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[BorniteIdentity]

Apparently, "The Bill" might come back to TV which is an opportunity to remind myself that

1) My perfect Ford Escort was in the 1995 onwards opening credits

Sierra Sapphire's still look smart today

I'm still annoyed that they overdubbed brake sounds whilst the white Sierra was clearly still accelerating

Honey Harman was a solid 14/9.

 

[sierraman]

1 hour ago, Split_Pin said:

No OBD, its just the paperclip in the diagnostic socket in the engine and you count the flashes. I got number 12 which means no codes stored.

Single point injection  too.

Those were the days none of this plug it in bollocks that tells you a rough direction as to what might be wrong. 🤣

[wuvvum]

16 minutes ago, BorniteIdentity said:

Apparently, "The Bill" might come back to TV which is an opportunity to remind myself that

1) My perfect Ford Escort was in the 1995 onwards opening credits

Sierra Sapphire's still look smart today

I'm still annoyed that they overdubbed brake sounds whilst the white Sierra was clearly still accelerating

Honey Harman was a solid 14/9.

 

I was always more of a Gina Gold man myself.

[Split_Pin]

10 minutes ago, sierraman said:

Those were the days none of this plug it in bollocks that tells you a rough direction as to what might be wrong. 🤣

Sorts the brains from the brain dead.

The garage promised they'd phone me right back this morning, obviously I haven't heard a thing because they just hope that a problem, which they clearly haven't even got a clue about, will just go away.

Never move to the Falkirk area if you have an old car, it'll not see another MOT pass.

[sierraman]

I’d like to think an MOT will be same wherever you go. 

[Cheezey]

20 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

Sorts the brains from the brain dead.

The garage promised they'd phone me right back this morning, obviously I haven't heard a thing because they just hope that a problem, which they clearly haven't even got a clue about, will just go away.

Never move to the Falkirk area if you have an old car, it'll not see another MOT pass.

I find garages/blokes in sheds in this area frustrating. Tried a few and I’m never 100% happy with the experience. Which garage is it with? 

[sierraman]

9 minutes ago, Cheezey said:

I find garages/blokes in sheds in this area frustrating. Tried a few and I’m never 100% happy with the experience. Which garage is it with? 

I think that’s same wherever you go actually, there’s the ones that are cheap enough but they’re playing at it. Then there’s the ones that have all the kit to tackle any job but they’re £££ and don’t want to know about old cars. 

[Split_Pin]

20 minutes ago, sierraman said:

I’d like to think an MOT will be same wherever you go. 

I know I'm just frustrated.

[Cheezey]

1 minute ago, sierraman said:

I think that’s same wherever you go actually, there’s the ones that are cheap enough but they’re playing at it. Then there’s the ones that have all the kit to tackle any job but they’re £££ and don’t want to know about old cars. 

What you want from a garage:

1. A good job

2. Good customer service ie it gets done promptly and some communication

3. Fair price

I always find you can only ever get to pick two on that list. My wife’s car goes into the dealer, a good job, great customer service but expensive. 

 

[sierraman]

Just now, Split_Pin said:

I know I'm just frustrated.

What I should have said was an MOT should be the same wherever you go. Have they managed to nail what it actually is that’s causing the emissions to fail?

[sierraman]

1 minute ago, Cheezey said:

What you want from a garage:

1. A good job

2. Good customer service ie it gets done promptly and some communication

3. Fair price

I always find you can only ever get to pick two on that list. My wife’s car goes into the dealer, a good job, great customer service but expensive. 

 

Worryingly it seems anyone can set up in a unit and call themselves a garage. They could be completely clueless. You couldn’t for instance set yourself up as a plumber with the same level of lack of supervision. 

[Split_Pin]

20 minutes ago, Cheezey said:

I find garages/blokes in sheds in this area frustrating. Tried a few and I’m never 100% happy with the experience. Which garage is it with? 

Automec in Bo'ness had it a month, fobbed me off big time until I sent a beavertail  to take it off them.

5 garages in the area didn't want to know.

The only place that was interested in it was Central MOTs in Banknock but that was just welding I had done.

Its now with Canalbank Motors who are good with anything from 2000 which all of my cars just squeak into but this old thing appears to have them stumped. Why they don't just say so is beyond me. I won't think any less of them!

I personally think its the Cat but the cheapest one on ebay is £163 so I'm ignoring that thought for the time being. The car has cost me a small fortune now and it still not roadworthy. I'm reaching the point where I'd lose money if I sold it and I'd rather not be out of pocket.

[Cheezey]

That is very frustrating. I’m not familiar with either of those garages. 
Do you think it might have been a shite new cat put on before? I’ve heard before of repro cats only lasting an MoT or two. 
I can’t really think of anywhere else to use. I’ve been using SOS in Falkirk, they are usually working on a few older cars at any given time. 

[sierraman]

You need to find somewhere that’ll stick the gas analyser on something else to bypass it. 

Have you tried a bottle of Cataclean and get it really hot before the emissions?

[BorniteIdentity]

I think - with garages right now - there are a few things going on.

