Other half wanted to send a parcel to a friend in Holland last week. Initially the price quoted by DPD was the cheapest but then directed her to the prohibited items list. See https://www.dpdlocal-online.co.uk/prohibited-items, they'd do better giving a list of what you can send! Parcelforce had the usual stuff listed but nothing like as much.

I'd rather fault find on a V8 than a diesel having seen some of the threads about fuel injection pumps. Seems to me that while it's working it's fine but when it stops, or starts to leak or loses it's timing, it's mega money to fix.

Celsius. It may not be cold by your standard but it's still not the weather to be laying on the ground underneath the car outside on the drive.....

The biggest problem with this situation is that it is all half baked and bought in at the last minute so nobody really understands what they need to do. I was recently asked if I could collect a UK registered car that the UK resident owner had left at his holiday home in France but been unable to get there because of Covid restrictions. Phoned Customs to ask what paperwork I would need to be told that as long as I had the V5 to show the owner as being a UK resident and an email from him asking me to collect it for him, it wasn't a problem as I was repatriating it not importing it. So next time I go over, which will be as soon as travel restrictions are lifted, rather than take my ham and cheese sandwiches, I'll take the component parts. Bread isn't a problem but if I take Lurpak butter (made in Denmark), Leerdammer cheese (made in Holland) and find some meat marked made in EU so I can claim that I'm repatriating it rather than importing it......

Anyway, back on topic. Pierre, this thread isn't to slag off diesels or their owners, each to his own. It highlights some of the modified, pimped or Gansta stylee additions that some people have inflicted on poor unsuspecting cars. You know the sort of thing, 22" wheels and rubber band tyres, L322 front end kits and Sport side grilles along with hideous paint jobs and poor taste interiors. Oddly, it seems that quite a few of these alterations (for want of a better word) have been done on diesel versions. Maybe it's because they don't usually fetch such good prices as a V8 or they've previously been used as a workhorse so aren't really suitable for restoration to good condition. To me it seems to be the same mentality as the kid who has a car worth £500, spends the same again on ill fitting, totally unsuitable, body mods and then expects to sell his 'exclusive modified' car for 4 times what it is actually worth.

The magnet fits into a cast slot in the base of the casing underneath the oil pickup tube. See below

All the stuff shown in your first pic has to come out to change the chain rather than being left as it is. What is the difference between the auto and manual epicyclic gearset? The ratios are the same and the gearbox output shaft is going to be turning at the same speed so why the difference?

Just got enough feeling back in my fingers to type. About 2 years ago I fitted a complete new exhaust from Maltings Off Road but the other day I noticed that it sounded a bit throatier than normal. Had a look and noticed that the front Y pipe and cats, the mid section and the long pipe with tailpipe box that goes to the RH side all looked perfect, still shiny even. However, the short pipe and tailpipe box going to the LH side was rotten as the proverbial pear. Although the box was reasonable, the pipe had turned into perforated tube. I did notice when I first got it that some sections were labelled Bearmach while other bits were labelled Allmakes which could explain the difference in quality. Maltings only list a complete system so I phoned them and they agreed to supply me with just the one pipe (for £36 so not a bad price). It arrived a couple of days ago, was labelled Allmakes but fitted much better than the previous one. It had taken me ages to get the two pipes to sit at the same height and angle last time but this just slotted on and everything lined up perfectly.

As I need to go out later, figured I ought to do it really despite it being -2 out there. Work had provided us with AA man style thermal coveralls and as they are PPE and personal issue they stayed at home when I retired. Figured the time had come to try them out and I've got to admit that despite being so bright I suspect I would glow in the dark, they certainly work. The same can't be said for my gloves though. It took me about an hour to change the pipe and probably slightly longer to get the feeling back into my fingers......

But it does suggest that if you need an exhaust and have a choice between Allmakes and Bearmach, go for the Allmakes.

Did it recently to change the chain on mine. I take it you are looking at the Overhaul Manual in RAVE and not the workshop manual? According to the overhaul manual you take off the viscous (although I can't see why you need to but it may be obvious when you have it in front of you), prise the oil seal on the input shaft and remove a circlip that lurks underneath and the gearset should just drop out. There's no gasket between the two halves (or on the viscous housing) just RTV. I remembered seeing somewhere that to crack the seal on the VC housing you use a mallet to knock it round so twisting it off which worked and to separate the two halves there's lugs cast into one side that are ideal for giving a clout with your soft faced mallet. So you will need a new input shaft oil seal and in the refitting instructions RAVE says that whenever the transfer box has been off you must replace the gearbox output shaft seal too.

To change the chain about the only bit that didn't need to come out was the epicyclic gearset, everything else did.

Morat wrote:

A Tesla S in some forms can do 0-60 in 1.9 seconds 200mph and manage a range of over 350 miles (at motorway speeds of course) then recharge in 20 minutes while I have a piss and a pie. I can't really argue against that anymore - even if it costs £85k.

But can it tow a 3.5 tonne trailer?

That's the problem with electric, it can flow both ways. I wonder how long you could run a house for on a Nissan Leaf?

Yes, that's the loophole or oddity. If registered when new to a VAT registered company as a business asset, then VAT will be charged on it if it is sold by a VAT registered dealer. If it is bought by a company or individual that isn't VAT registered, then it no longer is VAT qualifying, it is just a used car.

Daft thing with VAT is the only person that pays it is the end buyer. A manufacturer is charged VAT on the raw materials, which he claims back, he them turns those materials into a product and charges VAT on that when he sells it and hands that VAT to HMRC so the VAT is being claimed back and refunded to HMRC all the time until it arrives with the non-VAT registered end user who simply pays it.

