Car joins fleet. All usual AS rules broken - Cookie's adventures in shiteing

[SiC]

Better than either @rantingYoofor myself  got out of it 🤣

[rantingYoof]

33mpg shows you how amazing that (admittedly quite ancient) engine is.

[Cookiesouwest]

People in car parks are twats.

At least they didn't crease it. Paint chipped though

Its small, but it annoys me.

[2flags]

That is so annoying! Hate it when people do things like this. 

[Cookiesouwest]

BFG has thrown up her first fault in my ownership.

Now to be fair, I hadn't even realised it had headlamp cornering !!

Not sure if it means the headlamp swivels or the fog light comes on, when turning in that direction.

All bulbs are ok, so it might be a module or some kind of mechanical mechanism failure.

As I have no code reader, I will have to live with it, till it goes to a Merc garage for its gearbox fluid change.

[2flags]

Just as long they don't try and rinse you for it. "Oh yes sir, we've put it on our machine and that will be eleventy million ponds please, oh, by the way, it hasn't cured it."

[SiC]

666.1 miles on the trip counter too. 

[SiC]

Quick Google suggests it can be the actuator in the lights. Might be one of those things where it's just got itself a bit confused and you clear the code for it to go away again.

[SiC]

I think it turns the dipped headlight left or right with the steering wheel. That's what the adaptive lights on my TT did. 

[SiC]

Some forum posts say the active light function can be coded out with STAR diagnostics. 

Also read there was a MB tech docs on chafed wires that can cause this issue. Just I couldn't find said document. 

[High Jetter]

IIRC right, the Citroen DS did that first

[Mr Pastry]

6 hours ago, High Jetter said:

IIRC right, the Citroen DS did that first

Yes, and it was done purely mechanically with Bowden cables.  Quite crude, but reliable. 

[Cookiesouwest]

Tested them this morning.

On start up the headlights come on, but they don't do the up and down wiggle.

Also don't turn with the steering.

I need to buy the cheapest Star knock off I can get, to find the exact fault.

[Surface Rust]

11 hours ago, High Jetter said:

IIRC right, the Citroen DS did that first

Pedant alert: swivelling headlights weren't a Citroen first, I think they were pioneered in the US on a 1904 Beverley, and appeared again on the Tucker before the DS.

Ironically I think Citroen had to remove them for the US market.

[Cookiesouwest]

Following the return from Up North, a cursory inspection has revealed some nasty stone chips.

Above the windscreen

And 3 small ones on the drivers A pillar. This is 1 of them.

I went to Halfrauds to get some vatcan, but this is all they had.

Better than nothing.

Treatment applied.

I now need to get some touch up paint.

[SiC]

Is the headlight cornering warning still there or did it fix itself?

[Cookiesouwest]

7 minutes ago, SiC said:

Is the headlight cornering warning still there or did it fix itself?

Still there.

I'm trying to decide the best scanner to buy, so I can find out the exact problem.

[Cookiesouwest]

Well I've pulled the trigger on some new rear air springs. Ebay offer of £152 the pair was to hard to resist.

Only the finest cheap Chinese for me

if they last more than a couple of years, I will be happy.

Sadly my garage of choice isn't going to take the job on, as I will be supplying the parts.

I probably should have thought about that before ordering them

 

[jim89]

5 minutes ago, Cookiesouwest said:

Well I've pulled the trigger on some new rear air springs. Ebay offer of £152 the pair was to hard to resist.

Only the finest cheap Chinese for me

if they last more than a couple of years, I will be happy.

Sadly my garage of choice isn't going to take the job on, as I will be supplying the parts.

I probably should have thought about that before ordering them

 

Good to see you used the 'official store' rather than some eastern knock off lookalikee purveyor 👍🏻...

[Cookiesouwest]

So the cheap Chinese air bags have arrived for BFG.

Booked into the garage on Thursday for fitting.

The rear nearside is now dragging its arse, if left standing for 3 days. When I first had the car it took 7 days, so figured it was time to get a move on, as problem is worsening.

Not sure how long the Maxpeedingrods will last, but they have had decent feedback from owners who have fitted them.

[Snake Charmer]

On 22/05/2024 at 20:44, Cookiesouwest said:

BFG has thrown up her first fault in my ownership.

Now to be fair, I hadn't even realised it had headlamp cornering !!

Not sure if it means the headlamp swivels or the fog light comes on, when turning in that direction.

