Harrison's Garage - Mini City, back on the road!

[RoverFolkUs]

... especially given its not exactly a valuable car/engine that's worth saving from its potential Zanussi appointment a couple of months down the line!

[rob88h]

28 minutes ago, sierraman said:

I think you are over worrying the engine noise on the Rover, I’ve heard much worse. I’d just run it. 

Yeah, you're probably right. I'd live with this happy* enough for myself now I've covered 900 trustworthy miles in it. However, I need rid of it regardless as I only bought it instead of taking the train 🤣. What I'm happy to live with and what I'm happy to sell are at different levels of expectations. Let's just say someone on here probably got a bargain...

Quote

... especially given its not exactly a valuable car/engine that's worth saving from its potential Zanussi appointment a couple of months down the line!

😬 Not on my watch! Rovas 4 eva

[RoverFolkUs]

2 minutes ago, rob88h said:

Yeah, you're probably right. I'd live with this happy* enough for myself now I've covered 900 trustworthy miles in it. However, I need rid of it regardless as I only bought it instead of taking the train 🤣. What I'm happy to live with and what I'm happy to sell are at different levels of expectations. Let's just say someone on here probably got a bargain...

😬 Not on my watch! Rovas 4 eva

Oh of course not, I second that being a Rover licker myself

But I was just sharing the opinion it's probably not worth worrying about that engine noise, especially since it got you home fine and will probably last quite a while as it is, and the car was most likely destined for the bin by the previous owner anyway, it's not like you or anyone else would be causing any harm by not repairing the cause of that noise 👍

[rob88h]

Is Number Plate Wordle a thing? It should be.

@Captain Mainwaring found a Mancunian registered cousin of the Sierra DieseL. Good spotting! The MOT expired in 2016, but at least it has an MOT history - unlike mine!

[Captain Mainwaring]

Oh, fancy that! At least yours looks much happier. I actually briefly wondered if the one I papped was the AS Sierra, but then concluded it probably wouldn't be dumped on a drive in Manchester after all that community effort!

[rob88h]

It's Sierra Time! I've been chipping away at the jobs list for the Sierra - not a hateful thing yet; I'm not sick of the sight of it.

 

Satisfying job #1

With the mighty 67hp Indenor running like a peach I treated the cooling system to a flush, back flush, de-algae'd the expansion tank internals and generally made it look less like a artefact that had lived through the industrial revolution. Car maintenance karma reared it's head at the end of the mainly smooth job by allowing me to snap the spade of the gauge temp sensor on the thermostat when jimmying the top hose back on. A few internet pennies later and it now has a new temp sensor in there.

 

 

Satisfying job #2

The front brakes were really satisfying to do, eventually.., once I'd finally got all the new parts together. I HATE shopping, particularly over the internet. Some time last year I'd replaced the exhaust on the Volvo 440 using AutoDoc - credit to them they had what I wanted - but it took months to arrive, so I knew to avoid AutoDoc and instead went for EUspares. Imagine my harumph when the confirmation and invoice email came through on AutoDoc headed pages! Needless to say 3 of the last 4 weeks have been waiting for the bits to arrive.

I could then rebuild the wonderfully simple callipers with new seals and pistons, put on new flexi's on and discs and pads. mmm. Love a good brake job me. I did have to evict some woodlice and arachnids on my way, but I'm sure they'll have just moved into one of my other heaps.

 

Satisfying job #3

It's not really pictured, but while the axle pair wheels are off I'm pressure washing them, giving the rims a quick Hammerite-ing and having new tyres put on. New tyres are always satisfying, particularly when they're mid-range Van tyres.

