Cats clapped out Cars. Wafting North

[flat4alfa]

Being a 1995 it will be T

[flat4alfa]

So what happened to the Lady Safrane today then?

She never let me down once in the whole six months. But I suppose I wasn’t taking her along to meet another lady to compete with my affections.

Saying that, her dashboard voicebox is a bit on the butch side, so jealousy might not have anything to do with it

[catsinthewelder]

It stayed shut today although the test run was shorter than planned.  I sprayed loads of graphite penetrating oil into the lock assembly this morning then cable tied the top of the door to the grab handle.

I drove smallest child a mile or so to school and parked for 10 mins.  The blipper on the key didn't want to unlock the car when I returned so I turned the key in the passenger door lock.

The car wouldn't start, it turned over fine and would fire up briefly before during.  If I turned it over with my foot on the throttle it would fire up very briefly run at 4000rpm then die.  I assumed some kind of imobilser fault so swore, locked it and walked home to get another car for Tinder date.

On my return it fired up fine so in the morning I need to walk to the village to collect bread, milk and the 405.

Upon reading the workshop manual the correct fluid for the power steering is ATF autobox takes Elf Renaultmatic D2 or Mobil ATF 220.

[Floatylight]

Took me a while to remember that the remote on these is IR and the sensor is by the rear view mirror..

Sent from my Moto G (5) using Tapatalk

[catsinthewelder]

Its taken me a while to learn to use the blipper on an old car, the sunvisor being down probably didn't help.

[flat4alfa]

Yes it won’t respond unless you point the blipper through the door window, pointing in dash top direction

it should be in the owners manual 

[Steve79]

Yep definitely immobilisor on these. Standard fit to all models. Just using key only in lock to open will allow the car to start but then die. You have to use the IR to deactivate, other wise Mr Chumley Warner behind the dashboard will give you a bollocking!

Also be aware that there is around a 30 second time frame you get from plipping it open to start the car. If you don't then you'll have to plip it locked and then unlocked again. Securitaahh feature!

[flat4alfa]

16 hours ago, catsinthewelder said:

I assumed some kind of imobilser fault so swore, locked it and walked home

Success!   So on reflection, it was not a breakdown, it was an immobilising FEATURE, not FAULT  ?

Therefore: TADTS with possible added RTFM ? and also DO NOT SWITCH OFF Mr Choldmondley-Warner who wanted to tell you all about all along

Renault programmers, eh.  At least Safrane Mk1 doesn't have the later fly-by-wire (eg Avantime) throttle program code; now that is potentially fatal.  I speak from experience, although I survived it.  Wife did too, twice.

[beko1987]

You want to fit one of the chinese lock kits, my ZX has one and it's fab! Not that it works as the fobs eat batteries, currently both dead and I just don't lock it, which I've never done tbh even when they were working

[brownnova]

My Saab does the exact same thing unless you use the bipper. Which when the bipper wasn’t working well was fun... 

[catsinthewelder]

I'm sure this was why I stopped buying modern cars ?

Hopefully I'll get some tinkering time over the weekend ?

[catsinthewelder]

Might as well bounce this thread back up for a current (lack of) progress report.  Focus still works and Rover products still don't. 

 

Safrane needed a jump start the other day after sitting for 10 days or so which wasn't too upsetting.  It was irritating when it needed another yesterday after stopping for 2 minutes at the tip to drop off a mattress that wouldn't fit in anything else.  Fortunately the leads were still in it and a Qashqai had electricity to spare but it did lead to a bit of mistrust until I remembered that it can be tricky to start when hot.

The 405 is currently in the doghouse.  It came back from Scotland with a holed o/s headlight lense and somewhat vague brakes.

I had discs and pads in stock so changed them and found that the battery was flat by the time I'd finished so didn't take it for a test run.  I then had a right carry on ordering a n/s headlight (wrong) then an o/s headlight from a lower spec car (wrong but fits).

 

Finally took it for a test run up the hill last week once I'd jump started it and beat 7 shades out of the rear wheel nuts to unseize the handbrake.

Ran nicely, got up to 50 before remembering that I was supposed to be testing the brakes so stamped my foot down and hit the floor. ?

 

After a bit of furious pumping I slowed down a bit but there is something very wrong with them.  Plenty of fluid in the reservoir so I assume the m/c seals must be knackered?

 

Dacia hasn't done much but did start today with a jump so I could move it which was a bonus.  Must get that sorted ?

[hairnet]

therell be beard trapped somewhere

 

[SiC]

On 11/20/2019 at 5:54 PM, catsinthewelder said:

Plenty of fluid in the reservoir so I assume the m/c seals must be knackered?

