I'll get round to it at some point - Bratislava and Back: Things not to do in a mk2 Clio

[Schaefft]

I've done this job on my Celsior about 2 years ago, I'm not sure if you wanna look at what was involved there... I replaced the knock sensors and valve cover gaskets at the same time, might as well while in there...

[Rust Collector]

3 minutes ago, Schaefft said:

I've done this job on my Celsior about 2 years ago, I'm not sure if you wanna look at what was involved there... I replaced the knock sensors and valve cover gaskets at the same time, might as well while in there...

Now you mention it, you've reminded me that I have a CEL on for a sensor that lives under the intakes somewhere that was on the 'I'll sort it later' list. I also need to do the timing belt etc. so I should probably aim to have one mega session of work over a weekend to get it sorted.

That's handy to know that you've documented the work already and I can copy your notes 😅 I'll do some bedtime reading! Were you getting a code/symptoms that led you to change the knock sensors, or are they something that are just worth sorting whilst you're in there?

[Schaefft]

They usually aren't causing issues but would be impossible to replace if they need to be without taking the manifold off. I had to replace the starter as something was living underneath the manifold, the starter had a hole in its casing caused by corrosion from whatever pissed on it for years when it was abandoned in the previous owners garden. A coolant leak from a pipe underneath there gave it the rest, I'm amazed how long it was working in that state.

The whole job wasn't particularly tricky, it's just a lot of stuff that needs to come out of the way. One of the big benefits I had with the Japanese market Celsior was that it doesn't have an EGR system, makes it all easier considering the pipe is located behind the engine and easily breaks... Timing belt will be done by a professional eventually, not a job I consider doing myself. Make sure to get a denso starter to avoid having to do the job ever again.

[Rust Collector]

It’s not my day today when it comes to cars.

My partner had a piano recital for grading today.

First breakdown of the day was the Lexus with a failure to start.

Not to worry, my mum is coming over and she can bring the Merc.

Bugger, that’s a bit flat.

Even better, the tyre pump battery went flat part way through pumping it up, so it was stranded.

I’ll chuck a tyre on it this week but that’s no good for today.

I had to leave work early and come home in the Land Rover, then rush my partner to the recital.

You know you’ve made some poor life choices when you’re relying on a Land Rover to take you to salvation as everything else is broken.

Oh well, all that stuff is done, shit luck. I’ll enjoy myself at least with an evening drive in the Pontiac to maccy d’s.

Wrong.

Flat battery, for the full hat trick.

Even worse, I forgot the golden rule: McDonald’s is shit and it makes me feel shit.

Oh well, at least I have some stuff to do for the next few nights… luckily it’s mostly straightforward stuff, but it’s new levels of success* to have 3 cars let me down in one day.

[Rust Collector]

6 hours ago, Schaefft said:

Make sure to get the cheapest second-hand starter from ebay so that you have to do the job again.

Way ahead of you!

[High Jetter]

32 minutes ago, Rust Collector said:

My partner had a piano recital for grading today

How did it go? I did similar years ago.

[Rust Collector]

13 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

How did it go? I did similar years ago.

I don’t think it went as well as she wanted, but I’m sure she will at least pass. I felt rather guilty about the cars letting her down for something important, and it doesn’t help that she doesn’t get enough time to practice as much as I think she would like to. She’s doing really well all things considered though, it’s not easy trying to fit things like this in around looking after our son.

I admire those who can play the piano, it’s a beautiful instrument. We tried hard to find her a nice upright piano within our means, and found a good condition Wolfframm one locally. To my ear the sound of the Wolfframm is very melancholic compared to the majority of London built uprights I’ve heard, it is very similar to the Petrof she has back in Slovakia. The piano we have here will turn 100 years old in 2 years time, which I also find mind blowing - it must have seen a lot in that time.

[Rust Collector]

Today's letter is B, for batteries.

Swapped a good battery into the Lexus this morning in a half hearted attempt to leave my partner with a car. The starter is still unresponsive, you can hear the solenoid engage but it doesn't spin up. After several tries it did eventually work and I was at least able to move it onto the driveway.

