Handsome bastard, fighting me all the way...

[DirtyDaily]

the o ring is what seals it 

I see what you're saying now

[Rust Collector]

18 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

What happens if you ignore it and drive off regardless?

I can't speak for the Jag, but on a Disco 3 you ride along on the bump stops and knock your fillings out because there's no give in the suspension. On my LS430 you get the same, with the added excitement that you ground out on bumps. Better to wait and let it lift up.

[eddyramrod]

Well I've just been in and paid up, so let's see how it behaves now.

[eddyramrod]

...And the answer is: could be better.  Since I got the car back all it's done is little trips around town, which are not really going to test its abilities.  But today I had occasion to go the the Lakeland Motor Museum, 15 or so miles each way.  For the last couple of miles the "Restricted Performance" message appeared, along with "Air Suspension Fault."  Not unexpected tbh.  I let it sit for a couple of hours before restarting to come home; it had sunk and needed to pump up.  Almost as soon as I got on the road I was back into "Restricted Performance" but I can still get up a turn of speed, I just don't have enough revs to use the acceleration.  I'm going out again shortly and it'll need to pump up again.  Either it needs more, longer and faster runs, or it just isn't right yet.

Faster it just isn't going to get, unfortunately.  Our local authorities have seen fit to reduce the speed limit on some of the roads between here and the motorway, and give them Average Speed Cameras to boot.  FFS...

[eddyramrod]

Handsome hasn't been out since before Christmas.  I've had nowhere to go, and anywhere I did go has been covered by the Suzuki.  I do have two (round-town) jobs for him on Friday though.  I'll be interested to see what happens...

[eddyramrod]

Well I got the local running accomplished on Friday, and a trip out to the Lakeland Motor Museum on Saturday.  Once it pumps up, this is a really lovely car to drive.  Totally wasted on the trips I need to make, but still, there aren't many places I'd rather sit while the world rushes by outside.  I'm in a bit of an odd position with this car.  It's messing with my head, which is exactly the opposite of what it's supposed to do.

[DirtyDaily]

If you want my guess for what's the problem. I noticed that the new strut you put on looked distinctly non oem. Those cheap Chinese struts off eBay are very troublesome...

[eddyramrod]

9 hours ago, DirtyDaily said:

 new strut ... distinctly non oem. ...cheap Chinese struts off eBay 

That's exactly what you were looking at, so it seems likely your diagnosis is sound.  I'm learning to live with it, as one does with niggles, but it's less than ideal.

[Garythesnail]

21 hours ago, eddyramrod said:

there aren't many places I'd rather sit while the world rushes by outside

Good to learn that you're at least getting some kind of pleasure from it, Eddy.

If I knew then what I (think I) know now, I wouldn't have had any Subarus, but any money saved by buying older, 6 or 8 cylinder saloons and FFRRs, would have been spent on fuel, maintenance and repairs instead.🙃

Keep on enjoying Handsome👍

[eddyramrod]

Today we went out together in Handsome.  MrsR remarked on how comfortable it is, compared to her Motability car.  And to be fair, she's right, it's a whole other world.

[Matty]

8 hours ago, eddyramrod said:

Today we went out together in Handsome.  MrsR remarked on how comfortable it is, compared to her Motability car.  And to be fair, she's right, it's a whole other world.

Treat it as such Eddy. A bit of luxury. Spend as little as possible on it. If it throws a big bill walk away. Just enjoy it while it works 👍

[eddyramrod]

That'll be "another big bill..." then?  Yes, I'm sure you're right tbh.  I'm probably overthinking, which I've always done.

[eddyramrod]

On 20/01/2024 at 08:08, Matty said:

 Just enjoy it while it works 👍

That's the trouble though.  And I'm sure some of it is down to only doing a handful of miles a week.

Anyone want to make me an offer so I can go and buy @Rocket88's MG for the summer?

[Matty]

1 hour ago, eddyramrod said:

That's the trouble though.  And I'm sure some of it is down to only doing a handful of miles a week.

Anyone want to make me an offer so I can go and buy @Rocket88's MG for the summer?

Can't help sorry I'm Harry skinters. If you want to park it away from the house we could arrange a fire 🤣

[loserone]

Wait, is it for sale?

[eddyramrod]

2 hours ago, loserone said:

Wait, is it for sale?

Yes.  Come and insult me.

[loserone]

I'd take no pleasure out of that Eddy 😣

[Matty]

3 hours ago, loserone said:

Wait, is it for sale?

