- entry 2025/06/08

Central locking

Long story short, there were two interconnecting problems. The first problem was the controller. I had thought to replace the battery with a new one, but something that is apparently a known issue with the controller is that the contact between the battery holder and the board not only oxidises but gets less springy over time. So with a clean screwdriver he gently scratched the metal so it made a better contact, and bent the pins out slightly to press more firmly.

I might have thought of that had the controller just stopped working, but the thing was the internal buttons that were not part of the controller also stopped working. This seems to have been cured indirectly.

The OBD2 port reported a "continuity fault". After a lot of prodding and poking around with a multimeter, the mechanic noticed that the negative terminal to the 12V battery was not very tight. So he tightened it up. A lot.

Then he went into the car and turned the ignition on and off rapidly five times, leaving it on the final time. This puts the locking system into programming mode, and possibly resets everything as a side effect. A quick press of the unlock key, and the fob was associated, the thing reset, and all was well. It's been working since then.

So a relatively simple pair of problems to fix. Luckily it wasn't the controller, or the dashboard, or the wiring harness or anything in the doors like the lock position sensor. Just two poor connections.

Also luckily it seems to have crashed the locking system before anything more serious happened. For example, if the vibrations had caused the battery terminal to have come undone, I probably wouldn't have noticed anything until I stopped and turned the car off as it would be running from the 12V convertor off the main 48V battery - though I suspect there's enough going on inside that it might have started blinking a battery icon at me? However, from that point on the car would be entirely dead as it needs the dashboard and battery management running (off of 12V) to wake up and engage the traction battery.
When you turn the key to the second (on) position, the battery level meter goes up and down the scale as a self-test and then there's a loud click as the traction battery comes on line. The meter then reads the capacity of the traction battery.
I would probably be able to diagnose and fix this pretty quickly as nothing would work. No dashboard, no lights, no radio, zip. Which means battery fault (rather than a blown fuse, as a fuse would take out certain things but not everything).

Still, getting battery warnings or dealing with a dodo car are not good for the mind, so if an iffy connection crashes the locking system and that's how it got discovered, fine by me.

It also means if this happens again to check the battery and the contacts... both in the car and in the key fob.

Shopping

Following that I walked around the big Leclerc supermarket. It was a kind of a chilly day which was good for bringing cold food home. I got... stuff. Meals for work, that felt significantly less expensive than my regular supermarket (though I've not checked the receipts to see), and of course some Cathedral City because I clearly felt that I didn't have enough in my fridge already. And some cheap crappy Eco+ (budget range) knock-off Twix bars that actually aren't bad...because I find the price of proper branded chocolate bars in multipacks to be horrific these days.

Then a visit to Picard of course. That was mostly for Buddha Bowl which I quite like, but I put in some other stuff like the much loved raspberry tart. I also like cheesecake but at something like fifteen euros I find it shockingly expensive. The raspberry tart is half that!

The journey back was a little more fraught. By now the crazies were up and about. But I made it home, something like 85-90 kilometres and two shops later, by quarter to noon. I then put my clothes in the washing machine, then outside, then back inside as the heavens opened. Got a soaking feeding kitty at 6pm, and next thing I know I was lying in bed thinking of how much I did before noon and the complete eff-all I did afterwards.

A bit like today. As I write this it's half four. And... I did what? I mean, I don't mind exactly, I have nothing planned, but it's a bit annoying to look at the clock and realise that it's bedtime in six hours. Excuse me, what? How?

Why I never knew how fast Caoimhe could go

So why not me? I mean, I'm a guy right? Isn't this sort of nonsense practically a rite of passage?

Maybe. But something more important than measuring penis size by the noise of throttling a two stroke Kubuto diesel mower engine is not dying.

To put all of this into perspective, allow me to present a photo I took from a magazine in the dealership called "Génération VSP". It shows the build process of these little cars.

This is what's underneath the bodywork of an Aixam.
Photo © Génération VSP.

That's the frame that the body of the car is based upon. The engine section is added to the front later. It is welded aluminium. Not steel. Why? Because legally these cars count as quadricycles, so they have to respect a certain weight limit. 400kg without occupant (electric) or 425kg (diesel) with a maximum laden weight of 650kg (electric, 675kg for diesel). This is also why the car lacks typical safety features such as airbags or refinements like power steering, despite the high cost of the cars. These things add weight. Too much weight is a no-go. If it seems like there's plenty of leeway, two adults could easily add 120-150kg leaving only 50-70kg for everything else. I bring home six six-packs of bottled water, that is six times six times a litre and a half...or fifty four kilograms. Say fifty five to include all packaging. That, plus two adults, plus milk and tins of soup and all the other weekly shop stuff and guess what - you're over the limit. Though, to be honest, all of that I'd like to see how well it can make it up a hill. ☺

On to the aluminium frame is glued pieces of thermoformed ABS plastic. There's a good reason that I refer to this as a Playmobil car.

