Recent content by Tim Green

Probably got range anxiety, like the rest of us!

So what you are saying is that 12.27v with the car "off" is not really low enough to trigger the "Battery too low" alarm signal. I would say it is right on the margin. 12v should trigger it, because a normal battery should sit at about 13v. Maybe your newer battery is not too good either? You...

Tom, I remember your story about needing a new battery about a year ago. Our car is an early 2020 so is now over 6 years old. Recently I noticed the sometimes the car would not "start" but acted like I had not put my foot on the brake. Also I noticed that the 12v battery was low, showing under...

Well something's changed. Broken coil springs used to be a rarity, not any more. It may be the material is just too thin. Personally I think they are both too thin and poorly made.

No, mine was about 10 years ago too. It is not just potholes, the reason is the springs are just made of too thin material and they are not finished properly. Instead of finishing the coil as a round flat circle, they are just cut off "on the bend" and a former is used to try to make them work...

it's not just lower value cars, I had a front spring go in my Merc E-class estate when it was quite new. I was not impressed.

Coil springs are a common problem nowadays, they have been whittled down to be as cheap as possible so are on the edge all the time.

My car is 6 years old and about 30,000 miles. I have noticed recently that the (12v) battery indicator shows a very low reading in the morning, maybe 10v or so. I think that is a new event. The only other change I have noticed is that sometimes the usual start-up procedure does not work...

Surely you can reject the car as not fit for purpose? It is not realistic to have thousands of £ worth of vehicle doing nothing. Get rid!

Yours is a difficult case to advise on. I have a similar car, bought from new, so now 6 years on and it has been fault free. That is unusual for any car. However, there have been some instances when I thought there was fault, but it was me! For instance, if you try to use the car with the front...

Yes, average speed is very significant for range.. As you say, 50 mph max will do many more miles than 70mph. Also heater or cooler knocks a lot off too.

Curiously, my Mk1 zs has never shown any degradation in GOM from when it was last parked up. I was surprised at that. But the models described above are mostly long-range models with different battery technology.

Absolutely right.

We know that worn or even broken U/j's have been found in these cars, position has not been stated. Assuming that the design parameters of the u/j's have not been exceeded, something has caused them to fail, and the likely cause is excess load. This excess load cannot be from turning the...

But there is a second u/j at the upper end of the column. So listening to where the noise comes from is inadequate. Ideally, it is checking the play (movement of the steering wheel with no movement of the road wheels) that is important, as this indicates wear in the u/j's. Tightening bolts may...