Thursday 13 June 2013

Pension Scam Text SMS Messages

Have you received a text message SMS

Sunday 9 June 2013

VW Passat TDI140 Sport Remap Long Term review

We've now had our VW Passat TDI140 Sport remapped for over 2 years so it seems an appropriate time to write a long term review of how it is performing.

The remap was applied to our VW Passat TDI Sport by Angel Tuning at a mileage of 122,000 and we have now covered 132,000 so over 10k miles with the remap fitted. Some advise that remaps should not be fitted to high mileage cars but we have not experienced any problems although we are very careful to service regularly with oil changes every 10,000 miles. Any issues at the current mileage of 132,000 could be equally attributed to normal wear and tear than any negative impact from the remap. Since the remap VW have issued a recall for the Passat Injectors so all 4 injectors have been replaced under this meaning that we have brand new injectors although the car had covered 125,000 miles at the time!
VW Passat TDI140 Sport Remap Long Term review
VW Passat TDI140 Sport Remap Long Term review
Probably the best thing about remapping the Passat TDI is how much more fun it makes the car to drive. The overtaking on motorways and A roads is effortless; pulling out from junctions to major roads requiring rapid acceleration is great and the whole driving experience is improved. The VW Passat TDI140 Sport is one of the most comfortable cars as a driver or passenger and the remap complements this comfort with impressive acceleration.

The fuel consumption is improved following the remapping of the Passat TDI 140. The long term average is approx 48mpg which is around 1-2 mpg more than before the remap. The consumption on long journeys is the most impressive and can exceed 60 mpg. Interestingly the higher MPG figures are not really dependent on moderating speed, the 60MPG is actually achieved doing 70 mph on the motorway with marginally lower MPG at 60-65mph.

The only real negative that I have found is from increased tyre wear. The front tyres are now wearing in under 20,000 miles and with the low profile 17" alloys these are not cheap to replace. At £125 a tyre this is a lot more than our Golf but is a small price to pay for the improved experience and performance. The remap does encourage more spirited driving which could explain the faster wear as the engine pushes the increased torque through the wheels.

VW Passat B6 Estate Rear wiper arm Removal and replacement

Replacing the rear wiper arm on the VW Passat B6 Estate can be a tricky job as the metal nut in the centre of the plastic wiper arm can become corroded onto the retaining bolt. Even using WD40 doesn't free it and the only solution was to use a hacksaw to cut the nut off allowing the new wiper arm to be fitted.


Friday 7 June 2013

VW Golf TDI 130 Remap Long Term Review

We've now had our VW Golf TDI remapped for nearly 3 years so it seems an appropriate time to write a long term review of how it is performing.
 
The remap was applied to our VW Golf Mark 4 TDI 130 by Angel Tuning at a mileage of 152,000 and we have now covered 190,000 so almost 40k miles with the remap fitted. Some advise that remaps should not be fitted to high mileage cars but we have not experienced any problems although we are very careful to service regularly with oil changes every 10,000 miles. Any issues at the current mileage of 190,000 could be equally attributed to normal wear and tear than any negative impact from the remap.
 
Probably the best thing about remapping the Golf TDI is how much more fun it makes the car to drive. The overtaking on motorways and A roads is effortless; pulling out from junctions to major roads requiring rapid acceleration is great and the whole driving experience is improved. The Golf TDI 130 is one of the most comfortable cars to seat in as a driver and the remap complements this comfort with impressive acceleration.
 
The fuel consumption is improved following the remapping of the Golf TDI. The long term average is approx 50mpg which is around 1-2 mpg more than before the remap. The consumption on long journeys is the most impressive and can exceed 60 mpg. Interestingly the higher MPG figures are not really dependent on moderating speed, the 60MPG is actually achieved doing 70 mph on the motorway with marginally lower MPG at 60-65mph.
 
The only real negative that I have found is from increased tyre wear. The front tyres are now wearing in around 20,000 miles compared to around 30,000 before the remap. At £60 a tyre this is still a very cheap replacement compared to many other cars and is a small price to pay for the improved experience and performance. The remap does encourage more spirited driving which could explain the faster wear as the engine pushes the increased torque through the wheels.

VW Golf TDI 130 Remap Long Term Review
VW Golf TDI 130 Remap Long Term Review
For a period we also experienced clutch slip at around 2000 rpm with the Golf TDI which is apparently the peak torque output. However this now seems to have subsided and is currently not an issue. It may be partly weather related as higher temperatures now summer has arrived the clutch slip that was apparent during winter months does not present a problem.

Wednesday 5 June 2013

Brand Registration Confirmation scam

Brand Registration Confirmation scam.


A familiar scam is still doing the rounds, this time labelled as a brand registration confirmation from China.

The same old story though that when you reply you get offered to buy the domains in question for a hugely inflated price.

In the UK you can buy .co.uk domains for £2.99 per year and .com for £5.99. These Brand Registration Confirmation rip off merchants are charging as much as $540 for the same thing and giving a variety of domains to register for you.

You will pay an inflated price and may end up as owner of a selection of Chinese or Asian domains that are of no use to you unless you plan to trade in China. Do you care if a Chinese company is using a similar name?

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Email received titled Brand Registration Confirmation
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From: Tony Xu [mailto:tony@dg-solutions.cn]
Sent: 05 June 2013 06:11
Subject: URGENT  Brand Registration Confirmation
Importance: High

(Letter to the President or Brand Owner, thanks)

Dear President,

We are the department of Asian Domain Registration Service in China. I have something to confirm with you. We formally received an application on June 5, 2013 that a company which self-styled "QUV Global Limited" were applying to register "your-domain" as their  Brand Name and some domain names through our firm.

Now we are handling this registration, and after our initial checking, we found the name were similar to your company's, so we need to check with you whether your company has authorized that company to register these names. If you authorized this, we will finish the registration at once. If you did not authorize, please let us know within 7 workdays, so that we will handle this issue better. Out of the time limit we will unconditionally finish the registration for "QUV Global Limited".Looking forward to your prompt reply.

Best Regards,

Tony Xu