The new news 24 thread

[Austat]

1 hour ago, SiC said:

His Tesla was a nice bit of kit. With 450bhp and instant torque, it shifts unbelievably quickly. 
Build quality is actually pretty decent. Even the panel gaps were all pretty much spot on, apart from the front passenger door sitting slightly proud. He said there was a rattle in the door that he was going to get them to sort.

Massive step up in tech to the A4. Interior is different but tbh there isn't a whole lot of touch and feely bit different between the two. Considering Tesla is a new manufacturer and still learning, they've done a excellent job and it isn't that far from the Audi tbh.
 

I heard the Tesla interior build quality is pretty poor, with a lot of plastic pieces such as door cards and bits of the dashboard being loose or not being secured properly. 

 

[Fumbler]

Another 6 hours of no electricity has just ended, although this time it was deliberate. Despite being supplied by 3 different places, they shut EVERYTHING off despite my road having no connection to the power lines concerned. Safety from the system I guess. The engineers obviously deemed the area safe enough because they didn't actually remove the tree that's resting on the cables.

Although the people on the ground said it was deliberate, the people at UK Power Networks' incident centre didn't even know anything was happening when I called up! At least the power's back on for now- perhaps they'll do the repairs during the night.

[SiC]

50 minutes ago, Austat said:

I heard the Tesla interior build quality is pretty poor, with a lot of plastic pieces such as door cards and bits of the dashboard being loose or not being secured properly. 

So did I, which is why I took a close look at it. I'm certainly no Tesla fan but I wasn't going to shit on my colleagues parade. However I still took a lot of mental notes of what I saw. I couldn't see a lot wrong on his example at all. Admittedly the interior is a lot simpler than many modern products and you can see far fewer mouldings. Perhaps this is how they are improving their quality by simplifying. 

[wuvvum]

From what I've read Tesla have upped their game recently.  The interiors are still hideous and the quality of plastics is still very much "American", but said plastics are a bit better screwed together nowadays.

[cobblers]

On 2/19/2022 at 5:51 PM, artdjones said:

It's probably the same three faulty ECUs being passed around, costing £400 each time they change hands.

A competitor of mine puts a little red sticker on any ECU they test and deem to be unrepairable. I have a saved search on ebay for various part numbers and the amount of stuff I see for sale as "untested just came off my shelf" with this sticker on tells quite a tale.

In fact I have significantly better results buying stuff sold as faulty than I do stuff sold as supposedly good

[NorthernMonkey]

Just about time to set off across country to collect some prime dead VAG shite.

Watch this space…

[stuboy]

Volkwagen are reliable....

No warning ... no clutch pedal drops to the floor and not returning.. bosses car so she asked if I could move it to our base as we neighbours with a garage....

 

[cobblers]

it's the absolutely gash personal number plate what's caused that, 100%

[SiC]

Spent 10 minutes earlier fixing most of the major problems on the A4. Put the tail light back in to find the brake bulb popped. So pulled it all back out to replace that.
Brake switch is a case of removing the lower dash trim.


Three 8mm bolts and a tug to remove.


Brake switch is on a panel next to the clutch switch. I really like this design as they're super easy to get to without cutting your hand up. Sometimes VAG do get their designs decent.
Unclipped the connector, twisted and pulled the switch to remove.



New one was of a different style to the original. But the new fitted in fine. Fitting was the reverse of removal.


Glow plug warning light stopped flashing once I pushed the brake pedal.


Clutch rest panel was loose when I drove it back. It annoyed me so I pulled it off and threw it in the back. Just pushed it back into place but found the screw missing.


Usual place for missing sundries always seems to be ash trays. There seems to be an unnerving amount of spare fuses in here! Found the screw and fixed the foot rest plate back down with it.



Next up is the most important filter in the car - the cabin air filter through which the occupants breath through.
The plastic scuttle cover appears to be missing on this. No idea where it's gone. Cabin filter is at the right in this photo. LHD cars have it left side but the RHD the ECU there instead.



Filter was pretty filthy. Seen worse but still very much due a change.


Coolant looks a bit brown and murky. Presumably someone has put the wrong type of anti freeze in at some point.


As I type this, I remember that the cabin heater is a bit lukewarm. I wonder if the matrix has been clogged up with the crappy antifreeze mix. Maybe I should give it a flush through? Or maybe I'm opening myself up for trouble! Temperature gets to the normal but did take a good 10-15mins to get there. But that's probably normal for an old diesel and I've got used to modern diesels with more advanced cooling systems and petrols.