Suffice to say, getting into a crash would be bad news. Whether hitting or being hit by something, or losing control and hitting something. Going at a sedate 45kph(ish) ought to give one enough time to see what is going on and react accordingly. Sure, it isn't a guarantee, but it's going to be a lot better than doing nearly eighty - especially if the problem is that you suffer a catastrophic engine or gearbox failure at those speeds, with a front wheel drive vehicle that does not weigh much but has a fair bit of forward trajectory and front wheels that don't want to play any more.

Doing stuff outdoors

Once I had done that, I repaired the wind vane of my weather station, that had been out of service for years. Set it upright again with a new piece of wood and some WD40 to get the cups spinning smoothly.

A resurrected wind sensor.

Maybe some day I'll also repair the rain sensor. This is harder because of three things. Firstly the socket where it plugs in is broken (thanks to a bug deciding it would make a good home), secondly I'm not sure if the wiring is intact, rodents do like chewing it, and finally the reed switch corroded. I did fit a replacement but it never seemed to work reliably. It might require a bit more work to get everything properly aligned.

Edamame

Cheesy hash browns with soy beans.

I fear, however, that these sorts of opportunities (American style food, that is) may be harder to find in the future. Just a few weeks back Lidl stocked their Mcennedy range of American foods, like they do from time to time. I only happened to spot it as I was passing looking for something else. There was nothing in their online brochure or website. Why? Well, let's just say pro-America sentiment is getting harder to find. Mmmm, I wonder why? 🤔

Your comments:

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A tree-dwelling mammal, 9th June 2025, 17:04

It isn't penis size. That sort of bravado is measured by the size of one's testes. Right area though.    But you make a good point. The first car I had after I passed my test was a Mk3 Ford Fiesta. Downhill with a tail wind, I could get this up to an indicated 108mph if I had a long enough run. Checking this against GPS showed I was actually doing 102mph.    Let me tell you this. In a 1995 Fiesta with a 1.1 litre engine, 100mph is BLOODY SCARY. The car felt like it was going to shake itself to pieces. One false move on the steering and it felt like I'd have been either on the hard shoulder and up the bank, or bouncing off the Armco on the central reservation.    As for stopping from those speeds, this is a car with fairly skinny tyres (165/65R13 if memory serves), drum brakes on the rear, and although the front had discs, they weren't particularly big (7 inch discs from memory). No ABS either, so stopping it was a case of 'press the middle pedal and hope!'.    So getting a car with 49bhp up to 100mph required some help from gravity. Getting it from 100mph back to a standstill required nothing much to be in front of you, and a good dose of luck.    That was over 2 decades ago. Ever since then I've been driving something big and German (apart from the brief period where I had a Ford Mondeo, which actually was a quite excellent car). But memories of driving what's generally known as a 'puddle jumper' are etched into my mind.

jgh, 9th June 2025, 18:33

I learned and passed my driving test in 2010 in a Rover 2.6. God, it drank petrol! It hovered around 25mpg. When it finally died (the MOT report went to four pages), I got a little 1.2 automatic Corsa.    There's part of the M1 as it passes Barnsley going south where the road just curves gently, as it slopes gently down a hill... so gently that you don't realise gravity is assisting you. The first time I tootled down there in the 1.2L Corsa after four years of driving the Rover Tank, I glanced at the speedo and saw I was doing 95. Eek!

A tree-dwelling mammal, 10th June 2025, 08:53

jgh - to be fair to the Fiesta, it wasn't too bad on fuel. Did between 40 and 45mpg.    The second car was an Audi A3 with a 1.8 engine. Pressing the loud pedal the same distance as in the Fiesta, I'd be doing 90. Completely relatable.    I've had mostly Audis ever since (had a Mondeo at one point, then a Golf with the same 1.8 engine as the A3). Currently driving a 2014 A4 Quattro with full leather interior, 2 litre diesel, and even if I drive it like I stole it (which I don't nowadays, at 47 I'm getting too old for that!) I still get ~45mpg.

jgh, 11th June 2025, 02:12

45mpg is ideal, as 4.5L is one gallon, so the maths is perfect, 1 litre is ten miles, so I fill up the tank with "300 miles" of petrol. :)

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