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1 hour ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Quelle surprise... 

The new family bike Xsara Picasso has electrical faults :(

I'm currently storing it off the road so that I can sort everything out and service it etc, basically give it the obligatory new ownership once-over. 

It's had a new battery recently from the previous owner. Last started it up on Sunday and it was fine. This afternoon I unlocked it and for some reason the CD player was playing music (🤔) switched it off and thought nothing of it, but despite me repeatedly switching the interior lights off, they still kept coming back on. 

Putting the key in the ignition, on the second turn the wipers come on very slowly and there are various weird noises and interior lights flashing on and off. Tried to start it and nothing at all. Starter doesn't even click

Removed the battery and brought it indoors to test it. Showing 10.8 volts, so it has a serious battery drain somewhere.

It's currently sat outside trickle charging 

Fantastique! Don't you just love French cars...! 

If the CD is constantly switched on it could explain the battery drain, radios are one of the main causes of battery drain in any car. The wipers coming on could be the Comm2000 unit, which is the unit behind the steering wheel which incorporates the column stalks. Also the BSI, the body computer/fusebox can malfunction. It can be easily reset, the procedure is on YouTube.

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1 hour ago, High Jetter said:

Is that a Garador? We had one fitted after they spashed ads in our local rags for weeks on end on offer* at £895 for a single. Very pleased with it so far. Local specialists (known to me though his wife's family) wanted nearly that for an up-and-over, and about £1700 for an auto one.

No, Garador was a good 35% more expensive for equivalent secure roller door than this. This is (iirc) an Aluroll Secureroll. Fully fitted cost just over £2300, so a decent amount of wedge. It was an extra £300 since I got the original quote in 2020. Thankfully the original house builders put in a RSJ above the two old doors, so saved a lot not having that done.

Garador have external motors which are far easier to replace. But as I won't be using the door daily, it won't get anywhere near enough use to justify the extra cost. If I was using it to store a daily driver, I'd have got a Garador. 

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4 hours ago, paulplom said:

I got 34mpg over 400 miles today in a mwb citroen relay with roof rack. Fully loaded on the way back too.

It is limited to 70mph though which is 2.5k revs in 6th. Were you tanking it? A remap doesn't usually affect economy.

Nah man I stuck to the limits. Its an auto though. Cruise kind of fucks things up as the box doesn't lock up when it's on whereas if you leave it alone it locks up even to quite low revs.

Could be lack of use which has stunted the average figure. 

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2 hours ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

No, take the CVT MIcra to a Nissan specialist or any fucker else who actually has the skills to know what they're doing & let them sort the unstable idle issue out once and for all. It'll probably only take a couple of hours and be money far better spent than to keep endlessly swapping over used & presumably equally fucked throttle bodies which resolve the issue for about two hundred miles and clearly aren't really achieving anything.

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1 hour ago, artdjones said:

If the CD is constantly switched on it could explain the battery drain, radios are one of the main causes of battery drain in any car. The wipers coming on could be the Comm2000 unit, which is the unit behind the steering wheel which incorporates the column stalks. Also the BSI, the body computer/fusebox can malfunction. It can be easily reset, the procedure is on YouTube.

Thank you, I removed the battery and put it on charge for a few hours. Just reconnected it and the wipers didn't immediately activate so I'm going to hold fire with pointing the finger at the Comm2000 unit just for now. I think the wipers coming on were just one of those quirks you get sometimes on any car when the battery goes low

After charging the battery, it started up fine, was charging at 14.4 volts with a load, though each time I added a load it dipped to 12.9v for about a second

I did a very quick parasitic drain test and it was alternating between 120mA and 70mA though I'm well aware I should wait 15 mins or so after locking it to get a correct and accurate result

After I locked the car, the hazard light started flashing as it should but the battery light on the dash stayed illuminated, which I find strange and perhaps a possible indication of what's going on. 

I'm led to believe on these that it will illuminate if it detects an excess drain with ignition off. Or my second idea was the diode on the alternator feeding back to the light and causing a drain. 

Regarding the CD player, (well, headunit I should say) it was randomly lighting up for about 10 seconds sometimes when I open one of the doors. Again, I find this strange but will wait until I've done some more investigating tomorrow before making any further conclusion on that and will see how it goes.

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2 hours ago, SiC said:

No, Garador was a good 35% more expensive for equivalent secure roller door than this. This is (iirc) an Aluroll Secureroll. Fully fitted cost just over £2300, so a decent amount of wedge. It was an extra £300 since I got the original quote in 2020. Thankfully the original house builders put in a RSJ above the two old doors, so saved a lot not having that done.

Garador have external motors which are far easier to replace. But as I won't be using the door daily, it won't get anywhere near enough use to justify the extra cost. If I was using it to store a daily driver, I'd have got a Garador. 

I think it, quite thoughtfully, depends on the site. Our motor is inside, but only as we have rear access to the garage. RSJ was a massive saver for you.

