Herbie

Sorry Peter but that's wrong. It has nothing to do with being "warmed up" - it's completely governed by the state of charge.

It doesn't matter which one, 12V from the front is exactly the same as 12V from the back.

Just to add to what Vlad says, I think he's being optimistic with EV range - I'd say more like two miles at most. Anticipate the road ahead and brake gently. If stood at traffic lights or whatever and you think you'll be moving off within a couple of minutes, leave the car in D and just keep your foot on the brake. If you think it'll be longer before moving off, put the selector in P and you can then take your foot off the brake. Never put the car in N in these situations because the hybrid system will not charge the high voltage traction battery if it's in N. We, as the drivers or end-users of these magnificent beasts, never get full access to the whole capacity of the traction battery, so the battery charge indicator you'll see on the dash is only a representation of the state of charge of 'our' bit. Think of us being able to use the middle 60% but there's the first 20% and the last 20% we can't use. The graphic below explains it well:

No they don't John, only the fronts.

You could be right Peter but if the DRLs are also acting as front positional lights, then this would be something that was done at the factory, not as a modification later, so maybe there are different rules for that?

I don't know to be honest, it was just something to look at and be aware of.

Most cars that use dipped headlamps as DRLs do so by dropping the voltage from 12V to 6V. I really don't like that idea so I fitted completely separate DRLs to my RX300 when I had it and that is very simple to do, using just one relay. The DRLs should only come on with the ignition and they must go off when you turn on the sidelights/headlights and the wiring diagram below shows how to wire the relay to achieve that. Of course, it doesn't answer your question if you really want to use the existing headlamps but I think separate DRLs are best anyway. I used combined 'switchback' LEDs for mine:

This is what I mean. If you tighten that nut too much then the post can become disconnected from the plate inside the battery case:

All you need are a couple of pool noodles:

Cheers Steve Zep are my favourite band (Zep IV being my favourite album ever) and they just can't be enjoyed to the full without the volume being wound up

True, and I do use cans sometimes but I'm lucky to have a wife who also enjoys the same sort of music and at the same sort of volume that I do

I'm not talking about a bank of Marshall Amps and a 10x10 stack of 100W speaker cabinets here Malc This place would have enough separation to allow a decent volume. It recently sold for £285k but we missed out because we hadn't sold our own house at that time

Thanks Brent, good advice, but I think we've done our 'due diligence' and have all bases covered unless Civil Service and BT Pensions go bust (but nobody can make contingency plans for that). The thing about Lifetime Mortgages is that there's hardly any hoops to jump through. They don't need to 'agree in principle'; we can choose to pay interest and capital like an ordinary mortgage (no) or pay nothing at all (no - because interest would compound too quickly), or the third option, the one that we're going with, is pay interest only. The debt is only recovered when the last one of us either dies or ends up in long-term care. Nationwide will lend up to 36% of the value of the property and even if interest rates go a lot higher yet, we can still afford the monthly payments. Although the interest rate of a lifetime mortgage is fixed for life at the outset, I believe we could also remortgage later on to get a lower interest rate. Sadly, staying in this house wouldn't solve all medical problems and a bungalow is really the only option we have.

I just used standard Gorilla two-part epoxy when the same thing happened to ours and it's been perfect for the last 5 years.

Thanks for your interest and your advice folks, it's much appreciated. If we were different people we would take it and our problems would be quickly solved, but unfortunately we are our own worst enemies. First of all, we (or more correctly, I) need to stay in Preston. I once tried a move up to Carlisle - only an hours journey up the M6 - but within four months I was desperately homesick and came back. It wasn't for Preston the town, but my mates. One particular set of friends mean the world to me and the twelve of us have known each other since the first day of infant school, 59 years ago. We meet up at least once a month for a few beers but we all share a love of the same kinds of music so we all go to gigs together as well and usually have a couple of 'lads weekends away' each year. Secondly, after having a few beers in the town centre, I know that by the time I get home (just 3.0 miles) I'll have to rocket out of the taxi and break the world land speed record to get upstairs to the loo, so I can't live any further out than a 3 mile radius from the town centre. Add to that that it absolutely must be a detached bungalow with garage and I can see us being in rented accommodation for quite a long time before something comes up that fits the bill. It's not ideal and it'll be a pain to have to move twice, but we're OK with that. Malc - good advice mate but our house is more than halfway through the selling process and we'd hate to let the buyer down. Plus, now that we've made up our minds to move, we want to do it, especially as a detached place will allow me to play my music as loud as it's intended to be

