tim-spam

Just looked back to the beginning of this thread. An excerpt from Post 1: And the most likely solution was identified was identified in Post 2: And ignored.

1) I never said or implied that only recommended parts will work properly - how on earth did you draw that conclusion? All I said was that, in this case the manufacturer specifies a Calcium battery for these cars (I believe that this is due to the type of charging system fitted). I bought a calcium battery of the specified size and rating from Halfords for around

I very much doubt it - the Mk 2 is a VW, whereas the Mk 3 is a Ford. It may be worth asking your local dealer though - you never know, you may get a sensible answer...

The trouble with forums like this is that, because they provide a tremendous amount of useful information about how to fix things, people reading them can get the impression that all of the cars concerned are nothing but trouble. My own experience, after the best part of 3 years of ownership are very good. Apart from fuel, tax, MOT, routine servicing, tyres, brake pads, battery (5 years) and part of the exhaust system, I have had to do the following: 1) Replace one seat recliner knob - less than

My car was fitted with the recommended (Ca) battery from new, and I replaced it with the same - simple, and it works. If you fit non-recommended parts and experience problems, you can hardly blame the car. My advice to you, as I remember, was to fit the correct part, which you did not do - as you say, your choice. I, and others, were just trying to help. When mine mists up (and, if the conditions are right, all cars will from time to time), the aircon system clears all of the windows within around 10 - 20 seconds. No worries there. As regards understeer, these cars are just about the best handling MPV's money can buy. As regards road noise, this depends a lot on which tyres are fitted - again, mine is not bad at all in this respect. It is also a very good towcar indeed - many others will also testify to that. Exhaust fumes in the car?? Never happened on mine, even when one of the exhaust sections started to blow. It's very difficult to see how the fumes got in, unless the tailgate wasn't closing properly, or the seal was missing or incorrectly fitted - did your towbar fitter replace it properly, because if he didn't, again, you can hardly blame the car. As for the auto 'box, my choice is manual every time, so no worries there. However, I hope you enjoy your Mercedes - time will tell whether or not you experience the electrical gremlins which seem to affect some 270's.

The best way to check a tie rod is to jack up that side of the car only and remove the wheel. The weight of the car on the other wheel will provide significant resistance to steering movement. It's then just a case of grasping the brake disc at '3' and '9' and feeling for any play. If there is any play felt, and the play is in the tie rod, you should just be able to see relative movement between the steering knuckle and tie rod. To increase the leverage, I have a bar that I can bolt to the hub - this works really well.

Are your's halogen or xenons?

A track rod end anywhere near failure would be very noticeable indeed - knocking, steering wander, severe wheel shake, etc. However, it's easy enough to check, and if there is indeed excessive free play, it should be replaced ASAP.

At the recommended 40,000 miles, mine looked as good as new - no signs of any cracks or wear, and the width was in specification for a new belt. I'll still change mine every 40,000 miles though.

It wouldn't. In this case, an awful lot of time has been spent trying to find out what's wrong with the car, when the evidence seems to point to the battery. The best place to have started would have been to fit the correct battery in the first place. Even if the current drain on the battery remained at 200mA, this would not have caused a flat battery over a week or two, let alone a couple of days. The fact is that 200mA is not at all excessive on a modern car and should not have caused a problem. When my battery failed a few months ago, I had to jump start the car to get home from work. Once home, I switched off and then tried to re-start - no problem. This showed that the car's charging system was working. 1 hour later, there wasn't even enough charge left for the central locking. So, I went to Halfords (in my wife's car) and bought the recommended (Calcium) battery for around

Seems a shame to sell the whole car because it has the wrong battery fitted....

Oh dear......

Which means that the alternator is OK, as it is clearly charging the battery fully. I would advise the new owner to fit the correct Ca battery (Halfords sell them with a 4 year guarantee) and go from there. My guess is that all should be OK. On a 70Ah battery, 5mA would take 14000 hours to drain - perhaps they were using torch batteries.... With all of the electronics on a modern car, there will always be some continuous discharge - in my handbook, it recommends disconnecting the battery if the car is to stand for any more than 2 weeks. If we assume that a 50% charge is just sufficient to start the engine, this would amount to a 35Ah drain over 2 weeks. This equates to a continuous 104mA.

No, it was definitely down to slipping (or should I say floating) tyres....

And you still do not have the correct battery fitted....

?

I would agree with MO4 - go back to the basics. For example, you have not fitted the recommended battery for your car..... Also, does the second replacement battery actually go flat like the first one did?

When stationary, the steering load will be at its highest, so this is a pretty good test for the power assistance, especially as the engine will also be at idle speed.

Mine is a dark metallic, and when I had my rear bumper repaired by Chips Away, he did the job in my drive, and after filling the deep scratches only resprayed the corner area where the forklift truck had scraped it. The match was perfect, although I suppose a large flatish panel may be a little different.

I would agree that the quality of the tyres, both in terms of design and manufacture, has a very large effect on the way they behave, particularly in adverse conditions. There will always be a trade-off between price and performance - I always research thoroughly before buying safety critical items such as tyres, and try to find the best performance at the best price. It seems that, at the moment, the Vredestein Sportrak 3 is the tyre to beat for overall performance, as it consistently comes top in all of the recent comparative tyre tests, and has recently deposed the Goodyear Hydragrip and Nokian NRHi's. You do not always get what you pay for either - in all of these recent tests, the Michelin Pilot fares pretty poorly (it comes at or near the bottom), and is the most expensive tyre on test. It is clear that spending more than around

Very seasonal I know, but...Oh yes it does. You appear to be contradicting yourself anyway - probably all that petrol. The Passat does indeed have a transverse engine, as does the Sharan etc, but it is the same engine with the same torque curve. If mounting it transversely makes such a difference, it rather scuppers your original argument concerning the problems you seem to have driving the A4 being relevant to the TDI Sharan etc. Oh yes there is - a driver that's fast asleep....

The Passat has the same "overboosted" engine though... If 9.7 seconds is nearly fast asleep, you must sleep pretty soundly driving your Galaxy - sounds dangerous to me....

Firstly, I never said or implied that you were bk - read the post. I have driven the Passat 2.0TDI, and found it to be very good indeed - I certainly had no problem moving away gently or briskly. Having read various road tests of the A4 2.0TDI, I can only conclude that it must be similarly good to drive, although I guess that there will always be one or two who just don't get on with it. I agree that, for those who find smooth driving difficult, the DSG would be a good option. Regarding the 0 - 60mph times measured by road testers, these are usually a little faster than the 0 - 100kph times quoted by the manufacturers, and anyway there is not really a huge difference between 8.9 and 9.7 - after all, there will be variations between cars, days and drivers which can lead to differences at least as great as that. But I would still not describe 9.7 seconds as 'no action'. As regards the diesel versions being 'nowhere near as nice to drive' as the petrol versions - well, shall we just say, "yet another corker, but this time not from bk"?

As far as I am aware, there should be sensors front and rear. Easy to check - just look for the wires going to the calipers.

Another corker from bk. Audi A4 2.0 TDI: Top speed = 138mph 0 - 60mph = 8.9 seconds How much action do you need? Oh sorry, I forgot, you've probably stalled it....