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Coprolalia's Asylum - Sporadic fleet updates


Coprolalia

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2 hours ago, PhilA said:

Was always intrigued by these, with the light cluster in the middle.

Are they actually LED's or plastic filters and bulbs behind?

Actually LEDs except for the main beam one.  *Except* for some very early ones where a blue silicon carbide LED was used - which as far as I'm aware is the first commercial application where one appeared.  Later cars used either an amber LED or an incandescent lamp and filter.

See also: Things I'd (metaphorically) give my right arm to get hold of being a lighting technology geek.  Still irked I didn't learn about the vanishingly rare LED involved when there was a very early Polo which would have had one in my local scrappy back in the early 00s.

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My early T25 had red for main beam too.  So they used a fair variety of alternatives.

Pretty sure a couple of other manufacturers have used yellow for main beam over the years too. 

Thinking Volvo used a yellowish off-white in the 440 to name one unless my memory is playing tricks on me...

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  • 2 months later...

Minor update time. 

Scirocco

The garage has been cleared of building materials/ waste, and the Scirocco has been moved in as of last month for over-winter work. Will probably do another post soon with pictures of this work.

Jobs list: 

  • The wiring needs tidying up (currently the fusebox is cable-tied to the bulkhead) - In progress
  • The rev counter doesn't work - incompatible with the new alternator
  • The gear selector mechanism hits the exhaust, making a nice tinkling noise for about 200rpm of the range - No update
  • Rattle-can blow-over respray and general rust tidy-up 

 

Octavia

Continued reprieve from the bridge/ eBay due to being excellent at being an car. After the last round of tip runs I've cleaned and tidied it up. This included pinning up the sagging headlining with drawing pins, for that high quality finish. I also replaced the catch on the front centre armrest which had broken, so it no longer flops open. The SAIC repair has made a surprising amount of difference, although the EML came back on recently. Around the same time the battery started to fail with the cold weather, and on replacing with a new battery the EML cleared, so suspect it was a voltage issue. She now starts and idles well, and seems to be pulling more cleanly, so I wonder if the erroneous readings were irritating the ECU. 

Jobs list:

  • Headlining sagging and torn in places from years of carrying lumber  - Bodged/fixed
  • Drivers seat bolster has collapsed due to my fat arse
  • Few Many scuffs and parking dings 
  • 5p sized rust spot on leading edge of bonnet, similar size piece on tailgate, 10p size piece of bubbling on one wheel arch
  • The rear window washer doesn't work 
  • The Secondary Air Injection pump (emissions device to pump warm air over the cat) has packed up  - Replaced
  • Broken interior trim - Replaced

A couple of weeks back I was pulling out from a side junction left onto a main road. A cyclist without lights or high vis, coming down the wrong side of the road crashed into the left front wing of the Octavia, stoving it in before I could pull out. I was still waiting at the junction. He fell off, but quickly got back on and cycled off, leaving me with a massive dent including damage to the paint and warping of the metal. Frustrating, but again made me glad I drive a bit of a beater.

The dent is in a section of the body hidden by interior panels, so it's difficult to beat out...

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  • 4 weeks later...

Working on the Scirocco this weekend. The wiring is proving to be a nightmare. Decided to try and find a spare fuse on the board for a switched live for the radio and new gauges. 

Not only is the board not mounted in it's cradle, but a few people have been here before.

There's lots of plain black wiring from the old immobiliser chocolate blocked in. The loose wire I've tagged with electrical tape is a switched live, just floating about. No idea what it's supposed to be doing.

PXL_20210221_185945671.thumb.jpg.71e9a4f8e5ef14ce2db8bc3572af7dca.jpg

So plan is to now go through and work out exactly what is live/good and what can be removed. Could be here a while...

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On 1/28/2021 at 10:21 AM, Coprolalia said:

He fell off, but quickly got back on and cycled off, leaving me with a massive dent including damage to the paint and warping of the metal.

Clearly knew he was in the wrong.  What an utter tosser.

On the blue-LED-for-main-beam on VWs, is there an option to use a modern blue LED for an authentic look?

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1 hour ago, Talbot said:

On the blue-LED-for-main-beam on VWs, is there an option to use a modern blue LED for an authentic look?

I think a lot of people do, particularly as the old capped bulbs are NLA. I have bought from Brickwerks (https://www.brickwerks.co.uk/main-beam-tell-tale-bulb-t3-t4-caddy.html or https://www.brickwerks.co.uk/brickwerks-blog/search/TELL%2BTALE/?) but they now seem to be out of stock.

From reading other people's builds it sounds like fitting an LED with a resistor works, but it needs the resistor otherwise they just blow.

 

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  • 1 month later...

Where did we get to?

No update on the wiring. I'm still faffing about with wiring diagrams trying to work out what everything does...

MOT was due, and a couple of little niggles had cropped up I wanted to sort. First was the wing mirrors. The LH side one had started to lose it's silvering, and some time last year one of the local student intelligentsia took a dislike to it, knocking the mirror out and breaking the little plastic tags that hold them in (though not smashing the mirror weirdly). The RH side has had a massive crack down it as long as I've owned it. A few years back I sourced a second hand set, so time to fit them.

Left one was nice and easy.  Smear of what I thought was blue hylomar but was actually blue silicon to seal the door membrane back on.

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The right hand side unearthed a bit of grot. Looked it had a small leak around one of the screws as well. 