 

Satisfying job #4

Buoyed by all this success the front was lowered and the rear raised to start the rear brakes. (side note: I have x10 axle stands. The Granada permanently sits on x4, the MX-5 permanently on another x4, leaving me with x2 for all my other jobs and oil changes etc. I refuse friendly offers of additional axle stands from friends as I know another car will just end up in the air never to come down. Having a limited supply helps you to finish a job as you know you need them for the next one!). Well, the drums were stuck and no matter how many YouTube videos I watched I could not get them to budge. No threaded holes to wind them off the hub flange, no access holes in the back plate to relieve pad radial pressure, (no bloody brake fluid coming out of loosed bleed nipples), no amount of penetrating fluid, hammering and fire. I contemplated building a drum puller, but watched a 20 minute video of a guy who made one for a tractor he was working on, for it not to even work. Would not recommend or watch again. Then, while watching ChrisFix or EricTheCarGuy cut one in half with a grinder I came up with an idea all of my own that I hadn't seen anyone do - a slide hammer. I'd had to buy one for pulling halfshafts from my Capri and after a few short tugs, sweet release. I had both drums knocked off within 5 minutes.

Inside I was greeted with dry wheel cylinders that need some level of exorcism before removal. This is where our story ends for tonight. I needed to get into the drums to confirm what type I had before ordering more parts (obviously the 2.3L Diesel is not covered in the Haynes I have). If you're interested they're the 9" drum assemblies from a Mk2 Escort. And I'm avoiding AutoDoc and EUspares now.

[Essex V6]

On 12/21/2021 at 10:44 PM, rob88h said:

Messing about with the Audi - perfect winter hack?

Contender for most simple fix: The “leaking” rear calliper simply needed the banjo fitting tightening on the calliper side of the flexi. As suspected from the paperwork, this calliper was new about three years ago and the garage that did it clearly didn’t tighten it up fully. I cleaned up the fitting, wailed on the brake pedal and sure enough I was greeted with brake fluid. After tightening it up to BeyondSpec Nm I tried again on the brake pedal and all the fluids stayed in the braking system.

The downside is that three years of a weeping rear calliper has melted the paint on the rear alloy. And the spare as the tyre died too and the PO just put on the spare rather than work out what was going on.

Cleaning up after the “simple fix” was more of a pain. I stripped and cleaned the alloy inner dish on the two trashed wheels and protected things as best I could with a simple Hammerite brush job. It’s not so visible being behind the wheel face so was deemed sufficient.

 

 

I’ve started using the Audi more regularly to try it out a bit before moving back to my core fleet. First impressions are not great – it’s hard to speak ill of it in any specific way as it’s a really capable car, but I just can’t get excited by it (it is a silver Audi diesel to be fair). I almost feel sorry for it, it’s clearly well thought out, well put together and rides pretty nice, yet for all it’s success it’s super bland. Maybe that’s the appeal, or I’m just impervious to brand snobbery.

The diesel tank is huge; on a run up to Lincolnshire I got the range indicator displaying 950 miles in the tank with some inexpert hypermiling. I think this thing could do display 1000 in the right hands. Cruise control is a nice thing to have, and a real surprise-and-delight feature is the mini sun visor for the gap between the roof and the rear-view mirror.

1000 miles in and I’m already driving like a dick though. My 528 e39 Touring did this to me as well. I think it’s a combination of 1^st gen cruise control (non-adaptive) and a feeling of entitlement inherent in driving certain brands.

I think I could learn to love this car – if it were my car, in the way that I think if you have any car long enough you can get attached to it from memories and association. It seems like it’s capable of being a faithful companion, like it was to the previous owner who inherited it from his dad who bought it as an ex-demo from Southend Audi. They’d had it forever so it’s part of their family, like a boring brother, but to me it’s kind of nothing.

 

My recent long trip did teach me one thing about it though: the droopy headliner is really annoying tickling your scalp all the time! Buoyed by success of doing the Volvo 480 headliner I decided to take on the headliner in the Audi using some spare foam backed material a friend had given me. It was not as nice of a job as it was on the relatively miniscule Volvo headliner!

The main problem was that although the glue had broken down, it had not turned to dust like it had on the Volvo, so cleaning up the headliner board was a big claggy mess of a job.

I stuck it down in stages and trimmed it afterward.

