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Missus wanted to go to the sandy beach at folkestone as she never been.. I not been in donkeys, get there and its all residential permits only..  even a nice friendly local walking his dog said it driven away visitors, planned to go too hythe but was Nearish to the grand Hotel (now closed down😪)  and erindoors said there's a kiddies park for ministuboy, there some steps called the metropole steps, but coming up it nearly killed me... moral of this story is that if you have arthritis and overweight avoid this area u less u want to be in agnoy.. ha ha ha

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I rode in this car as a kid, and drove it, for a grand total of 23 years now.

 

I never suspected the ashtray and cig lighter were supposed to light up. Until today when taking stuff apart found the bulb that blew, probably more than 23 years ago.

Time for a quick replacement

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Retest Ready, refresh of a rear caliper and some fettling of lights and it should be good to go. The front headlight aim is the best I could get it- the mounting points don’t line up very well. At least the pop ups don’t rub on the bonnet now. I even washed the three years of storage grime off- not with the hot wash as that  would probably take it back to it’s multicoloured past. D523A8D0-33A6-47D9-A1E4-433BF9D0AD75.thumb.jpeg.b64ad4db965c27734ad0b01576d9132f.jpeg

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30 minutes ago, OM646 said:

I rode in this car as a kid, and drove it, for a grand total of 23 years now.

 

I never suspected the ashtray and cig lighter were supposed to light up. Until today when taking stuff apart found the bulb that blew, probably more than 23 years ago.

Time for a quick replacement

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Can't beat that but my dad got our Focus 10 years ago, I've been driving it almost every day for three and a half years and I've only just found out that it's got auto windscreen wipers.

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Did my first long run in the Doblo over the Easter weekend - 500 miles to my parents and back.  I'll be honest, it's not the most refined vehicle on the fleet on a long run but it's tolerable, and it behaved fine.  The computer reckons I've done 56mpg, but Fiat computers are notoriously economical with the truth.  If the fuel gauge is accurate (which it seems to be) then the van used 3/4 of a tank on the run, which equates to 10 gallons.  Which comes back to a nice round 50mpg, which isn't too bad really for something that boxy.

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I restored the e60's headlights a couple of years ago - I used the lacquer which did the job but it needed doing again. They had gone yellow.

They suffer with condensation - sadly the only cure is new units but at £1400 each new that isn't going to happen. It's make do and mend.

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Been round the m25 to leatherhead ish and back this morning to go for a walk. 

If anyone is in the vicinity of Epsom downs the Langley vale project is worth a trip. Only recently planted, but in thirty years I am sure it will look completely different. Sculpture and memorial to the servicemen of the First World War.

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/media/49109/langley-vale-wood-remembrance-trail-2020.pdf

 

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Went and picked up the second replacement ECU for the 75 from the post office at lunchtime.  Fitted it to the car, plugged it in and it fired up first time, so that's a relief.

Took it for a quick spin - the new ECU has been remapped as well so pulls fairly well, although the throttle response isn't quite as sharp as with the tuning box that was on there before.  It was a tad smoky at full throttle too, although I suspect that may be partly because it hasn't been anywhere for a while.  Also since I've been fiddling about with the electrics the driver's door window switch pack has decided to stop working again, having previously fixed itself.

Still, at least I can use the car again now.

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I'm trying to source some brighter led brake/tail light bulbs in offset pin flavour, I ordered what I thought was correct and got opposite pins, so I thought other than obvious will it fall out the holder what about filling off one the earth pins??

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2 hours ago, wuvvum said:

Fantastic!  What do Ms_HMC and the offspring (and step-offspring) make of Huggy?  And does it fit outside your house?

Everyone loves it, including the dog. It’s longer than my house is wide, and in need of similar amounts of TLC so fits right in! 
 

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I alao found the owners handbook hidden within a recess in the glovebox lid. Everyone was belted in our trip but the GM line in 1973 ( reading this book) was to recommend unbelted children to stand up on the floor behind the front seat to offer the most protection in a frontal impact. OK thanks for that tip GM!

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A productive evening helping a fellow 75 owner.

He had a pair of recently refurbished Xenon headlights he wanted to fit to improve the light output. 

As I progressed I wasn't sure these would work on car that didn't have them originally. Mine has them from the factory and they are self levelling via 2 ballasts, 1 on each offside suspension arm.  There's also no thumbwheel on the dash. However the pins on the plug were exactly the same and my theory was that it would not matter where the signal came from to tell the lights to adjust thumbwheel or ballast resistor.

Bumper off, fixings had all been greased in the past so it was quite easy, apart from pulling it out from the wing as it was stuck in its slots due to road dirt. Some persuasion saw it off though.

Lights are 4 10mms and 1 plug.

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Thankfully I was right and they all worked perfectly. We checked their position off the garage door. They also self test their level when switched on,  as they should.

They really improved the look of the car over the old blotchy faded items.

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Next I rodded and cleared the scuttle plenum to stop it flooding and killing the ECU, GR9 design.

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The bonnet struts were also toast as can be seen in one of the pictures so I replaced those with good used ones.

