wrote:

On 18 Jul, 20:12, Timo Geusch
wrote:
writes:
On 17 Jul, 20:24, Timo Geusch
wrote:
writes:
Incidentally, the temperature gauge decided it didn't want to
work on the Passat last night - definitely enough coolant in
it, the heater was running hot and it was driving as well as
ever, so yet again it's going to have to go back to the
dealers this week with suspected body computer issues.

I didn't touch it...

Seriously, it was working fine on the way over and completely
dead on the way back.

They all do that, sir

First VW I've had that's done this, and most of the others were higher
mileage, used a lot more and were older pro rata.

I find that things tend to get pop more often with cars and bikes that
aren't used as often as they should be, so maybe it's just that. But
then again, that would be more of a problem on the mechanical side.

Hopefully it's just 'one of those things' and not an indication of any
cost cutting VW had exercised by the time they'd introduced the B5.5.

Hopefully not following the lead of Mercedes when it comes to quality
control.

Yesterday morning it was working as per normal and that nice man
at the dealers seems to think a temperature sensor supplied and
fitted by them will sort it out when it goes in for its six month
service next week.

That'll be modern electronics for you.

Aye... well the car still seems happy enough, so it can stay like it
til the garage have had their greasy mitts on it.

I'd be careful - if you're lucky it's *not* the same sensor that also
tells the ECU how warm the coolant is. If it is though you're driving
around in warm-up mode all the time and that's not a good thing.

but it's probably telling you that you really want a
nice A8.

LOL... we shall see. *I still think you're better off binning all
the Jap tat you never use and keep that and the MX5 until it's
time to head off the sunnier climes.

Well, there are plans afoot to get rid of the "Jap tat" but I'd
probably end up with a slightly improved "VW Beetle"...

Ah yes... well that's probably what I'd do. If finances allow, I'd
still keep the A8 for now though until the new beast is bought and run
enough to prove it's worthy.

Oh, certainly. Especially if it's a car that may need a little work...

That, and I'd be happy to leave something like an A8 parked up day
after day in a station car park, but I'm not so sure I'd want to do
the same with a classic Porsche, or even the MX5 given the soft top.

Trouble with A8s and station car parks is that the aluminium body dents
easily so they're not exactly station car material.

BTW, the deal with that M3 fell through as the bloke had someone
turn up with the cash. Probably better that way.

Smelt really funny to me from what you said... as you say, better
that way.

I wasn't too offended that the guy had sold it. Actually I wasn't
too surprised that he clammed up after I had sent him a copy of the
HPI report...

Aye... was probably hoping you were so keen to get into it you
wouldn't bother getting it checked.

That, and he probably broke the cardinal rule buying something like
this privately - always get it HPI checked. I know he didn't...

Oh, and one of the fans is a tad noisy as you said but I don't think
it's too bad. Now that I've managed to liberate a second SATA cable
from PC Woe I've started the installation...

Okey dokey - let me know which one it is, i.e: is it the PSU or the
processor, and I'll sort out a replacement in the nearish future. :-)

Cool. I'll have to open it up again for that but the current educated
guess points at the CPU fan. I'll confirm that later on.

--
'89 Mazda RX-7 Convertible
'92 Mazda RX-7

wrote in message
...

I wasn't too offended that the guy had sold it. Actually I wasn't too
surprised that he clammed up after I had sent him a copy of the HPI
report...

Aye... was probably hoping you were so keen to get into it you
wouldn't bother getting it checked.
************************************************

What did it say...?

We were about to bid on a Saxo for my mates fiance's little brother the
other day on eBay that was finishing just near us. Just as I was logging
in, the 'text check' advert came on TV, so my mate decided for £3 it was
worth a shot. So we sent off the reg, the first text came back all ok, then
he got another following on from it... Cat C write off in December 2006,
back on the road March 2007.

So we emailed the seller to let him know, because he hadn't mentioned it in
his write up - so we're sure he didn't know... His reply was "Oh, I can't
alter the auction now as it's too late, but I've just had *insert a few
small jobs here* done to surely it's still worth it....". We then of course
felt it was our moral duty to inform the winning bidder, just incase the
seller forgot :-) They never replied however...

--
Dan
Clio R27 F1 #65

"Clive George" wrote in message
et...
"Doki" wrote in message
...

It sounds very much like yours was broken.

Nothing at all wrong with it. There's no real margin between working and
broken on a modern car - not like an old carb'ed car or even a MK2 Golf
where the timing can be a mile out.