The end result is a great improvement! In some of the photo’s it looks a bit creased – but the new material was stored folded for about a year, so as the foam plumps-up I’m hoping they’ll soften. It’s a shade darker than the original, but for a free fix on a car I’m planning on selling I’m quite happy. The pillar and door trims had a few clips or alignment pins snap, but it’s gone back together securely enough.

 

All that’s left is to do the service. It’s probably not worth troubling the AutoShite world with “boring man services boring car” so you’ll just have to look out for it come February once it has a new MOT and will be up for sale.

I

[Essex V6]

I echo your general thoughts on the Aldi. Finally managed a trip home to Scotland. One of my pals very generously lent me his A6 S Line TDi auto. Nice old barge for knocking about in for 5 weeks but it didn’t really get under my skin.

Happy to get back into my Saxo VTS when I got back to NZ

[Essex V6]

[rob88h]

5 hours ago, Essex V6 said:

Nice old barge for knocking about in for 5 weeks but it didn’t really get under my skin.

 

I do find myself missing the A4 Avant right now. Of all my tat, only the Focus is really working and my wife is out in that mostly! @Matts_Rusty_Bus bought LaRZ off me. I presume it’s trooping on; I’d had no feeling of indication of impending doom with it. Good car that.

sit rep:

Focus - aok 👍. Probably no oil in it. 
Volvo - Hot misfire. Not hot engine coolant temp misfire, but hot ambient. Pretty much undriveable on second start-up.  Has new Coil, HT leads and plugs, but still thinking ignition.
Mini - Fairly sizeable oil leak. Feel bad for bikers if leaving it, so grounded until I can improve that. 
Sierra - no rear end. 
Granada - *sighs*
MX-5 - yeah right. Buried in the garage. 
Runabout Collective - all non-runners, some in component pieces . 

FML. 

[stuboy]

13 hours ago, rob88h said:

I do find myself missing the A4 Avant right now. Of all my tat, only the Focus is really working and my wife is out in that mostly! @Matts_Rusty_Bus bought LaRZ off me. I presume it’s trooping on; I’d had no feeling of indication of impending doom with it. Good car that.

sit rep:

Focus - aok 👍. Probably no oil in it. 
Volvo - Hot misfire. Not hot engine coolant temp misfire, but hot ambient. Pretty much undriveable on second start-up.  Has new Coil, HT leads and plugs, but still thinking ignition.
Mini - Fairly sizeable oil leak. Feel bad for bikers if leaving it, so grounded until I can improve that. 
Sierra - no rear end. 
Granada - *sighs*
MX-5 - yeah right. Buried in the garage. 
Runabout Collective - all non-runners, some in component pieces . 

FML. 

sounds like you need to buy more shite

[rob88h]

Sierra update after only 12 hours 🥱

I’m waiting for some brake bits, but I knocked off another MOT fix by replacing the smashed number plates. I went full nerd, pre-2001 font to match the old ones and got a dealer logo added after some speculative investigations on where this Sierra might have been originally sold from. 

 

Ever polished a turd? I hate polishing cars but (not really coming across in the photos) the Sierra is minging and a blight on the neighbourhood. The paint, I think, is super thin as there’s loads of white bits showing through here and there on wheel arches and door stepovers, so I didn’t want to do my tried and tested T-cut and Turtle Wax combo. Instead I got some Paint restoring compound with cleaners  and fillers or some shit in it, rather than just cutting of loads with T-cut. Not sure it could take that. Then I used some Carchumbawumba wax, or whatever it is. Nice stuff that, would recommend. 

I’ve only done the front so far as I waited until the evening for the weather to cool/ other laziness excuses. It’s coming up a Bobby Dazzler. 

[Crackers]

That's such an endearing car, in a really rubbish kinda way.

[Tenmil Socket]

Would you like a Ford badge for the Sierra? 

