rainagain

the new owner of greenie sent me this pic, he’s been out with the cleaning kit

his wife has now had a drive and loves it too  

I managed to bolt it all back together and then fired it up... Disaster. Oil was leaking out of the feed to the turbo bearing. Initially I thought I must have left a crush washer out from the banjo bolt, but on closer inspection it was there. I had torqued it to factory spec seeing as it was a semi-important fixing. 
In the end I just did it up tighter which has sealed it thank God. 
Went for a drive which confirmed it now GLF, however... 
Previously I'd fitted one of those Chinese fuel pressure sensor things that fools the ECU into thinking the fuel pressure is lower than it really is = cheap performance upgrade. 
On my test drive I booted it out of a junction then felt the dreaded jolt as it decided to engage limp mode... It actually cut out completely but I managed to turn into a side road and I had my diagnostic reader with me. 
Read the code which was something like 'Major fuel leak detected' so I thought I might have chafed a hose when I moved the fuel filter to one side for access. But no leaks and no diesel smell. 
I think what happened is the fuel flow rate and/or pressure difference was outside of the set limits thanks to the Chinese cheater device. I reset the code and it ran fine to get me home, so I removed the Chinese kit and have reverted back to standard. 
I really thought I'd broken something serious but it was the nannying ECU detecting Fun Outside Specified Limits. 
Last night I drove to Reading and back to go into London and watch a gig, the car performed faultlessly and averaged 53 mpg so I'm pleased with the fix. 
If spending money allows I'll be looking to get a proper remap as there is more performance to be had for sure. 

My plan worked, unbelievably. Propping the car up about 6" higher gave me room to get the big ugga dugga under the car, and with a couple of extensions I was able to undo the turbo to manifold nuts which are generally tighter than a council pothole budget. 
I can't help but think it's no coincidence that I was able to route the extensions through the only gap in the underbody between the subframe and gearbox. I get the feeling Toyota takes servicing pretty seriously. I mean this isn't an easy job (it's still not finished) but you can see where provision has been made for tool access. 
I've still got to undo some coolant hoses that pass over the top of the turbo. I think this is a bit of a bodge by Toyota, on some models the turbo is water cooled but not on mine, so a bypass is routed over the top of it. 
I think I'll lose a bit of coolant but it's quite high up so hopefully not loads. 
I would have done it this afternoon but the gusty wind was really pissing me off. 

I've been driving the Avensis around Lincs all weekend and while it's been mostly fine the lack of turbo oomph has been fucking me off so after I'd unpacked I jacked off it up and commenced battle with the turbot. 
Access is pretty shit really, I'm sure modernz are worse but I was having to be creative with tools to undo the (15 year old) exhaust fixings. 
However we're now at the point where I can begin to try and unbolt the fecker from the manifold. It's released from the cat so that's a good step forward. 
Two of the turbo to manifold fixings are only accessible from underneath, and the gearbox and subframe obscure the line of sight to them so again I'll need some luck in getting it shifted. 
I think I'm going to jack it a bit higher, put it back on stands then I've got a bit of room to get an impact and selection of extensions on, hopefully they'll shift it. 

I'll take that!  
Tester was actually very complimentary of the state of the car underneath.  

Ah, the nerve wracking part of the day...

MOT in progress...

Couple of little jobs today in preparation for the MOT on Thursday.
One thing which I knew for certain needed sorting was the headlight aim.  I borrowed the Partner which I know the headlights are adjusted more or less correctly on and made a couple of reference marks on the garage door from a known distance.
Starting point basically had the headlights pointing at the ground about 6' in front of the car.

After a bit of tweaking things looked far more sensible.

There used to be a huge gap between the lenses and the surrounds, they look more sensible now.

Might need a bit of a tweak at the test, but all the adjusters are free now so that's only a couple of minutes work, and isn't the sort of thing my tester would mind happening while we're there if we need to.
As mentioned last time, I had to tweak the locking washer for the nut that holds the steering rack to the track rod bracket as I'd put it on backwards.  Just wanted to provide visible evidence (to myself as much as anything!) that I had gone back and fixed that.

The Easybleed as seems to be standard both leaked fluid everywhere and overfilled the brake fluid reservoir.  So I both drained off enough to bring the fluid down to the max mark and tried to clean up the general area so it didn't look like we had a huge fluid leak from the master cylinder.

I'd had a new air filter floating around pretty much since I got the car as the one on it was looking pretty manky.  If you wondered what filter these used, here's your answer.  Yes, that's also me lazily leaving breadcrumbs for myself when I forget.

Surprised to see this still being a current item from Mann given the *extensive* list of vehicles using it.

Has a late 2023 date code on though so looks to still be being made.  
Spotted one problem starting to develop in the form of one of the driver's door hinge pins attempting to make a bid for freedom.

Having grabbed a suitable drift this was hammered back into place properly.  Have to wonder how long that's taken to work itself that far out.  Noticeable that the door opens/closes more smoothly now.
Will try to find time between now and the test to give the car a general clean, and I'd really like to come up with a more substantial mounting solution for the front bumper as I can see it's sagging again.

