Project Collectioneering - Moogs Mootahs

[The Moog]

Saab has been running nicely - with new turbo and exhaust etc. 

 

So of course driving down to see my mum in London town was a step too far.  After my swim at bedfont lakes, the car started making funny noises... Followed by smoke. 

Quick check discovered the front drivers side suspension had collapsed.  Autoaid summoned and wasn't long before being loaded up.

Trusted shifters were consulted along with car adverts.  I was desperate to get a new car but missus Moog was less keen pointing out we are currently buying a house so need to be sensible. 

Plan F was called for.  Parts for Saab suspension kit was.overnighted to my mum's house.  My uncle provided a bucket of tools (literally, most were imperial) and some spring compressors. 

I splashed out on an impact wrench from Amazon to be delivered next day and rummage through my mum's shed uncovered odds and sods. 

 

Everything was delivered this morning. Including a slightly disappointing impact wrench 

It is more of an impact driver with 1/2 inch anvil.   It is pretty good at doing stuff up but can't shift mega tough bolts. 

looks like original suspension.  Will swap the others over when I get back home. 

Booked a couple of tyres to be fitted on Friday morning as the drivers one is toast.  

 

Total cost is £500 including tyres and.tracking

 

 

[Tickman]

Good effort so far from home

[The Moog]

Been a while since updated this.

Saab has got full suspension all round which means it is a beauty on the motorway. That is useful as in the last month I have relocated north to Kinross for the foreseeable future.



The Saab has been pushed into commuting duties between Accrington and here - as we empty the house out.

Motorhome did a sterling job moving a load of house stuff and now sitting quietly in corner.



Mx5 is languishing in Accy - waiting to be brought up here and then sent to a garage to get it all back and running.

Smart - disgraced itself and broke down after open water swimming at Loch Ore. Luckily the engine worked so could defrost after a 5 degree swim. It wouldn't go into gear. Replacement clutch actuator has helped but one of the bolts sheared off so needs removing and then replacing. Also needs brakes bleeding, before its future is decided.


One of the benefits of moving north is that car insurance plummeted. I also start a job 50miles away in two weeks so only sensible thing to do is buy a cheap commuting car. Mr Northern Monkey had one he was selling do deal agreed.


I utterly love it - perky and spritely, it handles ok. Motorway didn't phase it at all returned 47mpg when doing 70+ on way up here.

Added Bluetooth radio connection


It doesn't have a temp gauge which annoyed me so £25 on Amazon and now I am all space age


Picanto needs a rear boot central locking actuator which is on its way. It also had a set of new tyres as the old ones were comical in wet, using the full 64bhp to light the wheels up on the slightest pull away.

Future plan

Saab -going to be used for trips to Accy and back. Missus Moog will have to spend a week down there once a month so that wil do for now

Picanto - my daily driver - it has made me enjoy b roads again.

Smart - needs some work. It's currently a toss up whether to keep it or not. Roads round.here aren't great so feels a bit out of its depth. Flip side is that is pretty much cheapest motoring you can get.

Mx5 - needs recomminsing and MOT. Plenty of Motorsport places round here so going to chuck it at them and get it set up properly including rolling road tune.

Motorhome - it's fate hangs in the balance. We aren't sure whether to keep it or move it on. No rush either way at the moment.

[Jim Bell]

That Kia looks amazing man. 

Have you got a link for your cigarette lighter temp gauge?

[The Moog]

That Kia looks amazing man. 
Have you got a link for your cigarette lighter temp gauge?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B08YJ8B24P?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

It's this bad boy.

You can have temp, volts, speed. Also got compass direction and revs if you want it.

It has obd or gps mode.

Found the speed bit quite useful on the motorway at night.

[The Moog]

As you might have sent elsewhere the SMART has departed Moog towers.

This was mainly due to the purchase of this 

BMW I3 with rex. 

Absolutely love this car.  The acceleration is brisk to say the least. 

I am commuting one or two days a week with 100 mile road trip which this will do easily. 

Lobbed in some fitted mats and also 3d printed key holder. The mirror indicators are pretty easy to upgrade so did that next 

Pre version - clear with orange bulb 

Pop off the mirror glass

Screws undone and pop off the front cover 

You can see the difference here with the new smoked led ones.

