Got a love a car that fixes itself
What's made you not grumpy but not smile either today?
- Thread starter dave
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What's made you not grumpy but not smile either today?
Well it's Easter...the heater has risen.
Having a bit of an Easter get together with family and Daughter's husband has just taken me through how to program and use the Sat Nav in my new Skoda. I think I understand the basics enough to use it but there's a whole host of other stuff it can do that I don't understand at all. Just been a quick trip down to the shops as the grandchildren have eaten everything that's not nailed down or hidden and I see that the nice wee panel inbetween the speedo and rev counter, which I had set up to display the speedo reading (the Scala is annoying because the MPH markings on the dial go up in 20mph jumps so I've got 0, 20, 40, 60, etc mph with just little lines at roughly 4mph intervals in between so doesn't even have an actual line at 30mph - Doh!) anyway, it's fine with the speed being displayed digitally on this mini central display. Guess what though? it's now showing a cut down version of the satnav destination and I don't know how to get it to go back to displaying MPH! Oh, and they've just left to go back home! I'll just have to "fiddle" 'till I get it back.
Now I own a car with a "proper" infotainment screen my opinion that they are lethally distracting is confirmed. I really do think they should be banned. Even worse is that the one I have is all touch screen, not a knob in sight. Not only is it touch but it also has certain "proximity" functions where you only need to hover your hand near the screen for something to happen - all very silly and frustrating.
My Golf has the proximity thing, I think it was one of the first to have it back in 2015, it does improve accuracy when going for buttons on a touch screen by making them bigger, or at least that is what it is supposed to do.
I would suggest that to change the display in the middle of the dials you need to Scroll left and right with the buttons on the right of the steering wheel. I don't remember what the steering wheel controls look like in the Scala but most VWs operate like this. left and right to scroll between menus and up and down to select things in each screen, so for example the trip computer press up and down to scroll through the various readouts such as oil temp, MPG, etc
My Ibiza had that function Andy and the Skoda seems to be very similar, I've already discovered how to cancel the Lane Assist using it. Good call, I'll start with that, thanks.
Edit, PS, the ibiza didn't have sat nav and a very much simpler screen too - Oh dear, how did I switch italics on?
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I ran into a problem with the counter shaft project on the old lathe. I'm turning down a 13/16" hunk o' steel rod to 3/4". The pass through on the main shaft will accept nothing larger than 3/4". That makes it a little tough to get things centered in the four jaw chuck and the countersinks done. 
Going to have to ponder this one.
Going to have to ponder this one.
I'd suggest arrow buttons on the steering wheel to change the centre stack..this would be the case in both my car and the new Yaris.
I very much feel your pain by proxy as trying to get my father to go out and learn the Yaris.
Being a Toyota it has physical knobs for HVAC etc but he's gone from what would be a 0 star NCAP car to a 5 star NCAP car. In reality this means it beeps about a lot about things that are not always entirely obvious.
I am trying to be encouraging in a "it's a 6 speed manual car...just go out and drive it like one and get used to how it drives we'll figure the whizzy bits and bongs out if we need to" way but at the same time I absolutely get it.
It's got hill start assist...the instructions give no clue as to how it actually works. He has no real desire to find out in live traffic with the jeopardy of rolling his new car into someone else to concentrate the mind. I probably would or I'd find somewhere quiet to mess with it but he doesn't fancy it at present.
It has satnav which I had difficulty with.... nevermind him who has never owned a smartphone again I can absolutely understand ignoring it.
I think a lot of modern cars give so much information that knowing what's "for your information" and what's a problem becomes a skill. As does knowing where to find what and how to get it.
On the way back apparently his centre stack was displaying the lane keep assist and distance to car in front..which he didn't know it did and was distracted by as it was flashing various things and drawing lines as it saw them which may or may not have been pertinent.
I'm very much hoping once the strangeness has worn off a bit and we can go out and do some addressing of the immediate needs and set it up how he wants and leave it. I suspect it's all actually reasonably simple other than the Toyota proprietary satnav which is like a logic puzzle...but it's a lot of unknown things going on at once while he's attempting to get used to his first new to him car since 2005 so it's a bit too much at present.
I feel his "pain". Last week, with about 200 miles on the clock, we went out to my boy's house to the south of the city and I was really enjoying the experience. The car is lovely to drive, the ride is considerably more comfortable than the Ibiza and it pitches much much less on speed bumps. The Ibiza was particularly bad on them, trying to bury it's front end into the road as it came down off the "hump". There's also much less turbo lag when picking up from low revs as you accelerate away from said speed bump - I'm pretty sure this is courtesy of the variable vane turbo control as opposed to the Ibiza's more simple open and shut wastegate. Time will tell if it's going to be as reliable though?
