Dave's shonkers - electroshite and auctionshite

[Dave_Q]

Thanks Si, all 4 injectors were sent off for clean & test when I did the inlet blasting, all were given a clean bill of health. 

It is just at idle and slightly worse when warm I think but not much in it. 

There is sometimes a possible misfire around 3000rpm when booting it from cold but I'm not entirely convinced that isn't traction control. 

There is no timing correction saved for any cylinder in VCDS and if you log misfires you only get them on cylinder 1. 

The misfire detection is only on at/around idle, so I don't think it would log them any other time.

[SiC]

10 minutes ago, Dave_Q said:

The misfire detection is only on at/around idle, so I don't think it would log them any other time.

Is that true? I've never actually had coils or misfires on my VAG vehicles I've owned. But both my recent Honda Civic and Renault Laguna II V6 that are vehicles I remember having coil pack failures, both only flashed their EML (so misfire detected) when under acceleration. The Laguna only did it under hard acceleration too, so I drove it work and back that day without issue and without misfires. 

VAG may well be different but I'd be surprised if it only detected misfires at idle. 

[Dave_Q]

1 hour ago, SiC said:

Is that true? I've never actually had coils or misfires on my VAG vehicles I've owned. But both my recent Honda Civic and Renault Laguna II V6 that are vehicles I remember having coil pack failures, both only flashed their EML (so misfire detected) when under acceleration. The Laguna only did it under hard acceleration too, so I drove it work and back that day without issue and without misfires. 

VAG may well be different but I'd be surprised if it only detected misfires at idle. 

No you're right, I had got that mixed up. I noticed that the misfire detection goes off if you rev it slightly and there is a second field with min/max load and rpm, I thought that was showing when misfire detection was enabled but I think it is saying when a misfire was detected. 

Naturally all that is showing 0s now since I just cleared the codes.

[SiC]

If it goes away when driving or at higher revs then that could be telling in itself. Especially if the counters stays zero while accelerating and when cruising. If it's only at idle then I'd almost say it's a greater valid reason to ignore it for now. 

[Dave_Q]

S3 news: just been driving it and trying to ignore the misfire. I do reckon that the misfire is intermittent, which is causing me to doubt whether it really is compression related. I have added "swap injector from cyl 1 somewhere else" in the middle reaches of the to-do list. 

I also had an ESP light ping up today. The faults seem to relate to internal control module failure on the Haldex controller. They go off when you restart but then ping back on again at random. When the ESP fault is on, there is no drive from the rear.

There is a place that offer to repair the controller for a reasonable price here but in the interim I have ordered a second controller from a breaker for £70.

I also found today that I had left the van for long enough for the battery to go flat which is a very big brain move when you don't have a key blade to fit the emergency door lock. Some scrabbling about underneath got the bonnet up and a jump which got me in, the battery is now on charge. 

I must do something about the noise it was making under the bonnet which was suspected to be the throttle valve and I also want to fit a diesel heater and leisure battery. Honestly, the temptation to just farm it out is strong but I guess I'd be looking at £500 or so.

I also ordered a few parts to make a start on  building an engine for the Gilera. Naturally I am already thinking about selling it all off and getting  a 4 stroke one, maybe a 250 or 300cc conversion. Or if they pull their finger out and release the 300cc Italjet Dragster I might even just buy one of those.

[Cavcraft]

4 minutes ago, Dave_Q said:

Naturally I am already thinking about selling it all off and getting  a 4 stroke one, maybe a 250 or 300cc conversion. Or if they pull their finger out and release the 300cc Italjet Dragster I might even just buy one of those.

Those new ones are snazzy as hell. Would imagine the 200 would be ok (the reviews seem to put it on par with a Scomadi/R.A 200) an d given the latter do a 300, I wonder if they're the same engines? My mate reckoned his  TG300 pulled 88/89 and was still going, so they're probably a good bet for longer rides.

[Dave_Q]

Yes I believe they are both using the Vespa 300 engine, Italjet claimed they are using the newer HPE Vespa engine which has a little more power. 

TBF a 200 might be fine, I might see if I can blag a test ride on one.

[SiC]

1 hour ago, Dave_Q said:

S3 news: just been driving it and trying to ignore the misfire. I do reckon that the misfire is intermittent, which is causing me to doubt whether it really is compression related. I have added "swap injector from cyl 1 somewhere else" in the middle reaches of the to-do list. 

I really wouldn't discount electrical connectors gone dodgy too as they do seem a common failure point as they age. Especially if an intermittent fault. 

[Dave_Q]

12 hours ago, SiC said:

I really wouldn't discount electrical connectors gone dodgy too as they do seem a common failure point as they age. Especially if an intermittent fault. 