Unlike, say, a 406 estate where you can have a couple of problems sapping
several MPG? :-)

Beat me too it ;-) I think saying a Ka gets crap MPG, because if you thrash
it really hard, it's not as economical as a SO Golf driven sedately.

--
Dan
Clio R27 F1 #65

"Clive George" wrote in message
et...
"Doki" wrote in message
...

It sounds very much like yours was broken.

Nothing at all wrong with it. There's no real margin between working and
broken on a modern car - not like an old carb'ed car or even a MK2 Golf
where the timing can be a mile out.

Unlike, say, a 406 estate where you can have a couple of problems sapping
several MPG? :-)

Those couple of problems which I twigged at fixed within a week or two of
owning it...

The Ka was in tip top shape mechanically, the engine side of things was
perfect and the brakes weren't binding...

"DanB" wrote in message
...
"Clive George" wrote in message
et...
"Doki" wrote in message
...

It sounds very much like yours was broken.

Nothing at all wrong with it. There's no real margin between working and
broken on a modern car - not like an old carb'ed car or even a MK2 Golf
where the timing can be a mile out.

Unlike, say, a 406 estate where you can have a couple of problems sapping
several MPG? :-)

Beat me too it ;-) I think saying a Ka gets crap MPG, because if you
thrash it really hard, it's not as economical as a SO Golf driven
sedately.

....is a bit unfair.

Oops :-)

--
Dan
Clio R27 F1 #65

On 19 Jul, 14:03, "Timo Geusch"
wrote:
wrote:
On 18 Jul, 20:12, Timo Geusch
wrote:
writes:
On 17 Jul, 20:24, Timo Geusch
wrote:
writes:
Incidentally, the temperature gauge decided it didn't want to
work on the Passat last night - definitely enough coolant in
it, the heater was running hot and it was driving as well as
ever, so yet again it's going to have to go back to the
dealers this week with suspected body computer issues.

I didn't touch it...

Seriously, it was working fine on the way over and completely
dead on the way back.

They all do that, sir

First VW I've had that's done this, and most of the others were higher
mileage, used a lot more and were older pro rata.

I find that things tend to get pop more often with cars and bikes that
aren't used as often as they should be, so maybe it's just that.

Hmmm... it gets used most days, (even if only to do 3 miles), and I've
done the odd 500 mile day in it since I've had it.

But then again, that would be more of a problem on the mechanical side.


Hopefully it's just 'one of those things' and not an indication of any
cost cutting VW had exercised by the time they'd introduced the B5.5.

Hopefully not following the lead of Mercedes when it comes to quality
control.

I think the blingy bits have become more apparent, the more the years
have rolled by. Meanwhile, corners appear to have been cut elsewhere
they've hoped you wouldn't notice on account of being blinded by light
reflected off the bling.

I've seen more than one review for the Mk5 Golf which has passed
comment that they're down on quality compared to the Mk4, and the same
was said at times about the Mk4 compared to the Mk3.

Yesterday morning it was working as per normal and that nice man
at the dealers seems to think a temperature sensor supplied and
fitted by them will sort it out when it goes in for its six month
service next week.

That'll be modern electronics for you.

Aye... well the car still seems happy enough, so it can stay like it
til the garage have had their greasy mitts on it.

I'd be careful - if you're lucky it's *not* the same sensor that also
tells the ECU how warm the coolant is. If it is though you're driving
around in warm-up mode all the time and that's not a good thing.

It's not smoking any more than normal, and I suspect that would be a
sign if were running over-rich to compensate for no signal from a temp
sender unit.

That, and if a variable sensor goes down on one of these, it normally
throws on the engine management light if the fuel temperature sensor
is anything to go by.

Whatever, it's under warranty ;-)

That, and I'd be happy to leave something like an A8 parked up day
after day in a station car park, but I'm not so sure I'd want to do
the same with a classic Porsche, or even the MX5 given the soft top.

Trouble with A8s and station car parks is that the aluminium body dents
easily so they're not exactly station car material.

I was thinking more along the lines of oiks trying to break in or key
something up just because they can. Good point though.

Can't you stick LPG on it and wave it under the usual perverts noses
in here? ;-)

BTW, the deal with that M3 fell through as the bloke had someone
turn up with the cash. Probably better that way.

Smelt really funny to me from what you said... as you say, better
that way.

I wasn't too offended that the guy had sold it. Actually I wasn't
too surprised that he clammed up after I had sent him a copy of the
HPI report...

Aye... was probably hoping you were so keen to get into it you
wouldn't bother getting it checked.

That, and he probably broke the cardinal rule buying something like
this privately - always get it HPI checked. I know he didn't...