All went very well on the outward journey and I was feeling very pleased and thought I was really beginning to settle in and "bond" with the new car. On the return journey, almost as we left the end of his road, an orange triangle with an orange exclamation mark illuminated on the "mini panel" between the speedo and rev counter. Nothing else to indicate what it might be so Mrs J hauled out the owner's manual and discouvered there are 3 pages of warning icons which can appear. I pulled into the first convenient side road, switched the engine off and started reading the book. Seems that this exclamation mark in orange is to draw your attention and there should be another lit to further narrow down what's at fault. Our's only had the exclamation mark though. The book lists it as a "warning symbol" and should be safe to drive to your nearest "specialist garage" - for which read "main dealer". When I started the engine again it didn't come back so we carried on (I'd nipped out and checked oil, coolant, brake fluid levels and had a good look around under the bonnet generally while we were stationary, but found nothing. It was dark so I'd checked all the lights too including the number plate lights) Anyway, after about 10 minutes more or less, the light came back on. Oh dear. continued carefully keeping an eye out for coolant temp, oil warning light etc, etc. Luckily we go right past the Skoda dealer so I nipped in on our way past. Unfortunately the workshop staff had all gone home but there were reception staff there handing back cars that had been in during the day for work. She was very nice and said she thought the workshop foreman was still in and went to find him. 10 minutes later she came back with him and he had a quick look at the car but the light had gone out again! He told me the exclamation mark in either orange or red should be accompanied by an identifier light which narrows down the area of concern. A red light must not be ignored and, depending on the fault light the car may need to be immediately immobilized - Ie, engine stopped. An orange light is a warning and it should be safe to continue driving but advisable to call at a garage as soon as possible. As only our exclamation light is lit with no "identifier"light to accompany it, He couldn't make any suggestions as to what the fault might be and it would need to go on the diagnostic machine. He was actually a very nice chap and when I told him I used to hold a similar position to him, but many years ago, so wasn't surprised to find he was late going home - not many workshop foremen get to walk out the door with the other men - We commiserated for a while about the foreman's "lot" and he then said, We've had a few lately with similar symptoms, where it's been something like a poorly seated side light bulb. If I were you, as it's only an orange warning, I'd just drive it around for a while and see if an identifier pops on. Ok. so we drove home. Now, with nearly 800 miles on the clock, the orange exclamation has not been seen again, let alone an "identifier" - and all levels etc are absolutely fine with the car running beautifully. I'd love to know what caused it though.
But 3 pages of identifier symbols? That's over 40 fault symbols that could appear on the dash with another 52 "information" symbols, like main beam, dip beam, lane assist, seat belts, air con, safe distance, 6 separate ones for cruise control state, etc, etc. There even seems to be a light to tell you no light is switched on!? although I haven't seen that one yet. surely this isn't necessary.
On ours you'd press the car symbol..then select vehicle diagnostics it should then tell you what it's got a bee in it's bonnet about. No idea if Vag have something similar in a menu somewhere.
However similar to orange or red I can apparently ignore things that do not illuminate the red "stop!" light.
Random thought occurs...is it perhaps low washer fluid? I'd imagine you topped it pre-trip but it's not unknown for the warning to be far more dramatic than it deserves it probably wouldn't have its own dash light? Would also explain it going on and off if it's on the edge of low..
However similar to orange or red I can apparently ignore things that do not illuminate the red "stop!" light.
Random thought occurs...is it perhaps low washer fluid? I'd imagine you topped it pre-trip but it's not unknown for the warning to be far more dramatic than it deserves it probably wouldn't have its own dash light? Would also explain it going on and off if it's on the edge of low..
My accountant had a grey import Lexus Saurer 400 some years ago that came up with a strange message in Japanese on the dashboard, he paid a Japanese student to translate, that was screenwasher fluid low.
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If you’ve a centre/dial gauge the centre it with that, you ‘lose’ more metal but get more accuracyI ran into a problem with the counter shaft project on the old lathe. I'm turning down a 13/16" hunk o' steel rod to 3/4". The pass through on the main shaft will accept nothing larger than 3/4". That makes it a little tough to get things centered in the four jaw chuck and the countersinks done.
Yup, I spent a good part of the evening going through ‘how to’ using a dial indicator to center the piece in a four jaw chuck. When I can get back into the garage, I’m going to toss out the first instructions I used with my dial indicator and try again.
