Those limits are for items sent by post, the same as here if buying something from an EU country. If I am visiting an EU country and bringing stuff back I have personal allowance limits. That is 200 fags, so no more bringing 1000 or so back at €3.70 a pack, 18 litres of wine rather than the boot full I used to bring back (which wouldn't e so bad if I could do my usual trip every few weeks but with the Covid restrictions on travel I'm having to pay twice the price for inferior wine over here) and up to £390 worth of other goods. If going the other way, it is €430 worth, which, oddly enough, is almost exactly £390. But, the point is, these higher limits are if you travel over the invisible line, buy something the other side of the line and bring it back with you, not if you order it and have it sent over, then the lower limits apply.

I suspect the Customs patrolling the border areas are looking for people who cross from North to South or vice versa, and don't stop to declare what they have bought. If you were to travel out of the EU into the North, buy something up to the value of £390/€430 and declare it when you travel back into the EU, then you would be OK. Although as there is no hard border with Customs posts, quite how you are supposed to do that is anyone's guess.

Last year I can confirm that the French, Germans, Polish and Latvians could request keeper details from DVLA and be given it. At least they could with speeding tickets but at only €20 and no points each, who cares? One thing that has been flagged since January is that the UK no longer has access to many of the EU criminal databases as the data protection laws are different, so it is quite possible it is the same the other way round.

It is perfectly OK in the UK to fill an LPG car from a domestic tank although you are supposed to keep a log and notify HMRC and pay the road fuel duty on what you use in the car. Very few people do it though as the cost of bulk gas for heating, without the road fuel duty paid on it, is often more expensive than buying from a filling station at the road fuel duty inclusive price. It's easy to spot though as the tank needs to have a liquid take off on the bottom rather than the vapour take off at the top that would be used for heating and cooking.

If you finish it off flush on the sides you can refit the little springy things or fold it over and don't bother with them. It needs to be folded over at the front or the edge will be visible when it is open.

I wouldn't call 51% to 49% overwhelming personally and I think a lot of people that voted for it didn't think through the consequences. However, it's done now and we have to put up with it (or find ways around it....).

What you didn't mention Pierre is whether Rimmers charged UK VAT on your purchase because they shouldn't have. Previously, VAT was paid on a sale within the EU but not if something was being exported out of the EU. So someone in the US buying parts from a UK supplier wouldn't pay the VAT on the purchase price, that, or their equivalent taxes, would have to be paid when the items arrived in the US. Now, the same should apply to a purchase made by someone outside the UK. No VAT charged on the purchase price by the supplier, but charged, at the rate applicable in the recipient's country. The import duty will vary depending on what the item is but VAT is always charged on the total, the cost, the carriage cost and the import duty. A tax on a tax if you like.

In future, your best bet is to stock up on parts when you are next over here as you are allowed €430 worth of other goods (or £390 if charged in Sterling) as a personal import free of any duty.

Glasgow is the only city in Scotland that has anything operating at the moment but there are others planned, including in Edinburgh, see https://www.carwow.co.uk/blog/uk-low-emissions-zones.

I would suspect the situation with foreign registered cars is the same as it is with speeding and parking tickets. If they can get the registered keepers details from the foreign equivalent to DVLA, then you'll get a bill in the post. ROI may now have stopped talking to any UK authorities since Brexit though.

Or just go to V8Developments and get one of their 5.4 litre motors, straight swap with no messing. Going for a different motor if you live in Oz, as the guy that did that does, and there's very little support for the LRV8 makes sense but not here. You're adding complication for the sake of it.

Makes sense but it doesn't explain why improving the lubriction to the oil control rings so they no longer stick in their grooves, without any other changes, particularly to the cats, prevents the problem. Or at least it does on the Toyota engine that suffered the same problem.

What amuses me is that when I used to drive into London in my 15 plate diesel Renault Kangoo van, I had to pay (or my employers had to pay) the £12.50 for the privilege of polluting the atmosphere. But a number of local authorities then charged me more to park it. So because I was driving a diesel I had to pay more when the engine wasn't running as well.....

I bet it does, open a window part way and see the difference between looking through the glass and not looking through the glass. It'll have a light green tint.

All the windows are lightly tinted as standard (unless it's a base model), I don't think gangsta style tints were ever offered

Have you got the correct ABS ECU? Early cars had the Wabco C system with either no TC or two wheel TC, whereas later ones had the Wabco D with 4 wheel TC. Not sure how interchangeable they are though.

GEMS, https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/range-rover-p38-exhaust-system-p38-V8-exhaust-system-complete-front-rear-94-99/272214722398 or Thor https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/range-rover-p38-exhaust-system-p38-V8-exhaust-system-complete-front-rear-99-02/262391772282 or direct from Maltings website https://www.maltingsoffroad.co.uk/parts/4570888410

Not sure what car it is that Simon is talking about but I suspect Japanese and someone has come up with the same implausible theory that affects early versions of the Toyota 1ZZ-FE engine fitted in the MR2 Roadster. The theory is that the cat innards start to break up and somehow make their way back into the engine so wear the bores. My daughter bought an early MR2 Roadster with a blown engine, owner had driven it about 250 miles across country and it had ran out of oil. He reckoned it had been using a bit of oil and after it had stopped with a bang, he had checked the oil and none was showing on the dipstick. We got a replacement engine, put that in and I pulled the old one apart to see how bad it was. One big end had seized and the conrod on that cylinder had snapped due to it being run with insufficient oil.

