Monkhai

Love to know what the problem was with the 1.8tdci.... had them and it was the most reliable car of all inc multiple vag and had over 200k on it. the 1.6 tdci had problems and the 1.8 tddi are a bit agricultural but reliable...

I imagine from this and other posts they are either not registered in the YK for VAT or don’t want the shipping costs... When you say large was it cost or size related?

Had them on the winter wheels since they first came out and they’re excellent, even more so as they wear compared to other worn tyres

I used to live in Islington area... They hate cars and will get you one way or another...

If your car is out of warranty, then Mann filter would be my suggestion 👍

The prestone stuff pretty good at a reasonable price...

The water pump, pulleys and tensioner are typically the weak points. As for the 5 years, I may be wrong but I think that’s something that rarely appears outside of the UK market.

Getting rid of heat is the biggest problem, after getting the power in.... Intel and AMD have different metrics for how they calculate the stated TDP, but frankly neitehr are a problem compared to a 300W CPU Just plan how you're going to get the cool air in and the hot air out, don't try to complicate the air flow (in at the front, out at the back works well for a reason) and you'll be fine. That and getting a good, stable PSU.

How much are the items worth? If under (IIRC) £135, they need to learn to do the VAT and paperwork. If over, the VAT is your problem, they just sell it to you and you deal with the taxes. UK customs are pretty much letting everything through, as long as it's correctly identified on the form at the moment, so I do not understand why they're having issues. If it's just the volume of new forms they need to fill out, then maybe they need to talk to some of the UK resellers and set them up as authorised resellers, so they can do it in bulk. If you're really desperate for parts, you could find a friend in EU/UK and ask for it to be delivered to them, then have it posted with the correct paperwork. The process is here and once you get used to it, it's not any where near as bad as people make out: https://www.gov.uk/import-goods-into-uk Sadly, I think some companies are being caught by the predictions of doom on both side of the water and restricting business when they don't really need to.

When you say stuck, is it the struts sticking? If so I would talk to the dealer.

Look at the manual for the 5 and 7 There was some discussion in a few places and the initial short 15.8v pulses are bad for AGM batteries. Not potential instant death like the sun recon cycle, but shortens life. Here is one such link but there are others out there with battery manufacturers stating it was bad too: https://forums.mercedesclub.org.uk/index.php?threads/just-tried-out-the-ctek-ct5-stop-start-for-agm-batteries.159081/

If you look at the ct5 and mxs5 you will see: the ct5 is 3.8A max and 14.7v max the mxs5 is 5A max and uses 15.8v during recon and phase1. obviously you can avoid using recon, but the 15.8v during the initial charge stage can damage an AGM battery. The mxs 7 appears to have the same profile as the ct5 but at a max 7amp I would have thought your existing charger would be fine just to top it up, albeit over about 24 hours.

M.2 pci drives are good, not really more expensive... However not a patch on the different between a hdd and a sata ssd.

I get the part number 5E2 864 436 E then a three lettter code for the colour code such as black/black, black/silver and black/red

Hadn't even thought of that, but yes adding wheels, sensors and tyres suddenly moves from about £500 to about £1k and makes it far less likely.

Sorry, yes I know, the point I was trying (and failing to make) is that for most people a cheap/reliable system that puts a light on and can't be easily damaged by a tyre bar is probably enough for most. I do agree it would be nice if the full version was a inexpensive option though. Is the system you fitted an actual VW system or aftermarket?

The issue with the sensors in the tyres, is when they get damaged by a tyre fitter or when they need replacing. In both cases the sensors are not cheap. The simple system based off ABS systems doesn't give the pressure, but it does give a lot of warning, so you can pull over. Certainly enough to get you to a suitable bit of hard shoulder/emergency bay. Would pressures be nice, sure, however I think many people don't check a display page regularly and a warning light is likely to be more effective than asking them to look at numbers.

Smaller tank = less weight on the tests (as you have to fill it a certain percentage full) = easier to meet the emissions tests when carrying less weight as fuel.

So keyless entry eats batteries and allows thieves to quietly walk off with your car.... Shame they don't have an option on all specs to not have keyless entry

Fair points... Car is the Octavia mk3 and currently it's running on 18" alloys with Michelin Cross Climate Plus on. Previous cars have been the same as above, plus a MK2 and a few others on a wide range of tyres (Mostly Nokian, 5 sets) and currently michelin alpin6. Tyres are on steelies and 205/55/r16 My issue is that the michelin are great on 14" on a completely different car, but just seem far far too easy to get to lose traction on the 18" in cold weather. Not to the point they're summer tyres, but to the point a slight incline and light but not extra careful application of the throttle = slipping tyres. Compared to the winters where you could pretty much mash the accelerator under the same conditions if you had been that way inclined and have no such problems, I am not really feeling confident in the all seasons. Grip is the most important for me, then the others along with good life are a balance. I don't live on the cost, but tbh I do travel all around (or did) and have had a rasonable amount of snow over the last few years, but far more cold icy road. I'm trying to understand if a set of 17" with one of the better winter biased sets is the right option or if I just give up and go back to summer/winter wheels.

ID net include it with their broadband offerings, which are not cheap, but are good.

FWIW some come preconfigured with your username and password, will work, but the traffic will come from “you” not the business name. Probably can be changed, but make sure you do. I know one company the end user couldn’t access the page, only they could via a connection.

Fridges I agree I wouldn’t pay for one bar the one off £50 to go from 2-5 years. Washing machine, ours had bearing failure and was replaced like for like. Due to lockdown we are massively quids in on that one. I do generally agreee they’re not worth on most thing and even where is is, only if they fix quickly or replaced at no cost if not repairable.

272/138L... Are those numbers right? Ours is 400 + 207L. No idea what to do with all that fridge space, but the freezer space is useful as anything.

I found a steam cleaner excellent for removing large bits of ice as long as you’re not stupid with it. I did try a specialist defrost spray, which was ok but still took a lot of hard work. Daft question, but does the old one still work? If so there are a lot of people who want a second hand fridge/freezer and you can get 50-100 for a reasonable one.