Supernaut's Cars - 323i / Megane

[Supernaut]

I took the 205 over Dukes Pass yesterday as I had the day booked as annual leave.

It's developed a new noise. Oh joy.

 

It manifests as a fairly serious vibration. When idling I can place my hand on the bonnet and it vibrates my whole arm. Under acceleration, the whole car buzzes like it's trying to impersonate a pulse jet.

[Supernaut]

Err, another red diesel civic?

Yes!

Now featuring a rear axle held in with metal rather than thin air.

[Split_Pin]

I hope it serves you well, it's been a great car for us, very reliable.

[Supernaut]

16 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

I hope it serves you well, it's been a great car for us, very reliable.

The delivery service was top notch, sir!

I've done 85 miles in it today after brimming it. The fuel gauge went from just over full to... full.

This car is also deceptively quick. I overtook a dawdling jazz at 40mph in 4th. I put my foot down and was doing *ahem* mph by the time I was past them. I'll need to re-adjust my driving style to suit.

[Split_Pin]

I regularly used to get 'that' look from Yvonne when I accidentally * gunned it up a slip road or something, yet when she was driving she did exactly the same. Very addictive and it never harmed the economy.

[Supernaut]

I nipped along to some car meet in Kinross organised by a cunt.

 

I may spend the afternoon looking at the Civic's non-opening boot.

There is apparently a way of resetting things by opening the boot, disconnecting the battery, reconnecting the battery, then turning on the ignition and closing the boot. If that doesn't work I may do something involving a bicycle brake cable, some P-clips and some self-tapping screws...

[Split_Pin]

Good luck with the boot.

The problem with the cable arrangement is that the boot doesn't 'pop' when you pull the emergency lever, you need to push it open ad well.

As said I think it might be the BCU.

[Noel Tidybeard]

is anything else not working on the spaceship boot?

i lost opening of boot, fog & brake lights and dim reverse lights due to broken wire in drivers side rubber boot at top of tailgate

[Split_Pin]

10 minutes ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

is anything else not working on the spaceship boot?

i lost opening of boot, fog & brake lights and dim reverse lights due to broken wire in drivers side rubber boot at top of tailgate

100% of everything else works.

[Noel Tidybeard]

might be worth checking the boot loom for the sake of 5 minutes

[Split_Pin]

15 minutes ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

might be worth checking the boot loom for the sake of 5 minutes

Already replaced it, made no difference, I put the old one back in again. 

Just to clarify, I have tried everything you can think of to fix this other than replacing the BCU 👍

[Supernaut]

I had a look at the boot catch yesterday.

The design of it means the emergency release lever is surrounded on all sides, so you can't run a string to it. The lever itself needs to go practically downwards in order to release so I don't know how I'd do that with a string anyway.

 

So the next step is trying to find a BCM from a breaker... or see about running a 12V feed to the catch. Part of me wants to try running at least a temporary feed to the catch to see if it tries to do anything, but I'm shite with electrics / don't have the resources to do that.

I'm kind of worried a BCM might need coded to the car. 🙃

 

 

In terms of BCU / BCM for the Mk8 Civic, I'm really struggling to find anything out about them. I'm led to believe it and the fusebox are one and the same? There don't seem to be any concrete pieces of information on it. Plenty of stuff about non-opening boots but of course they only mention all the things Split_Pin has already tried.

[Ged]

10 hours ago, Supernaut said:

I had a look at the boot catch yesterday.

The design of it means the emergency release lever is surrounded on all sides, so you can't run a string to it. The lever itself needs to go practically downwards in order to release so I don't know how I'd do that with a string anyway.

 

So the next step is trying to find a BCM from a breaker... or see about running a 12V feed to the catch. Part of me wants to try running at least a temporary feed to the catch to see if it tries to do anything, but I'm shite with electrics / don't have the resources to do that.

I'm kind of worried a BCM might need coded to the car. 🙃

 

 

In terms of BCU / BCM for the Mk8 Civic, I'm really struggling to find anything out about them. I'm led to believe it and the fusebox are one and the same? There don't seem to be any concrete pieces of information on it. Plenty of stuff about non-opening boots but of course they only mention all the things Split_Pin has already tried.

If you just want a button put in the car or one of those wonderful £10 remote central locking kits with questionable security bodged in I could potentially help with that. Most difficult part is removing trim.

