Leaderboard

Hi if you take the bar off and run the holes through with an oversize drill bit the two parts should come apart as the top and bottom plates are held together around the bolt holes, but before doing this measure the roll bar itself with a vernier caliper to see which size bush you need as there are three different sizes, also pay attention to the other shape of the new bush so its the same, they are going to be murder to fit but do not lubricate the inner part of the bush and use washing up liquid on the outer part, once on the bar the new bushes can be coaxed into the upper part of the metal mounting using a piece of wood either side and a large G clamp this should get it far enough in so when you put the base plate on bolting it up should pull it in the rest of the way, unless you have the facilities to grind off the old captive nuts you will need longer bolts and new nuts. Steve.

Many thanks Steve for clarifying this for the benefit of others. Hello Tony, I’m not sure what you now want to believe, but you have a battery of dubious origins, and I believe until you replace it with a reputable branded one, and get it coded to the car, you stand little chance of getting anywhere with this, but it must be your choice. From my side, and apologies if this appears critical, but you seem to be bombarding us with unnecessary detail. Anyway, back to your battery and charging check:- A couple of observations - the charging voltage measured at 13.8v at best, is below par, and I would be expecting around 14.5 volts. I’m not sure what he told you about CCA measurements, but surely Cold Cranking Current would be measured in what it is - amps. not volts. If you are going to decide on fitting a reputable branded battery, you won’t go far wrong with a correct-for-car Exide from Tayna Batteries. Give them your reg. no., and they will advise on the correct one. You will need to further investigate the alternator output.

Hi Cliff how long has this been under discussion and for the benefit of anyone who wants to know, since 2007 most of the major manufacturers installed some sort of battery energy monitor, Fords use a battery counter system as do Vauxhall, Audi and Mercedes use a monitor system which is attached to the earth lead, both systems need reseting when a new battery is installed this informs the ECU and the Alternator to learn new values about charging, what is painfully clear having studied the brand of this battery it comes from no definitive source, even the company website only mentions the batteries are developed by them and their partners who are their partners are is anyones guess, basically its a cheap range of European parts that are being flooded in from Europe a bit like the NAPA parts from America, from what I can gather EUROREPAR have been going for twenty years if you lodge that against Bosch and Yuasa who have well over a Hundred years between them you can see where your extra money goes, I have recently had to change the battery on my wife's Alfa which does about fifteen hundred miles a year the last Yuasa unit has lasted five years so I bought a new Yuasa which has a four year guarantee, so yes you are right the battery probably is defective. Steve.

Believe what you want Tony, but I can assure you that coding is a neccesity for things other than stop/start. The car's electronics are sensitive and require a stable power supply from a battery with no internal faults in order to function properly. I wish you luck with your problem, but it seems I am wasting my time trying to convince you so I am withdrawing from this discussion.

Tony. The Halfords report is inadequate in that is performing a simple voltage test under a meagre load. What is needed is a deep discharge test which simulates the heavy load of about 200 amps imposed by the starter motor, rather than the dozen or so amps used by the lights and screen heater. Halfords are also wrong in their comments about battery coding. To my certain knowledge A3s from at least 2007 need to have the battery coded in order for the car's electronics to work correctly. It is even possible, though I am less sure of this point, that your repeated disconnection of the battery is causing the coding to be lost. It would need somebody more knowledgable than me to clarify that. Whatever the cause of the problem, the symptoms you presented of the battery being unable to hold a charge are classic properties of a faulty battery, hence my conclusion that you need a new one. I suggest you get the car tested by somebody more competant than the clowns at Halfords. If and when you get a new battery get a decent one, have it coded, and never disconnect it without good cause.

I've done 2000 miles now. The oil level is now on the high mark on the dip stick. Mind you I think the previous owner slightly overfilled it as it was 5mm above the high mark.

Hello Miley, First problem first:- what is the (cleaned up sufficiently to measure) dia. of your ARB? Believe it could be either 18mm or 21mm. Getting old ones out? Um! - splined fixings! - you will end up having to drill them out, and refit the new ones using suitable bolts and nuts. Dependent on what size your bar is, I might have a new and unused ‘bought the wrong size’ set here. I will have to check what diameter bar this set is for. Kind regards, Gareth.

19th May 2024 We have in the last few months been receiving spam posts on the community. These were not new members, but compromised accounts from members accounts that were set up in the past. However, these were not compromised by our security but from email and password lists bought by spammers to access various accounts across the internet. This is mainly due to users using the same email and password throughout all of their accounts they have. So to iterate that the club has not been compromised / hacked. I have seen this on many forums, blogs, email accounts etc. This even happens on login accounts for companies such as Subway, Costa, Starbucks etc. as well. Many companies now require 2 factor authentication these days to get round this issue. So we have decided to request everyone with accounts that have not logged in for more than 180 days to reset their password. We have not done it for recent regular members yet, however, we will be requiring 2 factor authentication with a question to log in so we can secure your account from spammers posting junk on your behalf. All this is done as a precaution and to prevent annoyance to the community, and of course your security. Thanks

Guide and pictures credited to Jack Millin. Flat bottom steering wheel off a S3 8P fitted to my 2010 B8 Avant. The electrical plug needed 2 little tabs trimming off and 3 of the wires de pinning and putting in different positions and it all works. I've attached a picture of the wiring guide as well. This guide should also be applicable to the b7 A4 too.