[Gear] crunch time & losing its cool... RFU's adventures with a MK2 Focus that escaped death and proves to be a free* car

[RoverFolkUs]

Thought I'd give this thread a bit of an update having covered a fair few miles in this now with the new engine and it's been spot on

I'm astounded at how good the Toyos are in the wet for the price. £50 a corner is budget money so you should have bare minimum expectations, but they actually grip well,  with little road noise. Approve. If you want a budget tyre then these are well worth the extra £15 or so a corner in my opinion. Prices are trade, admittedly. 

Still got to get around to the welding. I'm *aiming* for next weekend...

The only thing to note is that I've noticed the gearchange feeling not as smooth as I'd hope. It seems to crunch, but not audibly. It can just about be felt through the gearstick. The gearbox oil is new, but the old stuff was very black. I'm wondering if the new fluid has done more harm than good, or whether someone has put additives in it in the past which have now been flushed out. The ford IB5 box is far from bulletproof so this is doing me a slight concern. I am 99% that I have put the correct oil in it. But I wouldn't put it past myself having lobbed the wrong stuff in when rushing around. It was never perfect before though..

But for now, it's doing exceptionally well.

The last tank to tank economy was: 

349.7 miles covered, 48.54 litres required to brim the tank. Shell E10

That leaves me with a slightly disappointing 32.8 combined MPG 

Probably a 75%/25% split of extra urban/urban respectively. 

I wouldn't say I've got a heavy right foot, but then I'm not hypermiling it either.

That's pretty much exactly the same as the old engine did with a fucked thermostat. 

Admittedly I've been using A/C a lot since getting it working again. Previous figures largely based on zero use of A/C because it didn't work. And I didn't use it much when it did come to think of it.

Wasn't expecting any groundbreaking changes but I'd ideally hope to see closer to 400 miles per tank. 

Economy is roughly equal to the Xsara Picasso. It does less miles per tank but takes less to refill as the tank is slightly smaller. I'd expect the Picasso to be worse because of its aerodynamics, rather lack thereof! 

[sierraman]

The wife drives ours but I find if I’m gentle with it I can get 38-40mpg from it. Not brilliant but then equally how many gallons of fuel would I be saving if I had the diesel and the DMF went? 

[JakeT]

Like Sierraman said, I’d take 33 from one, if it’s generally pottering about the shop. At least you’ve got it fixed and in good condition now anyway, and it will definitely drive far nicer than one with the DV6 of doom (before it blows up).

 

If the box goes too, they’re relatively cheap and plentiful in their supply. 

[Stinkwheel]

On 05/11/2023 at 18:05, RoverFolkUs said:

 

349.7 miles covered, 48.54 litres required to brim the tank. Shell E10

That leaves me with a slightly disappointing 32.8 combined MPG 

Probably a 75%/25% split of extra urban/urban respectively. 

I wouldn't say I've got a heavy right foot, but then I'm not hypermiling it either.

That's pretty much exactly the same as the old engine did with a fucked thermostat. 

Admittedly I've been using A/C a lot since getting it working again. Previous figures largely based on zero use of A/C because it didn't work. And I didn't use it much when it did come to think of it.

 

Have to say the mk2 focus 1.6lx ive recently had up for sale on here did 40mpg everywhere in mixed driving, with A/C on mostly and ive not got a light foot. I mean it always did 40mpg when i checked it , and always did 400 miles on a full tank

[RoverFolkUs]

Thought I'd do another fuel economy update. The second tank was pretty much identical - 32mpg with A/C on a significant amount of the time. 

The previous tank I decided to cut down on use of the A/C and had it on about a quarter of the time, just cycling it on/off myself to dehumidify. Interestingly the petrol light came on at more or less exactly the same time - I brimmed it having done 348 miles but it took less to fill this time, only around 45 litres leaving me with approx 35 average MPG. 

That shows the air con does not seem to make much of a difference. 

It's a 55 litre tank, but it was telling me I had 30 miles to go having only needed 45 litres to fill, so it's hardly accurate, and I could probably get 400 miles out of a tank if I pushed it. 

Anyway, enough of those boring statistics, it's got just over a month of MOT left and there was no chance of it passing with that gaping hole in the sill. What most people would do is wait until the MOT first, just in case, but I'm confident in it so I'm sorting it early!

Thought I'd do a little pre MOT check to see if I need to get any other parts ordered, and it's a good job I did because it needs 3x anti roll bar links and a front lower ball joint. 

