Ask a Shiter

[sierraman]

It’s also getting fucking hot apparently. Thinking could be the EGR blocked, it’s only used for knocking about round the houses. As we know diesels just love that.

[kirton]

Peugeot Boxer battery +ve battery terminal on my camper.

I have problems with this, apart from it being tucked right up against the bulkhead with a circuit board attached to the clamp; damn near impossible to see what you are doing in there. Someone posted that the circuit board has high capacity fusible links so I suppose I should get spares just in case;  the real issue is that I can't get the clamp to hold tight on the terminal; I keep on tightening up the 10mm nut which works for a while.  The clamp has slipped off about four times, fortunately only when parked - just needs to be pushed down to regain contact but this obviously isn't good. 

What is the solution that will get me a securely clamped terminal?  appropriate language is of no use as swmbo is usually there when the clamp slips and we have a total electrical failure.

[Richard]

Quick and dirty solution is to wrap a bit of Coke can around the post.

[kirton]

the curent fix is a piece of 2x2 wedged in;  I'm not proud of it

[twosmoke300]

If it’s getting hot then it’s most likely a split small coolant hose on a 1.7 Diesel astra

[sierraman]

By the time I’d got home, the garage had been out and pronounced it as ‘fucked’. A technical diagnosis wasn’t given other than ‘its fucked’. Apparently it had virtually no oil left in it. I’d probably take that to mean ‘It will cost you a few hours labour minimum to find the exact cause, but the top and bottom of it is that it’s basically had it’

[Sigmund Fraud]

Does anyone know of any decent parts suppliers for a Vauxhall Victor FC ?

[DodgeRover]

By the time I’d got home, the garage had been out and pronounced it as ‘fucked’. A technical diagnosis wasn’t given other than ‘its fucked’. Apparently it had virtually no oil left in it. I’d probably take that to mean ‘It will cost you a few hours labour minimum to find the exact cause, but the top and bottom of it is that it’s basically had it’

Has CavCraft been round yet?

[sierraman]

Not yet but the mechanic seems convinced it’s knackered. 9 year old Astra consigned to bean tins then it looks like.

[DodgeRover]

Got to be worth filling the oil and water up to see what it sounds like even if it's only to shift it on for a bit more money?

[sierraman]

It’s the in laws car, It’s at the garage now being scrutinised. Were it me, I’d do as you say, fill the oil back up and possibly clean out the EGR, and as two smoke says check the coolant pipes. If the engine is fucked then like you say I’d stick it on bumtree for spears or reapers. I think you’d still see a couple of hundred quid off some masochist who likes fitting engines in his spare time. The previous one shit it’s oil pump at 150k, that had too much oil in it. Fuck knows what went on there.

 

Wonder how it’s come to run so low on oil?

[twosmoke300]

Split coolant pipe , no low coolant warning or temp gauge on most models . Ive seen them get so hot the press fit piston oil cooling jets fall out and pistons / little ends let go!

[Guest Hooli]

Another great* design then

[sierraman]

Great bit of engineering. Symptoms are it’s smoking like a new Pope has been announced, really hot and there’s no oil. It’s in limp cock mode as well. Diesels run forever though don’t they!

[DodgeRover]

Great bit of engineering. Symptoms are it’s smoking like a new Pope has been announced, really hot and there’s no oil. It’s in limp cock mode as well. Diesels run forever though don’t they!

Sounds an ideal candidate to be filled up with EP90 with the management light disconnected then put through the local car auctions. Get it valeted and polished like someone cares for it and some fool will buy for retail stock....or you could try WBAC if it will stay cool long enough..

[sierraman]

I’m not sure it would get as far as Bawtry motor auctions to be honest. I’ve not witnessed it but the smoke seems bad. It’s done this before, then it got left overnight and it was ok. Not sure if it was low on oil though last time. WBAC is only round the corner though.

[sierraman]

News in. Turbot has gone. £700 for a new one fitted.

[barefoot]

Doors and windows.

 

Why do cars no longer have one piece windows that extend to the front of the window frame?

 

In the olden days, the triangle at the very front was filled with an opening quarter light, Cortina 1 & 2 for example.

The Cortina 3 & 4 both had proper wind down windows that opened the whole pane, right to the very front.

But the Cortina 80/5 had a fillet of black plastic with a door mirror attached. 

Over subsequent years, everything has now got a dirty great big lump of black plastic where there should be glass. 

 

Is it just added strength? 

Or is there something more interesting behind it?

 

As always, thanks in anticipation.

[Guest Hooli]

To stop you seeing out? Like most improvements* in car design over the last 20 years.

[davehedgehog31]

I've always assumed it was for rigidity during an accident, in the old NCAP tests you used to regularly see cars fold at the A-Pillar, even your new city beasties, the passenger containing part seems to stay in tact. Of course, the thickness and the raked back-ness of the pillars make it an absolute PITA to see out of.

 

 

[skattrd]

News in. Turbot has gone. £700 for a new one fitted.

