Zel's Motoring Adventures...Volvo, Renault, Rover, Trabant, Invacar & A Sinclair C5 - Updated 11/10.

[Zelandeth]

Not really been much going on the last few days.  Finally did get the opportunity to give the Jag a wash to get rid of most of the caked on salt and grime.

Really do need to attack the wheels with some solvent cleaner to try to get rid of the foam backing from previous balance weights.

Had a trip out in my housemate's current company car today, an Audi TTRS.  This has the fancy magnetoadaptive suspension so I was actually expecting it might be almost tolerable - though I *expect* it to be pretty hard edged as that's kinda why it exists.

However it's bloody horrendous.  Our street is paved with lockblock rather than tarmac, it's not that rough though.  You honestly can't read the instruments driving along there it's bouncing around so much.  The road noise is absolutely deafening as well.

While I was washing the Jag I think I spotted one reason why!

There is absolutely zero give in these tyres (235/30 ZR20s!)...and yes, they're run flats.

It's moderately quick, but the lack of give in the tyres and the suspension seem to conspire to limit that as despite hugely wide tyres and four wheel drive going anywhere near full throttle on anything less smooth than a snooker table just results in the traction control light blinking angrily at you.  Likewise cornering always feels downright terrifying as it skips and bounces around so much.  Sure it would go pretty rapidly around a track, but on real road surfaces not so much.

Meh...disappointing.  Wasn't expecting a luxury car, but had hoped it might at least be a bit of fun.  So continues the string of company cars which have been utter let downs.  The only one in the last few years I found tolerable was the top spec Skoda Superb L&K.  That actually managed to be almost comfortable for journeys of more than ten minutes.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

1 hour ago, Zelandeth said:

Not really been much going on the last few days.  Finally did get the opportunity to give the Jag a wash to get rid of most of the caked on salt and grime.

Really do need to attack the wheels with some solvent cleaner to try to get rid of the foam backing from previous balance weights.

Had a trip out in my housemate's current company car today, an Audi TTRS.  This has the fancy magnetoadaptive suspension so I was actually expecting it might be almost tolerable - though I *expect* it to be pretty hard edged as that's kinda why it exists.

However it's bloody horrendous.  Our street is paved with lockblock rather than tarmac, it's not that rough though.  You honestly can't read the instruments driving along there it's bouncing around so much.  The road noise is absolutely deafening as well.

While I was washing the Jag I think I spotted one reason why!

There is absolutely zero give in these tyres (235/30 ZR20s!)...and yes, they're run flats.

It's moderately quick, but the lack of give in the tyres and the suspension seem to conspire to limit that as despite hugely wide tyres and four wheel drive going anywhere near full throttle on anything less smooth than a snooker table just results in the traction control light blinking angrily at you.  Likewise cornering always feels downright terrifying as it skips and bounces around so much.  Sure it would go pretty rapidly around a track, but on real road surfaces not so much.

Meh...disappointing.  Wasn't expecting a luxury car, but had hoped it might at least be a bit of fun.  So continues the string of company cars which have been utter let downs.  The only one in the last few years I found tolerable was the top spec Skoda Superb L&K.  That actually managed to be almost comfortable for journeys of more than ten minutes.

“Moderately quick” !.?!?

0-60 in 3.7 seconds, although at £55k you could buy a Cayman S or an F -Type , so it’s got to be quick .

Just wondered about relative values of XJ-Ses . In 1985 your V12 was £25k which is equivalent to £76,000 today. A3.6 was £20,000, about £60k today so not far from the TT.

[Zelandeth]

Thing is, I'll bet those numbers are on a race track smooth surface.  I don't think on a crappy ripply broken road in MK you'll ever see anything even vaguely close to the quoted numbers.

It feels quick, but not blisteringly so...it just can't put the power down on real surfaces.  Despite the computers, magnetoadaptive suspension, silly wide tyres and goodness only knows how much spending on R&D it just feels like a hyperactive dog on a polished floor.  Handling seems to consist mainly of understeer if on the power, and terrifying jumps a couple of feet sideways mid corner if a bump is involved, which I usually associate with massively souped up Minis...

The fit and finish isn't anything special either, the seat backrest adjuster handle in particular feels like it came out of an early 90s BMC parts bin...it bends a truly alarming amount!  We've had at least three or four occasions where the whole infotainment system (which includes the actual dash because virtual cockpit) has randomly crashed on us requiring the whole car to be shut down and restarted.

[dozeydustman]

3 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Really do need to attack the wheels with some solvent cleaner to try to get rid of the foam backing from previous balance weights.

Have you ever used WD-40 in persistent adhesive residue? I use it on a variety of surfaces to remove old glue after having watched the 8-Bit guy on the you tube restore old computers.

[LightBulbFun]

4 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

There is absolutely zero give in these tyres (235/30 ZR20s!)...and yes, they're run flats.

thats the one thing that bugs me so to speak about luxury cars these days

they claim to be luxury cars, then have tyres on them with 0 sidewall, like there going to get any sort of decent ride out of that!

I miss the days when Luxury meant Luxury, not just Speed in a party frock...

(i know the above is not a luxury car, but its a good opportunity for me to rant about it LOL)

[Zelandeth]

WD40 (well I prefer GT85 at my general purpose maintenance spray, but same idea) works well on stuff that's porous, never had much luck with it on stuff like this though.

