FatHarris - tales of a motoring moron ***Full house 1/10***

[fatharris]

Feel your pain dude, always two steps forwards and one back running a fleet of old cars!

Very true, it's a constant uphill battle at times, but still worth it when you're on the right road with the right weather, in the right vehicle!

[fatharris]

Well, as the Rover is still broken, and the school run resumes on Wednesday, it was time to train MrsH in the ways of all things BX.

It went well, despite what my facial expression would suggest.

Whilst out, we got the email saying our batteries were ready for collection!

So, when we got home, the BMW and MX5 were fitted with their new units.

I've been informed that the MX5 uses a special sealed type of battery. Bollocks to that, a 063 fits no dramas and is a fraction of the price.

With that done, it was time to drive the Mazda for the first time since the MOT in May and check for binding brakes or any other issues.

Happily, I can report there were no major issues, so the Mazda can be pressed back into service to catch the tail end of the good weather that we were supposed to be having 😅

Still awaiting the replacement struts for the Rover, so tomorrow I'll be looking at the intermittent speakers in the Mazda 😅

Cheers!

[High Jetter]

5 hours ago, fatharris said:

BX.

It went well, despite what my facial expression would suggest.

 

Uh, RHD or LHD? 😀

[fatharris]

So, the day every parent feels somewhat guilty for enjoying - the last day of the summer holidays.

We started by going to the top of the village and doing a bit of berry picking into hedgerows.

Weirdly, despite my daughter collecting blackberries for over an hour, her tub remained empty. 

CAN'T THINK WHY 🤣

Luckily, we soldiered on and got a decent haul which went into a lovely crumble for our tea 😁

Buoyed by this, I decided to do a couple of jobs on the Mazda. First one required it to go up on the ramps at the rear.

As I was alone on the driveway, I reversed up onto the ramps with the door open.

Oh no.

Oh no.

Ah well, most of that should polish out.

Anyway... *ahem* ready for MOT next year.

Next job was to investigate the speakers - one side was completely inoperative, the other side would work intermittently.

Didn't take long to find the cause.

These were speakers I fitted back in 2018 - ordered because of their supposed ability to operate fine in a marine environment 😅

Luckily, I still had the speakers that didn't fit in the 620ti back in March - these fitted into the Mazda with no dramas, with new leads solder sleeved back in. I did the other side too 😅

Obviously, everything was going too well, and operating the passenger window resulted in a twanging sound.

Bollocks.

Tywrapped in position for now.

Either way, fuck all I can do about it now, so the car was punted across the road to make room.

Got this big lummox up on ramps.

Roped in my apprentice again!

And under the watchful eye of Mini the cat:

We changed the passenger side front shock absorber.

Zero photos were taken during this, because it was a pure fucking arseache to change. I'm still getting over this broken arm thing, so I had MrsH help by lifting and manoeuvring the shock into place, which was fiddly and awkward to do.

We were going for the drivers side when we decided to knock it on the head for the day and spend the evening with the kids, so we reassembled and took it off jacks.

A quick lap around the village has proven that the crashy ride has gone away, which means this shock might have failed ages ago, because we've been complaining about the front end ride for a while - although it had never stayed stuck down before so it was clearly getting worse.

We'll get onto the drivers side tomorrow, and that'll be the Rover all good to go again.

Cheers!

[Jenson Velcro]

You’re incredibly lucky to have a willing* helper. It wouldn’t matter what ailment I had but I would be told to FRO

[fatharris]

2 hours ago, Jenson Velcro said:

You’re incredibly lucky to have a willing* helper. It wouldn’t matter what ailment I had but I would be told to FRO

MrsH is a bloody saint, and this period of downtime has been no exception, picking up the slack for the jobs I couldn't physically do.

As the Laguna is hers and off the road, the Rover needed to get back to fighting fitness as soon as possible, so it was in her best interest to help out!

Either way, she took the BX to work today, and ticked past the 3,000 mile mark since the rebuild - TO NO BLOODY FANFARE 😂 She had a bit of a faff getting it started with the manual choke when the car was warm, but other than that, she's taken to it well

Just had the customs bill come through for the Laguna spring cups - £60, which hurt my soul to type. God knows how much the front shocks have cost me so far, but I'll tot it up in the end - the spending is not quite over yet!

[fatharris]

It's been rather quiet again this month. The Mazda is now the daily, giving the BX a bit of a break and has been doing nicely.

The BX went to a car show yesterday, this time we all piled into the car as a family instead of splitting between this and the Beat.

As I'm still not great with cars without power steering, a mate of mine took the Beat to the show on its first drive in over a month.

The show was lovely, but the highlight was the adjacent car boot sale/autojumble, which included sealed 90s Auto Express magazines for 50p each 😁

There were also plenty of toy cars for sale, so the boy got a decent addition to his stash.

