Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

forester?

I’ve just replaced the heater fan, resistor and cabin filter £120 as apposed to £500+ from the VAG specialist. So it’s got to last another few years to get that back.

Want!
I actually really want to get one of these, but cost prohibitive right now. Would be sweet here. Proper off road capable too.

You've got a Saab for something interesting. Just get the best Golf or Civic in your budget.

I recognise this from being featured in Advanture magazine!

Article for those interested.

6 Attachments

Nice, thanks for posting.

I'm guessing he was visiting or was maybe involved in the skateboard exhibition at the design museum, as it was parked outside there.

Porsche? 😁
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/126141315064

Wildcard, BMW i3
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/314918051383

Wait, since when are i3s £8k!?

Item no longer available...

Yeah looks like they're normally 9-10 minimum. Maybe they underestimated the value and have pulled it or maybe it was a bargain and sold

Porsche is awful and I thought for a moment that was a link to a 1 series and was about to put you on ignore but I actually do like the i3.

I have a tip run planned for tomorrow that makes me grateful I have neither of those.

Hi I wondered if I could have a hand please? I’ve lost the code for the key pad in my old peugeot. I’ve read -without a great amount of comprehension- that you can get it back from the ‘bsi’ same way you’d look up diagnostics. But the car is now immobilised so I’m not sure how I’m going to get the car to a garage. I also heard that some people can find it out for you if you give them you VIN online, but I don’t see how that works. Help! I need the car soon for a trip

My basic plan was, in the menatime, to unplug the key pad, but I worry this will leave the car immobilised.

Has anyone wrapped their trim? My car's got chrome window trim, which I'd like to be black. As far as I can tell, the only available source are BMW parts which are relatively expensive. I could get it taped / wrapped for significantly less cost and faff (or painted I guess, which I imagine will be more expensive).

Wondering if it lasts or will start to look a bit tatty in a couple of years

Have you asked a Peugeot dealer? seems likely there would be an official way to retrieve a lost code

Driving someone else's car:

I seem to recall that if you have fully comp insurance this usually gives you 3rd party cover to drive someone else's car, is that right?

What's the easiest way to get full cover to drive someone's car for a day or so, get added to their policy?

I used 'Veygo' recently (I think they're part of Admiral). Cost me £16 for about 24 hours.

Thanks 👍

Check your policy first. My old policy gave me 3rd party on anyone's car and my motorbike still does*. Unless you're very young or high risk it'll probably be cheapest to get them to add you to the insurance. To speed things up go on compare the market and write the answers to all the questions for your mate's call with their insurance company.

You can also get day insurance for things like testing a car, but normally it would be something like £25 to get added to a policy so not really vfm for a 3rd party policy vs being put on the proper main one.

*Also a word of caution to anyone who believes they have this, make sure you double check. There was a story on Pistonheads years ago where this was removed at renewal from someones dad's policy. They didn't notice, drove the sons car and got hit by another driver 100%. They had to cover both cars and compensation for the other driver. I can't recall the number but it was obvs 10s of £ks

An appeal to the more mechanically minded amongst you. I bought a mk6 golf a few months ago, been a dream since, not skipped a beat. Is due in for a service to pick up some bits I knew about when buying before some long trips coming up and MOT in Dec. I finally got around this weekend to replacing a wing mirror which had been battered about and fitting an after market android head unit (aliexpress). All seemed to go pretty well, but in hindsight I guess I may have had the head unit on for ~10 minutes without the engine being on and when I went to start the car it wasn't even close to turning over and the dash was list up with warning lights. So, assume I drained the battery (looking into it, seems lots of chat about these head units being problematic in this regard, recommendation being you need to go into settings and ensure it only ever turns on when engine on and auto-turns-off when engine off) but a mate came round to give me a jump, and despite 20 minutes of charge, nothing doing there. My questions are basically a) what should I do here? Use roadside breakdown cover to come and have a look or find local garage who offer some sort of outcall diagnosis/battery charge? b) my concern is that something I messed about with (wiring the wing mirror or the head unit) has gone wrong and emptied the battery which I will somehow need to get diagnosed, does this sound likely? And if so, is this something a general mechanic would take on or would I need a specialist electronics/audio guy?

Cheers

Sounds like you need to check for a short to earth which could be e.g. a live wire in contact with the car body.

Next possibility is you have inadvertently killed the battery and will need to replace it.

make sure you double check

Good advice - thanks!

Yeah, I wondered about that - I've only really plugged plasticky connectors into each other so I'd hope nothing was loose/free enough to be shorting. TBH the car is due some attention so if a new battery is the answer that wouldn't be the end of the world at all. Presumably having roadside assistance, getting them out is the best way to find out what's happened?

Had an engine light come on last week on my 2010 1.2 skoda yeti. I turned left up a steep hill and immediately it revved louder than the pressure I was applying suggested and the light came on. Drove OK but sounded/felt a bit off so I came home, haven't driven since and took it into the garage this morning.

They're calling and saying it's a timing chain replacement and with a service comes to £1300.

Thoughts? I use the car for work to ferry quite a lot of heavy equipment around - usually 500 mile round trips once or twice a quarter. The rest is just day to day driving around devon and cornwall.

I just got paid for a big job this morning so am lucky in that I can afford to get it replaced. Do I need to? My understanding is if it's a chain it's not going to snap like a belt but would just get louder etc - will it lead to something more catastrophic?

Bought the car 3 years ago for £6k but I'd never find one in as good condition atm for a similar price. It's done 60,000 miles. I do 10,000 miles a year. (Bought it with 30,000 on the clock).

Edit: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/may/07/skoda-yeti-known-fault-timing-chain sounds like it needs doing. There goes the new dual monitors @chrisbmx116