I've been plagued with a very intermittent knocking noise from the rear recently, so having found a small amount of play in one of the rear ARB link ball joints I'm hoping it's that. 

One of the fronts has a split dust cover, consulted GSF who have Lemforder ones on clearance for a fiver a piece, so I figured I might as well just do both of them. 

The offside front lower ball joint dust cover has split again... I only replaced it a few months ago!! Poxy shite modern rubber *GRUMBLE GRUMBLE GRUMBLE* 

Anyway, GSF saves the day again with a TRW branded lower ball joint for just £7. I'm reluctant to replace the entire arm, because unnecessary expenditure, and I can't be bothered wasting my time fitting a dust cover that's going to split in no time and compromise the ball joint anyway. 

The nearside rear trailing arm bush (the one from hell) looks like it's starting to debond. I think I'm just going to coat it in underseal and declare it fine* 🤣

Now, the elephant in the room - the welding. 

^ Looks like a small, localized repair?

^ Hmmmm

^ Chop chop

^ Yeah it was pretty much fucked. In an ideal world it would have needed a replacement sill. It's paper thin, but just borderline solid enough to weld to. It's really corroded from the inside all the way along. 

^ I was pretty pleased with myself for that free hand fabrication. Only using hand tools in the way of chisels and an angle grinder. No, it's not perfect, but I don't care!

^ Pictures aren't doing much justice here, I wasn't welding with a gap that big along the top! It nicely lipped under the original metal of the car. But it's sitting slightly proud in the photo.

^ Please excuse the awful welding. Yes, I'm embarrassed by it! But like I say the quality of the surrounding metal was really poor and I kept having to build the welds up to stop it from blowing holes through. Any eagle eyed tame welders may have spotted a mistake here.... 

^ Yes, I forgot to drill the holes for the plug welds along the bottom! Luckily managed to rectify that in situ

^ All ground back smooth. Again, photos are not doing it justice as it looks terrible with loads of holes in but there aren't any, it's just shadows. 

^ Time for the wob

All this looks really bad but I can promise you it's not! It's perfectly solid, and despite the poor surrounding metal I think it will last a fair while before it comes through elsewhere. 

That's enough for today, more tomorrow!

[Bren]

30 minutes ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Thought I'd do another fuel economy update. The second tank was pretty much identical - 32mpg with A/C on a significant amount of the time. 

The previous tank I decided to cut down on use of the A/C and had it on about a quarter of the time, just cycling it on/off myself to dehumidify. Interestingly the petrol light came on at more or less exactly the same time - I brimmed it having done 348 miles but it took less to fill this time, only around 45 litres leaving me with approx 35 average MPG. 

That shows the air con does not seem to make much of a difference. 

It's a 55 litre tank, but it was telling me I had 30 miles to go having only needed 45 litres to fill, so it's hardly accurate, and I could probably get 400 miles out of a tank if I pushed it. 

Anyway, enough of those boring statistics, it's got just over a month of MOT left and there was no chance of it passing with that gaping hole in the sill. What most people would do is wait until the MOT first, just in case, but I'm confident in it so I'm sorting it early!

Thought I'd do a little pre MOT check to see if I need to get any other parts ordered, and it's a good job I did because it needs 3x anti roll bar links and a front lower ball joint. 

I've been plagued with a very intermittent knocking noise from the rear recently, so having found a small amount of play in one of the rear ARB link ball joints I'm hoping it's that. 

One of the fronts has a split dust cover, consulted GSF who have Lemforder ones on clearance for a fiver a piece, so I figured I might as well just do both of them. 

The offside front lower ball joint dust cover has split again... I only replaced it a few months ago!! Poxy shite modern rubber *GRUMBLE GRUMBLE GRUMBLE* 

Anyway, GSF saves the day again with a TRW branded lower ball joint for just £7. I'm reluctant to replace the entire arm, because unnecessary expenditure, and I can't be bothered wasting my time fitting a dust cover that's going to split in no time and compromise the ball joint anyway. 

The nearside rear trailing arm bush (the one from hell) looks like it's starting to debond. I think I'm just going to coat it in underseal and declare it fine* 🤣

Now, the elephant in the room - the welding. 

^ Looks like a small, localized repair?

^ Hmmmm

^ Chop chop

^ Yeah it was pretty much fucked. In an ideal world it would have needed a replacement sill. It's paper thin, but just borderline solid enough to weld to. It's really corroded from the inside all the way along. 

^ I was pretty pleased with myself for that free hand fabrication. Only using hand tools in the way of chisels and an angle grinder. No, it's not perfect, but I don't care!