I peeled back a fair bit of coilpack wiring and didn't see anything suspect. There is a bit on the camchain end of the head where it goes kinda above the turbo and apparently sometimes goes crusty but it was fine. 

The coilpack wiring is integrated into the whole engine loom so it's a decent amount of £ and arseache to just replace it on a parts darts basis.

The injector wiring is on a sub-loom which you can't really see or get to without removing the inlet, so I can check that at the same time as swapping injectors around, one day.

[SiC]

More the connectors are the thing I was thinking than the wiring. In electronics design, it's connectors that often give the largest issues in devices. Mechanical, environmental and electrical stresses & strains make them a common failure point. They are also harder to diagnose and spot when they are failing intermittently than wiring failures. 

Connectors and their housing can be replaced without having to replace the loom. 

 

 

[Dave_Q]

As mentioned above, I've not done anything with the S3 other than drive it.

I did think I hadn't heard an idle misfire for a while, so fired up VCDS:

Zero misfires logged, left it on for a few minutes. 

Guess this points back towards some sort of intermittently dodgy wiring or connector but like fuck am I touching it when it's behaving.

[SiC]

Either that or possibly adaptations have adjusted? I did see a bunch of different stuff that could be reset on mine. 

I wonder if you're supposed to do it if injectors are changed. Even if they went in the same place, they'd still flow differently to how they were if cleaned. 

[Dave_Q]

Hmm good point, I never looked there I just chucked them in. Happy with any explanation which keeps it fixed permanently, although I'm still not holding my breath.

[Dave_Q]

Turns out as well as a turbo ASBO chariot I also have a van.

After some shenanigan  about whether its class 4 or 7 for MOT, it got tested. 

Not awful TBF. The test centre said they think it might be the caliper, will get it off and see whats what.

[Dave_Q]

Investigations:

One caliper was indeed pretty stuck. One piston especially.

The sliders on both sides weren't mega but they'll clean up.

Annoyingly, the outer side of both discs is looking a bit thin so I'm gonna have to buy some discs.

Pulled both calipers apart to see if I could get away with a £0 GBP refurb* of just cleaning them up and reusing the seals. One side was good but the other will need 2 pistons as I'm not happy with the level of pitting on these.

Shouldn't be too bad to get it back through the MOT but it does also ideally need 4 new tyres and this throttle valve thing sorting. Cars eh.

[SiC]

Saw this elsewhere first but one of those "why haven't I thought about this before" things when cleaning the pins up. 

Stuff it into a socket then run around with drill/impact/whatever while holding the abrasive pad/sandpaper that has a bit of lube on it (I used WD40 - ignore the Ceratec that was after) around the pin. Got them clean in seconds. 

 

Possibly a thing that everyone knows that I don't. But previously I'd been rubbing furiously with an abrasive pad for minutes on end....

[Dave_Q]

No great collection thread required as it was 10min up the road.

Vespa GTS300. I did have a 250 before which I quite liked but it got stolen.

First impressions, it needs a big clean as it's been stored outside, an MOT which it's been left for.

[Dave_Q]

Noice. 

TBF the seller said it would definitely pass the MOT no problem and I hadn't spotted anything of concern, but still.

[Tickman]

That's a decent result

[Dave_Q]

43 minutes ago, Tickman said:

That's a decent result

Indeed, I took a bit of a punt buying it with no MOT but the scooter and bloke seemed genuine. 

It was probably £500-1000 cheaper than the same age/mileage go for with a test so a result all round.

[Dave_Q]

Home and a tad more inspection.

It's dirty.

Couple of minor scratches this side

Bit worse this side, looks like maybe from carrying a lock or something

But overall, pretty smart really. Not really a union jack and bullseye kinda guy but my smallest child is trying to insist they stay on.

It's come with this seat to handlebar lock:

And two of these £150 grinder resistant D locks, which is quite a score.

I'm still gonna keep it in the house I think, as soon as the twat who's left a van on axle stands in the way gets his act together anyway.

[Dave_Q]

Fairly successful day for faffing.

Inspected the Vespa transmission, the belts often get overlooked and either break leaving you stranded or wear affecting performance.

Based on width measurement it wasn't that worn but it doesn't look great so a new one is on order.

The transmission rollers also looked a bit worn with possible flat spots, so ordered some of those and an oil filter, I have some oil in stock.

Spent the afternoon putting the van back together between showers. Had a bit of a war with one of the disc retaining screws but otherwise pretty straightforward. I bled the calipers with my knock-off Mityvac which worked pretty well, although I did have to rope in a child for a final pedal pump based check.

I also cleared out the scuttle drains, there was some water under the carpet last time I was in there investigating for a diesel heater, the central drain under the cabin filter was blocked with minor gunk and one of the side ones had half a tree of well mulched leaves.