Cars like that do that to the more excitable, methinks.

Oh, and one of the fans is a tad noisy as you said but I don't think
it's too bad. Now that I've managed to liberate a second SATA cable
from PC Woe I've started the installation...

Okey dokey - let me know which one it is, i.e: is it the PSU or the
processor, and I'll sort out a replacement in the nearish future. :-)

Cool. I'll have to open it up again for that but the current educated
guess points at the CPU fan. I'll confirm that later on.

Okey dokey.

--
JackH

writes:

On 19 Jul, 14:03, "Timo Geusch"
wrote:
Hopefully not following the lead of Mercedes when it comes to quality
control.

I think the blingy bits have become more apparent, the more the years
have rolled by. Meanwhile, corners appear to have been cut elsewhere
they've hoped you wouldn't notice on account of being blinded by light
reflected off the bling.

Proper "production engineering" then...

I've seen more than one review for the Mk5 Golf which has passed
comment that they're down on quality compared to the Mk4, and the same
was said at times about the Mk4 compared to the Mk3.

Well, people are still saying that the Mk2 Golf was the high point
quality-wise. Looking around they may even be right.

Yesterday morning it was working as per normal and that nice man
at the dealers seems to think a temperature sensor supplied and
fitted by them will sort it out when it goes in for its six month
service next week.

That'll be modern electronics for you.

Aye... well the car still seems happy enough, so it can stay like it
til the garage have had their greasy mitts on it.

I'd be careful - if you're lucky it's *not* the same sensor that also
tells the ECU how warm the coolant is. If it is though you're driving
around in warm-up mode all the time and that's not a good thing.

It's not smoking any more than normal, and I suspect that would be a
sign if were running over-rich to compensate for no signal from a temp
sender unit.

Ah, fair enough, I keep forgetting it's a Diesel. so it shouldn't be
that big a problem anyway.

That, and if a variable sensor goes down on one of these, it normally
throws on the engine management light if the fuel temperature sensor
is anything to go by.

Good point.

Whatever, it's under warranty ;-)

I hope it's not one of these "we fix only the bits that will never
break" type warranties .

That, and I'd be happy to leave something like an A8 parked up day
after day in a station car park, but I'm not so sure I'd want to do
the same with a classic Porsche, or even the MX5 given the soft top.

Trouble with A8s and station car parks is that the aluminium body dents
easily so they're not exactly station car material.

I was thinking more along the lines of oiks trying to break in or key
something up just because they can. Good point though.

Oddly enough I think it's less prone to that as it doesn't look that
flash - it's just big.

Can't you stick LPG on it and wave it under the usual perverts noses
in here? ;-)

Decent LPG system on that thing is going to cost more than I paid for
the car . Plus I like the fact that I can get six wheels in the back
(without tyres, admittedly) so I'm not too keen on changing that.

That, and he probably broke the cardinal rule buying something like
this privately - always get it HPI checked. I know he didn't...

Cars like that do that to the more excitable, methinks.

They certainly do, otherwise offloading dodgy ones would be far harder
work...

--
'89 Mazda RX-7 Convertible Mazda MX-5 trackday shed
'92 Mazda RX-7 Audi A8

"DanB" writes:

wrote in message
...

I wasn't too offended that the guy had sold it. Actually I wasn't too
surprised that he clammed up after I had sent him a copy of the HPI
report...

Aye... was probably hoping you were so keen to get into it you
wouldn't bother getting it checked.
************************************************

What did it say...?

I had asked the guy for the chassis number as I'd forgotten to write it
down and according to HPI the one he gave me wasn't the one they were
hoping for.

Now if someone was very interested in my car and gets back to me with
something like that, I'll confirm if I've been a muppet writing down the
chassis number ASAP, *especially* if said person suggests that he'd
still be happy to take the car if said HPI issue gets resolved.

We were about to bid on a Saxo for my mates fiance's little brother the
other day on eBay that was finishing just near us. Just as I was logging
in, the 'text check' advert came on TV, so my mate decided for £3 it was
worth a shot. So we sent off the reg, the first text came back all ok, then
he got another following on from it... Cat C write off in December 2006,
back on the road March 2007.

Oops.

So we emailed the seller to let him know, because he hadn't mentioned it in
his write up - so we're sure he didn't know... His reply was "Oh, I can't
alter the auction now as it's too late, but I've just had *insert a few
small jobs here* done to surely it's still worth it....". We then of course
felt it was our moral duty to inform the winning bidder, just incase the
seller forgot :-) They never replied however...

