The new news 24 thread

[RobT]

1 hour ago, HillmanImp said:

Renaults really don't like being parked do they. If its not Lagunas springs exploding overnight, they're spontaneously combusting in the street. Mental. 

Mental is the word. Just glad it didn't happen two weeks ago whilst in Normandy.  So I consider myself lucky.

[RobT]

5 minutes ago, SiC said:

Sad times! That looks roughly like the handbrake module. It'll be one of the few things still powered on with the ignition off, so plausible. Also full of grease, so a stalled/failed motor from a relay that is stuck on I guess could get hot, grease leak in and then a spark from the motor turning ignite it.

Initially I thought it was one of 13 ECUs these things probably have, but never mind.  Back to running older stuff until the outer London ULEZ forces me to buy newer or run a W123 or something as a daily.

[SiC]

7 minutes ago, RobT said:

Initially I thought it was one of 13 ECUs these things probably have, but never mind.  Back to running older stuff until the outer London ULEZ forces me to buy newer or run a W123 or something as a daily.

The handbrake module is an ECU in its own right to be fair! 

Stuff like this is what stopped me doing my Renault diagnostic app. Just need to get someone blaming me for a fire after a quick scan and things suddenly get legally complex!

[RoverFolkUs]

2 hours ago, RobT said:

The above comment is academic now as this morning it decided to self-immolate.  Electrical fire whilst parked up.

Source of it was the boot, and I can only assume some wiring in the leccy handbrake or something else set it off.  Very strange and it was fine last night when I drove past it in the Xedos.  No one was hurt and no other vehicles involved, so that's something.  Off it goes on Friday for scrap as it's completely fucked.  Glad I haven't got any insurance shite to deal with.

Looks rather phuqued to me. Fantastique ☹️

At least the sorry fucker didn't cause any wider damage..!

I suppose the engineers* who designed it didn't expect it to last 280k miles so that's something... 🤷‍♂️

This is the one thats had about twenty registered keepers isn't it? 

[wuvvum]

Sad news re the Shatis.  I'd been hoping to have a go in it at some point, to lay the ghost of the thunderously shit 3.0 dCi I had to rest.

[wuvvum]

So yeah, I got the 75 running again.  Turns out my theory was correct, amazingly - I ran a feed direct from the engine bay and Scotch Loked it onto the purple-and-white wire to the in-tank fuel pump.  Touched the end of the wire to the battery live and the pumps kicked in, turned the key and away it went.  Obvs not a permanent solution but at least it renders the car mobile.  I'm going to do a slightly better bodge tomorrow using thicker wire (the only bit I had which was long enough is on the thin side for running the pump, but I can nick a 12v feed from the wire that runs to the towbar relay, which is a lot thicker) and adding a switch so I can turn it on and off without opening the bonnet.  Obvs that's not a permanent solution and I'm also in contact with a chap on the Rover 75 forum who can supply a replacement ECU.

Slightly less success on the Mobylette front.  I extricated it from the garage yesterday and got it fired up easily enough, and fitted the exhaust mounting bolt I bought for it last year.  Today's task was to attempt to change the engine mounts (the right-hand one is pretty knackered and it's allowing the engine to sit on the piss).  Unfortunately my attempts failed - it turns out that the engine mounting bolt (a single 150mm long M8 which runs through a hole in the cylinder head from which the engine hangs) has got bent at some point in the 25 years since I fitted the current engine, so it would come out part way but then a bent bit of bolt would hit a straight bit of tubing and it'd get stuck.  I'm not really sure where to go from here - I can't really get in there with a hacksaw to chop the bolt up, and anyway I'd need to buy new spacers etc which might be awkward to find.  The bike will still run as it is, but obviously having the engine at an angle to the rest of the drivetrain isn't ideal either from the point of view of efficiency or drive belt wear.