No pics of any of the above as I was well onto the swing of it with filthy hands, I've stopped to make tea and will finish it off this evening.

[Dave_Q]

A wash occured.

Wouldn't be a GTS without a bit of rust, but it's surface rather than hanging.

[Dave_Q]

Squeaking in on the last day of the retest window.

As per I managed to make it more of a carry on than it needed to be, my technique of cable tying a glove onto the disconnected front brake lines then leaving it for several days didn't quite keep all the fluid in. 

This of course led to air getting into more places than it needed to and having to bleed the rear brakes as well.
The o/s/r caliper suitably rewarded me for my ineptitude. 

With the clock running down on the retest I had to take a day off work yesterday to drive to Rochdale to get a new caliper (featuring bonus near death experience when some cunt in a Golf ploughed through a very red light nearly taking me out) and it's just been retested this morning. 

I did think there was something still not right with the brakes as while the pedal is rock hard with the engine off it seems squidgy with it on. Some googling suggests Vitos and Sprinters are just like that, TBH I've not driven it enough recently to remember what it was like before but it's passed so that'll do.

[Dave_Q]

Not an entirely happy day. 

Traded the S3 to a local performance car merchant for this A3 sportback + cash. As mentioned elsewhere I am buying a new house for reasons and need to be sensible for a bit. 
I probably could have kept it but £50-60 a week in fuel and £30 a month in tax are all expenses I could do without. 

The trader at least was a very nice man and did me a pretty reasonable deal.
TDI 140, £35 a year tax somehow. Has various issues obvs but nothing that will stop me using it. 

In other great news, the van is with the van man racking up a bill in the region of £1500.
I think I mentioned it had an issue with an inlet throttle valve which did not affect the driving at all but put the EML on. 
I ignored it as you would, until it got to the point it went into limp due to overloaded DPF - the thing will not regen with this fault on the intake throttle active. 

Hilariously this valve can't be changed without taking the engine out, and as it's a modern camchain at the back engine it's a sensible "while you're there" job that I really could have done without. 

Cars eh. Still better than the bus or paying £500 a month to rent a Hyundai.

[Tickman]

It felt wrong liking that post but a very philosophical outlook on the necessity that paying someone to do something is better than a lot of other things.

[Dave_Q]

Once upon a time I would have borrowed an engine crane and spent a week or 2s free time pulling the engine myself but I ain't got time or really motivation for that right now.

The van man is a well known Vito fondler and easily half the cost of a main dealer so it just is what it is.

I really don't mind spannering in general but I prefer to pick my battles.

[Dave_Q]

Anyway the shitlist so far for the A3:

• Needs a thermostat
• Service due - £8 Mann filter on the way and plenty oil in stock from the Mannol offer
• Gear linkage seems a bit dodge, there are various faults stored for neutral sensor, I think there might be some sort of bush needed on the gearbox end
• Temp sensor needed (£10 Febi)
• Smells of dog and seats quite rank, in need of a scrub and wetvac
• Was missing a parcel shelf but already replaced on the way back to work (£20)
• Cambelt roulette (replaced in 2015 about 80k miles ago)

A Febi thermostat is £50 and hopefully less painful to do than the TFSI was, will do the rest and look into this after payday. Cambelt maybe not, will have a look at it at least.

It did 35mpg on the way home according to the OBC, hopefully this would be a bit more with faults fixed and stop/start working.

[Popsicle]

6 hours ago, Dave_Q said:

Hilariously this valve can't be changed without taking the engine out, and as it's a modern camchain at the back engine it's a sensible "while you're there" job that I really could have done without. 

A wise choice if I've read that right in getting the chain replaced. These do like to let go as the miles pile up. A good friend/fellow couriers 15 plate Sprinter chain let go 2 weeks ago at 380k miles. £650 offered from a scrapper, £18k+ the tonic sunk into a 100k mile 19 plate, a very expensive week for him!

I've experienced the chains letting go at under 20k miles, obviously warranty replacement engine job, but they do seem to suffer the odd early failure.

[Dave_Q]

Yeah the van is a 2010 with the OM651 engine so probably the same. It's on 197k, I got it on 190. The chain was noisy on startup so I put the revised tensioner in which quietened it down at startup.

The van man said then he reckoned he could hear the chain but I couldn't so opted to not spend a grand or whatever it would be at random.

I was considering not doing it to try and keep the bill down but it's only going to add maybe £3-400 while the engine is out so it's getting done.

Seems like all the manufacturers went down the "Shimano 9-speed" route for camchains as well as putting them at the back of the engine around the same time, I hope whoever signed off on that shit got fired out of a cannon when they started going ping.