Slotted in

Cover back on bolted back up 

I think they look better than the standard ones. 

 

 

[gadgetgricey]

would be very interested on your i3 thoughts.
I love the look of them but wife is not too keen. Also no rear opening windows for passengers puts her off,

[The Moog]

1 hour ago, gadgetgricey said:

would be very interested on your i3 thoughts.
I love the look of them but wife is not too keen. Also no rear opening windows for passengers puts her off,

Certainly distinctive - takes a while to learn to drive it.  Literally one pedal only, you can use the brakes but the motor regen is enough.  

I have fallen in love with it already. 

The thing to remember is that it is a city car really. Yes it can do 75 no problem and motorways are a doodle but really designed for city living.  The interior is mega light and airy - would have loved to get one with the sunroof. 

The back is two only but again due the amount of light doesn't feel claustrophobic.  True about the non opening windows but most of the time it is on climate control. 

Other brilliant bits are the app 

 

You can set up the climate control remotely so you go out to a warm car.also remote lock and unlock it. 

We are paying £360 a month but that is still cheaper than fuel for the Saab estate.  In Scotland most of the public fast chargers are free. 

[The Moog]

Been off diving for the last couple of weeks - but day before I picked up the Roffle AX.


It has been sitting outside the house for the last couple of weeks - jumped in it to go to the shops and has started straight on the key. The non starting issue seems to have solved itself.

As Bucketeer suggested, the 1.5D powerhouse of an engine means you become A Man of Momentum

Still has 3/4 of a tank of fuel after doing 160 miles - which is nice.

Jobs to do on it
Source and fit replacement gear knob


Passenger door mirror replacement


The alternator is whining a lot - it needs replacing.

Ideally find some diesel front springs and unlower it - the ride at front is quite crashy on bumpy roads.


The Saab is coming off the road for the following things

Swap out front driveshafts to deal with abs issue
Fit all new rear handbrake shoes and mechanism
Fit new rear brake calipers
Fit new rear brake flexis
Fit new rear wheel bearing to passenger side
Fit front discs and pads
Think a out swapping out the alternator (although looks a shit job)
Try to get it diagnosed with Tech2 for the rad fans - they aren't coming on
Bit of a service

BMW has developed a slow rear puncture which is annoying when tyres are date coded 21.

Motorhome needs a service and then a run out. Not been used much this year.

[loserone]

Pretty sure theresmirror glass in the glovebox.  @Jimbob McGregor?

[howe]

1 hour ago, loserone said:

Pretty sure theresmirror glass in the glovebox.  @Jimbob McGregor?

Didn't fit unfortunately, I gave it away with a new replacement passenger mirror I hadn't got about to fitting and boot full of spare lights along with the new bottom arms

[Ghosty]

Knobs - can't you get them from the Peugeot museum?

[UltraWomble]

Every Citroen needs one.

[The Moog]

Didn't fit unfortunately, I gave it away with a new replacement passenger mirror I hadn't got about to fitting and boot full of spare lights along with the new bottom arms

Forgot about boot full of spares! Will have a look

Knobs - can't you get them from the Peugeot museum?

That's a good lead - had a gander and comes in at £60 delivered which is a bit steep for me

Every Citroen needs one.

That is lovely

[stuboy]

8 hours ago, The Moog said:

COWS??? 

[Ghosty]

2 hours ago, The Moog said:

That's a good lead - had a gander and comes in at £60 delivered which is a bit steep for me

Ooooof. I got one from them for my 205 and I'm sure it cost less than half that. 

[The Moog]

Ooooof. I got one from them for my 205 and I'm sure it cost less than half that. 

Inflation etc no doubt. Thanks for the lead

[The Moog]

COWS??? 

What do you keep your cows in?

Wing mirror in the boot didn't work, the bottom plastic thread was slightly cracked so wouldn't tighten. Only worked it out after the billionth time digging the screw out behind my bottle storage


All the fun of working in car doors



£6 delivered from eBay got another passenger mirror


Plus side is that it is smooth as silk for adjustment.