1.  There's a lot of work.  A LOT.  Thousands of people basically moth-balled their car last year and deferred maintenance.  

2.  Staffing.  I'm hearing this, albeit anecdotally, quite a lot at the moment.  Garages are struggling to get staff - there just aren't the CVs there used to be.

3.  Batteries, exhausts and servicing is easy money.  Even an ape like me can do it.  An exhaust takes 30 minutes but you charge for the hour etc.

 

My local trusted garage is just swimming in work.  I wanted some tyres fitting and, as a regular customer (who even buys petrol there) was asked to wait two weeks and two days.  For a simple, straightforward job.  

Other work I have to take the car an hour away into Hertfordshire just to guarantee I get a good job but they are expensive (£80ph).  However, you get what you pay for and everything always comes back immaculately done with quality parts etc blah.

 

Stay patient with them @Split_Pin - I think they'll come good for you.  At 0.7 something is terribly, terribly wrong.  I wouldn't even expect it to be that high with a straight through piece of scaffold pipe.  Excuse my ignorance, but does it have two lambda sensors (one either side of the cat?).  It will (if I'm correct) help control the fuelling and so it could be one of those that's not in the rudest of health.  

 

[SiC]

My favourite local garage: 

43 minutes ago, Cheezey said:

What you want from a garage:

1. A good job ✅

2. Good customer service ie it gets done promptly and some communication ✅

3. Fair price ✅

I always find you can only ever get to pick two on that list. My wife’s car goes into the dealer, a good job, great customer service but expensive. 

 

1. Always done something well and I've never anything come back bodged.

2. I have a friendly chat with them. They've always let me know what they've done and if it's work they're prepared to take on. Almost always yes, only time they've said no was on a Laguna V6 cambelt. Which is probably fair as it's a big transverse V6 with vvti.

3. Fifty quid an hour (iirc), especially in Bristol is very reasonable. I do wonder if that's their old rate which they still give to me though.

 

So I get to pick all three. Is there a catch? Yes, they get very busy and even urgent work is at least a week ahead. Recently they've been two weeks ahead on anything but MOTs. 

I do try to recommend them where I can. Unfortunately that doesn't help with their busyness!

[Split_Pin]

The EGR was blanked off some years ago but I doubt its that.

The garage finally phoned me, he said he's confident that the o2  sensor is responsible for the overfueling. He can get one for £40 which is cheaper than I can get it so its worth a shot.

I agree garages are awful just now. Just because they're in demand though doesn't mean its always going to be that way. People will get pissed off and either go somewhere else, or, heaven forbid, buy a new car. I was thinking of farming out the timing belt job but I'm fairly certain I'm doing that myself now.

[Floatylight]

2 hours ago, BorniteIdentity said:

Apparently, "The Bill" might come back to TV which is an opportunity to remind myself that

1) My perfect Ford Escort was in the 1995 onwards opening credits

Sierra Sapphire's still look smart today

I'm still annoyed that they overdubbed brake sounds whilst the white Sierra was clearly still accelerating

Honey Harman was a solid 14/9.

 

Married to Lewis Hamilton...

[artdjones]

The engine management coolant sensor has been checked as working?

[Split_Pin]

2 minutes ago, artdjones said:

The engine management coolant sensor has been checked as working?

Yes that's been replaced.

[Split_Pin]

Crikey The Bill. I used to love watching that  when it was 1/2 hour in the 1980s.  I remember at that time they had Metro pandas and Cavalier MK2 undercover CID cars. 

Ted Roach and Tosh Lines were great but I didn't like that 'Scotch Ponce ' Alastair in CID. Neither did DI Burnside.

Todd Carty played an excellent psychotic polis towards the end as well.

[dome]

39 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

The EGR was blanked off some years ago but I doubt its that.

The garage finally phoned me, he said he's confident that the o2  sensor is responsible for the overfueling. He can get one for £40 which is cheaper than I can get it so its worth a shot.

I agree garages are awful just now. Just because they're in demand though doesn't mean its always going to be that way. People will get pissed off and either go somewhere else, or, heaven forbid, buy a new car. I was thinking of farming out the timing belt job but I'm fairly certain I'm doing that myself now.

Sounds worth a try, although you'd expect a EML for that. The Locost had similar management on its XE engine and it always gave a code for a dodgy lambda, likely because I'd used chocolate block wiring it in 🙈 It was on a Q plate though so emissions weren't an issue. 

Still, there comes a time when you have to fire the parts cannon and £40 isn't bad for a new sensor. 

[SiC]

8 minutes ago, dome said:

Sounds worth a try, although you'd expect a EML for that.

Not always, especially if gone lazy. Clios 1*2 are prone to having bad emissions but no EML from a lazy Lambda. 

However instead of throwing parts at it, they should really putting it on a oscilloscope and seeing how well (or not) it's working. 

[Spurious]

1 minute ago, SiC said:

Not always, especially if gone lazy. Clios 1*2 are prone to having bad emissions but no EML from a lazy Lambda. 

However instead of throwing parts at it, they should really putting it on a oscilloscope and seeing how well (or not) it's working. 

Does the average mechanic have a oscilloscope? Can't think they would?