Furious pumping probably hit the area of the master cylinder bore that isn't used often. That area is rusty/dirty which then buggers up the seals. Happened to my MGB when I changed the fluid and flexis. 

[catsinthewelder]

Oh well all the chaos of Xmas is finished and 2 of the appliances in the house went pop so I was expecting the blue appliance to give some sort of trouble and right on cue it has.   Horrible noises from underneath while dropping the small one at school.  Couldn't see anything too terrible so limped it the couple of miles to my first job then looked underneath when I'd finished and found 2 loose heatshields.  My local garage did a cracking job of reattaching the last one so thinking I only had a few weeks MOT on I headed over to book it in for a test with tinkering.

I really should learn to check things first as its got over 2 months test, but I was there then so booked it in for tomorrow and headed home to stick my toolbag into the Safrane.  Obviously that wouldn't start even after sitting on jump leads for 15 mins so I swapped on a battery that had been on the charger in the shed and it fired up with more enthusiasm than ever.

With a working car at home I dropped the Ford at the garage and walked home.  Filled with enthusiasm I thought I should move the broken 405 around to the back to give more space at the front.  Lifted the bonnet to find it was lacking a battery, bugger thats where the one in the shed came from.

Did make some progress though as looking at it in daylight I could work out how to change the master cylinder and what sort I needed so I ordered one up.  Digging this thread up reminded me to order the rotor arm too so maybe I can get the 220 running soon?

[catsinthewelder]

Back to 2 working cars, Focus is fixed for less than £40 (the horrible noise was an antirollbar link).  In an additional stroke of luck I got home just as my next door neighbour was getting into her car so hitched a lift back to the garage to collect the Safrane ?

[catsinthewelder]

With a bit of sun outside today I walked to the shop this afternoon and spotted this on my return.

 

As I figured I'd be getting the blame for its appearance closer investigation was called for.

I'm guessing that the rollcage means it isn't always pointing in the direction that it's traveling in ?

 

While I was down there I had a nose at the Rover and found that I'd already removed a few bits to get to the rotor arm (don't remember doing that ?) and it had a nice new looking battery that I thought I'd misplaced.  10 minutes later that one was on charge and I was hooking up the fresh one from the charger.  A new rotor arm had been ordered so I removed the old one and found it was different.  The new one has a smaller hole in the back.  Time to find the right one ?

 

This is what I bought

The master cylinder has also arrived for the Peugeot but I didn't fancy attempting that today.

[stuboy]

ur get some good luck soon

[Lord Sterling]

Volvo 7xx/9xx estates seem to be popular around these parts. There are at least 3 regular Volvo 7xx estates that I know that pop into town here. There is also a Volvo botherer around here too.

[catsinthewelder]

So this happened yesterday 😃

[hairnet]

............................................

[beko1987]

You put a battery on? 

[catsinthewelder]

I finished the RHD headlamp convertion

1 hour ago, beko1987 said:

You put a battery on? 

I had just brought a battery out from the shed but that was to get the 405 mobile again,  I should probably swap that with the one in the Dacia now to give 4 cars that work (but still only 2 legal).

[dollywobbler]

YES! I've been meaning to ask how you're getting on. Folk do keep asking me. What's the current MOT-likeliness rating?

[catsinthewelder]

Thats always been the big issue, just need to steal the rear seatbelts from the Disco (will involve grinder) and seam seal over the previous welded repair.

[Schaefft]

Awesome. Hows the Safrane doing?

[catsinthewelder]

Just needs the ABS light sorting for a test, then the gearbox fluid changing,  I should be getting some ramps soon which will make it a bit easier.

 

Around this point in the thread I should probably leave this link here as why my shite mojo has suddenly improved.

 

[Mrs6C]

5 hours ago, catsinthewelder said:

So this happened yesterday 😃

It's (half of) Captain Mainwaring!!! How is the old boy doing?

[catsinthewelder]

A bit sad to be fair, basically the Focus arrived a week before the 220's MOT was due and it was parked up for a couple of weeks and hasn't run since.

 

I've bought all the bits to replace the exhaust and have a fairly cheap quote to replace the screen but can't do anything until I can get it running.  Suspicion is rotor arm so I bought one that didn't fit then didn't get any further.  I'll get one from the motor factors this week and try again.

[RobT]

On 10/18/2020 at 6:06 PM, catsinthewelder said:

Just needs the ABS light sorting for a test, then the gearbox fluid changing,  I should be getting some ramps soon which will make it a bit easier.

This any good to you?  Not sure if D3 is for later Renner 'boxes, but got two litres FOC if you want it Rich.