Schaefft's Bargain Barge Extravaganza - Holidays over, back to Shite

[Asimo]

[horriblemercedes]

Seems like a bit of a bargain if it's as nice as it looks

[Schaefft]

25 minutes ago, horriblemercedes said:

Seems like a bit of a bargain if it's as nice as it looks

Unfortunately the clearcoat peel has advanced quite a bit. That's the drama with cars of this age, they can be well cared for low mileage examples and still look like a beater unless you spend double what the car is worth for a respray. It still ended up in good hands though which rarely is the case for one of these.

[Schaefft]

Took the Range Rover to the Metrocentre yesterday, one of the metal tire valve caps had seized onto the valve and cutting it off I unfortunately cut a little too deep. I dropped it off at the Halfords service centre nextdoor to have it replaced. Because this is a Range Rover I was greeted not once but twice or three times with the following error message on our way there:

Oh boy, now might be a good moment to start looking for some capable diagnostics kit. To be fair though, I doubt it'll be anything other than a height sensor that ended up in a position it's usually not in when taking a few crests too enthusiastically. The ride height is perfectly level at all times and the error is not popping up when getting into the car (when the compressor would run to level out the car).

Getting the Range Rover back I noticed that the remote fob now doesn't work anymore. I've tried to relearn it (no success but the new LR keys might have a different procedure to the BMW ones?) and checked the fuse which was fine. Unfortunately the second fob I got with the car doesn't seem to work at all, it can't even start the car. The batteries in these keys aren't easily replaceable so either both key batteries died or someone dropped it a little too hard. I can't figure out why it wouldn't work otherwise. How can you be mad at it when you have such luxurious features as a built-in TV though!

While checking the fuses I thought why not pop the trim off and check why the rear wiper isn't working:

Well, turns out a decision was made to pump the washer fluid straight through the motor, which eventually starts leaking and seizes up which appears to have happened to mine as well. Applying voltage to the connector resulted in no movement no matter how much pursuationv(with a hammer) I applied to it.

It's still a great car/truck/whatever though. I'm hoping to find the motivation to start tearing into it once we are back from the holidays. Most of its issues should be fairly easy to sort, fingers crossed it'll stay that way.

[DirtyDaily]

When i had my RR i changed a tyre and jacking the car up unearthed a strut leak. Replaced the strut and it was all good again, relatively cheap for the dunlop unit as well.
Icarsoft LR is the equipment i use and it tends to be good for that sort of thing.
Have you tried pressing the weird button to see if that cures your issue?

[J-T]

Rear wipers are nearly always broken for this reason and I think replacements are about £250.

[Schaefft]

2 minutes ago, DirtyDaily said:

When i had my RR i changed a tyre and jacking the car up unearthed a strut leak. Replaced the strut and it was all good again, relatively cheap for the dunlop unit as well.
Icarsoft LR is the equipment i use and it tends to be good for that sort of thing.
Have you tried pressing the weird button to see if that cures your issue?

The air suspension error came up before it arrived at Halfords but any crest taken at speed will extend the strut similarly I guess. I didnt get the error at all on my way back so I will have to monitor it over time. And yeah, iCarsoft might be an option, I have it for Mercedes which makes it the cheapest option for proper diagnostics by far for pre-OBD2 Merc stuff but maybe Im lucky and find a cheap GAP tool. And no, the weird button didn't make a difference. I know what its for now though, it disables the ignition when the the ignition lock cylinder for whatever reason still thinks the key hasn't been removed. That button is a hack to force shut-off the system by taking power away from the powertrain fuses lol. Faulty ignition cylinders are apparently another common issue in the L322, who would have thought...

[DSdriver]

Is the weird button next to the "Do Not Press This Button" button?

[Schaefft]

5 minutes ago, DSdriver said:

Is the weird button next to the "Do Not Press This Button" button?

Its a strange toggle button. I spoke to the RR specialist who replaced the gearbox for me and he said he has seen them on several L322 but has no clue what they are for. That was quite the surprise, unless its a common hack I can only imagine that it was repurposed on mine.