You know that that's a good way of getting kicked off of ebay if you
"badmouth" another seller's auction and they find out? At least it used
to be.

OTOH I can't really understand why people don't spend the 3 quid for a
basic HPI check even on a cheap car. Even if the car is only a few
hundred it's still a few hundred down the bog if it turns out to be
banana shaped or nicked.

--
'89 Mazda RX-7 Convertible Mazda MX-5 trackday shed
'92 Mazda RX-7 Audi A8

On 20 Jul, 08:02, Timo Geusch
wrote:
writes:
On 19 Jul, 14:03, "Timo Geusch"
wrote:
Hopefully not following the lead of Mercedes when it comes to quality
control.

I think the blingy bits have become more apparent, the more the years
have rolled by. *Meanwhile, corners appear to have been cut elsewhere
they've hoped you wouldn't notice on account of being blinded by light
reflected off the bling.

Proper "production engineering" then...

The way of the world unfortunately...

I've seen more than one review for the Mk5 Golf which has passed
comment that they're down on quality compared to the Mk4, and the same
was said at times about the Mk4 compared to the Mk3.

Well, people are still saying that the Mk2 Golf was the high point
quality-wise. Looking around they may even be right.

For its time, the Mk2 was a very well built exception to the rule when
you consider what were its European contemporaries were like.

I'm still not sure whether or not in terms of pure longevity, whether
they're any better than a Mk3, unless of course you take into account
things like rear beam bushes. ;-)

Yesterday morning it was working as per normal and that nice man
at the dealers seems to think a temperature sensor supplied and
fitted by them will sort it out when it goes in for its six month
service next week.

That'll be modern electronics for you.

Aye... well the car still seems happy enough, so it can stay like it
til the garage have had their greasy mitts on it.

I'd be careful - if you're lucky it's *not* the same sensor that also
tells the ECU how warm the coolant is. If it is though you're driving
around in warm-up mode all the time and that's not a good thing.

It's not smoking any more than normal, and I suspect that would be a
sign if were running over-rich to compensate for no signal from a temp
sender unit.

Ah, fair enough, I keep forgetting it's a Diesel. so it shouldn't be
that big a problem anyway.

That, and if a variable sensor goes down on one of these, it normally
throws on the engine management light if the fuel temperature sensor
is anything to go by.

Good point.

Whatever, it's under warranty ;-)

I hope it's not one of these "we fix only the bits that will never
break" type warranties .

To date, they've actually been very good in terms of not kicking back
when I've had cause to take it back.

I did have a rant at them after they inadvertently broke one of the
front seat belt adjusters when fixing another problem I had with it
when I first had it, but mainly because they were fully booked and
expected me to use it for a week with a knackered front passenger
seatbelt until they could have it back in.

Funnily enough, they've been very attentive since and I'd probably buy
something else off them in future as a result if I was in the market
for something similar to the Passat.

That, and I'd be happy to leave something like an A8 parked up day
after day in a station car park, but I'm not so sure I'd want to do
the same with a classic Porsche, or even the MX5 given the soft top.

Trouble with A8s and station car parks is that the aluminium body dents
easily so they're not exactly station car material.

I was thinking more along the lines of oiks trying to break in or key
something up just because they can. *Good point though.

Oddly enough I think it's less prone to that as it doesn't look that
flash - it's just big.

Exactly... which is why I suggested it was probably a good one to keep
for the run to the station. ;-)

Can't you stick LPG on it and wave it under the usual perverts noses
in here? ;-)

Decent LPG system on that thing is going to cost more than I paid for
the car . Plus I like the fact that I can get six wheels in the back
(without tyres, admittedly) so I'm not too keen on changing that.

You know my thoughts on 'LPG being the one true way' ;-)

That, and he probably broke the cardinal rule buying something like
this privately - always get it HPI checked. I know he didn't...

Cars like that do that to the more excitable, methinks.

They certainly do, otherwise offloading dodgy ones would be far harder
work...

'Timo Geusch? Matt Allwright, BBC Rogue Traders (1).'

(1) Excellent show, and they get around on a bike too - what's not to
like. :-)

--
JackH

Can't you stick LPG on it and wave it under the usual perverts noses
in here? ;-)

Decent LPG system on that thing is going to cost more than I paid for
the car . Plus I like the fact that I can get six wheels in the back
(without tyres, admittedly) so I'm not too keen on changing that.

You know my thoughts on 'LPG being the one true way' ;-)




You'll find that the position of camping gas bore is already taken if you
don't mind, thank you very much.
That's 'my' seat......

;-)