Pierre3 wrote:

I believe that if the UK dealer is VAT registered then you can ask for the VAT to be deducted from the invoice price, but I don't think that it is compulsory, I have read that it depends on how much business the selling company does.

That applies if you are buying parts and the likes of Island4x4, Rimmers and LRDirect who regularly supply parts to customers in the US will be well aware of this. The price you pay is the VAT free price as the VAT will be paid at the customers end. So for you to buy parts from the UK, the prices should be no different to what they were before. If they are, then it is either the courier or your Government who are profiteering. Or, more likely, they are charging on everything whether they should be or not as nobody really understands the rules as yet and are erring on the cautious side. For imports into the EU there should be no tax or VAT to be paid on anything with a value of less than £39 or €43 (think buying crap from China on eBay) so in theory, depending on the carriage charges, it should be cheaper buying your bits in smaller orders rather than one big one. A company, or individual, has to register for VAT if their annual turnover exceeds £85,000 so most will be although buying stuff privately might cause the VAT to be added to a price.

Difference with buying a car is that there is no VAT on a secondhand car. VAT is paid on a new car or a secondhand commercial vehicle, but not on a used car. So even if the supplying dealer is VAT registered (which they will be), they don't charge VAT on the price. You could always argue (as I will be doing in the very near future on a car I am buying from an EU country) that the VAT was paid into the EU pot at a time when the UK was in the EU when the car was new so shouldn't be liable to be paid again.

It is the same problem that UK buyers have when buying from EU sellers. If a company in Germany, for instance, sells goods to UK buyers then that company has to register with UK HMRC to not charge VAT [or something like that], and the problem is that if the German company is only selling a limited number of items into the UK then they won't bother registering in the UK, and they will just charge German VAT and the UK buyer will then also pay VAT again in the UK when it arrives.

EU rules are that anything supplied for export out of the EU does not have to have VAT charged on it. VAT is collected on behalf of a Government by a retailer. The retailer buy in stock, pays VAT on that stock but then claims it back from the Government. When he sells that stock, he charges the customer VAT and passes that on to the Government. Anything he sells for export does not have VAT added and he simply marks it on his VAT return as having been exported. So they don't need to register in another country as the payment and claim is within his own country. I used to import excise items from outside the EU (so had to register for VAT with HMRC irrespective of turnover). I paid no VAT or local taxes on the items, I paid no VAT on the carriage charges, even though using a UK based haulier because the journey commenced outside the EU but I then charged VAT, which had to be paid to HMRC when I sold the items, I had one customer in Poland and had to charge him VAT just the same as any other EU customer but had I sent anything outside the EU there would have been no VAT charged and any taxes were paid at the receiving end.

All in all, a complete dogs dinner. It is just the same as it was 25 years ago when exports all had to ship to a "foreign" country under customs forms T1, T2, T3 or a Carnet Passage.

It's similar but not the same as the UK will be the only place not EU so you only need the paperwork to cross between UK and EU or vice versa. Once on the other side of the Channel and back into civilisation, there's no borders or checkpoints.

Bollocks!!!! I've just spent the best part of an hour explaining how the import system should work, how Brexit is being used as an excuse to make money for couriers and how it did, does and should work with moving cars in and out of EU. Only to find a bad token error when I tried to post it as it had timed out and I've lost the lot.

I have only one further thing to add, Testiculi ad Brexitum

Resistors are 4k7 for volume up and 15k for volume down so that isn't a problem at all. If you have the leather covered steering wheel but without buttons you have plain plastic covers. Mine is the real poverty spec so doesn't even have the plain plastic covers, where they would go is all part of a moulding.

No, but you can unplug the pressure switch (the one with just two wires) and put a jumper to short the two wires together. If the compressor clutch engages then, it's either a bad connection at the switch, a bad switch or not enough refrigerant.

Most Range Rovers don't leak as long as the drain tubes are kept clear. Same goes for most other cars. None of them leaked when they were new so why should they now? It's like everything else, a bit of preventative maintenance every so often is all that is needed. I agree with Morat though, the HEVAC system on the P38 is so effective you don't need, or want, a sunroof.

My daughter reckons they'll bury me in mine when the time comes.......

I know exactly how you feel George. I've been doing some work on the Ascot (until the temperature plummeted and white stuff started falling out of the sky) so I'd been using mine on that. Had to do an 80 mile round trip on Monday and half way there I realised I didn't have it in the car, it was still in the Ascot. I don't remember the last time, if ever, I've had need to use it while out and about but I still started to worry about all the things that could stop working and I'd need it.

The Nano is telling you the fault. On a GEMS power comes from the HEVAC,through the multiway connector behind the RH kick panel to the pressure switch (which is only closed if there is pressure in the AC refrigerant circuit) and on to the compressor clutch. So it can be a poor connection in the kick panel connector, a dirty connection in the plug onto the pressure switch or you just haven't got any refrigerant in it. HEVAC detects how much current is flowing and if less that it expects to see from the clutch, flags the fault and doesn't try to operate it again until next time you restart.

Clutch air gap should be between 16 and 31 thou and can be adjusted by undoing the centre nut, taking the outer part off, removing a shim or two from behind it and putting it back together.

Looking at the face view of the plugs for the switches in the ETM, they don't appear to be the same. Same connections but different plug size.

P38 service schedule says to change the filter at every oil change but on a lot of similar vintage cars the filter was changed at every other oil change. It is on a 2007 V6 Merc too. Only problem with that is that people lose track of which oil change they are doing and is it the one that includes the filter too or not?

Probably because the black looked better and as long as it has the red triangle on it, it'll meet type approval.