OV9

mik wrote: Thu Oct 09, 2025 7:13 am

Jobbo wrote: Thu Oct 09, 2025 6:42 am You should probably have gone for alloys with 12mm less offset to avoid her trimming them

Look really good though.

I haven’t told her, as that would become the cause of the next kerbing….

I imagine the original kerbing was your fault anyway

EV MOTs - well they're not going to fail on emissions but surely everything else is relevant?

Explosive Newt wrote: Thu Oct 09, 2025 8:13 am How the hell do you get an MOT for an EV

DYELC?

The high level break light on the motorhome has been on my to do list as the LEDs that actually work are becoming less every year. £50 for the replacement and an hour up a ladder fighting with about 10cm of cable once I pulled out the original light. Very fiddly but it would probably have failed the next MOT as it was close to 50% LEDs out already.

mik wrote: Wed Oct 08, 2025 11:04 pm
Snip

That better be your finger in the pic!

IanF wrote: Thu Oct 09, 2025 1:26 pm
That better be your finger in the pic!

Magic moments, when two hearts are carin'
Magic moments, memories we've been sharing

I'll never forget the moment we kissed,
The memory lingers.....
It wasn't the grass that tickled your arse,
Hole, it was my fingers

Magic moments filled with love

Had a coolant leak on the Boxster. Initial thoughts cross over pipes which is 700 quids. Turns out some fuckwit (me) didn't tighten the cap properly when topping it up. Been fine since I checked it was the more modern design one and actually put it on correctly.

Broccers wrote: Fri Oct 10, 2025 12:54 pm Had a coolant leak on the Boxster. Initial thoughts cross over pipes which is 700 quids. Turns out some fuckwit (me) didn't tighten the cap properly when topping it up. Been fine since I checked it was the more modern design one and actually put it on correctly.

Why did you need to top it up if there wasn't a leak, though?

Zoe passed the MOT, but not before a fail for both rear number plate bulbs being out. Fixed on the spot, but annoying to have to pay for and wait.

They could have come and asked me while they were working on it, rather than wait.

Jobbo wrote: Fri Oct 10, 2025 1:08 pm

Broccers wrote: Fri Oct 10, 2025 12:54 pm Had a coolant leak on the Boxster. Initial thoughts cross over pipes which is 700 quids. Turns out some fuckwit (me) didn't tighten the cap properly when topping it up. Been fine since I checked it was the more modern design one and actually put it on correctly.

Why did you need to top it up if there wasn't a leak, though?

It's a good question. I've topped it up twice in 5 years. I think there's some escape through the cap from my reading. A small insignificant leak tho doesn't need attention untill it's a big leak

Fabia collected. Gone to someone in the Oxford area to use initially for AutoSOLO. I know a few from that club so I expect they will recognise the car.

JonMad wrote: Sun Oct 12, 2025 12:14 pm Fabia collected. Gone to someone in the Oxford area to use initially for AutoSOLO. I know a few from that club so I expect they will recognise the car.

Ooh - I hadn’t spotted that you were moving it on. To be replaced by something else, or ???

Currently nothing - the Swift is the 'fun' (but also wife friendly) car for now.
Though that MX-5 posted the other day was lovely.
Dream would be an R8. I'm resisting the temptation to look seriously, and I'd probably need to fund a new en-suite and kitchen before that would be allowed.

Climbing through the roll cage and out of the boot was fun, having driven it up onto the trailer.

So a while after we got it, I took mrs mik's ETron into MBJarvie - they have a great rep for geo. They don't work weekends though, and they are always booked out for weeks in advance, so it was a bit of a pain to organise. Car felt great after it though, and the miles per kwh figure lifted up a smidge too.

Fast forward a few years to Feb-25. I drove it and it felt shit. Front tyres feathered too, so something was clearly out. We were going somewhere and I didn't have time for the malarky above, so I popped into Kwik Fit for a quick & nasty front tracking.

Car drove immediately better, but the steering wheel was about 3-4 degrees offset to the right when you were travelling straight ahead. Not much, but enough to get right on my tits pretty much every time I drove it.

