Dave's shonkers - continuing electroshite

[wuvvum]

There's a Catholic priest of my acquaintance in Norwich who had an SV650 until last year.  He sold it on because it was getting to the age where it needed lots of jobs doing to keep it in decent fettle.  He was thinking about getting a CBR600 to replace it, but he reckoned he test rode one and didn't like the fact that he had to rev the knackers off it to get it to shift, and he preferred the low-down grunt of a V-twin so he's now thinking about a second hand Ducati.

 

Slightly unusual conversation to have with a priest.

[DodgeRover]

Forgive me father for I have sinned,

What have you done my child?

I've been having thoughts about Harley Davidsons again father.

There's no amount of Hail Marys going to help you with that I'm afraid...

[Jerzy Woking]

Selling my CBR600 for that same reason-been a great bike and a paragon of reliability but it (and other in-line fours) don't "do it" for me now.

 

If he likes the SV he will get on well with a Ducati-as do mine

[Dave_Q]

If I ever came over all rich and started spending 4 figure sums on vehicles I could definitely see myself on a Monster.

 

In fact, one did come up in my price range while I was looking, but it was a non-runner, missing some bits and an undocumented Slovenian import.

[Dave_Q]

Had a quick ride out on this yesterday which confirmed that if anything, I've made the clutch cover leak worse.

 

Bits on order to make both sides oil tight, a pointy clutch cover and clutch pushrod and sprocket carrier seals.

 

It did also do a bit of running on one which is somewhat concerning, plan is to ignore for now and see if it happens again.

[strangeangel]

.It did also do a bit of running on one which is somewhat concerning

 

But isn't that why you buy a bike with more than one cylinder in the first place??

[Dave_Q]

I have been on with trying to make this SV oil tight.

 

Obviously It was all a bit of a faff and took me something like 4 weeks all in to do a simple job, STANDARD.

 

So previously I tried to add wob to the plastic clutch cover, making it leak worse in the process.

 

I then bought a "pointy" SV clutch cover which is a 1 piece metal job.

 

It was grey though whereas my engine is black.

 

DEPLOY SPRAYBOOTH

 

Painted it with £shop gloss black and clear lacquer, came out pretty well apart from a couple of big runs from putting it on too thick, and a couple of scratches from careless installation, so far, so normal.

 

 

I also noticed that the clutch pushrod and/or the output shaft seal were leaking so set about replacing those as well.

 

Yum. (sry for sideyways)

 

Cleaned it up and replaced the suspect seals

 

Put it all back together, using new gaskets torqueing the bolts correctly and using blue threadlock as per the manual.

 

Took it out for a test ride to find it was leaking oil from the clutch side worse than ever, also leaking coolant slightly from the water pump, and was now running on one cylinder permanently.

 

Go me!

 

 

After a day or 2 to calm down, I redid the clutch side cover with added silicone wob and new water pump O-rings.

 

I also got new spark plugs and replaced the front one:

 

That seems to have reinstated the missing cylinder, and I may even change the back one one day.

 

2nd time lucky, I did a small ride and found that it no longer leaked oil onto the back tyre.

 

Buoyed by this success I swapped the brake pedal.

 

You may recall it was sporting this creatively engineered solution:

 

I got a s/h pedal off of the ebay:

 

Cleaned it up with some thinners

 

Fixed! Much better for my massive feet.

 

To celebrate this rampant success in the field of fixing, I've ridden it a bit.

 

Including - to this local hill

 

And to work, where I parked next to a slightly more glamourous V-twin

 

It still needs a fork service and probably a chain and sprocket kit, the choke still doesn't work due to seized plungers, but I'm going to put off fixing those things for a while as once I start I'll probably manage to keep it off the road for the whole summer.

[Dave_Q]

Been a couple of months since the last update, we moved house about a month ago so been busy with all that. 

 

Good news: new house has a garage and a drive.

Bad news: the garage is far too full of shite to put a car in obvs, and I'm too busy with house stuff to do much fixing. 

 

I did christen the drive tonight by changing the thermostat on my wife's 147.

 

It's the second time I've done this, when we first got it it wasn't getting warm so I put a new one on.

 

Being a modern (2005) the thermostat is a spider like lump of pipes and at the time an OEM one was was about £100, so I got a (relatively) cheap Circoli one which is ECPs own brand.

 

I remember thinking how shit it looked when I put it in and I was right, it's lasted about 2 years.

 

Because skinflint the replacement is also Circoli, but to be fair to ECP they look to have beefed up the design somewhat and the plastic pipes do more or less stay in place, which is more than can be said for the old one.

 

 

[Dave_Q]

I'm also not too sad to report that the C8 has been sacked off in favour of a different dad van.