[dome]

11 minutes ago, Spurious said:

Does the average mechanic have a oscilloscope? Can't think they would?

Yeah I think @SiC is better equipped than the average workshop...

Re the Clios, the Kangoo has never had the post cat lambda plugged in as the wires were chopped when the conversion was done. I've had the eml on once for this and when cleared it never came back.

[SiC]

4 hours ago, Spurious said:

Does the average mechanic have a oscilloscope? Can't think they would?

I see it as a difference between a mechanic and a parts fitter. Someone who can diagnose and repair Vs someone who just spins ratchets. 

[Zelandeth]

O2 sensor or temperature sensor would be my prime suspects.

Just because the temperature sensor has been replaced doesn't mean it's working properly...there will be a table out there somewhere of the correct resistance Vs temperature somewhere... it's an easy thing to check.

Wouldn't be the first time I've known a car to into a garage to have that changed and to come back finding the garage changed the sender for the temperature gauge rather than the ECU either...I only chucked that at a garage as it was a sod to get at and the middle of December.  On the plus side, the garage did refund me.

A totally dead O2 sensor will throw on the EML (if it's the same error table as used on the GM ALDL injection system equipped Ladas, code 13), but they can have drifted out of spec a fair ways, more than enough to foul up the emissions, while still returning values which make sense to the ECU. 

Try not to tear out too much hair, once sorted the GM TBi systems are generally very reliable.  A paperclip, printed out cheat sheet with the codes on and a multimeter are all you need to sort most issues.

Not sure if it's the same in this application, but on the Ladas if you left the paperclip in place and started the engine, once the system went into closed loop mode it would give an indication as to what the lambda value was doing (so whether the fuel trim was being pushed towards rich or lean) by varying the flash rate of the check engine light.  A very primitive but still useful real-time data output.

No idea if that applies here...but I know Lada bought the system essentially off the shelf from GM just with a tweaked map for their 1.7 engine, so it's entirely possible. 

It is entirely possible to build a computer interface to get real-time data out of the ALDL bus too... though finding a garage with the correct gear would probably be less hassle.

[N19]

1 hour ago, BorniteIdentity said:

I think - with garages right now - there are a few things going on.

1.  There's a lot of work.  A LOT.  Thousands of people basically moth-balled their car last year and deferred maintenance.  

2.  Staffing.  I'm hearing this, albeit anecdotally, quite a lot at the moment.  Garages are struggling to get staff - there just aren't the CVs there used to be.

3.  Batteries, exhausts and servicing is easy money.  Even an ape like me can do it.  An exhaust takes 30 minutes but you charge for the hour etc.

 

My local trusted garage is just swimming in work.  I wanted some tyres fitting and, as a regular customer (who even buys petrol there) was asked to wait two weeks and two days.  For a simple, straightforward job.  

Other work I have to take the car an hour away into Hertfordshire just to guarantee I get a good job but they are expensive (£80ph).  However, you get what you pay for and everything always comes back immaculately done with quality parts etc blah.

 

Stay patient with them @Split_Pin - I think they'll come good for you.  At 0.7 something is terribly, terribly wrong.  I wouldn't even expect it to be that high with a straight through piece of scaffold pipe.  Excuse my ignorance, but does it have two lambda sensors (one either side of the cat?).  It will (if I'm correct) help control the fuelling and so it could be one of those that's not in the rudest of health.  

 

This is exactly my experience. The local garage I use have two mechanics, two fitters/assistants, and an MoT tester. They have a modest garage with space for 5 cars, other than Mot bay. They have so much work now they could easily use two additional staff, only they can't get staff and don't have space. They have four clutches needing doing waiting to come in - they're subletting those to elsewhere which they usually avoid like the plague. The owner is pulling his hair out with cars everywhere! 

[Burnside]

6 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

Put Cataclean in on the stated 1/4 tank, checked the air filter which was spotless, did an oil and filter change, took the Cav for a long run, drove great but didn't even bother testing it. Went straight on the emissions but they were 0.7 when they should be 0.2. I don't really know what that means but its a country mile out.

They are going to have a look into why they are so high but, given that I have tried just about all the options I don't think it looks good. He asked how I managed to get it through last year but I obviously couldn't answer that as I've only had it a couple of months.

Going to complete the test just to see what the rest is like anyway.

Pretty disappointed after all the work I put in but at least I gave it my best shot up to this point. Just glad I didn't sell the Corsa.

Hi @Split_Pin sorry to hear that the Cav failed the emissions.

I did have a new cat previously fitted which was apparently a higher quality type2 item? 

After having a cheaper cat fail previously within 2 years. Must have been 4/5 year's ago in the service history? 

Although I have read on the MK3Cav forum that one 1.8 Cav had to have a new cat every 12 mths to pass. 

I'm sure I've mentioned this before possibly when laquerpeel had it, but it could be worth checking the egr valve.

As someone did blank it off for me for reasons I forget now, although I know it wasn't working. 

I have read since that it may have not been the wisest move. So I'm more than happy to put something towards a new one, if you think it's worth a try? 

[richardmorris]

This was nice, being the Bentley.