[Supernaut]

7 minutes ago, Ged said:

If you just want a button put in the car or one of those wonderful £10 remote central locking kits with questionable security bodged in I could potentially help with that. Most difficult part is removing trim.

A button would be best.

The boot trim comes off these surprisingly easily too.

[Ged]

5 minutes ago, Supernaut said:

A button would be best.

The boot trim comes off these surprisingly easily too.

Id guess doing it properly would require removing the headlining to run a wire through the rubber boot, alternatively the lazy option just leaving it loose or ideally finding out what wire it is at the BCM end.

[Supernaut]

2 hours ago, Ged said:

Id guess doing it properly would require removing the headlining to run a wire through the rubber boot, alternatively the lazy option just leaving it loose or ideally finding out what wire it is at the BCM end.

That, or running it along the floor then up.

The other option, as you said, would be a dubious remote lock solenoid thingy. I wonder if they can move in an arc.

EDIT: Just had a quick search on ebay. It seems you get kits that simply receive a radio signal from the remote then send 12V out... That seems like the sort of thing that would be helpful here.

[Ged]

6 minutes ago, Supernaut said:

That, or running it along the floor then up.

The other option, as you said, would be a dubious remote lock solenoid thingy. I wonder if they can move in an arc.

EDIT: Just had a quick search on ebay. It seems you get kits that simply receive a radio signal from the remote then send 12V out... That seems like the sort of Stithing that would be helpful here.

Still the same wiring challenge as the new wire would have to go into the tailgate ideally through the rubber boot at the top but I think I found out what wire it is at the front of the car, might pop into U pull it with a little battery and try not sure how accessible it will be.

[Supernaut]

I popped along to a local-ish Cars and Coffee type thing earlier.

There was a definite theme happening.

Old men in new Porsches.

 

There were a few interesting bits of tin there, too.

 

Then I took the scenic route back home.

After driving the Civic incessantly since I got it, jumping back into the BMW feels like I'm definitely jumping into an old car. The steering, clutch, brakes and gear change are all noticeably heavier. A couple of miles in and it was barely noticeable though. Popping the rear windows open and giving it hell in 2nd and 3rd gear on a nice day always brings a smile to my face too.

I still haven't taken a single photo of the Civic myself. The one I posted on this thread when I got it was taken by Split_Pin!

[Supernaut]

Thanks to @Ged, the Civic's boot now opens.

We confirmed what @Split_Pin had found. The solenoid in the latch tested fine, as did the button on the boot lid. For some reason the car wasn't sending the signal to the latch.

 

However, with creative use of a cheapy aftermarket remote locking signal receiver and a lighter socket plug, it now works. I need to have the ignition on as it's plugged into the 12v socket in the boot, but then I simply press the little remote and the boot solenoid goes clunk and releases the boot lid.

Sorted.

I also got hold of a space saver spare wheel from an old school scrap yard in Falkirk.

 

The same scrap yard also had an E39 with wood trim, all in very good condition. I was aware that the gear knob in my 323 was looking a bit tired so...

 

[Split_Pin]

Nice one on the Civic boot lid, I would not have known anything about how to do that.

[Supernaut]

1 hour ago, Split_Pin said:

Nice one on the Civic boot lid, I would not have known anything about how to do that.

It's just a way of providing 12v to the boot latch without it going through the ECUs and all that jazz. Nothing too complicated!

It was Ged's idea to do it this way, as putting a button under the dash and running a wire the whole length of the car would have got messy.

[DodgyBastard]

Caught your Civic on the drone last week.

[Supernaut]

Instead of cluttering another thread with photos, I'll put them in here.

I went along to the first SMRC (Scottish Motor Racing Club... I think) meet of the year at Knockill.

 

First race of the day, second lap:

Yep.

They went between the other two cars backwards, missing them both. Then on the corner immediately after, somebody else landed in the gravel on their roof.

Red flagged.

Then on the restart the one who left the track backwards in the above photo placed 3rd. Nutters, the lot of them.

 

 

 

Citroen C1 racing!

These were an absolute delight to spectate. They run standard drivetrains, so just buzz around relatively slowly, but absolutely flat-out. They were entering Duffus on two wheels, sliding sideways for several feet - while still on two wheels - before landing to line up for the next corner.

The racing was so close, I could hear them scraping each other's door mirrors off as they passed.

 

 

There were also MINIs racing.

