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16

General Car Chat / Astra Cambelt change

« on: 21 December 2019, 00:55:35 »

My 2012 Astra 1.6 has done 51000 miles and is just over 7.5 years old. Dealer states cambelt should be changed every 100,000 or 6 years (but they did not pick up on it last service 12 months ago).

Having now retired I will probably sell it but possibly move it to the house in Manchester as I am using rain more to visit relatives.

Is it worth the gamble given the mileage of leaving it another year. Cost is only £269 but seems a waste if selling but on the other hand would not really want cam belt to fail for next buyer.

17

General Car Chat / Barnsley Road Wakefield - security issues?

« on: 17 July 2019, 19:09:10 »

I have decided to trade in Phaeton for a Volvo v90. Only issue is collecting it from Wakefield this weekend and whether it is safe to venture into this area?

Any precautions needed - whippet attacks etc?

18

General Car Chat / Traffic Message Channel/SAT NAV etc

« on: 10 July 2019, 08:24:59 »

I have tried to research how the Dynamic Route Guidance stuff works but struggling to find who is responsible if you want to raise an issue.

Basic problem is uncleared traffic messages which create unnecessary route alterations. Example - travelling from Sandhurst To Manchester last week I start to get route switch messages from the Phaeton wanting me to leave M42 at Shirley!!! as M6 and M6 toll have 4 mile queues. This is probably a left over from overnight work or something. Anyhow I ignored it and all fine as there were no other motorway signs showing a problem.

Any pointers would be helpful - an organisation called INRIS maybe responsible but they seem to support car manufacturers and corporate customers. Just need to understand why these messages are not cleared - is it a car problem or a TMC problem?

19

General Car Chat / dot 4 brake fluid

« on: 04 July 2019, 16:33:53 »

Can I top up with any brand of Dot 4 or should I stick to a VW supplied fluid?

20

General Car Chat / Phaeton on the way out?

« on: 02 June 2019, 10:20:10 »

After 10 years I think it is time to retire the Phaeton. It needs a new steering rack and feed pipes and ac condenser. The ac condenser is not a problem but there is no equivalent steering rack replacement and the VW part is £2k and the feeder pipe £300+. I can get a refurbed steering rack for £300  but nobody round here wants to fit it so I will park up the phaeton until I can find a solution. no point doing condenser on its own as the feeder pipe needs bumper off and front end exposed.

Now looking at other cars and given my size - the best option seems to be the Volvo S90 and V90 Inscription (2018) but these still leave me with RFL of £465 like the Phaeton. Going to see a Mercedes E220d AMG Estate later.

Even in perfect nick the Phaeton is only worth about £4-5k. Even if repairs done I am still on original exhaust and batteries and who knows what is around the corner. I have in the past been able to get discs and pads as non VW but the bigger items have no VW equivalent obviously due to low numbers of Phaetons sold. (some parts are shared with Touareg/Bentley/A8).

Reluctant to scrap it as it is otherwise perfect with full VW service history. Waiting to get video of issue and to hear if any goodwill from VW.

I test drove an S90 D5 Inscription yesterday and very impressed. Obviously not the best looker.

21

General Discussion Area / Rooting of phones

« on: 04 April 2019, 16:06:36 »

I have stayed well clear of anything to do with the rooting of phones - or at least I thought I had.

Tried to do something on my galaxy S9+ and it comes up with not possible for rooted phones!!

Is it possible for rooting of a phone direct from EE to have happened through some background programme or at least no request at any time warning me that accepting a command will root the phone?? There are no other operational issues with the phone.

22

General Discussion Area / Samsung Washing machine nonsense

« on: 26 March 2019, 18:04:18 »

My daughter's Samsung ECOBubble has stopped working mid wash. They contact Samsung who say if it is a known fault on inspection by a Samsung authorised engineer then they will pay cost of part. When is the earliest this engineer can attend - 4 weeks. They get a local guy in who confirms it is the motherboard - a common fault - £145 for the part and £60 labour/call out. Samsung do not see the argument why with 2 small kids and loads of washing that 4 weeks is unacceptable. It will have to be fixed and protests made but if anyone other than this Samsung engineer attends then Samsung will void their commitment. Can only think of advising Which of this and write to MD of Samsung UK - I hate this kind of rubbish from a big company.