Lobbed a cheap Bluetooth mechless player I had in the garage in.



Not the sexiest thing, but will do.

This led to the discovery of mono sound


Drivers side is missing a speaker. New pair of cheapies ordered from Amazon so that stereo should be restored.

It's a great wee car - took a trip to the big lights of Kirkcaldy which on the b roads meant was a hoot to drive.

[Back_For_More]

On 7/24/2022 at 6:22 PM, UltraWomble said:

Every Citroen needs one.

Local B n Q - plumbing section - toilet cistern.... Job jobbed 

[The Moog]

Having mostly modernz means that fettling is kept to minimum - which is quite good.

One of the spring projects has been focusing on the motorhome.

Last August the damp smell got too much in the bathroom so this happened


As per normal the bathroom had leaked rotting the wood. The quote to fix was £6k so instead I ripped it out and then spent the winter ignoring it.

Dehumidifier kicked into action and dried out the wood. It was then treated to Ronseal wood hardner to seal it.

Based on some YouTube videos, the current approach seems to be fitting pvc panels at 5mm. We went for sparkly white to make the room feel bigger.


The panels really aren't too bad to fit, although when the back wall curves in odd ways it can be a challenge. There might be one corner that has a lot of sealant in it.

One upgrade was removing the mahoosive bathroom door that weighed 8 kg and opened into the living space

Instead a tambour door was fitted - miles better


It is mostly finished. I need to work out how to trim round the window, decided whether to fit a sink again and put in some storage for bits.



I learnt a lot and quite a few things I would do differently next time.

Once the hot and cold water has been tested then I will box in the shower and then seal the back of the toilet.

Overall cost with all bits is about £900 with the door being £150 of that.

[The Moog]

Over the weekend I did another job on the van before festival season.

One of the most annoying things on the MH was the fact that with swivel seats and leisure battery under drivers position, your eye line is right at the top of the windscreen.

With a long drive this becomes really flipping annoying.

Luckily you can buy reduce height seat bases so this was the plan.

You can see the difference between the two bases.

Remove the battery and the handbrake mechanism.

Before bolting the new one in

 

 

Next job was to relocate the battery. There is space in the compartment next to the water boiler which never gets used.

Plus it means the cabling can easily be rerouted

A distribution box was added with fuses for the battery charger and also the diesel heater controls.

Then seat installed with a little faffing

Followed by tidying up cables

Makes such difference to the height as you can see here

 

Quite pleased with the job. Will improve driving immensely.

Still left to do is a few jobs on bathroom to finish it, build a dog barrier for between the front seats and remove the old sideways seat belts.

 

Oh and fit air bags at the back

[The Moog]

As may have been seen elsewhere @NorthernMonkey and @MrsNorthernMonkey kindly dropped off my ex @Fat_Pirate mx5 turbo

It's been a bit of a long saga - all ran pretty well, till it started cutting out under boost. Got to the stage where it was undriveable. 

Trying to find a garage to work on it or a tuner to have a look was a real challenge compounded by COVID etc. 

It sat for a few months before finally bit the bullet and got it shipped to Mtech.  They took off all the old bits and did a full turbo conversion from scratch including rolling road. Even that was fun and games and @NorthernMonkey kindly offered to help @worldofceriload the car to take it from Accrington to a Wiltshire only for the key to snap in the lock. 

The joy continued as the conversion took over a year, as they didn't seem to want to rush.  Plus had to replace door locks etc. 

Car mapped with a low map of 184bhp and high map of 243bhp I got very excited. 

Ceri booked for drop it back, I had visions of hood down joining.  Day of collection and get urgent message whilst I was in class, the car wouldn't start.  Choice was continue shipping it back or cancel Ceri and they would fix it.  

I had come too far so allowed it to be shipped back with the intent of sorting it. 

Except of course in the meantime I had moved to Scotland, meaning that I got the car dropped back at Monkeys garage.  Neil had a look but the car was a bugger to start and then pretty much was dripping fuel out the exhaust.  Swapped in new plugs and tried things like Coil packs, HT leads etc. no joy. 