^ Pictures aren't doing much justice here, I wasn't welding with a gap that big along the top! It nicely lipped under the original metal of the car. But it's sitting slightly proud in the photo.

^ Please excuse the awful welding. Yes, I'm embarrassed by it! But like I say the quality of the surrounding metal was really poor and I kept having to build the welds up to stop it from blowing holes through. Any eagle eyed tame welders may have spotted a mistake here.... 

^ Yes, I forgot to drill the holes for the plug welds along the bottom! Luckily managed to rectify that in situ

^ All ground back smooth. Again, photos are not doing it justice as it looks terrible with loads of holes in but there aren't any, it's just shadows. 

^ Time for the wob

All this looks really bad but I can promise you it's not! It's perfectly solid, and despite the poor surrounding metal I think it will last a fair while before it comes through elsewhere. 

That's enough for today, more tomorrow!

That's fine. It's an old focii. You're not taking it to pebble beach.

[RoverFolkUs]

1 minute ago, Bren said:

That's fine. It's an old focii. You're not taking it to pebble beach.

That was my thinking, if it was a somewhat special car worth conserving then I would have chopped all the rust out, replaced the outer sill and treated/zinc primed everything behind. 

I would have liked to treat the inside of this but realistically I would have had to cut the outer sill off and replace it to do that which just isn't really worthwhile or strictly necessary. 

I can't imagine anyone else would have gone to the trouble of creating a bodywork finish with it either. Just plate over the top and slap it with underseal leaving the horrible black tidemark

[Bren]

When I did the sills on my SD1 I chopped off the lower part of the inners and let 16 gauge zintec in.

I got the zintec for nothing plus it is much thicker than an OE panel so should resist corrosion better.

[beko1987]

Looks a fine repair (to me, who can't weld!) 

As long as it passes the test, thats the main thing! Then you can revisit* it in summer when its not so urgent! 

[sierraman]

On 16/12/2023 at 22:03, Bren said:

That's fine. It's an old focii. You're not taking it to pebble beach.

What Brighton? 😂

[Ronkey]

I repaired the inner arches on a mk1 focus using offcuts from a 1960s NOS panel. They welded beautifully together but getting a good weld onto the car was a flipping nightmare. Even harder when thinned by rust. That'll do I'd say. 

[RoverFolkUs]

Oops, I'm sure you were all waiting* patiently for the following-day update. 

The time as of here is about 6pm on Sunday. A bit of playing around with the filler and putty, waiting for it to go off, I realized I still had a lot of work ahead if I wanted a perfect finish. 

7pm arrives, and the "fuckit" stage arrived... Who am I kidding trying to do a nice paint job? 

So I got it as smooth as poss: 

As you can see, that definitely wanted more work with the putty/stopper. But I simply ran out of time. It needed to be off the ramp in just over 12 hours... And I need to get a night's sleep in that same space of time.. 

Gave it a lick of paint - that picture actually makes it look far worse than it was. 

Obviously I'm not leaving it like that, because it realistically looks absolutely shite. Having said that, I've seen far, far, far worse before! 

Gave it a textured finish with this stuff: 

Which I undeniably swear by. It's fantastic.

Apply it wet, it'll cure in 24-48 hours. It's not rubberised so doesn't trap rust, it's oily so applies well, sticks well and eventually cures. I don't really know the science behind it but somehow it goes rock solid if coated thinly enough. 

I can say that I've been using it for years and never once have I had recurrent rot around simple MOT-standard patches. It stays applied for ages, and cures to a tough finish. I find giving it a textured finish, simply by dabbing/slapping it on with a paintbrush seems to add an extra layer of resilience. 

Unfortunately it would appear I don't have a picture of the final result. I could swear I took one, but it's as above minus the masking tape. I'm really happy with the end result. Yes, it's got wob in it but I can promise you it is structurally perfect. The new metal is seam welded in and it's been plug welded along the pinch at the bottom. 

Whilst I had time to kill, I wanted to do some other improvements:

This area of damage to the bumper was caused in a supermarket car park, I imagine by a trolley or pram or something. 

Filled it with some stopper. In hindsight, I was rushing this and didn't sand it back anywhere near enough because you can just about make out the blob. But this was just a test area, and I'll redo it if I can ever be bothered, which is unlikely

And lacquered. I'm bloody impressed by the paint colour match and lacquer finish achieved simply by rattle cans! 

In between all the painting/filling, the new brake drums I fitted a few months ago had an unsightly layer of surface rust. 