 

To be honest I was quite likely to get rid when the MOT ran out in July, as the rap sheet was looking like this:

 

Airbag light on (wiring fault, identified but likely to need several hours to find and rectify)

Vague steering (probz wishbone bushes, £100 or so of parts and some hours of swearing)

Engine fault of some sort, no idea what it was but it didn't really accelerate below 2000rpm

Miserable mpg (22-25) - possibly related to the above. 

 

So it was on notice, then it decided to start cutting out with a fault code about fuel pressure regulator. It did it once when bringing my daughter home from brownies and refused to restart, I called recovery and of course the bastarding thing started again when the guy turned up.

 

 

Faced with all this on a car I paid £550 for and worth less than that even fixed, I did the sensible thing and arranged for it to be weighed in via removemycar for £230 and bought something else. 

 

Here is the collection thread, life and limb were risked by going to Wakefield.

 

http://autoshite.com/topic/32060-shit-or-shite-find-out-tonight/

 

It's a Fiat Multipla JTD, 115bhp Multijet but the 8v version.

 

I reckon this is the sweet spot between modern and fixable. With the C8 there are several engine faults that mean the engine is basically scrap, plus you can barely see it under the bonnet. 

 

With the JTD you can actually see it and get a spanner near it.

 

Also it should be better on fuel.

 

Behold the majesty:

 

The previous owner was a nice chap but I think a bit of a scranner at heart, I've stripped out a load of extra wiring for LEDs, permanent Nokia charger, etc. The car he has replaced this with for family transport duties is a FUCKED bright yellow modified VW Bora, wish I had got a picture, you'll have to make do with pics of his handiwork (contains twin & earth)

 

 

All I've managed to do with the car is put my stereo in it, drive it to work a few times, and pay the local hand car wash to wetvac the inside to try and remove the stench of fags (and fags*)

 

Overall I'm well chuffed with the little Multi, it's an ace steer compared to the BoatyMcBoatface C8 and easily as practical, I transported some 8 foot lengths of timber the other day by just folding down the 2 middle seats, leaving 4 seats usable for people and the boot free for 6 packs of loft boards.

 

The JTD 115 is great for burning off dawdlers (© Bollox) only possible issue is it has a DPF, I reckon it may already have been "sorted" though as the diagnostics report 0% blocked so far.

[Dave_Q]

As a special treat for father's day I had a couple of hours fixing the Multipla.

 

2 targets: EGR valve and a boost leak.

 

The EGR valve is pretty easy to access on these things, visible here attached to the inlet manifold top middleish of this picture.

 

 

As such I had it off fairly quickly.

 

Yum.

 

Actually not that bad in the grand scheme of things.

 

On the last 2 JTDs we have had these have got siezed partially open and caused running / smoke issues.

 

Not this one though - the solenoid bit doesn't seem to work and being a later car it's not serviceable.

 

I did however manage to find the split boost hose and have a new one on order.

 

I'm not gonna go out and buy a new EGR yet as I have a sneaking suspicion it may have had it mapped out (badly, hence the engine light) as the car reports 3 reflashes via the AlfaOBD app and all the DPF values seem to be zero.

 

I need to read the map on the car to compare it to a stock file, this may take a while though as we've recently moved and the wire is somewhere in here:

 

As a final note I noticed a cracking bit of Modern Car Engineering, have a look at the front panel near the airbox.

 

 

One of the airbox bolts would be under the slam panel if it was straight, so what they've done is put a kink in it and cover it up with 4 bolts and an extra pressed steel panel.

 

I'm sure that whoever looks after the purse strings at FIAT worked out that these 4 x bolts and extra panel were worth it costwise to keep the airbox the same as everything else, does seem like a bit of a fuck you to anyone changing the air filter later tho.

[Dave_Q]

After identifying which hose was leaking I set about trying to find a new one.

 

Although lots of bits are interchangeable between different JTDs, this hose I needed was specific to a multijet Multipla. 

 

I actually rang Fiat first, they couldn't have been less helpful tbh, told me the part was NLA and they couldn't suggest anything.

 

Seemed a bit odd, wonder what they would have done if I'd taken it into them?

 

Anyway via a parts catalogue I found a part number, which of course wasn't available anywhere either. But I did find another part number that one site listed as being the same so I ordered that. Cheapest ended up being from Germany, autodoc or somesuch for about £28 posted. 

 

Here's the old one off.

 

New vs old. Hmm. Not the same.

 

The shape is close enough though.

 

Decided to just chop it as I didn't reckon I'd be able to find the right one anyway.

 

Chucked back together and boost is restored.

 

I still haven't got my various wires but I logged some boost with my phone. It's peaking at 1.3bar which seems a bit high for a standard car. Must find my wire so I can read it and see what's what.

[tobyd]

Those SVs look wicked in yellow

[Dave_Q]

Cheers, I thought so too.