I don't begrudge the TT being quite firm... I'd have been a bit disappointed if it wasn't to be honest.  Like the S1 we had for a week a while ago.  That was a bloody uncomfortable car, but it was a laugh.  Totally a 2019 version of that the first of the sporty Golf-based Seat Ibizas used to be. 

This isn't firm though, it's just awful.  It's a car which I'm sure would be cracking on a track, but it's just too hard for actually daily driving.  I'd be curious to see how it compares to the not RS version.

The Golf R Estate we had s couple of years ago is probably the one I hated the most though.  I'm pretty sure it actually used to leave the tarmac when you were driving - my behind certainly regularly used to leave the surface of the seat.  Which hurt given there was zero padding on them!

[vulgalour]

You can shift that foam stuff with WD40, it's a case of getting it going first.  Ideally, squirt it right at the edge and leave some kitchen towel on top, also soaked in WD40, then go at it with a stiff plastic scraper.  It usually starts to shift enough to get the non-porous layer off and a second quick squirt of WD40 after that makes the rest come off fairly easily.  Usually.  Except for those occasions when it doesn't and just smears the foam around, gets on your fingers, and won't stop being sticky and then ends up on everything else and you feel like a five year old that's just eaten a jam sandwich.

[dozeydustman]

2 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

never had much luck with it on stuff like this though.

Will the XJ take bang-on weights? In insisted on them when I ran a Cougar V6 and never had problems, despite the tyre fitter saying you can’t pit bang on weights on alloys. (Which if you have a Good rim, you can)

[plasticvandan]

You need a shed to put all non auto workshop car related stuff in.

[Zelandeth]

4 hours ago, plasticvandan said:

You need a shed to put all non auto workshop car related stuff in.

We have one... it's full to bursting of gardening equipment and bikes!

It is also emphatically not rodent proof as I discovered when we left some tins of fence paint in there last year.  We now have a black shed floor and several empty paint buckets.

[LightBulbFun]

23 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

I think the dogs may just have to deal with on site exercise for the foreseeable future.

I made the mistake of sneezing at one point while out today and was virtually chased out of Linford Wood by a bunch of about ten youths who were screaming at me that I was trying to kill them all.

Fun fact 1: I was about 200 metres away from them.

Fun fact 2: I have allergies, therefore have a somewhat runny nose and am prone to random bouts of sneezing 365 days a year.

I honestly don't feel safe leaving the house now after that.

if there was any time there was a good time to own a single seater car with a literal "passenger carrying is forbidden" sign on the dashboard now is it!

 

[Zelandeth]

Decided to take advantage of the sunshine this afternoon to try to get something done without me having to leave my property.  Garage clear out is now on hold as we obviously can't get any rubbish cleared out to the tip.

Today's target was the thoroughly blocked "atmospheric coolant catch tank" - seriously Jag, it's an expansion tank - on the Jag.  I'd like to get rid of the bottle currently wedged between hoses in the nearside front of the engine bay.

Access is gained by removing five 10mm (I expected them to be imperial sized!) Bolts and pulling the wheel arch liner out.  First contact with the enemy.

Immediately obvious is that the overflow bung has escaped the side of the tank.

The idea is that if this tank were to overflow any water or steam would exit via that metal pipe you can see to the left.  However if the seal between the tank and that pipe is compromised (which it is basically from day one as they never fitted well) this will simply escape into the wing.

Made worse by them sticking a foam pad underneath it to hold onto the moisture for as long as possible!

The tank originally would have been a friction fit between two brackets however these were missing so once I fed the pipe through from the engine bay it was just lifted out.

This left behind a lot of crusty mess.

This much once it was all swept out.

Hey, there's the bracket that should have been holding the tank in place!

The results of this were predictable to be honest.

On the plus side, the outer wing just bolts on so access should be fine to carry out a repair.  I could be naughty and bolt the liner back in and pretend not to have seen it as the MOT tester would never know... I'd rather properly fix it though.  Even bearing in mind that I'll need to chase it back a ways to find solid metal it shouldn't be the worst repair to do.  Especially as it's out of sight so my horrible welding won't be visible.

I had a bit of a peer into the void using my phone camera and the inner will looks fine.  Couple of bits of surface rust but nothing terrifying.

It looks like the tank itself was replaced in the early 90s judging from the date of 1991 on a sticker on it.

Given the line was completely clogged I was surprised to find that it did have some water in...well...something vaguely resembling liquid which may at some point have been water anyway.

This smelled precisely like you'd expect for 30 year old Barr's Stop Leak or K-Seal...lovely!  Given that Jag used to recommend adding two bottles of the stuff at each coolant flush, not surprising to find this.  There was about an inch of compacted mud at the bottom of the bottle under about 1/2 a pint of water. 

Trying to clear the pipe took way longer than getting everything out.  The culprit was unsurprisingly the narrowest point in the system, the coupler between the two pipes.

That was choked solid end to end.  I had to resort to drilling the gunk out of it as it had the consistency of concrete.  Again, I reckon age old leak stop compounds are probably to blame.  Removing the hoses (once I eventually managed to get the hose clips free) required them to be cut off as they were utterly welded onto it.

