Recent content by Pete G

An auto electrician should be able to tell if there is a parasitic drain on the battery. Or you could buy a cheap DC clamp meter, they have a clamp that goes around the cable you are testing and measure the current flowing in the cable. They will show also if the 12 volt battery is being charged...

We have an Australian generation 1 ZS EV. In Australia the Gen1 cars do not have a tow rating and do not have the plug for the trailer wiring in the car. We asked a dealer to fit a towbar for us. MG Australia sent them a towbar that they said suited the VIN number of our car. They fitted the...

Our ZS EV had the same message come up when we were in town shopping. We drove to a battery shop and had them test the 12 volt battery. The battery passed the load test. Still I got them to put in a new battery anyway. No more messages from the car about the 12 volt battery being low. In your...

I remember when conductors on busses came around to take money and hand out tickets. Also remember Bread deliveries, where the bread man had a horse and cart. There was a man who came around the streets with a horse and cart too, who sharpened knives and scissors. Train conductors came around...

I too only drive in eco mode ( ZS gen 1). We had an instance a few weeks back where a tractor was driving on the road in front of us. We stayed back hoping he would turn off into a farm soon, but after a kilometre or so we decide to overtake. Planting my foot on the accelerator put the car into...

I milled some timber from a fallen tree with my chainsaw. I felt old when I had to move the planks and drag them to the road to load them on my EV side by side buggy to bring them back to my shed. They only weighed about 80 kg but it was a struggle to drag them about 20 metres, then load them...

that is interesting Data. Maybe the vapour gets ignited by the spark plug, points or ignition coil connections or even the starter motor brush sparks. I have seen a few VWs many years ago ( the air cooled ones) that went up in smoke. Of course a broken wire somewhere could create the spark...

Volkswagen Kombi vans used to catch fire a lot too. VW Beetles did too. The fuel line used to rub through where it went through the fire wall, then petrol would spray all over a hot air cooled motor. That never seemed to bring on a recall for repairs. I guess they thought it would just sell more...

I did have a similar situation to a cat in the engine bay once. I went to start one of my ICE cars many years ago. For some reason I decided to open the bonnet and check the oil and coolant levels. Well in the engine bay was a rodent eradicator in the guise of a 6 foot long carpet snake. I had...

Rodents attacked our zs ev. They chewed on the battery case and ate a hole in the brake booster vacuum hose. Fortunately no other damage, i replaced the hose at home with some plastic tubing and all is well. Since then I have sprayed the wiring loom with a spray I made from Cayenne pepper...

you could always just plug the dashcam into a cigarette lighter plug. no need to pay for installation then. The only downside is that the dashcam won't have power when the car is parked.

Regenerative braking is designed to use some of the downhill motion to put charge back into the battery. Once the battery is full, there is nowhere for the motor to put the power it is generating. Regenerative braking helps extend the range of the car, works great to slow the car down on hills...

Scott it may be worth checking the battery state on your car. We have a gen 1 ZS EV and our range is usually around 250 kilometres in Summer, and 235 kilometres in Winter. We only drive at around 80 kilometres and hour as our roads are bumpy, windy and have lots of wildlife. I am guessing that...

If you use an EVSE like a Zappi then it has, the ability to use only excess solar power,( eco++) or some battery and mostly solar power in Eco mode. There is a fast charge setting too, and you can set the amount of power it will draw from the batteries to whatever percentage you want. I am sure...

I have an MG ZS EV, and live totally off grid. We charge our car from our solar system with a zappi EVSE. The Zappi has settings to allow you to just use excess solar or to use some grid and some solar power. I have a battery inverter that pretends to be the grid and two second hand grid...