Sunny Jim's Jalopies: No Leaks, now Creaks

[Sunny Jim]

Thanks for the tip @junkyarddog, any suggestions on where I might source a suitable grommet please?

 

[BertiePuntoCabrio]

Congrats on the MOT pass! 

[junkyarddog]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/GTSE-Pack-Black-Wiring-Grommets/dp/B07ZN7JRT2/ref=asc_df_B07ZN7JRT2/?tag=bingshoppinga-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=&hvpos=&hvnetw=o&hvrand=&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=e&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4584070146287925&psc=1

Something like this would possibly do,you'd have to measure the size of the cup on the end of the rod first.

I'm lucky enough to have a few in a tin that I've salvaged over the years,I just go through them until I find one that fits,or more often than not,close enough to do.

[Sunny Jim]

Much obliged, cheers for that @junkyarddog. I've found some blind grommets in the shed which I'll have a go with tomorrow.

[Hawkeyethenoo]

 #Calendar money shot.

[barrett]

Congrats on the MoT pass, and the carb replacement. Annoying about the gear linkage, but she'll soon realise she's being looked after and stop making so much trouble (it's a French thing).

Our old Ford Vedette had a fun habit of popping the selector off if you engaged first gear. Luckily that V8 is torquey enough to drive round the problem most of the time, but on one trip to France with a lot of hill climbing I had to keep crawling underneath and popping it back on. High ground clearance and muscle memory meant I got it down to a three second manoeuvre by the end.

[Talbot]

On 7/18/2020 at 11:08 PM, Sunny Jim said:

I was caught doing 35mph in a 30 on the A5 in Llangollen on my way home from Norfolk last weekend - hopefully I'll just get a Speed Awareness Course.

That is properly unlucky.  In general (although there are different cases around the UK) Prosecution of any sort only starts at +10% +2mph, which means you were at the very lowest speed to have action taken.  Generally a speed awareness course is offered up to +10% +9mph, which would be 42mph in a 30.  Had you been maybe just 0.6mph slower, you'd probably have been ignored.

[Sunny Jim]

On 8/15/2020 at 11:57 PM, barrett said:

... she'll soon realise she's being looked after and stop making so much trouble (it's a French thing).

Not yet she doesn't! Driving to work this morning and the OSF brake didn't sound or feel right. Jacked the car up after work to have a look...

Ah bugger! Wonder what's caused that? Could it have been the brake roller at the MOT?

I might as well just set up a direct debit to Chevronics.

 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

1 hour ago, Sunny Jim said:

....

I might as well just set up a direct debit to Chevronics.

Well now, that new showroom of theirs has to be paid for somehow....

[djoptix]

Or change it yourself? 

[beko1987]

Better it happened on the brake roller than l2 of the m1 at 75 though! 

[Sunny Jim]

2 hours ago, djoptix said:

Or change it yourself? 

I'll do the discs and pads myself but I'm buying the parts from Chevronics.

[djoptix]

Aaaaaah got you

Carry on.

[Talbot]

15 hours ago, Sunny Jim said:

 

[mat_the_cat]

On 8/16/2020 at 1:44 AM, Talbot said:

That is properly unlucky.  In general (although there are different cases around the UK) Prosecution of any sort only starts at +10% +2mph, which means you were at the very lowest speed to have action taken. 

North Wales police are pretty hot on speeders. I got caught doing 35mph on the entrance to a village at 6:30am - IMO in accordance with the conditions, although I agree I wasn't consciously paying attention to the speedo.

How's the ride on the BX Jim?

We reset the ride height before the MOT, as it appeared to be riding high at the front, which can affect the comfort. To start with I adjusted it to the 'book' value of 166mm (+10/-7mm), which worked out to be 290mm including the height of my ramps.

This still seemed a little high to my rule of thumb of 4 fingers between wheel arch and tyre, so dropped it around 10mm. Hoping it's made an improvement, but reckon the spheres looked like they'd been on a while so maybe could benefit from changing.

[Sunny Jim]

Hi @mat_the_cat, the ride's definitely improved but as you say the spheres look (and feel) tired. As a treat after my Speed Awareness Course on the 2nd I'm booked into Westroen for some reconditioned spheres.

Today's job was new discs and pads on the front. One of the bolts holding the disc on put up a bit of a fight but eventually succumbed to fire and a long bar. It's great not having to faff about bleeding brakes!

[Bitzer]

Oh yeah, the famous* BX brake disc bolts. Mine succumbed to impact screwdriver.

Btw, you DO know that when working on the front axle, you do not need no bloody axle stands or hydraulic jacks? Just support the French parody of sensible engineering at the jacking point in the middle of the car, select the lowest position and place somebody (or a sack of concrete etc.) to the trunk. The front of the car should lift up enough to enable a comfortable access to brakes etc. IIRC, it is not even necessary to release the bleeding screw of the hydraulic system.

