Car advice

[strichener]

16 hours ago, Leith Green said:

Not sure about these days, but my 2017 A5 is a diesel and gets brilliant mpg - I have a larger tank than standard and when I fill up (at Costco, miles cheaper) the range shows about 720 miles.

We had a road trip down to and round France in May and the overall mpg was never less than 60, except in the shitshow that is Paris so its pretty reasonable to run D2D.

Its got 72000 on the clock, and I have recently had the cam belt/water cooler done, all disks replaced, and 4 new tyres - so its not getting replaced any time soon !!

I was lucky because, as a 2017, road tax is £20 - a factor if you are buying any relatively new motor.

Downsides?  If you have an Adblue issue, and the tank and pump needs replaced, you are looking at a bill of upwards of £1000. Modern diesels are great until something goes wrong then they are pricey.

Cheaper to just get it bypassed.

[Loonytoons]

16 hours ago, Leith Green said:

Not sure about these days, but my 2017 A5 is a diesel and gets brilliant mpg - I have a larger tank than standard and when I fill up (at Costco, miles cheaper) the range shows about 720 miles.

We had a road trip down to and round France in May and the overall mpg was never less than 60, except in the shitshow that is Paris so its pretty reasonable to run D2D.

Its got 72000 on the clock, and I have recently had the cam belt/water cooler done, all disks replaced, and 4 new tyres - so its not getting replaced any time soon !!

I was lucky because, as a 2017, road tax is £20 - a factor if you are buying any relatively new motor.

Downsides?  If you have an Adblue issue, and the tank and pump needs replaced, you are looking at a bill of upwards of £1000. Modern diesels are great until something goes wrong then they are pricey.

Rather than relying on what mileage you're allegedly getting, did you actually do the real maths? 

My current car tells porkies to around the 10% mark of the true mpg.

Fill the tank up, set your mileage trip, drive for a while, fill it up again and really see what your mpg is.

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]

16 hours ago, Leith Green said:

Not sure about these days, but my 2017 A5 is a diesel and gets brilliant mpg - I have a larger tank than standard and when I fill up (at Costco, miles cheaper) the range shows about 720 miles.

We had a road trip down to and round France in May and the overall mpg was never less than 60, except in the shitshow that is Paris so its pretty reasonable to run D2D.

Its got 72000 on the clock, and I have recently had the cam belt/water cooler done, all disks replaced, and 4 new tyres - so its not getting replaced any time soon !!

I was lucky because, as a 2017, road tax is £20 - a factor if you are buying any relatively new motor.

Downsides?  If you have an Adblue issue, and the tank and pump needs replaced, you are looking at a bill of upwards of £1000. Modern diesels are great until something goes wrong then they are pricey.

Does it stick out of the sunroof?

[Leith Green]

7 hours ago, strichener said:

Cheaper to just get it bypassed.

You know, when I heard it might cost £1000 its exactly what crossed my mind.

My local - non main dealer - Audi/VW specialist has coded a couple of things out in the software for me over the years (e.g. pre-sense camera error, again a £1000 fix !!).

I think in this case the Adblu sensor or float had stuck, 20 litres of adblue went in and its been fine since.

[HoBNob]

Anyone ever dealt with snapped locking wheel nuts? My mums got a citroen which seems to have this really weird design, and the front two have given up the ghost. 

You ever came across them @RandomGuy.? 

[RandomGuy.]

31 minutes ago, HoBNob said:

Anyone ever dealt with snapped locking wheel nuts? My mums got a citroen which seems to have this really weird design, and the front two have given up the ghost. 

You ever came across them @RandomGuy.? 

Aye, is it the one with pins arlund the outside? Had to get a welder to weld some nuts onto them to get them off.

Used to be able to get a socker chapped on to get them off but they make them collapsible now to prevent that.

[HoBNob]

1 hour ago, RandomGuy. said:

Aye, is it the one with pins arlund the outside? Had to get a welder to weld some nuts onto them to get them off.

Used to be able to get a socker chapped on to get them off but they make them collapsible now to prevent that.

That's the one that was the recommendation I gave to my Dad. Thank you very much. 

[Peil]

On 23/09/2024 at 08:52, HoBNob said:

Anyone ever dealt with snapped locking wheel nuts? My mums got a citroen which seems to have this really weird design, and the front two have given up the ghost. 

You ever came across them @RandomGuy.? 

