Zel's Motoring Adventures...Volvo, Renault, Rover, Trabant, Invacar & A Sinclair C5 - Updated 13/11.

[Erebus]

Really intrigued to seeing what the BX needs for its MOT.  Great work so far.  Particularly impressed with the polishing.  What products did you use?

[Zelandeth]

12 minutes ago, Erebus said:

Really intrigued to seeing what the BX needs for its MOT.  Great work so far.  Particularly impressed with the polishing.  What products did you use?

Autoglym super resin polish, didn't want to use anything too aggressive if I didn't have to.  Wax was Faecla...the exact name of which variety I can't remember off the top of my head - will try to remember to check next time I'm in the garage.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

On 5/25/2021 at 5:20 PM, Zelandeth said:

New trick by the Xantia today...noted a very distinct trail of fluid from where it was parked when I moved it to mow the lawn earlier today - to the extent I went investigating in case I had a leak.

Apparently there was a significant amount of water trapped behind the rubbing strips on both offside doors.  Not *in* the doors, I did check the drain holes were clear.  Never had that happen to this extent before!  There ended up being enough water there that it had run a good car length or so down the road when I came back to park up again.

Looks like the rubbing strips are starting to warp enough to let more water in

[Zelandeth]

Ever since I got it there has been something slightly funky with the control system on this one air conditioner.  Never bothered too much about it at the time given the price of it and being a unit from the early 90s and that it was clearly an electronic issue rather than mechanical issues with the refrigeration side of things.

The issue has always been with that fancy pants soft touch control panel - which obviously has an unnecessarily complicated layer of electronics behind it for a device of this type.  This sort of control system seemed to be the late 80s/early 90s version of the obsession with everything having to have a touch screen these days.

As Montgomery Scott said, "The more they overcomplicate the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain."

If switched on without pressing anything it should just run in fan mode - cooling or heating modes are enabled by pressing the buttons under the striped grey areas first or second from the left.  Next one cycles through fan speeds, then turns on/off an ioniser, then the timer.

What it had taken to doing however was after a completely random period of time between zero seconds and about six hours is that it would drop out of cooling mode and then refuse to acknowledge any keypad presses aside from the power button or timer button (or the ioniser - but that's a completely independent subsystem which is live whenever the AC supply is on).  Sometimes power cycling the unit would kick it back on into cooling mode, but not always.  Day before yesterday it decided to play up once too often so I started investigating.  Back right when this first started I checked out the keypad itself and ruled it out as a possible culprit.  A sticking button could give similar symptoms but would also knock out the power button functionality.  Plus they all checked out individually anyway.  The issue was clearly with the brains of the machine.

This is the control PCB.

For something that needs to turn on/off a compressor, a heating element and switch between three fan speeds this really is unnecessarily complicated.  The timer functionality is a totally separate physical unit so that's not even on this board.  Likewise there's no need to run the condensate pump off the board...the switch contacts on the float are more than rated for the full load of the whole unit, so just let it handle itself and use the overflow one to cut power to everything aside from the warning light.  Initial checks didn't reveal anything visibly showing signs of distress or any bulging caps.  The wire you can see hanging off down by the transformer was the receiver for the remote control - I pulled that off first in the off chance something was interfering with it.  Second step was to obviously pull and reseat that large socketed chip.

Here's a close up of the markings for those of you playing along at home.

Given this thing is basically running the whole show it was an obvious first port of call - sadly didn't make any difference.  I also went over the board with a good magnifying glass to look for any dry joints or possibly cracked traces...Zip turned up.  In fact the quality of the soldering and the traces on the board is really very good and I can't fault it at all.

Helpfully there is a simplified system schematic on the inside of the rear cover.  As none of the connectors on the PCB are labelled this is appreciated.

Given this thing is thirty years old, my obvious next port of call was the DC smoothing capacitors.  Looking at the voltage rails (5V and 24V) they were both slightly on the low side. 

