Imhotep's ever changing fleet - MG ZS180, Toyota GT86, BMW 525d

[Imhotep]

52 minutes ago, R Lutz said:

The first time I really studied the GT86 was at the Paris Salon, in I guess, 2012. It was probably at Geneva that year, but I'd have been worse for wear. Anyway, I remember being completely in awe of it. Years later I was looking that them again, this time at Geneva Salon and a fairly well known motoring journalist (who'd had more than their fair share of Subaru freebies) put me off them. Now they just seem to be all Barried or Chavved. I'd still love one though.

They do have a few issues, and most of them being barried is one of them. The other is the rod knock issue that seems to plague all Subarus, but I can remedy this with a sump baffle (and I will be doing so!), but yes, it took a while to find an unmodified one (and even my one had aftermarket wheels). Then this one fell into my lap, thankfully it’s had the valve spring recall done and I can see it’s been very regularly serviced. Only real issues I have I was aware of, which is for some reason it was painted partly red and then back to black (your guess is as good as mine for that one), and the key fob buttons don’t work whatsoever. Nothing I can’t resolve thankfully, and I’ll take a well serviced one with a few faults for how little I paid. 

[R Lutz]

Is 'rod-knock' issues not a result of track driving and oil starvation? 

[Imhotep]

1 hour ago, R Lutz said:

Is 'rod-knock' issues not a result of track driving and oil starvation? 

Basically driving like a dick with low oil aye, but you never know how a second hand car has been driven. I don’t tend to drive mine too hard since it’s used for commutes but a baffle isn’t expensive and I’d like the peace of mind. 

[Imhotep]

This arrived today:

 

It’s a Mishimoto sound generator removal kit. A GT86 has a noise generator that throws engine noise into the cabin. That’s great when I’m driving it like I stole it on a track, however mine spends most of its time doing 15mph between Birmingham and Oldbury, so it gets grating. So I pulled it all out and fitted the CNC part:

 

Has made the jubilee clip look a bit unsightly but it’ll do for now until I can get a smaller one. 
 

Pulled all the pipe work out and plugged the firewall side with the spare 12v cover as per @mintwth suggested. I do want a more elegant solution to that though so I’ll likely see if I can find something else e.g. a rear wiper bung from a base model Peugeot 106 and see if that fits (they look about the same size). Engine bay also has a bit more room for activities now:

 

Now I can enjoy the music of my teenage years, that time when I had hope and drive, in peace:

[Imhotep]

MG has had an unburnt fuel smell from the back for a while now. These do suffer with the tanks failing however mine had a brand new fuel tank a few years ago. I did check anyway and every joint is dry. No petrol anywhere.

I did ask elsewhere if I was missing anything. It was suggested to me do a live data check to see what the car thinks the ambient air temperature is. Sadly, while my OBD reader can’t do this, it did show me it has a fault code:

P0141 should bring an EML on but it hasn’t in this case (EML works fine, the code reader even detects the EML is being off). That’s the post cat lambda sensor. This’ll explain two (maybe three) things, why my oil stank of fuel, and why the car stinks of fuel, and it may also explain why the car turns for two seconds or so before firing. £48 from DMGRS. Will get this sorted ASAP and see if the fuel economy improves.

[Imhotep]

Been away a bit with login issues. A bit has happened while I’ve been away. 
 

First of all I ordered a new lambda sensor for the ZS. Looked at it and decided the garage can change that. It looks like the original one, and the bolts on the exhaust I need to undo to drop it down slightly for access don’t look too clever either, and frankly I’ve fell out of love with it a bit at the moment so hopefully it’ll come back once remedied. However looking at the jacking points on it hasn’t helped reignite my enthusiasm, sadly:

(Not sure why they’re upside down, maybe it wanted to be Australian).

That’s as far as I’ve got with the ZS at the moment. It does need some love but I’ve just lost all the mojo at present, I’ve contemplated selling it again to someone that’ll look after it, even though I think I’d regret it if I did.

