Rust Collector

This is some of my assortment of shite that’s ULEZ compliant. Interesting for me means more than 4 cylinders, but YMMV. V8 - LS430 V8 - E430 V6 - Mitsushitty Shogun Sport* V6 - SLK 320 Flat 6 - Legacy 3.0l Outback Mine are all scrap on wheels sadly, but if you got a working example then you’d be able to go terrorising London with vehicles of increased displacement. I’ll add that they’re all enjoyable cars to run daily if you don’t mind the cost of fuel and fixing the bits that fall off.

'But I was already doing that before you told me my car was fucked!'

Weeeeeeeellllll… I bled the injectors this morning. I found using a power probe easiest as this meant I could watch the injectors whilst cranking. I then put it back together, started it, and… It runs away as soon as you turn it on, sits at 3k rpms, chucks out smoke, bogs down and dies. Ive spent some time checking the adjustments on the pump, and I’ve come to the conclusion that something inside the ‘new’ pump is seized. I think the best way forwards now is to just crack on and rebuild the original pump then use that. A bit of a disappointing end to the time I’ve put into it so far, but you don’t win them all. On the plus side, I did some other stuff today. I swapped out the carb and some service bits on my mower, and that works beautifully now: Every time I mow the lawn, I think how lucky we are to have such a nice outdoor space. Even if the dogs and our son do litter it with their toys. I also finally fixed the three broken taps in the house: You know you’ve been lax with sorting things when it feels like a luxury to now be able to turn any tap in the house and have it both work and not leak. Then I went to the shops to grab some gin, and on the way back the dusk sky over the sea caught my eye so I stopped in the Pontiac to enjoy it for a bit. Things like this remind me why I love living in this part of the country. So all in all not a bad day, even if the XM work didn’t pan out as expected.

I got the last of the shite hooked up to the pump this evening: I think the kick down cable is a bit slack so I may tweak that, but otherwise I’m 97% certain everything is as it should be. I was still a bit unsure about the pump shaft and sprocket so I marked it (badly). Time to throw all the other junk on: The good news is that when turning the engine over, the sprocket and shaft stay aligned. The bad news is I’m a twat and I forgot to bleed the fuel lines. The engine won’t run on air, sadly. I’ve also managed to get diesel in my mouth again and everything tastes sour. Inlet manifold back off then. Cracked the injectors open, cranked it, one line primed and then the battery went flat. Probably for the best as it was getting late. Battery on charge and we will resume play tomorrow! Unfortunately it won’t be until later in the day though as I need to swap the carb on my mower and then go replace some lights for my parents. Bums.

I checked it ages ago and didn't recall anything dire, but just to refresh our memories: There's nothing there worrying me too much. I'll check the front discs again but I don't recall them being gopping when I had the wheels off before. I'm hoping that the hour or so drive to the test station should help free the car up and get it in the mood for a pass. Or cause it to explode, and not be eligible for recovery due to a lack of MOT.

Failure is no problem at all, but it'd be nice to not have to wear the test fee if it fails catastrophically which is what is luring me to these folks. Is it the Ashford branch that you use? I think Brands Hatch is nearer me but they don't do timed bookings unlike their other centres.

Before I finished off last night I spent a few minutes pumping furiously on the driveway. My thought process being that if I primed the fuel system before going to bed then when I woke up in the morning I would be able to check that everything was still hard. I gave it a few pumps and it still felt fairly rigid which is encouraging. Hopefully I’ll get this all wrapped up tonight and have her running. If I can get her starting reliably I will be well chuffed, as the laboured starting and not knowing if it would actually start was really spoiling what’s otherwise a pretty decent car (I hope). Provided she starts and runs ok then I’ll do the ABS sensor on the off side rear, give her a quick once over for any obvious faults, give her a wash and then get her in for a ticket. I’d quite like to try the nearby* ‘no pass no fee’ place, @grizz is this who you use? https://www.thetestcentre.co.uk