Smoothing capacitors are 1000uF 35V...and of course I didn't have any of those in stock.  I did have two 470uF ones in a suitable voltage rating though so in the spirit of experimentation I tacked those on in parallel with the existing ones to see if a bit of extra capacitance would make any difference...if they'd just gone low value it probably would have gone a long way to help.  Not tidy by any stretch of the imagination, but for testing purposes it'll do just fine.

It fooled me into thinking I'd fixed it as after doing this it behaved itself for about six hours...before doing exactly the same thing again. 

Fair enough.  My intention is basically to do away with this overcomplicated "brain" and stick a proper temperature controller in.  I've got one in a box somewhere which can handle heating/cooling (this thing could only be set to one or the other - and just has a 0-9 numbered thermostat) and has proper adjustments for hysteresis, anti-cycle timers etc...I just need to figure out where the heck it is.  The original PCB will stick around to handle the evaporator fan speed control, but that will basically be it.  Control over the compressor, condenser fan and heating elements will be handed over to the new controller.

I wanted it back up and running today though...and I'm not one to be beaten by something like this. 

The thermostat on this thing is just a mechanical make/break switch, and that quickly got me to thinking that I could very easily bypass the brain.  I'd lose the anti-cycle timer, but to be honest there's a decent deadband on the thermostat I don't see that being an issue. 

A little bit of poking around with a meter found that there's an always on 24V feed to all of the relay coils, and it's the earthy end that's switched by the control logic.  Sure enough, if I earthed the low side of the compressor relay coil it and the condenser fan motor both kicked in, even though the unit wasn't in cooling mode.

Didn't take long for a plan to form.  Even though this unit doesn't (and as far as I can see never has had) an ioniser unit fitted, the button and relay are there for it.  This function being "always on" seemed to escape from the lockup issue...with the relay clicking away merrily when the button was toggled.  This meant that I had an easily accessible switchable ground available to me. 

That's us halfway there.  I then pulled the thermostat connector off the board and spliced a couple of wires into that - wiring it in series with a wire to the switched ground I mentioned above.

Result is that the ioniser button is now a "compressor enable" button, and when that's turned on the thermostat makes it cut in/out as originally intended.

Only other thing I had to do was to physically unplug the heating element power supply as if it jumps into heating mode it will turn the element on (as in heating mode it interprets the stat being open as a cool for heat - whereas it's the other way around for cooling) because the thermostat is no longer hooked up to the PCB.  Dead easy to do as it's got a socket up front.

I've not gone any further by way of making it pretty or securing the wires to the PCB with hot glue or anything as this only needs to last until I track down the proper controller, then quite a bit of re-engineering will happen.  Hopefully see it going for a good while yet, and actually with better functionality as I'll be able to dial in an actual desired temperature rather than just picking a number.  Plus overnight I'd really prefer the room to be a degree or two cooler than the inbuilt stat allows for...new control will resolve that.  Worth noting that the wiring on there is just 24V, nothing on the mains side has been touched, and I've been careful to keep the tape from bridging the isolation gap.

Still not sure what the original problem is, and there's very little on these units on the web that I've been able to find.  As best I can tell though there's something amiss with that big IC...Without another unit on hand I can rob one out of to test it's pretty hard to tell really. 

It's a total bodge, but it's doing what I bought it to again, and soon will be upgraded rather than bodged.

Also in fairness to the unit...It's 30 years old and has spent a good portion of its life on an equipment rental company's books...so it's not done bad at all really!  May 1991 is the date on the QC sticker on the inside of the back panel.

[Erebus]

14 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Autoglym super resin polish, didn't want to use anything too aggressive if I didn't have to.  Wax was Faecla...the exact name of which variety I can't remember off the top of my head - will try to remember to check next time I'm in the garage.

That's great, thanks.  Looking forward to the next BX update

[PhilA]

The window unit I took out (because it's low BTU, high noise, high power consumption) had a big clunky switch with 7 positions- off, 3 fan speeds in 2 columns, one column fan only the other cool. The dial was a mechanical Bourdon style thermostat which you set to a number that represents no particular temperature.

Same era. I'll give the USA this- you can buy the complex electronic one but the same store will sell you a cheaper one that's all clockwork, too.