I've also had time to think about why the Pontiac battery drained so quickly. Whilst dicking around to see how the lock goes back into the tailgate, I reconnected the central locking solenoid. I think this was my mistake. I'll pull the battery tonight and stick it on charge. I'm really hoping that the battery itself isn't knackered as it's got a side post battery and they are £HFM.

I'm at work without a car now, as I had to lend the Merc to my Mum to take her dog to the vets as her and my Dad are sharing a car at the moment. I can see that becoming a regular ball ache now that they don't have use of the Clio and I don't have anything sensible to lend them.

I'm considering waking the Lada up and pressing that back into use as my commuter car, the only problem is that since the crash in the Insight I'm shit scared of driving it as I definitely will die or be seriously injured if I crash it.

At this rate I'm going to have to pull my finger out and fix one of the project cars...

[Dyslexic Viking]

I had the same thing as you have with the Lada now after a car crash 13 years ago and it passes but may take some time.

Which of the project cars is the fastest and easiest to get on the road?

[Talbot]

Surely the correct solution to this issue is to purchase another car, which you will tell yourself will be the reliable car that just works while you fix everything else.

... which quickly becomes another project car, as it "just needs ..."
 

[eddyramrod]

1 hour ago, Talbot said:

Surely the correct solution to this issue is to purchase another car, which you will tell yourself will be the reliable car that just works while you fix everything else.

... which quickly becomes another project car, as it "just needs ..."
 

100% this!

[Dave_Q]

7 hours ago, Rust Collector said:

Today's letter is B, for batteries.

Swapped a good battery into the Lexus this morning in a half hearted attempt to leave my partner with a car. The starter is still unresponsive, you can hear the solenoid engage but it doesn't spin up. After several tries it did eventually work and I was at least able to move it onto the driveway.

I've also had time to think about why the Pontiac battery drained so quickly. Whilst dicking around to see how the lock goes back into the tailgate, I reconnected the central locking solenoid. I think this was my mistake. I'll pull the battery tonight and stick it on charge. I'm really hoping that the battery itself isn't knackered as it's got a side post battery and they are £HFM.

I'm at work without a car now, as I had to lend the Merc to my Mum to take her dog to the vets as her and my Dad are sharing a car at the moment. I can see that becoming a regular ball ache now that they don't have use of the Clio and I don't have anything sensible to lend them.

I'm considering waking the Lada up and pressing that back into use as my commuter car, the only problem is that since the crash in the Insight I'm shit scared of driving it as I definitely will die or be seriously injured if I crash it.

At this rate I'm going to have to pull my finger out and fix one of the project cars...

Side post batteries? What witchcraft is this? Why can't a man just charge up one of the part-worn Lion brand badboys from the not-entirely-dead battery pile when a battery is needed?

It's a conspiracy from Big Battery to get you to buy a new one I tells ya

[Rust Collector]

26 minutes ago, Dave_Q said:

Why can't a man just charge up one of the part-worn Lion brand badboys from the not-entirely-dead battery pile when a battery is needed?

Exactly this. What's the point of having 14 half knackered batteries in my garage if I can't charge one up and chuck it in the newest acquisition?!

If the old battery in it dies then I need one of these freaks of nature:

 

[Zelandeth]

Or convert it to use a more conventional battery by changing the terminals?  Or is the battery totally boxed in on these which would make that difficult?

Adaptors exist to let you connect a top post battery to sidepost style leads as well.  Fitted quite a few of those to cars belonging to a friend up north who has a penchant for US things, and plenty had side post batteries, because GM.

[Rust Collector]

4 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Or convert it to use a more conventional battery by changing the terminals?  Or is the battery totally boxed in on these which would make that difficult?

Adaptors exist to let you connect a top post battery to sidepost style leads as well.  Fitted quite a few of those to cars belonging to a friend up north who has a penchant for US things, and plenty had side post batteries, because GM.

I thought about making some kind of adaptor lead or chopping the original leads about, but the battery is boxed in from above by a metal brace and the screen wash tank so there may not be enough clearance for the terminals, or risk of shorting to earth...

