Project Domes shonky autos - Grand Cherokee departs, Kangoo titivation and 911 dug out.

[Jenson Velcro]

Fantastic work, I love the way you just jump in and tackle some quite big repairs on different makes of vehicle.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

10/10, very satisfying, no doubt to do it but also to read.

[The Moog]

Well done chap... Cheap fix with just a bit of your time

[drewd]

Top job there. I've swapped gearboxes before but never pulled one apart, they look too easy to screw up and not realise until it's all reassembled and in the car. Well done for attempting and managing to fix it.

[somewhatfoolish]

12.4/10 wood reed agane. Gearbox tinkering is v.satisfying when ZOMG Success! as they're traditionally feared as too complicated.

[lexi]

That the way to do it................. research it, get in and punish yourself, then feel good with a fantastic result!

[dome]

So the Jazz has been performing admirably-gearbox is nice and quiet meaning I can turn the radio down a bit as I drive along.

The ABS issue has developed from it kicking in at low speeds(worryingly) to behaving itself to now throwing up the ABS light. This is a good thing as there'll be an error I can fix (and it won't randomly cut in). I'm guessing front somewhere as the fault developed after having the driveshafts out  but will find out how to read ABS codes and take it from there/ignore as necessary.

The Skoda has attracted no interest and resentment is building. 

I changed the rocker cover gasket last week to try and cure the oil dripping onto the exhaust thing. Drove it for 5 miles, no sign. Drove 5 miles back, bigger clouds of smoke than ever. I suspected I'd done something wrong but it got parked up and forgotten about as couldn't be arsed.

I've also taken temporary custody of a friends car to diagnose a misfire, more on this later.
Last night I thought I'd move the Skoda from the prime position at the front of the garage to get the new patient up. I decided to pull the rocker cover off and check to see if I'd fucked up. 
First I decided to nose it into the garage to give me somewhere dry to work. Ignition on, no dash lights. It started and died straight away.

Fuck

Fucking fuck

So instead of fettling with something old and interesting I had to fuck about with this piece of shit VAG horror. I cleaned up connectors on the power board near the battery and the dash came back and it fired and ran. Switched off and went to restart and nothing. Fuck.
A quick google suggests faulty wiring/relays somewhere. The immobiliser I think is in the dash on these, hence the no dash lights equals no start. I stripped the lower half of the dash to get access and randomly pushed and pulled at relays, it then fired up again. Horrible bastard.
There's some signs of damp in the footwell so I'm going to stick a heater in there to dry things out and maybe try and clean up some more wiring or even add a fresh earth to the dash area to see if that helps. 
I'm done with modern VAG stuff, never again. Needless to say the ads are down, apart from the ebay one which I've paid for. I'll get it back up at some point, likely after Christmas now.
The S4 can stay though, it's worth the effort

Anyway, the reason for getting the Skoda out of the way was to get a look at this fine beast.

A Jeep Cherokee Orvis, 4l auto on LPG

It belongs to a friend of Duncans whos brother lives in my street and had been abandoned due to an intermittent misfire.
Dunan helpfully* volunteered my services to have a look at it. I went to it on Saturday but it was as dead as a dodo. I took the battery off to charge it and blew the tyres up to make it look less abandoned.

I've never seen a battery so flat!

Last night after i finished swearing at the Octavia I stuck the battery back on the Jeep and fired it up. It ran OKish but there's an occasional misfire when holding the revs about 1500-2000rpm.
I didn't want to drive it last night as there was no fuel and the local garage was shut.

Here's the chat about the Jeep.

I'll stick some fuel in it and take it a drive, I suspect it's going to be one of these long drawn out affairs to sort as it's intermittent and could be anything. 
Testing the crank sensor would be a good start as would reading the fault codes-the injector one present previously would be worth dealing with.
I'm looking forward to plodding about in it, although I prefer the bigger Grand Cherokees.
 

[dome]

Check out this honey.