The whole lot is now soaking in the sink in the utility room, probably awaiting a run through the dishwasher tomorrow before being refitted.

The bung on the overflow will probably be sealed to the body using Sikaflex to hopefully make it more water tight.  Hopefully the system will be less troublesome going forward given that cooling system sealant potions won't be going anywhere near the car. 

I will need to figure out some means to secure it though as the bracketry has long since dissolved too.

Welding the wing up will need to wait a bit as I'll need a bunch of supplies first which I obviously can't get out for just now. 

What a stupid design!

[Zelandeth]

The bottle was left soaking overnight before getting thrown in the dishwasher on an intensive wash this morning.

Hasn't cleaned up badly actually given there was about an inch of solid mud in the bottom of it originally.

Looks perfectly serviceable to me. 

Has now been reassembled ready for refitting.

I'll make sure both the hose inlet/outlets are sealed properly once it's back on the car.  I'll be careful about the hose routing to make sure it doesn't get kinked as I know that's a common problem with this setup.

[Zelandeth]

I've got a parcel on the way (the factors say it's business as usual for web orders so hopefully should be here soon) which contains:

[] Full coolant hose set.  Thanks to the expansion tank hose having been blocked for goodness only know how many years, the system has been over pressurising and at least two of the hoses are showing signs of distress as a result.  See below.

These both have cable ties wrapped around them to act as reinforcement until the new hoses arrive.  At least the system pressure is being kept at sensible levels now.

Given they're all 34 years old, I figure they've done their time and are probably due a change.  The radiator was replaced only a couple of months before I got the car, so having the hoses all replaced as well should hopefully mean I don't need to actively worry about the cooling system for a while.

I'm sure I will invent several new and exciting curses while trying to fit them.

[] Set of spark plugs.

[] A/C Compressor to condenser hose.  Speaking of factory bodges - using jubilee clips to hold together the hot gas lines on the A/C system qualifies I think!  It probably worked fine if the system was to be gassed up every year or two, but with the price of refrigerant these days (the system has been converted to r134a at least) I'd rather get shot of two joints which I know will leak...I've spent many hours helping out a friend who is a HVAC technician, so this makes my teeth itch!

That's exactly the sort of bodge we used to find on equipment on the farm.  Bonus points if it's on the high pressure side of a hydraulic system.

[] Cam cover gaskets for both cylinder banks and a set of half moon seals for the cam boxes.

[] Inlet manifold gasket set.

Both cam covers leak like a proverbial sieve at the moment...actually changing those is pretty simple...once you get to them! 

Can't even see the one on this side...

Nearside one you can see bits of at least!

Which also does a good job of highlighting how ridiculously long the engine is given that the cam cover runs from the oil filler (mid way between the radiator caps) all the way back to just above the windscreen washer bottle.  She's a substantial old beastie!  Pretty sure I recall seeing someone quoting a figure somewhere around the 450kg mark for the drivetrain in this thing...The unladen weight of the Invacar is 410kg!

Yeah, getting at the cam covers requires removal of the inlet manifolds (which of course requires removal or disconnection of no small number of things which are attached to or in the way of them).  Well it's a good opportunity to change the gaskets I guess!

The distributor also needs servicing...which will be massively easier with all the nonsense it's normally buried behind out of the way.  So doing this while I've already got things apart to do the cam cover gaskets makes a lot of sense to me.  I'd rather not take this much stuff apart more often than I need to.  Spark plugs will also be changed at the same time as getting to those requires you to unbolt the A/C compressor and to remove the assembly holding on the throttle linkage and ignition coil.  This is a job that's way more awkward on the HE cars because of the angle the plugs screw into the heads.  The plugs on the pre-HE cars just screwed straight down into the heads which made things way easier.

Hoping once the plugs are done, distributor has been overhauled and a new cap and rotor arm are on it that we'll finally be able to get an idle that's as silky smooth as it should be. Currently there's a very slight intermittent miss at idle which is really bugging me.

I wouldn't complain if it improved economy a bit either!

[Zelandeth]

Having had a think about it I decided that it would make sense to get an overhaul kit in for the injection system before I get into the cam cover gasket replacement.  Realistically I need to either pull the injectors from the manifolds or the fuel rail from the injectors to get access to things.  Even if I could make things work while still attached it will require a lot of strain to be put on the injector lines so any weakness will be asking for weaknesses to become fuel leaks.  The lines need changing for ethanol resistant hose anyway.

Mr Injector do a nice overhaul kit which contains all the bits needed to sort that out.

https://mrinjectoruk.co.uk/Jaguar-V12-HE-Bosch-0280150161-fuel-injector-complete-service-kit-2mtrs-hose-P3260395.aspx

Let'sget that kit ordered the-...oh.

Balls.

Time to do a bit of digging to see if I can track down all the necessary bits separately elsewhere.

 

[Broadsword]

Good luck with the spark plugs. Looks like a mammoth job, but it should be very worth while seeing the results when done.

[Zelandeth]

Ow.

Only being able to do local runs does not help economy!

Will need to make a point of giving the van a run next time we need to go out, don't think I've even started the poor thing in over a month.

Not expecting the plugs to be too bad a job (assuming they're not welded into the heads anyway!) as I'll have things stripped down pretty well to do the cam cover seals.  Just doing the plugs as a job in itself, yes looks like Hell!  Having all the injection stuff and inlet manifolds out should make life easier.