 

I've changed a few turbos and most aren't too complicated.

If you have a look around you might be able to get a recon turbo for under £200, and swap it in an afternoon. That is assuming the bolts come out, they do get a tad warm.

It's usually advised to change the oil feed pipe at the same time as the turbo, just in case it was oil starvation that caused it to fail.

[sierraman]

£360 fitted so not the end of the world. Presumably fitting a good used one which makes sense. Are they an easy job on these? I’ve not had a lot do with them to be honest, swapped the oil on one once but that’s about it.

[skattrd]

£360 fitted so not the end of the world. Are they an easy job on these?

 

I've no idea on an Astra. 

 

I had the one off and swapped on my VE Bora in afternoon, that was surprisingly easy.

The little Daihatsu Mira/Cuore I had was dead easy to access the turbo but all bolts were sized and or sheared. I spent more time re-tapping threads than anything else on that one.

 

Limited personal experience says that diesel turbos are usually easier to remove as they don't run as hot/high pressure as some of the petrol ones.

[twosmoke300]

Bolts can be a twat as they are e torx and are as soft as cheese right up until the point you try and drill/ die grind a broken one and they turn into the hardest material on earth.

 

The important question is why it failed ? Shaft snapped from overspeed from ignoring a stuck vnt issue ? Oil starvation? Foreign object damage?

 

Id want to find out before I fitted a new one

[sierraman]

Completely. Could a blocked/failing EGR cause failure? If on inspection the bearings had failed it’s probably lack of servicing. You don’t want to fit a turbo then 3 weeks down the line it’s gone bang again.

[jakebullet]

I decided to fire the capri up today. Been sat 6 months. 2.8 injection cologne engine. There's something weird going on with the fuel system.

 

Initially it just cranked with not a hint of firing. I thought maybe I'd flooded it so pulled the fuel pump relay. After a bit more cranking it fired into life, ran for 5 seconds on the fuel in the lines and stopped. Plugged the relay back in, back to not starting. Took the relay out and bypassed it with a bit of wire in case relay fault. This just made engine not turn over (gets stuck at top of a stroke).

 

Pissing about reveals I can get it to run fine by having the relay disconnected and giving it a quick dab of power to the fuel pump every 5 seconds. So it's something fuel pressure related.

 

I can think of 3 possible things. 1) fuel accumulator is knackered and pressure in lines is OMG psi. 2) return line blocked, again putting pressure too high. 3) Got a dud injector that's dumping a ton of fuel, possibly filling a cylinder & stopping turning over. Won't start as flooded.

 

Any thoughts?

[dozeydustman]

I can think of 3 possible things. 1) fuel accumulator is knackered and pressure in lines is OMG psi. 2) return line blocked, again putting pressure too high. 3) Got a dud injector that's dumping a ton of fuel, possibly filling a cylinder & stopping turning over. Won't start as flooded.

 

Any thoughts?

 

 

If you can remove the return line from the tank, do that & try blowing through with some air if you can. Could also have a collapse in a Flexi line if it has them.

 

For no 3, see if you can smell petrol in the oil. A load of fuel being dumped would wash out the bore(s) affected. If you can, remove each injector in turn and put into the neck of a plastic lemonade bottle and see what comes out when you crank it over. If it dumps even amounts of fuel for 5 seconds' worth of cranking you can rule them out.

[DodgeRover]

News in. Turbot has gone. £700 for a new one fitted.

Should be easy to pick up a used one?

[kirton]

Quick and dirty solution is to wrap a bit of Coke can around the post.

RE Boxer +ve terminal

 

I got to the point of it's NFU so keep dismantling, it can't get worse.  Clamping problem turned out to be lack of stop on clamp so square head on back of clamping bolt just turned,  so no tightening down on battery terminal. 

 

Coke tin to the rescue;  cut a strip, fold over once, no 10 screw, hole on piece of wood, hammer screw through tin using hole as a former, persuade over bolt, insert bolt in clamp, prise tin around bolt head, reassemble and good tight grip on terminal;  proper job as they say down here.

 

Looks like it must be a common problem as ebay has several sellers doing replacement clamp assemblies, all for a fraction of a penny in manufacture - probably hard bolt and soft clamp material.

 

Wife got back home with grand daughters just as I was putting the tools away, brownie points awarded as family want to use camper this weekend and van now safe from total electrical failure

[sierraman]

Should be easy to pick up a used one?

I think that’s what they’ve done. Must be if it’s £360 all in. Don’t think it’s done it any favours been used locally. A lot of these newer diesels appreciate being used in a low gear with a frequent full throttle blast in 3rd to blow the cobwebs out. Going in a high gear all the time in search of max economy all the time seems a recipe for disaster. I think intensive maintenance is the way if you’ve got something like that with regular oil changes and periodic cleaning out of the EGR is the way forward and running it on decent fuel. Did well over a 100k in various Transits using Shell v power diesel, never had any turbo or injection issues. In fact none on the fleet did so I think there’s something in it.