PXL_20210404_162159265.thumb.jpg.d2cb4fc9d1368e21aed5d7ff96ce942f.jpg

Cleaned up and got the vactan out. Poured out too much, so went round the engine bay. Repainting will be the next job after the wiring is sorted.

PXL_20210404_165233336.thumb.jpg.cb8606ff70522f9109763b3b7eecaf98.jpgPXL_20210404_165225575_MP.thumb.jpg.8b6d813b061164522b84c30174e7b175.jpg


Whizzed on a bit of Lidl's finest anti-rust metal paint... Actually finding a use for the local lib dems. Then put all back together. Will revisit this with the dremel for a check over when I do the proper respray.

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The handbrake had also let go at some point. The saddle-shaped piece of metal which holds the ends of the cables to the handle has a little metal tag/lip/flange that stops it from sliding down and off. This flange/lip/thing had bent. I bent it back and then nipped up the handbrakes. Might need to weld something to it or get a new lever at some point, but ok for now.

 PXL_20210405_171519129.thumb.jpg.e770cfe2b3d6df3c843ac9a475a12ee5.jpg

 

Bung it in for the MOT.

Scirocco.thumb.jpg.769a3c1d25ef18aa65aca7fc80c010bd.jpg

 

The rot advisory is arse-covering according to the classic friendly mechanic I'm using for this. 600 miles since the last MOT.  Must try harder. She's running much better with regular use, and still averaging about 65 mpg around the doors. Slow improvements continue.

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  • Coprolalia changed the title to Coprolalia's Asylum - Sporadic fleet updates
  • 1 month later...

Minimal change here. Having a new baby will do that. Not much time for tinkering. At least most of the house renovations are now finished.

Octavia jobs list:

  • Headlining sagging and torn in places from years of carrying lumber  - Bodged/fixed
  • Drivers seat bolster has collapsed due to my fat arse  - Replaced
  • Many scuffs and parking dings 
  • 5p sized rust spot on leading edge of bonnet, similar size piece on tailgate, 10p size piece of bubbling on one wheel arch
  • The rear window washer doesn't work 
  • More broken interior trim - Replaced

The headlining that I had stuck up with thumbtacks fell down. It got stapled back up.

PXL_20210921_150302819.thumb.jpg.87e10d5fcb30f41d22933fbf8dddf649.jpg

@warninglight let it be known he was breaking an Octavia of the same trim level, so I requested the front seats to replace my collapsed one, a few bits of interior plastic that were broken on mine, and a spare matching set of alloys. A trip up to Manchester provided a convenient handover.

The old collapsed and worn out drivers seat:

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Which was replaced with one in much better nick:

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One of the alloys had a slight buckle (but was still holding air). £60 to some fellas in a very dodgy backstreet tyre place had it bashed out. Two of the alloys came with snow tyres, so the ditchfinders on the other two will get replaced with all season/snow tyres to serve as a winter beater set.

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No EML at the moment, and otherwise everything working. I might tackle a bit of the cosmetic rust to keep the old girl.

 

Scirocco jobs list:

 

  • The wiring needs tidying up (currently the fusebox is cable-tied to the bulkhead) - In progress
  • The rev counter doesn't work - Going to be sorted by the very kind Cobblers of this parish
  • The gear selector mechanism hits the exhaust, making a nice tinkling noise for about 200rpm of the range - Needs custom exhaust when funds allow
  • Rattle-can blow-over respray and general rust tidy-up - winter priority

The Mrs has also bought me a pressure washer, so both dailies have been cleaned and waxed ahead of the winter.

 

 PXL_20210912_155857030.thumb.jpg.398fd4818a0cfa7aa51f15db36c2db32.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

I had planned to get to work on the Scirocco over the last few weekends (while dodging family visits). The Octavia disagreed with this plan of action.

First of all, the NSR handbrake cable decided it didn't like moving, thank you very much, resulting in a small brake fire at 60mph when it jammed on. Fixing that got farmed out.

Then the locks started doing this. I am not pressing any buttons.

Google-fu says this is the "nsr locking problem". https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/149920-central-locking-self-locking/

The wiring connectors for the central locking sit in a space in the NSR wing. The CD changer (which stopped working a couple of weeks ago) sits above it, and the pipe for the rear screenwash runs through the space. If the rear screenwash pipe pops off or leaks then it leaks straight onto the wiring. Wonderful bit of design there VAG.

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Oh goody. The central locking wiring is in a 4in bath of water.

It didn't smell of screenwash, and after checking the pipe run  there didn't seem to be any leaks. I cleaned the sunroof drains, and then poured water over the car and did some further googling, finding this...

https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/243898-help-leak-in-boot-and-cant-find-fault/

The leak seemed to start when I pressure-washed it recently (maybe coincidence). I took some of the inner trim panels off in the boot and the water appeared to be coming in from  one of the roof panel joins. On the outside I  took some of the roof rack trim off and found these tiny hairline cracks through the seam seal.

PXL_20211031_120037196.thumb.jpg.3dfe79417a979a17b5fbe5e5c070fc3a.jpgPXL_20211031_120049744.thumb.jpg.dae2699508b945a2dc2d40c3b33dff9a.jpg

I've wazzed on some tiger seal and it's almost dry through last nights monsoon. TBC

I've also swapped the decent alloys over for the second 'winter' shitty set, ready for MOT later in the month.

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