Dave's shonkers - electroshite and auctionshite

[Dave_Q]

[Dave_Q]

Sitrep on the Mobilize front:

• Seller is elderly and his friend is helping him deal with the lease
• Friend appears to be about 20% better at Computer Things than my 72 year old mother
• He has sent them the form 3 times, as a photo in a onedrive link that Mobilize say they can't access
• I have agreed to fill in a new form, which I will email to them as an attached pdf, seeing as I've now moved house
• Friend is very frustrated by the process and is planning to complain to the FCA
• The emails he has forwarded me say the agreement is £48.98 in arrears, this can be paid by bank transfer so I am just going to do it myself rather than asking Friend to ask the elderly owner to do it

In conclusion Friend thinks Mobilize are making this hard, I think it's 74% down to his own incompetence.

[wuvvum]

5 minutes ago, Dave_Q said:

 

That sounds like an awful lot for a 2013 Zoe - I thought they were down to around the grand mark by now?

[Dave_Q]

2 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

That sounds like an awful lot for a 2013 Zoe - I thought they were down to around the grand mark by now?

There were lots of tales of sub grand prices last year, apparently they have put all the prices up this year due to global materials prices or some such bollocks, IE they are just trying to get more money out of people. 

If I had more time I would stick a second hand battery in and return it to them on a pallet.

[Zelandeth]

On 14/09/2024 at 15:24, Dave_Q said:

...The condenser I managed to wangle out, and it's maybe slightly bent but not too bad. Not in the first flush of youth though.

Not sure now whether to stick the new one on anyway or put it back together and get it pressure/leak tested with the old one? As it could easily be leaking from somewhere else instead/as well.

That oil stain on the condenser is more likely than not evidence of your leak.  It's probably toast.  They're made out of as thin ally as possible to ensure the lowest thermal resistance, so it doesn't take much to make them leak.

I'd not be putting that radiator back in if it was mine.  I don't know if they live an easier life in an EV, but anywhere from about ~10 years plastic tanked radiators seem to be well into the "it's going to fail at some point" bit of the bell curve.

Granted, my approach to maintenance tends to be "if I'm taking this apart I'd rather do everything in the neighborhood" rather than having to go back in six months later.

[Dave_Q]

Thanks, yes I concluded the same and ordered a new condenser, unfortunately it's still not here despite being promised for delivery Friday or Saturday.

Case open with eBay and the supplier is chasing it up with their supplier.

[Dave_Q]

After 13 days I gave up on the ebay condenser and ordered one from a local factors. 

The ebay people (aceparts_uk, bunch of wankers) never sent me a tracking number for the replacement nor did it appear after 5-6 days, they also didn't respond to messages so had to get ebay to step in and refund. 

The one I got is a no-name one and cost £135 but it was there the next day.

Sat in kwik-fit now waiting for the re-gas to happen. It's been 20min or so and they haven't come out to say it's not holding a vacuum so hopefully we are good. The local bloke who advertises leak testing apparently can't do R1234 gas as it will contaminate his machine?

New coolant rad went on without issues, I used clamps to keep the coolant in the motor stack and only had to put about 1l in to fill it back up. The coolant is Renault type D, (Berocca piss yellow) same as used on assorted ICE cars of the same era.

[Dave_Q]

No dice, the gas is in and staying in for now, but the compressor doesn't kick in at all.

From a quick search there is a high voltage fuse for the compressor which can blow if run without gas so may investigate this next. No codes anywhere in canZE.

[Dave_Q]

Further investigatage:

The fuse lives behind this reassuringly labelled panel:

Safety first - 12v and bigboi batteries disconnected:

 

Didn't have a multimeter to hand to test, but these don't look very blown.

Overall, no change. Have posted on a Zoe group which has a few handy people on it so hopefully will be able to get to the bottom of it. 

I reckon I could do the compressor DIY but they are £2-300 used and all my new gas would fall out.

[Dave_Q]

Tried everything and had to conclude it's the compressor on the Zoe which is a common failure.

£300 for a used one from a trusted breaker which is strong as a % of the purchase price but the thing is no use to me without heating or demisting.

The van was returned to me (after 7 fucking months) with the EML still on. He told me it needed the new throttle body adapting and it did have some codes related to this. Rather than take it back I got a new pass thru Xentry setup sorted as my old one won't talk to the engine ECU anymore since Merc did their dieselgate software update.

Did the adaptation but there are also codes now about the swirl flaps. They come back when you delete them and the adaption process for the flaps fails.

Pretty fucking livid about this as it didn't have these codes before. The swirl flaps are connected to the actuator by an arm on the back of the inlet manifold and you have to take the inlet manifold out to get anywhere near it. I think my man could have knocked or damaged the flap arm getting the engine in or out.

