What nonsense...

And of course, such a thing would never happen to a driver of such calibre as yourself eh?

Indeed. AIUI, you need Vag-Com to reset for long life. As a lot of my driving today is comparatively short distance journeys, I will probably stick to the 10k miles/12 month servicing schedule.

It's rather an irritating 'one or the other' decision on current VWs. My 75 had a service counter which reset to 15k miles. How fast it counted down depended upon the type of motoring you were doing - but there was a 12 month stipulation if it hadn't counted down to zero within 12 months.

I find the 10k miles on the VW a bit short really - although I'm currently not doing a lot more than that annually these days.

TBH, I would be surprised if an annual service, even if the mileage ran to

I'd be interested to know what VW dealers charge for their Castrol 'Long Life'oil. Carlube do a Triple R long life oil to VWs 504.00 / 507.00 specification that is available from Eurocarparts for £46.74 for 5 litres. I suspect the dealers charge twice that much!

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com (SteveH) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

With less warning and MUCH less chance of catching it.

Well, quite.

Audi TT, Merc A-class, Citroen Nemo/Pug Bipper/Fiat Qubo.

And they're just a handful of the ones that have actually hit the headlines...

Just thought of another problem with it - mostly the traction control side of things.

Most numpties don't realise that it usually has an off switch, which is quite handy if you're trying to get moving in a few inches of snow.

I'm sure a lot of the jams caused by the recent snow are as a result of people sitting there, foot flat to the floor, and getting 'computer say no' from the car.

I didn't buy it

We weren't talking percentages , even many of the low end cars such as the fords and fiats have under belly pans now that prevent access to the engine unless you have the correct equipment to remove them .

All deterents for the average punter

I find traction control quite effective in the snow once you have moved off

It's also bollocks.

If it's a JTD lump, there's definitely Fiat software out on the 'net for it - and if all else fails, I reckon Alfa Diag would do the job, too.

I agree it is a rarity however its a nice earner for the dealerships , sorry sir / madam the ecu knackered. The clock garage and Bristol street motors have both tried that one on my daughters , fortuatly they both have a brain on them and had second opinions , each time it cost less than £50 to actually fix the fault

'Correct equipment' being a screwdriver and / or a set of torx drivers....

I hate removing bellypans, though, but my local mechanic has no issues with them on his 4-poster - plus he hasn't failed to read the ECU on anything I've thrown at him yet.

They have security bolts retaining the covers , you can buy the bits however thay are not as freely available as normal torx head fittings

I agree , i would go further all vehicles should have on board diagnostics which is accessable or the software to access the equipment should be supplied with the car .

No i dont hence the comment

So why on earth did you think it costs 5K?

steve robinson explained :

I must say I initially dimissed as a nuisance, but found it of some use on patchy snow at speed.

Once you're rolling, it's fine.

But you don't want it kicking in when you're trying to get some grip.

When I had my Passat, I couldn't get it up onto my drive with the stability switched on. But it would do it if you could get the wheels spinning to shift a bit of snow / ice and get some kind of traction.

Strangely, the Prius is the best car I've ever driven in the snow - to get it rolling, you just release the brake and let it do its stuff.

Too be fair, my failure was a company car, so I got no feedback to confirm it was the ECU which had actually failed. All I knew was the engine suddenly died out in L3 and would not restart.

So not sealed - simply need a tool you don't possess. A bit the same as buying a new car when the change over came from unified to metric threads?

Or when allen head or torx arrived?