 

On the SV front I have got a pair of rebuilt and powder coated fork legs sat there waiting to go on, they were reasonably priced on ebay (20 quid or so more than the cost of new seals, oil, bushes etc)

 

I might even get a chance to put them on in a couple of weeks, too busy with house stuff right now and its important house stuff as it will enable me to make some space in the garage.

[Dave_Q]

Yo. 

 

I haven't updated the thread much as tbh I've not done much with cars since the last update, been far to busy with houseshite.

 

Actually I tell a lie, I have changed a wheel bearing and couple of engine mounts on the Multi, and also (inadvertently) a quick release connector on the fuel filter as I disturbed a past bodge when changing the engine mount.

 

Overall the Multiplas shit list is increasing, I melted an ABS sensor when doing the wheel bearing, the EML is still on with glow plug and EGR codes, and the exhaust is blowing significantly. 

 

Also needs 2 front tyres, cambelt roulette is still active, etc etc. Basically it would cost too much time and effort to get it through a test in February.

 

As such an collection thread is incoming this week, have posted elsewhere the object of my desire so not exactly a secret. It's definitely more car shaped although I'm taking something of a punt that I'll be able to get 3 child seats in the back. 

 

Multipla will be offered on here for something around whatever cartakeback offer shortly after.

[Dave_Q]

So I bought this car. The epic* tale of me getting a train to Sheffield to pick it up is here:

 

http://autoshite.com/topic/33980-a-pre-work-collection

 

And here is the car. 

 

Once upon a time, someone paid £30,330 for it. 

 

 

15 years and 226,000 miles later I paid £700. 

 

And what a car. 

 

Has cow seats:

 

 

Big boot:

 

Detachable towbar (that doesn't seem to detach)

 

I took a bit of a punt that I would be able to get all the child seats in the back. They do just about fit but plugging the belts in for the big 2 is a bit of a faff. 

 

 

Overall, I really like the car. For those unfamiliar it's an Audi allroad, basically an A6 estate with 4 wheel drive, adjustable air suspension and off roadish styling. They're actually meant to be decent off road but I'm unlikely to ever test this. 

 

This one is the 2.5 V6 TDI and once upon a time it had 180bhp and an alleged 0-60 time of 10ish seconds. In 2018 it still has a decent amount of shove for overtaking etc and gets off the line pretty well as the Quattro does it's thing. Handling wise it's kinda floaty / bargey overall but does handle OK if pushed. I'm halfway through my first tank and the OBC is reading 31.3mpg which is about what I expected. This one is a Manuel, many of them are autos which I assume are worse on OMGMPG as well as having an increased liability factor. 

 

On that subject, it is, of course, a bit broken. Declared as having a leak on the air suspension, hence the price. 

The air suspension is very similar to the system used on Range Rovers, Toerags, Q7s, etc etc. 

Once upon a time this was very expensive to fix, but now a man off a forum sells a compressor rebuild kit and the airbags can be purchased from China for £50 a corner. 

 

Mine needs both rear airbags from an overnight sinking test, and also the pump was noisy and not very pumpy. 

I will sub out the airbag work to my Experienced Polish Mechanic, but I did the pump bit today. 

 

Here is the pump, it lives in front of the spare wheel well:

 

It's easy enough to get it off the car and it looks like this:

 

2 bolts to split it and you get this:

 

The rebuild kit contains a few things, but the main event is the piston seal. This is my new and old ones together.

 

I noted that the pump barrel looks a bit scored, but actually none of these marks could be felt with a finger so I wiped it out and reassembled.

 

Reassembled and tested and it seems to have gone OK, it now takes about 40 seconds to switch between levels rather than taking several minutes and sometimes failing to get there. 

 

Still need to get the airbags done as the leaking is what leads the pump to fail, they have to run more often to keep the pressure up and overheat/wear etc. 

 

Other things I may do include adding parking sensors, as it's a big old thing, and finding a supply of biodiesel. It seems they don't like straight veg but the manuals for the car include a supplement saying it's fine on B100.

[angle]

'Slippery Gowt Lane, Boston, Lincs' sounds like a place where nothing good can ever happen.

[Dirk Diggler]

I'm torn between one of these and an XC90 at the moment; the Volvo V70 of much trouble seems to be pissing on my chips at every opportunity. Manuals seem to be rare on both and I'd prefer an auto, but there's no cheap fixes for either when they go wrong.

 

That looks lovely (and disposable at £700) they start at €1500 here for semi broken ones and like everything for sale here are neglected shite

[Lacquer Peel]

The V6 diesel in these is one of the last of the older style direct injection diesels with electronic metering/mechanical pump but unlike the 4cyl TDIs they used a semi electronic Bosch VP44 job which is more like a Lucas pump internally. I'd be tempted to throw a small amount of veg in it.

