tim-spam

That's funny....I thought that deviating off topic resulted in a moderator getting the last word in and closing the topic......

I would have thought that a modesty in your own abilities was vital in anyone believing themself to be an "Excellent Driver". Michael Schumacher??.....sorry, I couldn't resist that!

Not necessarily - as some of you may have read on my posting about crappy Avon tyres, I did have a blowout on my caravan at around 60 mph, and, apart from the bits of Avon depositing themselves on the road, there was no drama whatsoever, and I was able to signal left, pull over and stop in a completely controlled way. My caravan weighs in at 1.3 tonnes, and the Alhambra is nearly 2 tonnes (not 1.4 as someone said, and it holds the road pretty well too), which makes it a very stable outfit, especially when the caravan has telescopic dampers and there is a stabiliser between the car and caravan. There really is a lot of ignorance about just how stable and safe properly matched outfits can be. Almost invariably, jack-knifed or rolled caravans are a result of poor matching or loading and / or incompetent driving. By the way, I have been driving and towing for considerably longer than 2 years, but that does not necessarily prove anything - I know many competent drivers who have little experience, although I guess that they may improve further with experience, just as I know some pretty incompetent drivers of many years' standing. Just because some people do not have the competence to control a car in an emergency situation (for example, when a tyre blows), does not mean that no-one else does.

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In fact, VW recommends a belt and roller(s) change every 40,000 miles, until some time in 2003 when the belt and rollers (there are 2) were uprated. The interval is now 60,000 miles for the belt and 120,000 miles for the rollers. Apparently, if the later parts (which are now the only ones available from VW) are fitted to earlier cars, the longer intervals also apply.

You need VAGCOM to deactivate the airbag, but why would you want to do that. Rear facing children's seats should always be put in one of the rear seats in my opinion.

The booster heater has a glow plug and exhaust, and the auxiliary heater contains engine coolant and is used to heat the rear of the passenger compartment. My booster heater fired up this morning as it always has on cold mornings.

They changed the spec (& part number) of the belt and uprated the tensioner and relay rollers. If you fit the later parts to an earlier car, the interval goes up from 40,000 miles for the belt and rollers to 60,000 miles for the belt and 120,000 miles for the rollers. The new part number for the belt ends with a 'P', and the old one ended with an 'N'.

So, they've freed up some space by deleting the spare wheel, made the thing bigger on the outside, but it's still smaller on the inside......... Hope VW is listening so they don't make the same mistakes.

The installed rolling cirumference of the tyres will be virtually identical. Tyre manufacturers have to stay within pretty tight limits, but if you check the various manufacturers' websites for technical data, you will indeed find variations between different makes of nominally the same size, but for 'normal' summer tyres these differences are minimal. By the way, the figure to look for is rolling circumference, and not loaded radius.

As I said, from this picture (it's NOT a photo), you can not possible tell what size the car will be - it is all conjecture at the moment. We'll have to wait until next year to see for sure, but I bet it'll be at least as big as the current car. I just hope it will be better than the new Galaxy, have a spare wheel and be a fitting replacement for the current Sharan / Alhambra / Galaxy. ...but since around 2000, the Sharan has outsold the Galaxy. Alhambra sales have been consistently around half those of the Sharan, which is still significant enough for a new version to be considered.

Just looked on the mytyres.co.uk website to get some new tyres for my wife's car, and noticed the Nokian NRHi's which I bought for

From this picture, it is very hard to tell what size the car is - it could be (and almost certainly is) a full-sized MPV. Another example is, ironically, the new Galaxy - having seen one in the local Ford dealers, you would never guess that it is considerably longer than the current model - it actually looks a little smaller. Down to clever styling I think.

READ THE TEXT!!! The picture is NOT what the new Sharan will look like at all, but is just a mule based on a VW Caddy. This will be to test some of the under-the-skin components. By the way, I hope that they resist the temptation to go for sliding rear doors, and I hope they also resist the temptation to make it much bigger.

I only chose Nokian after doing a considerable amount of research - nothing to do with being obsessed with saving a few quid by compromising safety. The 'reputable' Dunlops were only a few pounds more than the Nokians, but were so poor in terms of wet road grip and braking, as well as wearing very quickly and making a racket on anything but the smoothest tarmac that they had to be replaced with something considerable better - hence my choice. Not a budget tyre (

Easy - at the bottom, use the seatbelt mounting rings, and at the top, feed the top clasps on the cargo net between the seats and the headrests, loop round the headrest bars and attach the top clasps to the centre clasps. When the rear seats are out or folded, use bungies around the headrest bars on the middle row seats to attach the upper cargo net clasps to.

Nothing wrong with mine - 2001 with 80000 miles on the clock.

