We started sound deadening and adding the first insulation the back of a Peugeot e expert for a campervan conversion. Some the roof, side and back panels.
Bought a portable battery unit to power the back along with a DC to DC charger.

 

We started sound deadening and adding the first insulation the back of a Peugeot e expert for a campervan conversion. Some the roof, side and back panels.
Bought a portable battery unit to power the back along with a DC to DC charger.
View attachment 215414

Which battery pack did you settle on ??

 

I usually work in Aberdeen city centre, or the suburbs, usually doing between 10 and 40 miles per day today, I was working in Arbroath, about 50 miles south. I arrived with 25% remaining, having started at 100%. I charged to 100% at lunchtime, taking 47 minutes at a chargeplace Scotland 50kW, and for some reason arrived home with 30%. Only managed two jobs, as I spent more than two hours driving.

 

Following wind instead of a headwind😉

 

I've done very little this week, but I've got a full battery (MG4 SE, 51kWh) courtesy of picking off the sub penny and negative slots on Agile and even done some V2L. The resulting GOM of 237 probably reflects my pottering, although I did do a bit of motorway on Sunday. If I told you it was the M27 locals will understand...

 

Not as adventurous as some but we went to Hythe near Southampton for a 3 day break. As far a the EV is concerned... uneventful which is always good. With the speed limiter ridng side saddle I got 4.4 M/kWh on the total 204 mile trip

 

Down to Newcastle in the 40kWh Leaf from the Northumberland sticks to have a family rendezvous to watch the Newcastle v Barcelona Champions League match . In the famous Alizarin Crimson Classic Leaf with the shiny ears we would have had to factor in a little bit of On Road Charging, which largely through bad management would have us stopping at somewhere like this late at night,

the extra range of the 40kWh Leaf makes things much easier, and the car is a thoroughly pleasant drive, great VFM and suits our motoring need very well.

Neil

 

Just back from a week in Ilfracombe, bit of a lack of decent charging options down there. I got a months Tesla subscription as we were traveling around a bit before we went. Bristol was the nearest proper Tesla option. Did seem to be a lot of ev’s around, I guess most home charge.

 

This week sweet nothin apart from 1 visit to the grande surface and 1 trip to an exercise class …… so an expensive toy sat on the driveway most of the time😳

 

Just an update on my (not very exciting tale of) Zoe suspension noises...

Yesterday, I finally got chance to replace the track rod ends (having done the drop links previously). I've still got some noise, so its looking like the lower wishbones. I figured this would likely be the case but went for the potentially quick 'n' easy steering/suspension wins first.

Now the days are getting colder & shorter its kind of at the limit of what I want to be doing on my driveway, so I may be having the radio on a bit more if driving meantime to help me forget. I suppose I should get the parts in ready, in case I have a rush of enthusiasm (or if an MOT tester forces the issue!). I'll heed the advice about decent quality parts for this one.

 

Sea Fever John Masefield Second Verse

"I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying."

The New Kid in Town gets a pleasure trip down to the seaside! (parked next to the "White House")

Neil

 

Scraped (well warm watered really!) the first ice off the windscreen...

before

 

Scraped (well warm watered really!) the first ice off the windscreen...

before
View attachment 215806

Surely one of the killer features of BEVs is the ability to preheat (via your phone / timed start/finish) on a cold n frosty morn 🥶😂

 

Drove from Leeds to London (Stanmore) and back over the weekend. Stopped at the new Tesla supercharger site at Poplars Garden Centre (just off M1 at J12) on the way down Friday morning, which meant I could just jump in the car on Sunday and drive home again without a stop. Got there about 07:30 and there were only 3 other stalls in use out of 24, and only one still charging when we left. It's also 38p before 09:00, compared to the (when I checked) 80p for Gridserve at Toddington services.

 

Absolute bloody nightmare. First MOT failed on tyre the tiniest nick that I missed but you can see cord if you open it. No tires that fit in Bristol so ordered them in. Locking wheel nuts missing, last time I saw them was when I had my drive shafts fixed last year. Cupra refusing to sell me a replacement key, said it would be fine if it was a Skoda or VW.

In parallel to this someone signed up to virgin with my adress by accident so they disconnected us. No letter but they claimed to phone us. So I have no car and no internet until tomorrow 😭

 

Yikes, most locking wheel nuts can be removed with a set of removal sockets from Amazon or eBay, scary actually how quickly they ping out.

 

Pumped up my tyres today. Cold weather has reduced pressures just enough for TPMS to claim 3 punctures on way to work this morning!

 

Picked up my son and family from Gatwick at 07:00 yesterday. What is it with airlines, they schedule a 6.5 hour flight overnight and it arrives 40 minutes early so that you have to check flight times at 3 in the morning and then can't get back to sleep. So car fully charged for the 130 mile round trip and preheated but it was so cold that the range dropped ... they had done the trip from NZ in one go with just a 4 hour layover in Doha but I suggested that if they wanted we could go into Southampton on a shopping trip after they had showered and had a 'put you on' snack. The car had 80 minutes of full price electricity before we set out and as we returned via Winchester the nice lady that sits under the bonnet was saying 'the battery is low. please charge now!' as we arrived home later in the afternoon! Just 9 miles of range left!

 

the nice lady that sits under the bonnet was saying 'the battery is low. please charge now!' as we arrived home later in the afternoon! Just 9 miles of range left!

She does fret!

