Rockhopper

Are you in/ near Edinburgh by chance ?

Not the same field but im a mechanic, i left my job last week along with 3 others. That only left 2 people in the workshop, management didn’t seem to care, didn’t want to know that the reason we left was them.

Newer ones use a complete renault engine.

Agree on the older ones, they are very very reliable.

If you get a newish model be aware it comes with a Renault engine.

Which is complete crap like all french engines.

Don’t own one (who would) but i’ve worked on LOADS

Complete utter crap, as above the engine is a disaster in them. Build quality for other things like the folding seats is a disgrace.

Just don’t buy one.

Tyre test.

Watch videos or read the data about stopping distances on budget tyres vs quality tyres.

You won’t buy a budget tyre ever again (unless your a i don’t give a crap person)

Just to be clear im not saying it’s worth £350 to me, the voucher says that. You get 1 photo framed etc (generous eh)

No family.
Plenty of friends/mates but none of them have kids (at least that they are aware of)

Spa, monza is just straights with a few bends, big whoop.

Spa has loads of epic corners, any of them would give a great view and chance of seeing over taking etc etc

Dual mass flywheel will have excessive side to side rock in it. More than likely due to killing the clutch/bad driving

Always replace it if it’s worn, if it fails it will take out the clutch (again) and can damage the gearbox.

Your diesel skoda will have a dual mass flywheel.

Offroading
Actual mechanic

Those turbos are easy peasy to change. 3 hours labour max, we charge £600 all in for replacing them inc the new modified oil feed pipe.

To clean that turbo though would require removing it from the engine. No chance you would get it open in place.

Fabia that age has an auto adjuster on the shoes. You’d be hard pushed to adjust the shoes back in, backing plate has no access holes.

2002 Fabia shoes are easy.

Take the wheel bearing off, it’s held onto the axel with a 33mm multipoint nut. Just pulls right off, no need for a puller etc etc.

Means you can take the shoes apart/refit with the springs fitted etc, no hassle at all.

Looks like im going to have to leave the macbook then.

The sleeve i have for it is over 35x20x20 (bloody tiny bag btw!)

Not chancing a £2k laptop with some monkey at the airport.

Need to down the airbag system first before changing something connected to the system, like a seatbelt tensioner.

Doing it with the ignition off wont matter, the system will still have power.

Chances are SLIM BUT unplugging and plugging a new one in could cause a power spike and set the tensioner/airbags off

Don’t buy one unless it’s doing 20K a year otherwise the DPF and EGR will fail. Pain in the arse to replace on them too. And mega ££££ of course.

That model year has issues with the timing chain failing early. Find out if it has been replaced (engine out job) otherwise don’t touch unless covered under some sort of warranty.

girlfriends was declined in Aldi and petrol station.

Waited 49 mins on hold before giving up. Glad it’s not just her.

The above is true. Saw a 120d 5 door, 2000 miles on the clock demo car car. Was 23K they wanted £16k for it.

320d m sport with all the toys

Didn’t know that wasn’t allowed :lol:

Good points.

I have enough for a deposit already, as far as im aware the £300 was all in for 4 years.

I do roughly 6000 miles a year and the allowance was 8k so should be ok on that front. I’m a mechanic so can service it myself.

The point about not owning is very true, but then again leasing i’d not have to deal with the value dropping, major faults on the engine etc etc

I’ve replaced the Turbo on loads of them, another fault of that engine. Very pricey repair.

Wouldn’t touch one IMO

this is **** me right off now.

Photo stream appears on my phone, says new photos taken will auto upload

Take a photo and it doesnt upload it !?

yes i have an apple account.

Everything is turned on but when i go into iphoto, photostream does not appear in the source list.

Iphone is connected to wifi
Photo stream is switched on

apparently i can go into iphoto and the pics will appear

Nothing happens.

Sorry for the slow reply, was away with work.

A few fine points above. The 3 year mark would make better sense.

To outline a few things:

I am a mechanic and thus will take care of the car myself, i plan on buying something 3 years old max and keep it for years. Probably 5 ish years so yes i want to own the car. I’ve no interest in getting something new every 3 years.

I like the A1, i sat in the A1 and A3 and once the seat was adjusted the space for me was the same, the rear space was only about an inch better on the A3. Add to that the A3 is fugly :lol: My liking for the A1 is due to parking, sadly its a priority for me as spaces round here are rare at best.

Personally I’d buy a E92 M3 at least, or E61 M5 with some miles on it.

The 1M is a very nice car no doubts, but under the skin it’s made on the cheap. The chassis is steel, sub chassis is steel so it’s going to rust like crazy just like a cheap mondeo etc. At that price point i wouldn’t pay for a car with a steel chassis.

At the 5 series level most of the body and nearly all of the sub chassis are alloy. I have an older E39 M too and recently replaced the front and rear suspension, 140K miles on it not one bolt was seized etc. That’s quality.

Not my own but a customer of mine (personal and fleet) has a 2010 Octavia with over 100K on it already. He’s some sort of consultant and drives to France and Germany every week.

Well that depends on your interpretation i guess.

My point being the public sector looking after fellow public sector employees. Joe blog on the street would have been hammered with a 12 month ban at least.

I never said the police issue the bans.

Double standards. Would a member of the public 5 times over the limit get a 2 month ban ?

I’m surprised he got done being an ex coppa.

At my previous job we did work for the police vehicles, the pursuit ones.

One week i noticed one of the regulars had stopped coming in. He showed up one day after being driven in. Turns out he had been bubbled by a co-worker and breath tested in the morning at work (having driven in) and found to be 5 times over the limit….

He got a 2 month ban! Absolute joke. My neighbor drink drives 6 days a week, he’s been reported by myself and two other neighbors in the region of 10+ times and the cops have done jack about it. I walk past his place in the morning and he’s normally so pssed he can barley walk to his car let alone drive it.

SO having not been provided any in over a year, i am perfectly ok to request them back dated ?

I’ve got both E39 and E61 versions.

As a mechanic that does work on the car myself i prefer the E39. Much better build, more mechanical rather than electrical etc so less to go wrong.

I’ve had the E39 for years, it’s just hit 136,000 miles and is still on the original clutch. I have replaced the entire front and rear suspension on it, and i mean everything at a cost of £1000. It does need front discs once a year though and the rear tyres (265/30/18) are a bit pricey.

Not too great on fuel though.

Other than that i haven’t spent anything else on it in 5 years!

Ah ok.

I left a job recently, worked with them for 2.7 years

I only have 4 payslips…..

I want to send a letter requesting all my payslips back dated but want to know if it is a legal requirement to provide them.

Not paper ? What other forms of payslip are available ?

5 of us in this house.

5 no votes.

All Scottish born. Live in Edinburgh

To follow this up….

Mrs Offroading handed in notice the 21st giving a weeks notice that she would finish the 29th.

As of today she still hasn’t been paid :|

Any advice ?

Run a garage too.

I’d replace the part FOC too, no doubt about it.

I can say 100% though what has caused it. Much like bike bearings for cars you get good wheel bearings and budget ones that cost peanuts.

I’d put money on it a budget bearing has been used and its gone wrong.

I tried a few of said budget bearings on cars and its not worth it, half of them are rough out of the box, the rest once installed (correctly) have play in them. Total crap.

Traffic into Edinburgh on any route in the morning is slow. M8 is the worst, A71 from Livingston gets slowed down at Sighthill.

WHen you say not far from the airport what direction ?