Your fleet running reports

[integrale_evo]

Had to take the mito for an mot. Decided today would be the day the original 10 year old battery would die. Had been sat a week, so nothing excessive.

Wouldn’t start again at the test centre after a 20min run, so definitely dead.

Euro car parts website, with discount code £188.
Euro car parts eBay store, 154.99
eBay other battery specialist, £81.79

I don’t mind paying a bit more for convenience, but can’t remember the last time I used euros, they just seem way more expensive than everywhere else for anything I’ve been looking for recently.

[16vCento]

Have you tried Tayna?

It's the only place I buy from now, great service and cheap prices.

[mik]

What @16vCento said.

Got a new battery for the ‘vora recently from them for much cheapness - fast delivery and extremely well packaged.

[integrale_evo]

Got one on the way

Mito passed anyway. Did 6000 miles last year but expect most of them were Aug-Dec as I got the compact on the road in early December and have done 10k so far in that.

Keep thinking of swapping if for something else, but reluctant to spend what everyone wants for anything remotely interesting at the moment.

The Mrs would be happy if I swapped it for a 500 abarth. I know they’re much cooler, but would sting a bit swapping it for something older, higher mileage, probably worse condition, less space, lower spec platform and still have to put money into it. Annoyingly 5 year old £8.5k cars seem far better value than the 13 year old £4.5k ones, I just don’t want to spend that on another car we don’t really need, or need to change.

[Matty]

I was about to say "You want an Up GTi" but I've just looked and the cheapest on AT is £14k! They were £12.5k brand new 5 years ago!

Edit, couple of PH cheaper but still £12k with 50k on the clock. Mental.

[JonMad]

I was about to say "You want an Up GTi" but I've just looked and the cheapest on AT is £14k! They were £12.5k brand new 5 years ago!

Edit, couple of PH cheaper but still £12k with 50k on the clock. Mental.

Looked at these and Fiesta STs before I got my n/a Swift Sport (2015) but the prices were (and still are) a few grand above what I wanted to spend.

[integrale_evo]

Yep, it’s all mad. I could get what I paid for my mito 3.5 years ago having doubled its mileage.

[Jobbo]

I've had a few batteries over the last few years and always used either Tayna or Battery Megastore. Both have been the cheapest and next day delivery, no complaints with either.

[DeskJockey]

Took the Galaxy to a local Ford dealer to have the brakes looked at. They couldn't find any issues (supporting @Sundayjumper 's theory), but while having it up on the lift he pointed out that the N/S driveshaft had decided to share it's grease with the entire underside of the engine bay.

So, new one ordered for fitment. When I checked at 3pm it was in Valencia 300 miles away, so might arrive tomorrow. I very much hope it will, as we're due in Chartres Friday evening and it is about nine hours driving.

It also blew another dipped beam bulb, but that was a quick five minute job to do.

[V8Granite]

I can confirm that 2 large Rottweilers can fit in the back of a mk1 TT, this is because……

The ML still has an air-conditioning issue. It just refuses to switch on but when forced on it works, the gas is fine, compressor is fine and gets icy cold when forced.

So the climate controller was removed and I found a damaged track on the control board, I sent it to a specialist but they couldn’t power the board up to check so I get that back tomorrow.

I ordered a new controller from Lithuania from a well regarded breaker so fingers crossed that cures it. It’s a £611 part from Merc and isn’t in stock in Europe. A pain as this was replaced when I bought the car 8 years ago.

One thing I have noticed, BMW forums seem to have people more willing to work on their card so there is more information about on the internet, something to consider for the next family bus.

Dave!

[integrale_evo]

I agree completely, there’s about a millionty more information out there or BMWs than ive ever found for our merc. Everyone just started take it to a dealer, seems like no one does anything themselves and aftermarket support is very hit and miss.

[Sundayjumper]

Similar experience here. For activating the cruise control on the Vito, the hardware was £200 from Aliexpress or a lot more from anyone not in China, and the software literally took me days to get running properly.

The cable for doing BMW coding is £20-ish from eBay and the software pretty easy to get hold of & install. I’ve just been through that doing the cruise control on the MINI. There’s also a lot more coding functionality compared to the Merc.

On the bright side, I sold the Merc kit recently and made a small profit, so I guess it was “free” overall if I ignore most of the time I spent on it.

And to add to that - do not ever buy a Porsche I need to turn off the “service now” message on the Cayenne, a job that should be trivial, it doesn’t even need tools on the MINI, but Porsche make it super difficult and it needs a fairly expensive piece of kit, along with no doubt some hair-tearingly impossible pirated software.

[16vCento]

Have the Jag back, I think its 6 weeks since I last drove it, it's like getting a new car all over again

New front springs, OSF lower arm as it had to be cut of as the bolt had welded itself inside the Bush, new manifold crossover pipe so no more fumes into the cabin, new nsr upper arm as it had play in it and an air con service to make sure all is well over the remainder of summer.

A middling 4 figure bill, which the warranty is covering most of thankfully.

Just need to wash it now, and then fit the roof bars and roof box ready for holidays next week

[DeskJockey]

Drive shaft arrived at dealer this morning, so now sat outside while they spanner away. So far they've used a significant proportion of their daily ugga-dugga ration trying to undo bolts that most likely haven't been touched since the car was built.

Brought the middle one with me and he's beating me in Whot! (5-1).

[Barry]

Civic passed MOT last week, advisories on rusty stuff, and the bonnet release being faulty (the plastic handle has been broken since I took ownership, now it's an issue apparently).

Grand total of about 900 miles done in the last year, and third of that was Coaster using it while he sourced a new daily

[DeskJockey]

New drive shaft fitted. They charged me €100 less than quoted. So just over €200 including the part. They started work as soon as we got there and were really helpful. If you find yourself needing a Ford dealer near Girona in Spain, Covesa in Mont - Ras is highly recommended!

Bum dyno says the car needs less power to get going, I guess the lack of grease would have created more friction? If that's the case I'm wondering if it hadn't failed before we left home.

Final Whot! score was 7-6 in the munchkin's favour, although I threw three games to keep him interested.

[Delphi]

Blaupunkt Bremen SQR 46 DAB successfully installed in the 928 and looks and sounds great - even through the old speakers.



I've also successfully managed to repair the driver's door armrest with a kit from a Dutch company (basically a specially cut piece of sheet metal that replaces the brittle 35 year old plastic). Passenger side is next.

[Carlos]

That looks ace, very period 8)

[Matty]

That looks great - hiding the USB/Media inputs behind the CD player tray is

[speedingfine]