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Hidden sign your car is seconds away from costly breakdown – make key post-winter check and save yourself £100s
EXPERTS have revealed the hidden sign your car is on the verge of an eye-wateringly expensive breakdown.
Motors whizz Just Kampers have revealed new tricks to motorists to help prevent your car from letting you down as the winter chill continues to bite.
The cold months can have a big impact on your vehicle’s battery.
Car batteries use a chemical process that produces and stores electricity.
But cold weather can affect this, slowing down the key part and stopping it from holding a charge.
With all of this done, it’s time to take a look at your battery and make sure it’s still in good shape.
“Some older VWs like the T2 Bay have a bit of an infamous habit of leaking battery acid, which then corrodes the battery tray located to the side of your engine,” the expert said.
“Gnarly blueish crystals forming on the terminals, or damaged metalwork under your battery, are a sign that your vehicle’s battery might be due a replacement.
“All automotive batteries have a fixed shelf life, so try to think when yours was last replaced and whether it might be nearing the time to consider a new one.
“Your vehicles battery is a fairly major component, and having it give out on you is a massive inconvenience, even if it is relatively simple to fix.
“If you’ve disconnected your VW’s battery because it’s been in storage for the winter, then it shouldn’t have lost too much juice since then.”
Scooping a fresh car battery can set you back hundreds of pounds.
Factors such as your car’s make and model, driving style, the size and shap can all impact the price point, but motorists can usually expect to fork out between £100 and £300 for a new one, according to ProTyre.
What you can do to check your battery
The RAC recommends charging your battery once a week if your car is regularly used for short trips throughout the winter.
Halford recommends cleaning the battery often and checking its water levels.
If battery plates are exposed, it means your water level is low and needs filling with distilled water.
If you want to check to make sure your battery is still running smoothly, you can do it yourself using a multimeter or you can take it to a local garage and have a professional take a look.
If you aren’t using your car often enough during the colder periods, sporadically turn your car on, just to make sure the battery is still running.
And it’s not just your battery you need to regularly check during the colder weather to avoid a breakdown.
The RAC uses the acronym FORCES, reminding drivers to keep check of their fuel, oil, rubber, electrics and screen wash.
Most drivers will have a pretty good idea of how much fuel they have left in the tank but check it daily to make sure you have enough for your journey.
Oil is commonly forgotten about and needs checking regularly.
Double-check the wear and tear of your tyres and wiper blades to make sure they’re ready for action.
Coolant levels need to be kept an eye on so the engine doesn’t freeze.
Make sure all lights are working, it’s hazardous to be on the road with any faulty lights.
No one wants a dirty screen, so keep your screenwash nice and topped up.
If you want extra tips for checking your car over the winter period, read our six top tips to avoid breaking down.
Driving in winter conditions isn’t always easy and cars need to be kept safe against snow and ice.
Dunnes Stores fans set to love major trench coat dupe for spring – and it’s €195 cheaper
DUNNES Stores fans are set to love a major trench coat dupe after it landed on racks – and it’s €195 cheaper.
The Gallery Alexa Double Breasted Belted Trench Coat is available in stores and online now.
It is priced at €50 and comes in sizes XS to XL.
Dunnes wrote: “Crafted with impeccable attention to detail, this classic, double-breasted trench coat from Gallery features notch lapels, gleaming gold buttons, and a detachable tie belt that cinches the waist.
“Designed with a single back vent for ease of movement and adjustable button-tab cuffs for versatile styling, this fully lined coat ensures comfort and durability.
“Gallery is available exclusively at Dunnes Stores.”
The trench coat is a great dupe for the Sezane version – which is priced at €245.
The designer piece is described as a “trench coat with tie belt, raglan sleeves, button tabs at shoulders and cuffs, back slit with button.”
Meanwhile, Dunnes Stores is making it easy for shoppers to start in the gym this year – with their gorgeous activewear range.
The range features some stunning pieces including jackets, flattering leggings and additional items.
With bargain prices, shoppers are rushing to the tills to pick them up.
One shopper has tried some of the new range, and shared her opinion on social media.
TikTok user Lauren Egerton shared a short video to the platform for her followers.
In the caption of her post, she wrote: “I got a few new pieces from Dunnes Stores and I decided to wear a few of them today! These are all still available to purchase, even the rest that I showed you!”
At the beginning of the video, she can be seen wearing a luxury pair of black pyjamas from Dunnes Stores, with white lining along the edges.
The set costs just €20 in total.
