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

[J-T]

Thanks for the offers guys but really it’s fine, it’s a bit too far

 

Especially considering I doubt the person whose car it is would actually notice I’d fitted it

[dome]

When I pick up the Black MR2 this weekend - I'm trundling down to the Peak District (Alton/Uttoxeter way)...… I could lay it off somewhere on the way if that helps…?

Intention is to collect the car Saturday morning - trundle down to see mates and meet for late afternoon drink/meal/skinfull……… happy to drop off or meet up on the way if you or anyone else is about.

 

John

 

 

I think you may be overestimating the luggage space of an MR2 somewhat!

 

I mean, you can get a weekends worth of kit in soft bags in there, just about. A parcel shelf however would be a challenge!

[dome]

In other news, 48 miles in of normal A2 usage and the coolant has dropped a few mil. A working gauge helps now I've changed the sensor, there's been no sign of overheating though.

 

I'm leaning towards just doing the head gasket as opposed to the head bolt thing, maybe I'm just being pessimistic but I don't fancy the odds of just replacing the head bolts curing it. I'd rather do it once and do it properly*

 

Feel free to persuade me otherwise?

[Dave_Q]

I would concur, if there's been leakage across the gasket there is a fair risk it won't seal properly again.

[dome]

Small update on this. The A2 has covered around 280 miles since I got it with negligible coolant loss. This includes the collection from Aberdeen.

 

The last 120 or so have been with a working coolant gauge which behaves normally, although takes a while to warm up. it's been pretty cold here though so I'm not unduly worried by this. 

 

If I'd bought this blind I wouldn't suspect an issue, the only symptom I've found is that the heater occasionally starts to blow cold.

 

It always recovers and goes hot again-I'd guess an airlock. I bled it after replacing the coolant sensor but the only bleed is fairly low down on the radiator pipes so i can't bleed the matrix easily. There is a bleed on the Webasto but i couldn't get this off. 

 

HOWEVER I've not tried a motorway run for any distance at speed which was when the issue raised its head for Tayne. This is mainly down to traffic conditions. 

 

I'll try and get a high speed run(as high as the mighty 75bhp lump can manage anyway) to see it's true colours. Possibly with a bike in the back, just in case...

[gm]

does the webasto actually work ? it should kick in below ~7oC outside temperature to get the coolant up to operating temp quickly and give you a nice warm cabin. 

[dome]

does the webasto actually work ? it should kick in below ~7oC outside temperature to get the coolant up to operating temp quickly and give you a nice warm cabin. 

 

 

I plugged in VCDS and got an error for the glow plug I reset this and it worked. Once...

 

The glow plugs apparently aren't available aftermarket, you have to replace the whole unit.  If I was keen I'd remove the glow plug and try and find a match somewhere, although hardened A2 botherers don't seem to have managed this. 

 

I meant to ask, where did you get to with the back brakes? I see a box in the boot which I've not investigated and the handbrake is a bit rubbish- I want to be doing handbrakes turns in it!

[gm]

that webasto sounds like a bit of a pain  

 

brakes wise, I had to replace the rear cylinder on the passenger side as it had sprung a leak and contaminated the shoes, it was such a ball ache of a job, I just left the drivers side alone as they had plenty of meat on them. I struggled with getting the handbrake to work on the passenger side but figured out I'd seated a spring wrong just on time for the mot, which surprisingly it passed as it still wasn't very good. the adjuster is under the ashtray between the front seats and the shoes are supposed to auto adjust - good luck with that.

 

are you sure handbrake turns are a good idea in a tall skinny vehicle ? it tends to freak out the abs a bit

[dome]

Judgement day has finally arrived for the Corolla. 

 

Goodnite Sweet prince,  thanks for keeping the rain off my engine for the last 15 years.

 

 

It's pretty liberating when you know you're never going to need the car again. Nothing was destroyed though apart from a couple of sheared bolts. And maybe a spot of grinding...

 

 

Bonnet off for access and I jacked it up to drain fluids and remove the driveshafts. These are an arse to get off needing a crowbar or similar to prise them out. With little success with the engine fitted I decided to remove the crossmember and drop the engine and box out, that way I could deal with the driveshafts when the engine is on the deck.