Now the Toyota. This HAS had some love as my mojo has been reignited for this car. I found a cheap XTrons unit on FB marketplace. It’s from a Toyota Vellfire but it’s mostly the same. Stock head unit looks like this:

So I needed something similar and the XTrons is vaguely similar which is good enough. Anyhow I removed the old radio, but the radio in this car doesn’t have a cage. It sits quite far back and is bolted in:

 

So I unbolted the brackets, however they do not fit on the XTrons as it has one mounting peg that doesn’t line up:

 

Mounts for aftermarket radios for the GT86 are (ready for this?) £80. For a bracket. No. Out come the tin snips:

Okay, so one of the bolts doesn’t fit in the side of the radio any more but honestly it’s sturdy, and still bolts to the car fine anyway:

And there we are, one stock looking Apple CarPlay compatible radio, with a CD player!

 

This has the unexpected side effect of having a much better amplifier than the stock Toyota system so the mediocre ICE now sounds great. I’m still considering getting the Toyota option ICE upgrade, but we shall see.

Also last week I decided to see if the AC would gas up, and I’m pleased to say it has! So at least the Toyota will have working AC this summer (hopefully). 
 

Also @Heidel_Kakao and I did the diff oil to see if it would stop the grinding noise. Happily the diff is okay, sadly it was not the issue. Likely wheel bearings, they’re next. 
 

So more work done on Toyota this time oddly, but I’m really just not too fussy about the MG at the moment. I might make some effort and go and get the AC mended and the O2 sensor replaced and see if the love comes back. If it doesn’t I’ll likely dabble in sales again but who knows?

[Imhotep]

So what’s happened now?

O2 sensor has been swapped on ZS. No noticeable difference but it does seem to be using slightly less fuel. However that brings me to the next point - it STILL reeks of unburned fuel around the back of the car. Everything is clean and dry, and it only smells when running. I’m wondering if there’s a breather blocked, or if the carbon canister is full. Answers on a postcard for that one please… Did a scan of the sensors to check everything was reading normal after the sensor was changed. Looks okay however I’ve been told the throttle position is a bit high for a warm engine, and to check for vac leaks or my IACV. As the latter doesn’t work properly anyway that’ll be my starting point:

I’ve still got to repair the air conditioning on it, however money is a tad tight atm. Maybe next month. 
 

And speaking of air conditioning… The Toyota’s has failed again. Out comes the UV torch. This wasn’t very easy as the GT86 really doesn’t hold much AC gas. Had a look, and managed to find the high pressure line covered in oil and a bit of a UV reaction…

Fairly sure it’ll be that. So new high pressure line needed too, annoying as I had the low pressure one done as that had a hole in it!

Discovered I don’t need an estate car either while doing a clearance after the builders came to repair the flat:

 

During said clearance I found an under seat subwoofer and all the associated wiring. I may sell this, I may fit into the MG if I can do it without cutting any wiring apart:

 

MG also got new coil packs because it needed some as I was borrowing @Heidel_Kakao’s and Mrs Imhotep wants to learn car things for some reason, so I had her change all the coil packs (including the rear bank!) she now wants to learn how to do an oil service so I guess I’m not taking the Toyota to the garage this time around…

[alcyonecorporation]

Imhotep came to see me and we went for a bit of drive in the local area, before he changed the Japan Racing wheels, eh. 
We took in the infamous Crowland corkscrew, which is the crap Fenland equivalent of Laguna Seca's most famous elevation change. 

Anyway, these are from Stowgate. 

[Imhotep]

Progress has not been good. 
 

Decided to finally tackle the knackered wheel bearings on the GT86. One side was seized solid, and a miss with the hammer means I screwed up the disc backplate completely. Ended up needing a massive seized bearing tool to remove it. This is after trying an air chisel and a hammer to make it move:

So that side came out great after being left for a week. 
 

Come to the other side and the bearing comes out nicely with the bearing tool:

 

Except this time we find the driveshaft is cross threaded and seized into the splines. 
 

After 2 weeks on @Heidel_Kakao’s drive I’m sick of this car for a bit so we’re putting it back together and it can live in the car park for a bit until I can be arsed with it again. It’s just pissed me off. 

MG has been reliable as usual. However it still smells of unburned fuel and nobody can find a reason why. I might just take anything fuel related off it and see if anything is leaking/corroded, etc.

And that’s it. The Toyota has made me cross. That’s the whole point of this post. 

