Outwitting Your Vehicle's 'Brain'

Yes and yes. According to the OP it's a ~2003 W211 so it will use the magnet rings. And yes, it IS an expensive and unreliable technique!

Theo <theom+ snipped-for-privacy@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote

That assumes the unroadworthy vehicle is insured.

No, they are not in breach of the T&C. See above.

The toothed-ring systems utilise variable reluctance sensors; the year and model of the car in question do not. Plus, the car in your video is a completely different year and model from the one under discussion.

If your policy is invalidated, for example by not telling the insurer about modifications, and they are forced to pay out, they will seek to recover costs from you:

Taking care of your car You and any person who is covered by this policy must do all of the following:

Modifications to your car Modifications are changes to your car?s standard specification, including optional extras.If you wish to modify your car, you must tell us what modifications you want to make, and we must agree to them beforehand. Modifications include changes to the appearance or the performance of your car, including wheels, suspension, bodywork, engine and any additional software features (excluding those provided free as software updates by the manufacturer). This is not a complete list. If you don?t provide correct and complete information or inform us of any changes, this could invalidate your policy or mean we don?t pay claims in full or at all.

Payments made outside the terms of the policy If we have to make a payment that isn?t covered by this policy because we?re required to do so under any country?s laws, we may ask you (or the person who is legally responsible) to pay us back any payment made that isn?t covered by this policy. This includes any amount that we have to pay because you don?t provide accurate and complete information.

THIS video:

Shows the actual model and year. It's sub-3 minutes in length and you can very clearly see there are no teeth in the new ring he's putting on.

Be about right at £125/hr. It's at least a 4 hour job and as the camber and toe adjusters are removed it needs an alignment job.

18mm bolts wtf?

The M12 tri hex bit is available from machine mart in a set with M10, M12, M14, M16 and M18 bits. I found that out doing rear brake discs on my bothers Audi A3 after I had bought a Draper set of tri-hex, torx and hex bits that only went up to M10.

The video shows that the failure mode for this model of MB is the magnet ring becomes detached from the carrier on the axle.

There are no visible teeth OR visible magnets. The one removed was uniformly rusty.

gives a lot more detail. Not a job for an amateur. Probably at least £300 at a garage

They claim that the outer ring is in some way magnetised.

The policy is not invalidated (in England and Wales); read the Act.

My understanding is that there are two sides to this: the rights of the third party and the rights of the insurer.

The third party enjoys protection (with additional arrangements in place for uninsured drivers and untraced drivers). This has long been a feature of road traffic legislation, for reasons that are entirely understandable.

However, if the policyholder is in breach of policy conditions it is open to the insurer to make a claim against the policyholder (without prejudice to the rights of the third party). If you think about it, this has to be the case or there would be no incentive for the policyholder to be honest in the proposal form or to comply with the policy conditions.

Toe adjusters? On the rear hubs? All that should be necessary is for the components to be reassembled with the suspension under load.

Those will be for the brake calipers; nothing odd about that.

Machine Mart? Pah! Check this set out for value:

Free delivery if you're in the UK too!

Er, it is! And it clearly doesn't have any teeth either.

On Japanese cars they're 2 a penny, and they also like Metric fine threads. Though to my knowledge 18mm isn't an ISO standard.

*Eventually* yes. But long before it gets that bad, according to some of the good and the great on this group, rust particles build up on the ring causing this malfunction. So I can hopefully at least buy some time!

Japanese cars I've had and worked on.

Datsun 100A estate. Datsun 120A coupe. Datsun Bluebird estate 1.8GL. Datsun by Nissan Bluebird hardtop coupe 1.8GL. Toyota Celica 2.0XT liftback. Mazda 323F GXi estate. Nissan 200SX fastback x4.

Nephew's Toyota Celica VVTLi. Honda Civic 1.4.

Niece Nissan Micra K11.

None of them had a single bolt with a 18mm AF head. At that size they are all 17mm and 19mm AF.

Yet another reason to never buy a newer car.

Those are Torx these are tri-hex spline

But my brother's car was at my brother's home, 135 miles from my home and I wanted the job done so I could go home. I wasn't going to wait around 3 days for tools to arrive. As MM shop was on Bath side of Bristol it only took an hour to do Bath > Bristol > Bath.

Hey, another convert! Welcome aboard! Modern cars are s**te. And doubly so if they're electric/hybrid.