[Zelandeth]

Having achieved the square root of absolutely nothing useful in the last week I decided this afternoon needed to put an end to the streak of uselessness.  Also to take my mind off feeling like I'm living in the middle of a bloody call centre.

Some of you guys seem to enjoy the odd tangent into electronics etc, so figured I'd stick a walkthrough on here so you guys can tag along for the ride if this takes your fancy.  If computers don't interest you this is a post you will probably want to skip over.

Decided to tick off a little to do item that's been waiting patiently for a while now: Upgrading the CPUs in my desktop workstation.  This is an old 2006 era Mac Pro, which had been doing just fine with the Xeon X5355s it arrived with me fitted with.  The highest spec CPU supported by this machine is a pair of Xeon X5365s.  Having discovered how cheap these were in 2019 it seemed a no brainer really.  Likewise why it's now sporting 64 gigs of RAM, used ECC server memory that this uses is just so cheap due to market saturation that it would be rude not to stick a load of it in there.

The vast majority of upgrade tasks on this machine take seconds, CPU upgrades though are a little bit more involved and no entirely self explanatory.

First thing was to get the machine downstairs into an area where I've got room to work.  Trying not to give myself a hernia carrying it downstairs - something I keep forgetting is quite how damned heavy this thing is.

Like this heavy.

That's in kilograms.

The little brown box contains the subjects of our attention today.

I think the pair of these cost something daft like £20 delivered.

So let's get started. 

The initial strip down before you need to get the tools out involves removing any full length expansion cards (only card I have fitted is the graphics card), the DRAM boards and the hard drive caddies in slots 1 and 2 (nearest the front of the machine).

At this point you need to get out a smallish Philips screwdriver.

You now need to remove the screws holding in the memory cage.

Two screws are immediately obvious once the memory boards are pulled out.

Less obvious are two tiny screws hidden behind the lip at the nearest edge.

Yes everything is horribly dusty.  Sorry.

Now the screws are removed don't get ahead of yourself - you can't remoe the cae at this stage, and despite what several guides say, I can't see any reason you need to completely remove it.  Just give yourself enough free movement to (in a highly technical manner) wiggle the CPU heatsink cover off.

Next the front fan assembly needs to be removed because it slightly overlaps the CPU heatsinks.  Three things hold this in place.  A single screw up by the hard drive caddies...

...A clip on the front upper edge (just lifts out) and one final clip which is an utter, complete pain in the tail.  The clip down at the base (shown below) is strong enough to lift a small car by.

This slots into a groove in the black plastic bracket in the base of the case.

Getting this out requires something I don't like applying to computer hardware: brute force.  The problem is that you need to pull it straight out of the case.  I attempted using an expansion bay cover as an improvised puller, but it just bent.  The combination I eventually found to be effective was to use the expansion card retainer to lever from the front edge and to pull by hand from the rear.

I did seriously consider disabling the lower mountin clip to make removal easier in the future.

Unsurprisingly the fans were rather gross.

These obviously have an appointment with the vacuum cleaner before refitting.  There is enough space in front of them to allow dust filters to be fitted, so I may well do that at some point  my previous desktop had air filters fitted and the difference in cleanliness even after 12 years of heavy use was startling.  Worth having a scheduled service every six months or so to clean the filters.

Next the heatsinks themselves need to come out.  This requires a 3mm Allen driver with a reeeeeeally long reach. 

There are four bolts holding down each heatsinks.  One on each corner of each heatsink, nothing sneaky or odd here.

Be aware that there is a temperature sensor attached to each heatsink that will need to be unplugged as you lift the heatsinks out.  Note which one came out of where as the foam strips to seal the airflow around them and ensure the ducting aims air at the most efficient areas of the heatsink are different so it does matter which goes where.  The lower one is fiddly as it connects under the memory cage.  The heatsinks are... satisfyingly substantial.

Also dusty (mainly the lower one, unsurprising given it's closest to the floor).  Nothing five minutes with the vacuum can't sort.  It does highlight why you should service PCs though!

You can now actually see the processors at long last.

The discoloration of the heatsink compound does suggest it's been a bit baked, not really surprising given I had a distributed comuting client running on here for a good long while until quite recently.

The heatsinks obviously need to be cleaned up to get rid of the crusty old compound.

New processors can then be swapped out.  Obviously being very, very, very careful to ensure they're the right way around!  Not that it should be possible to insert them the wrong way as the sockets are keyed...but some people can still manage I'm sure!

Heatsink compound was then applied ( a bit too much actually, I skimmed a bit off before putting things back together).

Before you go any further it's important to make sure that two foam spacers are still present behind the top CPU.  Apparently if these are missing there's a chance that the heatsink can shift and cause a short.

They are visible here.

Now as they love to say in the Haynes manuals, reassembly is the reverse of removal.

CPU heatsinks are attached first, the bolts should be fastened in a criss-cross pattern to ensure they clamp down evenly and not be overtightened. 

I did take the memory cage out in my case to give the fan a clean.  Reattaching the fan connector is fiddly as it hides between the base of the case and the memory cage itself.

Do not reattach the card cage yet as you still need to get the temperature sensor for the lower CPU heatsink plugged in, and it's in the same neighbourhood as the rear fan power header.

