 8 years old now and at only 3k a year it makes no sense to follow the Skoda regime so rigidly.

Serviced, MOTd and taxed for another year so I'm £630 quid lighter of pocket again all for the sake of 3000 miles since this time last year. It's a dear do this car ownership lark 🙂

We sold our caravan in 2020 but towed 1350kg with my 280 for almost 4 years before that. The 280 has a braked towing limit of 2.2 tonnes so I doubt your horsebox setup would trouble it. When towing I set the suspension and steering to sport - the stiffer steering in particular reduced movement caused by undulating roads (the A1 tramlines caused by lorries in particular). MPG was around 23 when towing. These days (now I use the car less) it's 28 day to day. I can't comment on the Audi but the Superb comes with indicators as standard too 😉

Booked mine in for a service & MOT at the end of next month. I've only done 3,000 miles this year (much the same as last year) and it's spark plug change time too so all quite pricey considering the distance covered.

Thoughts and prayers 😆 (I'm also following this with interest as I've had to top up twice with a total of 400ml since January but I've not tried crawling around underneath yet to look).

Might be the battery no longer holding charge. My 2016 car needed a new battery after 6 years (or maybe 5, can't remember now) and 7 years is quite often mentioned for battery longevity.

There's been a recent spate of car thefts in the local villages so I've fitted one of these, hopefully, as a deterrent. Even if they break in and steal the keys they're going to have to wrestle with removing it and putting it away into it's bag before they drive off

You need the whole lot - just unzip the zip file to the root of a USB stick. Once unzipped you should have one file (metainfo2.txt) and the two mib1/mib2 folders. I use a 64GB stick formatted to NTFS and the car seems happy with that.

Haggle like your wallet depends on it I ordered mine at about 15% off list price after to-ing and fro-ing over prices with my local dealer and just as we were about to shake I said "oh, and that includes the reversing camera doesn't it" at which point he'd probably had enough of me and agreed. I'd already specced the tow bar, fancy front lights and a full size spare wheel and held back on the camera until the last minute even though I knew I wanted it. Always haggle for a free tank of petrol too - sounds daft but better them pay for it than you. It think it used to be What Car that showed the RRP and a "but you should aim to pay" price for every available make and model. I was trading in my previous Mk II Superb but the balance was being paid cash. However I've also seen it suggested that you may get a better price out of them by taking finance (as they get a kick-back on that) but then pay the finance off straight away and pay no interest at all. Obviously check very carefully whether that's a viable option.

There's a thread around here somewhere that shows how to dismantle the ignition switch. The switch gets gunked up and cleaning sorts it. If I can find the thread I'll reply again 👍 Found it -

I think it may be push in then twist to remove it. Seem to recall doing that on my Octavia. You don't say how old your nephew is but my grandson is 17 and he's gone from a bright young lad to a halfwit in no time at all 🤣

Not sure whether there is a spline on the wiper mount on a Superb. But if so then the wipers may have been removed in the past and put back in the wrong position.

My battery (2016) went from generally ok to dead as a door nail in a matter of minutes so don't rule it out. It lit up like Blackpool illuminations and then I couldn't even lock the door whilst waiting for the recovery company.

And exhaust flaps!