1st half:

Route_1 by VeeeDubStar[/url], on Flickr

2nd half:
Route_2 by VeeeDubStar[/url], on Flickr

For any geordies out there with route suggestions… second half is a doddle actually and involve a cycle path and a normally empty bus route by the banks of the Tyne. It’s very satisfying cycling underneath the very congested Redheugh Bridge!

Cheers for the replies. Sounds like route choice is going to be the most effective action for me. It’s a commute from Gateshead to Newcastle of about 7 miles but a bit of re-planning could get me off some busy routes and only add 1-2 miles. Mind you the dickheed in the GL wagon this morning did his close pass about 25 metres from my front door! Took a mental note of his numberplate (some letters and numbers trying to say “Gordon”)… not sure why but he must be local.

Does the engine always run in park or would stop/start kick in? That’s what I need to report back on..

The new 8 speed ZF in BMW’s (in my 1’er anyway) actually encourages just sitting on the footbrake in drive at lights as this will activiate stop/start and cut the engine..

If you leave in drive and put handbrake on engine still runs wasting fuel.

If you put in neutral and put handbrake on engine still runs wasting fuel.

Not too sure about park… will report back.

So not blinding people behind and saving fuel via stop/start are mutually exclusive I think!

Xenons/LED’s are fantastic when you’re sat behind them.. as noted above though not great when coming the other way or dazzling you from behind. I find Merc and Nissan the worst (Nissan especially seems to change colour and have a bad self-levelling system) although BMW and Audi aren’t far behind. My brother constantly has people flahing him in his C-class with Xenons as they think he has high beam on!

I think some of the issues noted above are to do wih early high-beam assist systems, the idea being you just let the car detect other motorists and forget about flicking on and off manually but some of the early systems are horrendous.

It’s interesting that a lot of flagship car models don’t even have front foglights.. e.g. RS6, Golf R etc. not sure why this is?

Only other issue with ours is the stop/start has an intermittent fault so it just gets switched off.. Other than that they are a cracking little motor – really enjoyable little cars to chuck about. 1600 petrol is quite torquey and pulls well and all of the controls have a nice mechanical weight/feel about them. I often taken the Mini over my 320bhp hot hatch as it’s just more “fun”

Beaten to it by Craig but if you buy one keep an eye on the oil level. There is no low warning whatsoever and they chew the stuff.. Local BMW/Mini indie round our way says the amount he gets in with problems due to low oil is frightening – ours is the R56 1.6 petrol and as I understand the consumption is to do with the VVT. Also – the dip stick is an utter pig to read.

I suffer.. Watched him in the Wire and he was class and thought Luther was okay. But, when I watched him in that car programme he came across really badly – couldn’t take instructions and was a fairly shite driver. I’m sure at one point the young rally driver lad said something like “you need to listen or you’ll crash”. I think he may have binned it shortly after this..

Sounds very high. I can’t see that taking more than half a day max.. Move some pipes, few new fittings & pipework, screw new rad brackets to wall, drill a couple holes in the floorboards, etc. I’d be pissed off if my heating engineer quoted me much more than 100 quid for that (Newcastle)

Some interesting debate. I hadn’t considered on street parking and the infrastrucutre necessary in such situations.. As noted above the cold weather performance needs sorting too – probably not going to fare well in the North during Winter!

As above – if you pull into slow lane yourself you can’t get back out again because of constant stream in the middle even though they can see you want to get out and lane 3 is empty. Blood pressure rising just typing this! Exits thread

Yep that’s the “correct” phrase ^^^.

Lad a few doors along has that exact sticker on his car.. Audi A3. TDI as well! (Newcastle)

I fitted my kitchen earlier this year (IKEA not Howdens) – but some tips/lessons learned from me:

> Worktop cutouts. Get the proper tool.. I think plunge saw/router? I had a brand new decent makita jigsaw and brand new laminate down cutting blades and it was a pig of a job – got there in the end more through luck (& swearing) than anything else. Never again.

> If working with laminate be very sure to seal any cut edges, especially around the sink as once water gets in it will start lifting sharpish.

> As already noted – type/style of splashback can add significant time/complexity. We bought these tiny brick style tiles and it took f’in ages to put them all up!

> If there is a dishwasher going in plan utilities/waste very carefully as there is generally sod all space around the washer unit itself.

Other than that – try to enjoy it. After gutting and renovating our whole house the kitchen was the most rewarding job. Fitting and tiling the bathroom was at the other end of the list.

Also – I think Howdens units come already built? Should save some time.

Good luck with the job.

Couple of lads at work call it “Single Lonely Bikers”. Cheers lads..

The GF just tends to ignore its existence.

A mate of mine always used to tell me about it but I’d never seen it.. Until now! Just wrapping up season 2 on Netflix and it is absolute genius. I’ve been howling at it all week. Winston is a fantastic character. The one where he has golf competition with the wee ned bastard is one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time! Concur about the electric fire episode as well.