Okay, let's have another shot at getting this steering rack to track rod bracket apart.
Attempt number 1.  This failed.  The puller would always slip off well before getting any real torque involved.

This wasn't actually in use, I just stuck it on there for the photo, so yes I know it's not lined up right.
The correct tool for this job is essentially just a big ball joint splitter.  However buying one of those would require spending more money than I really wanted to, and waiting for something to arrive.
Instead, take one £15 splitter from Halfords and spend ten minutes mutilating it with a grinder until it fits.

Remember, it's not stupid if it works!

That let go with one HELL of a bang. 
The old boot was removed and things cleaned up ready for the new one to go on, which I'd already had long enough to have completely forgotten which box it was in and requiring 10 minutes of rummaging until it turned up.

Done.

Well, almost.  I didn't initially spot that there's a flat cast into the bracket where the locking washer is meant to locate.  So the nut was loosened off again and the washer rotated through 180 degrees since this photo was taken.
Only casualty was me being careless with the grinder and nearly setting myself on fire.

I was already kind of paranoid about fire was I was relatively close to the Rover while doing this job and it's proven so far to be by far the most stubbornly not fuel-tight vehicle I've ever owned!
MOT has been re-booked for next Thursday.  Shame they can't fit me in sooner, but it is what it is, I know they're always busy.  Aside from the usual sanity check beforehand and making sure all the lights etc are working, I need to try to tweak the headlight aim a bit as I think it's still way too low.  I'll make sure all the adjusters are properly lubricated before taking it in so it can be easily tweaked at the time if need be.

Rain finally stopped today so I could move forward with this.  

No.  I definitely didn't give it the second coat of paint using the boot as a spray booth.
Also made a point of ensuring that the brake bleeder cracked loose while I had the arm still off the car as dealing with that as it stood would be far easier than in the car if needed.
The hub cavity, spacer, stub axle and rear cover were all cleaned up.

Not really many photos of putting the new bearings etc in as I was absolutely covered in grease for most of it.  In fact I feel like I still am despite having washed my hands a dozen times and showered since I worked on the car.
Probably the single most awkward part was actually getting the snap ring back into the groove in front of the outer bearing as it really was a bit beefier than my circlip pliers were designed for.  However I managed to not ping it into low earth orbit or embed it in one of my eyeballs so I considered that a win.
Getting the suspension arm back in place was moderately awkward, but honestly nowhere near as bad as I expected.  I was able to lift the arm into position and get the inboard bolt started, then have a jack support the trailing arm while I started the forward one.  Then was just a matter of evenly tightening them both up.  Which takes takes a while as both of the bolts are really quite long.  Definitely a job which made me wish I had an electric ratchet.
Then the brake line was hooked back up.  

Not thrilled by the amount of tension on the flexible brake lines.  Looks like when the camber correction hardware is fitted that an inch or two longer brake line should also be added.  I'll look into dealing with that in the future.
I appreciate that the brake shoes can be fitted back onto the backing plate as a single assembly without the need to wrestle with a bunch of faffing about with the springs.  You DO need to mind your fingers though as there will be a heap of tension on there.
Then the hub was reattached, the nut torqued up to VFT and the locking tab bent over to ensure it's not going anywhere.  All that remained there was to bleed the brakes and put the wheel back on.
A helper would have been handy rather than relying on the Eazibleed (which as usual leaked all over the place).  I know I do have one of those far simpler one man bleeders somewhere, but we all know what my garage looks like.

All back together.  Glad to report that a test drive revealed no unpleasant noises or anything.
The next task on the pre-MOT was the steering rack gaiter.  Seems simple enough.  Remove the end nut from the rack, separate it, remove old boot, clean, re-grease, fit new boot and reassemble.

Yeah...the two parts aren't too interested in separating after 39 years.  Ideas?  I've left it soaking in Plusgas overnight.  Guessing heat is probably the answer, albeit very carefully both due to not wanting to damage the rack itself and given the proximity of the fuel tank.
Once that's done and I've given the headlight beam alignment a tweak we should be ready to head to the MOT again.  Hopefully!

That's definitely one of those things I'm filing away as useful stuff for future reference.  Would never have thought of it but yes, that's a really good idea.
Been feeling pretty frazzled today, so probably not the worst thing that it worked out I was lacking a worthwhile car to take to Rustival.  Reckon I'd probably just have been overwhelmed and ended up retreating after about an hour.  
I did need to run a couple of errands in the morning though.  Decided to take a brave pill regarding transport.

Proof it has actually moved.

Made it home again too.  Without breaking down.  In fact without adding anything else to the to do list.
Though the oil leak hasn't miraculously fixed itself.

That's going to be a barrel of laughs to fix.  It's the gasket behind the oil pump/filter housing that needs to be replaced.  It's just *slightly* awkward to get to.

