OV9

I didn’t actually know what the stats were, I was just surprised at how nicely it drove for a cheap basic little car.

Have thought about getting myself one for the commute, which is mostly sat behind other people at 40-50mph. If it would really do close to 60mpg it reduce my fuel costs by at least 30%

Of course I’d need to change wheels and fit silly suspension.

I don’t really know what my point was, other than I guess there are still basic underpowered small cars which are probably a lot nicer to own and drive everyday than the ones from the 80s.

Would make quite an interesting comparison vid actually. I enjoyed my mums 1.1 metro which was 60bhp and 830kg and never really felt slow. Would I still enjoy it now or want to use it everyday? Possibly not.

I do still have one, maybe I should resurrect it

I was shaken awake by the mrs at 6:30 this morning because the x5 alarm was going off. Weird, I don’t normally bother setting the alarm as I don’t keep anything in it, it’s still immobilised and we’d certainly hear it if someone tried to nick it in the night.

Weirder still, only the left front main beak was on, no indicators flashing etc.

Thankfully unlocking it with the key and opening the door was enough to silence it until daylight.

Looks like the 30+ hours of rain had found its way into the light control module at the bottom of the left A-pillar.

Removing that and jump starting the car, everything else seems ok.

Opened the module, no signs of water in it, just in a couple of the connectors. Leaving everything to dry out for a bit before plugging in and checking everything. Then will need to work out where water might be getting in. Great.

I assume you had a sunroof Harry. Got to be the starting point for investigation.

I’m specifically looking for a Touareg without a sunroof to avoid exactly that issue. Long term I don’t think any sunroof is a good thing.

Yes, it has a panoramic roof unfortunately. Would have preferred one without but was standard fit on the 4.8.

It’s broken, like most of them are so both motors are disconnected to save it jamming open, which is going to make it a bit awkward to open it to poke the drains!

Anyway, cleaned everything up and plugged it back in, everything seems to be working fine so haven’t fried the module at least.

Friends' Tiguan is currently with VW to be dried out before they can start to investigate which bits that have been damaged by water ingress.

The bill so far is reassuringly large.

integrale_evo wrote: Sat Jan 10, 2026 3:36 pm Yes, it has a panoramic roof unfortunately. Would have preferred one without but was standard fit on the 4.8.

Similar problem with Touaregs - the top spec has them as standard. They aren’t standard on the Escape spec I want but the most likely one I’ve seen advertised so far has one. Thank you for helping me not compromise.

THat was what wrote off my E class, pan roof jamming then blockages. The S5 is in to teh garage to try and work out why it keeps steammng up inside, looked at all drain holes, sill plugs etc, I am really hoping it is something simple, as otherwise I will probably cut my losses and change the car.

integrale_evo wrote: Sat Jan 10, 2026 3:36 pm Yes, it has a panoramic roof unfortunately. Would have preferred one without but was standard fit on the 4.8.

It’s broken, like most of them are so both motors are disconnected to save it jamming open, which is going to make it a bit awkward to open it to poke the drains!

Anyway, cleaned everything up and plugged it back in, everything seems to be working fine so haven’t fried the module at least.

Is that generation like our E70 where the rear drain holes exit just behind the boot lid? If so, you should be able to at least clean those up.
Since having a wet footwell and boot I leave a small cable tie permanently in the one-way valve to keep it open and let any debris run out.

Merc MOT last week, flying colours etc etc.

I had them look at the radio as it's error'd a couple of times recently and the warranty expires in a month or so so I wanted them to sort it before that runs out.

Turns out they think it could do with a new tuner, so have submitted a claim for the same from Merc warranties. The service chap showed me how much they were.... £2,200! LOL.

They're coming back to me when hopefully that is approved in a week or so.

The carplay on the van was always “ok”, the text was always a bit too big and when you do a search, the keyboard covered most of the results.

I got a new phone and paired it today, suddenly all the fonts/text boxes are the right size and the whole thing looks and works so much better. I don’t know if the new IOS added any feature, but i did find a box for optimising for screen size that id not seen before?

So, i could have missed a great feature for the last year, or apple updated it. either way, i’m happy now as it all works so much better!

Apple have definitely updated Carplay so it scales icons etc to suit the car screen - that's probably the difference.

Annoyingly I find the larger icons obscure things on the maps now so I'm not massively pleased with the change

Jobbo wrote: Mon Jan 12, 2026 12:32 pm Apple have definitely updated Carplay so it scales icons etc to suit the car screen - that's probably the difference.

Annoyingly I find the larger icons obscure things on the maps now so I'm not massively pleased with the change

ah, so it is a “new” thing. The van has a fairly small screen (compared to the huge screens these days) being from 2021 - so the smaller icons make it SO much better.

Anyone have any idea where I can get the below part without paying £60 for two tiny bits of plastic??

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006 ... Redirect=n

ETA part number looks to be 45375118009696 but saying its no longer in production

GG. wrote: Mon Jan 12, 2026 2:23 pm Anyone have any idea where I can get the below part without paying £60 for two tiny bits of plastic??

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006 ... Redirect=n

ETA part number looks to be 45375118009696 but saying its no longer in production

Try a big breakers like Silverlake, they have Twingo/Forfour bits on ebay so worth a call or email.

Carlos wrote: Mon Jan 12, 2026 3:37 pm

GG. wrote: Mon Jan 12, 2026 2:23 pm Anyone have any idea where I can get the below part without paying £60 for two tiny bits of plastic??

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006 ... Redirect=n

ETA part number looks to be 45375118009696 but saying its no longer in production

Try a big breakers like Silverlake, they have Twingo/Forfour bits on ebay so worth a call or email.

Cheers! They seem to have a few being broken up so hopefully a case of emailing and asking for them.

Car back.

No horrible squeals, no awful clunks. The latter, particularly, I should have done ages ago really.

£575 all in, most of that for the lower arms obviously.

Are control arms pricey on the Z4? They're about £50 a pop for the E91 for Febi

Smart is in the garage for a service and replacement battery. Seems the stop start compatible batteries are £250 so likely a £500 bill i'd guess

Porsche have not responded to my request made 10 days ago to book the car in to have the speakers sorted. Dealership was bought out by the Porsche factory last year but levels of responsiveness seem to remain as before...

Warranty renewal has just dropped for the RR. Toying with not continuing it this year as its an awful lot of money (£2,200 p.a. (with recovery)) and has not been worth it in any of the 4 years I've had it. Obviously as soon as I do that I'll walk outside to it having literally spontaneously combusted...

'Radio tuner' thingy (in the boot) approved for warranty replacement so car will go back in next Wednesday to have that done.

Swervin_Mervin wrote: Wed Jan 14, 2026 10:02 am Are control arms pricey on the Z4? They're about £50 a pop for the E91 for Febi

Febi units are £90 without the rear bush for the Z4 as far as I can see, basically it's the 'modern classic tax' taking a bit of effect.

Mechanic there knows I have a preference for OE or good OE equivalent (not cheapy 'get me through the MOT please' chineseum stuff) so it might even be Lemforder, although retail prices on those (a a kit with rear bush) seem a bit higher than what I paid retail.