IANAP but I would agree with the above, i.e. what value are you getting from the proposed isolation valve? They seem relatively expensive and will mean more work (drilling tiles etc.).

I probably wouldn’t bother.. can you not site a basic valve (such as the linked screwfix valve) somewhere you can access.. behind a panel, sink, etc.

E: Jalepeno cheeseburgers.
D: Hop House 13.
L: Arctic Monkeys – Whatever people say I am, that’s what I’m not. It’s reight good!

We’ve got a Siemens one that seems as though it could suck a cricket ball through a hosepipe, especially on “power mode” (loudish). Modes 1-3 relatively quiet.

Mind you it’s not ducted anywhere and I (wrongly) assumed it come fitted with a carbon filter from the factory.. so really all I have is an expensive device for sucking shite in the bottom and spitting it straight oot the top (albeit with great effectiveness).

The light on it is pretty good mind.

That mash link is quality. Particular highlight was:

“I could be serving some very determined piss artists”

What a toppa!

Some interesting comments re sharp cutoff on LED headlights. I have this on my 1 series. Exactly as Matt notes above on the Golf GTi – great output and would light up the county on full beam!

I found the bi-xenons on a previous 3 series much better all round. Mind you the high-beam assist must have been an early design (’09) as it was shockingly slow at responding and never got used!

Double check whatever you test drive re. LED vs Xenon as both can look very similar (i.e. very white) to the eye. IMO Xenons are better performing but I think they use more energy and are more expensive when they go wrong..

I’ve found the same re. good used quattros, specifically the A4 estate.. they same to be almost exclusively 3.0tdi automatics and I’m after a manual petrol.. they’re like hens teeth!

In my experience having the correct tyres top trumps 4WD.. I’d much rather have RWD on winters than 4WD on summers in the snow. I had a 325i on winters for 2 years in a row and it only snowed once.. however the Beemer was spot on in the snow – steered, stopped and went well. After the initial getaway having RWD can actually be advantageous as weight transfers to the rear pushing the tyres in the road/snow surface. Obviously if you drive like a dick the back end will be swinging round like no ones business!

I’m not sure how it works and I didn’t understand a lot of the second half of the chat with the clever man from goodyear when he started talking electronics. He said there was less risk if replacing all 4 at once – not sure of the significance of that either but I was doing a full set so was less concerned.

Ha – I know how to live! Tyre loser for life..

I also had a good chat with the owner of the local tyre place I ordered the set of tyres from who has two 911s neither of which are on the “N” marked Porsche homolagted tyres. Make of that what you will.. made me feel better about my Beemer..

I went through this a few weeks back. A few phone calls to bmw and Michelin and I was told there was only 1 homologated tyre for my car – the * marked pilot supersport. The tyre I wanted was a Goodyear Eagle F1 asymmetric 3 and even Goodyear tech support advised against fitting this tyre.. something to do with the tolerances on tyre width having an impact on sensors/ECU… anyhow I went with the Goodyear’s and glad I did. Wet weather performance and tyre noise both better and they were cheaper than the Michelin’s (which were a very performance orientated tyre). No adverse impact yet and nothing untoward has happened re dash warnings/unusual handling.

On the gaming theme, Tekken 1 on the PS1.. a lad from school had a PS1 immediately after release in the UK and it blew me away! Moving in 3 dimensions on a computer game was a different world.. the next biggest jump in gaming for me was PGR3 on the 360. As above, we’ll never see such step changes ever again IMO. Mind you that VR shit is impressive especially as it’s only early days

Howling at the “ultimate sitting machine” comment! Well played sir.

Looks like BMW “comfort access” has to be specced.. I have a relatively new BMW but still have to press a button to get into the car. Guessing I won’t have to keep my keys in the fridge or anything like that?

Can’t believe people are stealing steering wheels or that they are easy to remove! Hard enough removing an actual car wheel with the locking wheel nut!

OP – Does your car have “comfort access”?

Thanks milky that’s really useful cheers. Couple of minutes to email Goodyear is worth it just for my curiosity! I knew there would be other tyre geeks out there :D

Perhaps but the Michelin’s were more performance/track focussed with much less grooving and more contact area.. so probably a bit of both (new vs old and different style of tyre)

Thank you for the replies all. Really does sound like I need to get a grip..!

The good news is the tyres are exceptional in the rain compared to the Michelin pilot super sports that come off it. Seem to be a bit quieter too, not to mention £200 cheaper for the set!

I’m concerned mainly on account of being a pure fanny and checking the production date of all 4 tyres with a torch like the lunatic that I am.. seriously though, I know rubber perishes and a few months difference I probably wouldn’t have battered an eyelid st but over a year across 1 axle seems a lot.

Not sure if drains/sewer always the case but it’s definitely where I’d start. Make sure you’re talking to neighbours unless you’re detached. I’ve been in a similar situation to you before and it’s a nasty business. Good luck getting sorted

You need to find out where they’re entering the property. Is it semi-detached or terrace? Could be entering through a neighbours property. Could involve ripping up flooring but I’d check around soil pipe(s) exiting the property and perhaps get a drain survey/camera to check for cracks where they may be able to get from the sewer into your house. Also – as horrible as it is having to check/empty get some proper old school traps that kill em. When one dies from the poison the smell is beyond horrific and there will be lots of flies.