That's a problem for some point over the next few days though.  
I did grab a quick video showing where we've got to this afternoon.  I literally just wedged my phone between the dash and the windscreen, so low production quality!  The loud bang about halfway through was me closing the glove box which decided to fall open and scare me half to death completely randomly.
 
So...
Oil leak is the big priority for the sake of other road users.  I'm not comfortable driving it further until that's sorted.  Other high priority items will be getting the radiator recored, the remaining original coolant lines replaced and the tyres need to be changed as they are definitely flat spotted.  Only really noticeable above 50, so not a huge issue for local use, but definitely want doing before any longer trips - they're absolutely ancient anyway so they want changing anyway.
I do actually feel like I'm making progress now at last rather than just chasing my tail, which is nice.
However, you remember the fuel leak which caused a small environmental disaster and caused our house to stink of fuel for a full week?  Guess what reappeared this afternoon?  From exactly the same spot...Yep, the same bloody leak.
I think the root cause of the issue was actually down to the fuel filter itself.  This had no ridge on the end of the hose barb, and I think the hose was just sliding down from the 8mm to 6mm section.  Said cheap and nasty tiny filter has now been consigned to the bin and a larger, better quality one has been fitted.

It was immediately apparent once the hose was connected that it was far more secure even before the hose clip was done up.  Said hose clip has also been replaced to be safe.  I've had that happen before on one of these but thought at the time it was a fluke.  They're getting binned though now.
Will I be obsessively checking these connections every single time the car is used for about the next year?  Yes.
Also really need to get some black HT leads, like seriously...
Rover wasn't intended to be today's main target though.  My box of several different sized pullers had turned up, so battle commenced with the Trabant wheel bearing replacement.

Honestly not sure if I had loosened it when I tried to remove it last time, as it just slid straight off today with relatively little effort.
Not maybe quite as bad as I was expecting given the noise this was making, but yeah this clearly isn't as clean as you would like to see.

Even more to my surprise, the lower shock absorber bolt unscrewed with any drama.
Couple of people had mentioned that removing the handbrake cable *before* starting to remove the trailing arm was a good way to save your sanity, so I wasted far too long trying to figure out the correct way to dismantle the brakes.  Got there in the end though.  Reassembling that won't be at all awkward I'm sure.

The self adjusters in this are really quite clever.  A really simple sliding ratchet arrangement which is built into the shoe retaining pins.  They can move outward away from the piston, but not inward - so the force of the shoe moving itself works the adjuster.  It's really simple, but looks to me like this should be quite reliable.  

The brake line itself was the next thing to be disconnected.

Of course because I am highly intelligent, I parked the car such that I had to lay in the Rover's oil puddle while doing this.  Well done.
Then it was literally just a case of unscrewing the two trailing arm bolts.  I did support the bottom of the hub with a jack to ensure any remaining tension on the spring was supported.  There wasn't much, but there was definitely a bit of tension left.  Just enough I'm sure to make getting everything back together an absolute pain.
Something definitely missing here!

Oh, here it is!

The shock absorber mounting bracket also then needs to be removed from the arm as it gets in the way.

I was really worried these bolts might snap, but they thankfully didn't.  Did protest a bit, but they came out.  The rubber cover the revealed the cause of our issue.  The inner bearing had clearly suffered water contamination based on the amount of rust that fell out.

Pretty sure this was the cause of our issues as the outer bearing didn't seem to be noisy.
The stub axle could then be knocked through the back of the hub.  This is seriously chunky looking for a 600kg car.  Can of Plusgas for scale.

The inner bearing can just be pushed out the back of the housing with a suitable drift.  The outer one comes out from the wheel side - after you've found and removed the circlip hiding in among the slimy old grease under the seal.
One set of knackered bearings.  The thing on the left is the spacer which sits between the two.

This needs to be cleaned up, then I can set about (carefully) installing the new bearings.

That's probably going to be tomorrow afternoon's job.

[] Clean hub.
[] Pack new bearings with grease.
[] Install bearings.
[] Install new seal.
[] Reinstall stub axle & add some more grease just for good measure.
[] Reinstall cover.
[] Reinstall trailing arm. 
[] Reconnect brake line.
[] Reassemble brake shoe assembly & handbrake cable.
[] Reinstall hub with new nut and locking washer.
[] Reinstall brake drum.
[] Bleed brakes.
[] Put wheel back on.
[] Test drive.  Assuming I've not missed anything critical.
Now I know how it comes apart hopefully should go back together a little quicker.
Having now seen how it comes apart, I reckon you *could* do this with the trailing arm still on the car, but it would be way, way more awkward - and the additional stress and swearing probably isn't worth the half hour or so it might save.  
*Hopefully* we'll have this back together tomorrow.  

Ping me a PM, sure we can come to an arrangement.  It's not going to do me any good as all of the hardware on mine is the later style.  I'll need to see if I can un-seize it at least.  Sadly it's suffered the same fate as everything that was in the boot, looking as though it's been stored on the bottom of the ocean.
Had half hoped the puller might have turned up today, but it hasn't.  Have been feeling really rough today as well which has hindered my productivity somewhat.
Some of you who have followed my trials and tribulations with the Rover will remember me finding this floating around in the back of the engine bay not attached to anything when I had the heads off.