I've also been trying to figure out the wiring.  I wired the thing up 25 years ago with the help of a mate and although it all worked at the time (by some miracle), most of it has since come apart (switches have fallen to bits and wires that were twisted together and held with electrical tape have come apart) and I can't for the life of me figure out what I did back in the day.  The multimeter is of limited help - it doesn't seem to be able to cope with the magneto's output.  It's probably going to end up being trial and error.  I'm not sure about the indicators either - the original set up has front and rear indicators flashing alternately (like on some Vespas) and while the original flasher unit is still present, I'm not sure whether a standard indicator switch will cope properly with the alternating setup.  I might have to fit a "standard" electronic flasher unit and LED bulbs in the rear indicators - I'm assuming the alternating setup was done because the magneto's output couldn't cope with powering both indicators plus potentially the headlight, tail light and brake light.

[RobT]

7 hours ago, RoverFolkUs said:

I suppose the engineers* who designed it didn't expect it to last 280k miles so that's something... 🤷‍♂️

This is the one thats had about twenty registered keepers isn't it? 

Indeed, it had a decent innings and what a way to go.  16 previous owners on the V5, and I'd guess 13 of those are shiters.

Scrap man has offered me £500 for it.  Unbelievable.

[Cord Fourteener]

5 minutes ago, RobT said:

Scrap man has offered me £500 for it.  Unbelievable.

Let's hope the power of all those notes doesn't burn a hole in your pocket too soon!

[captain_70s]

MOT time.

[chodweaver]

Alas poor cabbed Vel Satis. You were a friend when i couldn't find a Citroen to buy.

RIP presidential Renault

[Supernaut]

RIP Vel Satis.

I'd nominate the photo of it burnt out for next year's calendar, as a way of tribute.

[Fumbler]

Nooo, the VelShatit has died.

A family friend had a Picasso which did the same thing one morning.Burned completely to the ground.

[captain_70s]

Fuckers mint*

100% fleet legality, and only half are by merit of MOT exemptness! 

[Rust Collector]

14 hours ago, Yoss said:

Ironically, at least I think it's ironic, it's a very misunderstood word, no more than 16 hours after Favorit passed its test Felicia FTP'd.

Mrs Yoss left for work at 6.30 this morning. It's my day off but I still like to take the dog for an early walk, but not quite that early but ten minutes later the phone rings. Felicia has just died three quarters of the way to work. It turns over but no signs of life. So I jump up and in to Favorit. By the time I arrive a passer by has helped Lorraine push it in to a parking space, fortunately it's one of the few areas en route that has unrestricted parking. 

So I dropped her off at work and decided it was too early so went home again, it's only about two miles away. Went back and had a look mid morning. Cheap code reader says no. I suspect lack of spark. Can't do any thing here but can't phone breakdown services as I said I'd pick Lorraine up when she'd finished and you never know how long these things take so I went home again. 

Then spent some time tidying the garage up as it was obvious I was going to have to get the Triumph out. 

Called breakdown after lunch. They took about an hour which isn't too bad these days and he came to the same conclusion as me so we A framed it home. Actually it's more of a T frame. 

Once I got it home I have confirmed there is no spark. The rotor arm and dizzy cap don't look great but I wouldn't have thought they would cause sudden and immediate FTP. My guess would be the coil. I've already had to replace that once, about seven years ago, but it's kind of expected these days that replacement parts are shit and never last as long as the originals. 

Anybody have any other ideas of what causes sudden loss of spark? Is there anything obvious I'm overlooking. 

My money is on the crank sensor if it were a game of parts darts - I've replaced this on my Favorit twice now under similar circumstances. See if it turns on when cold, in the early stage of failure the sensor seems to stop sending a signal once it gets hot. This is all under the assumption that this is a 1.3 mpi and not a VW motor in it.

[Sigmund Fraud]

15 hours ago, Yoss said:

Anybody have any other ideas of what causes sudden loss of spark? Is there anything obvious I'm overlooking. 

Ignition switch ? Pretty common 1990s VW problem, they fail without much notice and result in a "turns over but won't start" fault.

A new switch is really cheap to buy, but a complete bugger to replace.

[Bren]

RIP vel satis. Main thing is nobody got hurt.