[Imhotep]

Decided to actually try to mend the Toyota since most of the issues are caused by me anyway so I can’t really blame the car too much. I knew it needed a new wheel bearing and ignored it after all. 
 

One trip to Stoke and £80 later and I have this:

 

Despite the looks it’s apparently never been on a car but has been on the floor of a garage for 4 years. Either way it seems to be decent. 
 

Now I need a backplate to replace the one I ruined, new handbrake drums, new disks and it should be good to go again. 
 

By way of an update for the MG:

Tried to get the AC mended. Explained to the garage that I would supply the AC dryer as the part is NLA so I’ll provide the compatible alternative (same P/N but looks different). Say no worries. Get a call 3 hours later telling me it’s the wrong part and looks totally different, didn’t offer me a quotation to find the right part etc just ‘that’ll be £35’, and when I got there they’d dumped the car on double yellows opposite the garage instead of on the car park. Lovely. If they didn’t want the job they could have just told me. The part is not the wrong part either…

 

So if anyone has any leads on anywhere in Birmingham/West Midlands that’ll actually mend the MGs bloody air con, can you tell me please. I really want working air conditioning again. 

[Imhotep]

Finally, found a place that’s fitted the AC dryer to the ZS for me. It’s my regular garage, they don’t do AC at all so they’ve fitted the supplied part, but they can’t gas it, however, it was diagnosed as a dryer fault so on Friday or Saturday I’ll go and have it regassed and I -SHOULD- have AC in one of the cars again…

Now as some of you may have seen on the grumpy thread, the MG was bumped the other week, didn’t look pretty:

 

Washed it and used the last few dregs of polish I had left and turned it into this:

I do need more polish but the bit on the rub strip is down to the plastic. The person that did it wants to avoid insurance. I don’t think she’s prepared for how expensive this is going to be…

[Imhotep]

Good news! (Insert either James May or Professor Farnsworth here depending on which TV show you prefer, but I won’t do the meme for you all)

 

Air con. Works and everything. How long it’ll last I don’t know. Kwik Fit did their usual health check on the tyres and my fronts are a little low (I did know that anyway) so I’ll likely save up to replace all four. But I really, really need to get the GT86 on the road first.

[Imhotep]

Fleet musings…

I like the GT86, however we’ve decided maybe something more sensible is ideal with our rent now skyrocketing and my employment status looking shaky thanks to a redesign at work (I won’t be unemployed but likely a pay cut), so over the next 6 months or so I’m going to mend the GT86, get it serviced, new brakes, tyres, new test etc, mend the AC and move it on. If anyone on this forum is interested shiters rates will apply, however that does not mean it’ll be £300. More like £9000 instead of £10,000. And I can promise that’s still one of the cheaper ones you’ll find! 

[Imhotep]

So I’m short on money and pining for the 525d estate on the for sale thread. This is a bad combination. To remedy this, I thought I’d give the ZS engine bay a clean as it was looking a bit sad:

 

And after:

 

‘But Imhotep’ I hear you say… ‘That’s not clean!’

No, you’re right. It bloody isn’t. Because while cleaning down near the AC dryer I found this:

 

That is AC refrigerant leaking out of the brand new dryer. Only out of the pipe on the right hand side though. At this point I’m tempted to sell it and buy the 525d with the PERFECTLY FUNCTIONAL AC. I know that’s not the only requirement of a car but fucking hell, why does this thing constantly fight me at every turn? It’s 23 years old and about 16 years older than MGR ever designed it to be, I get that, but Christ, this is a pain. I’d like just once for something to just work for me. 

[grogee]

I hear you, and I think back to many heaps I've thrown good money at to get the AC working. The last one was my Avensis that first needed a condenser and later a compressor, so probably £250 of parts and regas to get going. Then the Saab 9-5 before that (compressor) and various other cars I've fixed then sold, but not for any notable profit. 

Re: above pic, is it as simple as a bad O-ring on that union? 

[Imhotep]

6 minutes ago, grogee said:

I hear you, and I think back to many heaps I've thrown good money at to get the AC working. The last one was my Avensis that first needed a condenser and later a compressor, so probably £250 of parts and regas to get going. Then the Saab 9-5 before that (compressor) and various other cars I've fixed then sold, but not for any notable profit. 

