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Topics - CitTone

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1
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25689093

...and how long before a failure of your web connection stops the car from working....?

2
Classic Saab 9-5 (MY 1998-2010) / EML, Limp and dieselling
« on: 28 August 2013, 01:40:07 PM »
Wasn't intending to be back for a while due to aforementioned personal circumstances, but, in a masterpiece of timing, and after a long period of behaving impeccably, the Blue Beastie has just done as described, with accompanying "dieselling" noises, as our local indie calls them.

Will clean the sensors (again) - MAF is relatively new - but also noticed the fuel and temp gauge readings seeming to wander, and the DTE going up and down erratically. Could it all be down to impending battery failure?

4
Classic Saab 9-5 (MY 1998-2010) / MAF sensor 2.2TiD
« on: 04 March 2013, 08:49:16 PM »
Does this look bad to you lot? Car started clattering this arvo when I started it - a noise described by my Indie as "dieselling" and previously put down to a dirty sensor fooling the ECU into under-fuelling.

This looks a bit worse than "dirty" though - will the additional resistance of a corroded wire cause/contribute to the problem, chaps?

5
Adrian Flux just notified me of my new premium. Now with an extra year's no claims, and no changes to the car, it's an extra £110, taking it to £489.

60 years old, office job, low crime area, home owner, no business cover, 12000 miles per year, 2.2TiD Estate.

My crime? Steinbauer P-Box, I guess.

Just checked "Confused" and I could get an Aero HOT insured for £250 and a 1.9TiD for £175

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Classic Saab 9-5 (MY 1998-2010) / Alarm Interchangeability?
« on: 16 February 2013, 10:49:23 AM »
Could someone with the EPC please advise if the alarm module changed between 2003 and the end of "old" 9-5 production?

7
Off-topic chat, Help, Advice, General motoring issues / Snow tools
« on: 18 January 2013, 07:35:03 AM »
Complete snow cover this morning.

Just seen two of our neighbours drive off in VW Golfs, both with only the front screen cleared of snow.

Where is Darwin when you need him?

8
You know what I mean.

Being tailgated in the overtaking lane of a motorway, even though the middle lane is solid? Is it an Audi?
What is that car in the nearest disabled spot to the supermarket, but without a blue badge, even though there are other spaces free?
What's that SUV straddling two yellow hatched areas in front of the pedestrian exit to the station?

Am I alone in noticing a trend?

BTW, my boss owns an Audi. It's an A8L 3.2, so he's already beyond the pale.

9
Classic Saab 9-5 (MY 1998-2010) / Electric window functionality
« on: 10 January 2013, 10:13:47 AM »
My '03 car has a "one-shot-down" function on the driver's window, but no similar return capability (which is an ar5e when leaving pay-on-exit car-parks in the rain)

Anyone know if this is modifiable, either by a component swap or a Tech-2 setting?

Even our '02 Citroen C3 has one-shot-down...

10
Two notable events this week - the car hit 140K miles, and passed its MoT with no work!

Had an Indian takeaway to celebrate....

11
I recently acquired a Bluetooth-equipped ELM327 device with a wodge of software (plus some Chinese Trojans...) on a disc, but no actual instructions about how to get it to talk to my WinXP netbook with built-in Bluetooth.

Can anyone point me in the direction of a sensible beginners guide, please? Most discussions seem to start at the "Software will ask you to select the serial port number" stage, and I am at the "so which order do I plug in, switch on, run the program?" stage!

It seems that most people that write up this sort of thing on the Interweb are good at ignoring the bits that worked without their intervention, not imagining that some steps are installation-dependent.

12
Off-topic chat, Help, Advice, General motoring issues / OT - PC Pests
« on: 09 November 2012, 01:36:56 PM »
I'm sure that we've all had some gimboid from India phoning to try con us into giving him control of our home computer so he can cripple it, and siphon off our bank details, but how do others here deal with such calls?

Tempting as it is at times to simply tell them to FOAD, I tend to take a more surreal line, examples thus far being :

1. Telling the caller (in English) that I don't speak English, and continuing the conversation in the same vein until they get confused and hang up
2. Pretending to slightly mis-hear and mis-interpret everything they say ("what do you mean, open Windows - it's minus 4 here!") until they get fed-up
3. Going along with everything they say and making random keyboard noises, until they ask a question like "and what does the message on the screen say?", to which I respond "It says - his name is NOT Nigel, he ISN'T from Microsoft and he's trying to steal your money".
4. Going about whatever it was I was doing when interrupted (usually cooking or eating) and keeping up a running commentary until they get bored with trying to ask questions I'm not going to answer.

Sometimes I'm just too busy, and I'm afraid it's FOAD time again, but when there is considerable entertainment value to be had when time allows, and at least it has kept the bu99er away from someone more gullible for a while.

So - anyone else got a novel and amusing way to deal with them?

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Classic Saab 9-5 (MY 1998-2010) / Shelling out more...?
« on: 05 November 2012, 01:24:29 PM »
My local Waitrose (well, local-ish) where I normally fill up due to it being a couple of pence cheaper that anywhere else in the area, recently sprouted Shell branding in a big way, which I had not noticed previously.

Curiously, since that last fill-up, I seem to be getting worse average fuel consumption on my regular commute - by about 1.5mpg - even pussy-footing (stop sniggering at the back!).

Was Shell previously the fuel supplier to Waitrose, and has just had a bit of a publicity splash, or has Waitrose done a deal? And is my loss of economy just down to the changing weather?

14
My footwell illumination bulb went, so I started trawling the web for the cost of replacements. I noticed that there are quite a few LED festoon bulbs available now, and even a spring-loaded bulb replacement thingy with a LED panel attached.
At this point my bodging circuits kicked in.

I had a bunch of dodgy cheap GU10 SMD LED bulbs from China, a number of which packed up by cooking their mains step-down circuitry, and I had peeled out the SMD LED panels out of curiosity just to see if they still worked on a DC supply - and they did.

So I thought, what would happen if I soldered the leads from a LED panel to the caps of the dead festoon bulb, and stuck it in the rear courtesy light?

I'll tell you what happened....I was looking at the dam' thing as I opened the passenger door and was practically blind for half a minute. Egad, those things are bright for 3 watts!

Anyway, just clipped the diffuser back over the top of it, and it works jolly well. Nobody now has an excuse for leaving stuff in the car because "it was too dark and I couldn't see it".

Now for the front light.....

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Classic Saab 9-5 (MY 1998-2010) / Alarming development
« on: 13 October 2012, 06:46:43 PM »
Oh, yes, and now I have the "Service Theft Alarm" warning on (almost) every start.

Opinions -
1. Fit new batteries meself? (about £10 plus work)
2. Fit new batteries and capacitors? (Kits apparently available for £25, but probably less if I raid Maplin)
3. Get a refurb done by someone else?

if (3) who would anyone recommend?

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