This thread has just reminded me of this one time when me and my dad went to the local bar on a Saturday and he asked the lass if there was a “Disc Jockey” on later.. She looked at him like he was from Mars… he then exaplained “you know.. D J” at which point she said “No” :lol:

A high bite point can be a sign of worn clutch depending on the car (some can’t be adjusted). So not pushing it in much in your description

Sounds like she would be well suited to an auto

Good job it’s 3.0 NA lump.. otherwise pulling away in 2nd all the time would be painful! Clutch will be the main thing wearing prematurely IMO

Aye – full face helmet was about the weight of this thing. It was well padded and not an issue for the 5 mins or so I was wearing it.. Didn’t even think about it TBH I was so immersed in the Nurburgring GP track and trying to pass the Veyron I was racing!

GFJ – That sounds INCREDIBLE! How do you manage to get out the house to do.. err.. anything?!

Ben – I had a go on one at the Goodwood festival where the seat was mounted on a frame that moved and twisted albeit with a big screen rather than a VR headset. That was really good but another order of magnitude in terms of cost.

Tom – was talking to a lad at work today and he asked the same as he already has a PS4. I think it would still be worthwhile using the VR headset with a controller yes, but I would want to try it out first.

I’m not surprsied you haven’t seen your mate for a while TBH. I’m going back today to have another go.. I’ll be wearing a fake tash and a wig by the end of the week!

What was interesting was when I started losing control of the car I felt little sick as my eyes were telling me I was about to spin but obviously wasn’t experience any of the G-forces associated with it.

Hedley – I’m going to google EdTracker now as not something I’ve heard of. How does head movement without VR work?

Ha! We went on those on my stag this March. Tremendous fun! Shame they have banned them altogether mind.. we had two groups of ten on two separate bikes and everyone loved it (the young’uns and the owld fella’s).

I remember the driver saying that there had been some court case or other of the beer bike company vs the city of Amsterdam and following that they had to make some changes such as different routes through less crowded/busy areas and no music etc.

They are electric vehicles as well as pedal-powered and once everyone clocked on to that we pretty much stopped pedalling altogether. Shame they’ve banned them but other cities banned them a long time ago (Dusseldorf just before my brothers stag a good 3-4 years ago).

RIP Beer Bike

I know there are a few threads on this but it is a good question. I’ve never bought a diesel car since getting my license 15 years ago. However, we’re looking to replace one of our cars (both petrol hatchbacks) with an A4 estate..

Problem is they just don’t exist in any great numbers with a petrol engine.. For example, with the search criteria I have in AT (up to 45k, 2014 onwards, etc) when I switch from diesel > petrol the number of cars goes from 90 to 1 or 2.. I’d much rather have the 2.0T petrol but you can get a much better diesel (spec, mileage etc) for less money.

Short answer is aye. Never thought I’d say it mind.

Head well and truly pickled now.. Goodyear don’t do the correct load rating in the size I want for the fronts in the asymmetric 3’s. I ended up calling Goodyear technical support and spoke to a chap (who was really good) about whether going to a 92Y (instead of 88Y) was acceptable. He said generally fine but he wouldn’t go with a non */BMW marked tyre at all on my particular car and urged me to buy another set of Michelin Pilot Super Sports. Which I thought was good impartial advice given he works for Goodyear.

Thing is I want to move away from the Michelins as they are a noisy track focussed tyre.. So, on to Michelin tech support.. You can get a Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S with a */BMW mark but only in 19″ and above (this is kind of a replacement for the PSS but more like a big brother before you get to the “Cup” tyres) which is no good for my rims (18″) or they do a Pilot Sport 4 but that doesn’t have the */BMW mark.. They said this tyre is more road focussed and would be fine without the marking as long as I did all 4.. however I should ring BMW tech support before buying any tyres. FFS.

There is literally 1 tyre for my car and I don’t like it.. I think I’m going to have to bite the bullet and pay £650 for some tyres I don’t like. Bollocks

Awesome car – we had one as our wedding car earlier this year. I couldn’t help but imagine what it must have been like cutting about in one back in the day. The two tone paint job suits the looks of the car so well.

If we’re talking foglights I would also like to raise the trend amongst youngsters to “smoke” their lights… THEIR ***ING LIGHTS. The things that allow them to see and others to see them have been made deliberately darker with spray paint or something. FFS we’re all doomed.

And people who tint their front side windows. Eejits the lot of them.

That’s interesting – thanks for the info FD. I think I’ll go with the asymmetric 3’s but tell the tyre place I want the correct staggered load ratings front to rear (88/92Y) – quite why they said they’ll just put 92’s on both ends I’m not sure!

Spot on Dragon – that sums it up nicely. If there was grass on the other side of that kerb he wouldn’t have been there in the first place and if he was he’d be going straight to the scene of the accident.

Thanks for the info guys. I had read similar about the XL loading but don’t have any real world experience (last 3 series was designed for and on RFT’s and my 1 series is designed for and on non-RFT’s)

FunkyDunc – do the asymmetric 3’s have the (*) BMW specific mark on them? Also what load rating are they front to rear?

Cheers
Nick

Michael Buffer wants shot wi shit for that like. Giving it the bigun strutting on with a cheerleader on each arm and then reading from a script clearly for the first time. Daft bastard. Bet he got paid a truck load n al. Get teh ****

Demelita – thanks for the comments. It’s an M135 so comes with non-RFT’s as standard so no change there. Interesting point on the “XL” rating – I’ll check on black circles now to see if there’s any difference between the Michelin Pilot Super Sports and the Goodyear Eagle F1’s. Cheers

Thanks for the info re X/4WD all. Very interesting and not something I’d come across before, however, mine’s a good old-fashioned rear driver.

Good feedback on the F1’s, cheers hodgynd. The ratings suggest better wet weather performance and noise reduction (my main gripe) compared to the dual compound Michelin’s at the expense of some dry performance.

Bloody hell what a nightmare. Mine are a slightly different size to that but non-RFT’s (despite not having a spare wheel…). I’d be interested to know exactly what they fit this weekend.