Like your thinking on the washer fluid level, but no, all topped up and ok. I also wondered about the level sensors on the coolant and brake fluid reservoirs. Could their plugs be less than perfect connectionwise? I may give them a wee wiggle if the light comes back again. The only thing I can think of just now where I've done anything which causes a change and might have been "seen" is that she used just under 1/3 of a litre of oil in the first couple of weeks I had her. Apparently these EA211 engines are well known to do this but to rapidly settle down after quite a small mileage has been covered. There is speculation as to whether it's to do with the rings settling down against the coated bores but who knows? The bores have one of these metal sprayed coatings I understand? I checked her when I got her home that first day, so with about 12 miles on the clock, and she was showing just above the half way mark between low and high. Over the next couple of weeks the level went down to just above the low mark so I then topped her up to the full mark. That was the night before we took that trip out to my son's house. I'm just wondering if I ever ever so slightly over filled her. There is a warning light which is supposed to alert you to this but it wasn't, and isn't, lit. I checked the level this morning and it's bang on the full mark (top of the dimpled section) so, if I did over fill her (and it would have been by only the very smallest margin) then she's used a very small amount but the rate of use has slowed greatly and we're now about 100 miles off her first 1.000 miles
Seeing the oil level at "half mast" that first time I checked her brought back a memory of someone on the forum mentioning that it's common practice for manufacturers to only do a "half" fill on the factory fill as it saves them a great deal of money by doing this on every vehicle. Don't know if this is true but it might explain the low level on that first check. The only other thing of concern I've noticed is that the resting voltage of the battery after 24 hours without the engine running is about 12.2 volts. She charges well when the engine is running and Stop Start becomes available after about 5 minutes if she's started within less than 24 hours of having been stopped. If left for a couple of days stop start won't kick in until about 15 minutes of running. This pre-reg vehicle was in their holding parc in Glasgow possibly a couple of months before Christmas and I got her 28th Feb. So, I suppose, if she's just sat there without starting all that time, it's possible some battery degradation may have taken place. However, if I hadn't stuck my multimeter on the battery I wouldn't have had any concerns because she always starts very easily, spinning over nice and fast. I'll just keep an eye on it for now.
The Tyre pressure sensor system on my car gets a bit annoyed when its not moved for a while, I think it remembers what the tyre pressure was the last time it was used and then if it has changed dramatically the next time it is used, for example the weather changes, then it usually pings up to let me know.
maybe if it happens again try pressing the button to reset the TPMS and see if that clears it? I presume like most VWs there is either a button hidden somewhere or something in a menu to reset the system, mine has a button in the roof of the glove box.
The battery is something else that may throw you on these cars. My golf has bluemotion tech, which I am sure has made its way onto your car, this means the charging voltage of the battery can be regulated by the car, or stopped all together.
So if you are accelerating it stops charging the battery to save the power draw on the engine, rolling down a hill slowing on the gearbox it will shut loads of power into the battery, well in excess of what you would normally put into a battery. This is why VWs need the battery coding when it is changed, and maybe why you see an oddly low voltage when you read the level.
My brother's camper conversion company had fun with this when it first came out as normal split charging relays will not work and you have to use a DC - DC convertor, which will charge the leisure battery at 14.4V no matter what the voltage that is being output by the alternator.
maybe if it happens again try pressing the button to reset the TPMS and see if that clears it? I presume like most VWs there is either a button hidden somewhere or something in a menu to reset the system, mine has a button in the roof of the glove box.
The battery is something else that may throw you on these cars. My golf has bluemotion tech, which I am sure has made its way onto your car, this means the charging voltage of the battery can be regulated by the car, or stopped all together.
So if you are accelerating it stops charging the battery to save the power draw on the engine, rolling down a hill slowing on the gearbox it will shut loads of power into the battery, well in excess of what you would normally put into a battery. This is why VWs need the battery coding when it is changed, and maybe why you see an oddly low voltage when you read the level.
My brother's camper conversion company had fun with this when it first came out as normal split charging relays will not work and you have to use a DC - DC convertor, which will charge the leisure battery at 14.4V no matter what the voltage that is being output by the alternator.
The Panda Nut
Nutty about Pandas Infected by Panda virus and OPD
It took me an age to work out the Panda system. Its easy really, simple ion fact any fool could do it Han Ha Ha. The only snag is remebering when you want to. Often I am back home before I remember....
vexorg
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What's distracting about infotainment systems?
Nissan has: phone, radio, home, bt/usb, settings, and satnav screens. (Home is pointless as it's a summary and links to all others).
And all just have what you expect on those screens, phone: dial/phonebook/call history radio: stations/band/tuning, etc.
Nissan has: phone, radio, home, bt/usb, settings, and satnav screens. (Home is pointless as it's a summary and links to all others).
And all just have what you expect on those screens, phone: dial/phonebook/call history radio: stations/band/tuning, etc.
I would defy anyone with an ounce of mechanical sympathy who says a car that says "I've got a fault!..but I'm not going to tell what it is" is not distracting.
vexorg
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What's that in reference to?
How would an electrical system know of mechanical faults? makes no sense....
What Jock posted about his car displayed a warning that apparently required action...but did not feel it necessary to specify about what.
vexorg
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still makes no sense
