Be Excellent To Each Other

What car have you got now, Hearthly?

Now waiting until the day Hearthly buys a clone of a car he previously owned after forgetting to blank out the numberplate in a previous piccy.

In an admittedly surprising turn of events nothing has gone wrong with the Lexus yet, so for the time being at least I am still in full PARTRIDGE MODE.

MPG does indeed look like it'll settle around 29mpg but I'm hoping to nose that up towards 30mpg over time, not bad for a bloody big car with a three litre V6 in it.

The real win for me over the Camry is the sound system and iPod connector, which gives me the perfect combination of my expansive trance collection via an old (Trooper's!) 80GB iPod, piped into my ears by the marvellous factory fit speakers. (All ten of them plus sub.)

Do you think putting it on the Internet makes that more likely, though?

We should just cover up our plates all the time really. Or take them off!

Well if you want to clone plates then you probably want a plate from a car the same colour and model so searching on the internet might be one way to find that I guess.

Yeah, I guess. Someone should give it a try. FOR SCIENCE!

Just gonna find another Tomcat that looks like yours. BRB

I've been driving round with Myps plates on for years and nobody has stopped me yet.

It's a "Blue Range Rover", so don't try too hard

Why is your car called the Tomcat, Grim...?

http://www.tomcatmotorsport.co.uk/#:~:t ... %20Wildcat.

Oh, ok. I assumed it was a nickname with a funny back story

Close friends get to call it TC, providing it's with dignity.

It's a Tomcat, it's called Jeremy.

Jen has just had her car serviced and they've asked for her to authorise brake fluid change as well as Fuel treatment and Strip/clean brakes as there's a corroded axle.

Does that all sound legit? The thing she's wondering about is mainly the fuel treatment because it's not something she's been asked to get done before with previous cars.

Fuel system cleaners are pretty common nowadays, and probably worth doing. Personally I wouldn't bother changing the brake fluid at the correct intervals but if it affects warranty or whatever then better to get it done.

Servicing the brakes is one I recommend though, you see a lot of cars with seized in pads and all sorts of other problems because the garage hasn't taken them apart at service.

Thanks

How old is the car, and have the brakes shown any problems?

Ask how much they’re charging for fuel treatment as it’s something you can easily do yourself for about £5-10.

Literally just pouring in a half bottle on your next two refuels.

Was the fuel treatment suggested to get it through an MOT Emissions test?

They charged £15 for the fuel treatment.

I just paid for it all. This is why all my cars are old bangers, then I don't have to worry about keeping it in good condition.

That’s not unreasonable if they’ve added ‘labour’ on top

Bangernomics is how I roll too.

My Mini is in for a service today. It’s the 4 year big one, plus MOT, plus two new 18” run flat tyres. Close to £900.

Yeeesh! Is that including timing belt & water pump?

Nope. No idea if it’s belt or chain...
I should look that up.

The tyres are 180 quid each

£600 for oil / filter(s) and inspection... Is it main dealer doing work to keep warranty valid?

Bump

£850 in total, so £360 tyres, £40 mot and £450 service.
It was at the main dealer as I was too lazy to look for a decent independent specialist nearby, but it’s four years old now so may be the last one.

4 years old... yeah, time to scrap it

Last one at a main dealer, as I’m sure you know

I know x

One of the best things you can do to a car is get rid of runflats. Your can get Michelin pilot sport 4s for less than that! Get a goo kit and keep your breakdown cover up to date just in case.

It’s a fairly popular option on Minis, especially with the 18” wheels. Still about £130 each for non run flats though as they are an unusual size.

There was actually a bit of LEXUS DRAAAAMAAHHHHH when it completely refused to start earlier in the week having been sat at the back of the house for 11 days without me having gone anywhere near it.

Battery was completely flat, and I mean absolutely and completely flat, no electrical systems of any sort whatsoever, not even the blippy unlock remote thing worked, I had to use an actual physical key to get into it like a pauper.

Bought a battery charger but the battery wouldn't take a charge at all, it was fucked.

So a nice chap came round from a garage in town with a new battery, installed it and I was back in action, and the car went into a sort of 'initialising' mode and loaded its systems back in like a spaceship in a 1980s sci-fi series. It had forgotten all my climate and audio settings, but remembered my paired phone, for some reason.

I've also bought a battery tester so I'm going to test it every few days just to make sure it isn't losing charge somewhere in the system. The problem is I scarcely need a car these days so it's basically just sat at the back of the house, outside, in the freezing damp cold, which isn't the best conditions for a battery to be sat in.

It's the cold, my van battery died yesterday while driving which I've never had before.

Surely that would only happen if the alternator wasn't working?

The battery tester thingy I bought tests the battery when the engine is turned off, but also when it's running, and when it's running it shows if the battery is being charged or not. In my case it is, so that means the alternator is working.

Agree, took me a few attempts to start the CMax after a few days standing.

The Cube started first time for me yesterday..
Said TheVision, tempting fate.

Tis electric, so things are a bit fucky. But the 12v system is largely the same and the battery is just fuckled.

In fact, your car can run purely off its alternator (bar maybe clever modern cars) so you can start it, replace the battery while it's running, then you don't lose your radio code.