My guess was that it was a breather which should be attached to the gearbox proved to be correct.  Somebody had obviously removed it at some point and never hooked it back up.  Why I'll never know.
This isn't something you really want to leave open to the elements for obvious reasons.  However reattaching that original line wasn't going to be easy.
Can you see where it attaches?

Zoom...

Zoom further...

There it is!

Yeah, there's no way I'm getting the original moulded nylon line back on there.  Maybe if I had the car properly up on a lift and I could get two hands in there from underneath, maybe.  On the driveway, not a chance.  After fighting with it for about half an hour I gave in and fitted a rubber hose instead.

You'll have to take my word for the fact that it's attached at the gearbox end.  Should do the same job just fine though.
The fluid level was also a *little* on the low side.

Took this to get it up to what looks to be the correct level (the handbook has the fluid level check procedure marked down wrong), saying to check it cold with engine off...not warm with engine running as is correct.  Prior to adding that fluid we had nothing on the stick at all when the engine was running.

Also worth noting that these gearboxes do NOT take normal Dex II/III fluid.  They need type F fluid.  Surprisingly, Mileham's had a few (admittedly rather dusty) bottles on the shelf.  Don't imagine they'll be bothering to re-stock those!  It looks, feels and smells the same as what's in the box so I'm reasonably confident this hasn't been filled with the wrong fluid at least.
Also apparently the heater box is missing a bunch of screws.

Don't think I have any others that are short enough in stock so will need to buy some.
So far the fuel system still seems to be cooperating.  Though I do need to adjust things a little as the warm idle is way too high, at about 1000 rpm in neutral.  Should be nearer 750 - or lower if you can get the engine to reliably idle slower, to reduce the "thump" when selecting drive/reverse.
In other news, did I drive around in circles for ten minutes this afternoon so I could catch this?


Yes, yes I did.

I don't suppose this is the correct puller for the hub is it?  It came with the car.  Thoroughly rusted up of course as it was in the boot.

No idea to be honest, doesn't look like it is related but figured I'd ask the question.
The bearing a day or so back rapidly degraded from the occasional slight noise to "horrible gronking noise with each rotation."  Meant to be going to Rustival this weekend.  Also was supposed to be going in for an MOT tomorrow.  Great!
The MOT isn't actually a huge issue as it's not out till the 14th, but I feel bad having to cancel at pretty short notice.  I like the guys there and really don't like messing them about, still I called to cancel as soon as I knew I wasn't going to make it.
I did get around to replacing the cracked nearside reflector from the stash of parts I've started to accumulate.  Doesn't look like this one has ever been fitted, was just a bit dusty from years in storage.

The Rover also gave me a good old runaround over the last couple of days.
Having successfully proved that my idea for the fuel return system worked I decided that as the weather was dry it was time to get it put together in a less shonky way.  I'd thrown it together using some 3/8" copper brake line originally as it was what I had to hand and I didn't have enough actual hose in stock. 

It was never intended to see the road like that though, it was just to see if it worked.  It was time to do it "properly" though.  
We picked up the return from the factory T on the carb feed line.

The original return line has been capped off for safety's sake. I don't think there's any chance of it suddenly starting to spill fuel back to the engine bay, but I just don't want to take the chance.

Hose clips obviously still had to be added here.
That bolt is only half threaded so there's a nice smooth area to seal to the hose, and the bit of hose is a snug fit on both the bolt and the nylon line.
The line follows the route of the factory fuel lines down the back of the engine bay.


Then follows the main bundle of pipework and cabling along the underside of the car.

Up into the car through the bung I'd found in the floor under the rear seat (with a suitable grommet to protect the hose).

Then joins the loom of cables and pipework that runs through into the boot through a grommet behind the backrest of the rear seat.

Then around the tank and onto our former vent port that's now our return spill port.

Couple of additional hose clips needed here in the photo.

What you can't actually see is that there's a piece of copper line inside there that runs right down into the tank - that rubber boot isn't actually involved in fuel handling, it's just providing a vapour seal.
This should have us most of the way towards having a working fuel system. Though the car was still running a bit lean it seemed (as it demonstrated to me a week or so back when I had the air cleaner off and blipped the throttle, resulting in a cough and then proper shotgun like report out of the left hand carb which left my ears ringing for about an hour). This didn't surprise me really as I know the original return line had a restriction in it to act as a crude pressure regulator. I have picked up a cheap regulator, though I don't have huge hopes for that (because...well...cheap parts). If it doesn't work I've an idea to make my own crude version using an adjustable clamp on the line.  Doesn't really make sense paying good money for a quality regulator though, especially as I don't imagine the actual pressure here is all that critical either, we just need enough of a restriction to ensure that the carb bowls fill properly.
I have however ensured it's installed in the boot rather than the engine bay just in case it does leak. Yes, because I trust it about as far as I can throw it.

