Egged!!

A couple of weeks ago on a dark rainy night,some pillock threw an egg at the car.

The noise when it hit was frightening,I thought the rearvsuspension had collapsed it was so loud.

Anyway I ( wrongly ) thought that it was only an egg and most of it would wash off in the overnight rain.

When I came to clean the car the next day,egg was everywhere,paintwork,glass and also in the window guides from where it took some removing.

Unfortunately it had also pitted the paintwork on the rear offside passenger door,pitted the aluminium on the lower window guide and also pitted the paint on the black strip down the side of the door.

Today it has cost me £170 to have the upper door resprayed,the black upright resprayed and the aluminium window guide replaced ( incidentally the price of the guide is a frightening £50).

So if you are unfortunate enough to get "egged",get it off the car immediately or you will be facing a hefty bill.

Ian

A Little Bit of Tinkering.

Had the Alltrack into the dealers a couple of days ago for an oil and filter change,swapping the wheels and tyres for the winter models (of course there will now be an autumn heatwave ) and the fitting of some wind deflectors to all the windows.

I thought (hope) that these will prevent the buffeting noise from the rear windows when they are open in the summer,they look good too,well I think so.

Had the coolant topped up as well as it seemed a bit low.

That's it all set up for winter.

Ian

Trailer Assist contd......

I Tweeted VW to ask if Trailer Assist,as offered on the new Passat,would be available as a retro fit,the reply I received said "not anytime soon".

Pity really as I don't think it would take much fitting if you already have Park Assist but there you go.

Ian

Air To Spare

Fitted one of these to the Alltrack spare wheel today :-

Air To Spare

It enables the spare wheel tyre pressure to be remotely checked without humping the spare wheel out of the car as the valve on the spare points dowmwards ( why it couldn't have been the other way up I don't know ).

Seems to work well,have left it coiled up in the wheel well but may reposition it later on to check without lifting the boot floor if I can think how to do it.

Ian

All Patched Up.

Took the Alltrack to Premier Paint in Wakefield today and had the rear bumper scuff repaired and a stainless steel plate ( from Germany via E-Bay ) affixed to the bumper and had the original protective film removed except at the sides as the plate wasn't as long as I thought it would be.

Looks rather good in my opinion ( biased ).

Also had a couple of stone chips touched up as well.

She is now back to her pristine lovliness.

Ian

Bumper Damage

Whilst hitching up our caravan,a certain person ( not me ) managed to reverse the Alltrack into the caravan hitch,damaging the bumper.

Not a massive amount of damage it has to be said but it's away to the repairer on Tuesday to be assessed.

Ian

Wiper Hesitation

I have noticed that when the vehicle is stationary using the Stop/Start and the windscreen wipers are in use,when the car starts again there is a noticeable hesitation in the wipers but nothing else electrical.

Does anyone know if they all do this or is it something that cn be corrected ?

Only a minor thing I know but I would like to know.

Ian

Breakaway Cable Attachment

As I have mentioned previously the breakaway cable attachment on the Westfalia towbar is a bit of a faff to connect being a "grovel on the ground" sort of a job.

I have attempted to remedy this a bit by attaching a suitably robust shackle to it,whilst not making the job a doddle it does improve things somewhat.

Hope this is of some assistance to somebody.

Ian

Excellent !!

Just returned from a few days caravanning in Scarborough.

The Alltrack was excellent,towed a caravan,four passengers,packed with luggage,a full roofbox and two childrens bikes with no problem at all.

The auto/Tiptronic gearbox is a delight.

Well pleased with things so far.

Ian

Towing

We used the Alltrack to tow our caravan for the first time last weekend to watch the Tour de France in Leyburn in the Yorkshire Dales.

There was only one word to describe the Alltracks towing ability and that is awesome.

It was rock steady on the road,even when passed by artics. on the A1 it never moved,put it in "cruise" when appropriate to do so and just steer.

It turned in just a shade under 30mpg whilst towing our Bailey Orion ( according to the digital display ) and the pop-out factory fitted towbar did its job without any problem.

The only very minor gripe is that that the securing point for the caravan breakaway cable on the Wesfalia towbar is hidden away at the back which means a hands and knees job to clip it in.


Ian