[Sunny Jim]

As many of you will know by now I've taken on @Tim_E's BMW 325i. It came with a few faults areas with room for potential improvement chief amongst which was a blown final stage resistor to the heater blower motor. This is a pig of a job as the FSR is situated behind the motor actuator up under the dash to the left of the steering column.

Full of new owner enthusiasm I decided to tackle it this afternoon and duly set about removing the trim from below the steering wheel. I've recently bought a trim removal tool and it made life a lot easier than pissing about with screwdrivers fearful I'm going to break something.

Next up was removing the actuator motor. The bottom torx screw was easy to find and remove, the top one less so.  I knew where it was in theory from looking at diagrams but I couldn't see it or even feel it no matter which way I contorted myself in the footwell. In the end working completely blind I just poked about with a torx bit until I located the screw and finally managed to get it out.

After two hours I finally had my eyes on the prize!

You can imagine my disappointment when I laid the new and old parts side by side and discovered I had the wrong one... My hedgehog doesn't have enough spikes - I think it might be the one for the non-AC cars. Not sure if it would have got the blower working, I didn't want to risk it and inadvertently cause another problem.

Annoying to have to put it all back together without sorting the problem but at least I now know how to take it apart which will make the job quicker when I get the right part. In the meantime I have a cloth to demist the windows.

[Cord Fourteener]

These are views I know well, and muchos kudos and gwaith da iawn wir iti for getting that far.

But as for my ordering the correct part skills I think that's an F minus for me 🤦

Mae'n ddrwg gen i!

 

 

[Sunny Jim]

Heb ai fai, heb ai eni. 👍

[Robson3022]

The job I was looking forward to least had this fine steed ended up here. Spending 2 hours upside down guessing where things are we’re not how I fancied spending my Sunday!!! 
 

The Saab on the other hand is magnificent. Trying to source a rear door and that might be all I do. Any idea when it was last serviced? (I haven’t looked through the paper work I’m being pretty lazy here).

[Sunny Jim]

@Robson3022sorry can't remember. The invoices were stacked in date order so it should be the first one under the V5s in the yellow folder.

[Sunny Jim]

Turns out that @Tim_E supplied the correct hedgehog after all - apologies for doubting you! Huge thanks to both @Jamie and @Tayne who answered my questions and put me right. Turns out the part was changed over the years and they are interchangeable. It'll have to wait until I have access to some dry space to work in.

In the meantime something else has been occupying me. The fuel light came on on the way home from work last night so I stopped off and brimmed the tank. I then called in on a neighbour and when I came back to the car there was a strong smell of petrol and a tell-tale rainbow sheen on the wet tarmac. It was pissing down with rain so I couldn't tell if the drips coming off the underside of the car were fuel or petrol.

When I came back to the car this morning the previously brimmed tank was only showing 7/8 on the gauge but there was no sign of any dripping from the underside of the car. I lifted the rear seat and removed the access lids which revealed a puddle of fuel by the lefthand sender unit which the HBOL tells me goes to the fuel expansion tank.

I loosened the jubilee clip and the black rubber hose all seems in good condition. It was very firmly in place so I left it alone and refitted the jubilee clip. I have heard that jubilee clips shouldn't be used on fuel pipes - is that just an old wives tale?

I cleaned up the spilt fuel and went for a short test drive and no sign of any more leaks - I guess the crunch will be next time I fill the tank.

 

[Cord Fourteener]

That's a familiar sight!

[Sunny Jim]

I'm used to acquiring cars with a few niggles that need sorting but the BMW is fighting me every step of the way. It seems that any success is fleeting and then another problem crops up. I've nicknamed it 'Incontinent The Bavarian' because every fluid I attempt to put in it seems to leak out.

It's lost about 1/4 litre of oil in the month I've had it and leaves a mark where it's been parked. I've traced that to the oil filter housing gasket - part's ordered but I might farm out the job to a local garage.

Screenwash leak was traced to the pump, a cheap and easy fix.

My attempt a fixing the fuel leak was unsuccessful. Next time I filled the tank it did it again. I was on my way to the garage to have them replace the ball joint which was an advisory on the last MOT so decided they might as well fix the fuel leak while they had it. I've yet to re-brim the tank to see if they've been successful. Ball joint has made an improvement to steering/handling and they also did the tracking. The steering wheel wasn't properly aligned, the PO said it didn't bother him but although I'm not OCD it made my teeth itch!