Guess what happened after I'd been driving around for about 20 minutes? The engine cut out and wouldn't restart. Guess why...no fuel being delivered.  I called the car some really unpleasant things about then.  Albeit slightly tempered by the fact that it died on the drive this time rather than at a junction.
Initial suspicion fell on that cheap regulator...which when removed revealed no fuel coming down the return line. Cue much poking and prodding and swearing at everything I'd done yesterday as I assumed I must have crimped a line or something somewhere.
That fuel pump, which I bought from a marque specialist...yep, it's dead. Well it's kind of dead...it pumps just fine until you present it with anything resembling a pressure head to pump against, at which point it stops pumping until it's power cycled an indeterminate number of times. It has always been horrifically noisy so I'm not hugely surprised, but it's disappointing as it wasn't cheap.
Tried to switch over to the spare Hardi pump I've been kindly provided with by a reader of my blogs. That apparently needs a service.  More fuel came peeing out from around failed seals on that under gravity than I was getting out of the previous pump outlet when it was running. Guess I'll need to order a service kit for that then.  I don't begrudge the pump that, it's entirely likely as old as I am and I really ought to have just serviced it when it landed here.  
For now I've borrowed TPA's pump again as I know that works properly.

Sure enough, turning the dial on the regulator now does alter the speed at which the pump clicks, so we are correctly modulating the fuel return flow.  
Haven't had the opportunity to investigate whether this has improved things though as today I have been busy all day.
Will it actually work for more than 20 minutes now?  I guess we'll find out sometime in the next few days.
I'll need to get stuck into the wheel bearing job on the Trabant I guess and see if I can get it ready for the weekend.  Have to admit being slightly apprehensive given that this isn't a job I've done on this car before.  Especially not being sure how much of a war to expect getting things apart or any oddball tools I may need.  
If I run into a brick wall which means we're not ready by Saturday I guess I'll just be having to attend Rustival as a spectator.  I really can't see me trusting the Rover on that run given the track record of that car so far!  TPA hasn't had her pre-season inspection and shakedown run yet so I'd rather not take her - it's not a massive trek for the car, but further than I'd really like to be going on the first drive of the year.

Wanted to further investigate our mystery noise.  I'd originally thought it was a brake dragging, but the fact that the noise didn't come and go with the application of the brakes meant that didn't quite make sense.  
Didn't take long to find it (funny how when it's not raining and windy you have more patience).
Nearside rear wheel if I spin it is silent and will keep spinning for several tens of seconds.  Offside on the other hand will stop after a couple of rotations, and you can hear something dragging.  Particularly when the wheel starts to move.  Not sure how well it comes across on camera.
 
While this sounds like it's a dragging brake, it isn't.  With the drum removed the hub itself behaves exactly the same, the issue there is with the wheel bearings.  Which kind of sucks as the inner bearing on this is a bit of a pig to deal with as the stub axle needs to be removed from the back of the hub.  Fair enough, except for the shock absorber and its carrier being in the way.

That grey plastic cap is covering the rear of the stub axle, and shows what needs to move (towards frame left) and how the shock absorber is right in the way.  Not particularly difficult, it's going to involve dismantling a lot more stuff than I'd really like.  I believe the "correct" way to do the job involves removing the whole semi trailing arm assembly from the car.  Which admittedly isn't a massive headache for me here given that I know both of the main mounting bolts move!  However I need to figure out how on earth to compress the spring safely...I've never had to play that game with leaf springs before.  Especially not ones arranged like this.  Okay, let's rephrase that...I need to figure out a way to compress the spring which doesn't involve extremely sketchy nonsense with bottle jacks and axle stands.

Guess it would be a good opportunity to clean up and protect the trailing arm(s) and to clean and grease the spring anyway as that definitely would benefit from being done.  If I can figure out how to de-tension it without killing myself anyway.  I emphatically dislike doing jobs like this, however know that getting a garage involved will take several weeks.
On the plus side, the rear brakes look to have had very recent attention, just like the front.

Didn't actually need to remove the hub nut to remove the drum I later realised. Just a grub screw.
At least it's such a light car it's a doddle to jack and is laid out on such a way that it's really easy to support safely when working underneath.
Guess I best go get a set of wheel bearings ordered then!  
What are the odds of winding up with two cars both needing wheel bearings at the same time?  Partner is just getting chucked at a garage though.

To get to the left satellite B Pillar module, everyone online says you need to remove the seat and a whole load of plastic trim. Being a savage I figured most of that was unnecessary. Turns out I was correct.
The foam is wet but not sodden. 


Tbh this is probably less risky as much less brittle plastic to break.
This is a satellite module. Basically it appears there are multiple airbag modules (why BMW??) that are connected together optically and on CAN. Not sure if this fires an airbag as the usual special yellow airbag connector (the one that shorts the pins when disconnected) only has the optical feed but no detonator connected to it. 

Anyway inside looks fine. Connector is dirty though.



I tried cleaning the connector but it's still not playing ball. 
The other airbag modules say it can't see this left module. 