[junkyarddog]

Oil change time for the 205.

My second to last oil filter that I have in stock,these came from a place I worked in when it closed in 2007.

Great ground clearance,don't even have to Jack it up or wrestle with an undertray.

Oil filter is easy to reach too.

All told about 15mins of unhurried spannering got the oil change completed.

Had a bit of a score at an Autojumble recently, 4 matching brand new Pirelli tyres in 175 70 13 flavour.

Never fitted,but they are nearly 5 years old. 

For considerably less than a set of Chinese death rings I'm not complaining. 

I also added some of this snake oil to the gearbox,as the synchro on 3rd can be a bit iffy at times will see if it makes a difference. 

[Shite Ron]

I took a set of alloys to be diamond cut  and lacquered at the end of last year,  picked them up today after dropping the new tyres off yesterday to be fitted. I did tell him I wasn’t in a rush!
The car currently has very good Michelin’s on but they are over ten years old so it will have new tyres ready for the trip to Italy in September.

[wuvvum]

4 hours ago, junkyarddog said:

I also added some of this snake oil to the gearbox,as the synchro on 3rd can be a bit iffy at times will see if it makes a difference. 

I've generally found those Lucas products to be one of the few brands of snake oil that actually work.

[Wibble]

2 hours ago, Shite Ron said:

I took a set of alloys to be diamond cut  and lacquered at the end of last year,  picked them up today after dropping the new tyres off yesterday to be fitted. I did tell him I wasn’t in a rush!
The car currently has very good Michelin’s on but they are over ten years old so it will have new tyres ready for the trip to Italy in September.

Ooh, Cortina Ghia? Looking nice!

[Yoss]

20 hours ago, wesacosa said:

if these are anything like the Favorit if its not the coil its very likely the crank position sensor

 

7 hours ago, Rust Collector said:

My money is on the crank sensor if it were a game of parts darts - I've replaced this on my Favorit twice now under similar circumstances. See if it turns on when cold, in the early stage of failure the sensor seems to stop sending a signal once it gets hot. This is all under the assumption that this is a 1.3 mpi and not a VW motor in it.

It is indeed the VW 1.6 AEE engine but it could still be the crank position sensor. Although I'd have thought that might be picked up by a code reader and it's had two of those plugged in to it, my cheap one and the recovery man's rather more professional looking one. 

6 hours ago, Sigmund Fraud said:

Ignition switch ? Pretty common 1990s VW problem, they fail without much notice and result in a "turns over but won't start" fault.

A new switch is really cheap to buy, but a complete bugger to replace.

Hadn't thought of that. So it could be the immobiliser, but again no fault codes found. 

 

The rotor arm and dizzy cap both look shit. They didn't look like this last time I looked, though I can't remember when that was. 

You would have thought this would give a more gradual deterioration rather than just stopping dead. So these definitely need replacing whether they are the cause or not.

Looked on ebay and prices vary wildly but a tenner each seems normal and yet you can buy a whole distributor complete with dizzy cap and, I assume, a rotor arm for £25. It's probably a cheap Chinese copy but at that price it's worth a try.

Especially as when I took the cap off mine there were pieces of a small plastic or fibre washer inside. I don't really know how these distributors work. Obviously it's electronic ignition so it is much simpler inside than an old Lucas one like my Triumph. But if that washer was isolating something from something else then it could be the problem.

So I have ordered a dizzy and a coil and am waiting for them to arrive before I can do any more. Crank sensor after that I guess. 

[wuvvum]

The Charade left on the back of the Cartakeback lorry this morning.  Part of me was sad to see it go, but it had its share of drawbacks - expensive bits, low value due to former Cat C, the gearbox wasn't entirely happy having been previously run very low on fluid, and the fuel economy was shit.  It was still great fun to drive though.