All bulbs are ok, so it might be a module or some kind of mechanical mechanism failure.

As I have no code reader, I will have to live with it, till it goes to a Merc garage for its gearbox fluid change.

I think I had a similar message at the weekend after swapping the battery over. This car has the 616 option yours has, I thought it was for the fog light coming on when turning but seems it might be headlamp steering. The dash message went away on it's own after steering fully left and right, strange as resetting the steering angle on the other car that doesn't have the 616 option involved driving and turning in a sequence.

[Cookiesouwest]

Local preferred garage, has now fitted the cheap air springs. 180 quid for the job - 3hrs at 60 quid ph.

As far as I'm concerned, money well spent. Would have taken me far longer and I would have been doing it on the side of the road in the rain.

Compressor kicked in at start up, which I didn't expect, but maybe thats normal, even with non leaky ass bags.

Now need to park her up for 3 days to see if she ends up on her arse again.

 

 

[SiC]

3 hours ago, Cookiesouwest said:

Would have taken me far longer and I would have been doing it on the side of the road in the rain.

 

 

[SiC]

3 hours ago, Cookiesouwest said:

Compressor kicked in at start up, which I didn't expect, but maybe thats normal, even with non leaky ass bags.

I think they can deflate with the ignition off but never reinflate. I did find that sometimes after parking up it decided to deflate a bit. Especially when my in-laws who are, ummm, quite big, got out of the car. 

Also hot air will contract as it cools, so I'd be fully expecting it to drop a tad after cooling off. Especially if it's not long been refilled from zero as the air would be hot from all that pumping. Rather than an occasional top-up on cold air in there already.

These are a pretty simple setup and quite dumb. Single pressure sensor and a single ride height sensor. So park one wheel on a kerb can make it adjust the height slightly as it doesn't know that it's just parked at an angle. 

I guess it's how far it drops over how long and how long it takes to get back to normal height is the key things.

[Snake Charmer]

V2.0 has sagged since I picked it up last year, usually within 3 days. I moved it recently and stayed up nearly 3 weeks. Goes down parallel, not on one side and the compressor has done an odd constant start/stop on one occasion.

I want to do a couple of experiments with the air springs by disconnecting the air lines,  capping them and pulling the power plugs to see how long they stay up without any interference from the car.

[Cookiesouwest]

44 minutes ago, Snake Charmer said:

V2.0 has sagged since I picked it up last year, usually within 3 days. I moved it recently and stayed up nearly 3 weeks. Goes down parallel, not on one side and the compressor has done an odd constant start/stop on one occasion.

I want to do a couple of experiments with the air springs by disconnecting the air lines,  capping them and pulling the power plugs to see how long they stay up without any interference from the car.

When I bought bfg from SiC, he told me it took a week for her to fully sag - worse on the passenger side.

A month ago I visited MIL for a fortnight. She has a drive on a slope with a camber.

For some reason, this made the suspension sag overnight.

When I got home, it would sag after just 3 days, compared to the week it use to take before the trip.

For some reason, the cambered sloped driveway made it worse. I can only assume the bags must have had tiny tears, which were exacerbated by the angle the car sat at when on the drive.

Its been 24hrs and the new arse bags are still fully inflated, so I'm already considering it a win.

[SiC]

I have read that the bags don't like to be left flat or pumped up often from flat. I guess it stretches the rubber in positions they aren't normally in and can make any perished/split sections get worse.

[Cookiesouwest]

3 days now and arse bags are still inflated.

Definitely a win.

Still not decided on a scanner.

Carsoft was good for the Disco 3, but not intuitive to use - at least for a luddite like me.

Probably going to get a topdon and hope it can at least read all modules for codes.

Don't need anything more than that, like playing with the SBC etc. Cause if that's ever needed, its going in a garage. 

[Cookiesouwest]

Well the Mondeo passed MOT.

Weirdly, as I hadn't bothered cleaning the headlights, this tester let it go, unlike the previous two years.

A few advisories to sort, before it gets put up for sale.

[Cookiesouwest]

Another trip to Hexham to care for MIL for a week.

Done in record time ( best time in over 10 yrs).

MPG same (ish) as last time. So happy.

Not happy, was a 20kg spaniel that worked out how to get past the dog net and then caused a bit of havoc, till we pulled over

This is the spaniel that nearly caused a crash - like butter wouldn't melt.

And his well behaved sister, who stayed in the boot.

Now have to buy a proper dog guard, for the trip back next weekend.