 
If I try connecting directly to the Left Satellite module, it can't connect to it. Auto detection doesn't see it either.


So it looks like this module may well be dead. But why? Inside looks fine. Presumably it speaks over CAN as well as optical. So that optical transceiver should be fine.
My fear is the loom connector is damaged. I might try sticking the right satellite module (which I know works) into that left side and see what happens. Presumably it won't do stupid stuff but should hopefully tell me communication is okay on that loom connector if it can be seen on the main car network. 
I also need to find a known working replacement of this module. Need to have a gander on RealOEM and see if any other later ones are compatible too. 

That dash is an absolute jewel though. Back when BM knew how to do an interior.

So firstly the car is great. I'm mega happy with it. Like any old car they give shenanigans. Especially old German Premium cars. Not least I do tend to go hunting for issues and finding stuff.
What is there to do?
 - Airbag light is on. I took a gamble buying this thinking it was just a loose seat connector. Having read the codes I don't think it is. There is errors relating to the "Satellite B Pillar" module and no communications. Googling says there is a module that lives in the footwell for the airbag system. We can all guess what happens to modules that live in convertible footwells. Go go BMW. Second hand modules can be coded in but you need BMW INPA. I don't have that, so I'll probably have to read and tool up. 
Need to fix the airbag system as the light is on and it'll fail it's MOT unless sorted.
 - Sticking steering. TADIS. Made worse by having the heater on full. Apparently you can replace the grease or something to help sort it. Need to do further reading. Doesn't stop it being used as a car though.
 - Heater fan temperamental. Anything above 50% on the climate control puts the fans on full. Then after a minute or two it cuts out. Wait a bit and it cuts back in. Not very useful for roof down motoring. Hoping it's the Hedgehog fan resistor module. Need to buy one and find out how to replace it in the car. Hopefully not a massive dash out job or something stupid. 
 - After a spirited drive off the motorway, I managed to now make the rear right brakes squeal. There is a light squeal when driving, more sometimes turning and louder when braking. Sometimes goes away. Presumably either sticky caliper or sliders. A strip down and clean up job. Had to do the same thing on the Golf too.
 - Wipers don't park at the bottom. Work absolutely fine but it looks like it's had a new windscreen in its past. Whoever did it I don't think put the wiper arms back in the right place. It's an easy enough job to just reposition them.
That's it really. A few cosmetic things I could do like replace the scratched near side wing but tbh I can't be bothered just yet. Just want to drop the roof and go for drives! 
Main thing is to fix the heater fan/fan resistor and the airbag system so the light goes out to pass another MOT in June. Caliper is just a Sunday afternoon/evening job. Steering is annoying but I'm going to leave for now as it's still usable as is. 

Some more progress over the last few days. I managed to remove the steering column from the Caprice to replace the ignition switch linkage I picked up in Germany. Pretty staight forward job once you know what you need to do:

I'll try to disambled it all over the next few evenings hopefully.
The Lexus finally received its long anticipated brake job. Contrary to everything I've done on an 18 year old car before this was a very straight forward job. Not only did everything come apart with zero hassle, everything beyond the brakes still looked excellent as well. Not a single torn boot or crumbling piece of plastic, everything still looked like on day 1, impressive considering everything seems to be original. The only thing someone screwed with before was a missing wheel lock replaced with a random lug nut.
Once again, this is contrary to my E39 or Mark VIII (for example) which were both 18 years old when I bought them, and needed literally everything. Granted, the car being in Spain regularly probably helped but if the Car Wizard hasn't drilled it into everyone's head yet, this is what you get when buying a Toyota or Lexus, and why a 3rd gen GS is such an underrated, criminally undervalued daily driver in this country. Every E60 at this age is probably an absolute wreck.
Shiny new parts. As usual, no garbage, only OEM or OEM equivalent quality wise:

The brakes really did need sorting though. The discs might have lasted for a few thousand miles longer but they did have noticeable grooves and a lip.

Interestingly there's nothing holding them to the hub, only the pads and wheel hold it in place. These vented discs are side-specific as well, the vent slots need to point in a specific direction for improved cooling. Whoever installed these before had them the wrong way around...
The brake pads definitely needed replacing badly however:

I've cleaned everything and applied some copper grease so whoever is doing these brakes again in a decade isn't going to struggle with seized-on discs. All done and torqued to spec:

All the pistons of the massive 4 pot calipers compressed relatively easily by hand btw, all boots looked decent.
After a trip around the estate to carefully remove any coating. Another 300km of normal driving and everything should have bedded in nicely. Shame about the curbed to fuck wheels.

Replaced the air and cabin filter as well. Access through the glove box couldnt be easier for the cabin filter, I don't think that one had ever been replaced either...


Cleaned the removable shelf while in there, something must have leaked on it over time. The airfilter still looked alright but why not. Replaced all the plastic clips with the proper ones this time.

Also replaced the hood struts. I ordered Stabilus ones as these are generally a well regarded brand for these. Turns out Toyota thought the same as the original ones were Stabilus, too.

