ZX 1.9td - Farewell faithfull steed!

[beko1987]

 

Lets presume so. Ill treat it to some conditioning bollox too, it probably needs/deserves it

[explosive-cabbage]

2L probably better. Get ut from a motor factors, much cheaper if you offer to pay cash!

[Honey Badger]

I changed my power steering fluid over a couple of weeks using a 500ml syringe to drain the fluid to the minimum line then top up with fresh psf, this method uses more fluid but is a lot less labour intensive, think of it as the lazy shiter way vs the proper shiter way

[beko1987]

I do have a big syringe that I used to fill the auto box up on the xm, but it doesnt sound like a big job. Ill buy another bottle when I get some more money then, emptied my paypal with the first!

[The Moog]

Yep I has always used a massive syringe. Quick thing to do...

[beko1987]

Yea, but that doesn't sound like it will purge teh system fully, and I imagine it needs it, I'll grab a smudge of the fluid colour later. Could even be tempted to do another change in a month or so after the initial one to fully clean it out... 

[conkerman]

Top shedding!

 

If the car feels down on power, check the rubber seals betwixt interwarmer and manifold. They go hard and leak precious boostus.

 

If you need to do the timing belt I have a set of XUD locking tools. If you need a loan of tools, I am local to you so will help out if I can.

[beko1987]

Thanks Conkerman. It does feel a bit sluggish since I put the heating fuel in, not sure if that's just me though. I have checked the intercooler seal before and it did seem a bit flat, but sealed ok, might change that next year. I should also look at the leakoff pipes, as it used to chuck a bit of smoke out, but it doesn't do that anymore unless I really boot it, and I quite like doing that, made some guy flash me the other night... Childish fun!

[beko1987]

I had a quick look at the power steering at lunch too, the fluid does look like shit oil

 

 

(Thanks for the cambelt tools offer too, only 20k into it's last though!)

 

Is this the pipe I should look to drain it from?

 

 

which goes down to here

 

 

Yummy

 

 

I should hopefully have a bit of money to spend on it in feb, so apart from a general service which it needs, and a new exhaust, fitting and sealing ring, anything else I should have a look at? 

 

Must give Dodgytom a list of stuff I want too, but I can't afford the postage atm, Tom, mind if I give you the list but we sort sendage out at a later date?

[explosive-cabbage]

Yeah drain it from the exit pipe from the tank.

 

Run the engine for a bit whilst turning the wheel to pump any old fluid through.

[D Spares & Tyres]

Chuck the old steering fluid in the tank

 

I break up quite a few cars and the pas fluid and gearbox oil run fine mixed with a bit if petrol ☺

 

Just send me a list of what you want, i'll get it to you anyway.

[twosmoke300]

Lucas power steering treatment is about the only cure in a bottle / bottle of hopes and dreams / snake oil that I've found to work

[beko1987]

As you may recall, a week or so ago I hit a cat size deer, which had the annoying side effect of breaking the bit of twig I had holding the arch liner together. All was ok still, until last night when I took Eva to grannys for a sleepover. I found the bit by work that always floods, and drove through it at 45mph. Much laughs were had by all, but it busted the twig and the arch liner dropped, so I drove home with a scraping noise on left hand bends.

 

So I chose the BEST DAY EHAH to do something about it

 

 

The boy was in a gr9  mood, so Amy took him shopping

 

 

TBH it wasnt the job itself I wasnt looking forward to, it was the fact that everything is filthy, and wet, and shitty

 

 

I had to kneel in this crap

 

 

But the wheel came off. I want new front pads, these havent fucking worn in 2 years, and I brake a fair bit. I like pads to wear down and be obvious that they are doing their jobs. The discs look ok, are zx's light on the brakes?

 

 

General smeg

 

 

Aha, here's the issue!

 

 

I tried to be clever by using the childs balloon stick that's been laying in the gutter for weeks, but alas it was not strong enough, as it was a + section, not an O that could be wedged in.

 

 

So a new bit of twig was acquired, this one had a handy bit of pokey out stick to hold everything in place

 

 

and hold it in place it does! It then pushes the front bit to where it needs to go, which in turn wedges against the stick stopping any movement

 

 

This piece is purposefully* wedged behind it's own bracket to provide rigidity

 

What wasn't so jovial was the uneven tyre wear on that wheel

 

 

 

The inner edge is wearing. Is this tracking? It does pull to the right, and the steering wheel is off centre. I've changed the track rod ends, drop links and lower ball joints, tracking seems the only thing left. What happens with tracking? Will they need the wheels off?

