Graham Butcher

Are you having issues with your charger showing error codes and your car not being charged? If so then this could be the reason for it.

Modern cars have vents from the cabin into the boot or even directly to the outside of the car via the boot area or quarter panel area. I remember one of the very first cars to do this was the Rover P6, and they advertised this in their brochures of the day, as seen below. I really enjoyed my 2000TC model and also the P5 before that.

There is one there for £999 and delivery tomorrow (prime) but no good for hinged windows either.

@lol-lol was that the one on Amazon by any chance? I have been looking for one as well and there doesn't seem to be any around. Plenty of the sub £100 units on Amazon, but they all rely on either the evaporation process (useless) or blowing air over ice cubes, also useless. Had one of those a few years ago and it did work a bit as long as you had ice cubes. Ice cubes melted long before replacement ones froze, so I returned it as useless. I noticed on some units on Amazon that were quoting deliveries well into 2027.

This is a possible big blow to the continuing rooftop solar installations, particularly on industrial buildings. There has been a massive medical distribution centre destroyed by fire and now a huge frozen food distribution centre is on fire, and in both cases it looks like the solar installations are playing a major part in the fire as well as hampering efforts in fighting the fire.

Well, just because you never had it happen in Scotland does not mean it was not a thing. I have tried to Google it but have not found any real answer to that. But it has been happening to McLaren 765LTs apparently and been the subject of a recall, so it is not an unknown thing, even with today's modern cars. McLaren recalls 765LT because the rear window could fly off | Driving I did find this AI answer, though. AI Overview In the 1970s and 1980s, as automakers transitioned from traditional rubber gaskets to glued-in (bonded) glass, early adhesives frequently failed to hold. When the cabin was sealed and doors were slammed, air pressure and twisting body flex would force rear windows (and windshields) to pop out completely. Some famous vehicles—and specific manufacturing issues—highlight this transition: Rover SD1 (1976): Widely celebrated as one of the first production cars to adopt bonded windscreens in the UK. Early models were plagued by structural flexing, poor-quality early urethane adhesives, and improperly primed bonding surfaces. This combination often resulted in the screens simply popping out under pressure or stress. [1, 2] TVR Tasmin (1980): Known as one of the first production cars in the world to heavily incorporate a bonded glass design (both windshield and rear heating element). The early bonding techniques used on its fiberglass chassis resulted in infamous issues where the glass would lose adhesion. [1] Malaise Era "Pop-Out" Issues (Late 70s/Early 80s): During the era of expanding body panels and experimental urethane formulas, several General Motors and Chrysler coupes with massive, radical wraparound back glass suffered blowout issues if the adhesive hadn't cured properly. [1, 2] The Hatchback/Door Slam Pressure: This phenomenon wasn't always a defect; it was frequently caused by the sudden increase in internal cabin air pressure when doors were slammed or hatchbacks were dropped while the windows were rolled up. Without an adequate escape route for the air, the pressure would push outward directly on the glass. Also, it seems according to the Toyota Owners Club that on some Aygo and Aygo X club models, the rear side windows have been known to blow out; see photo. So it is less BS than you thought, and it is true; this also happened to a bus driver when I was doing my apprenticeship in the late 60s/early 70s, so I actually know this to be a fact. His car was a Vauxhall Victor as shown in photo 2.

Please don't think I was referring to you in that post, I was not. I said younger, much younger. One such person is a family friend, a well known TV football commentator who swears that he is doing the right thing, even though it has been proven.

Well it was a thing. I think it started with Vauxhall Vivas in the early days when started glueing the back window and windscreens on rather than using rubber with wedging bead that been used for years. It happened more on motorways, which of course you probably never had up North at the time this was happening.

Distance from the sea does not equate to higher temperatures; the hottest spot in the UK yesterday was Gosport.

In truth, however, cars are far more efficient with the windows closed and the AC cranked all the way up. Having windows open while driving imposes a far higher amount of drag on the car and hence higher consumption, regardless of what type of powerplant it has. I think that some people just can't believe that, regardless of their age, etc. I know of people far younger than me, with a university education, who have their windows open, rather than use the aircon because they believe the misinformation that it robs engine power so must cost more. I remember back in the 70s and 80s, when many cars would have their back windows forced out with the pressure inside coming from being driven too fast with windows open.

What, 100k deaths in the UK? My, you're a doom-and-gloom merchant 😉. So far we have, I think, 18 dead, but we always get some deaths during the summer months of the elderly who suffer with heat anyway; that's a given, sadly. The 18, as far as I can tell, are not elderly but teenagers who have been swimming in open water and are more likely to have been diving and struck submerged objects. MSM have been issuing warnings not to go swimming in open water anyway. So you're predicting over another 99,982 in the rest of summer; I can't see that personally. The difference with an ICE car in winter is that like the BEVs, there will be drop in range but nowhere near the 30 to 40% drop that BEVs suffer and the waste product of combustion will heat the cabin at no extra cost or loss of range, unlike BEVs who must decide between maximising range or being warm and comfortable. My diesel is actually improving its range as I'm currently using additives to clean the fuel lines and injectors which has added another 30 to 40 miles to each full tank of diesel and more if I do long runs, even with the AC on full.

