Arrrrgh. Bloody cars.

[Janos]

Kept awake all night last night by my Passat's alarm deciding to go off at random intervals. Couldn't sleep as I was lying awake stressed and wondering what the neighbours will think.

The car's booked into a garage tomorrow anyway as a pheasant decided to run into the road at the weekend and headbut my OS indicator light, but fixing electronics (especially an intermittent fault) can be a stupidly expensive business.

I am tempted to get rid, as I would like an estate for the dive kit as putting the kit into a saloon can be murder on the back. But on the otherhand the car (with working electronics) is worth more to me then I would get at trade in - it runs fine apart from this - but it's a V reg and has 130000 miles on the clock.

What should I do?

Janos

[Dizzydiver]

Originally Posted by Janos

What should I do?

Janos

Disable the alarm - DEFINITELY

Otherwise and preferred suggestion. Buy Peugeot Estate 406 Diesel (with disabled alarm)

[Conor]

Don't know which one to choose.

Depends how much it would be to fix. if its close to or more than the difference between your trade in value and that estate of your dreams then go for the estate. Other wise get it fixed.

Can you get a quote?

[MATTBIN]

I shouldnt worry too much about the alarm, if it goes off tonight I'm sure one of the neighbours will 'fix' it for you and I doubt they'll charge you either.

Get an Estate.

Matt

[ScubaSue]

I took the empties and newspapers to the Co-op recycling centre this morning - as I drove away from the bottle bank I got a very, very, flat as a pancake, tyre .

Luckily the closest tyre centre is just over the road, so I drove, verrrry carefully and put on my best dim blonde voice and got them to fix it for me (and then HWMBO paid - double )

Anyway - that's my car rant over





If I were you ...... I'd get a dive-mobile (of course I'm not taking practicalities or anything else into consideration )




S

[Janos]

I think that as it's the electronics, and it's an intermittent type thing - sometimes it's a few hours before it goes off, sometimes half an hour, sometimes longer, I will need to get a VW dealer to fix it which is a lot of cash. I reckon it could be somewhere around the £750 mark.

Does anyone know how easy it is to disable the alarm? Is it one of those things a VW dealer can do with their fancy electronic programming?

Janos

[markgrayshon]

at times with alarms it is just a simple lose connection, get it to an auto electrics place, some of them are really cheap and know there stuff.

But if you got your mind set on an estate get one youll regret it later

[turbanator]

Passats can be a pain.
I had one and it had the windscreen replaced, if they cock up, then water can get in via the pollen filter. On mine this went into the passenger footwell, what I dis not realise when I dried the carpet was that there is a box of electronic trickery below the passenger seat in a 'well'.
If this get wet, it stays wet and rots out the connectors.
It was very expensive to repair - fortunatly the car was leased, but HSBC had a long argument with VW about who should pay and whterh it should be a warranty repair.

r
P

[Reikimaster]

My alarm was playing up for ages and ages, (ford mondeo) turned out to be a faulty switch in the bonnet. 50 odd quid to find the fault and another 50 put a new switch on.

[Jim Shaw]

Originally Posted by Janos

Does anyone know how easy it is to disable the alarm? Janos

I would have thought that with you being in South London, half the kids in the street will know how it's done