The MR2 Roadster has two cats and after a period they will start to burn oil and a number of people have suggested the same happens with them. Now I found it hard to believe bits of the cat could get sucked into the engine against the flow of the exhaust, it didn't seem to make a lot of sense. A lot of websites quote this as the cause of high oil consumption and recommend gutting the front cats to prevent it. However, only pre-2003 cars suffered this problem, later ones didn't and when you looked it seemed pretty obvious that Toyota didn't think this was the problem either. Pre-2003 engines had two tiny holes in the pistons behind the oil control rings and the recommendation was to use semi-synthetic oil. If the oil wasn't changed regularly, the holes got blocked and the oil control rings stick in the grooves so did nothing, hence the thirst for oil. On the engine I pulled apart, the oil control rings on the 3 pistons that remained in one piece were all firmly gummed into their grooves. From 2003, the pistons got 4 larger holes behind the oil control rings and Toyota recommended fully synthetic oil and these don't suffer the problem even though they still have the same cats fitted which would suggest the cats have nothing to do with it, it's the fast and furious generation that don't seem to understand the benefit of oil changes and routine maintenance....

Brian has now identified the car but I would still suspect it's the same problem as affects the Toyota engine.

Lpgc wrote:

Is there no in-between - A mild steel system that lasts nearly as long as OEM but cheaper than stainless? The last exhaust I bought was for a Grand Voyager, cost me £90. Went for that instead of a stainless system that would have cost many times more.

As I said, it's a bit of a lottery. Having had my car for over 11 years and 210,000 miles now, I've been there. On what I assume was the original system, the middle box started blowing after I'd owned it a couple of years. I bought a Britpart middle box which lasted no more than 2 years before it looked like this

Box not leaking but the pipe had come away from the box and was perforated along its length.

Bought a EuroCarParts own brand Klarius middle box which lasted at least 3 years before the (original) tailpipe boxes started to go so I decided to buy a complete system from Maltings Off Road. That was around £300 including downpipes with cats. The parts were a mixture of Bearmach and Allmakes branded items but within a couple more years, one of the tailpipes had gone the same way as the Britpart pipework while the rest of the system still looks good. The replacement section Maltings supplied was Allmakes branded and appeared to be the same as the rest of the system which makes me think the bit that had failed was the Bearmach branded section but I can't be sure.

So, at the moment, if anyone asked, I would say an Allmakes system will last but they don't make them, the same as ECP don't make the Klarius systems. So who is to know if a particular reseller is using the same manufacturer or has gone to someone that can supply something that looks the same but is cheaper?

Maybe they are fitting single points?

Odd, obviously a taste thing but the Vogue I'm half owner of has the same system on it as yours. We were sitting looking at it the other day wondering what we could do to make it look less vulgar. Considering painting the tailpipes black so they aren't as noticeable or even getting a mild steel system to put on it but the bumper has been cut to clear the tailpipes so it would then need a new rear bumper too. It's also got an aftermarket towbar on it so there's a big lump of ironwork on the back and not the nice discreet swan neck. It's a Vogue, it's supposed to be whisper quiet.....

Interesting. Using the link on the RAC site, I'd have to pay in Birmingham but not in Bath.

Speedo gets it's input from the ABS ECU so if there is a fault on the ABS system, it can affect the speedo. Do you get an ABS error on the dash? Odometer error will occur if the car has been driven with the instrument cluster disconnected or it has been changed as the mileage is stored in both the instrument cluster and the BeCM and it has detected that they don't match.

EAS should drop to motorway height after 30 seconds at more than 50mph and then size back up after 30 seconds at under 35mph. However, if the EAS ECU is not seeing any speed signal (as well as the speedo) it will also confuse it. Dropping to the bumpstops, accompanied by EAS Fault on the dash and all 4 lights flashing, shows a hard fault but you will need diagnostics connecting to identify the fault and reset it.

BrianH wrote:

Can't find the email now but it was asking why one of mine was ok for the Ulez but not Birmingham when the same standard is applied to both places.

Be interested to know which one is OK. The P38 meets Euro 3 so shouldn't be ULEZ compliant but there is obviously an error in the TfL database as it shows a 2000 or later, 4.0 litre P38 as complaint but a 4.6 isn't, even though they both meet the same standard. One other loophole was filled when they changed from the T-Charge to ULEZ. Under T-Charge an import, which doesn't have emissions data on the V5, was considered exempt, whereas under ULEZ, it isn't.

Because pattern mild steel ones are a bit of a lottery, you may get one that lasts or you may get one that rots out in a couple of years. You know a stainless one will last and it's a lot cheaper than a genuine Land Rover one (£1,893.60 inc VAT for the front downpipes alone, a mere £401.57 for the middle box though). My original lasted the best part of 20 years before the middle box rotted out, the Britpart replacement lasted under 2 years.