I'm fairly sure the current battery will charge up fine, and that it's my fault for leaving something connected that was causing a battery drain.

[brownnova]

9 hours ago, Rust Collector said:

I'm really hoping that the battery itself isn't knackered as it's got a side post battery and they are £HFM.

Battery was brand new just before I sold it. So just over 3 months old. 

[brownnova]

Weirdly… the battery I took off it had both top posts and side posts! It was very odd. 

[Rust Collector]

I decided to round up all the cars with unruly batteries and starters this eve.

I started off by rolling the LS430 into the front of the XM.

Fucker.

To add insult to injury, it then immediately started up as if nothing was wrong.

With it moved back to make space on the drive, I drove the merc to go and jump start the Pontiac.

Behold the world’s most pathetic jump post:

It’s a right pain isn’t the arse to jump start, but I got it going and drove it home so I could pull the battery out.

Here you can see how bad access is to the battery:

I took the air intake off and noticed that it looks like the filter is breaking up

Further investigation reveals that it was being converted into a mouse house at some point

Best replace that then.

I removed the washer bottle (which helpfully I filled to the brim just the other day) and then moved the brace aside, and this gave access to the battery.

When I weld up the inner arch I’ll clean up the battery tray and throw some paint over it as it seems to be a grot trap

I needed an extra bolt to use as a terminal in order to charge the battery. Luckily my big drawer of unloved bolts provided once again.

Batteries with a threatening aura:

I’ve taken the lock and central locking solenoid out of the tailgate too. I’m fairly certain my new chinesium lock/handle will do the job of both opening and manually locking the lift gate. I may have to leave the central locking actuator off though as I’m not sure it works properly.

Once I’ve got the battery back in tomorrow then I’ll probably take a look at the wiring for the cabin lights.

[RichardK]

Ooosh, I had the filter out when removing the foglight wires and it wasn't nibbled, that's been a busy mouse!

I have a box of plug/coil/lead related things here for it. Can't remember what they are but PM address and you'll find out first-hand

[RichardK]

On 20/11/2023 at 13:44, Rust Collector said:

I've decided that the top priority on the Pontiac is to get the liftgate working properly again.

I had a rummage to see if I had the parts to rebuild it, but from my initial half arsed search it looks like some parts such as the tumblers/retaining clips etc. have disappeared.

I spent far too long last night trawling through parts catalogues, and the part number for the handle for a car with central locking is unique to the APV. And unobtanium.

However

Dorman make a lock kit (part 77101 for ref.) for the Chevy Blazer which is almost identical, but more closely resembles the lock for an APV without central locking. It's obtainable from America through Amazon, costs about £20 + expedited shipping and will be here in December.

A factory in China makes a knock off of this part also, it's cheaper and more shittily made arrives faster. Apparently. 

We can ignore the 'glass' function and colour it in with marker so it says 'ass' or something.

The main difference I can see is that this doesn't have an arm to push the lever on the central locking unit, and it possibly doesn't have a hole in the barrel for the central locking pin. However, I'm hopeful that with the parts I do have I can build something useable.

If this plan fails, then I'll make a bung for the lock cylinder hole and use a solenoid boot popper kit to pull the latches.

Either way, I want to get the boot working properly again. I'll get some struts ordered for it too, as it's mildly terrifying at present - it's definitely waiting to swing shut on my head/limbs at some point whilst I'm using timber to prop it up.

After that, the next things on the list to sort are regaining all speeds of the cabin fan, and getting the interior lights to work again. I'm hoping the cabin fan is something straightforward like the resistor pack as these are readily available, and the interior lights will need some time spent with a multimeter as they are either always on or always off - the fabled red switch doesn't have a bearing on them any longer.

Yes, the lock has been deprived of tumblers. They didn't relate to the keys and prevented using the handle to open it when the central locking solenoid sulked, in part because the system appears to want the solenoid to sense the lock turning to release the pin and it wasn't.

So it was the easiest way to make the tailgate latch and open - I suspect the locking system of causing battery drain as pulling the fuse for it (which also handled interior lights) seemed to resolve it.

