Ours was just above the "low" mark when we got it; a quick top up and it has been fine ever since.

Something you will only do once: leave chocolate in the centre console cubby hole!

Gloop, gloop...

I was gobsmacked as to how puny the wire for the sockets is behind the fusebox; I spent ages thinking I must have a fusebox wired up differently! I was expecting something thin after reading posts on here but not that thin. I've hacked a few LED bike lights together that use less than an amp and ...

I haven't got a picture but basically it's just a few bits plugged in to the front of the fusebox to make the "protected" side of the sockets fuse come from the always-on supply to fuse 1 instead . A wire with an inline fuse is used to replace fuse 1 with a couple of flat speaker connectors that ...

As a temporary-ish measure I've just done a spot of patching to make the sockets live all the time; I've effectively moved the supply of fuse 8 from the ignition switched supply to the always-on supply from fuse 1 with a couple of wire loops with inline fuses. It certainly does the trick although ...

Bend a corner up slightly and fashion it into a discreet bottle opener?

If I remember rightly from the chap who did mine an "average" car with "average" seals will lose 100g of gas a year just because no seal is perfect, even if the system is used regularly to circulate the oil.

Easy - Crap wiring and/or bad connections.

Rear one is usually lowest voltage as it is at the end of a long thin wire.
That's all I could think of, and I'll certainly be having a look at replacing the wires and joints, but I'm still a bit uneasy about the "why" - as I understand it just a ...

I bought a little battery monitor gadget the other day that plugs into a cigarette lighter socket. I plugged it in the front socket and it told me the battery was dead! Plugged into the rear however it reports it is fully charged.

A bit of investigation reveals that with nothing plugged in to ...

I have a little Belkin one (150W, IIRC) I use for charging phones, laptops and bike batteries; it does the job nicely and nothing has exploded, melted or caught fire so far.

My only gripe is that the thing is supposed to cut out before completely flattening the battery; I started carrying jumpleads ...

We fitted one recently; the tailgate holds its own weight when fully up or even anywhere in between, so it's much better at it than my old Focus was - I'd sometimes forget about the bike rack, give the lid a quick shove to bring it gently down only for the thing to go much faster than anticipated ...

As someone who used to live nearby the West Midlands Safari Park is blummin' excellent - both "halves" would be a great day out on their own, never mind both.

Even better is that you get a pass for the same number of people to return in the same car up to six months (I think) later, so you can ...

A semi-related aside:

I took my Focus to Kwikfit (I keep calling it Kwiksave, bah!) to get the aircon regassed; they would have charged £45 but the system had a leak so they didn't do anything but recommended I get an aircon specialist to look at it.

Fearing a massive hit on the wallet I called a ...

Cor, at this rate we'd better get a move on or there'll be no Bongos left!

'Twas nice to meet everyone. I have never seen so many Bongos in one place!!!

Efforts to get one of our own must be redoubled...

Phil