Dicky

Coldel young man, was there much involved in removing your old handbrake lever and fitting the new one. I think I'd like to copy yours

Liked your idea about changing the colour of the panel lights so been doing a bit of research and found you can get Tri colour led’s (you may have already known that. I didnt) which have three leads coming out from them. Internally there is one red and one green led. If both are on together then it appears yellow. So your led;s may be tri colour. The longest lead is common (cathode) and the other two the respective led anodes.

The round alloy one looks good and the red lettering would work with my red 350.Looks like it would shorten the gearchange too (generally good,but 1 to 2 when cold will be worse)...but very icy to the touch at this time of year. Oh bugger. Thats a good point. When you touch the metal at the base of the gear lever your fingers almost stick

Ive seen a couple on ebay that look ok but Im a bit bothered what you get for £6.99 I'll look into what coldel suggests cos I quite like his knob but without the tattooing (thats got to have hurt). By the way a "Show us ure Knob" thread sounds like a winner to me. Might even get the wife interested in cars

If you have a dry joint and it seems likely that you have, then the led operation will be intermittent. As the joint flexes its resistance changes (usually goes higher) and will reduce the voltage to the led’s (brightness will vary) If it goes high enough (and it would) then all the voltage is dropped across the joint leaving nothing to light up the leds. I very much doubt the prob has anything to do with temperature.

I’m looking to splash out for the new year and buy a new gear knob. I fancy a round shaped aluminium number. Ive seen a couple on ebay and bugger the fact their nearly £7 each I'm considering casting caution to the wind. Anyone recommend another supplier as I’m not to keen on ebay and any advice regarding choosing a suitable one. I’d hate to spend all that dosh and find its to low/high

If any part of the series connections results in a dry joint then all led's will be affected. Don’t understand your description “where as the existing were 1+ and 3-,†Leds usually have only two connecting wires (your not talking about surface mount stuff are you) one slightly longer lead (+). As rtbiscuit says dry joints are hard to spot. I would suggest reheating all the joints you’ve touched and run a little more solder onto them.

You’ll have to bear with me as its years since I did electronics seriously. Sounds like you have a "dry" solder joint to me A led usually takes a current of approx 20mA (0.02A). If you connect say 3 in series then the same current will run through each of them. So if you have a soldered “dry†joint (ie solder not fully adhered to the wire producing a high resistance) then its likely to go high resistance if moved and turn off all leds. By the way you did connect a suitable resistor in series with the led’s to limit the current ?

Better to laugh than cry cos laughing's EGGhilarating

HELP What are these video files with a .php extension cos I can play them on my lap top. The .jpg play ok. Any advice welcome

All of that is EGGtremly confusing. In fact my heads SCRAMBLED trying to read that. You've completely FRIED my brain..... Oh wait, it was a joke.... Did you POACH it off a joke website? I take my hat off to an obvious EGGspert

I was told by a Powerflow tech the other day that you run an increased risk of failing an MOT with high flow cats fitted. Is this true?

Apologies SteveW its no YOKE. Ive been a victim myself

I would find it EGGciting if we could EGGsterminate and totally EGGliminate them by some suitable EGGxecution method, possibly EGGlectricution.

Denton Burn

Thanks Steve (yep got all the st st 304 line) and Lexx for your time and advice. I'll investigate your recommendations further

Making initial enquiries about a new exhaust. A main dealer oem cat back would cost approx £823 inc vat (not fitted) and a Powerflow st st about £550 fitted. Anyone had a standard powerflow system fitted and can give me some feed back (noise level, quality of work etc) and has anyone from Geordie land had one fitted at Tyre Spot (Im looking at the Scotswood Road branch). Can you recommend them or another branch.

Doesn’t sound like big ends to me, especially if your oil pressure’s ok. Have you tried running the engine on tick over and listening with a sounding stick (a long screwdriver/other placed on the engine casting with the handle against your ear. You can listen to internal engine sounds that way and would hear anything going wrong internally. I noticed a rattle on mine recently after a journey. Noticed it when I got to open the garage door. Switched off straight away and called the RAC next morning but when they arrived and we started it up the noise had gone! Best of luck with it, and as others have said don’t listen to a exhaust mechanic, bloody hell I don’t know much about cars but could hold down a job fitting exhausts, no prob’s

One of my mates has a 2ooo 330d sport and he loves it. He’s had it from new and had little or no problems with it. Its comfortable, fast and does umpty dumpty miles per gallon. It still rides like new and he would'nt swap it for anything. Ive got to admit I like it to even though its getting on a bit long in the tooth. Yours looks great, tell them to get it and enjoy it cos lifes short

I’ve thought about this problem myself and at first favoured using a bit of tongue, by running it along the top edge of the window. Unfortunately this method I’ve decided could be a little problematic. First you could form an even stronger attachment than you already have for your car, at least until spring arrives that is. It could also be a bit a bit of a bind if some opportunist bum bandit happens along. Imagine your standing there looking very alluring, bent slightly forward in what he might consider a provocative pose . Imagine it, how do you say STOP or NO those words usually required in any rape case to indicate lack of consent. A bit of a sticky wicket me thinks. Or what if one of your local mugger’s walks past and decides not to ask politely if he could borrow a couple of quid and your phone so he can call in his daily fix order! What the hell could you do stuck to your door window like that! I’m now convinced that a bit of tongue can land you in more trouble that enough and will stick to my second idea of peeing on the frozen window instead!!

Now aint that strange. It looks just like mine too !! HOW DO THOSE JAPs DO IT

I'd like to convert my reflectors to DRL but dont like to see individual led's, I also find they look a bit naff (hate the xmas tree effect on audies and othe recent models. Anyone used cold cathode fluorescent tubes before? Can you get 12v versions and do they strike up instantly unlike a normal fluorescent tube? models.

I got my stealer to price match that of another stealer. I supplied the plugs and they charged £75.60 to fit them. The prices quoted from other dealers ranged :- £75.60, £94.8, £117, and £122.81 all inclusive of VAT. Your quoted price seem very high

Not really. The 9v is measured with no current demand from the battery. If the batt is dead it will generally still show a decent voltage but if you take even 1A from it you would probably see the displayed voltage drop. I would have thought you should be able to take grat chunks of current from a good batt with not much drop in displayed voltage NEW BATTERY.

Without a doubt ABBEY. Many motorists these days shoot themselves in the foot when it comes to main dealer service history. We insist on it when buying even though we know it very rarely amounts to much, me included. BUT NO MORE. We all know the majority of them are below par with several layers of people between you and the guy doing the work. Better to deal face to face cos he has to face your wrath if things aren’t as they should be, not some dolly bird with BIG EYES (or similar ) to distract your attention.