I managed to make a bit more time for tinkering this eve. Not many photos I’m afraid as I just wanted to crack on. First up was that breather hose. The part listings online had the specs for it as an 18mm id. I did not bother removing one and measuring the hose tail. I lived to regret this. It turns out the ends of the hose are a larger ID than the main body of it, so the 19mm oil hose I ordered didn’t fit. I don’t want to wait for Autodoc to deliver a proper hose, and all the spares on eBay etc. are also located in Europe. I had a scout around the garage and I discovered that my manual shite water pump that I keep handy in case of small floods has the perfect sized oil rated hose attached to it. Bodge time: It’s better than it was at least. The original pipe had cracked around about 75% of its circumference, and fell off in my hand. I’ve just cut it back to make it fit into a sleeve I cut from my hand pump. Job jobbed. Then after some fucking around, swearing and pulled back muscles, I managed to get the spare pump in place. Im really bloody hoping that woodruff key is located properly. It’s all gone into place so I’m hoping that the key is still there and hasn’t been mangled. Once it’s all back together I’ll leave the timing cover off temporarily and bar it over first. Im hoping to finish up tomorrow, all being well.

Unless the B stands for 'broken down' then I don't believe their claim of 'A to B Express Travel'.

I've just binge read this thread - absolutely incredible work mate, it's not easy keeping momentum on these projects with work, shit weather and a young family but you're just smashing through everything that comes up. Keep up the good work!

It's amazing how many things can break and yet they still just keep going undeterred. I'm just thinking, has the car had the LHM pump swapped out at some point? I think there were 2 different types of pumps depending if the car was a sinker or not, which could explain a redundant hard line near the LHM pump that goes off in the direction of the accumulator.

It can't be anything too important as there's no fluid pissing out anywhere. I'll have a look on a parts diagram later just out of curiosity. On the subject of non-working parts, a browse of some Citroen forums has revealed that I don't need to worry about the waxstat thing. It's designed to reduce cold start emissions by advancing ignition timing, but is of no detriment to reliable operation when it fails and apparently TADTS.

One less gear as well I think! I think the back end of the US spec ones looks better than the EU spec ones, and it doesn’t look bad in grey. I wonder if it’s ever been UK registered?

Don’t feel bad, there’s loads of other stuff I’m being lazy about and completely avoiding 😅

I think the battery has possibly been killed by a parasitic drain and the car being stood. If you did have a receipt handy and it doesn’t put you out then it might be worth a try on the warranty. Don’t worry, I was only towing the trailer on the farm tracks to move it. I’ve seen how that tow bar is mounted and I have zero faith in its ability to handle any amount of force on it. The neck of the ball hitch is bent as well, just for good measure 😂 Sometimes once the kids are in bed and it’s that hour or two before I go to sleep, I get really restless and wound up and have to go and tinker with something. 9 out of 10 times I break something and end up even more frustrated, but the mirror switch was one of those small wins on an evening that would otherwise have been wasted staring at the tv!

It’s great how some of the smaller fixes really improve the ‘quality of life’ when it comes to using the car. Sorting the lights and mirrors out has made a huge difference to how pleasant the car is to use daily. I’m not sure how I feel about my XM at the moment. I think I’m a bit disappointed that I need to sell it once it’s MOT’d, I guess I thought I’d keep it longer and get to enjoy running it. I’ll daily it until it gets a new home at least. I would love to try a V6 XM at some point, I imagine it feels like a completely different car to my diesel one.

I’ve not had a poke in this one, but in the spare one end of the material was dangling out so I pulled on it - it had the consistency of cured RTV. I’m thinking/hoping that if the waxstat isn’t working then it will just mean that my warm idle is too high.

Oh, and I forgot to mention RE that severed hardline: it was cut at both ends and was clipped to the block. I’ve removed it now, does anyone have any ideas as to what that was and if it was needed? It looks like it would have carried LHM but there’s no obvious places that don’t have a line connected to them.

