OV9

Carplay is less of a priority with our Mini than fixing the screen washers so it can be MOTed

Unrelated to Carplay, I used that there ceramic thingy on the car 15 days ago, have jetwashed the car three times and despite the fact it sits under a tree and gets clarted in honeydew and sap, a 'hot pre wash' and cold rinse at the local Morrisons coinop jetwash has cleaned it up every time.

Still beading pretty well, although I think the roof could do with a reapplication - sides and bonnet are still fine though.

So in terms of making the car easier to wash for a few weeks at a time, for the crap parking I have, it's done exactly what I hoped.

Quite pleased with that.

Beany wrote: Tue Jun 24, 2025 11:01 pm

Just don't over think it.

OK, who's hacked Beany's account?

Beany wrote: Wed Jun 25, 2025 9:53 am I used that there ceramic thingy on the car 15 days ago

Remind me what where ceramic thingy?

mik wrote: Wed Jun 25, 2025 12:51 pm

Beany wrote: Wed Jun 25, 2025 9:53 am I used that there ceramic thingy on the car 15 days ago

Remind me what where ceramic thingy?

Your small mugs.

mik wrote: Wed Jun 25, 2025 12:51 pm

Beany wrote: Wed Jun 25, 2025 9:53 am I used that there ceramic thingy on the car 15 days ago

Remind me what where ceramic thingy?

Auto Glym Rapid Ceramic Spray

https://www.autoglym.com/rcs500-rapid-c ... spray.html

Apparently teh G-Tecnic (?) stuff is better, which of course I found out the day after I bought it, but they're all a bit better and more durable than your average quick detailer spray that has a bit of wax in it, in short.

John wrote: Wed Jun 25, 2025 12:35 pm

Beany wrote: Tue Jun 24, 2025 11:01 pm

Just don't over think it.

OK, who's hacked Beany's account?

Wheesht you, i have a reputation on here to maintain.

...not necessarily a good one, but a reputation nonetheless!

Actually watched a review on quick detailers a few days ago, as I need to replenish my supply. The autoglym one reviewed well.

I like a lot of their products to be honest, just decent no nonsense products that work well, can be a bit pricey so worth taking advantage of offers at Halfords, although I find Amazon often matches them.

I’m on my last squirty bottle of the 5l tub of their normal detailer I bought a couple of years ago.

I've used Carplan No.1 Super Gloss on the M2 recently as its parked under tree and always covered in sap and bird shit. Does a great job of sealing the paint and a quick wash or jetwash gets it half tidy again.

Cheap as well at £7.99.

I pick up a bottle of the Meguiars stuff whenever I go to Costco. It’s decent, seems to last for a long while as my cars are always beading when it rains. I like it because it takes 20 seconds to apply and you can cover the whole car in it, windows too.
The 7 series came with a professional sealant applied. I think it’s snake oil though. It states it lasts 5 years but every few months you need to wash it with a special ceramic shampoo and then spray the detailing spray to top up the coating. So I’m guessing in reality the ceramic coating lasts no more than the usual 3-6 months and the spray is doing all the heavy lifting.
Would be nice if someone with access to an electron microscope actually tested out some of these claims as I reckon it’s mostly false claims.

I got the AutoGlym off Amazon for £17 which is a bit less galling than the usual £20-25 you see it for.

But yeah, Carlos, exactly the same problem here, and it does the job nicely. Only problem I have is I need to get more/better drying towels otherwise I get water spots from jetwashing which is a bit annoying. That, and I need to remember to use a separate thing to swish the collected water out of the bottom of the rear screen, which is a bit of a pain in the arse.

I’m thinking of getting one of those little battery powered air duster / blaster things to push the water out of crevices. I think you’ll look like less of a mental using one of those for a minute than wheeling out a pet drier or full size leaf blower.