One other thing has just plopped into my head re the negative lead. Battery clamps can be overtightened and if that happens the battery post itself can break its connection with the negative plate in the battery case, so make sure it's not the post itself causing the intermittent fault.

Go to a breakers yard or an eBay breakers and try to get a used mirror? Failing that, if you can do without the dimming you could get a standard mirror glass and cut to size then stick it on the top of the faulty one.

You have to be logical and methodical when dealing with electrics and logic says that if you wiggle the negative lead and it makes a difference, then there's probably something wrong with that. Follow it from the battery to wherever it's terminated and make sure the connection is clean and tight. Also check other earth straps from body to engine and some cars also have body or engine to gearbox straps. Alternatively, try using a jump lead or other piece of cable and try not to disturb anything else but just touch the negative battery post with one end and any bare unpainted metal/nut/bolt/screw with the other end. If that works and you can repeat it each and every time, then you've proved that the earthing is faulty. If you don't want to tackle it yourself, you don't say which part of Sussex you're in but here's a couple of places with good reviews: https://www.autoelectrical-crawley.co.uk/car-electrician-sussex.html https://www.stevesautolancing.co.uk/ https://www.autoelectricdiagnostics.co.uk/services https://www.tmeautoelectrical.co.uk/

The first question has to be why did you do this? I've never needed to replace battery terminals on any car I've ever owned in more than 47 years of driving. Are the terminal connections tight and clean? Have you checked (preferably undone, cleaned and tightened) the 'other ends' of the battery cables, ie, from positive battery terminal to starter solenoid then from solenoid to starter motor? And also the earth straps from the negative battery terminal to the body and engine? Finally, I'm a firm believer in using the proper trade, ie, mechanic for general mechanical work and auto electrician for electrical work, so if it were me I'd be taking it to an auto electrician to be sorted if I couldn't do it myself. Same info as video above but just a bit more in-depth and also showing voltage drop charts:

You'll notice a vent hose plugged in near the positive terminal, so as long as the new battery has a vent hole for that hose to go into, any battery will do. The temperature sensor is usually just taped on, so remove it from the old battery and tape it on the new one - job done. Absolutely nothing magical or mystical about it whatsoever.

It may (or may not) be sufficient but any passing scrote doesn't know that you've done that so they may well still attempt entry or worse still, go for ripping out the CANBUS wiring, thus disabling any alarm/immobiliser. As the old saying goes, 'prevention is better than cure' so a great big bright yellow steering lock, easily visible from the driveway, should hopefully be enough for the scrotes to think 'sod it' and go to an easier target, leaving my pride and joy untouched.

Cheers Keith, that's very good of you and so kind of David to say that

Just in the interests of fairness it has to be said that in most tests and reviews the Stoplock Elite Pro just pips it at the post. It's very close though, with the Stoplock scoring 10 and Milenco 9, or Stoplock 5 with Milenco 4 (even 4.5) depending on the scoring system used - so you're not going to go wrong whichever one you choose.

If the fuses are good but you can't measure a voltage at the plug, you must have a broken wire/connection somewhere. You need to look at the wiring diagram and then break the circuit down at any connection points and then look for continuity on each section in turn.

When you say "completely" dead - do you mean that the engine doesn't crank or start, but you can switch on the sidelights/headlights, or is absolutely nothing working at all?