It is now running an ME221 ECU so needed to read that, to see what is going on.  

So Neil dropped off a very faded and non working mx5 turbo.   

 

[The Moog]

Fast forward to this week and I got it plugged in to the tuning software.  

Currently there is totally no start and looking at the logging there is no crank signal at all when turning it over.  These don't have crank angle sensors instead they have a CAS. 

In the passenger footwear I found another CAS. These are cam angle sensor that work on the Inlet cams to give the sign. 

OEM CAS is many hundreds of pounds, aftermarket is few hundred quid or you can buy a J925 sensor and swap it over for £50.  

As I am not 100% sure that it is the issue I went for cheapest option.  I couldn't find a how to do thought I would document the swap here, in case it helps someone out. 

This is a MK1 mx5 NA 1.6 CAS. 

Take the cover off

It works by an optical sensor using the slots.

Undo the screws at the side holding in the connector. Take off the metal plate and then the rubber gasket. 

Next the centre screw.  This is flipping right. 

I had no vice so improvised 

 

Screw out there is a washer, then an indexed washer and finally the thin metal piece. 

Check the sensors 

Both look the same.  Note I broke bits off the old one trying to work out how to remove it. 

The stamped number goes up when it goes back together.  I didn't spot that the first time, the slots vary slightly. 

New one in 

Started to reassemble 

Spot the mistake.  The securing screws have to go in before the centre one.  So swapped it back out. 

Then follow the Haynes rules and you now have a replaced sensor for your CAS.  

Next time I reckon it will take about 20mins to do. 

Tomorrow morning I will fit it and fingers crossed it roars into life! 

[Tickman]

Fingers crossed for this roaring to life very soon

[worldofceri]

Hope you get this sorted as it’s been a hell of a saga. I seem to remember it filled N. Monkey’s workshop with smoke at one point, but that might have been something else I dropped off there! 😂

[The Moog]

8 hours ago, worldofceri said:

Hope you get this sorted as it’s been a hell of a saga. I seem to remember it filled N. Monkey’s workshop with smoke at one point, but that might have been something else I dropped off there! 😂

Nah it probably was this! 

 

 

[The Moog]

Today was brief but mostly sweaty with some joy. 

The CAS sits at end of the camshaft which can be a bit of a bugger to access

 

First thing I find out is that the bolt that holds it secure was less than finger tight. Which means timing could wander around a bit. 

Hard to see here but the. Am has two different notches in it.  So the CAS can only go in one way. Which is great because you can't put the timing 180 degrees out, and also great if you want to spend lots of time trying to a) line up the shaft b) only to find it is the wrong way c) learn new swearwords. 

 

Many attempts later, everything bolted back. And this happened 

 

 

It runs really rough, but the plugs are fouled. 

Software now sees crank signal and it will start and idle. 

Timing light ordered for tomorrow to set that as next step.  After that it is to looks a bit more at mapping, going to lean it all out so I can get it to idle easily. 

 

[The Moog]

The ungrateful mx5 today wouldnt start, so I filed it in the ignore pile.  I have dropped an email to the ECU manufacturer and hoping they can tell from the logs what the issue is. 

My motorhome has slightly dodgy brakes, they mostly disappeared on the way to beautiful days festival last August. Since then they have mostly been fine, but with Bearded Theory coming up at the end of May it was time to do something about it. 

I can't resist a tool, so purchased myself these bad boys

They are brake nipple spanners and come with a one way valve for bleeding

 

YOu can see here that there is space above the flats to lift the arm up and then move it round. Means that undoing the nuts should be easier. 

Inside is a rubber gromit that seals against the nipple helping to give a good bleed. 

Fingers crossed I got underneath to this beauty 

 

Squirt of liquid hope and on with the spanner. A little wiggle back and forth and a tap with the hammer and voila! 

 

Well worth doing

Rain stopped play on the fronts for now, but just putting through 500ml of fresh fluid in the back brakes has definitely improved the feel.

On a sample size of one, I highly recommend these brake spanners. 

 

[Tickman]

They look interesting 

[bangernomics]

Scouring Amazon for a set of these bad boys/girls.


Gzongenflatch
In memory of Phil.