 

Went and picked it up at lunchtime. It tried to die on me on the way to the fuel station but I made it. Interestingly £20 took it from under the red line on the gauge to nearly 3/4s. I suspect gauge/sender issues there. Whether it was lack of fuel that caused the bogging down or something else I don't know though. Once fuelled up it ran fine. It's got plenty of poke which is cool as it doesn't look like it should be able to accelerate as quick as it does ?

The EML was on but my workmates torque app couldn't read any codes, although it did connect. Will try it again with mine tonight. 

[Tickman]

I look forward to you buying this once the snow chaos provides motivation for the Octavia to be bought by someone

[dome]

27 minutes ago, Tickman said:

I look forward to you buying this once the snow chaos provides motivation for the Octavia to be bought by someone

I'm sure you warned me about Octavias, I need to start listening to those older and wiser than me...

[Jim Bell]

I don't think I've heard anything good about Octavias. 

The JEEP looks MAGNA HOT. 

Fix that. At least you'll look cool fixing the summbitch. 

[Tickman]

33 minutes ago, dome said:

I'm sure you warned me about Octavias, I need to start listening to those older and wiser than me...

50% isn't bad and I know I'm older...

[drewd]

I know a guy that used to convert these Jeeps to LPG around 15 years ago. He loved them. Everyone I know who's owned a 4l version remarks how brisk they are.

[Barry Cade]

I just got rid of my cherokee. Was glad to see the back of it.. I never did get to the bottom of the mad jerking/shunting but had narrowed it down to sticky valves.  Wasn't that nice to drive and gulped down fuel, and was really small inside. Loved my grand cherokee though.. ah well.. another itch scratched.

 

It did make me want to spark up a Marlboro and Woolard in cowboy boots staring into the wide blue yonder. Maybe I should have kept it

[Split_Pin]

"Jeep Cherokee.....belongs to a friend.....intermittent misfire.....said I'd have a look at it".

Everyone knows what that really means!

[paulplom]

Good to see the charger getting some use.

[skattrd]

Fingers crossed you get to the bottom of what's up with jeep without too much trouble. Despite Mr_Cade's recent experience I really like and rate mine.
If you do get stuck with the Cherokee there's a friendly and knowledgeable UK XJ group on FB … plus loads of Yankee forums to google.

[hairnet]

Is fraz Saab still quicker than it and the S4. ?

[cort16]

Sorry to hear of your VAG shite woes I think Fraz's thread on his one tells it's own story.

 

[dome]

Well, where were we?

 

Jeep

 

I haven't made much progress with this. I found out that the reason £20 of petrol made the gauge jump up was because it's got a smaller petrol tank fitted to make way for the LPG. That's a pretty cool idea. The only thing I can get it do misfire wise if an occasional stutter as it warms up. It's only done it twice in total so needs a bit more time to get to the bottom of it. i got a code for the evap system which I'll have to investigate.

 

The reason I didn't make much progress? Step forward

 

the Octavia!!1!!!11!

 

Plan was to check the rocker gasket on the Octavia, i suspected I'd not fitted this right as the oil leak was worse since I fitted the new one.

It was sitting at the garage door and as it was cold and wet I thought I'd nose it into the garage to work in relative comfort. Key in and no dash lights. Hmm. It fired up but conked out straight away. Fucking fuck.

The immobiliser is in the dash on these so it seemed to be something electrical. This horrible bastard of a car is sapping my will to live. I spent far too long checking the connectors under the engine bay fuse box and pulling the lower half of the dash apart to check fuses and got some life but nothing consistent.

There was some damp in the car, possibly from me shampooing it and possibly leaking in through the pollen filter housing-I'd chucked the manky pollen filter out but had noticed it needs a pollen filter in the housing to seal things up.

I borrowed a fan heater and left it on overnight on Friday night. Saturday it fired up fine and the spurious warning lights had disappeared.

By Sunday they had came back on of course, because this is a hateful piece of shit.