[purplebargeken]

Drain it out.....

[Shirley Knott]

Yup. Drain and refill with G12.

The ECP triple QX stuff is decent and cheap to buy in concentrate for.

10-15 minutes to reach operating temperature on the guage is business as usual for VAG stuff of this era. When the thermostats go on them they pretty much constantly sit 1/3 of the way up.

[NorthernMonkey]

5 hours ago, NorthernMonkey said:

Just about time to set off across country to collect some prime dead VAG shite.

Watch this space…

As promised.

Red & dead.

Pretty painless experience throughout…just walked back in the door so no more action tonight as it’s dinner time.

I’ll update my usual thread in the morning once it’s unloaded and we can all take a look at the world of pain I’ve once again dived head first into.

It’ll be reight…..

 

[SiC]

26 minutes ago, NorthernMonkey said:

Red & dead

What made it dead? Presumably it's a TDi.

[dozeydustman]

Tomorrow’s viewage of car has been postponed by seller until Wednesday. If he postpones again I’ve seen another practical estate. With 5 cylinders.

[cobblers]

51 minutes ago, SiC said:

What made it dead? Presumably it's a TDi.

The original cambelt 😳

[grogee]

1 hour ago, NorthernMonkey said:

As promised.

Red & dead.

Pretty painless experience throughout…just walked back in the door so no more action tonight as it’s dinner time.

I’ll update my usual thread in the morning once it’s unloaded and we can all take a look at the world of pain I’ve once again dived head first into.

It’ll be reight…..

 

I look forward to a resurrection story. May your bolts be unrounded and your valves be mostly straight

[Crackers]

This article has just popped up as a suggested read.

"Classic Motorcycle MoT Headache for Euro touring fans"

Now, obviously I understand the issue at hand, which is that "EU members can exclude historic vehicles from a mandatory periodic technical inspection so theoretically there should be no problem. However, they do not have to, and the UK is no longer an EU member state." 

Surely though, this is making a mountain out of a molehill: MOT or not, your vehicle must be roadworthy. You're probably going to want it to be more than just roadworthy if you're taking it abroad. If you trust that your vehicle is in good enough condition, what's wrong with just chucking it in for an MOT to avoid a headache across the border, espcially a cheaper motorbike test? Surely you'd have no reason to worry that it wouldn't pass... 

Am I missing something? 

[SiC]

35 minutes ago, cobblers said:

The original cambelt 😳

Problem with VAG cambelts is no one really knows how often they need to be changed. Book on my A4 says 80k with no age limit, Audi UK say something different (iirc 48k/4yrs) and dealers say something different again! Going by the book, I'd say that should have had at least 2 cambelts in its life. To use one example of £745 to change it and pump, that's just under £1.5k in its life. The car is probably only worth that max now if it hadn't broken it's cambelt. 

I could never do it, but someone doing the bare minimum maintenance would be having the last laugh. 

It does make me feel better about possibly not bothering changing the belt on my recent A4 purchase. Last done in 2013 at 73k and now 9 year later on 118k. Handbook says 80k no age, so the last owner didn't even realise most would say it needed doing. 

Sometimes ignorance is bliss 😆

A bit like the High Pressure Fuel Pump failure that my last B8 A4 suffered was a chronic issue apparently and many didn't make 120k, let alone 210k that we did. 

[SiC]

7 minutes ago, Crackers said:

This article has just popped up as a suggested read.

"Classic Motorcycle MoT Headache for Euro touring fans"

Now, obviously I understand the issue at hand, which is that "EU members can exclude historic vehicles from a mandatory periodic technical inspection so theoretically there should be no problem. However, they do not have to, and the UK is no longer an EU member state." 

Surely though, this is making a mountain out of a molehill: MOT or not, your vehicle must be roadworthy. You're probably going to want it to be more than just roadworthy if you're taking it abroad. If you trust that your vehicle is in good enough condition, what's wrong with just chucking it in for an MOT to avoid a headache across the border, espcially a cheaper motorbike test? Surely you'd have no reason to worry that it wouldn't pass... 

Am I missing something? 

Not sure how that works as an MOT isn't exactly equivalent of most other countries tests. The fact it's exempt means it's legal on the road in the UK and surely can't apply abroad. By the same token, going abroad you don't need a local test. 

[Fumbler]

The speedo problem hath been found

Aye that be buggered.

[Crackers]

12 minutes ago, SiC said:

Not sure how that works as an MOT isn't exactly equivalent of most other countries tests. The fact it's exempt means it's legal on the road in the UK and surely can't apply abroad. By the same token, going abroad you don't need a local test. 