23

General Discussion Area / cat5 or cat6 external ethernet

« on: 14 March 2019, 08:51:42 »

As we have building work going on just wondered about replacing some ethernet cable which runs 12 m down one side of the house on an external wall. Goes from router to ethernet switch where it then feeds tv, eetv, xbox and hive. is there any point in using cat6 in this circumstance please?

24

General Car Chat / Ford Focus Cam belt change

« on: 09 March 2019, 08:53:09 »

Crept up on my daughter a bit but her Focus now 10 years old she is advised at service of scheduled change - was a bit surprised at even independent cost of change at £400 + but looking around - the fact that water pump is changed as well goes a little way to explain.

When Omega belt changed at a dealer was about £260 to £300 but that was a few years ago.

Seems to have been 4 man hours labour to do the Focus job .

25

General Discussion Area / SGN - Southern Gas Network

« on: 08 March 2019, 00:20:29 »

We are having an extension built and I strongly suspected that the service pipes may go through the area of the extension. Tried to get drawings etc from the utilities but no luck so we had to get on with it by blend of JCB and hand digging. Sure enough - sod's law the various pipes make a right turn across the garden into my drive through area of the extension.

For a 12 metre stretch of gas main diversion in soft ground SGN require £1600!!! We are currently in negation for  price reduction with my builder digging the trench . The electric guys turned up with 2 large vans and there own jcb but when they got down to it used their common sense and adapted to the outside of the trench we used for the footings.

Another one down to experience I suppose.

26

General Discussion Area / Sky

« on: 03 March 2019, 14:17:05 »

2 years ago after a long boring negotiation I agreed a deal with Sky with which I was very happy and I said at the time if you try this horse trading again I will just leave.

So my deal is set to go from £82.50 to £150. Immediately cancelled everything for 31 days hence. They then come back with £120 but I have now made my decision.

Shame because I like the Sky system but do not need to pay a premium for this.

I will go to EETV at £38 all in including 20gb monthly data boost (for mobile phone) as this will meet our needs and I already have EETV with fibre unlimited in another property.

27

General Car Chat / Expert opinion

« on: 15 January 2019, 15:37:38 »

Long story short - Jan 2016 crankshaft pulley on Phaeton collapses - new crankshaft pulley fitted by VW dealer Inchcape in Stockport - guaranteed for 2 years. April 2018 crankshaft pulley fault again new one fitted by my usual dealer in Camberley as that was where car failed. I am claiming inherent fault under Sale of Goods Act. Inchcape say I need to prove inherent fault. Quick word with Which and apparently all I need to do is to get an expert opinion to say that there is nothing I could have done which caused this pulley to fail. Seems a bit obvious but any thoughts if dealer in Camberley decides not to get involved in the dispute and give me such a letter as they will be in VW bad books?


I still have my Resolver case but seems I will need some additional evidence to argue inherent vice/unfit for purpose.

28

General Car Chat / Insignia electrics after going through large puddle

« on: 19 December 2018, 16:33:04 »

My wife hit a large puddle in heavy rain last night. Drove home no problems but today all sots of warning lights and issues with alarm, power tailgate, airbag etc. Do we just wait for it to dry out?

29

General Discussion Area / Condensation in certain parts of loft

« on: 14 December 2018, 15:03:58 »

Not noticed it before but despite having deep insulation in loft today there are globules of water that have dripped onto some items. We moved from freezing to thaw pretty quickly today and wonder if this is just a one off. Is this normal - have googled but not getting clear info. I will call someone like Homelogic but they will no doubt want to sell me an expensive solution.

Thoughts appreciated.

30

General Discussion Area / Hive Central Heating and Water

« on: 28 September 2018, 17:39:45 »

Just to relay my experience today with what I thought would be a fairly straight forward installation.

I decided  to go for central heating control from my phone/laptop etc. I fortunately had a gas engineer to do it.

Old programmer removed and Hive receiver fitted its place no problem. Working fine on direct.

Start to connect hub to pair with receiver. 2 hours later and having moved hub to line of sight to receiver (and back again)  still no pairing.

Phone British Gas/Hive who start off saying problem is the solid walls and then asks for some details off the back of the hub - next thing it pairs and he tells me Hive hub is 9.1 metres from the receiver.

All working but checking on Hive reviews appears this is quite common. Lesson - if it don't connect straight away don't waste time thinking it is your set up - ring Hive to do some jiggery pokery in the background.