Happened to me, head sheered right off. Ended up at a local garage getting that one removed and standard nuts to replace all the locking ones.

[alta-pete]

Is there even a market for stealing alloy wheels any more? Used to regularly see cars on bricks in the 80s/90s. A bit like white dug shite these days. 

[TxRover]

5 hours ago, alta-pete said:

Is there even a market for stealing alloy wheels any more? Used to regularly see cars on bricks in the 80s/90s. A bit like white dug shite these days. 

The market is the dealers selling wheel locks preinstalled at a couple of hundred extra on the sticker.

[Spyro]

I got a knowing smile and a bit of a discount when I passed the tyre guy a pack of 4 standard wheel nuts and told him to "do us all a favour" when he was changing the tyres on my old Fiesta years ago. The locking nuts looked flimsy as f**k and I didn't want the hassle later on... Of course, the car got rolled 6 months later

[highlandmac]

Have currently been given,not by my choice, a land rover Evoque due to ongoing dramas with my car being repaired .what an over engineered,under thoughtout bag of shite it is,people actually pay tens of thousands of pounds for the likes of this?they can't even be arsed providing an actual,physical user manual,they actually charge extra,on top of your tens of thousands,if you want one

[Archie McSquackle]

On 29/08/2024 at 23:43, Archie McSquackle said:

The boot on my car won't open. Nothing fancy,just a handle or a button on the fob. Neither working. Any suggestions?

As an update to this and all the 'helpful' advice I was given, it's now fixed. Something called the micro-switch supposedly.

At the same time, my driver's door window went on the blink. Garage is trying to source a second hand motor for it as a new one costs a fortune.

[Sergeant Wilson]

46 minutes ago, Archie McSquackle said:

 

At the same time, my driver's door window went on the blink. 

Does the radio still work?

[Archie McSquackle]

It was working on Saturday but there must have been something wrong with it - it was saying Motherwell won at Hibs.

[weirdcal]

Is there an easy way to swap a sonic sensor for the parking assist in an astra? 

My scenic met a rather hilarious end when it's turbo decided life wasn't for it (and subsequently was all for electing a new pope afterwards) so I got a 1.6 astra sportstourer (diesel) and after a week a bloody stone took out one of the sensors on the front. 

It weirdly kicks in when start stop is active (ie stopped and wondered what the f**k happened to the engine before noticing autostop) but just tells me it needs serviced.

Besides the wee issue of the sensor. I don't think I have had this much fun with a new (to me) car in years. Pop off eco mode and it seems to want to fly. 

The scenic was a 1.5d and was nowhere near this keen to shift it's arse

[pub car king]

Physically the sensor is probably easy to change, however it might need programming to work. 

Did the scenic end itself by spewing all the engine out via the turbo at great speed. 

[TxRover]

Hopefully it’s a plug and play sensor, but whatever you do don’t cheap out on the sensor. Get an OEM one, even though they’re probably priced like they’re made of f**king gold. On some models, several of the sensors are part of a single wiring loom, pray it’s not like that. A look up behind the bumper cover should let you see if there’s a connector close to the damaged sensor. There are plenty of videos on replacing parking sensors, it’s usually not too bad.

[RH33]

Turn parking sensors off.

[weirdcal]

14 hours ago, pub car king said:

Physically the sensor is probably easy to change, however it might need programming to work. 

Did the scenic end itself by spewing all the engine out via the turbo at great speed. 

Sadly was only going up a hill and it whistled a single note tune. Afterwards I could get pedal to the floor and reached a max of 30 in 3rd.

3 hours ago, TxRover said:

Hopefully it’s a plug and play sensor, but whatever you do don’t cheap out on the sensor. Get an OEM one, even though they’re probably priced like they’re made of f**king gold. On some models, several of the sensors are part of a single wiring loom, pray it’s not like that. A look up behind the bumper cover should let you see if there’s a connector close to the damaged sensor. There are plenty of videos on replacing parking sensors, it’s usually not too bad.

I have had a look, the rig seems to be behind the grill and removing padding was hoping someone would be along and say remove mud flap, slide out, install and go. 

The part I got came from a garage that said compatible with make / model. 

But am wary as they sent me a polar opposite window power module for the scenic (up went down..) 

2 hours ago, RH33 said:

Turn parking sensors off.

They automatically turn on.. Like ecomode. And it pops up get them serviced. Hoping swapped the faulty sensor would take that out. If not it's finding an opel garage nearby (saaaakes)