Your fleet running reports

[Gavster]

Running report: Had the Ateca six weeks and 1,000 miles and it's running very nicely. Will inform you if there's any changes in running.

[Ascender]

It’s had 14 previous owners and is on 136,000 miles but the interior and mechanicals show it’s been well cared for.

Also the last owner is a mechanic and the editor of LRM so I knew he was a good guy to buy a car from.

Expect a tired and overweight visitor in the autumn as I drive the NC500 with bangin choons and a baseball cap on pretending to be 18 again.

Dave!

I'll buy you a pint in the local to help you on your way.

Or a vodka and red bull. Whatever the cool kidz are drinking these days.

[V8Granite]

It will look tragic and sad but who cares

I only really explored the roads around It nvergordon so I’ve never really done much up Scotland way.

Dave!

[Swervin_Mervin]

Doing some jobs on the Clio.

Seat lowered as spacers removed, the nuts you get at from underneath, they have a rubber cover (still rubbery) and the conical nuts were copper greased.

The rear discs hold the wheel bearing and mount to a stub shaft. They both removed well, no grease on the nut as it’s a locknut and the shaft had been scotchbrite cleaned previously as you can see the marks.

New break lines to the rear were paint marked.

All caliper (getting refused ones) bolts had clean threads and Loctite.

Whoever had it last really cared about maintenance and it makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.

I appear to have bought a good one. Just one common place for rot in the rear quarter to check but even if that needs doing I’m very very pleased.

Dave!

Do the rear discs have the bearings pressed in like the Mk1 Clios did?

[V8Granite]

They do indeed, it’s a really nice design.

The discs are comically small though.

Dave!

[mik]

They do indeed, it’s a really nice design.

The discs are comically small though.

Dave!

Does that mean that new rear discs triggers a bearing change also?

[V8Granite]

Yep, the disc has the new bearings installed and it has a new reluctor ring for the ABS too. It also means if you remove the disc you have easy access to the back of the ABS sensor.

Possibly a bit more wasteful in the early years but when it gets old it’s quite handy.

Dave!

[Simon]

Merc

Service and MOT the other day. (flying-colours.jpg).

However, the garage blotted their copybook. Arrived and the fact I'd booked a courtesy car hadn't been communicated, so I was sat waiting, with my 18 month old in my arms for 25 minutes whilst they worked out what went wrong and found me a car for me to drive home. Then a call later in the day to say they hadn't had time to do the MOT and 'can they keep it another day?'. Finally return at the end of day 2 to collect it to find that they after two full days they hadn't even bothered to show it a sponge, and it was as filthy as when I dropped it off. The service is _usually_ so much better than that. Am I being picky?

Yeti - Airbag light and inoperable steering wheel buttons suggests it's likely that the clock-spring has failed. This is really bad timing as they are £400+ a pop to source, plus there is mixed messaging on whether they need coding to the car or not. It looks like a plastic donut with a ribbon cable inside, so I don't know why coding would be necessary. Will remove it from the car myself and see if I can work out what's what over the next few days. I may be able to re-solder it myself. Add in a slow puncture on a front tyre and the yeti is needing a little love. Not feeling a replacement right now, but it can't be that far away.

[Rich B]

Yep, the disc has the new bearings installed and it has a new reluctor ring for the ABS too. It also means if you remove the disc you have easy access to the back of the ABS sensor.

Possibly a bit more wasteful in the early years but when it gets old it’s quite handy.

Dave!

Have you posted any pics of this new beasty?

[Mito Man]

Merc

Service and MOT the other day. (flying-colours.jpg).

However, the garage blotted their copybook. Arrived and the fact I'd booked a courtesy car hadn't been communicated, so I was sat waiting, with my 18 month old in my arms for 25 minutes whilst they worked out what went wrong and found me a car for me to drive home. Then a call later in the day to say they hadn't had time to do the MOT and 'can they keep it another day?'. Finally return at the end of day 2 to collect it to find that they after two full days they hadn't even bothered to show it a sponge, and it was as filthy as when I dropped it off. The service is _usually_ so much better than that. Am I being picky?

Yeti - Airbag light and inoperable steering wheel buttons suggests it's likely that the clock-spring has failed. This is really bad timing as they are £400+ a pop to source, plus there is mixed messaging on whether they need coding to the car or not. It looks like a plastic donut with a ribbon cable inside, so I don't know why coding would be necessary. Will remove it from the car myself and see if I can work out what's what over the next few days. I may be able to re-solder it myself. Add in a slow puncture on a front tyre and the yeti is needing a little love. Not feeling a replacement right now, but it can't be that far away.

Is a whole day for a MOT the standard for main dealers now?
I just go round to my local guy at the booked time, wait 25 mins and it’s done.

[Simon]

Merc

Service and MOT the other day. (flying-colours.jpg).

However, the garage blotted their copybook. Arrived and the fact I'd booked a courtesy car hadn't been communicated, so I was sat waiting, with my 18 month old in my arms for 25 minutes whilst they worked out what went wrong and found me a car for me to drive home. Then a call later in the day to say they hadn't had time to do the MOT and 'can they keep it another day?'. Finally return at the end of day 2 to collect it to find that they after two full days they hadn't even bothered to show it a sponge, and it was as filthy as when I dropped it off. The service is _usually_ so much better than that. Am I being picky?