I wire brushed it all off, gave it a lick of wheel silver paint, and a dusting of lacquer, and check that out! Only 15-20 minutes spent doing both and it looks as good as that! Well chuffed

Last job for now was to address the corrosion at the rear. There's absolutely nothing structural, it's just surface corrosion which looked about ten times worse than it was. 

Wire brushed it back, and was left with this: 

That's not aesthetically pleasing enough, so I gave it an underbody treatment. 

Much, much, much better! 

Again, this is oil based. It's actually just diluted waxoyl. 

My method of application is diluting it roughly 50/50 with brake cleaner and applying it with a pressurised schutz gun. The brake cleaner evaporates off and leaves a nice long lasting oily coating over everything which actually dries/cures surprisingly well to a dull finish. 

I also fitted a new pair of tailgate struts which set me back less than a tenner off eBay. Another massive improvement.

That's a few jobs ticked off the list. 

Next up is the suspension bits for the MOT. Ordered 2x front droplinks, apparently there was only 1 of the bargain £5 ones left in stock in the company so I went with that since it's only 1 that I really need. The rear one was no problem, but the lower ball joint!! What a faff!! The £7 TRW one arrived. Unfortunately it was completely missing the rubber dust boot!? WTF?

Got it replaced with a Delphi one, costing £18, and that didn't come with the bolts!? 

Hopefully 3rd time lucky will see one that isn't defective arrive in the morning 🙄

Aside from the mini FTP as alluded to in the news 24 threads which means a new air filter housing has been added to the shopping list, it can go for its MOT which I'm planning to book tomorrow and have done next week

The only real issues I know of are the rear suspension bushes which, realistically, are fucked. The inners of the upper trailing arm bushes have debonded - now coated in waxoyl so might be a little bit harder for the tester to spot 😉 - and I noticed both the rear lower control/spring arm outer hub bushes have pretty much fallen apart. Luckily they're only small so it's not possible for them to create any excessive movement 

I suppose a rear suspension refresh is not a bad thing to have on the cards, but it'll be a pig of a job so let's see how it goes. Nothing is unsafe, otherwise I'd fix it, obviously. 

That's all for now!

[sierraman]

Have you coated it all along the sill or just the usual trapezoidal square of black doom over the patch? 😂

[RoverFolkUs]

4 hours ago, sierraman said:

Have you coated it all along the sill or just the usual trapezoidal square of black doom over the patch? 😂

Just the square of doom of course 🧐

[sierraman]

This is how you do it, gun it on nice and thick! 

[Rust Collector]

2 minutes ago, sierraman said:

This is how you do it, gun it on nice and thick! 

Try doing it with the car the right way up though, it's much harder then!

[sierraman]

18 minutes ago, Rust Collector said:

Try doing it with the car the right way up though, it's much harder then!

I find it gets into the seams if 7-8 of us club together and roll it on its roof before I waxoyl it... 😂

[RoverFolkUs]

Today's attempt at making some progress went about as well* as it always does

With a lower ball joint and 2 drop links to fit I thought "should have that done in an hour or so" 

Well the front drop link was fine, the rear drop link was fine, but the front ball joint.... 

No. 

The ball joints are riveted into the arms. I thought I'd grind/drill the rivets and just fit a bolt on ball joint to save wasting an arm 

Well either the rivets are made of fecking titanium or my drill bits of plastic. Because they were barely making a mark. 

Tried to grind them off and chisel them through but realised that wasn't going to work. 

Started sulking and ordered a Delphi branded arm for a whopping £77. 

*Grumble grumble grumble* 

While it was up in the air I realised the drop link on the other side does have a split cover after all, so £24 later another Lemforder one is on the way (GSF only had 1 in stock for a fiver ) and also noticed the cover on the offside track rod end has a tiny split in it as well! £12 later, an Optimal branded replacement has been ordered. 

Still, it's looking like about £120 or so to get a 17 year old Focus through it's MOT. Not bad at all I suppose if you think of it that way! 

MOT booked for next Wednesday. It better bloody pass 😅

I dare not add it up but I think I'm approaching nearly £1000 spent on this car... Which I purchased for £750 😅

 

[RoverFolkUs]

Success! 

Also went against my better judgement and lobbed an engine flush in for the sake of it, got it up to temperature and drained it out - 

Glad I did!

