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4261

General Car Chat / Re: So what have you done to your car today?

« on: 16 June 2015, 10:23:53 »

Come on man,what have you bought

Whoops sorry Al, Henry - didn't notice anyone had replied

2004 BMW 645Ci Convertible with a proper (manual) gearbox and a long list of options. 2 owners & 60k on the clock and it was under £10k (before trade in)

That is a truly despicable amount of car for the money! Very jealous! 

4262

General Car Chat / Re: I have just insured my new car.

« on: 15 June 2015, 12:25:47 »

You must live in a nicer area that I do!

£430 for the CDX estate (9yrs ncb). But I guess business use and naming my wife on there has an impact - 3 yrs experience, nil ncb and 1 written off picanto to her name 

4263

General Car Chat / Re: Halfrauds lives up to its name

« on: 15 June 2015, 11:20:41 »

So I think it was Trading Standards' own "stooge" car ie with defects planted on it rather than any individual's own vehicle.

I think the bills break down as

£32,000 fine going to Trading Standards / HMRC / someone
£14,862.04 legal bill going to (presumably) Trading Standards' legal team
£120 victim surcharge going to a fund to compensate other victims of crime

4264

General Car Chat / Re: So what have you done to your car today?

« on: 13 June 2015, 22:36:14 »

Finished my HU install. Got blanking plate for between cup holder and new HU, pics to follow. Definitely doesn't look OEM but not a bodge either so I'm chuffed.

Also waved off my 9-5 aero after a mission getting her onto a wholly unsuitable trailer.

Oh and had the air on tested, re gassed and now ice cold . Hope it lasts. Held 10psi for 20mins and passed the pressure test on the machine so I'm hopeful. Formula1 in kidderminster sorted me out. Can thoroughly recommend the guys down there. Even got the correct (950g) of refrigerant.

4265

General Car Chat / Re: Le Mans should be interesting...

« on: 12 June 2015, 11:22:48 »

Not sure I would want a Kers flywheel near me spinning at 52,000 rpm even if it is in a vacuum. These sort of inovations will make there way onto road cars one day

The company I work for makes these type of flywheel energy recovery systems, amongst many other cool bits of tech. Their application won't so much be for road cars due to the way they work. Road cars tend to either be on long motorway runs or stop start traffic. Neither of which generates the deceleration momentum required to power up the flywheel.

Where they will (and already are) coming into use is on buses, due to their increased mass over a car and frequent deceleration from c30mph they make great candidates for this sort of tech. As do certain delivery vehicles (think US mail trucks). The problem is one of miniaturising the technology, the smaller (and hence lower mass) the flywheel is, the faster it has to spin. Ours are larger and operate at around 45,000 rpm. But we're also making ones for the Audit R-18 which operate at similar speeds.

/Geek mode 

4266

Omega General Help / Re: Brake pads

« on: 11 June 2015, 14:01:00 »

Did mine with Pagid about a month ago - no complaints so far 

Thought about fitting Eicher, but for the sake of £4.50 for pads and £5 per disc, I went with a company I'd heard of!
 

4267

Omega Electrical and Audio Help / Re: In search of a permanent live for my new Sony head unit.

« on: 11 June 2015, 00:31:32 »

Have you 100% got the correct connects2 loom for a Sony H/U...?

No idea, it's 100% what I ordered and (with the exception of the brown wire) plugged in just fine.

As well as wiring everything up correctly, these interfaces often have a correct power up and connection sequence that must be adhered to in order for the head unit to recognise it

Hence the need to study the instructions carefully   


Oh, BTW - the top MINI-ISO block is not used for steering controls as previously suggested on this model

Thanks for the info on the mini ISO block. I will re-read ithe instructions for the HU but didn't see anything about a stalk adapter. As mentioned nothing came with the adapter and I haven't had chance to find it on the net yet.

4268

General Car Chat / Re: Aldi car parking fine.

« on: 10 June 2015, 17:49:26 »

From Aldi PoV, you will likely get better traction if you post it publicly on their Facebook or Twitter feeds. Give em a chance to respond via email though.

4269

General Discussion Area / Re: What sort of spec is needed for a media centre

« on: 09 June 2015, 16:32:11 »

Bit left field, but a second hand PS3 and one of THESE would probably do all you want at a fraction of the time and expense of building up a tower pc ie:

DVR (via play tv)
Blue Ray
HDMI out
Optical sound out
Built in Wifi
Easy to use GUI
Bluetooth
choice of controller "proper" blu ray remote or wireless keyboard
Looks neater than any of the budget pc cases out there.