The header for the top CPU heatsink temperature sensor lives here.

While I was in there I also wanted to hook up the Blu-ray drive.  There is a SATA port on the motherboard for an optical drive for it, but it's near impossible to get at as it's buried under the front fan housing.  So hooking it up while the housing was out makes a lot of sense.  It's the red cable here.

In addition to this you need to add a Molex to SATA power adaptor as there's no SATA power provided in the optical drive bay.

At this point I put the front fan assembly back in - or rather I tried to.  Discovery number one: You need to use a right angled SATA connector in this location or it fouls the fan housing.  Cue twenty minutes of raking through my bags of random cables etc to find one.

Much better.

The front fan assembly, CPU heatsink cover and memory cage were then all refitted.

This it turned out was a mistake I discoered when I went to actually put the optical drive block back in.  The bloody SATA cable was precisely 10mm too short to reach the damned drive.  Expletives were uttered and I took the whole bloody lot back apart again!

Another half hour of digging around sourced another, longer SATA cable.  I then quadruple checked I hadn't missed anything before I reassembled things for a second time.

Job done?  Well job done if it still works! 

Unhelpfully you don't get to see yay or nay results with this because these machines don't give a user-accessible on-screen conventional POST as with most PCs.  The internal self tests it goes through also take an eternity because it's essentially server grade hardware so is more thorough than the checks done by your average desktop.  After about a minute though things looked promising.

Looks like we're seeing a successful boot...and we did indeed.  First thing I wanted to check at this point was whether the CPUs were what they claimed given the lottery that eBay can sometimes be!  Let's see what LSHW has to say.

Looks correct!  Will look to run a couple of benchmarks at the weekend.  Can't really see much difference in normal use - but pretty much everything happens immediately normally anyway so will have to see what the benchmarks have to say.

Hopefully at least someone found this little diversion into computing interesting.  Back to the cars next I think!

[LightBulbFun]

it pleases me very much to see this machine finally get upgraded to the maximum  

its something I would have loved to do at the time, however I had to settle for X5355's at the time due to the cost, (I got the machine in late 2015 IIRC, and back then the price of 2006 era sever parts had not quite nose dived like they have now! X5365's where £150 a pair back then IIRC)

it will always hold a slightly special place in my heart as they say, as it was my first Mac Pro  (and it makes me happy to see it continuing to giving faultless service with you now!)

the hardware is what I love about Mac Pro's (and other workstation PC's that use Xeons and ECC memory) sure said hardware costs an utter bomb when new, but said components generally end up being an order of magnitude cheaper in just a few years years thanks to the upgrade cycle major server farms work on when they change servers every 4 years or something silly! which as you allude to to leads to shit loads of server hardware being dumped on the used market  

and yeah that damn front fan assembly! there not all that bad, but for some reason that particular one is, genuinely thought I was going to break something first time I had to pull that out!

(and those heatsinks are why I now own a stupidly long Torx T15 screwdriver  , I got a torx T15 so it also fits compact macs, like my Macintosh SE etc, also comes in handy when upgrading my current 2009 Mac Pro's CPUs)

 

as for benchmarks so you have something to compare with

heres a geekbench 4 result with its dual X5355's https://browser.geekbench.com/v4/cpu/6231898

when I first got the machine it had (as per its factory config) 2 Dual core Xeon 5150's which I have a Geekbench 3 result of here https://browser.geekbench.com/geekbench3/4701224

and since GB4 and 3 results are not cross comparable, heres a GB3 result for the 2 Quad core X5355's too https://browser.geekbench.com/geekbench3/5995932

(you can click on my user name in the geekbench results if you want to see all the other things I own/owned that I have benchmarked!)

 

 

[Zelandeth]

Today I decided that in the interests of getting the dogs (and me) exercise while being a far faster moving target for hassle that it was time to get the C5 out for the first time this year.  I'd meant to a couple of months ago, but couldn't face digging it out of the back of the shed at the time.

For those of you who haven't seen this little beastie before, I present to you Scruffy.  So named because it's probably the most cosmetically challenged functional C5 I've come across.

Star decided that she wanted to model for us too, it took me six attempts to get a photo without her actually being in the way.

Apologies for the state of the garden here as well...This area is pretty much exclusively used as an exercise area for the dogs and is due me going around to do a litter clearance (it gets done a couple of times every week), so is a bit of a mess.  Only reason other than the dogs to be out there is that it's also the route between the shed the C5 lives in and the outside world.

Aside from missing hub caps, a missing front mud guard (I do actually have that, I've just never got as far as refitting it as it makes checking the front tyre pressure a pain) and every single surface being scratched to Hell and back the reflective stripes are falling off and are the wrong colour.  They were applied in minutes by me with stuff that I just happened to have laying around about five years ago.

Completely at random I stumbled across some reflective tape in Halfords a couple of months ago which is a far, far closer match to the colour of the original stuff.

The two little squares on the wheel trim here are still the originally applied stickers, so you can see while it's not a perfect match it's a lot closer.

An empty paint tin I've found makes an ideal jack for working on the C5.

While it's still scruffy as anything I think it looks a good deal more presentable now the stripes are all there and actually match.

