difflock

Cept mine bes the POS DQ200 dry DSG. Not one of the proper wet DSG's Anyway I am liking the hybrid driving experience, cos ah plumb HATED the zero low speed control of the DSG, the dry box may be worse than the wet type, but I understand even the "proper" wet DSG's are frustrating(to put it rather mildly!) to manouver in a tricky tight situation ESPECIALLY if any incline is involved.

Not to worry, since several others within senior government circles appear to have a sufficient excess of testestrone . . .

Rodney did say the compression was poor or "goosed", so the cylinder probably needs replaced, it would only really be for sentimental reasons and/or curiosity that I would possibly try and get her going again. I will mull it over, as I do. waaaaaay too much. thanks all Marcus

Re me wee 026, I had a brief rummage through the box of bits. The cylinder has one score that would catch a fingernail, and the piston only has a couple of small nicks to the top outside edge(and I reckon it might be re-usuable?) But can, or how? does the crankshaft split to examine and possibly? fit a new bearing, the needle bearings are certainly "in bits" since the connecting rod is very loose, i.e flailing about everywhichway. The bloke said a new crank would be £200.00 so by implication he reckoned it was knackerd. Are the needle bearings in a cage or do they possibly run on the crankshaft direct? I know nothing about 2 stroke engines btw. thanks mth

We had that on our only decent Beech tree a few years ago, a limb fully 10-12" across fell across the lane, no signs of wounding or decay, and let go close to the bole. It came down overnight though, which was a bit odd.

BUT! Thats a Husquvarna, that 592XP is, I can only imagine(but I would rather not tbh). Am away fer a bar o soap to wash me mouth out with after that. Cheers mth

Picked up the Toyota on Tue, a dream to drive, especially the superb electric slow speed control and selectable and entirely automatic parking brake function working purely off the foot brake, or you can set it to creep instantly on release of the footbrake and take-off like a traditional TC automatic. And it goes like stink when asked. Mth

P.S. Re the DSG. Ours is the infamous dry 7 speed DQ200, fitted to the smaller petrols and the wee 1.6 diesel i.e. NOT built by the OEM (Sachs perhaps?)who built the reliable wet DSG's and apparently when VAG asked them to design and build the dry DSG within their specified packaging/weight and cost constraints, they looked into it, and concluded that it could NOT be done. They were correct. But VAG found another company (and it might have been *Getrag?) who said they could build it to within the packaging/weight constraints and to price They were WRONG! Mechatronic already replaced 3 year ago. Probably the selectors? But could likely also need the clutch packs replaced with 140,000 on Plus the Dual Mass Flywheel, ditto. Then likely Siemens injector issues plus need a timing belt sometime soon. Too many birthdays all in all. And the DSG is HATEFUL when slow speed manouvering especially on any incline, DOUBLY so in reverse. Cheers, Mth *I was posting a comment about the Toyota and found it was probably Getrag, not Luk.

Thanks all. (I)Yaris being collected Tue or Wed, the clutch will not properly disengage, despite the slave cylinder being thoroughly bled, twice. Either a warped/knackered/collapsed clutch plate, or failed slave cylinder, but no fluid loss, anyway I understand a gearbox out job since the slave cylinder lives inside the bell housing. Bought a 362C today, an animal compared to the wee 026. The saw I lusted after and should probably have bought in 1997! The bottom end needle bearing had collapsed in the 026, knackering the crankshaft and fragments had also got trapped between the piston and the pot. I did think I had briefly heard an odd noise! Oops! My bad. Thanks for the suggestions re the Renault Tragic btw, it will be going back to the bloke she bought it off, who is also the bloke sorting the Yaris. He is hard to pay, in that he was reluctant to be paid for his labour servicing the Yaris this past few years. More a hobby for him apparently, and he picks his customers. Thanks all.

I was sent that footage by our son, and sat open-mouthed as it unfolded. That particular cop should have been charged with murder for his disproportinate murderous actions against a helpless and non threating person. Quite appalling.

Only right run in too! So sommat light and powerful for firewood duties. And my nearest bloke is a Stihl dealer. Marcus P.S. This on top of 3 gearbox failures in 3 different vehicles over this past couple of weeks. (i) Totally Knackered DSG in the Skoda(for the 3rd and final time) 10+ and 140k on. (ii) The "bulletproof" Yaris has a duff clutch or clutch slave cylinder, and her only be 10+ with 150,000 on (iii) The linkage in the low miles Renault van is also out of kilter, but will the daughter get it looked at . . . In the circumstances I hardly dare go near any of the other vehicles . . . Signed, Disgusted of Dervock. Might? look at battery stuff?

Wots wrong with a helicopter.😁 (Bring on the cargo drones perhaps?)

I saw some such study referred to recently, but with respect to increased IQ, I however suspect it was US based, though it may have been Swedish in orign. Must try and find it.

A brilliant sunny warm forenoon yesterday, but turned britterly cold in the afternoon(13 deg, but with a biting Nth wind chill-factor), and upon opening the patio doors at 06:00 this, the longest day morning, me testicles were running for cover from the lazy Nth wind. Brrrrr.

A mate had some done for 9.50m but that was top spec materials, all timber with 30 or 40 year guarantee and pair of double gates. How in Earth(and pun fully intended) do they guarantee that timber in contact with the ground will not rot for up to 40 years? mth

The wife has corrected me, nearer 2 miles she says, so 2 miles it was(I was more foccussed on avoiding other rush hour traffic on a twisty country road)

Is that "Tebay" up at Shap, a favourite stop for our jaunts from Stranraer to the Channel ports, and back. I have a notion I have also been in these Gloucester services, since they look familiar in the images, but I need to find them on a map to double check. cheers mth

See images, about a 1/2 mile stretch near Ahoghill, Co Antrim. The hedges appear to be Quickthorn/Hawthorn, but dead or dying? First time in my life I have seen this phenomena. Marcus

The saws or the operators? or perhaps both?

