Your fleet running reports

[Rich B]

Parts prices and availability is crazy. The auto electrician I use for the Zoe has had to turn away cars because he can't source the spare parts, even on relatively new cars, and the costs for the parts he can get are eye-watering.

Last time I was there he was working on a 2022-23 Peugeot that needed some wiring replaced (known fault apparently), and a kit with five wires, two plugs, and an overall length not exceeding 10 inches, was £70+

Kind of says it all about french cars and their electrics when you have “an electrician i use for the Zoe”!

[DeskJockey]

Parts prices and availability is crazy. The auto electrician I use for the Zoe has had to turn away cars because he can't source the spare parts, even on relatively new cars, and the costs for the parts he can get are eye-watering.

Last time I was there he was working on a 2022-23 Peugeot that needed some wiring replaced (known fault apparently), and a kit with five wires, two plugs, and an overall length not exceeding 10 inches, was £70+

Kind of says it all about french cars and their electrics when you have “an electrician i use for the Zoe”!

Only because it is an EV and most mechanics won't touch the sparky gubbins.

[integrale_evo]

Bad input to the ECU seems the most easily fixable possibility.

True, and I didn't actually think of that, I approached it from the other direction and was thinking about ECU output in case the ECU was firing spurious signals. I totally disconnected the ECU and the pump kept running. I could even take the pump fuse in & out and it would turn on & off - i.e. it was still latched on even after resetting the power, and with no bus signal.

My working assumption is the electronics in the pump are borked and it's triggering itself. Curious that it waits ~half an hour after switching the car off to do it though. I've ordered a s/h pump to try out.

An alternative that I only thought of this morning is damaged wiring, which is quite possible as I had the engine out and might have slightly squished something. That would be annoying to track down.

Sounds quite similar to a traditional bmw blower motor hedgehog resistor type fault.

It imagine it’s all solid state and pwm controlled these days, no traditional relay which could have gone funky.

[Sundayjumper]

Seems a bit bloody complicated to just turn a pump on & off !

https://www.csselectronics.com/pages/li ... tro-basics

[Sundayjumper]

Sounds quite similar to a traditional bmw blower motor hedgehog resistor type fault.

It imagine it’s all solid state and pwm controlled these days, no traditional relay which could have gone funky.

Yeah, all of that ^^^

[V8Granite]

Reason 200 why I don't like modern cars

Thermostatic switch, flow switch, set limits, enable. If you want a nice PID curve then fine but other than that it's just doing it because you can, not because it's needed.

It really shouldn't need to be any more complex than that.

Dave!

[KiwiDave]

Corolla update: We're into week six of "WTF is wrong with it?!"

[Delphi]

Every so often, I've noticed the ABS light popping on after a minute or so of driving the 928. I suspect the wiring harnesses are getting a bit crusty as a lot of the sheathing has started to disintegrate. I'll strip them all off, inspect them, fix any issues I find and then re-wrap them. I also need to check the exterior temp sensor as the climate control is either full heat or full cold. The sensor is accessed via the passenger wheel well, so two birds one stone (for one at least).

[GG.]

I suspect the wiring harnesses are getting a bit crusty as a lot of the sheathing has started to disintegrate.

Fingers crossed it doesn't go all Jeremy in Patagonia on you!

[Jimexpl]

Finally agreed a figure with the insurance company, so end of term for the 125i -

Initial offer, after four weeks of a hire car Audi A3, including two weeks of failing to collect it, was £1753, made up of Copart valuing the vehicle in the current state at £225 and the third party insurer giving me £1528.
Copart valued the vehicle for themselves and the third party insurer.

I contested it and sent over three comparaible cars up for sale as £4-6k.
They refused all of these as none of them were within 10,000 miles of mine. 68-88k, and mine was on 109k.

I had to then write and explain that a comparible was not possible, as only about 60 125i manual convertibles are on the road in the UK, and only one is for sale at the moment, a 76k 58 plate (mine is an 08 plate) in the same colour as mine, at £5,995.

I accept the initial payment as partial only, and wait for another Copart engineer report following my reasoning. A week goes by and I chase again, 40 min later on the phone their best and final offer is £3100.
So six weeks of £150 a day hire car paid for by the third party insurer, 3 parking tickets as I forgot the temporary permit had run out and a missed congestion charge payment cost to me (£270 all in), and I'll soon have £3100 in the bank, which is about what it owed me including maintenance, so 18 months for free is fine by me!

About the 125i.
These are great engines, once you remap them to '3.0i' spec rather than the detuned 2.5i spec. They really are all you need in a c.1500kg car on UK roads, allowing you to use full throttle and revs fairly often out of town.
Accepting that it's a less than rigid 4 seat convertible, it did everything I needed of it. School run, roof down A and B road drives, 38mpp on the motorway. It was worn enough that I didn't care where I parked it in central London. Would have preferred decent tyres on it rather than the cheap crap it came with, but they were new and I was only just thinking about swapping them.
Looked good on the 135i alloys, but I'm sure it would have driven better on the standard 17".

While we had it the top hose went, leaving me stranded (garage, £185), 1 coil pack (me, £15), the rear brake mount/protection (£360), and I replaced the rear shocks (£280). I had the rear bumper painted (£300) - the following week someone hit it, crazing the paint!

Is it worth £6k if you wanted one today? probably not, but what other 4 seat manual convertibles are out there with a decent engine and a fabric roof? Having it written off saves me the hassle of selling it when the Abarth arrives at the end of next month, otherwise I don't know what I'd replace it with. I was looking at 235i convertibles, but they're £13k+ and essentially the same car.

James

[Jobbo]

A sad end to the 125i. The convertible 1-series is a good looking thing.

I don't remember reading your original damage report - what caused it? Odd the way the metal is barely bent but the wheel is at that angle.

[Swervin_Mervin]

I wonder if you'd have had a better valuation if Copart weren't involved...

If anything ever happens to either of ours I'll be insisting that lot go nowhere near it.

[GG.]

Yes strange that co-part were doing the valuation - IME valuations have always been done by the insurer themselves. Interestingly I also got a couple of four figure payouts in the last 12 months for the theft of the RR and 911 write off back in '21 which seem to be on account of insurers re-assessing whether they were unfairly low balling values.

[PaulJ]

I curbed a rear wheel on the Porsche earlier on today. Needless to say I'm distraught, and my evening plans involve beer curry and wine... Mind you, come to think of it they would have done anyway.