Got the aircon on the Doblo regassed today - it's one of two cars I now own with functional aircon (the Laguna being the other but that seems to work OK - Rover has no belt on the compressor and the Maxus has half the pipework missing).  They did say it has a tiny leak but it should be OK for a while - as long as it gets me through the summer (assuming we have one this year) I'll be happy - I would have waited longer but I had a Groupon voucher from last year that I needed to use up.

I've had a quote of £180 for a new ECU for the Rover, coded in to the car etc.  Given that the only diesel automatic ECU set I could find on eBay was £170 (and that would have involved swapping three ECUs, the immobiliser transponder and the chip in the key), £180 doesn't seem unreasonable, especially given that he chucks in a 160bhp remap with the price.  I'll probably end up going for it, although it's still an expense I could have done without...

[Zelandeth]

14 minutes ago, Yoss said:

 

It is indeed the VW 1.6 AEE engine but it could still be the crank position sensor. Although I'd have thought that might be picked up by a code reader and it's had two of those plugged in to it, my cheap one and the recovery man's rather more professional looking one. 

Hadn't thought of that. So it could be the immobiliser, but again no fault codes found. 

 

The rotor arm and dizzy cap both look shit. They didn't look like this last time I looked, though I can't remember when that was. 

You would have thought this would give a more gradual deterioration rather than just stopping dead. So these definitely need replacing whether they are the cause or not.

Looked on ebay and prices vary wildly but a tenner each seems normal and yet you can buy a whole distributor complete with dizzy cap and, I assume, a rotor arm for £25. It's probably a cheap Chinese copy but at that price it's worth a try.

Especially as when I took the cap off mine there were pieces of a small plastic or fibre washer inside. I don't really know how these distributors work. Obviously it's electronic ignition so it is much simpler inside than an old Lucas one like my Triumph. But if that washer was isolating something from something else then it could be the problem.

So I have ordered a dizzy and a coil and am waiting for them to arrive before I can do any more. Crank sensor after that I guess. 

If the crank sensor fails on a lot of engines it won't log a code as in the absence of a signal the ECU just assumes the engine isn't spinning.  It's that signal to which virtually everything else the ECU controls is slaved.  No crank sensor pulse = no fuel and very likely no spark.

[Yoss]

1 minute ago, Zelandeth said:

If the crank sensor fails on a lot of engines it won't log a code as in the absence of a signal the ECU just assumes the engine isn't spinning.  It's that signal to which virtually everything else the ECU controls is slaved.  No crank sensor pulse = no fuel and very likely no spark.

Okay, cheers. I've already ordered the dizzy and coil so I'll wait for those but the crank sensor is definitely next on the list. 

[New POD]

23 hours ago, Yoss said:

Ironically, at least I think it's ironic, it's a very misunderstood word, no more than 16 hours after Favorit passed its test Felicia FTP'd.

Mrs Yoss left for work at 6.30 this morning. It's my day off but I still like to take the dog for an early walk, but not quite that early but ten minutes later the phone rings. Felicia has just died three quarters of the way to work. It turns over but no signs of life. So I jump up and in to Favorit. By the time I arrive a passer by has helped Lorraine push it in to a parking space, fortunately it's one of the few areas en route that has unrestricted parking. 

So I dropped her off at work and decided it was too early so went home again, it's only about two miles away. Went back and had a look mid morning. Cheap code reader says no. I suspect lack of spark. Can't do any thing here but can't phone breakdown services as I said I'd pick Lorraine up when she'd finished and you never know how long these things take so I went home again. 

Then spent some time tidying the garage up as it was obvious I was going to have to get the Triumph out. 

Called breakdown after lunch. They took about an hour which isn't too bad these days and he came to the same conclusion as me so we A framed it home. Actually it's more of a T frame. 

Once I got it home I have confirmed there is no spark. The rotor arm and dizzy cap don't look great but I wouldn't have thought they would cause sudden and immediate FTP. My guess would be the coil. I've already had to replace that once, about seven years ago, but it's kind of expected these days that replacement parts are shit and never last as long as the originals. 

Anybody have any other ideas of what causes sudden loss of spark? Is there anything obvious I'm overlooking. 