Next up for it once the lockdown finishes will be a new battery as the one currently in use has pretty much had it.  Can't really complain though, it's done five years of regular use and is just a standard car 038 type, so not designed for this type of application really.  I'd really like to go down the lithium ion route as it's entirely possible to build a pack into the base of the luggage compartment that's a fraction of the weight of the original yet gives a real world range of 50+ miles even using motor assistance more than normal.  However you're looking at several hundred pounds worth of batteries alone...plus obviously a charger and controller would also need to be factored in...and some form of monitoring as the original "fuel gauge" calibration wouldn't be suitable for a different battery chemistry,

Mentioning the instrumentation, here's the "dash" on the C5.

The right hand display is the fuel guage.  Simple bar graph that ticks down as energy is used.  It will start beeping at you before you run out of juice entirely, and about that point will cut power to protect the battery from damage.  The left hand display is essentially an economy gauge.  When the motor is energised a single LED lights to show how much power is being used - moving to the right (red) if the load is heavy, or left (green) if the motor load is low.  The two amber LEDs at each end of both gauges are simply there to act as an indicator to the user that the power is switched on.  The left display also acts as an overheat indicator for the motor - if it gets too hot the whole display there will flash to warn you.  The electronics in there are actually pretty clever for the time.  The LCD display at the far left is just an off-the-shelf cycle computer to give me a speedometer, odometer and clock as there's nothing like that built in.  The two green lights at either side are also additions of mine tied into the indicators so I don't go for miles before remembering to switch them off.

I have thought about doing a more thorough modernisation, doing away with the original lead-acid battery, the original primitive motor controller (it's just a relay switched feed so on or off, there's no throttle or anything like that) etc.  However given that this C5 while cosmetically rough is actually very original and works well I'm quite reluctant to go gutting it.  If I came across the necessary hardware cheaply enough (finding an e-bike that's been accident damaged beyond economic repair would be the ideal situation really) though I may well be willing to reconsider that situation.  A modern hub motor even though still rated at the same maximum of 250W can provide a lot more torque a lot more efficiently than the comparatively primitive one the C5 uses.  Speaking of the motor...no, it is NOT a washing machine motor.  Yes, Polymotor, company who made it do also make washing machine motors...but the press seemed to conveniently forget that as well as washing machine motors, they also make motors for torpedos and other industrial applications.  There's actually nothing whatsoever wrong with the original C5 motor - quite a few folks get impressive performance out of it running it on 24V with some additional cooling without reliability issues, it's just that technology has moved on from 1984.  A modern hub motor will perform better than the original, is lighter and does away with the need for a separate gearbox and belt drive as it's just one integral unit.  We'll see...If I came across the parts needed for an upgrade, I might instead look to revive the "spares" C5 which lives out the back of the shed.  It's got a dead control system and is missing a lot of bits, so would be a better candidate for a complete drive system overhaul.  It's in a lot better shape cosmetically than the one I actually use too.  I don't really mind it being scruffy though, it's a working vehicle and being a mess visually makes it less appealing to thieves - especially as the accessories like the indicators and rear view mirror are things I've grafted on myself rather than factory accessories which have quite a bit of value these days.

It's good fun to ride around here where we've got so many off-street cycle paths, don't think I'd fancy using it to actually commute on a public road though! 

[Zelandeth]

Decided it was time to stop putting it off and start getting some of the jobs on the Jag done.  I'm waiting on bits for the injection system so can't move forward there but I do have a full set of coolant hoses so can start on those.  I don't have enough antifreeze in stock to refill the system if drained fully, so just stop on the top layers for now, done in such a way as to minimise coolant loss.

The bottom hose is going to be a barrel of laughs as the only real access is from underneath, but even then there's still an anti-roll bar and two oil cooler lines in the way - will need to get the car on the ramps before I can get at it though...and I'll need to find some chunky bits of wood to extend the ramps before I can do that as the splitter is several inches too low to drive onto them.

Got a full set of hoses in as it seemed a far easier solution than trying to figure out which ones I needed to buy.

It's easy to see how much the top hose has swollen with the new hose next to it (it looked ten times worse once there was some pressure in the system too).

I'm still baffled as to why the garage that fitted the radiator didn't flag up the state of the hoses and the belts when they fitted it.  The belts especially would have taken them minutes to change and only cost pocket change.

Getting this hose off was made slightly more awkward on account of the hose clip having been fitted the wrong way around.  There's a hole in the slam panel which would have given easy access if the screw was on the opposite side of the hose.  It wasn't though...so it was really fiddly and had to be undone 0.1 turns at a time.

Once I got that undone changing this took about two minutes.  Looks rather better.

The other top hose didn't look so bad but it seemed daft not to do it when the radiator would need bleeding anyway.

The bleed line between the top of the radiator and the filler neck was the other one which had swollen alarmingly, that was swapped with barely a drop of coolant spilled.

Forgot to photograph that one after changing it.

The other hose done today was the bypass hose that runs between the nearside thermostat housing to the radiator.   That's four down, nine to go.

The two I'd spotted bulging were by far the softest so it seems they have broken down more than the others.  The whole lot will get done, but I'll need to get (a lot) more antifreeze in before I can tackle the lower ones.  This is as far as time allowed this afternoon, so got things bled through and we'll come back to this project in due course.

