Your fleet running reports

[Beany]

I've been ill this week, so humping 30kg batteries around wasn't my idea of fun. Have done it now, and now have a lovely 14v steady at idle, and it doesn't go below 13v with lots of extras on (both heated seats on 'ball boiler' setting, headlights, HVAC cracked up, etc) - that previously was dropping it down near 10v

Much happier car. Transport mode cleared, low-voltage/battery swap codes cleared, happy happy.

Was a NAPA AGM battery in there, I think it's about four or five years old, hopefully the Bosch lasts better.

[Swervin_Mervin]

I've been ill this week, so humping 30kg batteries around wasn't my idea of fun. Have done it now, and now have a lovely 14v steady at idle, and it doesn't go below 13v with lots of extras on (both heated seats on 'ball boiler' setting, headlights, HVAC cracked up, etc) - that previously was dropping it down near 10v

Much happier car. Transport mode cleared, low-voltage/battery swap codes cleared, happy happy.

Was a NAPA AGM battery in there, I think it's about four or five years old, hopefully the Bosch lasts better.

Is yours AGM? Would be surprised if it is

[Beany]

Not from factory, but the NAPA one that was in it was, and the one I've put in is - they tend to suffer short runs and light use a bit better (less, but not no, sulphate build up) and there's no reason to not use one from a technical perspective, if you can get it at a reasonable price for a decent one.

Well, not that I could find out anyway!

[DeskJockey]

Passat update: they've got it back, finally. Total ended up at £8.5k with a partial rebuild of the gearbox.

They can't conclusively say whether the Mechatronic unit needed swapping now, but it would have been needed "soon". It is apparently a known weak spot on that generation of DSG boxes.

One to just forget. Upside is the second garage specialise in nothing but VW GTE/Hybrid systems and know them intimately, so they gave them confidence that they spoke with authority on the matter.

[Mito Man]

Silly stuff today. I had a few eBay vouchers that were close to expiring so I bought my dad a Christmas present. I didn’t want to wait a few months then see it’s broken so tested it with my jump starter:

It’s only 8400 lumens, but it has a clever lens design and those trees 150 metres away are lit up nicely. In reality it’s a better more useful beam pattern than the 40,000+ lumen bar my Defender has.
As the days are rapidly getting shorter I thought I might as well just fit it.

Hopefully you can’t see it easily.
Anyhow that’s not the whole story as it’s not even mounted in the place the manufacturer designed it for. It didn’t fit because the electronic flaps which open and close for the radiator were in the way. I called up the supplier who told me to just remove them I have now noticed that they actually botched their demonstrator car in this way as you can see straight through the grill into the condenser.

Fortunately the space in the lower grill is perfect and it fits right between the brake ducts and it’s better hidden so that’s that

[Beany]

I think the old battery must have been pretty borderline for ages - I can unlock the car remotely from twice as far away now (Z4Cs aren't known for great key range from what I can tell, but I no longer need to be more or less right next to it to unlock), it idles from a hot start more evenly, feels like it's smoother in the midrange - but I'll hold my hands up an admit that might be psychological. But the key range and idle not hunting definitely aren't.

[scotta]

Fleet musings.


128Ti -

Im into the last year on the PCP on this so approaching a decision point on what to do with it. Our milage has tanked in the last couple of years with me not doing the racing and us not needing to pick the boy up from his school on a Friday afternoon. its doing approx 5000 miles a year. I had thought that the automatic replacement for this would be a salary sacrafice EV. I can have for about £300 a mont a Renault 4 or 5 or for a bit less the ugly step kid Nissan micra. The bump in the road on this however is that the current values on the 128Ti's are not what I was expecting. To get out of it now im looking at about £3k in neg so im not doing that. The agreement ends in July next year at which point I'll be slightly over the milage allowance by a few thousand. The Exit agreement settlement is £19k. So at that point I can either hand it back and pay the excess milage charge or take a personal loan and buy it outright. If I do that the monthly is about similar to the EV lease costs. Nothing on the market otherwise excites me to buy,

However...

Mini Convertible -

Mrs A has had this for three years. Its just passed its MOT by a scrape through on the emissions. MOT man said sell it before it's due again next year. Mrs A like the convertible and uses the droptop at any opportunity. She likes the mini and wasn't to replace it with another newer F57 convertible. However last year her mini did 2400 miles between the MOT. It's currently costing us nothing beyond the tax and insurance.