There's no fucking way I'm taking it back to him so I will have to work myself up to doing it myself. It can be done without taking the engine out but it doesn't look like a fun job.

Luckily for now it seems to be driving fine and regenning the DPF correctly so I should* be OK to drive round with the EML on for as long as required, TBF I reckon it might stay off long enough for an MOT, if not it will fail as it's post 2008.

Cars eh.

[Cavcraft]

7 months is an absolute piss take, especially as it's not even properly fixed.

[Dave_Q]

This happened 

Going for MOT tomorrow, waiting for a reply from Honda about a dating certificate then I shall submit to the mercy of the DVLA.

Took the Zoe in for the degassing this morning, fitted the compressor tonight. Did have to take the front end off to get to it but otherwise it was all straightforward. Took just over an hour all in.

[wuvvum]

Is that Hairnet's postman bike?

[Dave_Q]

6 hours ago, wuvvum said:

Is that Hairnet's postman bike?

It was, now it's mine 

[Dave_Q]

That boot that was £150 on eBay popped up with a £30 off offer code.

Stuck it on before work, few more bits to sort but had to stop to do actual work.

There are quite a lot of minor scrapes, some might t-cut out. But a major improvement.

[loserone]

Looks like a new car.  Damage repaired, AC getting sorted, what a transformation.

[Dave_Q]

Thanks, there are some other minor scrapes on the sides I probably can't do anything with, but by the time I'm finished it will look better than my ex's 68 plate which she has scraped down at least 3 walls. 

The front bumper still needs some attention, I reckon I can put some self tappers (I know) through the wing/bumper from the arch side which will hold it on and not be visible from the outside.

[320touring]

Coming on leaps and bounds Dave! New boot makes a big difference 

[Dave_Q]

Finished putting the boot back together during one of those meetings that is all listening and no talking.

Also had a quick look in the business end of the old compressor:

DEPLOY ZOOM

The Forbidden Gravel. Chunks of some sort of metal, I'm sure it was jammed solid.

Hopefully this means everything will be A-OK when it gets regassed tomorrow.

[loserone]

Do I remember reading about some circumstances where the compressor fails chucking bits of metal gravel through the whole system, and Renault insisting on replacing everything

 

[Dave_Q]

46 minutes ago, loserone said:

Do I remember reading about some circumstances where the compressor fails chucking bits of metal gravel through the whole system, and Renault insisting on replacing everything

 

Quite possibly. I think it might depend on the compressor and the type of failure as finer metal dust/shards would probably get back round the system and lunch a new compressor. 

This appears to have been contained in the main body and not made it out into the end part so I am hoping that just due to the size of the chunks, the rest of the system should be OK. 

The compressor and condenser are new anyway so it would only be if any bits were stuck in lines or a dryer/filter type thing.

[Supernaut]

I've seen articles about certain model years of BMW i3s sharting their air con compressors, which sends the forbidden gravel all the way through the battery's tiny wee cooling channels.

It effectively writes off the entire car due to the labour cost in removing and dismantling the battery pack to clean it out.

I recall it's sort of unique to BMW because they use such teeny tiny coolant channels in the battery though.

[Dave_Q]

These do use the aircon for battery cooling but via a sort of 2nd condenser under the boot, blowing cold air through the battery.

So if your Aircon doesn't work and you live in death valley you could fry the battery, but the actual aircon gas doesn't go through it.

Postie passed MOT.

[somewhatfoolish]

Looks quite well fritzed; was there any sign of debris in the pipe unions?

[hairnet]

7 hours ago, Dave_Q said:

That boot that was £150 on eBay popped up with a £30 off offer code.

 

300 quid tonite m8 

[Dave_Q]

19 minutes ago, somewhatfoolish said:

Looks quite well fritzed; was there any sign of debris in the pipe unions?

No, they all looked clean. Famous last words probably 

[Dave_Q]

Success.

The heating is still a bit pathetic, not sure if par for the course or it still needs another round of hairdryer trick, but the compressor is definitely running and warm air of a sort is definitely coming out.

The garage tested it in cooling mode and said they were getting 3.3degrees at the vents.

[Dave_Q]

Turd polishing is pretty much complete on the Zoe. The front bumper will never look right but it's securely attached.

As some may have seen it's now for sale as I've done a "battery lease Kiltox" and bought a ZE40 from BCA.

A superbly masochistic collection is planned next week which involves departing Halifax bus station at 11:30pm on Monday and getting back some time Tuesday afternoon as the thing is in fucking Paddock Wood.

[beko1987]

Looks good! 

Every time I clean my stepdad my eyes hurt from peering into the ice white paint! The fucking thin ice white paint. 

His has wall rash all over the bumper from using it as an extra parking sensor... 😂

[loserone]

The lease price hike really fucks these over, when they were a grand to buy out they were superb value.