[Fumbler]

1 hour ago, PhilA said:

The window unit I took out (because it's low BTU, high noise, high power consumption) had a big clunky switch with 7 positions- off, 3 fan speeds in 2 columns, one column fan only the other cool. The dial was a mechanical Bourdon style thermostat which you set to a number that represents no particular temperature.

Same era. I'll give the USA this- you can buy the complex electronic one but the same store will sell you a cheaper one that's all clockwork, too.

The window units generally are much more efficient than the single hose portable units which seem to be flying off the shelves these days. I like the idea of the portable split units that Zel has. I should look into one for myself for when the temperature gets into the 90s during the summer.

[somewhatfoolish]

6 hours ago, Fumbler said:

The window units generally are much more efficient than the single hose portable units which seem to be flying off the shelves these days. I like the idea of the portable split units that Zel has. I should look into one for myself for when the temperature gets into the 90s during the summer.

That sounds like a terrible idea unless you like paying over the odds, the time to buy is winter or at least right now while it's not brainmeltingly hot.

[Zelandeth]

Given how horrifically inefficient the single hose units are I'm honestly staggered they've not been banned on those grounds yet!  Even the dual hose vented ones are an order of magnitude better.

The figures they quote are massively misleading as well as they completely fail to take into account how much warm air just gets pulled back into the room plus the fact that the whole exhaust duct just acts as a giant radiator.

The ducted unit I had in here before was rated 10,000BTU apparently, same as this...To bring my room down from about 25C or so to 20C at this time of year would take it somewhere around two hours.  The Seveso here does it in about twenty minutes.  The rated power input for two two units is pretty comparable as I recall.

The portable splits like this are definitely the best option where portable units are concerned in the efficiency and performance department - though they are cumbersome things...and from new were frightfully expensive.  Like far more expensive than an actual fixed split system (of course not counting the installation costs).  If you can find one at a good price second hand though they're a decent bet.

After a rummage through approximately 85% of the north wing loft I finally managed to find the temperature controller I was looking for.

Given I was absolutely certain when I went up there that the box was blue...the fact that I found it was quite a surprise given the mess up there.

It's just a cheap little Chinese job, but I've used this type on a couple of projects before and haven't ever had any trouble with them.  They're all of about £15 on Amazon/eBay so even if they don't last forever it's not the end of the world.

Dead simple to hook up, just two relays internal to it for the heating and cooling functions plus a thermistor.

The relays are actually rated to 10A at 250V, so you can actually switch quite a bit of stuff directly via this - though precisely how far you trust relays in a £15 bit of Chinesium is up to you.  Personally I'm sticking with the relays in the A/C unit itself to do the heavy lifting I think.

What's nice about this is that it has options to set the hysteresis and anti-cycle timers through the menu and measures to 0.1C.  Being able to just dial in my desired temperature rather than having an arbitrary 0-9 scale will be nice.  Especially as 9 on the existing stat really is only just cool enough.  Just need to figure out how to mount it.

Shame the cutout for the existing thermostat isn't slightly bigger or it could just slot in there!

Might have to see if it might be possible to mount it from behind the panel...I think if you positioned it so the buttons were accessible you might still be able to see enough of the display to be useful, though the heating status indicator would almost definitely be blocked...not so worried about that though.

Possibly a job for next week at some point if I get bored.

[PhilA]

10 hours ago, Fumbler said:

The window units generally are much more efficient than the single hose portable units which seem to be flying off the shelves these days. I like the idea of the portable split units that Zel has. I should look into one for myself for when the temperature gets into the 90s during the summer.

Yeah, they're actually pretty reasonable, but the design is limited to the American predisposition for sash windows.

The little one in the workshop manages to knock 8-10 degrees off outside temperature in what's essentially an uninsulated wood and metal shed, at night it even switches off.

The cost to run it is worth things in the workshop not going rusty.

It's something like 8500 BTU, uses about 350 Watts and cost me $138. 

Phil

[Fumbler]

16 hours ago, somewhatfoolish said:

That sounds like a terrible idea unless you like paying over the odds, the time to buy is winter or at least right now while it's not brainmeltingly hot.