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Wiper blades were also prehistoric so those went in the bucket and a new pair of Bosch items were fitted.

Next I turned to the nearside sill which had some kerb damage. I found it to be minimal, the paint was not broken down to the metal and no rust had formed. Ruminations about how to proceed ended with the decision just to touch it in. I sourced the correct CEV Firefrost for the owner and sent him the link for him to attend to in the future.

Levels were checked, important on the K Series. I inspected and tested the coolant with a great Hygrometer that my neighbour gave me, much better than the rubbish ebay one I bought. Pink and translucent, very clean. The head gasket was replaced last year so all looks good on that front. 

It's going to be the owners wedding car in 2 weeks so it was good to get these things attended to.

A few pics of 2 75s on my drive.

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38 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

Sorry to be a jobsworth but the owner of that fine Firefrost (?) example may want to bear in mind that headlight washers are compulsory with Xenon headlights.  I have a feeling the self levelling needs to be automatic as well.

So did I but the owner checked the regs and the washers and self levellers apparently only have to work if fitted. I just went with that although I still feel that maintenance of the beam pattern is important hence washers and levellers being required.

"Vehicles with high intensity discharge (HID) or LED dipped beam headlamps may be fitted with a suspension or headlamp self-levelling system. If these systems have been fitted, they must work".

Anyway, he was insistent and also, NMP 🤣

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Same here, I always thought you had to have the paraphernalia to accompany the HIDs.

What I might have been thinking of is from about 15 years ago when HIDs were all the rage and unscrupulous owners modified their standard headlights to accept HID bulbs, blinding everyone else  I do know that's definitely illegal and that you must have ellipsiod projector lenses for them otherwise you're basically illuminating most of the Solar system.

 

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Couple of poor buggers have had a bad day out in Derbyshire at the weekend, Vauxhall Victor, Hillman Super Minx and a VW modern had a crash after the Victors brakes failed.

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Link https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-61143786

It must have been less crusty than my old Victor FE.

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28 minutes ago, HarmonicCheeseburger said:

So this "christ it's a CVT Micra " or "throw 240v through it", yes it's been a pain however a few days of driving it and thinking caused a moment of discovery.

Arrow for reference (not my car) on a part of the loom, it clips to the throttle body on a plastic connector and on mine the tape is sticky, gooey and loose and when the idle is at 1,800 rpm with the TPS sensor going beserk I found out tonight that applying physical pressure here triggers immediate return to desired behaviour of

800rpm tickover.

.48 showing on TPS sensor.

And of course letting go return to bonkers behaviour which I've been plagued with since I got it in 2017. 

Each time I replaced parts I would be moving the loom about and in time it would return to erratic behaviour.

Plan is to remove the shitty loom tape on the upper loom, and re-wrap it and check for bare wires and shorts etc.  

I plan to make my own thread on this if anyone is interested, but I do feel now the issue has been found, so long as it keeps running and me mobile I can save up, plan is atm for a W203 Mercedes as the next vehicle of choice, in the meantime if I can keep this bucket working it can be either sold on or part exchanged.

 

 

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Great news ....... major step forward.

Can that part not be replaced to where it plugs in / attaches to the main loom? May be easier than chasing a broken wire - especially if it's only internal damage from flexing.

Good luck either way

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28 minutes ago, HarmonicCheeseburger said:

So this "christ it's a CVT Micra " or "throw 240v through it", yes it's been a pain however a few days of driving it and thinking caused a moment of discovery.

Arrow for reference (not my car) on a part of the loom, it clips to the throttle body on a plastic connector and on mine the tape is sticky, gooey and loose and when the idle is at 1,800 rpm with the TPS sensor going beserk I found out tonight that applying physical pressure here triggers immediate return to desired behaviour of

800rpm tickover.

.48 showing on TPS sensor.

And of course letting go return to bonkers behaviour which I've been plagued with since I got it in 2017. 

Each time I replaced parts I would be moving the loom about and in time it would return to erratic behaviour.

Plan is to remove the shitty loom tape on the upper loom, and re-wrap it and check for bare wires and shorts etc.  

I plan to make my own thread on this if anyone is interested, but I do feel now the issue has been found, so long as it keeps running and me mobile I can save up, plan is atm for a W203 Mercedes as the next vehicle of choice, in the meantime if I can keep this bucket working it can be either sold on or part exchanged once the time is right.

 

 

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I can't quite imagine how tape could be causing an issue here. 

Might it be moisture has somehow got trapped and caused corrosion so when you flex the connector it is intermittently changing between a good/poor connection?

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7 hours ago, Popsicle said:

Couple of poor buggers have had a bad day out in Derbyshire at the weekend, Vauxhall Victor, Hillman Super Minx and a VW modern had a crash after the Victors brakes failed.

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Link https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-61143786

It must have been less crusty than my old Victor FE.

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A steep 1 1/2 lane road with a double hairpin. Not where you want to loose brakes...

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So, my W203 Mercedes radio decided to quit working.

Only hangs in the Mercedes logo and doesn't do anything.

Everyone says "it's a break in the fiber optic ring, check your accessories fitted"

My car doesn't have any.

Fuck.

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