Car back from service - all good :)

**Inkblot** · 08-06-2013,07:54 PM

Just got my car back after having it serviced for the 1st time and am now a happy bunny as there were no problems found

I was concerned as I bought it without having it checked over mechanically and my knowledge of car mechanics is pretty minimal so I was worried that there could have been problems that I would have missed but it seems that the front discs/pads were replaced fairly recently whilst the rears have plenty of life in them still. The car has had a new battery at some point but whoever did it put a decent Bosch battery in so that's good. The oil/filter/air filter/plugs have all been changed but the pollen filters will have to wait as the supplier only sent one and there are apparently two but that will be done this week. There were some codes showing but they were all old ones - it looked like they simply had never been cleared and you would expect to see some codes in a seven year old car so nothing untoward there. Tyres have plenty of tread although showing signs of age but should be good for a fair few thousand miles

Only slight disappointment is that the computer the mechanic uses doesn't have all facilities of VCDS (Despite costing many times the price although to be fair it does an awful lot of things on an awful lot of cars) so he wasn't able to re-enable the battery meter or instrument cluster for me. Having lived without them most of my driving life* I can wait until there is a forum meeting (Assuming such things happen on occasion?), until I get my own VCDS (Could be a long wait) or until I contact somebody on the VCDS map - nearest to me is Southend but he hasn't been active for some time so I might have to go to Chelmsford which is about 30 minutes drive.

*I'm sure the Daimler v8 250 that I had when I was 18 had a battery meter of some description - possibly an ammeter? That was a long time ago though! Couldn't imagine today's 18 year old being able to insure something like that - although that may not be a bad thing

**Guest 2** · 08-06-2013,08:07 PM

Excellent news, glad everything is aok

I have a couple of people to add to the map this evening so hopefully its someone local.

Just use the drive as an excuse to get out in the car! I still do it after 4 years of ownership

**MarkTM** · 08-06-2013,09:11 PM

Ink glad to hear!

As to the battery meter I've got it enabled and have looked at it 3 times in 10 months

**Guest 2** · 08-06-2013,09:13 PM

Me too - barely look at it, only time really is if I'm sitting in the car with the ignition doing something with vcds is the only time I'd peer.

**Inkblot** · 08-06-2013,09:25 PM

Yep, that was my thought as well and the reason I've not PM'd anybody about VCDS. I doubt I would ever use the battery meter and have the instrument cluster setup how I want so no need to change that, I reckon can live without the 'missing' functionality for a while.

**gupsterg** · 09-06-2013,04:10 PM

Hi ya Ink

...

Felt

for you after reading post 1 ...

Battery meter not like an ampmeter ... google for SSP 326 page 10 - 12 will explain all

...

ATB
G

**Inkblot** · 09-06-2013,04:53 PM

Thanks Gupsterg, I actually downloaded that SSP before buying the car - also SSP 323 as well although neither of them will likely be of much benefit to me as a just a driver rather than a mechanically minded driver

Like I said, I can do without the missing functions and if ever it becomes an issue I'll check the VCDS map for help. The reference to the v8 250 was just me thinking how long it had been since I drove a car with any sort of battery information - that was an ammeter and was one of 4 in the middle, I think the others may have been oil temp. fuel level and water temp but it was 30+ years ago so I could well be wrong on that. This isn't my old Daimler as that has almost certainly long gone to the great breakeryard in the sky, this is one I found on the Internet so if it's likely to cause copyright issues please delete it!

Daimler dash.jpg