Car advice

[TxRover]

1 hour ago, supermik said:

Got a neighbour who changes his car two, sometimes three times a year. He’s been doing it for at least the past nine or ten years. It’s not as if they are hired cars as he has a private registration number that he has put on all of them. They are all new looking top notch motors like Mercs, Jags, Lexus and x5’s. Must be costing him a few quid.

Is it a money laundering scheme?

Perhaps it is business related, decent write offs:

https://www.selectcarleasing.co.uk/short-term-leasing

[Guest ICTFCwife]

2 hours ago, supermik said:

Got a neighbour who changes his car two, sometimes three times a year. He’s been doing it for at least the past nine or ten years. It’s not as if they are hired cars as he has a private registration number that he has put on all of them. They are all new looking top notch motors like Mercs, Jags, Lexus and x5’s. Must be costing him a few quid.

Is it a money laundering scheme?

Potentially it could be.I’m on a PCP for my car I’ve had it a few months now and I get offers regularly about trading it in for a newer model perhaps he is doing something like that? However changing his car two to three times I would imagine must be costing him a fortune especially with the models that he’s going for. 

[Guest]

15 hours ago, supermik said:

Got a neighbour who changes his car two, sometimes three times a year. He’s been doing it for at least the past nine or ten years. It’s not as if they are hired cars as he has a private registration number that he has put on all of them. They are all new looking top notch motors like Mercs, Jags, Lexus and x5’s. Must be costing him a few quid.

Is it a money laundering scheme?

Drug dealer.

[thistledo]

On 14/05/2023 at 19:42, supermik said:

Got a neighbour who changes his car two, sometimes three times a year. He’s been doing it for at least the past nine or ten years. It’s not as if they are hired cars as he has a private registration number that he has put on all of them. They are all new looking top notch motors like Mercs, Jags, Lexus and x5’s. Must be costing him a few quid.

Is it a money laundering scheme?

 

On 14/05/2023 at 21:43, TxRover said:

Perhaps it is business related, decent write offs:

https://www.selectcarleasing.co.uk/short-term-leasing

Benefit in Kind tax here would probably be awful if it was through a company. Unless these are all electric. 

If they are fairly new and not brand new he might have bought one of them outright and then just needs to be the odd grand or two to change whenever he wants. Once the initial new car depreciation is over a lot of cars will hold a reasonable value for the next year or so, especially with low mileage. 

Edited May 16, 2023 by thistledo

[alta-pete]

Maybe one for @RandomGuy. ; when I apply the brakes, for the first second or so - or until I increase the pedal pressure or ease off - I’m getting a low volume high pitched squeal coming from the front discs. I’m guessing it’s just the pads nearing the end of their life? 

[RandomGuy.]

1 hour ago, alta-pete said:

Maybe one for @RandomGuy. ; when I apply the brakes, for the first second or so - or until I increase the pedal pressure or ease off - I’m getting a low volume high pitched squeal coming from the front discs. I’m guessing it’s just the pads nearing the end of their life? 

A lot of pads are designed with a "screamer", just a wee metal bit that overhangs the last few mm or so of the pad so it hits the disks and warns you of low pads, so aye, sounds like its a safe bet to say your pads are wearing down.

[TxRover]

2 hours ago, alta-pete said:

Maybe one for @RandomGuy. ; when I apply the brakes, for the first second or so - or until I increase the pedal pressure or ease off - I’m getting a low volume high pitched squeal coming from the front discs. I’m guessing it’s just the pads nearing the end of their life? 

Any chance they were squealing a bit in reverse first? Most squealer tabs make a noise in reverse a little before while going forward?

[Andy Dufresne]

I was in a Octavia taxi in Lanzarote yesterday and It was a 2018 that had done 776k km.

Edited May 18, 2023 by Andy Dufresne

[flyingscot]

12 hours ago, Andy Dufresne said:

I was in a Octavia taxi in Lanzarote yesterday and It was a 2018 that had done 776k km.

The early 2000s Octavias were terrific. We had a diesel one and to be honest it was just an excellent car. 

[TxRover]

Any experts or serious amateurs in automotive paint? Need some advice on wet sanding/buffing/polishing automotive clear coat paint. I’ve stopped the rot, but now need to make it look prettier.

[jimmy boo]

1 hour ago, TxRover said:

Any experts or serious amateurs in automotive paint? Need some advice on wet sanding/buffing/polishing automotive clear coat paint. I’ve stopped the rot, but now need to make it look prettier.

I get all my advice from Car SOS and Wheeler Dealers. I'm still useless!!

[charger29]

I've got a 3 door '07 VW Polo with a few issues with the driver side door and now central locking.

A couple of months ago the key stopped turning on the driver side door to unlock it (no key fob btw). I could still lock the car from the driver side after unlocking from the passenger side.
Over the past week, when I unlock from the passenger side, half of the time the central locking doesn't unlock the driver side door or the boot. I have to open the passenger door and stick the key in the ignition, at which point everything unlocks correctly.

Any ideas what could be causing the central locking issues? Loose wiring? Lock actuator issues on the driver side door?

[TxRover]

2 minutes ago, charger29 said:

I've got a 3 door '07 VW Polo with a few issues with the driver side door and now central locking.

A couple of months ago the key stopped turning on the driver side door to unlock it (no key fob btw). I could still lock the car from the driver side after unlocking from the passenger side.
Over the past week, when I unlock from the passenger side, half of the time the central locking doesn't unlock the driver side door or the boot. I have to open the passenger door and stick the key in the ignition, at which point everything unlocks correctly.