I’ve been back on the case with the fuel pump tonight. The main job was to disconnect the last of the hoses, fuel lines etc. That’s the only goal I set myself tonight, but the kids were in bed and felt motivated so I carried on. A while back I bent a 45 degree angle in a spanner by mistake, and made a shit joke about it undoing bolts around corners. Anyway, it turns out they’re actually a thing and they’re needed for this job: You can’t really get the four nuts holding the pump on any other way. Getting leverage on the rear nut is not easy, so once again my copper tube fetish came into play Whilst undoing those nuts I was alarmed to find a severed hard line under the LHM pump as I yoinked it out Likewise, the goo inside this waxstat thing appears to be fucking off and doing it’s own thing. The spare pump is the same. Proof that I somehow managed to avoid losing the woodruff key for a second time: Theres a tool for getting the pump shaft free from the sprocket. I don’t own that tool, and I promise I absolutely didn’t use a club hammer on the spare pump and a pry bar on the one in the car. To be fair, there isn’t much force needed to release the pump at all. I reckon you could do it by hand if you were patient enough. Success: I didn’t expect to get the pump pulled out this eve, so I’m pleased to have done that. I’m now indoors enjoying a gin and tonic and knuckles bruised like I’ve been on a night out in Newhaven. I now need to decide what to do about that PCV hose. I can get a replacement from Europe for £20 which will arrive fuck knows when. I can get a length of the same diameter oil hose from CBS by Thursday for a tenner, but I’ll have to bend it to shape and hope it can manage the radius needed. Choices, choices… Also, does anyone know if I should be worried about the orange goo escaping the waxstats?

I needed an HD bulb for my Disco 3 whilst on a journey a while back. I bought one in Crawley Halfords, and it was a bit of a faff - I had to take a card hanger to the till, and the girl had to rummage through a random box of bulbs. Then I got shafted for £31. I've since seen that the Range do the same bulb for about £9, and it's even left out on the shelf for you to shoplift if you like. I will give them a try next time I need one.

Help yourselves to another night time pic of the Pontiac, this time in my ownership. I quite like the dash on this one, it definitely gives me that warm, fuzzy feeling 😅

It's lazy starting most of the time now, so I think whatever was leaking must be getting progressively worse. Hopefully the pump swap sorts it right out! There used to be a company in that unit who made madly expensive HY van styled catering trailers. They've now gone, but left an HY van cab moulding on the wall 😅 Originally they converted the vans, but customers weren't enjoying driving them apparently and would prefer to pull a fibreglass replica about instead.

I've never had too much grief from it dripping diesel out, but the excessive cranking and always wondering if it would start or if the battery would go flat was the motivation I needed to get it done 😅 I don't want the MOT tester to have to fight with it just to get it started!

The other car that has been receiving the benefit* of my on/off attention of late is the ex @Stinkwheel XM. One of the larger jobs left on the list was to replace the fuel pump on the car with one from the donor engine. I owe a thankyou to @wesacosa on this one, as I'd been putting it off until he mentioned that the pump sprocket has holes in it to bolt it to the block and keep the timing belt in place when removing the pump. With the knowledge in hand, I attacked the spare engine. It turns out there's nothing particularly miserable about the job, it's just a tediously long process of removing things one-by-one until the pump comes out: My plan is to use this pump temporarily, rebuild the original, refit the original, then rebuild this one. On to doing the job on the actual car then, rather than an engine laying on the driveway. Hmmm... This is the prize we are after: The clearance down the side of the block isn't great, especially for someone like me who is afflicted with Big Clumsy Moron Hand Syndrome. As a result, this was the most annoying thing to remove: After that it has bee fairly methodical progress. Here's the sprocket with the bolts in to hold the timing, and the nut removed: Having kids does limit tinkering time, so I'm getting about an hour in a night at present. I'm hoping to have this out and swapped by the weekend. I did notice this, which is a bit of a nuisance: It looks like a crank breather, and it has broken down and is leaking oil onto the block. I tried to see if I could liberate the one from the spare engine, but it's even worse and cracked off: This needs the pump off to replace, so I'll have to look if they're still available, or if not then I'll have to buy some hose and make something that works. Once that's done then I just have the rear ABS sensor to replace, which is meant to be a bastard job, and then it's MOT time!