Note the B pillar light being free range as well, that can't be helping. Red switch only made the map lights come on, I never got dome lights, but hadn't explored what shenanigans have taken place for that switch behind the dash for it to have had any bearing on them!

[RichardK]

Also... how did the mouse get into the downstream side?

And where did it go when a large amount of air was compelled to flow through that ducting to aid with combustion?

Has an intake hose also been nibbled?

[Rust Collector]

4 hours ago, RichardK said:

Also... how did the mouse get into the downstream side?

And where did it go when a large amount of air was compelled to flow through that ducting to aid with combustion?

Has an intake hose also been nibbled?

That's the upstream section, but the layout may look confusing as in the photo I've actually removed it and sat it upside down in the boot of the Mercedes. No mice were harmed in the making of these posts 😅 Incredibly, somebody on ebay had an air filter sat around for this and it was only £12 posted so that was a result.

14 hours ago, RichardK said:

Yes, the lock has been deprived of tumblers. They didn't relate to the keys and prevented using the handle to open it when the central locking solenoid sulked, in part because the system appears to want the solenoid to sense the lock turning to release the pin and it wasn't.

So it was the easiest way to make the tailgate latch and open - I suspect the locking system of causing battery drain as pulling the fuse for it (which also handled interior lights) seemed to resolve it.

Note the B pillar light being free range as well, that can't be helping. Red switch only made the map lights come on, I never got dome lights, but hadn't explored what shenanigans have taken place for that switch behind the dash for it to have had any bearing on them!

I've been getting my head around how the whole thing works. As best I can tell, the central locking is released by a magnet pulling the pin back, but I haven't opened the mechanism as I'd have to drill a rivet on the striker arm thing. The striker arm is used to return the central locking unit to the 'locked' position, a tab on the back of the lock barrel arm appears to do this when you turn the latch handle anticlockwise. Turning the latch handle clockwise actuates the rotating piece in the back plate that pulls the rods to the side latches.

The central locking unit locks the liftgate by inserting a dowel into the outer collar of the twisting latch. It looks like the twisting latch can be unlocked manually whilst the central locking remains in the locked position - I think the outer collar and inner lock barrel move in unison when the key is in the 'locked' position, as the slide bar is pushed out the side of the barrel by the tumblers. In the key 'unlocked' position the lock barrel is free to move independently of the outer collar.

All this is educated guesswork of course, as all I have to go by is your photos, some pretty crap diagrams from GM parts websites, a few ebay listings and the photographs in your thread (they've been one of the most useful resources  ). I can obtain a central locking actuator if I want to, but it's about £80 from Germany so I'll probably park that idea. I'm fairly confident the generic replacement part that is on its way will at least leave me with a working key lock and latch handle. The struts appear to be unobtanium, but I found detailed specs for them and it looks like I can make them up from universal gas struts and fittings for less than £40 so I'll get those ordered shortly as well.

I can't see any sensing capability of the locking unit at the back - it just has two wires which presumably power an electromagnet inside of it. I'm going to test it with a battery this evening to see if that's the case. I think the constant actuation is being triggered elsewhere but again I need to do some testing to establish this.

When I said interior lights, I should have been more specific as you're right; the dome lights don't work at all, I only get map/reading lights and footwell lights. I'll get out with the multimeter and the power probe one evening and see what's going on there. It would be a definite quality of life improvement if I could get some light in the cabin in the dark - during winter I mostly use my cars in the dark.

15 hours ago, RichardK said:

I have a box of plug/coil/lead related things here for it. Can't remember what they are but PM address and you'll find out first-hand

That would be marvellous - I'll drop you my address and if you let me know the damage for postage then I'll get you back for it.

[Rust Collector]

With a fully charged battery I was able to do some tinkering last night.

the parasitic draw is 30 milliamps which I think is reasonable? I tried all sorts of scenarios (doors locked, doors ajar, rear central locking unit in/out, main locking switch in locked/unlocked position) and it always sat at 30 milliamps.