Chris Harris on “do you need anything more than a 320d”

Interesting video.

Need to know if you’re talking brand new F whatever model or E9X models as there’s different considerations for each. E.g. new 335d is auto (8speed ZF) and X drive only.

I ended up getting a return to invoice GAP policy for 3 years for £150 paying up to a maximum of £50K. The way I see it, if it gets written off after say 2 years or whatever then I just get another brand new one (or get a nearly brand new one or demo from dealer etc.) with insurance + GAP payout money rather than fannying aboot looking for an equivalent car on the 2nd hand car market.

Mind you, the dealer wanted about £600 for the equivalent policy from them..

I’ve had winter tyres on a 325i for the past two winters and personally I found them treacherous above about 5 degrees especially in the wet.. Tyres in question were hankook something or other with decent reviews fitted to the original 17″ alloys. When I drove it in the snow they were fantastic mind but just too much of a compromise otherwise. My brother had very similar experiences in a C350 diesel on some michelins.

Currently got a 1-series (hence the interest in the thread) and TBH given my circumstances I’m probably not going to bother this year and just leave it on the drive if it snows. Plus I can’t afford a set and I sold the old set when I got shot of the 3..

If I did decide to get some I’d probably go the route of getting a spare set of wheels and tyres as they take up the same space in the garage and save the summer alloys from abuse (getting tyres on/off and winter conditions). Does anyone know how to check whether smaller wheels would fit over the discs? The M-sport discs seem to almost fill the current 18’s front and rear and I’d be worried about fouling on 17’s..

R36 is a good shout. Always liked them and they’re quite rare and as noted sound quality!

If you’re thinking of a fastish Beemer be careful of E91 models with the N53 engine (325i and 330i) after ’09 ish if you’re trying to avoid repair bills as the injectors are made of cheese. I replaced two on mine before getting shot and they’re about 200 quid a pop at the moment just for the part before labour and any other problems caused when they go (I had to get an oil service when one of mine went after fuel contaminated it). They also have a thing for coils. 335i is nice but then you have turbos to go wrong and they have a thing for high pressure fuel pumps.

Mine had 17 miles on the clock when I picked it up from the dealership a couple of months ago. I think gobuchul has it above. I assume it will probably have been red-lined from cold a fair few times as well.. When I picked mine up I had similar queries and ended up on quite a big pistonheads thread on the subject.

Very nice! They go well the 2.0T’s don’t they? Couple of my mates have/had Mk5’s and they’re great motors. I would try and find a good VW indie specialist locally if you can. I use a local BM indie and I had an oil service done (oil and filter) a couple months ago for £95 inc VAT on a 3.0l petrol – it’s not even worth doing yourself for that money. Mind you I do live in the Northern wastelands (Newcastle) so stuff is cheaper!

I paid just over £600 on a 2004 2.0 petrol Passat a few years back. That was for clutch, DMF and slave cylinder. This was by Mr Clutch but it was never quite right.. I went back and forth several times and even had them put a second new DMF in as I wasn’t happy (made sod all difference)

Seen that bike vs evo one recently – it’s the heartfelt “Bellend!” at the end that cracks me up.

Interesting point about the LaFerrari’s traction control etc. I haven’t even driven anything with half the power that thing has but I imagine you would have to do something fairly stupid with the wheel/pedals to break traction so violently? Maybe I’m just being naive..

Don’t use PVA. As above use tile primer and a tanking system for really wet areas. I used the Mapei one and it seemed decent. Be careful if using very heavy porcelain tiles as the weight limit for skim is less than for straight onto boards. Can’t remember the exact numbers but available online and remember to include weight of adhesive. IANAT but spent ages online, phone calls to British Gypsum, Mapei, etc. etc. during a house refurb. The bloody tile shop I bought the tiles from even told me to use PVA even though they sold the flipping primer in the shop!

I had some on an ’09 3 series and didn’t think they were too bad. They were 17″ Bridgestone Potenzas. There was a very slight difference in tyre noise between them and the Hankook winters (non run flat) I put on once a year, although the car seemed well insulated and as it was a saloon the cabin was well isolated from the rear axle unlike a hatch. Only real difference was the car handled better on the RFTs as I guess the suspension etc was designed around them. The RFTs did tram line every now and again mind.

Hmmm.. Hadn’t considered the credit score aspect of it. Bollocks.

Cheers Cougar – I’ll give them a call tomorrow and try to appeal to that better nature (should it exist..). If that doesn’t work then I’ll try and meet somewhere in the middle – If they’d just asked for 1 months (the amount of notice I was meant to give) I probably would have just paid.

Ha! There’s nowt more entertaining than watching someone properly lose the plot like – one of the best spectator sports.

Last time for me was a week ago in a hire car on my own in Amsterdam. All was well – heading back to Schiphol to drop the motor and diligently following the sat nav. The navigation was fairly shite (small screen, poor fonts, etc.) but I’d gotten used to it over 3 days..