Once again, we are long overdue an update. The good news is, I'm happy. The Pontiac is on daily duties at present. I am duly embracing the American commuter spirit by using the mug holders correctly and coating everything in scalding hot coffee. I've decided not to start work on the MOT welding before the ticket is due, because the work looks to be so extensive that I wouldn't get it done in time and I'd miss out on my last opportunities to enjoy driving it. The work will instead be done once the ticket expires as it is looking like it will require cutting a length of the bonded plastic bodywork away to access the sills properly. The battery adapters worked, although the only battery I had with the terminals the correct way round was the one in the Proton, so I've nicked the battery from that for now. Of course, this battery was too big for the factory tie down to work, and was also so tall that I was worried about shorting out the positive terminal on the cross brace. Copper brake line and the dust boot from a Lexus air strut to the rescue: I came up with a better/more secure routing for the copper pipe, and put everything back together. I definitely* will put the right battery in at some point. There's no fix more permanent than a temporary one etc... At any rate, it meant I now had a car that started each morning, which meant it was daily driver time! The first proper run in it was to the Flower Farm meet where it was mainly used to entertain my son. It's also done a few family days out, where it easily copes with 2 adults, 2 kids, 2 large dogs, the pram and all the assorted crap which we drag around with us. The dogs like it if the unused seats are removed, as they can then sit between the front seats or stretch out in the boot. I need to get some seatbelt extenders so that the kids can both ride in the middle row - I've never known a car with such short seatbelts! Whilst procrastinating over the larger jobs, I started sorting the small ones. One thing that jarred me was my rusty nuts. I could see them from the driver's seat, and so this had* to be sorted. I designed and printed these at work: Sorted: No idea how long the PLA will last, but I can just make more if needed. It looks much better from in the cab and outside. The modular seats are a great feature, it's been handy to have a car with a flat load space which I can use as a van. My mum needed 400 kilos of wood pellets brought up to the stables, and the Pontiac pissed it. Kind of... Once I get it through a ticket, I'm definitely sorting the boot struts out. In the meantime, I just use the nearest pole to hold it up. I then got my Mitsubishi stuck. It's stuck in 2wd mode, I thought it would cope with the mud but it just slid into the fence post and wedged itself in place. This meant I had to use the Pontiac to move the car trailer (this was what I was getting the Mitsubishi out for). It looks cool, but even though it's not that heavy a trailer you do notice it behind you. I wouldn't be mad keen on pulling it on the road. The mirrors are absolutely wank for reversing also. Speaking of which, this was winding me up something chronic: It's possibly not very clear, but the mirror adjuster stalk was pushed in flush with the trim around it preventing it being used. In this pic I've discovered and wound out the retaining grub screw. I then prised out the trim, pushed the switch back into place and tightened up the grub screw. Sorted, we now have working wing mirror adjustment. Next up was the non-working wash/wipe function. It used to work, but now it wasn't spraying out any windscreen wash. Turns out some fucking idiot (me) had connected the front hose to the rear pump, and left the rear hose dangling into The Void. Plugging things back into the right pumps sorted that out nicely. The last major niggle was the headlight aim. It was like the car was cross-eyed and constantly staring at its shoes. The headlights are easy to remove, one of the adjusters had been moved too far and needed taking apart and winding back on manually: I then roughly dialled them in on the side of a beach hut. It's not perfect but it lights the road up much better now. At some point, I'll need to obscure the LHD kick up for reasons of MOT obtaining. Bonus dashboard at night content: That's pretty much all the Pontiac fun from the last few weeks. Next up: Citroen fun*.