They were in two classes. Coopers and Cooper Ss. There were only 3 Cooper Ss, and they were lapping the standard Coopers after about 10 laps.

They were also a bunch of dribbling lunatics. They seemed to really love going into the gravel. At one point one of them managed to split their rear bumper perfectly down the middle upon exiting the gravel, then spent the rest of the race with the two sections of bumper flailing behind them like streamers.

 

 

The highlight of the day was the classic sports cars and saloons class.

 

The white SD1 and the red and green Morgans spent both races battling furiously at the front. All of them, of course, were running huge V8s. They sounded glorious. The green TR7 also had a habit of spitting flames half the length of itself on gear changes too.

The driver of the white SD1 ended up absolutely dominating, and they also spent a lot of time going sideways:

 

Honestly, the white SD1 was lairy as fuck. It thundered around the track, to the point I could feel it in my chest when it passed. Then upon leaving almost every corner it would light up the rear wheels and go down the track sideways.

 

How about a better view of that SD1?

 

[Split_Pin]

I'm not into motor racing but those pictures are excellent.

[gm]

that SD1 does indeed sound lovely

 

 

[Supernaut]

14 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

I'm not into motor racing but those pictures are excellent.

I took 88 in total and whittled them down to those.

That's not even that bad. There was a guy next to me with a much more professional (expensive) setup, and every time the cars passed he had the shutter going constantly. As in a solid few seconds of non-stop shutter clicking as the cars drove past. Must have taken hundreds upon hundreds of photos.

[captain_70s]

I'd have taken hundreds and every single one would be out of focus.  👌

[Supernaut]

Oil and filter change done today.

The top of the filter housing is a 36mm six-sided thing. The only 36mm socket that @jaypee had to hand was on the end of a 3ft long, 3/4" drive bar.

Stupid photo pose engaged!

It actually came undone with one hand's worth of gentle pressure on the end of the bar.

 

It also got a wash. A proper wash, by hand! Then I went over all the rubbing strips etc with some trim gel I had in the cupboard. It's looking properly sparkly now.

 

 

 

[Supernaut]

In Civic-related news; I did 150 miles or so in it yesterday. First time I spent a whole day tooling about in it. It is a very nice car, although I was quite enamoured with how the other one drove, so that's no surprise. I also removed the (very overdue) pollen filter and chucked it in the bin. It smells far nicer inside now. Turns out the pollen filter on a mk8 Civic is super easy. It just unclips from the passenger footwell, no tools or disassembly of bits of car required.

It is also averaging about 50-51 mpg with my longer journeys, as opposed to its previous use for a circa 1-mile commute.

It's essentially as good (if not better) on fuel than the 205 while doing motorway speeds on the cruise control in silence and conditioning the air. Flippin' moderns, eh?

I even treated it to a quick once over with the pressure washers at the local wash place. The wheels on it are indeed silver under all the muck.

 

Photos of where I went yesterday:

That would be the National Museum of Flight, then Myreton Motor Museum, then Jupitar Art Land. Thanks to @JimH and @cort16 for the recommendations in that there other thread about things to do in the central belt.

 

 

[cort16]

2 hours ago, Supernaut said:

In Civic-related news; I did 150 miles or so in it yesterday. First time I spent a whole day tooling about in it. It is a very nice car, although I was quite enamoured with how the other one drove, so that's no surprise. I also removed the (very overdue) pollen filter and chucked it in the bin. It smells far nicer inside now. Turns out the pollen filter on a mk8 Civic is super easy. It just unclips from the passenger footwell, no tools or disassembly of bits of car required.

It is also averaging about 50-51 mpg with my longer journeys, as opposed to its previous use for a circa 1-mile commute.

It's essentially as good (if not better) on fuel than the 205 while doing motorway speeds on the cruise control in silence and conditioning the air. Flippin' moderns, eh?

I even treated it to a quick once over with the pressure washers at the local wash place. The wheels on it are indeed silver under all the muck.

 

Photos of where I went yesterday:

That would be the National Museum of Flight, then Myreton Motor Museum, then Jupitar Art Land. Thanks to @JimH and @cort16 for the recommendations in that there other thread about things to do in the central belt.

 

 

You've ticked off 3 of the best things to do in Scotland in 1 weekend what are you going to do for the rest of the year?

My favourite bit of Art Land in the amethyst cave. No idea what it's meant to represent but it's cool.