Using the A110: Tips and Tricks

Using the A110: Tips and Tricks

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Discussion

Meonstoke

Original Poster:

275 posts

109 months

Thursday 4th January
quotequote all
A thread to capture Key and Easy Tips and Tricks about using your A110 which you may not have been aware of. Or for those you (like myself) who have not yet had the time (or the desire) to explore all of the intricacies of the Alpine Manual - and let's face it, it's not the most riveting read...

To apply to all A110 models and MY's. But if it is primarily Alpine App related or primarily Infotainment related, then raise your Tip / Trick on those dedicated threads instead please.

Perhaps an idea to first capture some of the recent Tips and Tricks mentioned.

Anyone, like to kick off a summary so far ?

tony993

358 posts

222 months

Friday 5th January
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Meonstoke said:
.

Anyone, like to kick off a summary so far ?
No, but my number one tip would be: press the handbrake button at the same time as the stop button to prevent the handbrake automatically engaging when you turn the engine off.

& number two: don't spend forever looking for a way to dim the dashboard for daytime use, because I don't think this can be done (although it is possible to do when the headlights are on).

LE62NDE

350 posts

27 months

Friday 5th January
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Meonstoke said:
and let's face it, it's not the most riveting read...
...and it's printed on bog paper...

bcr5784

7,182 posts

152 months

Friday 5th January
quotequote all
If you override auto by using the paddles it will stay in the gear selected for (about) 7 seconds - which may be longer than you wish. If you override this by using the paddles again, it will stay in that gear selected - and so ad infinitum. HOWEVER if on the second "override" you hold the paddle a second longer than necessary it will revert to auto - breaking the potentially never ending sequence.

jont-

121 posts

96 months

Friday 5th January
quotequote all
bcr5784 said:
If you override auto by using the paddles it will stay in the gear selected for (about) 7 seconds - which may be longer than you wish. If you override this by using the paddles again, it will stay in that gear selected - and so ad infinitum. HOWEVER if on the second "override" you hold the paddle a second longer than necessary it will revert to auto - breaking the potentially never ending sequence.
Or you can just press the D button a couple of times (first time into full manual, second time back into auto). In the temp override mode it will stay in the manually selected gear indefinitely if you're off the throttle (eg using engine braking down a long hill).

Colin P

459 posts

150 months

Friday 5th January
quotequote all
bcr5784 said:
If you override auto by using the paddles it will stay in the gear selected for (about) 7 seconds - which may be longer than you wish. If you override this by using the paddles again, it will stay in that gear selected - and so ad infinitum. HOWEVER if on the second "override" you hold the paddle a second longer than necessary it will revert to auto - breaking the potentially never ending sequence.
Or you can use the "D" button. When in drive in Auto it is white. Push again and it turns blue and the car will remain in manual. If its blue and you want it back in auto just push it again so it goes white.

Personally, 99.9% of the time I use the Start car, push "D" twice and drive in manual approach.

What I wish the car would do is to put itself into drive by holding the + paddle for a second or two. Every other paddle shift car I have had does this, but the Alpine doesn't, which is a minor frustration.

bcr5784

7,182 posts

152 months

Friday 5th January
quotequote all
jont- said:
Or you can just press the D button a couple of times (first time into full manual, second time back into auto). In the temp override mode it will stay in the manually selected gear indefinitely if you're off the throttle (eg using engine braking down a long hill).
Yes I used to just that, but I subsequently found this alternative more natural and better ergonomically.

Scott-R

126 posts

112 months

Sunday 7th January
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Pressing (pulling?) both volume buttons at the same time on the wee media controller behind the steering wheel will mute whatever is playing, which will also pause in the case of Bluetooth audio.

Rob_RCF

163 posts

18 months

Monday 8th January
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Okay I have a few. I know some of these might seem obvious for anyone used to the car, but they all took me a little while to find (in some cases embarrassingly so).

There's a button on the key that looks a bit like a sun symbol. If you press it the headlights will light up for 30 seconds.

Set the audio source to Aux or one of the other settings to stop the radio coming on every time you start the car.

Hold down N until it turns red to put the transmission into park.

You can view oil temp on facelift cars with Telemetrics, though it's not immediately obvious how. In Telemetrics press the 3 dots and go into configuration. Select the lower icon that looks like 2 boxes and then click the "edit" icon and you should find the oil temp widget on the second page. If you just want coolant temp it appears on the lower-left of the dash when you're in Sport mode.

Hold the "Mode" button on the underside of the volume stalk to open Telemetrics (assuming you have it optioned). Supposedly works on pre-facelift cars. On facelift cars you can add the Telemetrics icon to the home screen, which makes it slightly easier to get to. I can't remember the entire process off the top of my head, but go into system configuration and then edit home screen or something like that.

Double-press the lock button on the key to deadlock the car. This means the interior handle won't open the door should someone break or feed a reach tool through the window.

With the ignition off, click the right stalk all the way down to move the wipers into the service position.

The buttons on the ends of the left and right stalks can allow you to access some useful information directly on the dash. Probably everyone knows this, but it took me way too long.

Edited by Rob_RCF on Monday 8th January 22:48

autofocus

3,065 posts

225 months

Tuesday 9th January
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Hi there,

One from me discovered today is that on the 2023 MY cars there are two clocks which are independent.

There is one on the dashboard, and one of the multimedia/sat nav screen. I noticed today that the two clocks were 59 minutes apart.

The one on the dashboard is set via the indicator stalks, the one on the multimedia screen is set via the menus in the settings section.

Regards

Tim

Terminator X

16,330 posts

211 months

Tuesday 9th January
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^^ interesting as mine are 1 hour out too. I just assumed it was a French quirk!