I'm not that stupid to buy when demand is high. Luckily, my workplace is air-conditioned throughout and on the coast, so at least the main heat of the day is already dealt with.

12 hours ago, PhilA said:

Yeah, they're actually pretty reasonable, but the design is limited to the American predisposition for sash windows.

The little one in the workshop manages to knock 8-10 degrees off outside temperature in what's essentially an uninsulated wood and metal shed, at night it even switches off.

The cost to run it is worth things in the workshop not going rusty.

It's something like 8500 BTU, uses about 350 Watts and cost me $138. 

Phil

Indeed, I've seen a few casement window options but they're few and far between. That being said, window units are sold here, but I have a feeling they're sold more for the wall installation aspect as they're suitable for that too.

[Zelandeth]

For those who haven't seen this type of air conditioner - this is what goes outside, usually with special hangers to hook over the window sill.

So rather than a huge hose there's just that little umbilical connecting the two.  That contains refrigerant lines, a condensate drain line and power supply for the outdoor unit's fan.

Just have the one hanger there as it's sitting on a little shelf of bricks on the roof below the window, so I've just got the upper hanger in place as insurance against it sliding off down the roof if it gets too windy.

Does mean you still have to keep the window ajar slightly, but far less than with a vented unit.  Plus it doesn't actively pull air in from outside so that alone vastly improved efficiency.

You don't really want to have to install/remove the outdoor unit when it's hanging over a window sill for the simple reason that it's damned heavy.  Plus I really don't want to fatigue the lines more than I have to.  So it gets put out when the weather gets warmer and will stay there (unless the house is empty obviously) and will stay there until the weather cools down.

Not being able to close the window isn't ideal though...but this is my solution.

Takes about five minutes to fit or remove and most importantly keeps the bugs out. 

Also means when random downpours arrive out of nowhere the rain stays outside!

[Fumbler]

@Zelandeth

[mat_the_cat]

On 5/28/2021 at 12:01 AM, Zelandeth said:

Given how horrifically inefficient the single hose units are I'm honestly staggered they've not been banned on those grounds yet!  Even the dual hose vented ones are an order of magnitude better.

The figures they quote are massively misleading as well as they completely fail to take into account how much warm air just gets pulled back into the room plus the fact that the whole exhaust duct just acts as a giant radiator.

The ducted unit I had in here before was rated 10,000BTU apparently, same as this...To bring my room down from about 25C or so to 20C at this time of year would take it somewhere around two hours.  The Seveso here does it in about twenty minutes.  The rated power input for two two units is pretty comparable as I recall.

The portable splits like this are definitely the best option where portable units are concerned in the efficiency and performance department - though they are cumbersome things...and from new were frightfully expensive.  Like far more expensive than an actual fixed split system (of course not counting the installation costs).  If you can find one at a good price second hand though they're a decent bet.

After a rummage through approximately 85% of the north wing loft I finally managed to find the temperature controller I was looking for.

Given I was absolutely certain when I went up there that the box was blue...the fact that I found it was quite a surprise given the mess up there.

It's just a cheap little Chinese job, but I've used this type on a couple of projects before and haven't ever had any trouble with them.  They're all of about £15 on Amazon/eBay so even if they don't last forever it's not the end of the world.

Dead simple to hook up, just two relays internal to it for the heating and cooling functions plus a thermistor.

The relays are actually rated to 10A at 250V, so you can actually switch quite a bit of stuff directly via this - though precisely how far you trust relays in a £15 bit of Chinesium is up to you.  Personally I'm sticking with the relays in the A/C unit itself to do the heavy lifting I think.

What's nice about this is that it has options to set the hysteresis and anti-cycle timers through the menu and measures to 0.1C.  Being able to just dial in my desired temperature rather than having an arbitrary 0-9 scale will be nice.  Especially as 9 on the existing stat really is only just cool enough.  Just need to figure out how to mount it.

Shame the cutout for the existing thermostat isn't slightly bigger or it could just slot in there!

Might have to see if it might be possible to mount it from behind the panel...I think if you positioned it so the buttons were accessible you might still be able to see enough of the display to be useful, though the heating status indicator would almost definitely be blocked...not so worried about that though.