I did put a bowl under there before pulling any hoses but predictably with the amount of things for water to bounce off in the engine bay it managed to capture about 10% of what came out.  I did hose down the area thoroughly afterwards to hopefully dilute any remaining coolant beyond being harmful to critters.

Definitely need to get the injection lines done soon... here's a close up look at the state they're in.

Lots of fine surface perishing. 

I do seem to have the tools I'll need.  Though there are some imperial fasteners involved which will give me reason to break out the socket set I was given by a friend last year in anger.

Having had a closer look today I reckon it should be possible to get into the distributor without removing too much so might have a crack at that soon.

This evening I got interrupted by the apparent death of my web server's hosting machine.  As far as I can tell it seems to have corrupted the BIOS or suffered a similarly catastrophic failure.  I wanted to test something but figured as it hadn't been restarted in nearly six months it made sense to reboot it.  It shut down normally...then just sat there with the CPU fan running flat out, no life from it whatsoever other than that.  Nothing I've been able to do has any effect on this behaviour.

It's a Celeron based laptop which is the absolute definition of cheap and nasty (why I relegated it to sitting quietly in the corner as I reckoned it would fall apart in minutes if moved around...plus it ran stone cold and silently so worked well as a 24/7 running machine).  Quite how cheap and nasty was apparent as soon as I got the cover off (planning to do a CMOS reset). 

Doesn't even have the spot on the motherboard for the battery populated...and the CPU cooler doesn't even have a heat pipe... it's literally just a tinfoil thin stamped bit of aluminium.  There isn't a bit of structural metalwork anywhere on it save for the tiny bit at the hinges.  Whatever is going on I don't think the CPU is running as it doesn't seem to be generating any heat whatsoever.

Nothing I've been able to do has had any effect, so I've finally got around to sticking Apache on an *actual* server grade machine (HP DC7800, which I have a pair of) which already serves as our NAS which I've been going to do for the last 18 months. 

Monitor and speakers are there as it also serves as the "TV" in my bedroom.

Only got an old Core 2 Duo E6750 at its heart so hardly a powerful machine but it's more than up to this sort of job.

It's gained an extra hard drive, my old Nvidia GT 710 graphics card and had a major cable tidy since this photo was taken.

Has finally resolved the file permissions issue I'd been arguing with for ages too which made updating the site a faff too.  Still don't know why that used to play up...but it's now a moot point.  Might actually kick me into finishing one of about fifteen half finished new pages waiting to be finish.

 

[LightBulbFun]

10 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Has finally resolved the file permissions issue I'd been arguing with for ages too which made updating the site a faff too.  Still don't know why that used to play up...but it's now a moot point.  Might actually kick me into finishing one of about fifteen half finished new pages waiting to be finish.

oh yay! been looking forward to your website finally getting a content update  

 

[Zelandeth]

You and me both...I just looked and the item list in the "Under Construction" folder doesn't fit on one screen!

Have a whole five cars which are still waiting for their pages being written aside from anything else...plus the write up for the Lada fuel injection project, the ECU wiring modification to allow a modern oxygen sensor to be used, and about half a dozen things which are totally unrelated to cars.

I really ought to give the whole thing a facelift to be honest...but at the same time it does the job, it's quick enough to throw pages together using the templates I've already made, and changing every damned page would take a lot of work.

... Though being brutally honest reading some of the pages I put together fifteen years ago makes me cringe!

[LightBulbFun]

6 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

I really ought to give the whole thing a facelift to be honest...but at the same time it does the job, it's quick enough to throw pages together using the templates I've already made, and changing every damned page would take a lot of work.

as long as it still works with all the old web browsers!  

I love finding websites that where made 20-25 years ago, that still get content updates but are still using the same design from the get go and as such still work with all the old web browsers

countrybus.org is a good example  

[Zelandeth]

5 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

I love finding websites that where made 20-25 years ago...

 

Not far off...if memory serves correctly it was 2002 that I put the basic template together!

[Shep Shepherd]

On 4/4/2020 at 3:34 PM, Zelandeth said:

Star decided that she wanted to model for us too, it took me six attempts to get a photo without her actually being in the way.

Hoosk approved! ❤️

Have you tried cleaning the body at all? I imagine that something like Cif cream cleaner would improve it a fair bit.

[Zelandeth]

5 minutes ago, Shep Shepherd said:

Hoosk approved! ❤️

Have you tried cleaning the body at all? I imagine that something like Cif cream cleaner would improve it a fair bit.

Yes, it's been scrubbed to within an inch of its live with various cleaners and it looks a good deal better than when I got it.  The general effect back then made it look like it had been through atmospheric re-entry from a low earth orbit.  Granted that was a few years ago, so it is probably also just generally in need of a clean at this point having a couple of years of grime plus a winter's worth of dust and cobwebs all over it.

Not really too worried to be honest, it being scruffy means I don't worry about actually using it as intended (or getting dragged around by a crazed husky cross at more than twice the intended design speed on less than entirely smooth cycle paths).

Star isn't too keen on it yet, she's of a very nervous disposition and takes a long while to learn that things aren't going to eat her.  Not that you'd know looking at her right now...

She is a little bit special...She nearly always sleeps with her head propped up...usually using the most uncomfortable looking object she can find as a pillow.  She also snores impressively.