TX.

worldwidewebs

2,543 posts

257 months

Wednesday 10th January
quotequote all
autofocus said:
Hi there,

One from me discovered today is that on the 2023 MY cars there are two clocks which are independent.

There is one on the dashboard, and one of the multimedia/sat nav screen. I noticed today that the two clocks were 59 minutes apart.

The one on the dashboard is set via the indicator stalks, the one on the multimedia screen is set via the menus in the settings section.

Regards

Tim
And then add in CarPlay and you can be driving in 3 timezones all at once! biggrin

heisenberger

35 posts

14 months

Wednesday 10th January
quotequote all
tony993 said:
No, but my number one tip would be: press the handbrake button at the same time as the stop button to prevent the handbrake automatically engaging when you turn the engine off.

& number two: don't spend forever looking for a way to dim the dashboard for daytime use, because I don't think this can be done (although it is possible to do when the headlights are on).
That's definitely a good tip!

One step further is if you code the cluster ecu to disable automatic handbrake. You can do it yourself with ddt4all and simple obd2 dongle.
I think doing so can avoid a lot of problems with this delicate brake system.

LE62NDE

350 posts

27 months

Wednesday 10th January
quotequote all
heisenberger said:
That's definitely a good tip!

One step further is if you code the cluster ecu to disable automatic handbrake. You can do it yourself with ddt4all and simple obd2 dongle.
I think doing so can avoid a lot of problems with this delicate brake system.
It's always worth disabling the automatic handbrake when washing the car, as the discs suffer from surface oxidisation remarkably quickly, and the brakes freeze on. Although they free off easily enough, they detach themselves with quite a clonk -it doesn't feel mechanically sympathetic!
They discs are quite noisy inside the car the first couple of times you brake after washing the car because of the thin layer of rust, too.

Edited by LE62NDE on Wednesday 10th January 20:13

7en

281 posts

18 months

Wednesday 10th January
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Terminator X said:
^^ interesting as mine are 1 hour out too. I just assumed it was a French quirk!

TX.
I wonder is one changing with daylight savings and the other needing to be manually changed?

7en

281 posts

18 months

Tuesday 6th February
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If it's been raining and you have a lot of water beading on your roof, when pulling away don't open your windows if you have to do a sharp turn out of your parking space, as you or your passenger may get a shower depending on which way you're turning!


Colin P

459 posts

150 months

Tuesday 6th February
quotequote all
LE62NDE said:
It's always worth disabling the automatic handbrake when washing the car, as the discs suffer from surface oxidisation remarkably quickly, and the brakes freeze on. Although they free off easily enough, they detach themselves with quite a clonk -it doesn't feel mechanically sympathetic!
They discs are quite noisy inside the car the first couple of times you brake after washing the car because of the thin layer of rust, too.

Edited by LE62NDE on Wednesday 10th January 20:13
I always take the cars out to dry off the brakes within a few hours of washing them. A few stops or some left foot braking will dry them off. This has been an issue on my Lotuses, JCW and Alfa. The latter it started to rain when I was washing it so I put it away and left it a few days. The pads stuck to the disc and disintegrated when I moved the car 4/5 days later. Cue a new set of rear pads on a car with 3000 miles on it.

Some cars, the alpine included have done this after just driving in the rain, general rule I follow now is if I put the car away wet in any way I’ll make sure I drive it again within a few days. Lesson learned an expensive way.

Hoofty

712 posts

197 months

Tuesday 6th February
quotequote all
7en said:
If it's been raining and you have a lot of water beading on your roof, when pulling away don't open your windows if you have to do a sharp turn out of your parking space, as you or your passenger may get a shower depending on which way you're turning!
laugh See also: Don't start the car with the door open if there's water on the screen...

Miserablegit

4,172 posts

116 months

Tuesday 6th February
quotequote all
Colin P said:
I always take the cars out to dry off the brakes within a few hours of washing them. A few stops or some left foot braking will dry them off. This has been an issue on my Lotuses, JCW and Alfa. The latter it started to rain when I was washing it so I put it away and left it a few days. The pads stuck to the disc and disintegrated when I moved the car 4/5 days later. Cue a new set of rear pads on a car with 3000 miles on it.

Some cars, the alpine included have done this after just driving in the rain, general rule I follow now is if I put the car away wet in any way I’ll make sure I drive it again within a few days. Lesson learned an expensive way.
When parking at home I merely put the car in park and disengage the handbrake when turning the car off- simply push the handbrake button down and hold while pushing the engine start button. I never leave the car parked at home with the handbrake on and it avoids these issues.

7en

281 posts

18 months

Thursday 8th February
quotequote all
bcr5784 said:
If you override auto by using the paddles it will stay in the gear selected for (about) 7 seconds - which may be longer than you wish. If you override this by using the paddles again, it will stay in that gear selected - and so ad infinitum. HOWEVER if on the second "override" you hold the paddle a second longer than necessary it will revert to auto - breaking the potentially never ending sequence.
When changing from Track or Sport to Normal I'd like to switch into auto quickly, a long hold on the upshift paddle would be perfect but it doesn't seem to work in the '73 plate car I'm driving. Which model year do you drive?

Another gearbox related note - I find that when trying to use manual mode in everyday driving, particularly at slower speeds, the gearbox will drop 2 gears instead of the 1 selected. I understand that sometimes under braking the car may need to be in a lower gear than expected for the safety of the gearbox and will overide a manual selection. However often when shifting down 1 gear from 3rd at slow speeds, it'll change to 1st and the revs jump. It seems that shifting down within a certain time of the gear box deciding it will also change down causes 2 downshifts. I don't have a tip on how to avoid this, other than either trying to beat the gearbox to it or leave it to it.

Edited by 7en on Thursday 8th February 20:28