The aftermath:

Its great that Lexus has a maintenance screen that allows you to track what needs to be done. The problem is that Lexus decided that 2022 must be the last year someone would ever consider owning a Lexus with this generation infotainment, so it now defaults to 2003 and won't let me track things properly anymore... Not sure if a firmware update is availabe.

On a side note: the updated satnav software seems to work well and the Nokia was a perfect fit:

Only an oil change and cosmetics left. I'll see what I do about the TPMS light. The tires and wheels ideally need replacing towards the end of the year, I might sort them out then.

ABSOLUTE TRANSFORMATION
Anyway, the Lexus performed flawlessly on the 400 mile roundtrip to Birmingham. I think the longer trips probably have helped with the check engine light as well as it's been off for the whole journey. As mentioned, front brakes are first on the list, I also need to check what the state the tire pressure sensors are in (or if they are still there at all) as that light needs to go.

More diagnosing on the SL today. I tested the fuel pressure to rule out leaky injectors (unlikely as both cats get glowing hot at the same time, despite being two different banks) and compression in case the timing is off due to a stretched chain (unlikely as cranking the engine over results in a perfectly even crank).
Everything checked out well, with even compression on all 6 cylinders and no obvious drop in fuel pressure. Since the replacement throttle body was still acting up even with the throttle position sensor unplugged there wasn't much left that could cause this behavior aside from the ECU and the wiring from the ECU to the throttle body.
Lo and behold:

Looks like a resistor literally blew up, probably when someone attempted to jump start the car. I'll send the ECU off to a repair service tomorrow, hopefully this will resolve my running issues once and for all and I can move on to other things the car will need. The car currently blocks my drive so fingers crossed!
In more news, the Corona is now with the bodyshop to have its sills properly sorted. They've only been patched up poorly in the past to pass an MOT, I've asked them to do things properly so hopefully there aren't any bad suprises and they do a good job. I have a long list of other bodywork/paint related things to sort, should they be the right place to handle them.

As mentioned in the for sale thread, the green E38 728i has sold today, the buyer flew in with his wife from Northern Ireland to drive the car back via Scotland. I was able to get about what I had into it and he seemed like the type of person who can appreciate an old car for what it is, so that was a nice bonus. I'm hoping that they will continue to give it the tlc it deserves, its certainly come a long way since I picked it up in London earlier this year.
In other news, there has been a new purchase! If you were wondering who bought @chrisjvm's silverLexus GS300 the other day...

He kindly delivered it during my lunchbreak today as we happen to live so close. I've been interested in this generation GS for years, the first GS450h hybrid was always an interesting car to me as it combined a powerful V6 with a battery pack to deliver very impressive performance. Unfortunately they all suffer from battery pack issues unless Lexus replaced it at some point. Even without the hybrid drivetrain this early GS300 feels quick, and the level of kit is highly impressive for 2005 including cooled seats and a rear backup camera for the PDC. Everything aside from the tire pressure monitor seems to work as well, very impressed!

The boot access is hilarious however. Ignore the popped fuel door.

At least there is a pass through:

Don't have space for all your buttons on the dash? Have another flip out dash!

Cool cluster illumination as well, it looks great in person.

The Satnav however feels ancient, I'll have to see how I can get it updated.

Also has a phone mount. This must be the 5th car I currently own that could (or does) have a phone installed.

The GS also happens to be the newest car I own. How can I tell without even having to look at the numbers?

Ok then!
I made a quick list of things I want to sort out, a new driver side mirror being one of them. I think it really is mostly cosmetics but only a closer look underneath all of these plastic covers will reveal more. So far so good though, thanks again for making the deal Chris! 10/10, would buy from again.

It was, as purchased from a banger racer back in 2014 with clear indicators and 18" GS300 Sport alloys:
And enjoyed doing things like this:
 

They aren't, I think someone just saw it as an easy target. The whole thing was entirely pointless but there are plenty of morons out there unfortunately.

A few more updates this week. The Cadillac went in for an Mot yesterday and everything went so well, until the fuel pump died without a warning while on the roller to test the brakes... And unlike my (very similar underneath) Auroras which have an access panel underneath the trunk carpet to make the fuel pump replacement job a breeze the Deville naturally requires the tank to come out. Thanks GM. I've ordered a new pump and a few other bits it'll eventually need, I hope that its not as bad as it might appear...

On the SL front I finally managed to remove the damaged high pressure power steering pipe. In the end I just snapped the end with the fitting off the pipe and used an impact wrench to seperate it from the other pipe, they were so badly corroded together. Even setting them on fire didn't help, the fitting just started to round off. The steering box end of the pipe wasn't much better, with the banjo bolt being surrounded by the exhaust manifold of the V6, the steering box itself and the return line.
I ended up bending the return line enough to get a socket in there, I have absolutely no clue how you would do this any other way without removing the driverside exhaust manifold or steering box. Thanks Mercedes. Hopefully the local hydraulic hose company can fabricate something that will fit perfectly back in place.

