Wodybode

I've been out of the country and out of touch for a few weeks and it looks like I've missed the boat on this. Am I too late? Andy

Yes, interested.

I have an old (very) Toyota Rav that has an alarm and immobiliser that drains the battery over a couple of weeks. As it only get's infrequent use I wired a cig lighter socket direct to the battery with an inline fuse and I plug in a £15 solar panel with inbuilt regulator and it maintains the battery perfectly. I've been doing it for years. The panel just gets left on the dash and works fine winter and summer (though the car is outside all the time) and gets slung in the door pocket when the car is in use.

Just got an email from Halfords saying that they're selling sets of TR5A-10 spark plugs (others too) for £4.50 a set. http://www.halfords.com/motoring/car-parts/ignition/spark-plugs/ngk-41-spark-plug-x4-tr5a-10 Andy

Hi Jonathan, the wiring all looked good and there was no damage. I have to say I made a couple of phone calls from the roadside to assist in my diagnostics to Dave at Gemzoe motorsport and Callum and Tim at Sevens and Classics who pointed me in the right direction and reassured me it would be ok to run without it connected. The biggest clue was that the engine ran perfectly for 90 seconds after starting as the mapping ignores the sensor for that time period after which it then looks at the input from the sensor and makes adjustments. So I knew the engine was fine and it was a management issue. I must say I was paranoid that running without it would cause damage to the engine or cat so pestered a number of people at the handling day for reassurance, so to those people thanks for your input.

Black seven embedded in a dry stone wall on Burkin Lane off the A632 between Matlock and Chesterfield just before 0900 this morning. Looked like a couple of other cars might have been involved too. I hope everyone was OK.

Ah ha! It's the lamda sensor. It cuts in 90 seconds after starting. Disconnected it and it runs sweet. I think I'm OK to run without it connected.

I've checked everything obvious under the bonnet and it all looks normal.

I'm between Slinfold and Rudgwick on the A 29. Just had its annual service this morning but that was just oil and filter etc. and I've done over 100 miles since then. Been on the motorway all day mostly at 80-90 ish.

I've done a few hundred motorway miles today on my way to the Dunsfold handling day and after a brief stop the engine is banging and popping and running as rough as anything. The exhaust is extremely hot too. I'm currently in a layby letting things cool off. The engine will run smoothly after start up for about 1 minute. Any ideas?

I've heard, but I don't know how much truth is in it, that if you have an old lead acid battery that has sulphated up and won't hold a charge, you can thermally shock the plates by short circuit testing and rapid charging ie. via jump leads, which can cause the sulphate buildup to break off and drop to the bottom of the battery and the battery becomes good again. I must point out though that this would be fraught with danger as the short circuiting can cause the battery to blow up and I suppose hot battery acid in the face might ruin your day.

"To get round it I connect it to a spare battery via jump leads for 30 minutes." I wouldn't recommend leaving it connected to another battery for half an hour, in fact I'd only do it for at most a minute or two to avoid overheating the plates and possibly buckling them. The jump leads allow an uncontrolled current flow which is not recommended. If you just get enough energy in it to register about 10 volts the smart charger should start to work and charge it. Or do what you did with the older (not smart) charger which will allow charging even if it is not showing any voltage but will limit current flow to whatever the charger is limited to, in your case up to 8 amps. The smart charger will self regulate the charge rate so you can leave it connected and don't have to remember to periodically check and disconnect like you have to with the older chargers. If you know a friendly garage they can put a smart tester on the battery to assess it's condition. It looks like a big multimeter and it injects voltages and loads during it's check and gives an overall condition reading for the battery. It only takes a minute.

If you look under the bonnet at the engine side of the bulkhead there will only be a few spaces available to fit a socket anyway. I can't remember the size of the hole required but I think it's a standard size whether you fit a USB or cig lighter socket so you could always easily change it in the future. I fitted a double USB in the passenger side slightly to the left and a bit lower than the fuse/relay board above the passengers knees. The only problem with it is that it has a tiny blue LED power light which can be a bit distracting at night so I need to dab a spot of paint on it to dim it down.

If it's sulphated, you could try drop testing (SC max current flow test) followed by a rapid charge and/or actually "drop" testing on the garage floor, both of which can shock the plates causing the suphated particles to drop off the plates. This type of electrical engineering is of course fraught with danger so please don't blame me if the battery explodes or the casing cracks.

I've just got a promotional email from Halfords, they have some fully synthetic 5W/30 oil for sale for £15 for four liters. Add on the club discount voucher of 10% to get it for £13.50 Cheers Andy

Auto email when new pm received and auto email notification for replies to posts, both not working.

I've just purchased a tool cabinet, the Halfords club discount plus an online sale price made it too hard to resist. I want to line the drawers with some rubber does anyone know what it's called and where to get some from? I don't want the stuff where you can cut little spanner shapes into it, just the oil resistant rubber/foam sheet probably 2-4mm thick. Cheers Andy

Not a member? Probably just fancied you Antony.

Email sent Ian.

Having a clear out so have a pair of lowered headlamp brackets from a previous bulk order that are now surplus to requirements, still in their delivery packet. (They were ordered to fit a metric S3) £30 Sterling Excel immobiliser, brand new, still in box. This was not required as the fault was traced to elsewhere in the car. £40 -SOLD

I've got a S3 Roadsport 140 with lowered floors and 7" chrome headlights and being a shortarse I found I had to keep looking around them on crests of hill etc. so I've just fitted the lowered brackets, the type that fit onto the upper front wishbone mount. The first one took me hours because I had to work out how to get the wires out of the plug/socket on the loom. I replaced the wiring wrap tape with heat shrink only to find it was too stiff to pull through the new bracket so had to remove it and use new wiring tape, then I forgot to put the nut on before feeding the wires through the bracket. (!) Well you know how it is. The second one took only a fraction of the time as I didn't have to do anything twice or make any mistakes. If anyone else is going to do this mod. a few pointers. The wires with pins attached will pop out of the socket on the loom if you use a tiny jewelers flat screwdriver to bend the prong back that locks each pin into place and then pull the wire from the back. Once you've got the first one out, you'll know just where to poke it and the rest will be easy. Check the wires for damage as I found two that had damaged insulation and needed a short length of heat shrink to protect them. Assemble the light fitting, bracket and wiring together on the bench then attach the whole assembly to the car. It just seemed easier this way, and my back was killing me bending over the car anyway. The front ARB needed unbolting to allow the wishbone mounting bolt to be withdrawn. I just removed the bolts from the ARB bushes and this allowed the bar to flex out of the way enough. It's made a big difference to my view and I'm very happy with the result. Photo so the right colours went back in the right holes.

Hi Neil, Payment sent Andy G

Check the steering geometry, the standard set up is detailed in the build manual.

er, yes, you're not with the police are you?

Just had a chat with two French chaps who had just bought this very clean car in the UK somewhere and have a 600km night drive in front of them! Beautifully presented car.