Go on go on go on go on go on go on go on.......

[eddyramrod]

In that case, come and give me retail.  I promise not to feel insulted.

[eddyramrod]

I had a visitor today.  Regular readers will remember @DirtyDaily offering to come and rebuild the suspension pump for me.  Today it happened.

Here we are, all set up at my back gate.  Listening for leaks...

And the techy stuff begins...

New housing that was part of the rebuild kit is at the top, in his left hand.

What you can't see here is how the lovely new housing broke as DD was tightening the bolts.  We had to re-use the old one.  Fortunately it cleaned up well enough.

And then he reattached this front undertray that had somehow come adrift.  So we went for a test drive.

Oh-oh... and that was only the beginning of the error messages.

So we came home...

...and DD found that the battery voltage was reading low.  Apparently this is something these cars are sensitive to, so ok, we whipped it off and brought it in to put on charge.

Once he'd finished laughing at the tiny battery that was fitted!  It's little more than half the size of what should be there.  And it's on charge now, as you see above.  We'll refit it over the weekend and see what difference it makes, if any.

DD now totally understands what I mean about this car fighting me at every turn!  He is, in many respects, mystified.  And this is a man who has the correct tools, the correct JLR diagnostics, and the experience.  I am immensely grateful that he took the trouble to come up here for the weekend from Stockport in order to help out a frustrated old bloke.

DirtyDaily, thank you so much.

[SiC]

Could it be that too small a battery causing all the grief?

It's voltage sagging too much when all the different and many load sources come on at idle just after engine start?

[SiC]

Also being small, it'll have far less capacity in it. So if the car is sat off for a few days, it'll drain lower. Especially in a car like this with many control modules causing drain on that battery. 

It's an issue on many luxo barges of this era from many different marques. 

[Matty]

@DirtyDaily absolute top man. This place etc etc. Eddy I'd have to agree with @SiC. Nowt to say that having the wrong size battery is the cause of problems, but no sense in looking for the source of problems if somethings out of spec. Stick the right battery on it and start again. And don't give up on the car as its all mendable!

[danthecapriman]

Well done chaps! And utmost respect due @DirtyDaily for doing that! Fair play.

Im with the others, that battery looks suspect to me too. 
Ages ago my boss had a 56 reg Vectra, one of the top spec ones with the shizzle fitted. He kept getting all sorts of weird faults, warning lights, error messages etc but nothing seemed to cure it. 
Then one day we randomly decided to try testing the alternator while having lunch out on a site…

It was that causing the problem! It wasn’t charging properly and that was also pissing off the battery which was working but under charging. Apparently the electrical crap these cars are stuffed full of needs a constant voltage within the right tolerance otherwise it starts going haywire. Once the alternator and battery were replaced the Vectra worked absolutely fine with no warnings, errors or anything.

It’s a pity you aren’t closer Eddy, I’ve got a really good not that old big Mondeo diesel battery here doing absolutely nothing. It’s just sat on the bench! I keep putting the charger on it every few months to keep it good but it’s probably going to get binned when we eventually move house.

[eddyramrod]

We will see how the car behaves with the battery fully charged, but yes, @SiC, @DirtyDaily agrees with you, the battery being too small could well be a major contributor.  I never thought of it myself, possibly because it lives in the boot, hidden beside the spare wheel.

@Matty "don't give up"?  Hmm, bit late for that.  If we can get it sorted, and it's a big IF, and then if it survives the summer without throwing up any more faults, it'll be getting a new MoT ahead of time and then back up for sale.  Even James Bond can only take so many beatings, and this thing is splatting me for fun.  It can FRO.  I'm going Motability and trying to choose a blob that I won't be too ashamed to drive.  The Jag's entire purpose at my address is as mental health therapy.  We can all see how good it is at that!

[Matty]

8 minutes ago, eddyramrod said:

We will see how the car behaves with the battery fully charged, but yes, @SiC, @DirtyDaily agrees with you, the battery being too small could well be a major contributor.  I never thought of it myself, possibly because it lives in the boot, hidden beside the spare wheel.

@Matty "don't give up"?  Hmm, bit late for that.  If we can get it sorted, and it's a big IF, and then if it survives the summer without throwing up any more faults, it'll be getting a new MoT ahead of time and then back up for sale.  Even James Bond can only take so many beatings, and this thing is splatting me for fun.  It can FRO.  I'm going Motability and trying to choose a blob that I won't be too ashamed to drive.  Its entire purpose at my address is as mental health therapy.  We can all see how good it is at that!