[Schaefft]

Things have been quiet over the last 2 weeks as we've been on holidays in Greece. Right before we left the MG returned from it's MOT test (now with 12 months test and a complete exhaust again, although I still have to replace the old exhaust clamps) and the Citroen C6 roffle win was collected by @Talbot who is thoroughly enjoying* ownership of it I'm sure.

Since our flights were going from Edinburgh (as Newcastle only has the worst connections) I had to elect a suitable vehicle to reliably get us to and back from the airport. I've chosen the black Lincoln, mainly since it hasn't been driven much in a year, is generally dependable and still has a German reg, meaning no speeding/parking ticket worries should we end up being in a rush... I also just cleaned it:

I did somehow forget that the broken blend door actuator arm (which is a notorious issue with these) means we didn't have any heat... The ditch finders that the dealer put on 8 years ago trying to sell it for basically forever didn't help on damp morning roads either. We still made good time though and parked close to the airport (couple quid for the bus vs. 100 quid parking).

Arriving in Greece it was time for rental car roulette. Only there I remembered that I didn't bring my driver's license. With stays on multiple small islands without proper public transport that was a bit of an issue. The great news is, with plenty of rental car places run by family/two dudes sitting on plastic chairs most of the day a photo usually is enough. Rental #1: 2012 Hyundai i10 without any suspension bushings left for 30Euros/day on Kythnos:

Verdict: If you ignore the insane suspension clunks, actually not bad. The facelift elevated it into something remotely feeling like a car from the 2010s, being a bottom of the barrel base trim it could have been from the 90s otherwise.

Moving on, the next island was Sifnos. Its compact and the bus service actually really good, no rental car needed there.

Island #3 and rental #2: Naxos, with a 2020 Fiat Panda 1.2 base model for 35Euros/day. Identical to the one we had there 2 years ago, just white. Decent car, didn't even take a photo so here's it's clone from google maps:

I was hoping for a VW Up! as I have never driven one but oh well.

The last, and busiest, island was Mykonos. The first place we tried didn't want to give us a car without a driver's license on hand (somewhat surprisingly, it didn't seem like its the type of place that would care all too much as they only need the document details, it's the police that'd want the proper license). We walked another 20mins from the port towards town and the first place I tried was perfectly happy with a photo. Rental car #3: 2023 Fiat 500 Hybrid with leaky tire for 50Euros/day, plus 10 Euro airport drop-off (bargain).

After my GF's 2015 500 Lounge and a 500 Convertible with some automated gearbox non-sense that might have been the worst car I've ever rented, this would be 3rd 500 of this generation I have driven (unless you also count the Ypsilon with the same drivetrain). They are all gutless but perfectly capable for zipping around twisty mountain at 50mph max. Having driven the Panda and i10 earlier, 500s still are by far the most stylish cheap car generally available.

It won't surprise most here but style and desirability of a particular car are existing in a completely different context in Greece. When the automotive landscape is still largely defined by bottom spec sub-compacts, beat-up 90s Toyota Corollas, Hyundai Atos's and generally very worn out, tired looking chod even a beat to shit base model CLK actually appears like quite the stand-out car. I think I've seen a total of 2 Range Rovers (L322s) in Athens and any of the islands combined.

We got back to Edinburgh at 10pm yesterday. Fortunately the Lincoln was still in the spot where we left it and started right up (disconnected the battery to make sure...). However, now in daylight I can see that parking it under a tree for 2 weeks didn't do it any favors:

Definitely time for another wash then... I've gone through a few cars to make sure they didn't flatten their battery (MG ZT, Range Rover, BMW E65) while we were gone and they all started right up (only the RR briefly gave my an engine malfunction warning, naturally).

I replaced a hydraulic oil pipe o-ring on the E65 before I left to see if I could cure its eternal leak under the passenger side front. I couldn't feel any fresh oil on the pipe so I topped up the reservoir and will cross my fingers that this is finally sorted now...

Coming back from holidays always works a little bit like a reset button. There's a lot of cars around here and I definitely need to reduce the numbers again. I still want to get rid of the XJR, if anyone is interested in a decent MG ZTT190+ with lots of new parts but still in need of a timing belt, let me know!