A touchy subject, but surely if estates intensively rear and release these "game" birds they are only encouraging "vermin" to feed on them, exactly as baiting ducks to a pond with free food. So the more the estate breeds and feeds, the higher the predator nos. It is simply an entirely unnatural situation. On the other hand our few neglected and un-shot-over acres are "hooching" with wildlife, there being more than 1 Pheasant brood strutting about our front drive, this despite the un-shot or otherwise controlled Buzzards, many seen patrolling overhead, Foxes, we are surrounded by natural untended woodland(and a neighbour out the other side shoots dozens each year), and Badgers, with several setts within a 1/4 mile. All in natural harmony. Marcus

I knew about Hogweed/giant hogweed and Cow Parsley, but Parsnips! Having some 40 years ago strimmed a roadside verge thck with CP while wearing nowt but shorts and footwear! Not bad, but certainly educational. Fascinating that Sunlight plays a part in the process. I imagine that the projectile nature of the particles helps to break the skin, even if only on a microscopic level, thereby exacerbating the reaction.

It was as much the diabolical decietful lying behavouir by VAG/Skoda(about the DQ200 dry 7 speed DSG) as the poor engineering that left the worst bad taste. If I recall the VAG indy up at Monkstown who replaced the mechatronic told me that VAG asked their wet clutch DSG supplier to develop a more fuel efficient dry clutch version, presumably with cost/packaging/weight constraints, and were told after some study that it could not be done. So VAG went to another supplier(Getrag perhaps?) who claimed they had it sussed. They lied. They also however sold it to Ford, marketed as the Powershift I believe. This effort also failed and cost Ford a fortune in the US market. Marcus

That boat has sailed! And yes, I apreciate the origonal "wet" DSG design was apparently indestructible, if correctly serviced. But the VAG group, via Skoda, have shit in the nest big-time. First the dealer we bought the car off new, made a complete balls of fitting the towbar, shoddily installed bypass relays, not the correct Skoda wiring kit, and I naievly paid up, extra over, to have it rectified, "to build a relationship", then when the wife took the car the 80 odd mile journey to first investigate the DSG issues, the left her sitting in a showroom, and ignored for several hours, then told her the found no fault(despite it throwing a fault code as I only later established) Then the car was off the road for 5 calander months via another dealership, who replaced the clutch packs, then the mechatronic unit, then the entire transmission, all to no effect.(it turned out they were attempting to rectify a cunning VAG software "kludge" installed to protect the underspecced dry clutch packs, which caused these cars to both ignore the throttle pentiometer input and then drop out of gear, entirely without warning) The wife argued without success that it would have been more cost effective to give us another new or very fresh car. Then in months 59 and 60 of the extended 5 year warranty period the service manager lied to my face when I twice took the car up after limp mode and flashing lights(rightly suspecting the troublesome EGR was knackered) No fault codes recorded Sir, he said. The third time I took the car the 40 mile journey I had got a local indy to scan , log and copy the codes onto my laptop beforehand. I got the same rebuff, but this time I produced the Laptop, and they rolled over. Otherwise I would have been caught for paying the £1200.00 bill in month 61 onward. Then later the mechatronic failed. I paid. Now it appears she has lunched on, or otherwise digested one set of selectors. In less than 140,000 miles. Which will eaily render her "beyond economic repair" Plus the dodgy "how-soon-not-if" failure guarenteed Siemens injectors. Fornicaters! So Toyota it is. I must dig out and copy/ post on here my letter from Skoda UK detailing the deal I got after the 5 month repair hiatus.

Thank you Harvey, oddly I had decided this afternoon to go for the Rav4, due to both Toyota's enviable reliability record, backed up by our daughters faultless Yaris ownership over 10 years and 150,000 miles, and the 5 year warranty, with 10 on the hybrid battery, and extendably up to 15 on the hybrid battery. Just need to decide if we go for the 4WD to get the 1800Kg towing capacity, or no towbar and keep the Steyr Puch for the very occassional towing. P.S. Clive, an Ex workmate does a turn at vehicle recovery, recounted a very recent case of a hired Toyota, "broken down" at Carrick-a-reid rope bridge, because the hire company had went truely keyless, using a ph app instead, and where the people who hired the car had parked, had no ph signal, so when the car was switched off, it could not be restarted. He had to skid it onto the transporter with all 4 tyres locked up, then drive to high ground, while looking for ph signal, whereapon it restarted faultlessly! So some ideas are just too smart for their own good. thanks Marcus

Thank you Moose, my criteria was "reliability" and a local dealership (& having coerced Senior Management to accompany me to Belfast yesterday to look at the Honda was dear-bought, so local it shall be) So that boiled down to reasonably local Toyota or Mazda, for reliability. Yes the Honda is plushest, though I would be reluctant to describe the Toyota as plastic-y, and I found the Toyota fine to drive, during our rather short try-out. Mazda's had, and may indeed, still have a problem with the interuppted DPF re-gen dumping diesel into the sump. But stupidly they provide no clear tell-tale that a DPF is running! The local dealer salesperson actually volunteered that they choose to change the engine oil more frequently, (guessing at not more than 5k, though I did not ask) which warmed me to his honesty, but more-so to the likelyhood and scale of the problem! Our retired driving habits would probably suit petrol or hybrid better than a DPF equipped diesel I imagine. 2 other contenders are the Citroen C5 Aircross, or BMW 2 Series Active Tourer, both more local, but both poorer for reliability and warranty. thanks marcus