 

I quite like Allroads, I remember reading an article in a 4x4 magazine when they were new about a couple driving one through South America, they lost the air suspension at one point but a pipe from a Citroen dealer fixed it.

[Dave_Q]

'Slippery Gowt Lane, Boston, Lincs' sounds like a place where nothing good can ever happen.

 

Ha, I did a quick stalk to see what sort of houses might be there as in my head this car was bought by someone who wanted to tow a horsebox.

But I think it's a business address and T Shooter Ltd was a scrap dealer or recycling operation of some sort which has since been absorbed into FCC Environment who are still there today.

 

I'm torn between one of these and an XC90 at the moment; the Volvo V70 of much trouble seems to be pissing on my chips at every opportunity. Manuals seem to be rare on both and I'd prefer an auto, but there's no cheap fixes for either when they go wrong.

 

That looks lovely (and disposable at £700) they start at €1500 here for semi broken ones and like everything for sale here are neglected shite

 

I reckon this one has been fairly well looked after despite the miles. The main problems on these are cam wear, injection pump leaks/failure, dodgy air suspension and autobox problems. It's 2003/53 so too late for cam wear, the injection pump and cambelt were replaced this year and it's a manual. 

 

I'm not expecting it to be trouble free but it shouldn't be too bad, even if I end up replacing the front airbags as well I'll only be into it for about £1000, with most of the likely problems sorted. 

 

There are loads of borked autos on ebay, I prefer a manual in general but I wouldn't have bought an auto full stop.

[Dave_Q]

The V6 diesel in these is one of the last of the older style direct injection diesels with electronic metering/mechanical pump but unlike the 4cyl TDIs they used a semi electronic Bosch VP44 job which is more like a Lucas pump internally. I'd be tempted to throw a small amount of veg in it.

 

I quite like Allroads, I remember reading an article in a 4x4 magazine when they were new about a couple driving one through South America, they lost the air suspension at one point but a pipe from a Citroen dealer fixed it.

 

Yes it's definitely a pre-PD, the vegoil.co.uk forum seemed to think the pump shaft is thinner than the 1.9tdi pump hence not as good on veg. Probably OK during the summer as it's a viscosity thing innit. But if I can get B100 for £1 a litre or so I may just do that.

 

There used to be a couple of places that sold bio heating oil* in Bradford, I'll find me some oil drums and see if they're still there.

[320touring]

Get it vegged boyo!

 

#monthechips

[beko1987]

That's very attractive

[Lacquer Peel]

Get it vegged boyo!

 

#monthechips

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.de%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F352172438558

 

Are you paying for the replacement pump?

 

That guy who messes around with XUDs supercharging them and the like fitted a mechanical pump to an Audi V6 TDI, it needed a fair bit of fabrication.

[Dave_Q]

Its definitely possible to do a mechanical conversion of some sort as I've seen it done on a M51 BMW diesel in an E30 which I think uses the same pump.

 

I don't have time to go collecting waste oil and if I can get bio for approx £1 a litre then new SVO isn't that much cheaper.

 

Will report back how I get on.

[Supernaut]

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.de%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F352172438558

 

Are you paying for the replacement pump?

 

That guy who messes around with XUDs supercharging them and the like fitted a mechanical pump to an Audi V6 TDI, it needed a fair bit of fabrication.

DarrenJLobb!

 

He was a legend on the 306 forums. He also fitted a Cummins 6BT to a Defender 90, it spun all 4 wheels when accelerating. Another achievement of his was fitting a Subaru Impreza turbo to a Transit DI and running it at 40psi of boost while running on used engine oil. It was a farm van with no doors or lights and it was at the end of its life anyway. It made a great video though!

[chaseracer]

The Owd Giffer just moved on his very similar Allroad (also with an ongoing suspension fault) for £1800, so you did very well there Mr.Q!

[Dave_Q]

Cheers, yeah I thought I'd done pretty well.

 

The auction got bid up to something like 737 and I was the second bidder at 717.

 

I messaged him straight away saying to let me know if he got messed about, the winner did make contact but was somewhere miles away, he made vague noises about getting it transported but no dates or anything.

 

As the seller had a low tolerance for even potential messers he just sold it to me.

[Ohdearme]

Always fancied one of these in 2.7T petrol format but the high bork factor and a bunch of other things has meant I’ve yet to scratch that itch.

 

Well bought.

[Dave_Q]

I reckon a pez one would be pretty awesome, they even did a 4.2 V8 for the gentleman who liked his RS6 but wanted to take it green laning.

 

Sadly most sold in this country were the diesel.

[Supernaut]

Ah, but the 2.7T was the twin-turbo V6 from the B5 S4 and RS4, just with smaller turbos and a tamer map.

 

I think a few people out there have applied the same uprated parts that others apply to RS4s and have ludicrously fast allroads.