Possibly a job for next week at some point if I get bored.

I'm using exactly the same controller to run a dehumidifier compressor after failure of the controller circuit (beyond my basic skills could diagnose). The basic unit has lasted 15 years now, although the original controller didn't even last 5.

[Zelandeth]

2 hours ago, Fumbler said:

@Zelandeth

Is it really bad that the first thing I spotted in that image is the Amiga 500?

[Fumbler]

Just now, Zelandeth said:

Is it really bad that the first thing I spotted in that image is the Amiga 500?

Nein, not bad at all. I even forgot it was there!

[Zelandeth]

Van actually got a halfway decent run today, over to Basildon and back to grab some more air conditioners.

There are three in there.  This will allow us to replace the last two remaining ducted ones we've got and keep a spare for use as and when needed.   At the price the seller was offering it seemed daft to turn down the opportunity.

Plan is once the weather heats up properly to flog the old units on and recover some of the costs.

Was nice to get out for an actual drive - even if the M25 was precisely as busy as expected.

[LightBulbFun]

16 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Van actually got a halfway decent run today, over to Basildon and back to grab some more air conditioners.

There are three in there.  This will allow us to replace the last two remaining ducted ones we've got and keep a spare for use as and when needed.   At the price the seller was offering it seemed daft to turn down the opportunity.

Plan is once the weather heats up properly to flog the old units on and recover some of the costs.

Was nice to get out for an actual drive - even if the M25 was precisely as busy as expected.

Look at you and your air conditioners, I melt in my Room and ruin my office chair like a real Man!

no im not immensely Jealous why do you ask? LOL

 

unfortunately I dont think I could mount one of those units to the windows in my Room could I? (maybe I could hang the outdoor unit off/out the upper right window but im not sure how big/how much the outdoor unit weighs etc?)

but how much do these units cost? I think one would at least work for the room my mum is in at least (because I can just stand the outdoor unit on the Balcony then LOL)

 

[Zelandeth]

They have hooks which latch onto the indoor window sill, so the window to the left would probably work.  You'd obviously need to have it ajar slightly but if it's warm you'll have it open anyway.

Just make sure there's not a balcony or anything below as the condensate is just pumped overboard, so periodically there will be a couple of pints of water pumped out of it.

Portable split units have never been hugely popular - mainly because the initial purchase price was comparable to a conventional fixed split system (unsurprising really given it's basically exactly what it is, just in a more rugged case).  These were around £1000 each when new.  Because of that finding any for sale anywhere is a bit of a challenge.

Paid £160 each for these, which given the ducted type you'll find in B&Q or Argos are £2-300 a pop seemed good math for what are vastly superior bits of kit in every way. 

Obviously they still use a fair bit of power, but far less than the ducted ones as the compressor is running far less of the time.

The hope is that if we do get to a point in the future where we feel we can get a fixed system installed that we shouldn't have any problem getting back what we paid for these - especially in the summer!

We damned near died last year though so we're getting in ahead of the game this year.

 

[Zelandeth]

Kind of having a think about medium and long term plans for the fleet.  This is all just a bit of a case of "thinking out loud" rather than anything cast fully in stone.

Realistically I need to cut down the numbers.  Five cars is too damned many, and I just don't have the time to keep on top of things for all of them as well as I really should.

The keepers... obvious really, the Invacar and the van.  Not saying the van might not move on one day, but only if it were to be replaced by something filling a similar role but larger - dependent on me having more room and a C/D category driving license.  I was seriously looking at a 70s American Ford based one similar to mine a few months ago until I discovered that the plated weight was over 3500kg.

Invacar...well c'mon.  It's not a car I could ever replace really.  Plus having brought it back from the brink to such an extent does mean I'm quite attached to it.  Plus it's a huge laugh to drive.

BX is a complete unknown... I've not driven it properly yet so it's impossible to say really.

Xantia... it's a tough one to admit but really she needs to move on long term.  At 26 years and heading towards 150K miles she's getting towards the point where it feels like she really should be moved away from daily driver duty.  The Activa is such a special car that it would be a real shame to see if "driven into the ground."  Much better she gets moved into weekend toy and show duty for someone. 