Lauren said: “A very basic outfit for today, it’s only Tuesday. I’m actually off, but I might take myself somewhere nice.”
“I have new bits, they’re very basic.”
The first thing she shows off is a stunning khaki-coloured padded jacket that is perfect for the cold weather.
Holding it up, she said: “Has anyone else bought these jackets in Dunnes?”
She notes that she bought it two weeks ago in black, but went back to buy the second colour.
The Hooded Quilt Jacket comes in four colours: black, blue, khaki, and winter white.
It is available in sizes XS to XXL, and is set to fly off the shelves as it costs just €30.
In the official item description on the Dunnes Stores website, fashion chiefs wrote: “Designed in a diamond-quilted texture, this jacket has a high neck, zip pockets, dipped hems, and a hood.
“Lightweight and shower-resistant, it’s a great option for transitional weather.”
THE HISTORY OF DUNNES STORES
DUNNES Stores opened its first store on Patrick Street in Cork in 1944 - and it was an instant hit.
Shoppers from all over the city rushed to the store to snap up quality clothing at pre-war prices in Ireland’s first ‘shopping frenzy’.
During the excitement, a window was forced in and the police had to be called to help control the crowds hoping to bag founder Ben Dunne’s ‘Better Value’ bargains.
Dunnes later opened more stores in the 1950s and began to sell groceries in 1960 – starting with apples and oranges.
The retailer said: “Fruit was expensive at the time and Ben Dunne yet again offered Better Value than anyone else in town.
“Over time, our food selection has grown and that spirit of good value has remained strong.
“Now we offer a wide range of carefully-sourced foods from both local Irish suppliers and overseas.”
The retailer’s first Dublin store opened its doors in 1957 on Henry Street and a super store on South Great Georges Street was unveiled in 1960.
They added: “In 1971, our first Northern Irish store opened, and many others soon followed.
“Expansion continued in the 1980s in Spain, and later into Scotland and England.”
Dunnes now has 142 stores and employs 15,000 people.
Man, 39, sentenced to life imprisonment over murder of Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch’s nephew as mum slams ‘callous crime’
THE mother of Gareth Hutch has told how her son’s murder in an ambush outside his home over eight years ago was “a violent and callous crime with no value or thought given for a life”.
In a statement read out at a sentencing hearing for the fourth person to be convicted of the murder of Gerard ‘The Monk’ Hutch’s nephew Gareth Hutch, Vera Hutch said her son was “senselessly and cruelly taken” from her family in May 2016, tearing her life apart and changing their world “forever”.
Having heard the victim impact statement from Mrs Hutch, in the Special Criminal Court, presiding judge Mr Justice Alexander Owens sentenced Thomas ‘Nicky’ McConnell to the mandatory term of life imprisonment, backdating it to July 20 2020, when he was taken into custody by Turkish authorities and then extradited back to Ireland.
Last December, McConnell became the fourth person to be found guilty of the murder of Mr Hutch in an ambush in Dublin over eight years ago, following a verdict by the Special Criminal Court.
Revealing the verdict of the three-judge court last month, Mr Justice Owens said that the evidence showed, beyond reasonable doubt, that McConnell was the second assassin in the attack along with Jonathan Keogh, who followed Gareth Hutch from his home and shot him dead.
When passing judgement the court found that Keogh’s gun discharged a number of bullets at close range that caused the injuries which killed Mr Hutch.
McConnell’s gun was later found to have the safety catch on and did not fire any rounds during the assassination.
However, the court found that even if McConnell deliberately left the safety catch on, his other actions in preparation for the shooting showed that he was part of a common design with Keogh and others to commit murder and his actions were intended to result in Mr Hutch’s death.
Vera Hutch, whose victim impact statement was read to the court by Detective Garda Liam Lee, said she had the “privilege and honour of being Gareth’s mother for over 35 years before he was senseless and cruelly taken from” his family.
She said: “Standing here in front of you today with my life torn apart, our world changed forever. Losing Gareth has caused my heart and all our families hearts to be broken, nothing can ever repair the emptiness that his death has caused.”
At today’s sitting of the non-jury court, Det Gda Lee told prosecution counsel Fiona Murphy SC that McConnell has 105 previous convictions including those for assault, threatening to kill and causing serious harm as well as possession of knives.
McConnell, 39, of Sillogue Gardens, Ballymun, Dublin 11 had pleaded not guilty to the murder of Gareth Hutch, 36, on May 24, 2016 at Avondale House, North Cumberland Street, Dublin 1.