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I’ve been ill with pretty severe vertigo type symptoms since November, been waiting for an MRI for ages and still don’t even have a date.

Finally found the guts to stand my ground with the doctors as all they were prescribing me was anti sickness medication to stop me throwing up when I was having an episode. I didn’t kick off but I made how I’ve been feeling in my head clear and they’ve now moved me on to the same meds that are used to treat Meniers disease even though they can’t physically see any issues with me and it’s made me feel so much better, actually near enough normal.

I am therefore really looking forward to the long weekend as I can go and do normal things without having to plan a lie down or carry a bag to be sick into!

Going to get up and go to a car boot sale on good Friday, then come home and have a day tinkering with the Melody and finishing the van painting. Really can’t wait to have a nice day after so long!

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20 hours ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Quelle surprise... 

The new family bike Xsara Picasso has electrical faults :(

I'm currently storing it off the road so that I can sort everything out and service it etc, basically give it the obligatory new ownership once-over. 

It's had a new battery recently from the previous owner. Last started it up on Sunday and it was fine. This afternoon I unlocked it and for some reason the CD player was playing music (🤔) switched it off and thought nothing of it, but despite me repeatedly switching the interior lights off, they still kept coming back on. 

Putting the key in the ignition, on the second turn the wipers come on very slowly and there are various weird noises and interior lights flashing on and off. Tried to start it and nothing at all. Starter doesn't even click

Removed the battery and brought it indoors to test it. Showing 10.8 volts, so it has a serious battery drain somewhere.

It's currently sat outside trickle charging 

Fantastique! Don't you just love French cars...! 

Update on the Xsara Picasso -

Just done some more testing. Looks like its the alternator

Starting it up it drops to no less than 10.8 volts, so the battery is ok (as it should be, it's pretty new) 

At idle it's 14.4v. If I add a large electrical load (pretty much everything - headlights, wipers, heated rear screen, blowers etc) it drops to 12.6v at idle. If I increase the revs very slightly it jumps to 13.8v so that tells me the regulator is naffed. 

When it's running, I'm getting a reading of about 3v AC. So that suggests the diode is also knackered hence causing the fast battery drain. 

I'll have to do some more testing with the better and more reliable multimeter from work as I'm not fully convinced my eBay special one is particularly accurate 

In the mean time, I'm going to fully charge the battery on my charger to rule it out, then if it drains again quickly once connected in the car I know the battery is probably ok and it's something that's draining it

Before I unlocked the car, I noticed the battery light was lit up on the dash so that also tells me the diode is feeding power back where it shouldn't be. 

I did a BSI reset before carrying out the above tests and will do another one when I reconnect the recharged battery

I somehow thought Easter weekend wouldn't be trouble free! What with my plans of sorting out Focus #2 being thwarted as the union STILL HASNT FUCKING ARRIVED 1 week later. I bet the silly buggers sent it out 2nd class. Twats. Now I have a Xsara Picasso playing the game of 'find the electrical fault' in spite. 

TLDR; cars and eBay sellers are twats

(I would have put this in the grumpy thread but because I think I've found the possible problem I'm not grumpy enough for that!)

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14 minutes ago, HarmonicCheeseburger said:

"can't find the issue mate" 

...

 "more than the cars worth"

 

You're using garages that have this mentality, which is your problem.

Peer through the workshop door, if it's full of moderns and they're doing discs/pads and oil changes walk away. 

Find somewhere that's got an old boy that repairs not replaces, and also has some older and more unusual cars in, bet he'll know what the problem is after digging through his memory of dealing with K11 Micras 20 years ago

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1 hour ago, HarmonicCheeseburger said:

But since this is a fucking joke to some of you I'm fucking off after this post.   Sorry it's a CVT k11 and not a TD BX or Maestro.

 

I know I'm a relatively new member so not exactly in a strong position to comment on this, but I'll leave my 2 pence worth anyway.

In a forum with so many members and such an eclectic mix of vehicles, its a given that some people simply wont be interested in what you have. It doesn't mean you're not welcome and there's nothing stopping you from continuing to post for the group of people who are interested. 

I can count the number of people interested in my MK2 Focus with the fingers on my left hand, but it doesn't get me down and I'm certainly not going to take offence that 99% of people aren't interested in what I have to say becuase MK2 Focuses are still everywhere and arent really interesting by any stretch of the imagination. 

Something that you simply dont see anymore, such as a Daewoo Espero is bound to attract more interest than a MK4 Astra for example

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2 hours ago, cort1977 said:

I may have bought some terminally rusty shite today. Whether it will be going back on the road or a parts car will depend on what lurks underneath. 

Incredibly exciting kollecshun fred tomorrow.

You just mean you're getting the Mustang back, right?

 

image.png.8b452bd7976c2b79ca41ff3e54eeccd0.png

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Removed the fuel injectors from the Jeep today and fitted new filter baskets and flushed them through with cleaner, god knows how it ran as the filters were pretty much blocked full of dirt.

put it all back together and the difference is barely noticeable 

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