Always a pleasure to see these two.

My mate Paul took the Beat for a little jolly afterwards to blow the cobwebs out. Sadly, the check engine light came out and the Speedo dropped to zero on the way home. I've checked the connections on the speed sensor and the converter and they seemed okay, so that'll need proper wiring checks at some point.

Today, after work, an encouraging physio session on my arm and a lovely sunshine drive home in the MX-5, I decided it was time to pick up tools again.

This time, Herman was the lucky one.

The replacement window regulator has been waiting in the garage for a couple of weeks now, with a dry evening ahead, I cracked on with the removal.

The window was very gently lifted out and placed somewhere away from my clumsy feet.

Why BMW fitted a bolt that can only be accessed with the window removed is beyond me.

Time to work the new one in.

The layers of hidden dirt were scrubbed away from the window before refitting.

Once all in place, it was time to rebuild.

Done!

Success! It worked nicely with a bit of adjusting once the window was fully up.

Next job was dealing the cacophony of warning bongs every time the ignition was on, relating to brake lights and rear fogs.

Didn't take long to find the culprit.

I've got a few spare bulbholders in the garage so they were utilised, the rear lights were cleaned up and dried out to great effect.

Lastly, the key battery was changed and key re-synced so that's working again.

Just the exhaust pinhole to be welded up and the bonnet washer trim panel to be resecured and it'll be ready to pump through an MOT, although I may do the service on it beforehand.

Cheers!

[83C]

I miss my E38, it was a fantastic car. Keep getting tempted by another but I haven’t the space or time for one.

[fatharris]

10 hours ago, 83C said:

I miss my E38, it was a fantastic car. Keep getting tempted by another but I haven’t the space or time for one.

I agree, I've had Herman for nearly 11 years now and I'm planning on using him to commute weekly to Portsmouth for the next few months whilst I'm there for a course - it'll be a lovely little treat to go up in something comfortable.

 

Just got to hope that my colleagues want to come up in it too, or I'm going to weep at the fuel bills 😅

 

Oh yeah, and I knocked the passenger mirror glass out of the MX5 last week. Managed to retrieve the intact glass though so I'll get that resecured soon!

[fatharris]

Well, it's been a day of small triumphs today.

First up, I got the message today to say the Laguna's struts were ready for collection!

The only original thing on there now is the shock absorber, so hopefully it'll all be fine!

Either way, that wasn't the car getting the attention today. A quick driveway shuffle occured to make some room.

Annoyingly I forgot to get some photos of the work in progress, but the exhaust support arm had sheared (again) and there was a 5mm hole just below that.

Access was a bit of a pain under the axle stands but it's filed under 'ugly, but it'll hold' and a quick check confirmed that was the only exhaust leak I was contending with.

At some point I want to get the rear pipes replaced anyway, as they were kinked during the crash in 2016 and I can't imagine that helps the engine. 

Having a quick crawl underneath revealed another snapped hanger.

This one was even more awkward to weld in situ, but it should suffice.

Whilst under here, I had a check for rust.

Found some more lifting paint on this side of the fuel tank, so the loose paint was removed and Lanoguard motor grease was liberally applied.

I think I've got that in the nick of time, same goes for the rear of the OS sill, which had a tiny little bubble under the stone chip. I'll be keeping a close eye on this in future.

With that lot done, the car was dropped back on all 4 wheels, and immediately popped onto the front ramps.

Time to do this, it's well overdue.

You've all seen a service before, so here's the highlights.

Cabin filters.

Draining.

Sparkies changed.

Clearly a bit rich, but it's not done much other than idling on the driveway for months.

Sucking in through a clean lung.

Boo to Bosch for not including the tiny o-rings. Included a sump washer though, so swings and roundabouts.

Filled with oil under cover of darkness. Fuel filter was changed too but that was an asshole of a job on the ramps so I neglected to get photos.

This psychedelic photo was meant to be the service indicator being reset and showing a full set of green blocks.

Aaaand we're done. 

Just some tiny exterior trim clips to buy and fit, then we're ready for an MOT, which has been booked for the end of next week.

Cheers 😁

[fatharris]

Another productive evening.

First up, the OSF shock was given a good dosing of Lanoguard Moto grease in all the crevices.

First job was to replace the ARB drop links.

Which went well.

Thankfully I loosened the nut enough to get the angle grinder in there.

An hour later, we had a strut in.

Annoyingly, one of the top mount locating lugs had become distorted, presumably during transport, which stopped the top mount locating correctly. As there was another locating lug on the other side, I elected to remove it.

Onto the other side, ARB first.

Yep, same again 😅

Strut went in with no dramas.

With the wheel arch trims refitted, the wheels went back on.

The battery was found to be flat - unsurprising, given the fact its been in the garage for at least a couple of months.

