Choppa

These are the people in the UK who do the tags for the French motorways. It is kind of sweet when you are in a UK reg'd car and sweep past loads of EU reg'd cars in the queues, especially with the tool booths that allow you to drive through at up to 20mph without stopping. https://www.emovis-tag.co.uk/

My single drive to the alps wasn't nearly so eventful, nothing fell off, nothing broke and the car behaved impeccably. However travelling through France you'll need to carry a few bits of "stuff" to keep the French police happy if they choose to stop you however you go. The motoring organisations will give you a complete list but off the top of my head you'll need a couple of breathalyzers, Hi Viz jackets for each passenger, plus if you are driving up to a ski resort during the season they will insist on you having snow chains and that you fit them when required. Kneeling in an icey puddle

TOOLS EXPLAINED DRILL PRESS : A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, denting the freshly-painted project which you had carefully set in the corner where nothing could get to it. WIRE WHEEL : Cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench with the speed of light. Also removes fingerprints and hard-earned calluses from fingers in about the time it takes you to say, 'Oh sh*t' DROP SAW : A portable cutting tool used to make studs to

That's different to mine. The headlight switch has a small bulb fitted in a holder behind the green illumination window which comes on with the ignition. The fiber optics wires run from that light box to the illumination windows on the other switches in the dash but not the window switches.

The window switches on my S3 N/A are identical and don't have bulb holders for illumination either. From the photos neither do yours. As per Henry's post if I were ever after doing this job, rather than running copper to them I'd fit a couple of extra strands of optic fibre from the central light box for the switch illumination behind the dash down to the window switches and make some sort of holders to keep the fibre in place at either end. While I was at it I'd probably fit a much brighter green LED bulb in that light box as well

When I fitted the LED headlamp bulbs on mine I had two of the Cibie lamp units re-silvered by these guys. http://www.chromerestorationspecialist.co.uk/services/headlamp-re-silvering/ Not a cheap options but worth it IMO to pass the MOT and to retain the original look. The company did a fine job, and all done and returned in a couple of (pre-lockdown) weeks. The problem for refurbishing these Cibie lamp units and maybe units like yours is that they have to split the glass lens from the reflector before they can do the re-silvering and that comes with a breakage risk and an ext

Do your car have the Thermal Trip switch fitted under the bonnet? P/N A082M6196F On my S3 N/A L/C its under the bonnet on the LHS of the "frunk" Mine has a little red button on the top of the little black box which is marked Otter. I've never had to touch that button but I think the device is supposed to sense if a radiator fan has failed and stops them running until the red button is reset (and presumably you've sorted the problem with the fan). Maybe the problem is around that?

I don't know anyone who has fitted those PNM units. However me @Chillidoggyand a couple of others on here have fitted LED headlamp bulbs from Classic Car LEDs in the original lens units of our cars and have seen a fantastic improvement in the beam quality. They supply top quality lamps not the cheaper bulbs you find on ebay and are very helpful. Mine has the Cibie dipped beam units which are no longer available and the silver coating was starting to flake away so I did think about the PNM units briefly but I decided against because I think I would have had to replace the mounting plates in

@Bazza 907Sorry Barrie @LOTUSMAN33just beat you to it. If Dave changes his mind about wanting it I'll let you know

There is a capacitor across the brake switch on my S3 to stop the interference you are talking about but it doesn't look like that. It's item #12 on the diagram P/N A074M6008Z Capacitor 1uF stop switch. No idea what the markings on the capacitor in your photo mean. It doesn't look in very good condition and it can't have been doing anything if it was in the passenger footwell! Maybe it was wired across the brake switch, removed at some point and never replaced hence the noise .

I think Fab's wife might have something to say about that!

Looking at the photo It may be just dirt on the contacts and the switch is actually OK. Also inside the boot there are some black earth wires for the reversing lights with bullet connectors on the ends that might need a clean. I suggest you clean those, them pull off both spade connectors from the switch and give them and the terminals on the switch a good clean with emery paper or something similar. If you want you could also gently use a wire brush to clean up the body of the switch. To test after cleaning and reconnecting the wires, turn the ignition on but don't start the car, put it in

@BibsI think quite a few of us do something like that each time we start them.

Just been out and counted them and there are 18 LEDs in the strip attached to the underside of my glove box and that is the perfect length with no excess strip dangling around. You get 6 LEDs per 10 cm so I must have fitted a 30cm strip on each side and I was totally wrong when I said earlier that the strip I fitted had 9 LEDs, sorry, I did get the length right though!

@skiingThese are the people I got my LED strips from. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LED-STRIP-LIGHTS-5050-KITS-FOR-ALL-CARS-LOOK-GREAT-IN-FOOTWELLS-AND-SILLS/141905622917?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649