Last night I pulled off the rocker and sure enough I'd manage to knock part of the rocker cover gasket out of it's channel when fitting it. I cleaned it up, but a blob of sealant on it to hold it in place and refitted it. I'll need to take it a drive to check it for oil leaks but hopefully that's cured now. Cambelt and aux belt looks good too, shame there's no history. I'm not spending another penny on it though.

 

 

 

 

Jazz

 

I tempted fate by saying this was fine didn't I? The backbox fell off on the way home last night. It was rotten and unfixable so I've invested almost 10% of the purchase price on a new one. It's not too loud without it but I don't want to be that much of a pikey to run about with no back box. I did on the Explorer but it sounded good

 

 

Rusty Jazz is rusty. I should really underseal it a bit shouldn't i?

 

That's what 64k miles in Scotland will do to a car. To be fair I've seen worse. Will it see another MOT? Quite possibly. Ill try and help it on it's way.

[dome]

On 12/7/2019 at 9:08 AM, cort16 said:

Sorry to hear of your VAG shite woes I think Fraz's thread on his one tells it's own story.

 

I'm not saying it's his fault I bought the Octavia but it's absolutely his fault.

[Split_Pin]

Jazz: Seen/owned worse rust-wise.

I don't envy you with the Octavia does though

[dome]

Have some bonus* Octavia pics. 

 

 

 

[somewhatfoolish]

Given the obvious fuckedness of the Jeep's battery it might be worth trying a good one to see if better voltage makes it happier?

[Tickman]

Pictures from the field of sales.

Hopefully that is a sale coming up

[Fraz]

My Octavia is fine.....

 

 

now ?

 

 

I hate that Jeep Patriot I bought more. 

[Eddie Honda]

9 hours ago, dome said:

Jazz

 

I tempted fate by saying this was fine didn't I? The backbox fell off on the way home last night. It was rotten and unfixable so I've invested almost 10% of the purchase price on a new one. It's not too loud without it but I don't want to be that much of a pikey to run about with no back box. I did on the Explorer but it sounded good

 

That's a wank aftermarket can in the picture there. I know someone who had 3 aftermarket rear boxes in five years, so as I had a Yutaka/Honda original, I welded it up. I keep meaning to fit the new one I have, but it hasn't given up yet. I'm hoping it will get to it's 2nd anniversary on St Paddy's day next year!

[dome]

Ah, winter. What a beautiful time of year 

Or, if you've been in Scotland for the last month it's been constantly pishing down and blowing a gale so motivation for anything  car fettling has been low.

I had a rare moment of motivation on Friday night and decided to service the S4s LPG system and fit a set of spark plugs. I'd only had these sitting for about 4 months so not so bad...

I'd serviced the LPG  on my Grand Cherokee many years ago and was somewhat taken aback by the amount of gas which was released when I undid the filter, even though I'd closed off the tank and ran it till it conked out. Therefore it was with a due sense of trepidation that I undid the first hose onto the filter housing, at arms length,  whilst wearing several pairs of gloves.

And... nothing. A wee bubble from the hose an that was it.

First filter off. This has a large inlet and splits into two to feed each bank

It also has a pressure/temp sensor built in which I had to swap over to the new unit

Whilst in here I changed the plugs. This bank was fairly straightforward once I was in there

The other bank was a bit more of a faff as I had to remove intake pipework. This gave me a chance to replace the air filter-I'd ordered one last year but been sent the wrong one and by the time I got the correct one I never bothered fitting it, putting it off a I often do...

There's a second filter on these systems which had came with the kit, this one did release some gas when I undid it which is always terrifying. 

It was due for changing though.

It was a bit of a faff to get the orings all in the right place but after that it went together fairly easily.

Fired it up and let it warm up, it switched to LPG fine with no leaks. Win!

Oh and check out the old plugs. Spot the difference?

 

Full VAG service history on this thing...

[320touring]

Top effort there and glad it fired back up ok:)

[J-T]

I think I’d be too frightened of messing about with an lpg system, so interesting to see!