FOURTH PERSON CONVICTED
He is the fourth person to be convicted of the murder. In November 2018 the Special Criminal Court found Regina Keogh, 47, of Cumberland St North, Dublin 1, Jonathan Keogh, 39, with an address at Gloucester Place, Dublin 1 and Thomas Fox, 32, with an address at Rutland Court, Dublin 1 guilty of the murder of Mr Hutch.
McConnell’s trial began in 2023 but was postponed for 16 months, firstly when one of the judges was unable to continue and then as the court awaited a Supreme Court ruling in a separate case.
McConnell’s trial continued after the Supreme Court found in that case that traffic and location data relating to mobile phones could be used as evidence, even though the data was harvested using a now-invalidated law.
The trial heard that McConnell and Jonathan Keogh used an apartment opposite Gareth Hutch’s home as a lookout spot and when Mr Hutch emerged from his front door, they followed him and shot him dead.
Mary McDonnell, who lived at the lookout apartment, told the trial in June 2023 that she could identify Jonathan Keogh because she had known him for many years but she did not know the second man.
When asked to identify the second man from CCTV footage showing Mr McConnell in a shop later the same day, she said she was “not really one hundred per cent” and that she was “half and half”.
COURT EVIDENCE
Mr Justice Owens said last month that Ms McDonnell’s evidence could not be used to prove McConnell was the second gunman.
The court instead relied on mobile phone data linking McConnell to the other murder plotters, CCTV footage connecting McConnell to various vehicles used in the plot, and lies told by the accused to gardai that were indicative of guilt.
In particular, the court was satisfied that McConnell parked a black BMW in front of Avondale House with the intention of using it as the getaway car. Following the shooting, Keogh and McConnell got into the BMW but could not get it started.
They then ran to a Skoda Octavia, which the court said had also been parked nearby by McConnell that morning. They left the scene in the Octavia.
When gardai searched the BMW, they found McConnell’s DNA, a can of petrol and two changes of clothes that prosecution counsel Fiona Murphy SC said marked it out as a getaway car. McConnell would later lie to gardai that he had sold the BMW to a man who was similar looking to himself.
Mr Justice Owens said this “yarn” was told to hide McConnell’s guilty role in the murder plot.
In reaching its verdict, the court relied on further lies told by the accused and emails on a phone linked to McConnell which showed he had an “intimate knowledge of the murder”.
Dad who claimed he was ‘play-fighting’ with daughter, 14, when he stabbed her to death in kitchen is GUILTY of murder
A DAD who claimed he was “play-fighting” with his 14-year-old daughter when he stabbed her to death has been found guilty of murder.
Scarlett Vickers suffered catastrophic blood loss after the blade was plunged 11cm into her chest and pierced her heart.
Her dad Simon Vickers, 50, has been found guilty of murdering his teen daughter at their home in Darlington, Co Durham, on July 5.
The monster claimed he and Scarlett were just “messing about” when he accidentally threw the blade at her.
But Teesside Crown Court heard the 11cm wound was too deep to have been a tragic mistake.
The heartless dad also attempted to claim that he was the victim after his daughter died in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor.
After his arrest, Vickers told police: “That was it. We were horse-playing.
“I must be the unluckiest man in the world.”
Vickers claimed the playfight started when he and Scarlett began throwing grapes at each other while mum Sarah Hall made dinner.
He said he went to “try and get her” but his daughter tried to push him away so he grabbed the tongs and chucked them.
The dad continued: “She just shouted ‘ah, ah ah’ and fell to the floor.
“Her lips were going bluer and she wasn’t listening when I was shouting at her.
“Sarah took over and the ambulance came and, f***ing hell.”
Vickers described his only child as the “love of my life” and told police his world had “gone to s***”.
He also denied telling paramedics at the scene that he picked up a knife and that it “just went in” after Scarlett “lunged towards me”.
The dad added: “There is no way in the world I would stab my child. I threw those tongs at her.
“I want to die myself. My only child – I don’t know what to say. I can’t even cry. I don’t even know what’s wrong.”
The court heard the dad gave “three different accounts at least before his formal police interview” of what happened.
Prosecutor Mark McKone KC said Vickers must have stabbed his daughter “deliberately with the knife”.
He told jurors the injury inflicted to Scarlett “could not have been caused by throwing the knife or indeed by throwing anything else.”
During her evidence, Scarlett’s mum Sarah Hall said she believed it was an accident and her partner of 27 years would never harm their daughter.
Vickers, who denied murder, has been remanded into custody to be sentenced at a later date.
