DeanH
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DeanH reacted to HMC in HMC- Live- Bench seated collection
LIVE collection- coffee done, and the vendor is actually picking me up.
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DeanH reacted to ruffgeezer in Collection mission is go
I was not prepared for a pants down picture.
I wish you a good journey and hope that you aren't on the pot on the train, only to be unveiled like the star prize on bullseye when the electric door inexplicably opens, mid loaf.
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DeanH reacted to Popsicle in Late collection, early start.
Is that some portal to a different time/dimension?
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DeanH reacted to Talbot in Engineered like no other car. Not a single one like it. Thankfully.
Had a chance to try looking at this over the weekend.
Managed to get a lend of a rather nice aftermarket diagnostics system that has just about every plug from the mid-90's onwards. Fitted the bastard great plug (38pin Merc) and wireless box that plugs into the car, and got the windows tablet to connect to it. It knows about all the modules in the E300 (and about 20,000 other cars too) and can communicate with them properly, which is good news. Apparently it's about £2.5k of diagnostics kit, but a really lovely system. Car had about 50 stored codes in loads of different modules. Cleared most of them, but could not clear three persistent codes from the ABS/BAS module. They didn't show up as current codes, but also would not clear. Using live data and moving the car about a bit, it was instantly obvious that both rear channels for the ABS were showing the car as stationary. The front channels were good, but the rears showed no speed at all. Now, given that I was absolutely confident that the cabling has been repaired correctly, and the chances of losing two speed sensors/rings at the same time is pretty damn slim, my assumption is that the input channels to the ECU have had a spike and are busted.
A quick exchange of an ABS/BAS ecu from another car which has matching part numbers (which seems to be all W210, pre-facelift at least) and sure enough, the ABS and BAS errors are gone. w00T!! So.. fit that properly into the ECU box and drive the car. Sure enough, the completely chaotic gearchanges are gone and the car is driving properly again.
Thank fuck for that. Was beginning to get a bit worried it wouldn't ever be fixed.
So. Just the bloody great crack in the windscreen to sort, and then I can see what it fails on at MOT...
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DeanH reacted to HMC in Rein Adamson's cars cleared
Sadly it’s not a suprise when councils fail to follow their own protols and procedures.
(type whilst sipping a beer and reading the rotten boroughs section of private eye.)
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DeanH reacted to RoverFolkUs in The new news 24 thread
For most folk this smell just signifies the feeling of being dry bummed in the a Kwik fit waiting area
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DeanH reacted to HMC in HMC- Live- Bench seated collection
Fleet news- Abarth 595 was bought by @Wack, and another forum member is due to collect the Boxster tomorrow.
So currently the only car I have use of is the Austin 7…..
Although I have another vehicle on the way. I decided to use the Abarth money to get another silly car, and have less tied up in the token modern. I’m yet to buy the token modern (will be a sub 1k buy) but the other silly car is a 1997 Ford crown Victoria p71 police interceptor. Part of the us government fleet, specific use unknown……
Should be with me by the weekend.
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DeanH reacted to Talbot in Engineered like no other car. Not a single one like it. Thankfully.
That's not one I had heard of. I assume it's done after starting the car, as turning from lock to lock with the engine off is quite* hard work!
Now that it's mobile again, I plan to drive the car down to my local specialist, who does have Star which can communicate with a pre-facelift W210 38-pin and both read and program the car. Once that's done, we'll see how far I've managed to get.
I do think I have some damaged control modules somewhere though. The window / sunroof / interior lamps issue can only really be due to a damaged module somewhere. All the wiring is re-connected, so the correct low-amp triggers should be getting to the control modules.
I just about refuse to be beaten on this. I'm still irked that I set fire to the car, so I'm damnwell going to fix it!
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DeanH reacted to HMC in The new news 24 thread
I’ll stop photobombing news 24 after this one, but…..
School drop off
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DeanH reacted to Talbot in Engineered like no other car. Not a single one like it. Thankfully.
The passenger door card was the main cosmetic item that got actually damaged in the fire. I managed to source a replacement, but unfortunately not from quite the right specification car. The car it came from did not have the power memory passenger seat that mine has, so didn't have the appropriate moulding for the switches. So, as the lower bin section got the worst damage, that's the bit to swap. It is, unfortunately, held on with plastic-melt-sprues, meaning to get it off you have to drill/cut the melt bit off. Luckily, I managed to find some screws that had large flat heads and short stubby threads that fitted perfectly in the hollow sprues. Only one needed modification in any way.
So with that swapped over, I then had to epoxy on the plastic pads that hold the plastic clips that hold the card on. Rather than just a hole in the fibreboard, there's a bonded on plastic stiffener for every mounting point. Even the damn door cards are well engineered! The original glue is of course now 27+ years old, hence the need for new epoxy:
Mini clamps being used until the awkward ones set.
Then it's out with the spray adhesive to stick the layer of sound deadening on:
And the card is ready for the car. Note the hole for the airbag to punch through should it be needed.
Comparison of the two cards. Where I previously had a card with seat switches and a burned bottom (Oooh, matron!) I've now swapped them about to have a card with switches and a better bin area, and the donor card with the burned bit. There's still a small scorch area on the card I am using, but it's not really visible, so I'm not going to worry.
Seats visible fitted there too.
I got the card fitted, which also fixed the passenger-door-is-always-open issue, as it turns out the door switch bears on the plastic trim around the door catch. So if you remove the door card, the switch cannot detect the door being closed. Slightly odd design, but I can see why.
Then it got late, the light started to go, and I was beginning to make mistakes. Time to give up for the weekend.
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DeanH reacted to lesapandre in The new news 24 thread
Interesting article on the perils of electric cars. No chargers at holiday resorts which are quiet a lot of the year and then have peak demand over the summer.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/feb/18/taking-tesla-to-truro-warnings-lack-of-electric-charging-points
Great way to make silly money - strap a big old diesel generator to a flatbed and tour Devon fleecing owners who can't find a charger this summer...
I'll stick to my diesel banger...