The Toyota Corona also received some attention today. A few weeks back I bought a replacement set of taillights, including the heckblende, and front indicator unit, in Ukraine of all places! A nice bloke on Instagram helped me find the parts in Odessa after me spotting them on one of their local JDM community accounts. With the help of an Ukrainian colleague his mates were able to meet up with the seller, not get stabbed, and ship the parts all the way to Edinburgh where I picked them up on Friday. A real logistical masterpiece and a great example of to what lengths you need to go to keep a car like this in decent shape. Easy to understand why most people wouldn't.
Before and after. The taillights came with bulbs and wiring loom which allowed me to replaced the bodged mess the previous owner left after integrating the rear foglight. No warning light for burnt out bulbs on the dash anymore.


The indicator was full of moisture and grime as well, surprisingly the bulb was still working.


I could have bought replacement headlights as well, but with mine only missing the chrome trim on the passenger side I didn't feel like forking out all the money the seller wanted for them.

A few rust spots that will eventually need sorting behind the lights. The bodyshop I got a quote from has not contacted me yet again (despite telling me that they'd plan for it to go in around end of September) so I'll have to chase them up and see if I can get the sills sorted soon. Cosmetics would be next, hopefully thats the point where it really starts to look like a clean car again.
Speaking of rust, the Celsior is still waiting for a few quick patches before in can pass an MOT. Soon hopefully!

Haha, gotta love the Autoshite community, we even got people close to the dealer. I've already looked up their address, they are indeed still around! And yeah, the RWD 90s LT1 Fleetwood is easily one of my favorite Cadillacs, I'd love to own an Impala SS as well, the seller of my first Aurora had both an Impala SS and Saudi B-body Caprice SS which I really would love to own. I already have the Dutch '92 Caprice though, so theres that.
Remember when I mentioned there might be another car...

Well here it is! Yes, not only did I pick up the Deville the other day, part of the deal was also this Azurite Metallic 1999 Mercedes R129 SL320 that was dropped off yesterday! I didn't plan to be there and buy it, but one thing lead to another and I ended up doing a bundle deal that was just too hard to resist! The hardtop was included as well of course. And since I've been interested in the R129 and I love my W140 so much I'm very excited to get this one back on the road asap.

Being a '99 its got the M112 V6, same V6 you find in pretty much any Benz of the time, including many recent W210 of the community. This makes finding parts much easier and cheaper compared to most other cars I own which is a welcome change. This one currently has no spark so I'll replace the crank sensor before digging in much deeper. Fortunately its easy to reach and only 23 quid for a Bosch one.

Like the Cadillac its been standing in this muddy storage yard for a year so a thorough clean is long due. I'll start working on it properly tomorrow and write a list of bits it'll need. This is the first convertible I own, together with the first Cadillac theres definitely plenty to get excited about right now.

It came with a set of used brake rotors and Lemförder control arms so it has seen some love in the past. Theres no doubt this will take much more time to get back into an acceptable state than the Caddy though.

Not a lot space in those back seats. Trust me, we tried.😂
More updates soon!

I've had a chance to go through the error codes stored in memory today. Aside from anything related to a dead battery things looked good, there's a height sensor that might cause the active suspension error I have but that hopefully is an easy fix.
I've also had a look at the documents that came with the car. Turns out the car was bought by an American company director who moved over to London shortly after buying the car new in Lexington (Kentucky).

Who wouldn't buy a car from this guy? I even have the pre-delivery inspection sheet and window sticker. Check this out!

41k $ would equal to over 77k $ today. I'm not sure how much the Concours trim was at the time but I feel like it wouldn't have been much more to just pick that instead and get all these options included.

He apparently was important enough to get his own Wikipedia article as he was a founder of a large UK container/shipping/railroad company that went under in 2006. The car eventually sold on to the second owner after hardly moving at all (you can see on Streetview that it was replaced by a newer Cadillac DTS sometime in 2007), I don't have much info but it happened to end up in the hands of a used car dealer located literally 5 minutes from my house (in fact I vaguely remember seeing it on Ebay years ago). The 3rd owner who I purchased it from didn't have it for long before dumping it in the storage yard where I found it (along with many other cars, vans, a classic towtruck and a half finished coach camper conversion he needs to get rid of now).
That means that the car was babied most of its life until somewhat recently, when it ended up in the wrong hands and quickly deteriorated. A classic story for many of these cars unfortunately. Being able to puzzle together most of its history adds a lot of value to the car for me though, its always incredible what stories many of these have had in the past (and what type of people owned them before). This one is no exception!
 
 

i should have bought one of these years ago - what a cracking piece of kit ! and excellent value thanks to @DVee8’s trade card.
the lad in the shop had a chuckle when he saw i’d come to collect it in the mx5 but it fitted perfectly in the boot

weighed a fucking ton when i tried to lift it out ! 
also i took a short cut to avoid traffic and got the mazda a little bit dirty

good news is that it’s had its rear sill repaired and passed its mot   
(with the usual advisory for the exhaust !)