Very good point actually. Reminds me of the British guys who had their horrifically modified Mercs confiscated in Germany because the modifications weren't TUV-compliant. 

[SiC]

Just now, Crackers said:

Very good point actually. Reminds me of the British guys who had their horrifically modified Mercs confiscated in Germany because the modifications weren't TUV-compliant. 

Yeah I remember that. I did wonder how legal that was for the police to do that, especially as (iirc) we were still in Europe at the time. But then the police can do anything and then worry about the consequences later. Despite heavily inconvenicing someone for their troubles. 

[Crackers]

17 minutes ago, SiC said:

The fact it's exempt means it's legal on the road in the UK

Actually, I'll go back on myself here and say "not necessarily" - MOT exempt and Road Legal are not the same thing. Your pre-1982 vehicle is still not legal if it has bald tyres or a brake light out.

I do understand what you mean though. 

[vulgalour]

For the first time I can recall in my ten year ownership of it, I had to drive the Princess through a flooded road today.  Fortunately it was a slow road and the flooded section was right on a corner, I say fortunately because there was no warning it had happened until you were right on top of it.  Going one way car performed fine, splashed a lot of water all over the place, no bother.  Coming back the water was considerably deeper, probably about 18" or so which doesn't sound a lot until you realise that's getting a fair way towards the top of my tyres.  Rather than pushing water out of the way, the Princess likes to scoop it up at the front and hurl it sideways from the wheels, very dramatic.  Low gear, high revs got us through and then it tried very hard to die once past the flooded section, fortunately had another gear to drop down into so it didn't and we were on our way.  A very low cold air intake, alternator down at almost sump level, and distributor sticking out the front of the engine are not a good combination for driving through floods.

No harm done, just a lot of grime splashed all over the car, and the nearly new door seals happily kept the water out of the cabin.  Been dodging a lot of tree maintenance today too, quite a few have come down locally which is sad since some of them were rather lovely looking.

Also been keeping an eye on Derbyshire and Yorkshire who seem to have been experiencing a lot of flooding and damage with very little media coverage compared to the goings on down here in the South East.  We've fared okay at least, one snapped concrete fence post (it went with a right bang!) has been the worst of it so far.  Our immediate neighbour lost a good proportion of glass out of their greenhouses, and several of our neighbours no longer have fences, other than that it's really not been that terrible down here all things considered.  Oh, and Wickes was missing the entire glass frontage, though whether that's because it got blown in or is undergoing repair/maintenance I couldn't say as that Wickes has been wrapped in scaffold and having work done on and off for the better part of a year now.

[SiC]

1 minute ago, Crackers said:

Actually, I'll go back on myself here and say "not necessarily" - MOT exempt and Road Legal are not the same thing. Your pre-1982 is still not legal if it has bald tyres or a brake light out.

I do understand what you mean though. 

You can get an MOT, then drive out the test centre and have a brake switch fail thus making the vehicle no longer road legal. So yeah, a MOT is meaningless for the most part really. Just said that it was road legal at one point in its past.

[stuboy]

33 minutes ago, grogee said:

I look forward to a resurrection story. May your bolts be unrounded and your valves be mostly straight

 You will ride eternal, shiny and chrome.

[SiC]

2 minutes ago, vulgalour said:

Low gear, high revs got us through

Isn't that the worst thing you can do in deep water? High revs means more air sucked in and thus more potential for sucking in water.

The water spray sucked in though might have done a job of decoking. 😁

[Fumbler]

Just now, SiC said:

Isn't that the worst thing you can do in deep water? High revs means more air sucked in and thus more potential for sucking in water.

It's more for when you're wading through water and the exhaust is submerged and the intake is nowhere close. High revs means there's too much pressure from the exhaust gases to allow water in and potentially force its way into the engine.

[stuboy]

58 minutes ago, cobblers said:

The original cambelt 😳

Boss at work he vag scirocco cambelt looks like this..

[vulgalour]

3 minutes ago, Fumbler said:

It's more for when you're wading through water and the exhaust is submerged and the intake is nowhere close. High revs means there's too much pressure from the exhaust gases to allow water in and potentially force its way into the engine.

Well... I'd always been told high revs, low gear, low speed through high water.  It got me through, it was only after I was clear and using less revs that it started to die (probably because the ignition system was drenched), so more high revs and a low gear cleared it and saw me back to normal in short order.  Exhaust was submerged as I went through as it sits even lower than the intake and judging by the state of the engine bay, water definitely got over the top of the engine at one point.