So yesterday (8 months on.... hey - it's not my car!) I finally - with the help of a couple of dabs of paint as reference markers - put exactly half a turn on both nearside and offside steering rods as a "see how that looks" fix. Obviously one rod into the track rod end, the other out of the track rod end. Duh. Passengers side moved very easily. Drivers side was a buggar - had to use my big pipe wrench. So KwikFit clearly adjusted it via the nearside only then.... the nobs. DIdn't have to take the wheels off to do this - I jacked it up to give a little extra space, and just turned the steering to full lock to provide access.

Test drive : spot on! Very satisfying. Smug bastard.

JonMad wrote: Sun Oct 12, 2025 12:34 pm
Dream would be an R8. I'm resisting the temptation to look seriously, and I'd probably need to fund a new en-suite and kitchen before that would be allowed.

Every now and again I look at R8's on Autotrader, think about how great they look and are "reasonable" - then after thinking "Why does this video by REPerformance about buying R8's look familiar?" it's because I've seen it before and remember why I stopped looking for one

One of their recent videos is actually interesting about Audi and how they essentially abandon anything over 15 years old, unlike Porsche and BMW who are far better at offering support for their older models - goes on to mention about how many R8 (V8) parts are essentially unobtainable now, resulting in very expensive conversions (to V10 parts) or expensive 3rd party upgrades. Some of the potential costs are eye-watering.

But don't let me put you off

Edit - it's here (from 9:00 if the link doesn't stamp correctly):
https://youtu.be/f8YsMoZgJ-o?t=540

Excellent - some bedtime viewing! (Thanks though, sounds like good stuff to know about)

That's serious criticism of Audi. Crazy that they don't recognise the value in supporting the enthusiast community long-term.

DeskJockey wrote: Sun Oct 12, 2025 8:11 pm That's serious criticism of Audi. Crazy that they don't recognise the value in supporting the enthusiast community long-term.

It’s looking great for future 15 year old e-tron gt’s with buggered batteries

Still without a car of my own, which isn’t too bad as we have other cars in the house and working from home means that I don’t actually need a car, but want and need are 2 different things.

I drove a friends Taycan yesterday, it’s going back next week as the 4 year pcp comes to an end and the balloon is vasty higher than car’s value.

Despite everything, I can genuinely see the positives of the car and never thought I’d say this but could almost see reasons to own one over my much missed v8. It’s not for me, but at circa £40k used, it is a lot of car.

Driving my Dad's old '04 Merc C200 a bit recently as I've now procrastinated on selling it for two a bit years now, to the point where last year having been left garaged in the country a mouse got into the electricals (apparently they like to chew the electrical insulation when they've been poisoned) and broke it in several ways. After a six month stint as a fill-in project for a kindly local mechanic it was ressurected and I've brought it back to the city to prevent (hopefully) further rodent misadventures.

Did about 800km over the weekend with a few of those on gravel and it reminded me of how nice a compact manual sedan can be.

It's pleasant company, devoid of modern navigation or phone integration but the fundamental engineering in the sound pack and suspension is well done. It rides better and far quieter than my nearly two decades newer Xtrail.

It's just powerful enough to not feel slow but it certainly doesn't feel nicely supercharged and the engine is so anodyne it might as well be an EV, the manual change is, fine enough.

Controls are very numb which is really what puts me off keeping it, steering and brakes are barely more than a cheap playstation controler level of interaction.

So thoughts of getting it chipped for more powah, or a crazy engine swap are almost pointless as it'd just be more fun in a straight line, nothing more.

So it should be sold, but the spec is so bizarre that it'll either be a precious find for someone as similarly stubborly obtuse as my late father or a rare-but-nobody-cares pile of spares. Of the 2734 Mercedes C classes for sale in Aus, 1 is a manual and that's one of those weird hatchbacky things.

DeskJockey wrote: Sun Oct 12, 2025 8:11 pm That's serious criticism of Audi. Crazy that they don't recognise the value in supporting the enthusiast community long-term.

I agree. I guess my S6 Avant is probably not going to stay forever, just 15 years.

Audi UK sold off virtually all of their heritage fleet a few years ago which I thought was very sad and lacking respect for their history. There is a C3 100 Avant from it for sale currently: https://ebay.us/m/eRU0OK