 

We don't need to use the loom from this car except for the wires for the lift mechanism. These I have labelled up, I'll go back and strip them out of the loom back to the ECU before we scrap the shell. This meant we could just unplug things and get the loom out of the way.

 

By the time we stopped for lunch all that was left was the gear linkage, fuel lines and engine mounts/subframe.

 

 

Onwards and upwards. It was all fairly straightforward once I discovered the extra bolts on the crossmember. I should've known about these as they are the same as the Auris i did at the start of the year.

 

That done I could use my new engine crane for the purpose it was designed for-testing the tensile strength of the things I forgot to remove. In this case the was only one engine mount bolt which I'd loosened but not removed. 

 

That done I could lower the engine and box down onto an old bit of carpet. We then used the crane to lift the front of the Corolla up to drag the engine and box out. 

 

 

Safe to say this was slightly* exciting.

 

However, it came out successfully and is now resting in the garage.

 

 

Casualties? I managed to break the end of the dipstick but it's not needed in the MR2 anyway.

Oh and one of the downpipe bolts had corroded and sheared as soon as I looked at it. Joy. 

 

I'm off for a beer.

[The Moog]

Good job .... Looks fast even sitting there!

[dome]

Did a wee bit more today, getting the last of the bits we'll need off the corolla. I love wiring

 

 

We traced the wires that we need to add from the sensors back to the ECU and chopped out the rest of the wires we don't need. Plan is to remove the pins from the ECU connector and insert them into the connector on the MR2 loom.

 

There's not a lot else we can do til the hulk of the corolla is gone. I'm struggling to find a scrappy that will take it though as it has no engine. I'll ask around.

I'd be happy to remove loads of bits to store and sell but can't do it where it sits under the carport as it won't be possible to hiab it away.

 

I did about 10 motorway miles at speed in the A2 today with the temp gauge sitting bang on 90. Got home and let it cool and checked the coolant-nothing used.

 

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[320touring]

A 9" grinder and the bin service is the plan for that shell

[The Moog]

Sounds like A2 is fixed then or to confirm a knockhill day out?

[dome]

A 9" grinder and the bin service is the plan for that shell

Funnily enough that was considered...

[dome]

Sounds like A2 is fixed then or to confirm a knockhill day out?

Possibly a little premature, all I've done is change the temp sensor. Will keep using it and see what happens

[dome]

I had a phone around to see if any scrappies would take away the remains of the Corolla to no avail-all the local ones I spoke to weren't interested because it didn't have an engine. 

 

I dropped a mate who occasionally breaks cars a message to see if he knew of anyone-he offered to take it and let me keep any bits I wanted. He could even do it the next day.  Result! 

 

This meant a slightly hectic start to Hogmanany as we stripped out the parts we'd sold/wanted to sell. I decided to keep wheels.calipers and lights. All reasonably small and easy to store parts. My mate has more space so he can take a crack at selling the rest before he weights it in.

 

Front end stripped-bumper had to come off to get the lights out

 

 

The plan was to roll it onto the trailer and then remove the wheels and lights so I went round it freeing off calipers.

 

After a brew it was decided to leave everything attached to get it to his yard, he would then remove and return the parts.

 

Shortly, it was on and ready to go

 

 

I popped along last night and recovered the wheels and brakes before Hogmanay shenanigins began. Job done. Out with the old and all that.

 

Into the new year with only only one Toyota in the fleet now but two engines

 

Happy New Year Shiters!

 

 

[dome]

Filled up the A2 for the first time today since putting it into service as my daily. Fuel economy over mostly short journeys has worked out at 49mpg.  Not as amazing as I'd hoped for given how much Audi spent designing the thing to be economical.

 

However, it seems to be not that unusual looking at the likes of Fuelly, especially now it's getting colder and is mainly doing short runs (10 miles or so). 

 

It warms up OK and the heater starts to warm up after a few miles even in cold temperatures so I'll live with it until it starts to give me problems

 

Water useage-zero. It's not done more than 5 miles or so at motorway speeds though which is where Tayne was seeing it using water. 

 

Interestingly the figures for miles travelled vs fuel costs between my 2 Audis are very similar. 

 

A2 240 miles to £28 

S4 230 miles to £28 at 54ppl for LPG 

 

I picked up an engine stand this weekend for MR2 engine prep, will need to get the gearbox off the Corolla engine and mounted on that to swap over sump and other gubbins.  

