Be Excellent To Each Other

We're road testing a M140i on Saturday

Very nice, though I’d prefer a 2 series convertible.
A friend has the slightly older M135 and it really shifts.

Buy a £20 OBD-II bluetooth thing and do it yourself.

Ive got one. What now?

Sorry, it's been an annoying day. I forgot I had a dongle. I'll try clearing the codes with that. They do have a tendency to come back though...

Ok, codes cleared. I'll drive it for a few days and see if they come back.

The latest one was about the MAF, which I'm lead to believe is a common fault.

Thanks for reminding me that I had the necessary tools!

Guy at work has a shadow edition one and let me have a go. It's very lovely but not as exciting as I expected, even booting it off a roundabout

Don't think I didn't see this.

I’m not looking for something too exciting — more interested in a bit of poke and refinement. Anyway, we’ll see

Nice! If I could justify shopping for a car, that'd be high on my list.

Have a mooch about on owners forums / youtube. A lot of the time there'll be a how to on removal and cleaning. Hopefully something you could do yourself.

On it!

We wouldn't be doing it if G hadn't been offered a full time role. And we're tired of having two old cars when we're increasingly likely to being pounding motorways tending to elderly parents. Not having functioning aircon, DAB radio and better refinement is becoming a strong need. Anyway, we'll see. We've been discussing getting a newer car for two bloody years and still haven't done anything about it

Then you'll probably love it, if space isn't a huge concern.

Bear in mind I love a massive estate with that! The 1 series is certainly not the small car it used to be.

I saw this story the other day about a Dubai tourist that had racked up £36k in speeding fines after renting a Lamborghini.

Tonight there's a follow-up to it identifying the bloke, with the oddest bit being



As excuses go, that seems a little um, weak.

I've been clearing codes as they reappear and the only one that keeps coming back is the Mass Air Flow low voltage error. I've ordered a pre-owned one for swap out . Fingers crossed!

The new sensor caused *more* codes. GNNNNG!

So, here's the plan: if I clear the codes, you can start the car once without the light coming back. Imma take the car to the test centre, clear the codes just before it goes in and cross my fingers.

Yeah, I was going to suggest you did that.

They start and stop the car several times during the MOT.

Small piece of insulation tape then.

Even on a retest?

How long since the test? if it's less than 10 days then you should get a partial retest, which will only test the stuff that it failed on (and anything that might have been changed to fix it).

It'll be 7 days.

Ah, maybe not. What are they retesting?

Well, it failed on tyres (which I've replaced), one headlamp was too low (fixed) and (I quote) "Engine mil inoperative or indicates a malfunction [8.2.2.2 (g)]"

Hmm, if they're doing the lights they're going to drive it into the test centre, but they might not turn it off because you need the ignition on to have the lights on.

It occurred to me this morning that the garage didn't even offer to fix the issues after the first fail. Surely they should have been after some business?

Plus you would have got a free retest if you left the car there and they did the work... Maybe that's why they didn't offer!

And! They let me drive away with "dangerous" tyres. Suspect.

In that case, don't worry about all the sensors and warning lights and so on, just slip them 100 quid and get a pass that way.

We'll, it's in. Wish me luck

It passed! I had to clear the codes right before it went in though. Close call

Yay! Good work.

Thanks man. Stupid fucking car. Stupid MOT rules.

They were introduced by the EU. A ways back we took my ex's Mini in for an MOT and it failed because there was a steering lock light on. This was even though the steering lock could be heard engaging/disengaging perfectly and was physically tested also. IE, it worked, and due to EU legislation on vehicles (from Germany, IIRC) any warning light means a fail and thus it was £800 to get the entire steering lock unit replaced by BMW as they are the only ones who carry them.

To this day I fail to see why a theft deterrent means a complete MOT fail. It's also highly annoying, given we used the car about three times a month.

Had a note in my postbox today. Someone who works locally wants to rent a parking space during the day, monday to friday and occasional weekends. Parking is about a fiver a day in the local car parks.
He is offering the princely sum of... £50 a year!

Fuck and off come to mind.

Someone might go for that, though. If you've got a driveway you never use then it's £50 for nothing.

Well in the case of the steering lock warning light, it may also indicate that the mechanism won't unlock. A potential inability to turn corners sounds like *exactly* the sort of thing that a car should fail an MOT on.

As annoying as it might be for DavPaz, I also can't see the problem in expecting cars to have an engine that is working correctly and isn't producing excessive pollution.

200 working days, that's a grand a year. I'd probably see if he'd bite for £400.

We’ve got off road parking for 3-4 cars and a local shop owner wanted to use our drive for free. I said no

There are a few "rent my driveway" type sites about - might be able to find a what others want for the same thing on them.

Or just sign up - my mate does it in Twickenham, and every now and again he gets an email saying "x is going to park on your drive" and then a bit later he gets some money.

There was nothing wrong with it. It locked when you took the key out and it disengaged when you put the key in. You couldn't steer the car if it was stuck on. It was also like it for a full year before it failed an MOT for it. I would have done it myself if it was possible to buy one. I did two sensors (one in the manifold and one before the cat) and the brakes etc.

My dad uses them when he goes into London. Costs him about £6 a day I think, to park on someones drive, which isn't bad at all.
His main issue is finding his car after he is done for the day His car even tells him on his phone where it is parked, and he still has trouble...

Oh, i'm not going to entertain the offer BTW, as my parking space has my car in it during the day... Just thought it was amusing how much he thought a years parking was worth.

The MOT tester doesn’t know that though. He just has a warning light that says the steering lock is faulty so he fails it.

When I went to see Shrewsbury play at Wembley earlier in the year we parked at Stanmore tube station, and on the road leading up to the car park entrance there were a load of people doing exactly this, touting their driveway out for parking.