May 2023
I have been having battery problems for some time now. When the car was only 6 months old, it was in an accident and spent seven weeks being repaired. The damage was rear end only. When I got it back, I started getting starting problems where one day it was fine and the next day it was pretty much dead and I had to get recovery out to start it. (I subsequently bought a booster/charger).
My initial thoughts were that it had probably spent its time at the repairers being started and stopped as they moved it around the shop without any long running to charge it. It was also delivered back to me on a trailer so still no long run. I have given it plenty of long runs since then but the problem occasionally rears its head when it suddenly won't start one day. Now that I am retired, I don't do the mileage I used to but still do enough to keep the battery charged I would have thought. However, the battery voltage always seems low, even shortly after a long run. Last Sunday I came back from 600 miles of mostly motorway driving over the previous week. I checked the battery voltage this morning and it was 11.6V. Surely it shouldn't have dropped this much in four days!... Read more
Well after a long battle against swmbo’s demands for an electric car she has finally got one. I threw a Volvo XC60 (turned out to be a bad one) and a Honda HRV at the problem, but to no avail. She has gone and bought a used Nissan Leaf on her own. On the upside I no longer have to pay half the cost of her car, this is her flying solo by electricity.
I’ve flogged the HRV, took a tumble on it but that’s the norm in year one of ownership as you lose the dealers margin and vat and it’s too rich for me to sell from the door so it has gone to a local car buyer I’m friendly with who sells direct to trade for £800 more than WBAC offered. I’ll miss it, I really rate the wee car. It’s practical, lusty, great on fuel, utterly reliable and comfortable. It never put a foot wrong, other than the high level rear brake light mysteriously unplugging itself.
I’m used to stretching out the battery on the electric buses I drive daily, but it won’t suit her leaden right foot driving style. But she is happy and as quiet as her new car… for now. I will say that the Leaf is practical and nice to drive. It’s quiet, it rides well, grips decently and pulls strongly, and she’s managed to get a good deal from Cinch. I’ve never bought a car unseen before (I still haven’t, it’s all hers) but it wasn’t possible to ignore as it was almost £3,000 cheaper than the local Nissan dealer for a near identical car. So cheap I’m a bit suspicious. I’ll see what it’s like when it turns up on Monday.
I wager that I’ll still have old Terrance the Toyota long after the Leaf is history. Read more
582 cars listed on ebay best I can see is a 71 reg for £15700 with 6k miles from Pendragon so plenty to chose from so haggle hard if you want one.
Normally I have no difficulty in finding one that works but for the life of me on this occasion none seem to be operative
Anyone used one recently with success ??... Read more
Yes Camskill prices are often VG. On the Goodyears they were only £3 a tyre less than Halfords and then of course fitting on top. I must have hit a sweet spot deal with my purchase. Which comes back to the OP seeking a discount offer. They are around if you search.
Updating that, the fitter came yesterday at the exact appointment time. He spent just under an hour despite its being his last appointment of the day so he wasn’t rushing it. Tyre pressures all spot on , red spots in right place, 100% satisfied.
How long before we will get a genuine 400 mile range for under £40k in an electric car?
Within the next 5 years?
I am about to change car and wanted electric but realised there are 3 regular journeys I do each month that would require multiple stops to charge.
1 stop to charge for a 45 minute fast charger is tolerable (inconvenient but tolerable), 2 stops is too much.
And the lack of chargers and the even greater lack of working charges makes it impossible to consider electric.
So the question remains, how long until electric cars will get close to the range of a petrol equivalent ? Read more
Having a chat with my old neighbour who is the head technician at a Nissan & Renault/Dacia dealership, he has been told Nissan/Renault will never made a leaf/zoe with a range over 300 miles; any new battery development of range will be pushed to the larger vehicles. Sort of makes sense
It may be that a choice needs to be made by the manufacturer - more range or lighter weight, more passenger/load space and lower cost.
Most Leaf and Zoe owners would typically be local and low to average mileage drivers with few long trips. Taken with the probability of both faster and increased numbers of charging points in the future, the decision makes a lot of sense.
You can have a LHD version instead.
www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/tesla-cancels-...x Read more
<< Saab did try out joysticks instead of steering wheels on a couple of prototypes. They were in mounted in the centre console rather than where the steering wheel would have been. That would be very weird methinks! >>
Not if you were used to handling a small boat, perhaps ?
Hi all,
Looking for advice. Come across a very low mileage 2013 Citroen DS3 Dsport. But I can't help but feel suspicious. It only has 31k miles on the clock (over the course of 10 years???) and looking at the MOT history there's a year where it barely moved 500 miles. It last passed an MOT in November 2022 but been driven since. After checking the tax status it's been untaxed since April 2022 yet hasn't been declared off road either. Thought it had to be taxed or SORN?... Read more
Thanks for the input guys. I guess I just like cars with some punch so I can have a bit of fun now and then. I shopped around a bit more and decided to go with a 2014 1.6 Fiesta ST-3 that I found near me with full ford service history and good MOT history. Only 47k miles. Was rapid and really fun to drive so I just couldn't resist. Picking it up next week!
For spark plug hole thread repair.
Since it’ll contaminate the surface and block alternatives, worth confirming its temperature resistance before application, if possible.... Read more
Chat GPT?
The radio has started losing stations which I understand is a common fault.
Seems to restore once the car is restarted.... Read more
Turned out to be the digital radio head being faulty.
They are on back order of one to three weeks and I understand they are a common failure....
But interestingly the car disappeared when arrangement s were made to collect the car for examination. So the owner and the shop owners are left with an insurance claim she can’t progress
This is an exclusive story from the Times which has a paywall . But can anyone find the story reported anywhere else ? Read more
Is it just me being cynical or does the whole thing sound rather fishy? A business gets burnt down by a car which mysteriously vanishes. I am not surprised that the insurance company is reluctant to pay.
I was having a conversation with a friend of mine a couple of days ago. Both of us are old enough to remember the advice never to rev a car too hard until it was warmed up. I have always stuck to this and tend to treat my cars very well.
However, with a hybrid there's sometimes very little control over the engine revs whether it's warm or not, and we were discussing whether this would actually do damage in the long run. For example, as I leave home I have to go up a hill and the engine operates at high revs without being warmed up because the battery/motor alone won't propel the car up the hill.... Read more
Yes, you can buy them. MOROSO make one IIRC. They get used by racers who I understand use them as a surge chamber to protect from centrifugal forces,
Dry sumping and tall oil tanks can deal with that. I could never understand why british motorbikes used dry sump....
There may be some ‘new car pseudoprogress gotcha’ I’m not aware of, which makes this not longer an option, but on old cars you can check the alternator output with a cheap multimeter.
IIRC I “tune” my alternator belt tension to 14.0 volts output. You can also look for voltage drop across the charging circuit.
Most multimeters will measure 10A which should be adequate to check for parasitic drain when parked up
If you buy a new battery and your charging system isn’t working properly it may not last long