Fired up the M3 for the first time in a year. I'm planning to tax it and actually start using it from the 1st of July, after 5 years of being Statutorily Off Road

Fuck me Marv let's gets Jonny Smith on it as a barn find

Renault update: it was sometimes not charging. Since it wasn't used for a couple of days last week and the charger wouldn't communicate with it, I realised it was in a sleep state so when trying to charge manually it wouldn't take any. I googled it and have seen people having similar issues with the Ohme charger and Octopus Intelligent Go tariff so I tried unpairing them all from each other (which I realised afterwards may jeopardise my being on that tariff, but hey) and set the car to just draw charge between 11.30pm and 5.30am at the cheap rate overnight.

It worked for one night then didn't charge the next. So last night I paired everything again and started looking deeper. It does seem to be that the Renault 5 goes into a deep sleep state pretty quickly, after maybe only 30 mins, and won't accept charge starting after that. Seems odd that would be the case when the car is set to demand charge, so maybe that was something else going on. But it's not a charger/tariff communication issue, it is the car: Intelligent Go is supposed to allocate small amounts of charge to where demand on the grid is low and charge the cheap rate even outside the overnight hours. What this means is that it might get 10 mins of charging at 7pm and then nothing until much later. During which time the car goes to sleep and won't then start charging. Which is an arse, but seems a common enough issue that I imagine it will be resolved with an update soon. In the meantime I've set the required ready time in the Ohme app to 4.00am so it should always start charging early; it worked last night, so we'll see.

But then last night the alarm started going off randomly from about midnight. My wife unlocked and re-locked it the first two times, about half an hour apart, then I got up the third time and tried to find a fix. I ended up disabling the alarm; there's nothing in the e-manual about the alarm at all and google was unhelpful, but eventually I searched on Youtube and found a video showing how to do it. FFS. But it's clearly got an issue; it hasn't gone off once previously so I think it's a trip back to the dealer to sort out.

Marv wrote: Wed Jun 25, 2025 10:39 pm Fired up the M3 for the first time in a year. I'm planning to tax it and actually start using it from the 1st of July, after 5 years of being Statutorily Off Road

Could you call it the CSL please to give the car the gravitas that it deserves.

Thankyou.

Dave!

V8Granite wrote: Thu Jun 26, 2025 11:18 am

Marv wrote: Wed Jun 25, 2025 10:39 pm Fired up the M3 for the first time in a year. I'm planning to tax it and actually start using it from the 1st of July, after 5 years of being Statutorily Off Road

Could you call it the CSL please to give the car the gravitas that it deserves.

Thankyou.

Dave!

I prefer to be low-key about such things. I might actually start referring to it as "the E46 Coupe"

integrale_evo wrote: Wed Jun 25, 2025 10:27 pm I’m thinking of getting one of those little battery powered air duster / blaster things to push the water out of crevices. I think you’ll look like less of a mental using one of those for a minute than wheeling out a pet drier or full size leaf blower.

I've had similar thoughts, but the good ones that get reviewed with glowing praise for actually being....you know, useful, immediately go out of stock and never come back....

Marv wrote: Thu Jun 26, 2025 10:23 pm

V8Granite wrote: Thu Jun 26, 2025 11:18 am

Marv wrote: Wed Jun 25, 2025 10:39 pm Fired up the M3 for the first time in a year. I'm planning to tax it and actually start using it from the 1st of July, after 5 years of being Statutorily Off Road

Could you call it the CSL please to give the car the gravitas that it deserves.

Thankyou.

Dave!

I prefer to be low-key about such things. I might actually start referring to it as "the E46 Coupe"

How about just "the 3 series"?

Jimmy Choo wrote: Thu Jun 26, 2025 11:16 pm

Marv wrote: Thu Jun 26, 2025 10:23 pm

V8Granite wrote: Thu Jun 26, 2025 11:18 am

Could you call it the CSL please to give the car the gravitas that it deserves.

Thankyou.

Dave!

I prefer to be low-key about such things. I might actually start referring to it as "the E46 Coupe"

How about just "the 3 series"?

3'er ?