Alpine -

Completed the Euro trip without a hitch 3300 miles on it in 10 days. Discussions around another trip to Italy in 2028. Its staying.

Cooper S -

Currently broken again. It melted the flexi off so it's in getting that fixed. Will pissing out the engine sump gasket so getting that replaced. took the sump off and found bits of broken chain guides. FUCK. so it's getting those replaced. We think it might be getting too hot at the flexi. We are unaware of it being mapped but it does a load of pops and bangs. It might need a proper mapping session to sort this. I know a man. It's on the verge of getting sold. It seems to be constantly broken.


So basically what do I do. Do I buy the 128. Do I not buy the 128. Do I get an EV. Do I get rid of the R57 and buy a newer convertible. Do we really need 5 cars here including the boys fiesta. Do I spend a bit more on a newer JCW convertible and loose one car. Does that even work with having no cars that have a decent bit of space (Two dogs + occasional PA kit hauling if im DJing)

Answers on a postcode to the usual address.

[IanF]

128 will still cost fuel. Dan Trent was talking these up recently



Worth a test drive or two, I’d have thought…

Mini offering 0.9% with 25% down may be a way to avoid -ve equity in the future

Convertibles are the biggest estate cars possible, just place big thing vertically instead of horizontally.. hth

[scotta]

128 will still cost fuel. Dan Trent was talking these up recently



Worth a test drive or two, I’d have thought…

Mini offering 0.9% with 25% down may be a way to avoid -ve equity in the future

Convertibles are the biggest estate cars possible, just place big thing vertically instead of horizontally.. hth

Bout £400 a month for one but in base spec £450 ish if I want a decent spec one. I could get the Alpine A290 GTS for less. Or for the same I can get a BYD seal excellence with 530 bhp.

[GG.]

Gah - turns out the control arm replacement on the Range Rover has not cured the squeaking. I expect it is something like the trick hydraulic ARBs.

[Matty]

Do I get an EV.

Yes - with a couple of ICE cars in the fleet for the odd occasion you need some distance (or something more interesting) it's where you wanna be. I know I'm relatively late to the party but for a daily hack on modern roads they fit perfectly. Problem is, and I've spoken to others about this, you find yourself thinking "That journey will be £10 cheaper if I take the EV"

That being said, struggling to see the point of getting a 'sporty' one. Just planting your foot and watching numbers go up with no drama feels pointless....rather have a comfy EV and save that for the ICE weekender.

And yes to the A290, no to the Seal.

[JonMad]

Expensive* week for the Swift. (*relatively speaking)
Two new tyres needed on the front. Sticking with the odd 195/45/R17 std size as my current insurers (Direct Line) won't entertain any change to tyre size - 205/40R17 has more choice and is close enough. Going with Yoko Advan Fleva V701 as I have a couple of those on the back already so may as well make all four the same.

Then going in for a service on Friday.

[tim]

So after 18 months and 18,000 miles my Jaguar has finally developed an actual problem. An intermittent "Restricted Performance" message on dash (with no obvious restriction in performance) and the code reader says it's a exhaust temp sensor, so hopefully pretty simple to resolve.

It also has a dodgy parking sensor that sometimes knocks out the rear camera but that is highly intermittent.

And also I need to re-align the front undertray after an errant parking bay delimiter log (thank you Essex Wildlife Trust) caught it and pushed it backwards.

I've booked it into J-Cat in Norwich for a gearbox service and to deal with the above. There's a few hundred quids worth there but overall this car has cost me very little beyond fuel and insurance and is an absolute joy to drive.

I've fucked it now, obvs.

[Delphi]

I've had the most irritating hatch squeak on the 928 for ages and it's been driving me mad. Tried replacing the hatch seal, silicon spraying potentially contacting parts. Finally fixed it by winding the two adjustable rubber bump stops out a turn or so. Hatch is slightly harder to close now but the squeak has gone. Fitted a new upper hatch panel - mine had got wet in the past and had warped quite badly. A mate of mine had a black leather one that he gave me and another mate has sprayed it to match.