Jag kind of falls into a similar category... probably the biggest headache there is that I don't have anywhere under cover to store it...and that's going to mean I'm forever going to be chasing rust and water ingress.  It's a car which definitely wants to be regularly used, but she would definitely benefit from living in a garage...and I just can't offer that.  The car being a good 6" wider than my garage being a major factor there and planning regs meaning I can't build a car port which would help.

So I'm looking to probably replace the Xantia and Jag - and that's a difficult set of shoes to fill.  There are requirements...

[] Must be able to seat four adults in comfort, have the ability to carry a fifth occasionally.

[] Decent sized boot.  Saloons need not apply.

[] Ability to cruise in serenity on motorways.  I realise that few things are going to be able to compete with the Xantia there as it knocks virtually everything else I've driven out the park as a motorway mile muncher.  Though why the fluff didn't Citroen fit cruise on the Activa?!?  The only criticism is that it's a bugger to regulate speed in because the engine is so boosty...she really needs cruise.  Despite the Jag having vastly more torque because there's no boost involved she tends to sit at the speed you set rather than creeping.

[] Decent amount of poke.  I'd be lying if I didn't say that both the surge of torque when the Xantia comes on boost or the brute force shove off the line in the Jag are addictive. 

[] Decent stereo.  I like my music, and to be honest it's somewhere that all my fleet are a bit lacking in just now.  I do like having steering wheel controls for it too... that's one thing from moderns I do miss going back to my cars.

[] It would be really nice to be honest to have a car which while mine, that Abby or Chris were willing to drive too...on the odd long trip it would just be really nice to have the option to share driving duties.

[] Needs to be interesting in some ways.

[] Something we can plan to keep for a few years, and actually feel proud of seeing in a car park.

I've got a pretty solid plan in mind for what will be filling that list, and I'm afraid it's not really very Autoshite, it's a Tesla Model S.  It's honestly one of a truly tiny list of modern cars that I've got the slightest bit of interest in actually owning though.

They're still a bit out of our sensible price range, but I've been keeping half an eye on them and I reckon with a bit of patience we'll be able to look into it in the next year or two.  Mostly been trade values I've been watching too, so there may be better details out there on the private market too.

I'll be needing to shop around too as with something which is that expensive I'm bloody well going to be picky about spec.

[] Colour.  Blue is preferred, would happily have red.  Black and white would be considered if the car was otherwise spot on.

[] Interior.  This is probably going to be the biggest headache as virtually all of them I've seen have black or dark grey and a black or carbon fibre dash.  I want light leather and wood trim.

[] Panoramic roof.  I thought it was a total gimmick until I sat in one with it, and it does make the interior feel so much nicer.

[] Drive.  Yes I will be sticking out for a dual motor one.  Do I *need* enough torque to reverse the rotation of the planet?  No.  Do I *want* it?  Hell yes.

This is going to be a couple of years down the line though...and I really do want to tick a couple of things off first though...two obvious ones are an early Jeep Cherokee XJ and a late 70s/early 80s Volvo.  Or something American... I've a major attraction to things like the Buick Regal etc from the 80s...just comfy wafty motors which are just a nice place to be yet aren't the size of a small country.

 

[PhilA]

90's Crown Vic. With the digital dash.

[Zelandeth]

6 hours ago, PhilA said:

90's Crown Vic. With the digital dash.

Wouldn't say no depending how they drive, though the only ones I've seen for sale over here were both ex/replica police cars with massively optimistic price tags. 

Didn't know there was a digital dash version of it though.  You've got to go some ways to beat the green-screen CRT touch screen in some of the 80s Buicks though!

[LightBulbFun]

10 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Kind of having a think about medium and long term plans for the fleet.  This is all just a bit of a case of "thinking out loud" rather than anything cast fully in stone.

Realistically I need to cut down the numbers.  Five cars is too damned many, and I just don't have the time to keep on top of things for all of them as well as I really should.