 

[Matts_Rusty_Bus]

I do find myself missing the A4 Avant right now. Of all my tat, only the Focus is really working and my wife is out in that mostly! [mention=23542]Matts_Rusty_Bus[/mention] bought LaRZ off me. I presume it’s trooping on; I’d had no feeling of indication of impending doom with it. Good car that.
sit rep:
Focus - aok . Probably no oil in it. 
Volvo - Hot misfire. Not hot engine coolant temp misfire, but hot ambient. Pretty much undriveable on second start-up.  Has new Coil, HT leads and plugs, but still thinking ignition.
Mini - Fairly sizeable oil leak. Feel bad for bikers if leaving it, so grounded until I can improve that. 
Sierra - no rear end. 
Granada - *sighs*
MX-5 - yeah right. Buried in the garage. 
Runabout Collective - all non-runners, some in component pieces . 
FML. 

The A4 is doing fine, I've done over 3000 miles in it now with absolutely no issues.



Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

[rob88h]

On 5/21/2022 at 10:19 PM, Tenmil Socket said:

Would you like a Ford badge for the Sierra? 

That’s really kind of you, but I already have a couple in reserve and ready to go on. 

Sierra DieseL progress update o’clock!

Straight in with rebuilt drums. New springs, copper grease on the backplate contact points, the works. Despite not having 14 hands they went together ok. The handbrake mechanism and cabling under the car even seems to work despite zero investigation.

Parts In Motion have sent me the wrong rear flexi hoses, so we stop there and can’t bleed despite having just invested in an Ezeebleed kit and a newly shod spare wheel. Looking forward to trying that out. 

Getting the old flexi hoses out was a knack and required some live problem solving. They’re secured in with some little fish plate (is that the term?) clip type thingy-ma-bobs (or is that the term?). My m8 Archimedes suggested I lever up the lowers on a fulcrum consisting of my pliers. 

The tops came out thanks to my other m8 MacGyver suggesting hooking one of the old hardened steel brake springs and jerry-rigging it to the tripoid fitting of the much loved slide hammer, as there was no fulcrum for method Archimedes was banging on about. 

 

I’ve also changed the fuel filter. There’s 3/4 a tank of this rancid diesel in the tank, but the mighty Indenor seems to gobble it up readily. I get the feeling it’s not a fussy engine. 

Did you clean out the fuel filter sump/ “crud accumulator” I hear no-one ask.

 

Yes. I also changed the seals, pre-filled it with the minging diesel, then proceeded to knock it over when trying to refit the bugger spilling about half a litre of diesel all over the engine bay and gravel. Damn it. At least I won’t have weeds for a bit. Primed and started up ok though, so job jobbed despite the spillage. 

 

While waiting for the rear brake hoses I progressed the polishing up the left flank. 

[DodgeRover]

Erm red diesel isn't supposed to be in road vehicles....

Has polished up well though! What polish did you end up using?

[MrDuke]

1 hour ago, rob88h said:

There’s 3/4 a tank of this rancid diesel in the tank, but the mighty Indenor seems to gobble it up readily. I get the feeling it’s not a fussy engine.

I'm pretty sure you could just chuck totally unfiltered WVO in there fresh from the chippy with no issues. #sustainable #climate #gretahasawideonforsierras

[greengartside]

I think that could probably run on liquidised pig shite with no issues. 
 

That looks totally transformed. Now just to get it together with Bornite’s example….

[rob88h]

7 hours ago, DodgeRover said:

Has polished up well though! What polish did you end up using?

Meguiar’s Ultimate Compound. Then Meguiar’s Gold Class Carnauba wax on top. It’s come up really well but photos do flatter it (as ever). 

7 hours ago, DodgeRover said:

Erm red diesel isn't supposed to be in road vehicles....

