Your fleet running reports

[Jobbo]

£704.50

Discs are about 80 each, pads are about 90 for the set (from VW).and 10 quid of bolts.

They're also like new, just had a bit of surface corrosion as they don't really get used

Fuck me, that's more than the same job on our Macan at a main Porsche dealer

[16vCento]

£704.50

What's their labour rate, out of interest ?

I can't remember now, I think when the laughter started he realised I wouldn't be getting them done and they took the estimate with them

Good service though, but laughable pricing.

[duncs500]

Talk to me about batteries guys, I never did like electronics. The Lotus lives on a trickle charger, but the battery is pretty old now. Starting seems to have gone down hill and it takes a long time to start from cold, it turns over ok as obviously the battery has plenty of juice from the trickle. If it's warm it starts on the button. Once I left it for a little while off trickle and it was dead (a period usually I wouldn't expect to kill it) and when I used a jump pack it fired up straight away.

Could this be a battery age issue or does the trickle charger negate that regardless of age?

In my head the evidence suggests that it just needs a new battery.

[Sundayjumper]

In my head the evidence suggests that it just needs a new battery.

I'd tend to agree. Batteries do gradually degrade and they're one of those things that change so slowly you don't notice, then you replace them and the difference is VERY obvious. Like wiper blades.

Tayna is default supplier but have a general look online too. I needed a battery recently and chanced on a promo at Halfords that made it a good chunk cheaper for the exact same item.

[16vCento]

+1 for Tayna, always had good service and good pricing.

[mik]

+1 for Tayna, always had good service and good pricing.

+2 . Have had batteries replaced under warranty, and at Christmas I ordered a new Bosch Silver thinking my battery was knackered again. Was pretty convinced so tossed all the transit packaging. Then realised it was my starter motor. Tayna gave me a full refund (although it cost me £20 idiot tax to send it back to them).

As per Steve though - check others - I got a “30% off in Feb” email from Eurocarpart yesterday.

[duncs500]

Battery part II (the revenge): Skoda is occasionally having some gremlins. The doors usually auto-lock once you get going, and most journeys it behaves as normal, then occasionally on a journey it'll attempt to lock but fail (all doors are closed as normal), then just keep trying during the course of the journey. Irritating rather than a major problem. It'll also occasionally stop the rear wiper mid-sweep, after a while of turning it on and off it nestles back where it belongs.

It's not doing many long journeys and is probably in need of a new battery too. Although I acknowledge that this one is probably a longer shot as being a simple fix!

[mik]

Weirdisms when running are less likely to be battery, as the alternator is running and should be providing enough voltage / amp age to be recharging the battery.

Do you have a USB OBD2 dongle? I use mine with the “Car Scanner” app to get live voltage readings - very useful as you can see what the alternator is up to…

[duncs500]

No, I don't have any of that OBD stuff. Wouldn't know what I'm doing with it.

[Beany]

Not my fleet, but my neighbour currently has a Panda 100hp, a somewhat stripped out Clio 182 and recently, a Megane 225 in his drive - not sure if that's his or if he's become the french car whisperer for a mate for a couple of weeks.

I think he is either doing it right, or based on how many times I've caught him working on them, doing it very wrong

Still, not a bad little collection to have IMHO.

[GG.]

Weirdisms when running are less likely to be battery, as the alternator is running and should be providing enough voltage / amp age to be recharging the battery.

Do you have a USB OBD2 dongle? I use mine with the “Car Scanner” app to get live voltage readings - very useful as you can see what the alternator is up to…

I wouldn't completely rule it out though - in the Porsche, the old battery was having 15.4V pumped into it when running whereas it doesn't rise about 14.5V for the new one. I'm not particularly au fait with electrical circuits but I presume it may be the battery effectively creating a higher resistance and requiring an increase in voltage to charge it, i.e. the alternator + battery regulator circuits effectively upping the volts... which I guess could have an impact on other systems unless the circuits are isolated?

[Jobbo]

Duncs, are you using a CTEK and if so, does it have the battery reconditioning function? It won't avoid the need to replace an old battery but it does help.

Replacing a battery is a pretty standard thing to do anyway. Tayna are good but so is Battery Megastore in Tewkesbury (now called BMS Technologies): https://www.bmstechnologies.co.uk/ and they have an eBay store too.

[Beany]

Battery part II (the revenge): Skoda is occasionally having some gremlins. The doors usually auto-lock once you get going, and most journeys it behaves as normal, then occasionally on a journey it'll attempt to lock but fail (all doors are closed as normal), then just keep trying during the course of the journey. Irritating rather than a major problem. It'll also occasionally stop the rear wiper mid-sweep, after a while of turning it on and off it nestles back where it belongs.

It's not doing many long journeys and is probably in need of a new battery too. Although I acknowledge that this one is probably a longer shot as being a simple fix!

Hmmm....have a check for a set of contacts around the bootlid - it might be there's a bad connection.

It might be old hat now, but the Puma had that, and it powered the heated rear screen, wiper motor and and was related to the interior boot light (ie one pin was a 'door open' telltale), it made the connection with big pogo pins.

Screenshot from 2025-02-04 18-05-32.jpg (63.6 KiB) Viewed 9421 times

Screenshot from 2025-02-04 17-48-15.jpg (92.4 KiB) Viewed 9426 times

(christ, try to find a picture of that connector and those pins, had to dig through the archives!)

Might not have something as obvious and onshow as that, but it does sound more like a bad connection/wiring than a flat battery

[Mito Man]

Car isn’t getting damp inside at this time of year?

[integrale_evo]

Damaged wiring in the flexible connection to the boot is a pretty common problem on lots of cars and can cause all sorts of weird gremlins. Worth a look to see if others have had issues with your make / model.

Unlikely to be a battery issue, most cars will happily lock / unlock doors etc well after the battery is too week to start a car, even less so if it happens while driving.

Yes batteries do get old, I’m not convinced a ctek makes them last any longer than in a regularly used vehicle, it just stops them dieing early in cars which aren’t used often.

I’ve bought my last couple of batteries from Halfords as they were only a couple of quid more than online retailers and didn’t have to wait for delivery, makes sure someone was in / get it sent to work, and very quick and easy returns if anything goes wrong with it.

[V8Granite]

Yes batteries do get old, I’m not convinced a ctek makes them last any longer than in a regularly used vehicle, it just stops them dieing early in cars which aren’t used often.

As above, in truth I’ve be recovered more batteries with a dumb charger that can just put 10ams in than I have with trying to rescue it with a conditioner. It’s probably more like a long drive in what the battery sees.

Dave!

[Jobbo]

Some CTEK models have a reconditioner mode which gives the electrolyte a bit of a jolt to swirl it round, as far as I can tell. It’s revived previously totally dead batteries for me in the past anyway.

[DeskJockey]

Duff boot strut on the Galaxy replaced.

Did the change in the ECP carpark so I could return it right away. Remembering that it needed a fair amount of brute force to get off, I prepared, applied power, and smacked myself in the face as it came off very easily. What a berk.

[GG.]

Duff boot strut on the Galaxy replaced.

Did the change in the ECP carpark so I could return it right away. Remembering that it needed a fair amount of brute force to get off, I prepared, applied power, and smacked myself in the face as it came off very easily. What a berk.

Happens to the best of us.

[John]

I’ve got an image of the ECP staff crowding around the CCTV monitor pissing themselves “play it again”