Re: above pic, is it as simple as a bad O-ring on that union? 

Yeah, what hasn’t helped is the AC hasn’t worked for 7 years as the PO wasn’t bothered about it. A lot of this car seems to be undoing things previous owners didn’t think were that important (basic servicing being another one………)

I think it likely is a union but at this stage I think I do just need a specialist to look at it, mend it properly, evaluate it properly, and gas it up.

I hate that I like cars. 

[Lord Sterling]

Welcome to my world. The XJ air-con has never worked properly. I couldn't work for more than a day. Then when it did, it found a new problem.

The Vectra, changed every pipe going which cost me £££s and then suddenly, they couldn't do it up. 😡

[Heidel_Kakao]

That's a bummer 😕 A/C is one of things you get used to having and miss a lot when it leaves the building. I know the feeling of hating liking cars, sometimes I wish I could be happy with a modern appliance on wheels with a warranty but I have never owned a car newer than about 20 years old. I did like having a brand new bike though as I knew I never had to fuck about with it and in the unlikely event it did break I could just take it to the dealer.

[Imhotep]

ZS clutch went this morning

They’re NLA

It was my only working car for work

So that’s fun. 
 

Now my shit haiku is done, I now need an emergency set of wheels. So fairly sure once I’ve extended the begging bowl there’ll soon be collection thread. 
 

A reminder, I hate that I like cars. 
 

Edit: Keeping the ZS, don’t worry about that, but I need to get to work, and the only way to get a clutch kit atm is to have the pressure plate refurbed, and there’s no release window for the DMGRS kit. So with that in mind the car would need to sit in my car park with no gearbox for a few weeks, and I need to get to work.

[Imhotep]

Live FTP!

No photos as frankly I’ve had plod here as I’m blocking a busy junction. Driving the ZS along with the dodgy gearbox, misfired a few times, coughed and died. Won’t restart. 
 

FFS. I’ve got a collection Friday. It needed to manage 3 more days! I have a feeling it’ll be the crank sensor. Guess what? NLA! Seems to be a theme here…

[Imhotep]

Update: car has got to parents’ now. Car is dead for the time being, think it is the crank sensor sadly. 
 

However due to ongoing car issues, rather than fix the ones I have, I have decided to do the Autoshite thing of buying another. This is mostly due to NLA bits mind. So anyway, collection Friday. It is a long car.

[Imhotep]

Collection happening soon. T Minus 5 hours or so… Broke the bank insuring it so far:

[Imhotep]

Collection now live. Currently awaiting my lift. 
 

Food eaten: Noodles

Water brought with me

Got my iPod of all things for tunes.

Chariot of choice to transport me to my new vehicle is a Clio III with no functional air con. Kill me now. 

[Imhotep]

Been in here two minutes and I’m melting. 45 minutes or so to destination…

[Imhotep]

Pit stop for drinks. Far too warm.

 

[Imhotep]

Motorway achieved. I am currently the warmest a human being has ever been.

 

[Imhotep]

And back. Very nice to meet you @AxleHorsepower! A true gent. Also this thing is bloody massive! 
 

[AxleHorsepower]

18 minutes ago, Imhotep said:

And back. Very nice to meet you @AxleHorsepower! A true gent. Also this thing is bloody massive! 
 

A pleasure to meet you too and thank you for such a slick sale! Sad to see this go, I wanted to rack up the miles on it 😁

[Imhotep]

I want this thing to see 300k at least, it deserves that!

[Imhotep]

So it’s usually best to do the boring jobs while you’re in the new car honeymoon period. So first I thought I’d tackle the ‘check brake lights’ and ‘check brake linings’ warnings

Figured I’d just get new bulbs. The old ones worked but I assumed it would be a good starting point, and the bulbs weren’t overly expensive. Removed the old ones, and… Ah. That’ll be why. That’s a bulb from a house. That’ll be why the CANBUS is a bit cross. 
 

Replaced that and to my genuine delight, it has fixed both issues seemingly permanently. Not sure how a bulb affects the brake linings, but I won’t complain, less work than trying to bridge a sensor.