The seem innocuous enough I suppose, fluting and creating a din as you listen through the open window at 5am, trying to gain consciousness with the help of a strong coffee. That`s the thing about the current heat wave.. SOUND.
The town hall clock strikes five - so you know the wind is from the East, due to the volume and clarity.

It`s the `nature hour.` Soon there will be the reciprocating metal roaring and snorting as engines fire up on driveways and the mammals get on with blasting their behemoths along the stained tarmac of the outer lane.

But now, briefly, only the cool breeze sliding down the western slopes of the Northern Pennines.

The `fluting` and `chaka chaka` floats in through the window, origins unseen - but for a flash of a dark shape across the morning mists. Of course... we always thought them as mere `birds`- either Auntie Nellies budgie, innocent seeming with it`s Sony Ericson esque, mobile phone `control tongue` - nibbling your ear.
Or the unseen bombers of your gleaming motors pristine paint.

Those crows flying over for example. They look quite purposeful as they pass over and you only have to consider the worms perspective to see the old T Rex standing over you again.
They could be back I suppose at some future point.. The basic physiology - the egg laying and that feathered and extra heated body. Genes still containing the possibility of arms in that wing expression.

The mammals are out of their red brick caves.......

Crush, blast and destroy - rend asunder - bones feathers and blood into the killing zone of the outer lane. Adding to the tarmacs rich patina, along with the nights haul of moths and the previous days and years destruction of once living things.

If the price of sentience is belief - What is the cost of cutting short those on the path to enlightenment?

Time flows. Or does it? But life comes in twists and turns and the squawking and rendering off the dawn chorus holds the promise and reward of endurance against continuing adversity.

Anyway, to the point. How do you remove the remains of life off the motor without damaging the paint?

oilrag Read more

I have a vauxhall vectra 2.5 v6 SRI. On driving home yesterday i noticed the EM light come on the dashboard. It stayed on for approximately 60 seconds during which the car felt lumpy and unresponsive. This cleared up, the light went off and the car drove home just fine . I then parked it up and went to bed (night shift worker). I got into the car to drive to work approximately 14 hours later and the car won't start. It just turns over and nothing else happens.
The EM light comes on and stays on during this time, as it normally did. and everything else appears normal.
I have tried the paperclip trick to read the error codes...but obviously i cant do this with the engine running as it wont start...
I get the following results...

10 3 3 0 which i assume is 0 3 3 0 (knock sensor 2 ??)

and when i try and start the car it changes to ...

10 3 3 5 which i assume is 0 3 3 5 (crank sensor ??)

any ideas. The car has been flawless up until now and has never let me down. Read more

Yet another Golf VI thread I'm afraid :-) Thought I would post a few observations from a test drive in the new GTI. Had the car for a few hours last week, did around 100 miles of mixed Motorway, A/B-road and urban driving. Something a bit different from the 2.2 diesel Avensis I currently drive. Apologies for mentioning it throughout, but obviously it was my yardstick for comparison - if an unlikely one!

It was a 5-dr GTI manual on optional 18in alloys, no other significant extras.

First impressions were how easy it was to drive around town. I expected it to feel over-eager and hard work, but the engine was very smooth and tractable. It actually felt less powerful and eager than the Avensis in these low rev tootlings. Sharpness of the brakes took a lot of getting used to. Ride quality far better than expected.

Onto the M5's rutted and washboard effect inside lane, aim to potter along at 60 or so and see what sort of economy it was capable of. Surprising lack of wind noise, an acceptable amount of tyre rumble and engine/exhaust noise. Not as civilised as the Avensis, would not expect it to be, but hugely more refined than I expected. From memory, it was a massive step forward compared with the Mk5 2.0 TDI I test drove 3 or so years ago. Trip computer (reset when I was still in town) was showing 46mpg after about 25/30 miles, and was still rising. Yes, driving like a nun, but very creditable for a 210bhp turbo.

Now for the A an B roads. The car was as good as I expected at this, incredibly taut and balanced handling, obviously putting the understeering Avensis to shame. Given a few revs the exhaust note was lovely, but clearly to drive legally in this country this car is just pottering. And it does that well, again the ride was better than expected and very acceptable for this type of car. If I bought one I would definitely want the Adaptive Chassis option simply because the comfort mode would (hopefully) add that extra 10% of comfort that would make the GTI a better commuting companion.

Other thoughts -

stereo looks nice, sounds average (worse than the Avensis and I don't rate that system). I am fussy about stereos though.

Alloys - not sure that the 18s are necessary but they fill the arches nicely. Shame the 17s and 18s are both of similar design and both a bit love 'em or hate 'em

Interior quality (perceived) - another massive step forward from the Mk V. Everything just looks that bit classier. Felt no more or less robust than my Toyota does at 50k miles.

Pity about the list price and, more particularly, the fact that 3 or 4 choice extras can easily push it to perhaps £27k, which is discounted S3 territory, never mind a huge choice of classy saloons. Huge money for a small hatch, albeit one that holds it's value well. IMO the ACC/AAC (chassis thingy) should at least be standard, as it is on the cheaper Sirocco, and probably Xenons too.

Just my opinions....interested to hear if anyone has driven an Adaptive Chassis equipped version and particularly in back to back comparison with the standard car.


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Looking at my dashboard today got to wondering who in the backroom has got the highest mileage car that is the main household vehicle. mine has 110,000 but I think this might be scoffed at. Read more

Hi guys,

I'd really appreciate some quick advice with this, my alternator recently stopped charging so I put it in at my mate's garage and they replaced it with a new Bosch unit (think it was rated at 130A)

When I got it back I noticed the car was mis-firing and also the lights were flickering even whilst driving (it used to do it at idle but stopped as soon as you revved it).

My mate has now replaced the alternator with another new Bosch unit and also fitted a new battery (apparently they need a particular Lead Calcium battery and mine only had a cheapo one fitted).

Despite that the lights are still flickering even when revving the car, the alternator is charging at 14.8V at idle and 15.11V when revving. My mate is at a bit of a loss as he thinks it unlikely that he'd get two faulty alternators in a row!

Any tips on what is the likely problem? The sparky is on holiday but has suggested a possible ECU fault if it is sending the wrong signals for charg e levels but it's flickering several times a second, I'm not sure even a faulty ECU could send such rapid signals?

Any help appreciated!
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