Yeti - Airbag light and inoperable steering wheel buttons suggests it's likely that the clock-spring has failed. This is really bad timing as they are £400+ a pop to source, plus there is mixed messaging on whether they need coding to the car or not. It looks like a plastic donut with a ribbon cable inside, so I don't know why coding would be necessary. Will remove it from the car myself and see if I can work out what's what over the next few days. I may be able to re-solder it myself. Add in a slow puncture on a front tyre and the yeti is needing a little love. Not feeling a replacement right now, but it can't be that far away.

Is a whole day for a MOT the standard for main dealers now?
I just go round to my local guy at the booked time, wait 25 mins and it’s done.

Service and healthcheck was obviously done late on day 1, and MOT first thing on day 2, but I wasn't around to pick it up until the end of the day. So it sat around being unwashed for all that time.

[NZL JC]

Just ticked over 5,000km/3,000mi in the Polestar in a little over 3 months, loving it so far!

We took it up to Cape Reinga over New years (very far North of NZ) and it handled the combination of crap roads + gravel very well, definitely came back needing a good wash:





Overall - it drives very well considering its weight (2,100kg!), feels like a comfortable 7/10ths car, but not one that you'd want to push to the absolute limit. The range is reasonable most of the time, it's pretty consistently stuck around 400km on a full charge, regardless of driving conditions. It's also been a breeze to charge it at home most of the time.

The Android Auto system has had a few glitches though, but they've all been easy to solve for the most part (eg. the SIM card stopped connecting - just needed a reset). The integration between the car & google is great, such as the google maps/waze warnings for police or speed cameras.

The other slight negative is it definitely is on the smaller side for a family car - the boot was pretty full for our trip away, and often stuff ended up being packed on the back seat. If we had the dog or kids with us, it would have been challenging,

[V8Granite]

Yep, the disc has the new bearings installed and it has a new reluctor ring for the ABS too. It also means if you remove the disc you have easy access to the back of the ABS sensor.

Possibly a bit more wasteful in the early years but when it gets old it’s quite handy.

Dave!

Have you posted any pics of this new beasty?

Cup dampers, H+R springs, Scorpion Cat Back exhaust, I lowered the drivers seat, plus I want to remove the solid rear exhaust mounts for some poly ones.

It has the cup rear spoiler but the front splitter is long gone so ordered a new one of those yesterday. I’ll get the best xenon’s I can find in the headlights and will get the tailgate and spoiler painted as they’ve got some dry laquer coming through.

Dave!

[Rich B]

Looks great! My brother had a silver 172 that i always enjoyed - he had massive issues with the abs (to the point where he pulled the fuse on it, because if you didn’t it would randomly remove all braking for short periods!) i think the car still lives on as a track car!

[Sundayjumper]

The i3 can be set to pre-heat itself for a departure time. I’ve never had that facility before. It’s fab. I felt a massive surge of smug at each person I drove past who was busy scraping their car this morning.

Coincidentally the Disco has a pre heater too but it’s diesel powered, a bit noisy & smelly, and although it’ll defrost the screen it doesn’t heat the interior a huge amount. Much bigger car I guess and it has to heat the engine too. I think maybe that’s its main purpose - to heat the engine ready to start, and it’s just a fringe benefit being able to turn the blower on and get some heat into the cabin too.

[16vCento]

The Golf and Kuga both have that feature, and remote operation of heating/cooling from a phone app.

I don't think I could be without it now, makes a big difference on a -8 degree day getting into a car that doesn't need deicing, has a pre heated interior, seats and steering wheel, and is ready to drive off straight away.

It's nice in summer that you can keep it cool when it's parked up as well.

[mik]

@Sundayjumper Pre-heat on EV's is a fabulous feature - mrs mik loves this on her E-Tron (although relies entirely on me to set it up of course )

The fuel-burning-heater on the Disco is indeed intended to get the coolant upto temperature (75 DegC from memory) so the climate can deliver heat as soon as you get in the car (with the knock-on effect of reduced cold-start engine wear of course). Our D3 had one, but I added a timer to it which made a huge difference. D4 has a timer already.

The FBH is also a very good tool to bring your neighbours to your front door to advise that they think your car may be on fire.

edit: diesels are relatively thermally efficient, so in cold weather often cool down if you are just idling in traffic. You'll find the FBH also activates in this scenario to bring your coolant temperature back up.

[Sundayjumper]

The i3 has an app (obvs.) but the Disco is too old for that so you have to sit in the car and set the schedule in advance. You can get a remote add-on to trigger it from a dedicated fob but I'm not really that bothered. It doesn't get used every day and the car's parked a few steps from the front door so it's not a massive deal to nip out and set it running manually if needed.

[Sundayjumper]

Also @16vCento , you need to update your profile !

1aa77655-92b9-3c28-4035-dd04e595910a.jpeg (16.7 KiB) Viewed 2993 times

[16vCento]

I'm surprised the Kuga has an actual remote start function, which will fire up the combustion engine, I didn't even think it was legal in this country?

My D3 had the remote FFH mod and it probably played a big part in how it lasted so long, it's still going now (275000 miles), and I think the engine not being laboured from flat cold at any point has probably helped.