 

Still, never mind, it wont go bald overnight, and theres fuck all I can do until payday, so on the wheel went, and I packed up on the car, which was even wetter now as the rain had increased

 

 

I then did the sensible thing of getting a fire going

 

 

 

which was tricky, but I got there. I then burnt ALL the xmas wrapping paper and boxes and other burnable shite that were filling up the green bin, which already had 2 bags at the side of it, and it doesn't fucking go until wednesday, so fuck em, I recycled it myself... This had the added bonus of the old girl next door popped her head out the window and asked if I wouldnt mind burning a load of old bank statements etc, to save her having to shred them. So I didnt even get told off for the smoke, even when I put some tinsel on (it burns black, shitty smoke, even nowadays)

 

 

A Dyson DC03 wand makes an excellent fire poker

 

All burnt, I put everything back in the green bin, which filled it up again but I need to stamp it down a fair bit now, and then grabbed a beer and a rolly and watched the fire burn out for a bit

 

 

Then came inside cos it was cold, wet and shitty, and I needed a piss and some food! I then got all girly by putting my 'shitty car working on clothes' through the wash as they do stink now, and Amy doesn't like me doing it when she is here. Even put extra fabric softener in!

 

 

 

[Six-cylinder]

Too wet for me, my Volvo V70 is on charge with the battery disconnected and I need to sort it out because it is blocking everything else in but it is just to horrid here in Buckingham as well!

[Lacquer Peel]

Carling, oh dear.

 

Tracking is only about £20 or £30, but if your wishbone bushes are goosed there's no point doing it.

[Sigmund Fraud]

What wasn't so jovial was the uneven tyre wear on that wheel

 

upload_-1 (15).jpg

 

upload_-1 (16).jpg

 

The inner edge is wearing. Is this tracking? It does pull to the right, and the steering wheel is off centre. I've changed the track rod ends, drop links and lower ball joints, tracking seems the only thing left. What happens with tracking? Will they need the wheels off?

 

Wheel alignment refers to three basic angles, as shown in the picture below (stolen from the internets) :

 

 

Those angles are determined by the design of the suspension and are found in the manufacturer's workshop manuals.

 

Tracking usually refers to the adjustment of the toe angle, the other two angles are not really adjustable in most modern econoboxes.

 

Toe is usually adjusted by altering the length of the track rods. It's a fairly simple process that can be done on a flat driveway using a ruler and bits of fishing line. Most garages nowadays use laser-based equipment (remember that a laser beam remains perfectly straight over long distances) which makes the process faster and less prone to operator error.

 

The wheels stay where they are and my local tyre place charges £30 (which is on the salty side) for it.

[beko1987]

It seems the season for leaky chod is upon us! Noticed the front footwell was underwater too yesterday

 

 

 

So, out with the Hoover AquaPlus

 

 

I checked my doors for water after 320tourings waterfall. I could handily* get my phone all the way in the door

 

 

using this handy access hole caused by old speakers

 

 

Nope, dry as a bone. I took the rear speaker grille off as well just in case

 

 

Nope, that all looks fine.

 

So, my thoughts are turning to this

 

 

Which has never worked in my ownership, the previous owner said it worked, but went back at an angle and fucked itself up so I've left it. Can't say I've ever used sunroofs in cars anyway. I've ordered some sunroof repair kit to see if I can fix the issue. Otherwise, the water is coming from underneath, and it's not got a hoel as far as I can tell

 

 

I vacced out the rear footwell as well

 

 

Then, because half the car was spotless, and the other half a skip, I put the AquaPlus back in the boot for mid-week water removal, and got the AquaMaster out (cos it was dry and had its filter fitted) and vacuumed the rest of the car out

 

 

 

which was bone dry. Only the passenger side of the car floods. If the sunroof repair method does not work, I'll have to do some more thinking. It's wet again now in the back after the rain overnight. But I don't sit there when driving it, so meh.

 

[beko1987]

I had the morning to myself, so went out to the car

 

 

The aim was to get rid of this hole. I went out and bought the shittest roll of gaffer tape known to man this morning especially

 

 

It was rather wet in/under there

 

 

Time for a 1989 Hoover AquaPlus 1700 (too rare for me to be doing this crap with it tbh)

 

 

Because I tore the carpet taking it out that time, I could peel it right back and remove the section of underlay that I also tore last time. Handy!

 

 

Started taking the doorcard off

 

 

Took this crap off (anyone want them? no idea what size they are)

 

 

 

Hole fixed, I decided to have a look at the crap window seal. Removed the outer one, it is fixed onto the top of the door like a door rubber, so lifted off and slid out of the broken end clip that holds it to the body

 

 

It was here I noticed that the glass wasn't actually in the runner, no wonder it didn't like going up and down

 

 

The top screw thread had snapped off the guide piece, and I couldnt grip the remains inside the door to unscrew it. This being broken meant the top of the guide moves, and the glass comes out

 

 

So I got my shit dremel out and ground the head off the screw

 

 

Went and got my box of random screws and found a suitable replacement

 

 

and found one long enough to screw into the hole left by the snapped standoff bit, and grip it enough that once all the other screws are tight it doesn't move!

 

 

This made the window not jump out

 

 

Window running alot happier, I got some lubricants out

 

 

 

and lubricated the centre shaft, and spray greased the cables, door lock and door handle innards, the door check strap and whatever else I could find that moves

 

 

The window worked really well now! I could bend the part that touches the glass out on the door rubbers, so spent time fettling it just so, then cleaned up the corrosion that it causing the peice to look shit, cleaned up underneath where it was, ran a thin line of tiger seal along the door where it clips onto so it held on and put it back on

 

 

 

No idea if that was the actual cause of the wet carpets but it looks better now its done!