Map shows where Britain’s most dangerous drivers lurk with hotspot sparking hundreds of crashes – does your region rank?
AN INTERACTIVE tool showing where Britain’s most DANGEROUS drivers lurk has revealed the hotpot sparking hundred of crashes.
More than 5,700 crime reports of dangerous driving were logged by cops between 2022 to June 2024.
New data from the Home Office includes 830 offences that caused a death or serious injury.
Since 2022, the number of crimes causing death or serious injury has increased by 12 per cent.
This has revealed Bradford to be ‘the dangerous driving capital’ of England and Wales with 1,039 driving offences.
Of those incidents, 39 resulted in a death or serious injury.
Nipping on its heels is the West Yorkshire borough of Calderdale which recorded 302 offences.
Bradford’s neighbour, Leeds, ranked third on the list.
Dangerous driving is used to describe a motorist’s actions falling “far below the minimum standard expected of a competent and careful driver”.
This means that they could not only be putting themselves at risk but also others.
From speeding to driving aggressively, those behind the wheel could be carrying out any number of risky behaviour.
These include overtaking dangerously, ignoring traffic lights, driving under the influence or when unfit to do so.
POTENTIAL LIMIT LASH
This comes amid reports that the drink-drive limit could be reduced for the first time in 60 years, with newly qualified drivers facing even harsher punishments.
New rules could see motorists judged as being over the drink-driving limit after just one pint, if the government takes on board police chiefs’ calls for changes to the law.
A report by the Daily Mail claims that the National Police Chiefs’ Council, the British Medical Association, and the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners want to cut the current alcohol limits for motorists.
The current limit, which was set in 1967, stands at 80 milligrams per 100ml of blood—roughly the equivalent of two pints of lager.
However, campaigners are now calling for the limit to be lowered, claiming that the number of drink-driving deaths has risen to 18 per cent of all road fatalities, according to new figures.
As a result, campaigners want to reduce the limit in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland to 50mg per 100ml of blood—roughly one pint of medium-strength beer.
This would match the rules currently in place in Scotland, which already has tougher drink-drive limits of 50mg per 100ml of blood and 22mcg per 100ml of breath.
Jo Shiner, the Chief Constable of Sussex Police and the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s roads policing lead, said: “In policing, we see the damaging impact of drink and drug driving all too often, and every fatality or serious injury that happens as a consequence of this is completely avoidable.
Top ten most dangerous areas
- Bradford
- Calderdale
- Leeds
- Bolton
- Rochdale
- Wakefield
- Tameside
- Salford
- Kirklees
- Manchester
“Driving under the influence of drink or drugs will not be tolerated, and we support the BMA’s call for lowering the legal blood alcohol limit.
“In addition to our current powers, we will also continue to make the case for more effective legislation that enables faster interim disqualifications for those who fail roadside tests.”
Joy Allen and David Sidwick, the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners’ addictions and substance misuse leads, added: “Too many families have been devastated by the consequences of drink-driving, with around 300 people dying each year in collisions where a driver is over the limit.
“Even minimal alcohol consumption can significantly impair a driver’s judgement and their ability to react quickly.
“If we are to save lives and make our roads safer for everyone, we must convey the message that any amount of alcohol before driving is dangerous.”
Moreover, lobbyists from anti-alcohol pressure groups and the BMA, the doctors’ trade union, have joined the calls to lower the drink-driving limit.
The BMA also urged harsher limits on drivers who are within two years of passing their test, suggesting they be limited to a 20mg/100ml limit.
This would effectively prevent them from drinking at all before driving.
Крихкі відносини, що змінять світ: The Times розкрила, як Трамп може переграти Путіна
Відносини Дональда Трампа з авторитарними лідерами давно викликають жваві обговорення. Від його похвали Сі Цзіньпіну (“Я вважаю його другом… Він сильний хлопець, жорсткий хлопець”) до взаємної симпатії з Кім Чен Ином (“Я йому подобався… мені він дуже сподобався”). Однак найбільше уваги й здогадок завжди викликали його періодичні взаємини з Володимиром Путіним, пише The Times. З […]Захисники з берегової оборони майстерно знищують техніку російської армії. ВІДЕО
Транспорт є важливою ланкою логістики в армії. Тому кожна уражена вантажівка або легкова автівка – це удар по можливостям окупантів забезпечувати своє загарбницьке військо. Вдалу роботу воїнів 40 окремої бригади берегової оборони показали в Telegram-каналі ВМС ЗСУ.
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