She has got the intense stare which can nearly kill you with cute down to a fine art.

This idiot is the one who is usually seen dragging me around on the C5.

[Shep Shepherd]

Awwwww! ❤️

[Zelandeth]

The delivery of dog food today never materialised...so my heading out to get more suddenly became non-optional.  It was meant to arrive on Friday, and I had enough to last until yesterday evening. 

Figured given I haven't even started it since early-ish February, was about time I gave this a run.

Always a bit nervous about whether vehicles will start after being left for more than a couple of months, so was interested to see how she'd start.

Did I need to worry?

Of course not.  Brief chirp of protest from the fan belt (think I need to turn the idle speed up a little) was the only sign that it hadn't been out yesterday.

Ignore the brake warning light by the way, there's a slight leak to ground through the pad wear sensor circuit which is putting the light on.  I'm just going to disable it entirely before the MOT as the issue as best I can tell is simply that modern brake pads are more conductive than the old asbestos based ones.  With the relatively tiny mileage this one does I really don't need a pad wear sensor to be honest.

The exhaust has been rattling noticeably the last few trips out, especially when the engine started or stopped, giving an almighty clatter.  This was quickly traced to the downpipe to mid section clamp not being done up quite tightly enough.  1/2 a turn on the pinch bolt and we just had honest diesel clatter without a metallic accompaniment.  I didn't realise quite how much it sounded like there was a tumble drier full of gravel under the van until I sorted it. 

While it's quiet around town but there is still traffic around, the A5 itself though was utterly deserted.  Only saw one other car on there...an old gent dawdling along at about 40 in a 51 plate Fiesta.  I think he got the fright of his life when I went howling past in full juggernaut mode.

Later in the afternoon I escaped outside to get a couple of things done on the Jag.  I still haven't quite got used to walking outside to see this thing...and while it may be an utter pain to work on, has cost me over a grand in fuel alone since I picked it up, it's impossible not to like it.  I mean...just look at it...

I really need to do something about the exhaust tips though.  Their being at the wrong (and mismatched) angle is really bugging me.

First task was to top up the coolant, I expected it to have dropped a bit once it had cooled after the work I did yesterday.  Sure enough it took a little to bring it back to the level specified in the handbook. 

Task number two was to pull some of the carpeting out in the boot to see if I could pin down why it always absolutely reeks of petrol.  It doesn't make any odds whether it's warm or cold, tank full or empty or whether the engine has been run recently.  It always smells...and if you open a window the smell then gets drawn into the car.

Now while it's always been bone dry in my ownership I knew there had been water getting into the boot in the past at some point because I'd seen a bit of mould on the spare wheel cover.  Once I took it out it became apparent that there was quite a *lot* of mould on the spare wheel cover.

I had a feeling I was going to find worse once I started digging, so I sensibly donned the mask I picked up when painting the Invacar and gloves before delving further than this.

Sure enough, what was hiding behind the carpets was truly gross.

Fuel filter has a 2003 date code...though obviously it could have been changed far more recently having been sitting on a shelf for fifteen years.  Nevertheless it will be changed shortly anyway (honestly can't remember if I've already picked one up or not, I'll need to go digging in the ever increasing box of bits of Jag currently occupying the driver's seat in the Invacar) as I'd rather look after the fuel system.

Again, the willingness of Jaguar to use normal hose clips (or mere friction fit without any fasteners whatsoever) on the pressure side of the fuel injection system on this car never ceases to surprise me.

Yep...I think we've located the original source of the bubonic plague...that would be the mould in the general vicinity of the surge tank and fuel pump in my XJ-S!

 

There's definitely evidence of historic fuel leakage here but nothing that looks recent.  The closest I can see is this sticky, tarry deposit on the fuel pump itself.  It doesn't smell even vaguely like petrol though.

The breather system does look predictably over-complicated.  In total we have seven connections to the tank, eight if you include the filler itself.

(The drain tube from the tailgate surround crammed into the same space just to add to the clutter...which is of course right next to the engine ECU just to ensure that any leak there is as catastrophic as possible.)

I'm guessing this is the return line?  The pickup itself is from the centre it looks like.

Of course thanks to Jaguar being themselves we also have vacuum lines all the way back here.  I believe these are what operates the vapour purge system.

Everything is bone dry and all connections seem to be secure so I'm no closer to figuring it out.  I can't get to the vapour purge assembly as it's buried behind the fuel tank.  The tank currently has about 80 litres of fuel in so it's going nowhere for the time being.  I'll have a nosey at it next time I have a tank that's more near to empty.  Ideally all of these lines will want to be changed soon as they're undoubtedly not ethanol safe.

The next thing on my to do list after an initial visual inspection was to attack everything with disinfectant wipes to hopefully remove the need for biohazard tape to be wrapped around the car every time I open the boot.  I got about half way through it when I ran out of time...will be picking up where I left off tomorrow.

[LightBulbFun]

49 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

I still haven't quite got used to walking outside to see this thing...and while it may be an utter pain to work on, has cost me over a grand in fuel alone since I picked it up, it's impossible not to like it.  I mean...just look at it...

suddenly I feel a lot better about REV's insurance costs!

but yes I very much know what you mean by that feeling of looking at something and going "cant believe thats MINE!"  

(happy to see the van is continuing to run nicely as well)