Red diesel is cherry red right? Pretty sure you’re joking and this is just what happens to diesel sat in a Sierra for 20 years. Got me worried now, I don’t want any trouble. I was like that when I got it Mr. Officer. Maybe I’ll flush it with some vegetable oil or liquidised pig shit (whichever has the least tax on it) as @MrDuke and Mr. @greengartside suggest. 👍

[Lacquer Peel]

It does look like red diesel. I wouldn't worry too much about it, to purge the fuel tank if you want to, tap the return line to a container and run the engine, diesel pumps return much more fuel than the engine combusts. 

Before you put veg in I would check the fuel pump type. 

Brilliant car, I love it. 

[DodgeRover]

11 hours ago, rob88h said:

Meguiar’s Ultimate Compound. Then Meguiar’s Gold Class Carnauba wax on top. It’s come up really well but photos do flatter it (as ever). 

Red diesel is cherry red right? Pretty sure you’re joking and this is just what happens to diesel sat in a Sierra for 20 years. Got me worried now, I don’t want any trouble. I was like that when I got it Mr. Officer. Maybe I’ll flush it with some vegetable oil or liquidised pig shit (whichever has the least tax on it) as @MrDuke and Mr. @greengartside suggest. 👍

Nope that's cherry you've got there, old diesel doesn't change colour unless it has a significant bio content in which case it goes black and lumpy.

Shouldn't worry about it personally, just top up the tank with white as it does go off slightly.

[Zelandeth]

Diesel does go off a bit over time, but not anywhere near as badly as petrol, and I've never personally come across a diesel no matter how long it's sat that provided the tank wasn't full of water that wouldn't run off whatever was in the tank, even if it's been sitting in a hedge for 30 years.

That does look like red diesel though - I'd not worry unduly though.  Just dilute it down by adding fresh to the tank as soon as you can.  The odds of you getting stopped and checked in a classic Sierra are negligible.  Now, if you were in a scruffy ass white Transit, then I'd be more concerned!

[wesacosa]

Sierra is looking great. Can't wait to see it

[Eyersey1234]

Sierra looks chodtastic I am jealous 

[Talbot]

Agree on all counts that you've got a tank of Red diesel there.  It matches the red car tho.  Run it down as far as you dare and then fill up with fresh pump diesel.  Jobbed.
If it has gone off a bit, a single litre of 28-second oil (home heating oil or Kero) will help.  Don't put too much in as it's nowhere near as lubricating as 35-second diesel fuel.  If you're at all worried, put an equal amount of 28-second oil and fresh new veg oil in (maybe 3 litres of each) and marvel at how much quieter it makes the engine (a bit) and how much it now smells of chips, despite it only being a small percentage of the tank contents.

Or just ignore it all. 

[wesacosa]

[stuboy]

14 hours ago, wesacosa said:

i was gonna say we on here see one regulary

[sierraman]

I’m surprised so many have survived, most of them were cabbed back in the day. There was a late 2.3 near my house until maybe 10 years ago, a face lift one on an F plate.

[rob88h]

Volvo 440 M_CEC: The 2 year fix?

(Long post alert - even I’m bored with it and it was my life…)

 

For a good while the Volvo has been misbehaving. Dependable, but misbehaving.

The following tale contains a lot of learning for me - a competent auto electrician (or even someone without several other distracting project cars!) would probably have had this all sorted in a weekend. For me it was over 2 years, lol.

I can’t remember exactly when it all started, but December 2020 is when I first thought I’d fixed the Volvo 440’s running problem. See, my thread actually worked for a reminisce!

Basically, I get random misfires. For a long time it’s been hard to diagnose because A), it’s intermittent and B), I hadn’t really worked out what sort of driving brought it on. 

For however long, I was just living with it, yet, in Dec 2020 I happened on decomposing HT leads. Passive diagnosis I call this. I was bleeding coolant from a hose leak and I could see the leads flashing, in the full light of day. Great, I thought, I didn’t even have to try and I’ve solved this.

Well… with new leads it was still doing it. But “it is better, right?” I couldn’t really tell. It must be ignition though, the new leads have helped, but haven’t really cured it. I decided to change the plugs - and not those shitty 4 anode cross ones, some proper meaty sparkers. “It is better, right?” I still couldn’t really tell. Anyway, I went back to passive diagnosis and just learned to drive around the low rpm high torque problem regions. 