The rear exhaust clamp was fitted, which was a bit of a faff but manageable.

Whilst underneath, the gear linkages was regreased as the gear change was getting notchy again.

New wiper blades all round were fitted, and the wiper arm hinges lubricated.

We had issues with the old centre pipe clamp catching on speedbumps when fully loaded, and this setup was looking to provide a similar headache.

A few minutes with the air file took the worst of it off which should help immeasurably.

With that done, the car was lowered and the wheel nuts torqued.

Unfortunately, this was where I've noticed a knocking noise from the struts when bouncing the car - there's a small gap under the shock piston top nut when compressed so that'll need looking into. Hopefully it's an easy fix.

Either way, the Laguna is in a really good position for the MOT next week. Last main job is to get the rear in the air and do some rustproofing at the back to preserve the underside for a while longer, along with a good wash and a hoovering out of child detritus.

I got back in the house around 11:20 tonight so I'm bloody knackered 😅

Cheers!

[Supernaut]

How do you reset the service indicator on a 90s BMW?

My E36 hasn't had it reset in the 3 years I've owned it, despite the annual service it gets from me...

[fatharris]

53 minutes ago, Supernaut said:

How do you reset the service indicator on a 90s BMW?

My E36 hasn't had it reset in the 3 years I've owned it, despite the annual service it gets from me...

I got a magic box that you plug into the round pin connector, turn the ignition on, and hold the button for what you want to reset.

 

Alternatively, I believe the box is just literally shorting two pins together, so a quick hop on the forums should tell you which one, I'd say cover postage there and back to have a lend of mine but they're super cheap on eBay

[Supernaut]

Just now, fatharris said:

I got a magic box that you plug into the round pin connector, turn the ignition on, and hold the button for what you want to reset.

 

Alternatively, I believe the box is just literally shorting two pins together, so a quick hop on the forums should tell you which one, I'd say cover postage there and back to have a lend of mine but they're super cheap on eBay

I'm not really that arsed, TBH. I'm keeping that car forever and I know when it's serviced.

It's more than just a combination of button presses, so that's too much for me to commit to!

[IronStar]

20 minutes ago, Supernaut said:

I'm not really that arsed, TBH. I'm keeping that car forever and I know when it's serviced.

It's more than just a combination of button presses, so that's too much for me to commit to!

https://bimmertips.com/reset-e36-oil-service-inspection-light-how-to/

[fatharris]

To clarify the issue, I sent the video to Phill for his professional opinion. This was me bouncing the car.

https://youtube.com/shorts/0dTKee-X-uY

Well, the professional opinion was 'that is fucking fucked m9', so the struts had to come out for further investigation.

Quite chuffed with myself, less than 30 minutes from the car being on all four wheels to both struts being off the car.

The obvious things were checked first and all seemed correct - sadly the old top mounts were ditched so we didn't have one to compare it with, but we noticed this little doozy.

The inner collar of the top mount had separated and was rattling about. Annoying, because this was a decent branded one - the other strut wasn't so bad but was still noticeable, so another set of top mounts have been ordered and will be here Monday.

If that inner collar is sitting proud at the nut face on the new ones, it'll be getting ground flush so there's no chance of the collar dislodging under weight.

Cheers!

 

 

[fatharris]

I'm having an unrelated rant now 😅

 

Got a knock on the door at 8am on Sunday from some roadworkers, asking if I need to use a car at all that day because they need to do some work on the road outside the driveway. Em had to take Austin to a classmates birthday party so I moved the Rover out and parked it down the road, parking the Mazda back on the driveway because I didn't need it

I had come to the assumption that 'for the day' meant that I would be able to get the Mazda off the driveway the following morning for work.

However, this sight greeted me when they down tools and fucked off for the day:

It was going to be a tight one, but thankfully MrsH gave good direction in her capacity as 'bystander/safety rating' so...

We got out. Doesn't bode well for getting Herman or the Laguna out in the next couple of days for the MOT though.

[High Jetter]

On s Sunday, with no notice? Not acceptable imho.

[fatharris]

Mixed bag today.

Good news was the struts were finished, this time with top mounts that didn't rattle so those were fitted.

Once lowered back on the ground, the lights were checked, and both sidelight bulbs were replaced.

With the driveway still blocked, and an MOT looming, it was time to get a camel through the eye of a needle.

This took a lot longer than the Mazda, with a couple of inches either side at the narrowest point.

But eventually it came out!

First things first, a trip to the petrol station to put 25 litres in, along with a bottle of cataclean, then went for a quick drive up and down the dual carriageway to let it go through the system and to give everything a shakedown.

Sadly, the ABS light is still on despite the sensor change and fault clearing, and the gearbox was playing silly buggers too, failing to kick down and sometimes setting off in third. At one point, it refused to manually change into 1st. A quick check of the alternator has shown 14v and the battery is new so I'm at a loss at the moment.

