Just thought I would give some feedback ona big round trip I have just done from near Beziers in the south of France to Bergamo, northern Italy via Cannes/Nice outward and Grenoble (the Alps) on return - just over 1000 miles.

This was the first long haul trip I have done in this car and was a good test. The work previously done to replace the rear UJ on the prop, rear diff mount and VCU plus support bearings last year all proved worthwhile. I had a vibration-free trip travelling constantly around 130 kph. The air con worked a treat (topped up before leaving) and kept us sane in what was at times classic August traffic!

The only wear and tear seems to be on the power steering which has been losing fluid for a long time and seems now to be playing up a bit on parking (jerky) - air in system or I need a new pump (diy job?)

One other quirky thing I noticed was that the sat nav was giving me speeds around 10 per cent lower than the speedo. Is this normal or is there ia ratio problem somewhere (gearbox? wheels?). Doesn't affect the running but I am just curious!

Gareth

My understanding is that your speedo is often more "optimistic" than the Sat Nav, mainly due to the vehicle manufacturers penchant for beefing up performance figures.

Speedos 'should' read higher than actual speed, the tolerances are -0 to +5% I believe, or something -) +arbitrary number ..

ie, speedo reads 70, actual speed (Sat nav speed) would be something like 65. Sat Navs should be quite a bit more accurate thana vehicle speedo.

Nothing to do with manufacturers and performance figures, as such, it's a legal standard somewhere, a speedo should not under-read at all.

Thanks for the clarification. I would say that my 10 per cent difference is a bit excessive but it is difficult to be exact! Are sat nav systems always 100 per cent accurate in terms of speed?

gareth123 said:

Thanks for the clarification. I would say that my 10 per cent difference is a bit excessive but it is difficult to be exact! Are sat nav systems always 100 per cent accurate in terms of speed?

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Not necessarily, but they _are_ more accurate than a car speedo but more importantly will be telling you true calculated speed, not the speed with an arbitrary 'tolerance built in'.