zoricib

Thanks for posting the fix! I just took both my mirrors off ( one wasn't heating, the connector came loose). Cleaned one of the motors as it wasn't working great, felt like it was grinding. Managed to lose the plastic circle bit (despite really trying not to!!) So pushed the 2 lamels closer together and all seems to be working (for now). Anyone found replacement motors yet? Would want to keep 2 for spares

I don't have such a great paintwork so I need to worry about that - in my view though it would be the same as driving the car?

I use a small leaf blower (around£25 from Amazon) to give the car a once over after every wash to get rid of water in between doors, mirrors etc. Or go for a short drive and let the natural airflow take care of that.

Might be because the car has/had some sort of after market lights? e.g. led reflectors or an extra reversing light? What are the wires plugged into inside the car?

same on my 06 - very minor scrape by someone in a car part (luckily they left details) - respray cost was £250, payout was around 2k. Got to keep the car, no category etc. Would involve a free claims management company, maybe they can push for a bigger payout.

there are a few older threads where similar setups have been explored. To your current setup you could add an L-shaped USB adapter like this one to remove strain on the cable/ avoid it catching in the armrest lid. When I was running a similar setup I also had to add a ground loop isolator as I was getting a buzzing sound when no music was playing If you want to change tracks from the steering wheel you can install this which goes in the back of your stereo as a second CD magazine. Will not show the name of the tracks playing though and it's a bit tricky/fiddly to remove the headunit to install the adapter, but with a bit of patience it's quite an easy process really.

How come you are importing the 250? any advantages over a UK available 250?

Had no luck getting a replacement glass mirror with the auto-dimming on. One way to tell which is which is by the vertical line on the far side of the mirror glass. If it's a continuous line it's non-dimming, if it's a dotted line it has the dimming function. I gave up on searching for a dimming mirror as had to buy the whole mirror assembly to get the glass & ordered glare reducing ones from Aliexpress which have a blue tint on them.

Hi all, I recently had my alternator fail & whilst I was expecting it to go at some point, never knew what the signs of it going are. Scoured the web for a bit I found that one of the telltales is when the alternator produces a whine and your car sounds like you have a supercharger - which I definitely noticed but didn't think of investigating further. So if your car starts sounding like it's got a supercharger, start looking for an alternator. I got a rebuilt one from Ebay for £125 including postage and had to send the faulty one back (they held a £30 deposit until they received my faulty one). Labour cost was £160 at a local mechanic and he said the aircon compressor had to be removed to get to the alternator (also had a rounded bolt apparently so this may have added to the complexity of the job. P.S. Once the alternator goes (all electrics started playing up - radio turning on and off, lights on dash etc) the power steering goes with it too. If you're driving at motorway speeds all systems come back, but once stopped at traffic lights it all goes off too - mine went bad just as I was joining the M6 but managed to make it to the mechanic after wrestling with the steering wheel.

could be key battery?

or you could install this https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07JN9MD28/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1&tag=autoclubinte-21&tag=autoclubinte-21 It's a bit fiddly to install as need to take the stereo out & need to be careful not to damage the dash around the vents, probably a 30 min job - but if you're comfortable with splicing wires & such, this should be a breeze. It plugs in the back of the stereo and it's read as a second CD magazine. Installed it and has been working flawlessly for the past 3 years.

Thanks both! Ordered a set of 4 & will drive it slowly to a nearby mechanic

Jumping on this old thread as I just broke a stud on the rear. Is it safe to drive it like so to the garage?

Things always change with brands and companies - I used to work for a pharma company which originally produced and sold solid fuels. ASDA came cheaper than the rest, so went with them.

Decided to go with the staggered setup in the end and just ordered a pair of Asymmetric 6's from ASDA tyres

Oh definitely form over function for most things I changed on my car. The car came with full vland lights at purchase, but would have purchased the rears myself anyways, so would have ended in the same place. No regrets here 😁

Yeah, I would have liked them to still be reflective, but it's a compromise I'm happy with as now I can actually see something when reversing in total darkness

Well not really. They still look similar but it won't reflect light like the oem ones do. Had similar LED ones installed for about 3 years and they've never been an issue at MOTs if that's what you're worried about.

Finally got round to doing this...but forgot to take any pics of the process. Firstly, I got some LED reflectors that have reverse lights too as I have to back up on an unlit street every day and the reversing lights on the Vlands didn't do much. Since the reflecors have the reverse lights into them, they came as clear rather than red, but applied some red tint/film from ebay. Also applied some silicone on the edges of the reflectors as not sure how water tight they are... These are the reflectors This is the red film (yes, this makes the reverse light pinkish, but better than nothing) I followed instructions to take the bumper off & wire up the lights from this video Fed the wires though a grommet - just removed it, fed the wires through & placed back the grommet. Attached a pic of the specific grommet. Then for the reverse light I took a feed from the left light cluster on the boot lid, and fed it through the boot arm near the wiring loom that's already there, & daisy chained it to the other side too (FYI used a few extra feet of cable for this). So basically wired from left boot light to left reflector & then to right reflector. If you have Vlands, the reverse light wire colour is white & looks like in the car's wiring loom it's orange. I used T-tap connectors like these but shaved a bit of the cable to expose the wire & make sure it will make a connection. Here's a video of the reflectors in action. Will take another video in the dark too. (Excuse the dirty car) compose_video_1693245663544.mp4

If you go with the second option I shared, yes you'd need to take the stereo out. It's not complicated but just fiddly and need to take care so you don't damage your dashboard around the center vents area. For the first option you just have everything in your armrest. Assuming you have an aux in port in there.

Don't fully understand this but here's my limited knowledge on this. FAT32 is a way the data is written on the memory stick, not a type of data. In general, the data formats are either NTFS or FAT32 - don't ask me what they mean, I just know they exist 😅. To put it simply it's kind of like what language different systems use to read data. Watch this video to get an idea of how to format your memory stick for FAT32 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8nj-WtX8V0 FYI when formatting the memory stick it will delete all data on it, so make sure you have a backup if you wish to copy it back on. Once it is formatted to FAT32 you can have the same type of files on it, it won't make a difference to how you go about using the memory stick.

Nope, Nuneaton.

Same here, my car came with the Vlands installed by the previous & I purchased it 3 years ago. So at least 3 years of use and no issues whatsoever.

Don't think USB media playing is a thing for this model, but mine is a 2005 so it could be different on yours as it's a facelift model. I personally tried playing music from my phone via a Bluetooth adapter kept in the arm rest and plugged in the aux. It was powered via the USB. something like this & used an L shape USB to USB adaptor to keep everything tidy like this. However, found it didn't quite have the bass/clarity I was looking for. So what I'm using now is a Bluetooth adapter that plugs in the back on the stereo and is recognised as a second CD magazine.Also works with steering controls/calls etc. This is what I got. The only thing with this approach is that you need to take the stereo off and could damage the top of the airvent area in the process. Neither of the above options would show you what track is playing unfortunately. Otherwise, if you're specifically looking after playing via USB maybe an aux to USB adapter would work? don't think it would show tracks on the screen though.