On 12/13/2020 at 12:19 PM, rob88h said:

it’s still a bit idley all over the place. Probably because it’s cold and it seems do deal with cold idling with a fuelling random number generator. 

^2020 (spoiler: I’m surprised how close I was back here)

It seemed to be getting worse and worse into the summer until I finally had a complete FTP. Coil kaput. Legit. Boom, passive diagnosis for the win. When I thought about it, it was worse when hot - so the coil must’ve been breaking down in the heat but not so bad when cold I mused. With the coil replaced I was back in business. Nailed it I thought. But I was wrong. It was a red herring (or a symptom not a cause), the poor running and misfires came back. 

By winter 2021, with the new coil, it started to definitely get better, but it was still sometimes there and I’d started to notice it’s happening most after really long steady  cruises, then accelerating. Semi-ignoring it hoping I stumble on the answer has not been working (surprise surprise). 

Coming into Spring 2022 it started to get a lot worse again. I was using the car a bit different after selling the Audi, taking it on a short trips to the park with the dogs. It became apparent this is what it hated the most. It would drive to the dog park fine, but on the way home it was running like a bag of dog shit. One time it struggled to get above 40mph without stupidly light load. So I grounded it. 

Sit rep: New (ish) plugs, leads and coil and it’s worse than ever. It runs ok cold, doesn’t like heavy acceleration after long cruises or being parked up. 

Q: have I ever changed the fuel filter. 
A: No. 

Having gone though a decent amount of the ignition system I started to think about fuel. The problem being it starts no problem cold or hot, so air entrainment or restrictions probably aren’t likely. I changed the fuel filter anyway, because maintenance. 

Q: Am I always misfiring the same cylinder?  
A: No. now I can invoke the issue a bit better I started pulling HT leads and the miss is all over the place.

Q: Does a 1994 Volvo have OBD?  
A: Kind of! Not your normal scan tool port type deal, we’re talking blink codes.

I didn’t know about these, but you put the lead in the various numbered circuits and press the button for various reads and watch the LED flash you out little codes. You can also use it to command actuator cycle checks. Nifty. 
Result: O2/Lambda sensor is toast. 

By now I’ve replaced the fuel filter and the O2 sensor, I have no blink codes and it’s still blinking bust and running shite. 

I’ve tried ignoring it. I’ve tried “listening” to what it has to say. Now it’s time to start asking it. 

These 1.8i Volvos run some form of Bosch Jetronic integrated fuel and ignition EFI type deal. Something is clearly misread or misunderstood at the ECU. Most likely something to do with temperature effects.  After a bit of research, I have found I have the single point injector type. It doesn’t use a MAF but instead monitors Intake Air Temperature and Manifold pressure. PRIME SUSPECT. Running like shit when hot ambient air is about, after run and parked up or after steady cruise. 

The connector block for the Intake Air Temp sensor and Fuel Injector is shared. The Injector resistance checks out.

BINGO! Intake Air Temp sensor is reading as an open circuit. The poorly Volvo doesn’t know when it’s eating hot air and and the ECU isn’t switching fuelling or timing maps hence running like crap. 

Try as I might I could not find a replacement part for the upside down picture, so step in a breaker:

For what we are about to receive may the Lord make us truely thankful. L_FPE gave it’s life so others may live. 12 backfire salute. Etc.

With a replaced Intake Air Temp sensor, so far, so far, the running problem seems to be gone for good. I did the KFC drive cycle, the worst for hot air: A warm up, slow queue through the drive-through, engine off to nosh in the carpark, startup again and then drive off with an engine bay full of as much hot air as Donald Trump. It used to throw a fit doing this. Now it seems to cope. 

It’s no longer grounded, but still resides in the naughty spot because I’ve too many other cars still.

If your cars not running right, keep going. You’ll get there.