 

 

I then sealed the sunroof

 

 

The sunroof is up slightly at the front, I can push it down and it pops back up, which may not help so the rear sealed up neatly

 

 

but the front doesnt look so neat. The felt seal of the sunroof was very wet and the gunk didnt adhere to it well, so I did as much as I could before it started to peel when I smoothed it, and I'll put another neater layer on when this sets, so the top layer has something to grab onto

 

I then took the glovebox out, which enabled me to cable tie the massive nest of wires up out of the way so they dont keep falling into the footwell

 

 

and enable me to start doing something I have wanted to do for ages, which is run new speaker cables. The thin, green, stiff factory wires work, but I want to replace the rear speakers at some point, and new cable may make it sound a bit better, plus the front doors did have speaker wires in for the speakers that were in the holes in the door at one point (speakers were not fitted when I bought the car), so there were holes in bungs for a cable anyway

 

 

I found out doing this that the front left and right speakers were wired the wrong way round into the headunit... so fixed that too. It did sound slightly better

 

 

Door card back on, and it looks much better! Amy came home at this point though, so I packed up, and will do the drivers side door in the same way at some point, and run a new speaker cable to there. I think I'll have to take the front seats out to do the rear doors though, so will do that when the weather gets a bit nicer.

[D Spares & Tyres]

Hope you have had better luck than me at getting the door lock buttons to work correctly after ☺

[beko1987]

No, it doesn't work! I've not cracked how to fit them, don't think any actually work tbh!

[beko1987]

As per the Grumpy thread I am having fuel issues...

 

Symptoms are:

 

When the revs drop below 2k they die, and the car dies and is a bastard to restart. This is especially fun whilst doing 40 around a sharp corner, or coming off the M40. Through the use of lots of revs (which I don't like doing) I got it home.

 

So, the first thing to check is the fuel filter. New just before/after crimbo, I cant remember now...

 

 

Oooh look, lard...

 

 

But the filter itself wasnt too bad, didn't feel waxy, the deposits you see are from my hands after cleaning the top off

 

.

 

Predictably, after putting so much effort into getting home I got to my parking space and dumped the clutch. Was fine... So it seems that after a run at constant speed it doesn't like it. IE I did 55 on the M40 for 12 miles, then it died. I restarted it, and drove to a pub car park and turned it off, waited 10 minutes then restarted, and held the revs high and drove home.

 

I made a little video demonstrating that it is a bastard and is laughing at me

 

 

The idle is sitting high as I made it so incase it helped. After refitting the filter I pumped the bulb hard, and it fired after 3-4 seconds of cranking, still more than it ever used to need.

 

I have tomorrow off to accompany Amy to the hospital, so may have a look at the tank filter. Is this a case of seats out, rubber cover off, unplug stuff, bash the locking ring around and off and lift out? Do I have to remove any pipes/will I need new jubilee clips? I don't have one of those clip release tools, should possibly get one if anyone can link me to the right one...

 

Either way, it's a pain.

 

 

[beko1987]

O Yea, new filter in the post, and tools in the car so I can change it the second it arrives at work and hope...

[oldcars]

I have never ran a car on veg but guess this is possible something to do with it. Its showing the symptoms my Reliant did when the mixture was all wrong, i guess its not getting the right amount of fuel. I too raised the idle but this made it worse and run on. Whats it like if you drop the idle? Hows the fuel pump? Can you drain the tank and fill up with diesel and see how it goes?

[beko1987]

It feels like the mixture is wrong, it hunts at speed, I could feel it on the m40. I could drain the tank, or at least drain a load out, anyone got any hints on how to do this easily?

 

After stupidly high revs for the journey home its showing 3/4 full, would chucking £20 of derv in now do anything?

[Lacquer Peel]

Yes, chucking diesel in will help a lot, thin the fuel and cancel out the gelling of the oil you have in the tank. Mix it in the tank by ragging it around a few roundabouts or something.

A filter can look perfect but still be clogged, it's always worth keeping a spare especially when XUD fuel filters are pennies.

 

What oil is in there, is it new soya oil? Soya oil is utter pish in the winter.

[beko1987]

No, Grandma cabbages finest motion lotion, which I've run before with no ill effects. However I put petrol in with this because it was cold, and now bloody isn't. Plus there may be some heating oil still in the system...

 

Ill pop some derv in tomorrow and see what happens! Hopefully it won't die fully with a full tank of fuel in.

 

Plus this is going to make me paranoid when pulling up to all junctions now...

[Lacquer Peel]

Maybe some water in the heating oil?

It looks like gelled soya oil to me.

[beko1987]

Highly possible, was at the bottom of an ibc for feck knows how long, I picked it up in an assortment of milk cartons and squash bottles.

[alf892]

Highly possible, was at the bottom of an ibc for feck knows how long, I picked it up in an assortment of milk cartons and squash bottles.

u ave been dun wif that mota m8! Wot kinda shit heap won't run on such fine fule?

[beko1987]

That was a while ago though, its had a tank of derv and 2 tanks of veg since then. Or does it linger? Can I buy any magic potions to put in the fuel tank and just change the fuel filter every day?