ianl

i spent the day surfing the web for a new car stereo (and a new car to put it in) i'm looking either at a 2din touch screen all in one CD, sat nav, ipod control, bluetooth phone headunit or an in dash PC/headunit hybrid that will act like a headunit (CD/radio), do sat nav, bluetooth, Itunes, wireless conection to my house and run conzult I've looked at expensive ones and i've looked at cheap ebay imports, the problem is i'm not sure if they do what i want or wheter i will need to buy lots of add on bits or wheter the user interface is any good. most of the carPC adverts talk a load of geek but dont actually tell me what it does in english what i really want to do (being old fashioned) is go into a shop that sells a range of both types and try them and ask questions etc. can anyone recomend a shop in the south east or london that sells both car stereos and car PCs as i cant find one on internet alternativly any one who has already researched / bought something similar suggest products to look at / avoid

i'm interested in this but only if i have a working car by then

anyone got any more info or pictures on where to find the thermostat?

today about 2.30pm northbound on the A3 just north of Guildford a very shiny looking white Zed

in the UK cars the key number is on a small sticker in the glove box, locksmiths will be able to cut a new key from this

a bit but not enough, takes 3 weeks for my battery to go flat rather than one

use the sun http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/12V-VOLT-CAR-BATTERY-CHARGER-SOLAR-PANEL-POWER-NEW_W0QQitemZ220294370892QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Gadgets?hash=item220294370892&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1683%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

it doesn't take much to discharge a battery, here's some figures : as an example the stock zed battery is 65AH, you only want to discharge a lead acid battery to 60% of its capacity to avoid damage ie 39AH a single LED will draw aprox 20mA which is 3.36AH per week 39 / 3.36 = 11.6 so with just a single LED on you dont want to leave a zed for more than 11 1/2 weeks without charging the battery my zed with only a car alarm, head unit and sat nav conected draws just over 200mA when off and locked (ie 33.6 AH per week) so on a stock battery it would need to be recharged every 8 days bear in mind also that an alternator will never charge a battery fully so you may be starting with only 80 or 90% charge in the battery also with lights, wipers, heating, stereo on you can easily be drawing nearly as much current as the alternator provides and on short journeys the charge put back in may be the same or less than the charge used to start the car

i use the same charger as Steve on my vert (lives in garage), the TT i have a solar pannel trickle charger in the window (lives on drive) but back to the origonal question..... standard car batteries (lead acid) are designed to produce a high current to start your car. they have a limited life which comes down to how many times it can be recharged, the more you empty the battery each time the less recharges you get. a standard lead acid battery is designed to not be let run below 50% charge without seriously shortening its life Leisure batteries (generaly using a gel) designed for caravans etc are designed to withstand being run a lot emptier or "deep discharged" or "deep cycled" but cant produce high starting currents needed to start your car Marine batteries are a good compromise with high current capabilaty but deep cycle abilaty too (happy to run to 75% discharged) , but they cost more

do you think my washings dry yet?

no work today :)

mine does that too after the auto to manual conversion, its the beeper that tells you you are in reverse but dont have your foot on the brake or accelerator, from what i remember from trying to get rid of it, its not the beeper that does lights on door open warning

i was there :) but my cd player was broken and i snapped the cd a few weeks latter without ever having played it

its not going to be an earth fault if you look at the circuit diagram and the reported symptoms, it can't be its either : the +12 supply to the relay the headlight switches the wire from the headlight switches to the relay the wire from the relay to the point where it splits to the dipped and full beam lights when one relay does not provide power, the working relay provides power to its bulb and also all 3 other bulbs in series, for this to happen the grounds need to be ok use a multimeter to check there is +12v at both the coil and the switch terminals of the relay socket if no 12v , check relay socket has clean contacts and fuses are ok if yes 12v , then insert a piece of (1mm minimum) wire across the switch terminals of the relay (insert it sharply as it will probably spark) then turn lights on. if the lights now work then the fault is either with the headlight switches or the wire from the switches to the relay (i dont have the circuit diag in front of me but i'm thinking wire unlikely as why use 2 wires when 1 would do) if the lights still dont work then the fault is between the relay and the point where the wire splits to go to the full and dipped lights ( as i said before can't remember where this is, it may be at the lights or it may be in the wiring at the fuse box)

kept parked half on road, half on grass verge

i was thinking battery acid too. what about brake fluid, does that run down the drivers side to the abs or hicas?

driver spilt his pint?

ignition barrels? with broken spring key does not return from starting position so starter motor keeps running??

this http://s95014253.onlinehome.us/63104/137858.html explains what they are, you dont need them if you use decats, not sure what you need to do to the redundant pipes tho

still no, although i was a passenger in one once for about 5 mins

no

i've re read all your posts, ignoring the lights coming on by themselves bit for now, "the N/S round light is on bright, the O/S square lamp is dim and the O/S round and N/S square lamp are slightly glowing" and "when i put an earth wire to the O/S square lamp it made it go out and the N/S square lamp came on really bright" and "however when you pull out one of the relays all the lights go out, but if u pull out the other one they dont go out," i've spent some time looking at the circuit diagram and am convinced the problem is with the power not getting to the off-side lights . simplified off-side lighting circuit is: +12v to off-side relay, when relay switches on +12v passes to both the off side lights (round and square) so potential problems here: the problem must be before the point where the +ve side of the round light is connected to the +ve side of the square light. i'm not sure where the join happens, if it is near the lights then check the connectors near the lights (clean coroded pins or wiggle wires), if the join is at the fuse box then ignore the lights, check the contacts at the point where the relay plugs in (is 12v present at the point where the relay plugs in?) try putting a short bit of wire in the off-side relay socket instead of the relay as if the relay was switched on (this will tell you if the problem is post relay next look at the relay, is it turning on? get someone to listen for clicking from the relay when you turn the lights on and off. the simplified circuit for making the relay turn on is: +12v aplied to the "turn on" contact of the relay, 0v side of the "turn on " circuit of the relay is wired to the headlight switch in the car, when this switch is activated it conects to 0V and the relay switches on. so potential problems here (relay not switching on): +12v not connecting to "turn on" contact of relay (clean contacts, test with multimeter) or relay broken (get another) wire from headlight switch to relay broken (poke a wire in the 0v side of the relay "turn on " circuit (coil) and touch the other end to chassis or ov on battery) if i had to guess i would say given your turning on by itself problem i would suggest that the loom from the headlight switch to the relays has frayed insulation and intermittent broken wires which ocasionally touch the chassis (either somewhere hot or where they pass through a hole in the body. however i rekon its worth trying all the above to discount other things

the slicktop is comparativly rare, being a manual twin turbo makes it even rarer, but not rare enough to be only 50. the entire car including engine bay looks from the picture to be stock with the exception of (the wheels and) the 2 vents on the bottom of the front bumper (it came with vents just not those ones) suggests possible uprated intercoolers. but nothing that obviously indicates it might do 400bhp

but if they do then you'll go the wrong way :)

this is paws (or jabba the cat): and her 2 year old daughter lily: and this is kitty, she was diabetic, had no teeth or claws (which is good when your trying to inject a cat) and died a couple of years ago: