The new news 24 thread

[dollywobbler]

9 hours ago, wuvvum said:

Today I have managed to massively improve the heater on the Charade, by the simple expedient of topping the coolant up to the correct level.  I R twat.

It's still not the best heater in the world but it's now good enough for the car to be properly usable through the winter.

Aye, sounds like it might be a bit clogged. On ours, you can't actually have it on full heat or it's an absolute volcano.

Speaking of which, hoping to start the engine overhaul on ours today. It's going to take some time, as tinkering is limited to a few hours here and there at the moment, but the head is coming off for valve stem seals and to allow us to replace the piston rings and relevant crank bearings. Probably. Have never done this sort of work before, so it'll be interesting. Thankfully we have a set of official workshop manuals.

[bunglebus]

Bit chilly today

 

[brownnova]

I’ve just bought the Merc, I’m happy with it, it’s a lovely lovely car.

Of course today I drove past a local garage and outside for sale is a dream car in an almost perfect spec and in my favourite colour for that model. Oh and it’s in great condition and within the budget I’d set myself.

Balls.

So do I a) ignore it and just keep faith with the Merc b) buy the other car and sell the Merc c) buy the other car and keep the Merc too… and have too many big luxury family cars? 

[loserone]

It has to be B or C..

[bobdisk]

I would go for C, then give them both a few weeks to see which I like best, then sell the other.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

How about part-exchanging the Merc for the dream car?

[brownnova]

47 minutes ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

How about part-exchanging the Merc for the dream car?

He’s Not interested in a part ex sadly…. I tried to flog him my MX5! I think b or c might have to win… I really need to sell at least one or two! 

[richardmorris]

22 minutes ago, brownnova said:

He’s Not interested in a part ex sadly…. I tried to flog him my MX5! I think b or c might have to win… I really need to sell at least one or two! 

 

[Leyland Worldmaster]

Alison back from service. All she needed was a N\S\F Control Arm Balljoint. 

No advisories, but because I'm a fussy cunt, I'll replace the Droplinks because it is easy to do. 

Alison has 254,256 miles on the odometer. 😱

Amazing little tanks, these A2s... 

[stuboy]

Collegue asked me if his headlamps was working on his bini...um no fella they not work...let's take a look... 1st one blown... 2nd one had melted the holder and all connections were crusty...

[clayts450]

Combo is a go again, although I R disappoint that I no longer leave a trail of soot behind me every time I give it large on the loud pedal - used to be great showering tailgaters with black clouds of shite.

Anyroad, £170-odd quid got me some proper old school diesel specialist knowledge, some shit hot diagnosing, and a back street garage I will happily recommend and use again (Nottingham Diesel Services, off St Ann's Well Road). The issue was the fuel pressure sensor on the common rail - a £35 part. They noticed that even with the engine off, the sensor was still giving a reading, when it should have been a big fat zero. Anyroad, they swapped the part out, kept the van overnight and checked it started first time in the cold, ensured the readings were bob on (they were) and said 'that'll do it - if the problem comes back, call us, and we'll start delving into your wallet a bit more and do thorough injector/pump tests and all that shit'. 

How refreshing - imagine if I'd taken that to a non diesel specialist : probably would have been parts darts and a hefty bill.

No cold start/warm start/hot start/P0089 issues now. And, sadly, no black smoke out the exhaust.

Still sounds like a bag of nails, mind.

[LightBulbFun]

On 21/11/2021 at 20:43, LightBulbFun said:

if all goes to plan expect in a few days pictures of a Raspberry Pi desktop on a 5 inch Black and white TV LOL 

Tada! 

totally* worth the £10.70 LOL

[Jon]

On 11/24/2021 at 7:44 PM, Angrydicky said:

The usual method of dealing with those anti-tamper circlips (bloody manufacturers) is to drill a small hole through the side of the nose of the cylinder, until you touch the side of the circlip, then use a small punch to knock it out to the point you can get a screwdriver in there to ping it out.

They are awkward bloody things and hopefully the repair kit is a) the right one and b) comes with a replacement conventional circlip.

If the kit is wrong, look up the Autofren Siensa part number here and either quote it to a Siensa agent in NZ or just put the number into ebay. They have repair kits for most cars.

https://www.autofrenseinsa.com/sites/default/files/catalogos/kits-de-reparacion-por-marcas-y-modelos-autofren-seinsa-2021.pdf

Thanks Dicky, I totally forgot you worked for a company that worked on such things!

Had a stab at this this morning and success!

 

However, partial success only, as the brown/black seal is not included in the repair kit and that's where there's sign of fluid loss, between the master and servo.

Close up of seals - do they look borked?

Apologies for orange-ness, I was using my anglepoise with a tungsten bulb in to try and shed more light on the inner part.

 

Also, this looks like it's built not to come apart:

And I've not worked out how to extract the second spring set-up, either:

 

And in hindsight, a 2.5mm drill bit seemed just too big a bit to make a hole with:

I'm figuring that if fluid was pissing out already, breaching beyond the groove where the circlip sits is a likely weak spot.

Unless it wasn't the MC leaking all along and rather the servo, instead...

So, I'm not quite sure what to do next. 

Maybe work on the Cavalier's brakes instead, as they seem much easier to deal with!

[auntiemaryscanary]

1 hour ago, clayts450 said:

 

Anyroad, £170-odd quid got me some proper old school diesel specialist knowledge, some shit hot diagnosing, and a back street garage I will happily recommend and use again (Nottingham Diesel Services, off St Ann's Well Road). 

 

Agreed, I'd recommend too. I used them a good few years ago for an EGR issue on a Doblo. They were something like "it could be B or C but lets try A, the cheapest first". A worked, job done.

Edited November 25, 2021 by auntiemaryscanary
Clarity

[High Jetter]

3 hours ago, brownnova said:

I’ve just bought the Merc, I’m happy with it, it’s a lovely lovely car.

Of course today I drove past a local garage and outside for sale is a dream car in an almost perfect spec and in my favourite colour for that model. Oh and it’s in great condition and within the budget I’d set myself.

Balls.

So do I a) ignore it and just keep faith with the Merc b) buy the other car and sell the Merc c) buy the other car and keep the Merc too… and have too many big luxury family cars? 

B or C, then maybe a roffle?

[TheOtherStu]

I'm suitably impressed with @brownnova's E Class. I always loved that one with the round lights. As a few pages back, I was ever so close to buying the last of the round-lighted ones, except it had electrical gremlins and the salesman had pre-warmed the car, not to mention half the plastics under the bonnet appeared to be missing.

The S204 unfortunately is starting to annoy me with the clutch. @Talbot, you seem to know your Mercs. I have rather a rare one - a C220 with a manual box. How much of a pain in the arse is replacing the clutch? I've been quoted "a lot of money" to do it (ranging from £700 to £1200, but I think the £700 doesn't include the dual mass flywheel which will inevitably need replacing). I can rope my son in, who knows his way around a car. Whereas I can just about follow a Haynes manual. He has said he's not replacing anyone's clutch as he's sick of doing it, but, well... he's my son and I keep sorting him out with favours (such as a weekend ticket to the NEC the other week for him and his GF).

[Talbot]

29 minutes ago, TheOtherStu said:

How much of a pain in the arse is replacing the clutch?

Depends if you have a 2-post lift and a gearbox stand.  Without them, it's a bastard of a job, as you have to get the car high enough on axle stands to get the gearbox out.  You're then scrabbling around under the car to get it out.

With a 2-post and a gearbox stand, 3-4hrs work.  My local merc specialist would likely do that job for the cost of the parts plus about 3-4hrs labour, which probably works out at about £200.  Assuming the clutch isn't stupid money, you'll likely have change from £500.   But yes, it does depend on the DMF, and whether it's shagged, and how expensive it is.  I can ask for a quote if you're interested.

[Eyersey1234]

Been appointed admin on the Face ache group oh my chod. 

[High Jetter]

£50 quid ph labour? It's £65+ down here.

[wuvvum]

Aaand today the Scénic's wipers are working perfectly again.

I really don't understand this car.  It also puts me in a bit of a quandary - I was going to have a go at taking the wipers apart this weekend and cleaning the connections, but I'm now worried that if I do that they might stop working again permanently - that wasn't an issue when they weren't working anyway but would be a bit of a bugger now.  I really need to find a dry day to take it in for a retest so that I don't have to use the wipers, but looking at the forecast for next week that's not looking very likely.

Before I can take it in I need to replace the rear springs - this looks like it should be an easy 30-minute job (jack the rear of the car up nice and high, wheels off, bottom shock mounts undone, drop the axle, ping the old springs out, pop the new in, reassembly is the reverse of removal) but being modern, French and generally a bit temperamental you can guarantee it's not going to be that easy...

[Zelandeth]

4 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

Tada! 

totally* worth the £10.70 LOL

Hmm...good effort, but lacks ambition...

Sure I've got one of those little B&W sets somewhere... though this is the one I usually default to for things like that.

Think the chain there was HDMI to VGA to RGB Scart to the DVR, composite Scart from the DVR to the VCR, then RF from the VCR to the TV!

[LightBulbFun]

31 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Hmm...good effort, but lacks ambition...

Sure I've got one of those little B&W sets somewhere... though this is the one I usually default to for things like that.

Think the chain there was HDMI to VGA to RGB Scart to the DVR, composite Scart from the DVR to the VCR, then RF from the VCR to the TV!

yeah I am not sure I can compete with compared to what you have on hand!

although saying that I do have a Macintosh SE, but when new that was not very autoshite and I dont have the right serial cable to network it currently sadly, and it might need a bit more then the 2.5MB of RAM it currently has! I think ill save this idea for when I get my Macintosh SE/30 in hand which has the same case design and 1 bit BW 512x342 CRT display only with a lot more grunt behind it!

I will say yours are much clearer! (im especially impressed by your little BW set's clarity given the amount of adapters its running through! when booting on mine there was no way you could make out the linux kernel messages scrolling down the screen LOL)

I do need to see if I can do something about the fuzziness of my little set, I mean I know these 5 inch TV's where bottom of the barrel when new, but I do recall them actually being surprisingly sharp, granted last time I used one in anger was about 15 years ago! so perhaps its rose tinted glasses!

so ill have to crack it open and see if theres any focus pots I can play with! although I will try another composite source (If I can find said composite adapter for my Apple iBook laptops) just incase it happens the Raspberry Pi Model B im using has an unusually soft composite output...

it also probably doesn't help that the only composite cable I have (that I know I have! gawd knows whats buried in one of my many boxes somewhere...) while decent quality I think, is about 10ft long or so

Say you have at least one 405 line (capable) TV set IIRC right? the Forum on one of those would be seriously fun! (and impressive)  

[Angrydicky]

8 hours ago, Jon said:

Thanks Dicky, I totally forgot you worked for a company that worked on such things!

Had a stab at this this morning and success!

 

However, partial success only, as the brown/black seal is not included in the repair kit and that's where there's sign of fluid loss, between the master and servo.

Close up of seals - do they look borked?

Apologies for orange-ness, I was using my anglepoise with a tungsten bulb in to try and shed more light on the inner part.

 

Also, this looks like it's built not to come apart:

And I've not worked out how to extract the second spring set-up, either:

 

And in hindsight, a 2.5mm drill bit seemed just too big a bit to make a hole with:

I'm figuring that if fluid was pissing out already, breaching beyond the groove where the circlip sits is a likely weak spot.

Unless it wasn't the MC leaking all along and rather the servo, instead...

So, I'm not quite sure what to do next. 

Maybe work on the Cavalier's brakes instead, as they seem much easier to deal with!

You've made a great start! Usually there is a long screw which holds that primary piston assembly together, but in this case there's no screw head or something. Maybe another attempt by ATE to discourage home repairers. They've already tried using torx style screw heads which doesn't work. I haven't seen this before, I shall consult someone more experienced.

Seals look ok, but it is difficult to tell from the photos.

The secondary piston is held in place with a stop pin which you can just see jutting into the bore in your photo of the inside of the cylinder. This is usually located in the secondary inlet port, under the reservoir grommet which you have already removed. You will need to depress the piston with a screwdriver then use a pair of long nose pliers to pull the pin out, then the secondary piston will just tap out.

Should look something like this.

[LabRat]

Don't know if anyone else has noticed this with their chod- since switching the MG6 to E10, it fucking reeks on the warm up cycle. The plug gaps are correct, air filter recent and if anything it's running smoother, but the exhaust smells really sharply of chemicals (as opposed to that nicer smelling dino petrol, I know) and it's kicking far more steam out than before to the point that I got stopped yesterday by an old bloke who thought the head gasket had popped!

 

It does this until its got a bit of heat in the exhaust and then clears up lovely, according to  MG this is normal... Can't be all that good for the environment right? 

[Cluffy]

On 11/21/2021 at 12:07 PM, grogee said:

@Cluffyand I spent this morning wrestling with his Corrado gearbox. It came off after the requisite amount of swearing, sweating, grunting and pulling. 

In the end we decided the 'Falling Onto Something Soft' was the best way to get it out completely. 6 layers of foam floor stuff plus some rolled up carpet did the job, although I don't think that's the approved HBoL method. 

His task list includes new chains and guides, plus a new clutch because why wouldn't you when you're balls deep? Head is off to the specialist for skimming and stuff. 

Job#1 is Spring so we're hopeful it'll be back together by then. 

Happy times. @grogee- I'm glad you're more confident that replacement will be easier than removal!!

[brownnova]

10 hours ago, TheOtherStu said:

I'm suitably impressed with @brownnova's E Class. I always loved that one with the round lights.

I’ll let you know if it becomes available!

 So the good lady has given me the go ahead for B or C, she has also always wanted a proper Volvo Estate too (that’s what it is)… so pending test drive and agreement on a price… 

That does mean I actually need to get on and sell the Elgrand and the MX5 like I’ve been saying I will for a couple of months now! 

[tom13]

First commute in the new car today. Quick stop in town on the way. 

[TheOtherStu]

11 hours ago, Talbot said:

Depends if you have a 2-post lift and a gearbox stand.  Without them, it's a bastard of a job, as you have to get the car high enough on axle stands to get the gearbox out.  You're then scrabbling around under the car to get it out.

With a 2-post and a gearbox stand, 3-4hrs work.  My local merc specialist would likely do that job for the cost of the parts plus about 3-4hrs labour, which probably works out at about £200.  Assuming the clutch isn't stupid money, you'll likely have change from £500.   But yes, it does depend on the DMF, and whether it's shagged, and how expensive it is.  I can ask for a quote if you're interested.

I think that's the issue. The clutch kit itself (it's a dual clutch apparently) is around £300. The DMF is around £360 (both are LUK that i've looked up). So yes, it's likely to be the labour that's hard work.

Wouldn't mind a quote - where abouts are you based?

[Ghosty]

5 hours ago, LabRat said:

E10

E10 smells bloody awful in general I've noticed. First time I smelt it I felt sick. 

Sticking to E5. 

[LabRat]

 

1 minute ago, Ghosty said:

E10 smells bloody awful in general I've noticed. First time I smelt it I felt sick. 

Sticking to E5. 

Wish I could- it won't hot idle at all on E5 super, SAIC must have set the mapping to run off the Chinese equivalent of 2 star or summat.