I've recently replaced the Dunlops on mine with Nokian NRHi's from mytyres.com. I found the Dunlops noisy, fast wearing and with lousy traction and grip, especially in the wet. The Nokians are massively better - they grip almost as well in the wet as the Dunlops did in the dry. They are also much quieter and the ride is better. They are rated at treadware 320 against the Dunlops' 200, so should last at least 50% longer. On the tyretest website, they are rated as pretty much the best summer tyre around at the moment, and as they are also cheaper than the Dunlops (they are priced about half way between premium and budget at

51 plate = 115PS Boost 'cuts in' at around 1400 - 1500 rpm with the turbo vanes set to maximum boost by the engine controls. The turbo vanes should start to progressively back off at between 2000 and 2500 rpm to prevent overboost. This engine is not equipped with a wastegate, but has a Garrett type variable vane turbocharger. However, the approach of thoroughly checking all of the vacuum hoses and their connections is sound. Using VAGCOM to interrogate the ECM would also be a very good idea, as this will identify whether or not the engine is being overboosted - it would also tell you if there are any problems elsewhere such as a faulty brake light switch. It generally gives very accurate information and is a very good diagnostic tool. There are many other threads on this problem, so you should be able to find as much help as you need to fix your problem. Hope this helps.

The headlights on the Mk 2's are much better than on the Mk 1's, whether Xenon or not.

The lack of a spare (and presumably the space to put one) is totally unacceptable - a minor inconvenience and short delay will now be a breakdown and recovery situation, with the associated long delay. I know tyres are far more reliable than they used to be, but deleting the spare really is a 'bridge too far'. I have had to change a wheel at the roadside 5 or 6 times due to punctures, most of which would not have been 'repairable' with the repair kit. Are you listening VW? - DON'T make the same mistake with the new Sharan please!

As I said, the tyres were just 5 years old, and this was to be their last long outing - they were due for replacement, NOT overdue. In addition, they have been kept out of the sun between camping trips. By the way, tyre manufacturers recommend anywhere between 5 and 10 years for non-wear replacement, and the fire service changes the tyres on fire engines every 6 years (although I guess that this may vary from area to area). As regards the incident, apart from a very loud bang and a slight jolt, there was no drama at all and no snaking - I just put out a left signal and moved over to the hard shoulder in a fully controlled manner. However, my outfit is well matched (1300kg maximum weight against a kerbweight of over 1900kg), and the drawbar weight was 75 kg. I was using a blade type stabiliser, and, most importantly, the caravan has telescopic dampers on the suspension - I believe that theses should be mandatory as it improves stability hugely, especially for high-speed towing in France (where the limit is 130 kph). My belief is that these tyres were not correctly cured during manufacture, and that this was the cause of the failure - one tyre failing could have been 'just one of those things', but both...........

Although you supplied the parts, are you sure they actually changed the belt? If they did, was it done properly? We all know that the standards of workmanship at dealers is appalling. I wonder if there are any markings on the belt that would show its age? As far as I am aware, these engines are not particularly prone to premature cambelt failures, and the revised part number is due to the later engines having their change intervals increased to 60000 miles.

Just returned from holiday in France - had a great time despite the weather (the booster heater actually fired up one morning!). On the way home, we stopped over for a few hours on the way to Calais, and upon returning to the car, we noticed that the caravan offside tyre looked a little flat. It had gone down from 45 psi to 35 psi in around 10 hours, so I assumed it had a slow puncture. So, as we were due to sail from Calais to Dover, I pumped up the tyre and headed for the boat. When we arrived at Dover, the tyre had gone down to around 20 psi, so I again pumped it up to get off the boat, and once out of Dover, pulled over and changed the wheel (the spare was an old Michelin). When I removed the wheel, I noticed that part of the tread was peeling away from the carcass. We then continued on our way, but after about an hour, the nearside tyre exploded, leaving bits of tyre, caravan wheelarch and part of the floor behind the wheel on the road - we were doing around 55 - 60mph at the time. So, I had to put the other tyre back on, reflate, and continue the journey - no more than 35 - 40 mph, stopping every hour to reflate and check the tyre. The tyres concerned were Avon Vanmasters 175 x 13, and were 5 years old. They have never been left on the caravan for extended periods, never been overloaded or under inflated, never been kerbed, and never exceeded 80 mph. I was going to replace them next year, and this was to have been their last long trip. On inpecting the better of the two tyres, the rubber between the tread and carcass seems to be sticky and incompletely cured - perhaps this was the cause of the failures. Anyway, if any of you out there has Avon Vanmasters more than 4 years old, take my advice and replace them now. If you are considereing these tyres, don't!

One more avenue to try - as the car is really a VW with Ford badges, your local VW dealer would probably be of more help.