Any ideas what could be causing the central locking issues? Loose wiring? Lock actuator issues on the driver side door?

I see this out there:

https://www.volkswagenforum.co.uk/threads/polo-2007-1-2-5-dr-central-lock-problem-help-please.18861/

The other big possibility is the wiring loom between the door and the A pillar having been damaged over time (makes sense, the drivers door gets the most use), so perhaps check the look of that CAREFULLY. The plastic on cars these days becomes brittle over time, and cars in the 10-15 year range tend to crack plastic bits like me creaking in the morning.

[charger29]

10 minutes ago, TxRover said:

I see this out there:

https://www.volkswagenforum.co.uk/threads/polo-2007-1-2-5-dr-central-lock-problem-help-please.18861/

The other big possibility is the wiring loom between the door and the A pillar having been damaged over time (makes sense, the drivers door gets the most use), so perhaps check the look of that CAREFULLY. The plastic on cars these days becomes brittle over time, and cars in the 10-15 year range tend to crack plastic bits like me creaking in the morning.

Yeah I saw that thread before but I didn't quite understand what they meant by "integrated parts". I presume they're referring to the lock actuator.

I had a look a the wiring loom you mentioned a few days ago but will have a more careful look in case I missed anything.

Cheers
 

[pub car king]

I had an 05 ibiza once upon a time and the door latch mechanism failed on it meaning it wouldn't close sometimes so could be something to do with that. 

From memory took the door card off and swapped it out for another one. 

[charger29]

2 minutes ago, pub car king said:

I had an 05 ibiza once upon a time and the door latch mechanism failed on it meaning it wouldn't close sometimes so could be something to do with that. 

From memory took the door card off and swapped it out for another one. 

Think I'm going to have to take the door card off and have a look at what's going on.
I was going to heavily lubricate some parts like the door latch mechanism to see if it was just getting stiff.

[TxRover]

4 hours ago, charger29 said:

Yeah I saw that thread before but I didn't quite understand what they meant by "integrated parts". I presume they're referring to the lock actuator.

I had a look a the wiring loom you mentioned a few days ago but will have a more careful look in case I missed anything.

Cheers
 

Looking at the pictures, it’s one big unit is what they mean. Here’s some Greek tearing up his Polo (added a redneck too)…might help a bit. There’s a lad that does the 2010 or so Corolla’s and it’s excellent info, perhaps this guy is as good:

 

Edited May 19, 2023 by TxRover

[beefybake]

On 19/05/2023 at 16:14, charger29 said:

I've got a 3 door '07 VW Polo with a few issues with the driver side door and now central locking.

A couple of months ago the key stopped turning on the driver side door to unlock it (no key fob btw). I could still lock the car from the driver side after unlocking from the passenger side.
Over the past week, when I unlock from the passenger side, half of the time the central locking doesn't unlock the driver side door or the boot. I have to open the passenger door and stick the key in the ignition, at which point everything unlocks correctly.

Any ideas what could be causing the central locking issues? Loose wiring? Lock actuator issues on the driver side door?

On a car that age..., Live with it, or spend a lot of attention, and substitutions working out which items are ****ed.  VAG ( Volkswagen Audi Group ) are notorious for their older cars having electric problems. A few years ago I had a 2002 Golf TDI. It had done moon mileage ( 238,000 +), and the engine and mechanicals ( brakes, suspension ) were fine..., it never burned a drop of oil, but the electrics had minds of their own..., faulty door lock modules, central locking module, comfort (climate control) module, ABS, traction control electrics, air bag lights....,  You name it. .

I  gave up in the end, and got rid.

 

 

Edited May 21, 2023 by beefybake

[charger29]

On 19/05/2023 at 20:53, TxRover said:

Looking at the pictures, it’s one big unit is what they mean. Here’s some Greek tearing up his Polo (added a redneck too)…might help a bit. There’s a lad that does the 2010 or so Corolla’s and it’s excellent info, perhaps this guy is as good:

On 19/05/2023 at 23:24, beefybake said:

On a car that age..., Live with it, or spend a lot of attention, and substitutions working out which items are ****ed.  VAG ( Volkswagen Audi Group ) are notorious for their older cars having electric problems. A few years ago I had a 2002 Golf TDI. It had done moon mileage ( 238,000 +), and the engine and mechanicals ( brakes, suspension ) were fine..., it never burned a drop of oil, but the electrics had minds of their own..., faulty door lock modules, central locking modules, comfort (climate control) module, ABS, traction control electrics, air bag lights....,  You name it. .

I  gave up in the end, and got rid.

Thanks for the help.

I took the door card off last night just to see if there were any obvious issues. The only thing I noticed was the door card was a bit loose near the lock and some of the clips holding it in place were broken. I'm wondering now if, when it was off a year or two ago to fix the window, if the door card wasn't put back right and some moisture got inside and messed with the electronics.

Think I'm going to try and fix the lock itself and hope that fixes the central locking issue/ignore the central locking issue.

Edit: Got the driver side lock going again. Two tiny pieces of the cam and spring in the lock mechanism broke off and possibly jammed in something. Managed to take the wee broken bits out and its working again. Will replace the broken bits if needed.

Central locking also works fine on the driver side.

Edited May 21, 2023 by charger29
Update

[RH33]

Hyundai Diesel estate v zafira petrol

Both mid 30k miles