Servicing my E350CDi

I didn't find it very noisy, but then I'm not a frequent flyer and I don't think I've flown in much that's very modern yet. Airline was called Meridiana, it had a big hangar at Olbia, so perhaps it's some local specialist which got hived off from Al Italia or something - I'd never heard of them before. When we booked the holiday we were told it was a BA flight and it did have a BA flight number, code share or whatever it's called I suppose.

>>BA flight number

If it has 4 digits, then its someone else's service.

Flying to Sydney, Al, there's every chance you'll fly Emirates (usually the best prices). You might get the pleasure of travelling on the A380 double decker. That's a remarkably quiet plane. Shame it looks like the world's airlines are turning their back on them in favour of tein-engined hulls...

Back to tyres, Continental SportContact come in 3 and 5 flavours and probably more since. My Volvo S60 came with 3's on from the factory and can do about 20,000miles on an axle, the 5's you can half that range. I'd suggest Michelin or Good Year, I'm going for Goodyear on the Volvo next time, I tried Hankook not very happy with them, very stiff and noisy.
As for brake fluid change, anything between 2 and 4 years I think is about right. The Volvo with torque vector braking is heavier on rear brakes than fronts. Rear brakes this time lasted 15,000 miles (less than the mileage interval between services - 18,000) with me using the middle pedal very sparingly. The car has 66,000 miles on the clock, still on the original front discs, original front pads were changed at 49,000 miles with the rear pads and rear discs. I suspect the rear pads had already been changed when I bought the car at 24,000 miles.

As ever, it depends on your use. I've got a colleague in the US who has a Mustang which comes on their equivalent of all season tyres. He doesn't rate that kind of tyre, they are neither summer tyres nor winter tyres but a compromise.
I tried a Hankook 4S tyre a few years ago on my wife's MPV. My own view back then was it was about 85-90% winter tyre. For the UK it will probably be fine unless you live on top of the Pennines or in Scotland up a road which never gets gritted. What I have found is if you use Winter tyres in very hot weather they do not seem to grip as well the following winter.
Is that due to the tyre wear over the summer or the change in the structure of the rubber due to the heat ? I'm not a scientist paid to take these things apart.

I'm off to change the summer air to winter air in my tyres.



Toodle pip :-)

In my experience, the extra buys you Michelin longevity - in my experience a third better than Pirelli or Continental. The E has had four CrossClimates since the week after the referendum. (Replaced the rear set a millimetre early before the pound:dollar collapse could bite.) I can say very little about them, except that they're still there and they've done everything I needed them to do.  I can't really comment on winter performance because we scarcely had a winter last time round, but it's been nice to know it was probably there if we did need it. I'd certainly use them again on a mainstream car - but the E is leaving us this week, and there are currently no CrossClimate options for the CLS or the i3.