That's pretty manky having only done about 1500 miles. It's now clear on the dipstick (it immediately discoloured before) so hopefully it's back to normal service. As suspected this engine probably hasn't been very well looked after in the donor vehicle. It's a bit of a burner, it used roughly a litre or so in that distance. It sounds a bit rattly up top. Think I might switch to 10w-40 on the next change and see if it helps

The engine has not thrown a rod so safe to say the engine flush hasn't harmed it 😂

So, what work has been done in the last week? 

New OSF bottom arm

New NSF, OSF, NSR anti roll bar links

New OS track rod end 

Weld repairs to sill

Lots of rust treatment (including the Sierraman patented TrapezoidOfDoom™ 😂😂)

New tailgate struts to replace the weak originals and release switch (because the rubber cover had gone manky)

Oil + filter change, including engine flush. 

*I think* that's everything apart from the rear upper trailing arm bushes, which are mostly fucked, but hopefully my friendly tester will turn a blind eye and leave them alone until at least next year... 

[RoverFolkUs]

As alluded to in the news 24 thread.... 

It passed! No advisories

This car never fails to impress me

[sierraman]

Ours is a bit noisy at the top end like most ti-vct. Quietens down quite a bit once it’s properly warmed but doesn’t consume any oil at all. Supposedly at 100k you should check the valve clearances but I’ve never known anyone do this plus you’ve to fuck about taking the cams out which also involves messing with the variators. So I’ll live with it. 

[RoverFolkUs]

4 hours ago, sierraman said:

Ours is a bit noisy at the top end like most ti-vct. Quietens down quite a bit once it’s properly warmed but doesn’t consume any oil at all. Supposedly at 100k you should check the valve clearances but I’ve never known anyone do this plus you’ve to fuck about taking the cams out which also involves messing with the variators. So I’ll live with it. 

Yep this one does sound quite a bit more rattly than the old engine did. 

It sounded a bit concerning during the emmisions test, sitting in the waiting room it seemed to muffle out most of the engine noise and left just the rattle to be heard as it echoed..

I think I'll try 10w-40 on the next change, I suppose 5w-30 is a bound to be a bit thin for an engine that's done ~115k. Looking into the cam area under the filler cap the other day I could see some signs of visible wear on the cam lobes which isn't great

Oil consumption seems to be about a litre in 1500 miles. A little high but not terrible I suppose. 

[sierraman]

4 hours ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Yep this one does sound quite a bit more rattly than the old engine did. 

It sounded a bit concerning during the emmisions test, sitting in the waiting room it seemed to muffle out most of the engine noise and left just the rattle to be heard as it echoed..

I think I'll try 10w-40 on the next change, I suppose 5w-30 is a bound to be a bit thin for an engine that's done ~115k. Looking into the cam area under the filler cap the other day I could see some signs of visible wear on the cam lobes which isn't great

Oil consumption seems to be about a litre in 1500 miles. A little high but not terrible I suppose. 

 

Mine rattles but the top end is in excellent order, I think it’s possibly just how they are on those early ti-vct. I could try some 10w40 maybe to quieten it but it doesn’t use any at all between services. In reality I’ll stick away enough just to buy a better car when it packs up. 

[RoverFolkUs]

Well, I finally had a chance to autopsy the old engine and retrieve as many useful* spares as possible before lobbing the rest in the scrap bin. 

Oh dear! 

Two snapped/smashed conrods and a smashed crank carrier. With plenty of ventilation* holes in the block. 

 

I wanted to keep the cylinder head as a spare, so removed it. But upon inspection I've decided to scrap it as well. 

The first reason was because I noticed cylinder number 4 inlet valves were partially open with the camshafts removed.. I then realized there was a foreign object in there between the valve and the seat...

I dont know what that is, how it got in there or how long it's been in there for!? 

I dug it out and it was only a bit of plastic. A bit like the end of a cable tie but it wasn't.

I'm genuinely dumbfounded by it, it's not come about as a result of the hydrolock, the engine ran absolutely perfectly beforehand with no signs of being down on compression, and it's only plastic so surely would have melted!? I guess it will forever remain a mystery

^ The second, and main reason was because of the state of it on cylinder 1 + 2, the photos really are flattering it there, it looks a lot worse in person. It's got a lot of corrosion around the valve and seat. Hardly surprising, but I'd not want to sell it in good faith, and I'd not want to bother going to the trouble of trying to refurb it and reuse it in the future. So off it goes. I'm sure it could be saved if you tried but I don't have the inclination to. 