500GB ps3 can be had for about £100-120 from CEX with a warranty. 


EDIT - And I thought my suggestion was cheap deviator 

4270

General Car Chat / Re: Aldi car parking fine.

« on: 09 June 2015, 16:09:58 »

Id personally ignore it meself.... and tell them to go forth etc...

I would say this is a bad plan. Its likely to lead to the addition of admin fees, passing of debt to debt collector, then potentially (depending on the debt collection agency) a CCJ and bailiffs, in that order.

When I've been charged for something I believe is unfair/unjustifiable I typically pay the amount and then fight to get it back. This then prevents the aforementioned harassment and other associated problems (damage to credit rating etc). Of course that only works if the payment of the amount in question and the costs to get it back doesn't put you in financial difficulties - I am fortunate in that it never has.

In this instance, given the (relatively large) fine and (relatively small) overstay, combined with the mitigating circumstance that the OP's wife was actually using the store, I would take the case to POPLA on "genuine pre-estimate of loss" grounds. Although something in the back of my mind makes me think a big case is going through the supreme court ATM on that very issue. Some googling would probably be useful.

In the second instance, I'd go to Aldi for an ex-gratia payment, given the amount you could probably get it back from them just by threatening to take them to the county court for it. Even if your reasons were spurious you could probably get it off them because the company cannot afford to defend a claim for £70. Their solicitors probably bill out at about twice that amount - per hour.

Just my 2p

4271

General Car Chat / Re: Aldi car parking fine.

« on: 09 June 2015, 12:42:17 »

That sounds rather excessive given the overstay.

Never fought one of these before. However I do know they should issue the notice within 14 days of the "offence" - worth checking as a first port of call. Also, the article below should give you a good amount of info, both on the company and the steps to take if you want to fight the ticket.

http://www.parkingcowboys.co.uk/parking-eye/

4272

Omega Electrical and Audio Help / Re: In search of a permanent live for my new Sony head unit.

« on: 09 June 2015, 11:04:37 »

Andy, no cut wires, the blue and white (towards the top of the pic) are looped across two pins of the connector.

I will do some concerted Googling to find the connection diagram/instructions. Sadly none were included with the cable.

4273

Omega Electrical and Audio Help / Re: In search of a permanent live for my new Sony head unit.

« on: 08 June 2015, 20:48:06 »

Thanks chaps. This worked a treat. Next on my list of stupid questions is about a connects2 stalk adapter. I thought these were plug and play, but it seems possibly not.

The kit is an in-line one (shown below) and hooks into my head unit just fine and the ISO connectors also hook up. But does anyone know what the brown wire is? Just connecting up the ISOs and small jack lead doesn't get it working.



Also, the kit doesn't use the connector below at all which makes me think it maybe the wrong one?? I know some of the pins must be to drive the info display but I'm wondering if I need a different stalk controller?



Finally, sadly the kit didn't come with instructionsso Please read the manual is not an option.

4274

Omega Electrical and Audio Help / Re: In search of a permanent live for my new Sony head unit.

« on: 08 June 2015, 16:44:04 »

But... but... if I read the instructions I wouldn't get to take up other people's valuable time by asking inane questions 

Thanks chaps, will Please read the manual tonight when I get back to the hotel.

4275

Omega Electrical and Audio Help / In search of a permanent live for my new Sony head unit.

« on: 08 June 2015, 16:38:44 »

So, I managed to install my new mechless head unit and cup holder (just waiting for a blanking plate to complete the effect) and I have a curious problem.

The head unit works broadly as expected, even down to continuing to play when the ignition is switched off but stopping when the key is removed  . BUT, when I take the key out for any period of time (from 2secs to overnight), all the settings on the radio disappear, including clock, station presets, equaliser presets, the whole lot. - Very annoying.

What I think must be happening is that the HU pin for permanent live must be matched off to a switched live on the car side of the connector. Currently, one of the three parts of the block connector on the car side is left blank as I haven't yet fitted the steering wheel control unit I purchased. But I can't see that making any difference?

So, does anyone have a wiring diagram for the vauxhall radio plug so I can splice in a proper permanent live and keep my radio settings?

Thanks in advance