Hopefully plugging it in tomorrow will get me some quick answers before the test on Thursday - it'll still go in though, to see if it needs anything else. The rear fog light is still failing to illuminate, but the other side is fine so hopefully that'll be okay.

Cheers!

[fatharris]

Well, thanks to @twosmoke300, the source of the ABS fault on Herman has been found.

The ABS system has two specialised relays with a suppression diode inside, and swapping them out and clearing the codes allowed the lights to clear this time, but they came on as soon as I set off, which is a step in the right direction. I couldn't find a new relay in time though, so it's going through the MOT as-is and I'll deal with anything else that crops up later.

Next up, the Laguna. Bum up in the air to attempt to resecure the exhaust and do some rustproofing.

The exhaust clamp was resecured, but the rustproofing went a bit less well.

Scraping a few bubbly, crusty bits has highlighted a couple of holes in the spare wheel well. 

As it doesn't look to be in a prescribed area, taped from the inside to seal it for later, and Lanoguard grease applied to all the afflicted areas.

With the car as ready as possible, it went off the ramps, and swapped with the Beat for a quick hosing down and hoover.

With more driveway escapes carried out, the Laguna was parked out on the road, ready to drop off for the MOT on Friday.

A bit miffed that the exhaust still appears to blowing a tad, so we'll have to see how we get on this Friday.

Hopefully the neighbours aren't too pissed off with us clogging the entire road with the cars, but we have literally nowhere else to park - to make matters worse, we have to get the BX out on Saturday so the driveway is going to be completely empty with one in the garage 🤦‍♂️

Cheers!

[fatharris]

Ah, that's not too shabby.

[fatharris]

The Laguna has been dropped off and Herman has been collected. I've decided to let Dan tackle the arm as the weather outside is miserable and it won't be a fun job on my back on axle stands, I'll be taking it back on Monday as I wanted to clean the ABS fusebox up.

A play with the multimeter revealed the culprit. When I swapped the relays around, the light suddenly went out so I had an inkling that one would be working, so I compared the two results, both in diode function, and resistance across the coil:

Suspect good relay:

Suspect bad relay:

No life from the diode in either direction, and 7k ohms across the terminals. Think we've found our smoking gun.

I've decided to err on the side of caution and order two new relays from BMW - they'll be here Monday and I'll clear the codes and have another go then.

In other news, the driveway disruption has all been for nothing as they've hit snags with obstacles under the tarmac that they can't overcome, so it's all getting put back together, so I've moved barriers out of the way, got some of the cars back on the driveway and we've left tomorrow's cars out, just in case.

Cheers!

[fatharris]

That is entirely okay with me, I did feel a clonking when driving the car to the station, and as a bonus, I've got a new ball joint back in the garage!

As Dan is going to do the tracking after the suspension work, I've asked him to change the ball joint for me.

We're looking good for a full house of (relatively) working vehicles!

[fatharris]

Well, big thanks again to @twosmoke300 for squeezing the ball joint replacement in.

At least now I won't have any more bills from this-

Bloody hell.

Still, at least the driveway is full again, Herman is going back in on Monday via the BMW dealership to pick up my relays.

Now I'm getting ready for bed because it's an early start for Rustival tomorrow.

Cheers.

[fatharris]

The 0130 alarm clock was not appreciated.

We've stopped now at Evesham for some breakfast.

BX is running beautifully.

[twosmoke300]

Who knew kitkat wrappers were approved exhaust repair materials ? 
 

[fatharris]

Uploaded in no particular order, thanks Microsoft!

Either way, a lesser-spotted @coachie was - er- spotted. An absolute pleasure to speak to you again and hope to see you again soon. (This photo was well after we had a chat and I leapt from behind his open bonnet, camera in hand!)

If anyone is on the fence about going, do it! Definitely the highlight of the show calendar, and there's already rumours of confirming a third.

Cheers!

[IronStar]

Pwoah, what a selection of cars! Looks like great fun being there! When I first saw the date I was a bit* skeptical about having a huge car show in a country renowned for rain this late in the year, but I’m really glad it was a lovely weather. 

Oh, and every time I see your photos, I want to go out and buy an MG/Rover for some reason. If I ever succumb, and we both know it’s a matter of time, I’m telling missus you’re responsible! 😄

[AnnoyingPentium]

1 hour ago, fatharris said:

If anyone is on the fence about going, do it! Definitely the highlight of the show calendar, and there's already rumours of confirming a third.

I'll have to give it a go at some point! My mate went with his Mk1 Focus, said it was a great day out.

[fatharris]

3 minutes ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

I'll have to give it a go at some point! My mate went with his Mk1 Focus, said it was a great day out.

The green one?