It's complete with the cam buckets and valves. If it's of any use to anyone, then shout quickly before it gets scrapped, happy to offload it very cheaply for beer tokens/postage costs if it can be useful in some way! It's fairly lightweight being aluminium so shouldn't cost much to post... Or if you want to make a table from it to sell on Etsy for £500, you're welcome to 😅🤣

I've saved the camshafts, I don't know why because I'll probably never need them! I've saved the VVT pulleys and solenoids, along with a few assorted brackets, housings and sensors. I've saved the sump too, because you never know when you might need one... 😅 And I have a set of injectors complete with fuel rail. I also have a couple of odd vacuum/breather hoses. 

If anyone is in need for obscure brackets or whatever else you may need for this engine, feel free to give me a shout! It's a 1.6 Ti-VCT HXDA 115bhp. Lots of things are interchangeable with the standard non-VVT 99bhp unit. If you're reading this post in 5 years time I'll probably still have everything, because hoarder!

[MikeR]

Well done , A lot of work done .

I still miss the way my MK1 would drive ,  the underside should clean up nice like my MK1 did ..  shame the oil burning etc got to it , rust wise it was doing well , but it became an eco' right off

[RoverFolkUs]

Well, weighed in the old engine which achieved a whopping* £17 in scrap 😂

Better than nothing though! 

A customer had a fusion 1.4 which seems to have a knackered throttle body. Conveniently, it's exactly the same part that I retrieved off the old engine so that's £30 or so back in my pocket if it ends up needing it!

The car gave me another hiccup this morning though. Set off and I heard a "pssshhhhhh" type of hissing noise as I braked. Odd. It braked (broke? 🤔😅) absolutely fine, but I tried a few more times and it was "pssshhhh pssshhhh pssshhhh" every time I held the brake pedal about half way. 

Fucksticks, sounds like a knackered servo then? 

Except it seemed to cure itself, after a few more goes it stopped doing it. 

The pedal never felt any different and it stops fine, so I find that really weird 🤔

Then as it got dark this evening I looked down at the dash and it looked really dark all of a sudden? I thought the LEDs had gone but then I realised I had somehow inadvertently knocked the backlight adjuster. Something I haven't ever managed to do in more than 4 years of owning the car but today was the day 😅

[stuboy]

glad too see still going, and great job on the sill repair..

[RoverFolkUs]

Haven't updated this thread for ages because everything has been absolutely fine lately. 

With the weather getting warmer I started to notice the A/C was getting quite weak, it was just about cold on fan speed 2, but if I put it on 3 or 4 then it couldn't keep up. 

Put it on the A/C machine which only evacuated around 90g of refrigerant (capacity is 600g) - it's 11 months since the last regas so that's a very, very slow leak. 

Typically the vacuum held sufficiently, but that doesn't mean anything, it's going to need repairing. 

It regassed ok and operated perfectly, went back to being ice cold as it should be which proves everything else in the system is working. 

I started looking around and could see some green staining around the corner of the condenser. Tried to spray it with soapy water but couldn't see any bubbling, however if PAG oil is escaping then so must be the refrigerant. Using a UV torch confirmed that the dye additive in the PAG oil was present 

Shopped around for a new condenser. Parts in motion list one for £51 on their website, but I thought I'd try the local factors. They came up with one for a neat £46 + VAT (trade). I'm more than happy to pay that little bit more to get one with a bonafide warranty. 

In other news, managed to get a couple of upgrades from the car boot yesterday: 

One of these later style Sony head units for a couple of quid: 

Conveniently it already has the square facia attached, matching the shape of the existing "old-school" 6000CD, so I won't need to touch the wood* fascia surround (as shown carbon fibre in the above photo) 

Next score was a set of genuine rubber floor mats for £3! 

Old

"New" - much better. 

[RoverFolkUs]

Just as I decided to give this car some praise it seems to have decided it wants to play silly buggers with the wipers again 

I've noticed slightly erratic operation on the intermittent setting before, but today as soon I switched the ignition on, it did 2 wipes all by itself. Slightly dismayed by the streaks of dust it had just dragged across the screen, I operated the front washer, but the wipers kept on going and going for about 15 wipes before deciding to park in the middle of the screen ... 

After trying the switch a couple of times, operation returned to normal... 

I don't really mind if it's the wiper motor itself playing up, or indeed the switch, but I'm more worried about it being early signs of the BCM crapping itself. Because it's started working again it's going to be tricky for me to test things and try to get to the bottom of it 

I'll file it under "ignore" for the minute but I'm writing it here so I have something to refer back to!

[Pieman]

Mine does something like that occasionally - if you switch the wipers off they sometimes keep going until you flick the stalk for a "single wipe" and then they stop, if you understand what I mean.