Anyway, as I approached the airport the motorway broadened to 6 or 7 lanes with a few different destinations. Just as I approached this a message covered the whole screen and the car said something like “please connect your phone to the system for SOS emergencies”. Could I **** get the message to disappear! I lost it big time and SCREAMED like a loon for a good 2 mins or so. **** off ******* piece of **** car, why the **** would I want to connect my ****** phone etc. etc. I was Punching the dashboard the full works. I somehow managed to guess the correct lane/exit but I was wiping my spit off the inside of the windscreen when I got back to the hire car place.

I probably wouldn’t clay until next year anyway so it’s probably worthwhile getting the treatment by the sounds of it and the timing is good for protecting the new paint before winter as noted. Just spoke to the dealer and they confirmed I would get a bag of goodies as well so sounds like it’s a goer! Shame it’s not Autoglym as I’ve been using their stuff for years and it’s very good (especially the aqua wax)

Cheers all

I always thought the current CO2 based VED system was wrong.. My dads GTD is summit like 20 quid a year to tax whilst my old 2.0i Passat was well past the 200 quid mark (and not to mention slower than his car). I don’t know why this has taken so long to come out.. You can actually SEE the shite coming oot the back of diesels for christs sake! To quote someone from another thread, diesels belong in agricultural machinery and trucks and have no place under the bonnet of a car. I really hope this is start of the end for diesels in cars.

Bit of WD40 on the paintwork should do the trick. Spray on.. Leave for a minute or two. Wipe off. Wash with shampoo. Make sure you wax afterwards tho as the WD will strip off any protection that’s already on there. I’ve never tried it on tree sap but works a treat on tar and I’ve done it several times on various cars.

Interesting debate. I think a big part of the problem (and this was something mentioned on another thread recently) is that some people have absolutely no idea what will and will not delay their journey. Obviously delaying someone’s journey is no excuse for a dangerous pass! But people just think: cyclist>slow>must pass, even though there may be a traffic jam ahead.

Just this morning I seen a woman riding very un-primary and a white tranny squeezed her badly at speed through a traffic island only for him to slam on for several cars just after the island and a red light. The woman just sailed past him and about 5 other cars. As has been mentioned some people really are a bit thick when it comes to driving safety but there’s more to it than this.. I work with a few guys who I would consider fairly intelligent but they HATE cyclists.. Total irrational hatred like we dont belong on the road at all. Some of the shite they spout is unbelievable.

Interesting point about the start/stop.. I hadn’t considered this and the car has it as standard. Maybe I’m over-thinking the turbo thing – my cousin had a Leon FR 1.8T from circa. 2005 and he would RELIGIOUSLY sit for 30s after every journey (which is probably why it’s stuck in my head!).

ScottChegg – it’s a petrol yes although maybe 5000 rpm is still pushing it – I’ll have to see where the red-line is when I pick it up and take 2.5-3k off that number.

Cheers all – think I’ll try not to breach 5000rpm for the first 500 miles or so and make sure there is plenty of varied driving. After that I’ll get a bit more spirited with spinning up the motor.. Sounds like letting turbo’s spin/cool down is something for cars of old!

Thanks JB! Interesting point about varying driving styles on the petrol link – not sure about the bit where it says “put the car on a rental fleet”.. Most rental cars seem to get the limiter tested on a regular basis!
Cheers

I can second that. My first injector went at the end of a full tank of tesco rubbish.. Was always shell\esso for every other tank and every 4-5 tanks good to run a tank of v-power. I was pushed for time and tesco was closest. Expensive lesson..

I’ve got no experience of the Mazda DI but my 325i (3.0l N53) had DI and my experience was decent mpg for the engine size/power. Round the doors 29-30mpg and on a run I had it as high as 43-44mpg once driving like a saint. Relatively speaking of course for a 220hp straight six! However I would research injector issues… These DI fuel systems run crazy high pressures and mine had a penchant for chewing injectors (not sure if related to high pressures) 2 in 30,000 miles. Is the Mazda you’re talking about the first model to adopt DI fuelling?

Interesting topic. I’ve just sold my car privately on AT. It needed a few hundred spent on it (servicing etc.) but I still ended up a lot better off than trade in/WBAC. The car was absolutely immaculate and in the end I got near enough what the dealers were selling them for.. But I knew mine was immaculate and fully loaded with options and anything similar from the dealers was visibly rough.. Stained cloth interior on photos is IMO totally unacceptable. However, it was a bit of a ballache and AT took £47 for their mid-range ad. With my new motor being PCP I’m probably not going to be doing the private sell thing in the near future.

A point already noted above about most cars being PCP, lease, co. car etc. nowadays is I think a big factor in all of this. Personally I always make sure my car is nice and warm before getting anywhere near the redline, always take care over speed bumps etc etc but the amount of brand new nice motors I see getting ragged from cold, horsed over speed bumps is crazy and is what led me to decide I wanted something brand new I could look after from the beginning. That’s my two penneth anyway!

I did NOT like those little “wobbles”. Guy needs his head testing..