 

I'd like to get the red MR2 up to the house in the next week or two to crack on with getting that engine out. There's talk of a North coast 500 trip in April and more importantly Knockhill track days in March...

[gm]

 

 

more importantly Knockhill track days in March...

 

have you booked yet ? only 5 places still available, don't miss out. I've got one but may be in the middle of moving house, I'll still make the effort to come along if I can though

[dome]

have you booked yet ? only 5 places still available, don't miss out. I've got one but may be in the middle of moving house, I'll still make the effort to come along if I can though

 

Not yet, that's a bit ambitious at the minute plus also skint because January  

 

Also Sods law-if I book it the car won't be ready and if I don't it will and the track day will be sold out...

[dome]

Other things vaguely of note on the A2- I tried to wire in my old DAB radio but the antenna broke off the end of the wire. I'm still able to get a reasonable signal without the antenna using just the wire so that'll do until I can be arsed to get a new one.

 

With the back seats out it has loads of space for the size of car-coping with tip runs and taking my bike easily. 

 

I'm considering investing in some tyres for it-the ones on it are past their best and one of the rears needs balanced.

 

It drives OK but definitely feels a bit baggy, there's nothing obviously knackered though so I'll live with it as it is, I suspect it's just the effects of having done 184k. I may have a poke around under it at some point if I get the chance though.

 

The best thing about driving it for a week commuting is getting back into the S4 

[They_all_do_that_sir]

Same engine in the two Roomsters we've had on fleet never seemed to better 52mpg

 

I put that down to the poor wee 1.4tdi having to work it's balls off to make any progress

 

Interesting to note the difference the LPG conversion makes on the S4. Often wondered if converting an already mingebag petrol like a C1 or Aygo would deliver extreme levels of mingebaggery

 

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[cort16]

I didn’t realise lpg was so cheap . Running an v8 at the same cost as an eco diesel means you’re doing something right in life .

 

The mpg on the Audi doesn’t sound great it might get better in longer journeys . Has it got much get up and go or is it pretty dismal? The 1.4 petrol we had was okay but not great, it got about 40mpg

[dome]

I checked the level tonight quickly after cycling and it looked down a couple of mm, I was sitting on a slight slope though. I did 15 fastish miles home including 10 motorway so will check it in the morning on the level.

[dome]

I didn’t realise lpg was so cheap . Running an v8 at the same cost as an eco diesel means you’re doing something right in life .

 

The mpg on the Audi doesn’t sound great it might get better in longer journeys . Has it got much get up and go or is it pretty dismal? The 1.4 petrol we had was okay but not great, it got about 40mpg

LPG varies pretty wildly in price-my local station is between 65 and 70 ppl. It's cost effective for me to do a 20 mile trip to Kirkcaldy to get the Morrisons at 53ppl

 

The A2 has a pretty narrow power band but it's got a wee bit of poke. It'll light the tyres up in the wet in 2nd.

 

This may* be down to shit tyres more than an excess of power though...

[Lacquer Peel]

Amateur remapping service available.

[gm]

 

 

I'm considering investing in some tyres for it-the ones on it are past their best and one of the rears needs balanced.

 

I don't think the tyres it has on are the correct size for the car, it should have something a bit narrower. the winter wheels that i had fitted were 15" with smaller tyres and noticeably lighter, the car was a much better drive (they originally came off a polo)

[dome]

Slight update on this.

 

I parked up at work at the back of 8 this morning and nipped out just now(4 hours later) to check the water. 

 

The level was down a bit-still more than half way between min and max but when I took off the expansion cap to top it up there was a fair amount of pressure in there.

 

 I should probably man up and do the head gasket sooner rather than later shouldn't I?

[cort16]

Could you not just clamp down the whole engine with a giant g clamp ?

More water loss ? Just add an extra quarter turn to the clamp .

[dome]

Did a bit more tonight to the corolla engine.

Firstly we split the engine and gearbox to get it mounted on the stand. The driveshafts were a pain to get out but we got there in the end.

 

Then to mount it on our engine stand. I've never used one before sonic was a bit of a learning curve. I had to space the mounting fingers to clear the flywheel which took a bit of trial and error. Still, done now. Note Yamaha cast into the head, because n/a with over 100bhp/litre

 

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[Jim Bell]

I've never used one before sonic was a bit of a learning curve.