 

Went to the dechetterie today with mine always looks odd to see the dirty old remorque hooked up and after 20mths ownership we finally sussed how to get the trailer assist feature to work and very clever it is too!
The mess on the Remorque is from our resident barn owl🙄

 

Today, I drove my electric van from Aberdeen to Stonehaven for a couple of jobs, then to Fettercairn for another. On the way home, I had 1 mile of range in hand… no way I’d make it, as it was mostly a dual carriageway. I got stuck behind a tractor for a couple of miles though, and got home with - - miles remaining, and perhaps 2% (it’s hard to tell from the needle). A grand total of 66 miles. That’s pretty poor, but it’s a heavy van with ladders on the roof, and most of that drive was at an indicated 65mph (61mph in reality), with a mere 50kWh battery, with only 43kWh usable. Most days I do less than 40 miles, and I’ve only had to public charge three times so far this year.

 

I drove my Leaf this week to my son's new house at Gevry Chambertin. It's 2 hours away and I needed to schedule a charge en route !! Oh 30kWh batteries !!

Reminded me that these lovely 90kWh/ 77kWh Tesla/ Ioniq's are not what we started with. The cold cold hours I've spent charging at 25kW in a dark car park with nothing else in it !! The good ol' days !! ( 3 years ago!!)

But I love my Leaf. First love !

 

Name dropper you! Once he is settled maybe you can make a recommendation or two for the good producers😉

 

Ok sad times. So yesterday I went around a corner in the e-tron, I was fairly enthusiastically driving it but nothing really that special. The car made a cluck cluck cluck noise, I didn't see the traction control light flash so assumed maybe it's the QUATTRO torque vectoring or some kind of mechanical LSD doing something (I would have expected the Traction control to flash if it was) but I'm really of a BMW MERC guy.

Anyway no issues after that all good. When I gently pulled off this morning for the school run, it felt like the handbrake stuck on the rear and realased jolting the car a bit.

I thought hmmm hope it's that and not related to yesterdays strange noises.

At lunch time took the dog for a walk with the Mrs which involved a 10 min drive to the field. The car made the same noise as I pulled up to park. After the dog walk we went to pick our son up as he was on half day. It started making the noise more regularly. At this point with our big German Shepherd in the back I abandoned the college pick up to take Max the dog back and for the Mrs to take her ID.3 to pick our son up.

I drove the car gingerly to my nearest Audi garage. After about 5 miles the car basically epically failed. Massive grinding noise like a wheel has fallen off.

Pulled over luckily immediately into a layby. I could smell hot Transmission fluid/oil type of smells.

I had to get the car flat bedded to Audi, I think the rear differential has had a complete failure.

I was thinking of buying this or a similar e-tron 55 on February when the lease was up, but I think this has made me think of switching manufacturers.

I'll report back when Audi have looked at it, but it's defo not good. Ironically, no warning lights, flashing reaction lights, nothing.

 

 

Hope you have warranty! Is this a common failure on e trans?
must say we have our car on a 4 yr lease but with the new GLC EQ out we will be sorely tempted to change one of the big issues for me is simply not having to worry about expensive failures, I am happy paying all the money as I go along at least I know where I stand!
Hope it is better news than you fear keep us posted.

 

Yeah, I took the component failure extra level package, also includes Tyres, MOTs, servicing and breakdown etc. Majorly good job I did, this will be eye wateringly expensive I recon.

No idea yet about if it's a common issue, haven't really come across it before so maybe it's not. I'll let you know what Audi say.

I must admit, although obviously leasing or buying a new vehicle is more expensive I'm starting to think maybe it's the way to go.

 

How many miles has it done

 

55,049 exactly.

Laugh of it all is the app shows no issues.

 

Hmmm after some googling.

Audi e-tron 50 rear motor issues typically stem from a coolant seal failure, leading to coolant leaking into the motor and causing a "electric malfunction" message or complete drive unit failure. While gearbox issues can also occur, the coolant leak is a more common and serious problem requiring a costly full motor or drive unit replacement. Owners should regularly check the rear coolant overflow cartridge for signs of leakage and be prepared for potentially long wait times for parts and repairs.
Signs of a Problem
Warning lights: You may see fault codes or "Electric malfunction" warning lights on the dashboard.
Grinding noises: A grinding noise at low speeds can indicate a failing gearbox within the rear motor.
Sudden stalling: In severe cases, the car may suddenly stall while driving.
Empty coolant cartridge: A critical early sign is an empty coolant overflow cartridge, which should be checked regularly.

I know this cartridge was changed as part of the full service last November, no advice to keep an eye on it etc, I wonder if it's that that's caused the failure.

As I said no warnings, lights, messages etc.

It still felt like a differential/gearbox/syncromesh issue in an ICE car.

I can chalk up/live with the initial onboard charger major failure issue I had 5 days after getting it to maybe the previous leaser doing something suboptimal when charging. The car wouldn't take a AC charge (either granny or my 7.4 Kwh ohme epod) from one of the sides.

He/she obviously kept the original Audi granny charger and supplied with a replacement charger.

But after having a major mechanical issue that IMHO should be bullet proof I would say don't buy an Audi E-tron.

Kinda feels like a ticking time bomb.

Defo going Merc next.

 

Only heard grinding noises as it catastrophically failed.

 

MFP in the blue Leaf. A couple of out the windscreen views. I've looked at clouds from both sides now. .

Neil