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I bought a CTEK 5.0 recently, and I connected the eyelet cable to battery positive pole permanently, the negative cable is connected to cargo hook bolt, and don't need to access the battery terminal every time. and if I want, as eyelet cable is quite small, the connector can be put outside the boot and keep the door locked.

Yes every job has a "book time" So the dealer tells you it's a 40 min service, they run over that because it gets washed, vacuum, time to do the paperwork, get the car in/out etc and you (not you per se but the customer) kicks off that it took an hour and not the promised 40 mins. It's called under promise and over deliver, tell the customer it's 1.5 hours but you get it back just over an hour and everyone is happy

Hi Graeme, I agree with you, but when I brought my car to the Toyota dealer to test the battery, and asked the service adviser if I can use the jump start point in the fuse box to charge the battery, he said never use it for charging, I still don't understand why it could be risky, I thought basically it's same as the way the charger connects battery positive pole directly using the body chassis as an earth. the only difference i can think of is that the jump start is a very short time process, for charging the battery, you need to keep the charger connected for a quite long time.

The standard Yaris uses 0W-8. The latest Aygo, Corolla, C-HR, Rav4, and Prius use 0W-16.

Hi Tony, I am quite confused regarding the jump start point for charging, I thought basically it's same as to connect the charger directly via positive pole and using body chassis as an earth, could you please kindly explain what kind of possible risk it could be?

Took my car off its trickle charger yesterday and took her for a spin around local roads. There was an odd ticking from the back that I couldn't locate but it stopped soon after I left the house. All in all she ran beautifully. I even had a chance to demonstrate to an Audi driver the difference between a 60mph zone (A43 to my estate entrance) and a 50mph zone (my estate entrance to all points west. Don't think they noticed though. They overtook and scampered off into the distance(*) at the first opportunity. (*)Which was an HGV and they remained stuck behind that until they reached a dual carriageway eight miles further on. I got to look at the scenery. They got to stare at the **** end of an HGV.

I was thinking the same thing. So many battery related complaints at the moment. The bottom line in all this is that either 'something' is waking up and drawing current when it shouldn't or the quiescent current drain is just to high. Anything over 50 milliamps (which sounds peanuts) will take a toll over days and weeks... example... 50 milliamps is just 1.2 amp hours removed from the battery over 24 hours. Its nothing... but now imagine its like that for a week. That's 8.4 amp hours gone from a battery of around 30 to 40 amp hour capacity. You drive it for 60 minutes but supposing it only charges at a 5 amps maximum. It doesn't get fully charged... and then you leave it again. Its a slow and downward spiral on its state of charge. And that is just for 50 milliamps current draw... what is it really pulling 24/7. That is the big question. It would be very very instructive for a dealer (for example) to rig a car up with a monitor to see what the current is over an extended period of several days. Or to get that info from Toyota. It is a basic design specification, the info should be available somewhere. It would also be very very useful to know what rate the car is capable of charging the battery at. I suspect 'probably not a very high rate' seeing as the voltage has to be derived from the high voltage battery but it would be massively useful info and would give a good figure to work to when wondering how long you have to drive for or leave it in ready mode for.

Changed brake pads and brake discs and the vibration went away. The mechanic had a look at the front of the car and only found some old bushings that are of no concern and nothing to worry about as he said and suggested I should get new tires at least for the front as they are worn.

This isn't a thread to whinge about why did both the rear shocks decide to fail at around 8years and 45k miles. It's to warn forum members that this might be an area to check, before you take your car in for an MOT. The car flew through its MOT last year at the 7 year point with no advisories. This year, after only another 2500 miles (thanks Covid), both the rear shocks decided to die on me by leaking very badly. I had looked over the car personally last year pre MOT, and the rears showed zero signs of any leakage. After getting my highly trusted local garage to supply and fit new rear shocks, I asked the guy if he would quote me for the front shocks, as I said to him that as the rears had given up the ghost, surely the fronts wouldn't be far behind. He reassuringly told me that both the fronts were in rude health and that they get failures of the rears on many of my type of car i.e. Aygo, C1 and 107's.

55k miles - much of it on rough rural roads in Hampshire and Devon, very little A road or motorway so quite hard on the suspension.

I have MK3 RAV with keyless entry and it definitely impossible to start the car if the person with the fob loading the shopping in the boot dedpite the car is unlocked. In fact it's impossible to start the engine if the person with the fob standing just outside the driver's door.

Article on Honest John this week re keyless thefts: https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/news/owning-1/2021-02/range-rover-dominates-list-of-most-stolen-and-recovered-cars-of-2020/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Newsletter 18 February 2021&utm_content=Newsletter 18 February 2021+CID_4950cd7b4a8b17bfe00909f0c05fd60c&utm_source=campaign monitor&utm_term=Keyless thefts account for 93 of stolen vehicles according to Tracker

The answer is no, if your wife has the key and is outside the car than the start button would not operate. There are key proximity sensors in both front doors, tailgate and centre console which triangulate the keys position and it must be within the cabin for the start switch to work

It is much safer using a HUD than looking down at the speedometer. It is also an option so you can either not buy it or turn it off 👍

Absolutely, feels like driving with handbrake halfway engaged, battery not only doesn’t help but also drags the car with the generator to produce electricity. In town driving, that can be reduced with more spirited driving style contrary to the anticipating road ahead, just slightly harder braking but keep smooth acceleration, efficiency improves and almost never you need to recharge while under acceleration as stopping harder puts back enough power. Been playing with my Priuses back in the days on London’s streets with excellent results. 🚗👌

I've rarely been able to sit behind the driver in pretty much any car I've ever been in - even bigger cars! As I currently own a Peugeot 208 I'm used to having tightish rear seating and a relatively small boot - though big enough for what I need. I've also never had a car with adjustable lumbar support so that's not something I'd miss. The new Yaris appears to tick just about every box for what I need - other than the current rather high price perhaps!

At £60, if the Halfirds is a CREK 5 badged Halfords that would be fine, if not then I would go for the CTEK 5 at £66 from Tayna, Abergele - available on line and 48 hour delivery.

Halfords do an advanced smart charger suitable for all battery types and is about £60, got top reviews. Just brought one myself for my merc and with halfords trade card price is £47. Ctek do highly recommended ones too

I stumbled across the installation details of the Toyota dealer-fit tilt sensor kit, by chance almost. Unfortunately, these type of Toyota guides rival IKEA manuals for their annoying brevity and lack of any words. There is only a RHD manual listed - which is rather telling. Anyway, this is what you get, if anyone is still interested... Tilt-Sensor_Auris2mkRHD_AIM-004-701-0.pdf