On a mk2 cavalier, the same problem was an ignition module. 

[3VOM]

15 hours ago, Yoss said:

Okay, cheers. I've already ordered the dizzy and coil so I'll wait for those but the crank sensor is definitely next on the list. 

You can check the  starter by jump wiring the starter solenoid. Ran a golf like that for months until I could be bothered to replace the ignition switch insides.

[Split_Pin]

17 hours ago, wuvvum said:

The Charade left on the back of the Cartakeback lorry this morning.  Part of me was sad to see it go, but it had its share of drawbacks - expensive bits, low value due to former Cat C, the gearbox wasn't entirely happy having been previously run very low on fluid, and the fuel economy was shit.  It was still great fun to drive though.

Got the aircon on the Doblo regassed today - it's one of two cars I now own with functional aircon (the Laguna being the other but that seems to work OK - Rover has no belt on the compressor and the Maxus has half the pipework missing).  They did say it has a tiny leak but it should be OK for a while - as long as it gets me through the summer (assuming we have one this year) I'll be happy - I would have waited longer but I had a Groupon voucher from last year that I needed to use up.

I've had a quote of £180 for a new ECU for the Rover, coded in to the car etc.  Given that the only diesel automatic ECU set I could find on eBay was £170 (and that would have involved swapping three ECUs, the immobiliser transponder and the chip in the key), £180 doesn't seem unreasonable, especially given that he chucks in a 160bhp remap with the price.  I'll probably end up going for it, although it's still an expense I could have done without...

160bhp remap works well with the Diesel Auto, it does on mine anyway.

[grogee]

19 hours ago, wuvvum said:

The Charade left on the back of the Cartakeback lorry this morning.  Part of me was sad to see it go, but it had its share of drawbacks - expensive bits, low value due to former Cat C, the gearbox wasn't entirely happy having been previously run very low on fluid, and the fuel economy was shit.  It was still great fun to drive though.

Got the aircon on the Doblo regassed today - it's one of two cars I now own with functional aircon (the Laguna being the other but that seems to work OK - Rover has no belt on the compressor and the Maxus has half the pipework missing).  They did say it has a tiny leak but it should be OK for a while - as long as it gets me through the summer (assuming we have one this year) I'll be happy - I would have waited longer but I had a Groupon voucher from last year that I needed to use up.

I've had a quote of £180 for a new ECU for the Rover, coded in to the car etc.  Given that the only diesel automatic ECU set I could find on eBay was £170 (and that would have involved swapping three ECUs, the immobiliser transponder and the chip in the key), £180 doesn't seem unreasonable, especially given that he chucks in a 160bhp remap with the price.  I'll probably end up going for it, although it's still an expense I could have done without...

£180 for a fix and some more horses? Sounds like VALU to me. 

With all these things you have to ask what the alternatives are, and your alternatives are all worse by the sounds of things. 

Sometimes we just have to fork out for A Man Who Can. 

[wuvvum]

Assuming I can get the spring sorted myself and don't have to pay A Man Who Can to do that as well, I'm going to go for the replacement / remapped ECU.  If I have to pay someone to do the spring as well then the ECU may have to wait for a bit.

[Zelandeth]

Our kitchen units are stupidly designed in that they stand a good 3" or so off the floor with no panels at the base.  So there's a perpetual tide of dropped crumbs, dog hair etc building up under there.

We've been here eight years in a couple of weeks, and still occasionally wind up finding random stuff left back under there by the previous family when vacuuming.  

There's a lot of greasy crap at the back that I just can't reach to properly clean, not without removing the units anyway.  We'd like to replace the units anyway though as with most things the previous owner (she was an interior designer don't you know?) specified, are bloody hopeless.  Which is why I've never found the energy to just cap those voids off...doing it tidily sounds too much like actual work.

Yesterday probably presented me with the most unexpected item to materialise under the cabinets so far though.

I don't actually own that game myself, so it can get stuffed in the pouch next time I have it out - not that I think I've actually picked up a handheld gaming device other than the original PSP in several years.