The keepers... obvious really, the Invacar and the van.  Not saying the van might not move on one day, but only if it were to be replaced by something filling a similar role but larger - dependent on me having more room and a C/D category driving license.  I was seriously looking at a 70s American Ford based one similar to mine a few months ago until I discovered that the plated weight was over 3500kg.

Invacar...well c'mon.  It's not a car I could ever replace really.  Plus having brought it back from the brink to such an extent does mean I'm quite attached to it.  Plus it's a huge laugh to drive.

BX is a complete unknown... I've not driven it properly yet so it's impossible to say really.

Xantia... it's a tough one to admit but really she needs to move on long term.  At 26 years and heading towards 150K miles she's getting towards the point where it feels like she really should be moved away from daily driver duty.  The Activa is such a special car that it would be a real shame to see if "driven into the ground."  Much better she gets moved into weekend toy and show duty for someone. 

Jag kind of falls into a similar category... probably the biggest headache there is that I don't have anywhere under cover to store it...and that's going to mean I'm forever going to be chasing rust and water ingress.  It's a car which definitely wants to be regularly used, but she would definitely benefit from living in a garage...and I just can't offer that.  The car being a good 6" wider than my garage being a major factor there and planning regs meaning I can't build a car port which would help.

So I'm looking to probably replace the Xantia and Jag - and that's a difficult set of shoes to fill.  There are requirements...

[] Must be able to seat four adults in comfort, have the ability to carry a fifth occasionally.

[] Decent sized boot.  Saloons need not apply.

[] Ability to cruise in serenity on motorways.  I realise that few things are going to be able to compete with the Xantia there as it knocks virtually everything else I've driven out the park as a motorway mile muncher.  Though why the fluff didn't Citroen fit cruise on the Activa?!?  The only criticism is that it's a bugger to regulate speed in because the engine is so boosty...she really needs cruise.  Despite the Jag having vastly more torque because there's no boost involved she tends to sit at the speed you set rather than creeping.

[] Decent amount of poke.  I'd be lying if I didn't say that both the surge of torque when the Xantia comes on boost or the brute force shove off the line in the Jag are addictive. 

[] Decent stereo.  I like my music, and to be honest it's somewhere that all my fleet are a bit lacking in just now.  I do like having steering wheel controls for it too... that's one thing from moderns I do miss going back to my cars.

[] It would be really nice to be honest to have a car which while mine, that Abby or Chris were willing to drive too...on the odd long trip it would just be really nice to have the option to share driving duties.

[] Needs to be interesting in some ways.

[] Something we can plan to keep for a few years, and actually feel proud of seeing in a car park.

I've got a pretty solid plan in mind for what will be filling that list, and I'm afraid it's not really very Autoshite, it's a Tesla Model S.  It's honestly one of a truly tiny list of modern cars that I've got the slightest bit of interest in actually owning though.

They're still a bit out of our sensible price range, but I've been keeping half an eye on them and I reckon with a bit of patience we'll be able to look into it in the next year or two.  Mostly been trade values I've been watching too, so there may be better details out there on the private market too.

I'll be needing to shop around too as with something which is that expensive I'm bloody well going to be picky about spec.

[] Colour.  Blue is preferred, would happily have red.  Black and white would be considered if the car was otherwise spot on.

[] Interior.  This is probably going to be the biggest headache as virtually all of them I've seen have black or dark grey and a black or carbon fibre dash.  I want light leather and wood trim.

[] Panoramic roof.  I thought it was a total gimmick until I sat in one with it, and it does make the interior feel so much nicer.

[] Drive.  Yes I will be sticking out for a dual motor one.  Do I *need* enough torque to reverse the rotation of the planet?  No.  Do I *want* it?  Hell yes.

This is going to be a couple of years down the line though...and I really do want to tick a couple of things off first though...two obvious ones are an early Jeep Cherokee XJ and a late 70s/early 80s Volvo.  Or something American... I've a major attraction to things like the Buick Regal etc from the 80s...just comfy wafty motors which are just a nice place to be yet aren't the size of a small country.