I then gave up, refitted the battery leads and went to investigate how the liftgate central locking unit works. It looks like I was wrong, it's not a magnet in there - you can hear gears turning if you move the pin backwards and forwards. I've unplugged it for now and I will drill the rivet out and investigate what its guts look like, as it's obviously fucked currently so it's not like I can make it worse. Probably.

My thoughts then moved to interior lighting, for which I would need my power probe... Could I find it? Could I fuck. I spent about 30 minutes looking for it, at which point I decided it would be better* to just order another one rather than spend more time looking. Multimeter it is then.

I checked the offside door switches and they are all ok, couldn't check the nearside as the Lexus was blocking the door. I forgot to check the tailgate, which having been disturbed a lot recently is probably a worthwhile place to start looking.

Seeing as I wasn't going to get anywhere fast with just the multimeter, I decided to start on another pressing job - the info screen in the roof storage console.

I can't see that it tells you much of use, but I'd like it to work for reasons.

Like all roof mounted things in old vehicles, it looks like water is the enemy.

The roof panel above makes incredible amounts of condensation. Come the apocalypse and the water mains turning off (unless you have a green godess; available from a shiter near you) then I'll be alright, the Pontiac will provide. This is a nuisance currently though, as it's dripping onto the circuit board.

It's starting to look like my ballbag, wrinkly and green. I'm not sure if this is alright?

This definitely isn't alright:

3 capacitors have shit their pants. I'm fairly sure the magic juice they contain is bad for circuit boards? I'll have a bash at replacing them though, they're all 100uf which I think is a fairly standard component.

Some corrosion as well, but if it's better than the Land Rover and we all know how well* that came back up.

Not pictured: I did break a couple of bits of brittle plastic. Luckily they are hidden, and they also responded well to a dab of super glue. I didn't even stick the broken bits to my hands, which shows that my skills are definitely improving.

For now I'm going to fit the console back in the roof, and get on with enjoying driving it.

[brownnova]

So glad this is getting the attention it deserves 😃😃

[Rust Collector]

12 minutes ago, brownnova said:

So glad this is getting the attention it deserves 😃😃

Thanks mate, it's done me a turn to be fair as it's really brought my mojo back which is unusual for winter! I'm besotted with it, easily one of my favourite cars I've owned to date and it's only been here a week 😅

[beko1987]

Perfect weather for bringing small bits in and tinkering with them in the warm! 

Those caps don't look a bad job, seen worse on pc YouTube videos! Good luck! I once fixed a cracked joint in a laguna 2 heater screen panel and the back light worked again and thats about the extent of my car pcb tales 😂

[Schaefft]

Toyotas of the period need this kind of work all the time, even my w140 had issues with it's capacitors. Any electrician with somewhat decent soldering skills can fix them, ideally you supply them with the right parts though.

[Rust Collector]

5 minutes ago, Schaefft said:

Toyotas of the period need this kind of work all the time, even my w140 had issues with it's capacitors. Any electrician with somewhat decent soldering skills can fix them, ideally you supply them with the right parts though.

When I was a teenager I used to love making circuit boards so I'll be giving it a go in-house, the capacitors are cheap enough and I've ended up with a mountain of soldering irons over the years! RS components stock the 100uf 35v rated part that has failed on the board:

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/aluminium-capacitors/4491056?gb=s

I do need to grab some lead based solder though as the non-poisonous stuff is crap.

It would be great if replacing these plus some careful cleaning gets the info screen working again.

[Asimo]

4 hours ago, Rust Collector said:

wrinkly and green. I'm not sure if this is alright?

Wrinkly and green is good (if you are circuit board). The green layer is “solder resist” and the wrinkles are where the solder layer melted underneath it when the circuit board was machine soldered.

[Rust Collector]

6 minutes ago, Asimo said:

Wrinkly and green is good (if you are circuit board). The green layer is “solder resist” and the wrinkles are where the solder layer melted underneath it when the circuit board was machine soldered.

That's reassuring to know as having seen that water ingress had occurred, The Fear set in as I wondered if the wrinkling was the board deteriorating due to moisture.