I was also advised that the car slowly lost coolant over time. The coolant level level warning light hadn't come on in my ownership but I thought I'd better check the coolant level anyway which I did on Sunday. It appeared fine but then this morning driving to work the light came on! I checked the level before I left and it took nearly a litre. I set off for home and the first thing I noticed was no hot air coming out of the vents even when the engine got up to temp. I'd gone about a mile when the temperature shot up. I was on a narrow windy section of the A5 and there was nowhere to pull in. Then just as suddenly the temp went back to normal and was fine for the next 8 miles until it did it again. As the panic that I was about to cook the head subsided it eventually dawned on me that the symptoms were pointing to there being air in the system.

I made it home and let the car cool. There was some pressure as opened the cap but the coolant level was low again. No obvious signs of a leak but by this stage Storm Christoph was making it's presence felt so it was hard to tell. I undid the bleed screw and then promptly dropped it into the engine bay - fuck my life! My drive is currently a mix of slate chippings, mud and rapidly filling puddles. As much of a search as I could muster in the pouring rain and rapidly failing light didn't turn it up which means it's either lodged in the engine bay or has dropped down onto the under tray.

Anyone still reading might be disappointed to learn that there doesn't now follow a heroic tale of jacking up the car in the wet and dark and triumphantly recovering the bleeding bleed screw. No, I went inside, got warm and dry, made a brew and then got on Amazon and spent £7.90 on a new bleed screw that will hopefully be delivered tomorrow.

Am I just a snowflake? In my defence I have a gum infection which has spread to my sinus, one side of my face has swollen up and I'm in agony. Not in the mood for a battle, sometimes you need to take the easier way out.

 

 

[Cord Fourteener]

I'm sorry to hear it's being awkward! 

[Sunny Jim]

I guess it wants me to prove my love! Niggles aside it's a lovely drive - wafts when you want it to but also great to drive enthusiastically - the second gear pull and daft induction noise is addictive!

I'm nearly there with most of it but dropping the bleed screw tonight was a low point. I'm knackered and in pain, hopefully both me and the car will get our mojo back soon.

[Cord Fourteener]

52 minutes ago, Sunny Jim said:

I guess it wants me to prove my love! Niggles aside it's a lovely drive - wafts when you want it to but also great to drive enthusiastically - the second gear pull and daft induction noise is addictive!

I'm nearly there with most of it but dropping the bleed screw tonight was a low point. I'm knackered and in pain, hopefully both me and the car will get our mojo back soon.

I hope so too!

To be fair, regarding the steering wheel, it's not that it didn't bother me at all, it's more that it didn't bother me enough to take it back to the garage and pay them to re-track it centre. Or faff around taking the wheel off and re-centering it that way, if you even can. But if you can be bothered to recentre it, it just makes the enthusiastic drive even better.

Good luck with the fluids and I hope the mojo returns. To be fair the rain and low pressure make mojo and working in cars difficult. I had a jobs list this week, I've managed to cut my finger on a chainsaw mostly, and that wasn't even on the list.

[Matty]

@Sunny Jim ive done that gasket twice now on a 5 where there is a little more room and on a 3. They all do it and the jobs a piece of piss. Dont farm it out, looking at the jobs you've took on so far you'll do that in your sleep. A good replacement from Febi is only a couple of quid and theres about two hours labour in it. Just don't forget to draw the belt routing before you take it off like I did. Twice 🙄

[Sunny Jim]

Thanks for the encouragement chaps. What a difference a day makes - the transformative powers of pain killers, antibiotics and sleep!

Amazon delivery with the bleed screw turned up about 1pm which happily coincided with the rain easing from biblical deluge to merely pouring. I got the system bled up topping it up with tap water - internet wisdom says to use distilled water but the tap water here is fairly hard (kettle never needs descaling) so hopefully it'll be ok. By the time I had water coming out of the bleed screw the red float in the expansion tank was indicating that the level was too high. A search about the house and shed for something to extract the excess water turned up the pump from a hand sanitiser dispenser which did the trick.

I also installed a new cap on the expansion tank as the old one was looking a bit tired. I'm wondering if I'll be lucky and that this will turn out to be the cause of the gradual loss of coolant over time with no obvious sign of a leak - for the sake of a tenner I figured it was worth doing.

I took it for a test drive to the local motor factors. Hot air was restored to the vents which was encouraging but the low coolant light came on a couple of times. As I'd only put water in the system up to this point I bought some coolant and topped up and bled it again. This time I was parked on a slope with the bonnet pointing up which helped. At some stage I'm going to have to do a drain and flush to make sure I have the correct ratio of coolant to water but I want to try and cure the loss first.

This seems to have done the trick. A hoon rigorous test drive followed and the temp needle remained locked in the centre of the gauge. I've even treated it to some new windscreen wipers, just the oil leak to sort now.