Yes, sadly though, not everyone fully understands just how these batteries work; they are even more complex than a combustion engine.

@Breezy_Pete Ouch, that is pretty nasty. Do you have access to a lathe at all?

@lol-lol I think you are right about it being a VW platform, just as the new Capri is as well.

What, £33,000 for a replacement battery?

I do as well, but before that can happen, they have still to find that mythical magic bullet. While LFP does help, they can and do burn but need a higher temp first. They do however emit more deadly gasses apparently.

Thanks, but I meant, what is the cell model number so that proper calculations can be made? So this is an old e-scooter which you have yourself modified, which, as it happens, also seems to worry the fire and emergency services the most because the scooter was not designed for the batteries that you have fitted and also few people actually have the required skill set to modify things correctly.

Let's be realistic here, shall we? Firstly, those fireman ports are only good if the fireman is actually standing there by the car when the battery enters thermal runaway. It also assumes that he has all the equipment ready, prepared to gain access to that port which is located directly on top of the battery pack, which presumably means it is located beneath the rear seat squab. It also assumes that the hose is already there and the pump is running. Meaning that he has to get into the car first and then remove the seat squab and puncture the sealed port. That is never going to happen anywhere other than in typical demonstrations of what could be done. The following is an extract from a Renault document. The "Fireman Access" port on a Renault Scenic is a specialized safety feature on the electric versions of the car (such as the E-Tech) designed to allow firefighters to flood the battery compartment and stop thermal runaway in minutes. It is typically integrated directly into the top of the high-voltage battery casing. Under normal circumstances, it is completely sealed and hidden. In the event of an emergency, firefighters use the pressure of a high-power water hose to rupture a specialized disc on the casing, which gives them direct access to spray water onto the battery cells. A video made by Renault follows lower down, which shows water and not foam. Water cools down the thermal runaway (assuming the points I raise above; in reality, it is going to take the firefighters, at best, many minutes to arrive at the scene of an EV in thermal runaway, at which point the entire car will be engulfed in flames, so there is no way they are going to be able to do what they show in the video. Fire blankets also do not put out the fire; they help prevent it spreading to surrounding cars, etc. That is all. And this again relies on the firefighters already being present at the moment the battery becomes a problem. Currently, at this moment in time, anything else is just not possible, and anyone believing anything else is burying their head in the sand and denying the truth.

Do you know what cells those batteries are using?

Correct, we do, but currently there is no effective way of dealing with a battery fire other than to let it burn out, and then, once the chemical reaction has ceased, it can be extinguished like any normal fire. By that time the damage has been done, and very little of the car or whatever remains is likely to be a total loss. There is never any sign of any problems with most batteries, EVs or e-scooters right up to the time that the problem makes itself evident by the off-gassing and jets of flames coming from them. Remember, they reside inside sealed chambers and are perfectly hidden out of sight. The jets of flames are the result of the build-up of gas within that sealed chamber, which then finds any weak spots in the chamber's construction and escapes, all of which add to the danger.

When you realise that an e-scooter battery actually has around 10 times the energy in it that a normal laptop battery does, you can understand the fire/emergency services being highly concerned about where these are being stored and charged.

@lol-lol The real issue with home storage batteries is the amount of energy they store is considerably higher per battery than all of your rechargeable torches, phones, laptops, tablets, etc. put together. This is why those with cars that are the subjects of safety recalls are often instructed to limit the amount of charge they hold and not to park or charge in a garage, underground car park or even near to other structures. The other devices you mention all store considerably less energy, and God forbid that they should catch fire; they will and do present a far lower threat level. Think of the stored energy as being tanks of petrol. Then think about a Zippo cigarette lighter, which typically holds around 8 ml of petrol/lighter fuel compared to a 1996 Renault 5 petrol car holding up to 43 litres of petrol; that is 5,375 times the amount of energy in a Zippo lighter, so which one would you think is going to be most dangerous in a fire? Would you store 43 litres of petrol inside your house? As to the balcony solar arrays you keep on about, forget what Milliband wants; they are highly likely to never be on sale here in the UK and hence would be illegal in the UK. The electrical industry is fighting them and citing them as being possibly dangerous and possibly deadly. They are not currently approved by the BSI, and in Milliband's desperation to make this happen, he has had a specification document written by the government, who are NOT qualified electrical experts. The insurance industry itself would more than likely also NOT honour any claim for any damage on property where these devices are installed / in use. So again, are you happy to shoulder the consequences? Should anything happen and your house be destroyed and maybe neighbours suffer as well if anything did happen and the insurance company dismissed any claim?

Germany is struggling to keep the car industry afloat.

Here the Skoda Epiq is constructed.

Tesla is having some delivery issues in the UK, as in this video. The sales centres are full of cars, but none are being delivered. I can't find anything from Tesla about this, but it is suggested by many that it is due to an issue with the DVLA not accepting the documentation. It is mentioned in this video about Blue Water shopping carpark being used a holding area for the cars that are not being delivered. The second video actually confirms this to be and the video was filmed at Blue Water.