 

Im wondering if a Volvo like @davidfowler2000's

would be a good vehicle while you sort out a Tesla? from what I have heard at the FoD, it sounds like it wafts well and has plenty of poke  

and being an estate should have plenty of space inside, so it sounds like it would tick a few box's  

2 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Wouldn't say no depending how they drive, though the only ones I've seen for sale over here were both ex/replica police cars with massively optimistic price tags. 

Didn't know there was a digital dash version of it though.  You've got to go some ways to beat the green-screen CRT touch screen in some of the 80s Buicks though!

im pleased to say a good friend of mine had a buick reatta with that touch screen! (Yes 1980s!) CRT control console   (which as we where both vintage computer Nerds/geeks we fucking loved)

sadly it developed some electrical gremlins so he got a 1997 Lincoln Town car instead (one of the very last 2nd Generation ones)

which he still wafts around in today  (although he has sadly recently replaced the rear air suspension with coil springs Boo hiss! LOL)

he gave the Buick to a friend who was able to fix its gremlins and I believe it is still going as well so still a happy ending so to speak for it  

I remember getting parts for the Reatta it was fun, the braking system was interesting, it used sort of accumulator sphere almost like a Citroen, I cant quite recall the details other than it was shared with some Jaguars  and as such replacements where £LOL

 

[Cento16v]

Let me know if you move the Xantia on, might get a bollocking for having two though 😂

[R1152]

So, let me get this right; you say you need to reduce the fleet... then produce a shopping list for replacements? 🤔

I wonder if the CRT touch screen in that Buick works the same way as some Tektronix kit did in the 80s - your finger interrupted IR beams laid out in a matrix?

[PhilA]

55 minutes ago, R1152 said:

So, let me get this right; you say you need to reduce the fleet... then produce a shopping list for replacements? 🤔

I wonder if the CRT touch screen in that Buick works the same way as some Tektronix kit did in the 80s - your finger interrupted IR beams laid out in a matrix?

Looks like a resistive film on a flat panel over the screen. The accuracy doesn't have to be high, just a 5x5 grid.

[R1152]

Just now, PhilA said:

Looks like a resistive film on a flat panel over the screen. The accuracy doesn't have to be high, just a 5x5 grid.

The Tektronix scope I used was a 4x4 grid with IR LEDs.

[Zelandeth]

2 hours ago, R1152 said:

So, let me get this right; you say you need to reduce the fleet... then produce a shopping list for replacements? 🤔

I wonder if the CRT touch screen in that Buick works the same way as some Tektronix kit did in the 80s - your finger interrupted IR beams laid out in a matrix?

There's two distinct steps in here though - an end goal, and shortlist of things I'd really like to have a proper shot of in the meantime.

Some/all of the plans may well change vastly between now and then or may never happen entirely.  Especially given I just found more repair work needed on the house, and we had the first quote in today for sorting the driveway and back garden.  Our planned budget covers about 20% of the work we'd hoped to get done.

From memory the touchscreen setup Buick used was a resistive one.  Needed quite a firm press as I remember...

[PhilA]

6 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Didn't know there was a digital dash version of it though. 

VFD, very Space Invaders!

They drive well. Quiet and squishy.

[Zelandeth]

After a wait of what seemed like forever due to pointless Brexit related import issues my new oil pressure switch arrived for TPA last week, today I thought I'd undertake the five minute job of swapping it.

Bit fiddly to get at due to the proximity of the distributor and oil filter.

With the oil filter removed I could at least get a spanner on it.  Holy hell it was tight.  I ended up undoing the boss instead and separating them off the car.

This required a truly ridiculous amount of force - I was absolutely expecting the body of the switch to snap off to be honest.

The boss that screws into the crankcase was also silly tight and let go all at once with an almighty crack.  Results of this were predictable.

Really annoyingly though the new oil pressure switch supplied by Prokschi isn't correct.

The threaded portion is longer and appears to have a different thread.

The length is important as the oil pressure relief valve spring sits against the underside of the body of this, so how far in the switch screws into the boss will affect the preload on that.  It won't screw in more than about 2mm anyway because the thread is wrong so it's a moot point.

This was listed as being suitable for all variants of this engine so I'd expected it to just screw in...did Invacars use a different one for some reason?