I get your point eddy. But you're a car man. So maybe sell up, take the money and buy something that you can do the doings on. Small light and easy to work on. Not overburdened with tech. Not now if your fed up with cars mind. Get a nice motobility motor then when your feeling more minded to maul around with recalcitrant old shit then have a dabble with something that doesn't matter if it sits in the back street not working for ages.

[junkyarddog]

58 minutes ago, eddyramrod said:

all set up at my back gate.  Listening for leaks.

Maybe you should have kept this little snippet of info to yourselves lads........🤢

[eddyramrod]

10 minutes ago, Matty said:

I get your point eddy. But you're a car man. So maybe sell up, take the money and buy something that you can do the doings on. Small light and easy to work on. Not overburdened with tech. Not now if your fed up with cars mind. Get a nice motobility motor then when your feeling more minded to maul around with recalcitrant old shit then have a dabble with something that doesn't matter if it sits in the back street not working for ages.

I doubt I'll be able to retire completely from old cars.  They are, after all, so much better than new in so many ways.  But yes, you're right, a break is definitely in order. 

I'll still enter the odd Roffle, and history shows that they are something I can win occasionally.  But the old cars that have the familiar technology are now way beyond my means.  I've bought Marinas (for example) for two-figure sums; in fact I've never paid three figures for one!  You pay as much now for a Vanguards Marina model as I did BITD for the whole car.  My last Cortina, the excellent mk5 2.0GL auto, was a whole £200.  But that was 1991 and it was ten years old.  Now... ten year old cars are positively repulsive, and if you can find one under £2000 it's either knackered, stolen or a miracle.  There isn't one of them that would be as nice to drive as that Cortina.  Find a halfway-decent Cortina now and you're spending double the value of this Jag.  Even projects that will need four years of welding are in four figures.  Ditto Marinas.

Anglia?  Herald?  A40?  Been there, done them all.  Fiat 500?  Had three!  But all my comments above about pricing still apply.  And ok, paying £6000 for an Anglia makes a bucketload more sense to me than paying the same for a KA, but you've still got a tiny, puny shopping trolley.  So buy a Zephyr, Cresta, Humber Super Snipe?  Well they are much more my style, certainly, and my chance of getting a Gentleman's Gearbox improves immensely; but again, they've well-outrun the Jag on price.

American?  Again, the chance of automatic takes a massive leap, but garages don't want to know and I'm not capable any more.  And inflation has done its dirty work there too.  I bought a 1980 Buick Century in 2003, for £300.  You can't buy a photo of one now for that!  And that car isn't even one of the glamorous ones, it's a reduced-size (3.8V6) sedan that few people even recognise.  On the road it's no bigger than the Jag (when I bought it I still had my first Jag, the Daimler S2 LWB).  It was really comfortable in exactly the way that ALL the manufacturers have totally forgotten how to do, and yet perfectly practical for daily use.  It was also, crucially, RWD and body-on-frame, which makes everything pretty darned simple.  Something else that's been forgotten...

But for all these things, my comment above about four years of welding applies.  That's something I'm not willing to take on again.  I've been there enough times.  It's way too expensive, and I hate a car being away from me for extended periods.  Again, I've been there.  I am not the best custodian for a sickly car, especially now, but when you send a car away, even if it's only a couple of miles, you're always fretting.  Nobody looks after your car like you do, it's your baby.  Which would be a viable attitude if I had a driveway, but I haven't.

I'm ridiculously sentimental.  I take on the lame ducks, and I fall in love with breathtaking ease.  This is how I've had so many cars in my life, and usually paid so little for them.  And the variety!  How many people do you know who can say they've owned a Cadillac and a Lada at the same time?  If you know me, then you know at least one!

[eddyramrod]

By the way... the diatribe above means I'm going to have to let down at least two Shiters whose cars I have been ogling to the point of having PM conversations.  I'm very sad about that, I hate letting someone down. 

You know who you are and I offer my humblest grovelling apologies. 

There is no way I'm going to be able to sell this heap in time to act on your cars.  For one of them it's entirely possible that it won't even realise enough money, regardless of how much I throw at it.

[Longbridge Apologist]

I'd immediately put a to spec battery in it. The endless misery and issues that a not quite full health correct spec battery would cause in my E91 320i Touring was mad. Even if it didn't seem to be under volted in usual use!