[nudge]

Hiya Just got myself a Parrot bluetooth handsfree piece of kit. First off its excellent!! simple to install and so simple to operate. Also when working with the TOM TOM on my mobile it mutes the stereo and belts out TURN LEFT or whatever!!

On another note though, have found then when on the phone the speedo dies and it treats the car like its not moving if you know what I mean ;) yet when the call is ended the speedo works and the mileage continues! I was wondering if anyone else has had this problem? Or whether its just my car!!

[whatleydude]

What car you got dude?

[Hands0n]

There is a lot of this going on these days, EMI is getting to be a very real problem in the automotive industry. I wonder if they don't test their motor electronics shielding as thorougly as once they did. There used to be a place in the UK, iirc the only one in the country, that had a special room where they could subject kit to all kinds of EMI to see if it would be affected. The waiting times were long, and the fees high.

I had a 53-reg Ford Fiesta that used to throw up all sorts of CPU errors and sometimes kill the diesel engine (not funny on Motorways) if I placed my E1000, SPV C-500 and iPAQ with BT & WiFi in the front central tray. Turned out that the Engine Management Unit (CPU to us old hacks) was in the passenger footwell. Placing the kit behind the passenger seat or on the rear passenger seat solved the problem completely!! Took ages to suss it out, until one enterprising automotive engineer found that every single EMU error code had been triggered at least once!

Sloppy manufacturing.

[nudge]

MG ZR is the car

[Hands0n]

For starters find out exactly where the ECU is and if there is any close proximity betwixt it and your BT and 2G/3G devices. Consider things such as; is there any metal between the ECU and these devices that could act as a shield (i.e. the bulkhead). Try, if poss, to move the mobile phone (if that is when the fault happens) away from the front of the car, as far away from the dashboard as poss.

The fault is almost certainly EMI (electro magnetic interference) - the key is to separate and/or shield.

NB: caught the tail end of an article on ITV news recently, apparently some cars going into Bluewater are having to be towed up and out of the area before their engines will re-start. The car emergency services groups (i.e. AA) believe it is all the 2G and 3G saturation down in the pit that the store is located! Didn't catch the full article so don't know what is being done vis a vis investigating it further!