skomaz

For some reason I'm starting to think Civic...

Is that a lotus open gated gearshift? Edit:. Ignore that I can see it's not now I'm on a bigger screen

Aaarrrggghhh... That air vent wheel looks so damn familiar

Porsche 718 Cayman

Possibly... Or something quite 'chunky' SUV ish... That's either a brake disc or a pedal... Lexus??

oh come on... put us out of our misery... Meteor Grey ish??

Back out again tonight and took the screwdrivers with me. I adjusted the dipped beam alignment up and, with the Nightbreakers it's made a significant difference. Interestingly the adjustment screw on the offside light had more effect than the nearside one for the same number of turns but I've adjusted them both the same level difference against a convenient wall on the level and have also checked for glare on a dark road by looking back at the car from 40 yards or so away. I've had to do this on at least three previous cars with no issues at MOT, or from other road users, so hopefully they'll be OK but will get them double checked as and when I can. I have a sneaky feeling the manufacturers set lights conservatively to start with as my Civic and Mitsubishi were the same when I got them and, with the new bulbs in the Kodiaq the cut off and left kick-up was far more noticeable on darker roads - you could see it on the road surface, and it was clearly short of where it could (should?) be. It's probably why the Halogens get a particularly bad press compared to the OE LED units but at least now the range is now much more on a par with the Swifts', if not the colour temperature or ultimate brightness. I still intend to have a look at the coding when I get the voltage opportunity though...

So what's next then??????

Any more info on that (type / fitter / price) as I'm still thinking about one for our kodiaq for the bike rack...

I have stop start in the Swift that kicks in at about 9mph and never have this issue - what speed are you changing gear at from 1st to second as that might be the problem

Which thule kit do you have? I use square bars and a 755 foot pack so cna chek that for you butmi guess its likely to be the same issue (assuming you need the minimum with between the inner edges of the foot pack as some part of the roof tent has to bolt round the bars?)

but that's a comparison of apples with oranges if you compare renting a Zoe with outright purchase of another car - it's simply invalid. The last few cars I've kept for around 12 years which would make the cost per year of the swift about £800, so less than £70 per month with only servicing and fuel on top. Even at 10,000 miles per year fuel works out at about £99 per month and servicing at £25 per month. Total 194 per month - significantly less even without the cost of your electricity. Add that in at a cheap 6p per mile and your Zoe costs about £334 per month, a difference of £140 - not far off double? Again not a strictly valid comparison but gives you an idea of how many people us and buy (as opposed to 'rent' cars.

Just worked mine out and based on cost per litre of last fill and average mpg i'm just under 11.9 ppm... That average mpg includes lots of short journeys so i'd expect to better it with some longer journeys thrown in. Not bad for something that cost a third of a Zoe when purchased with just a few hundred miles on the clock after sitting a showroom for a while...

Just worked mine out and based on cost per litre of last fill and average mpg i'm just under 11.9 ppm...

oh its definitly a crap repair whatever the inital cause... i can see that!!

So I drove it in the dark tonight and the nightbreakers are an improvement but still not a patch on the Swift's led lights... So may well be looking to try the coding change to see if the voltage at the bulb can be increased... Edit: Just had another drive on some less well lit roads and its actually a better result than i first thought, with a much whiter beam and defintely brighter than OE. Theres still some room for improvement if i can tweak the voltage and they may need lifted a bit to extend the range nit a definite improvement and now pretty much livable with until someone manages to legalise an LED retrofit...

Possibly but some of those connectors look chewed. Either way it's time to take it back and demand a refund

Looks like it's had an attack of the rodents! Take it back and get a refund

No. Sone aresuggesting that two fog lights are better than one and i'm griping about a single rverse light on the wrong side of the car. I dont mean to upset you but read the thread ??

Both really. Most of the posts I've tracked down seem to refer to leds rather than halogens... I guess I need to find someone with vcds locally or stump up for obd11 and work out how to do it myself so I can try it...

No it does seem quite a lot to lose. But 12.8v as standard isn't too bad. Just wondering if changing coding will make any difference for halogens. I'll see how the nightbreakers are over the next few nights first

11.8v engine off 14.5v engine on

Right I finally got round to this today as I decided to chuck some Osram Nightbreaker +150's in the dipped and main beam headlights. Engine off, OE Osram H7 bulb in and lit I got 11.4v across the bulb terminals with my digital mulitmeter Same as above but with engine on I got 12.78 across the bulb terminals with a very slight fluctuation over time (maybe 0.03v) So not massively conclusive but does seem to indicate that the voltage isn't throttled back to the same extent as I expected. Either way the Nightbreakers are in and do seem brighter (hard to tell in daylight) and are definitely a higher kelvin, so will hopefully be an improvement. I'm slightly annoyed that I bought the +150 just before the +200s came into stock but hey ho. For info the main beams were an easy fit but the dipped less so as there isn't much room between the back of the headlight unit and the bracket for the gas strut that holds the bonnet up on both sides. That makes it fiddly to get the bulbs and their clips into the headlight unit if you have man-sized hands and also makes twisting the bayonet fitting of them into the headlight unit itself a bit awkward. The clips were also quite tight and I ended up having to clean the bulbs with alcohol after getting them into the holders as I think I may just have touched the bulb glass lightly and didn't want to take any chances with them blowing after a short time. Interestingly I also tried to fit some LED W5W bulbs that I got for the Octavia and, whilst they worked fine with no errors they were physically just too long to be able to get them into place. They go in to the headlight unit through the same opening as the main beam bulb and it's all a bit tight. So if anyone is looking to change these get bulbs that are a max of 12mm diameter and protrude less than 25mm from the holder.

Yep seen the aerofins note but it's not those... However, it's been pretty dry since I had a tweak of the top of the hatch seal so I've checked it again and done a more thorough job this time. I've also checked the rear wiper grommet and that looks fine with no signs of water ingress. However, I took the number plate light off and noticed that he blind rivnuts for the plate mounting screws, above where the water pools, was quite rusty on the outside and internally. I've therefore sealed around the outside of both and put a smear of sealant on the threads before reattaching the number plate. So we'll see how we go. In other news I also checked the voltage at, and fitted some Osram Nightbreakers in, the headlights (dipped and main beam) and drilled a small hole in the centre console cubby insert in the bottom of the recess where the 12v power socket cover is supposed to fit, so my 12v to USB adapter can go in there too without falling out all the time. All in all a useful hour spent...

My MX5 is 26 years old and still going strong. No third brake light but it does have a separate fog light