Random Mechanical Failure Of The Day

[DrSarty 90 1 Cars]

 

Keep it up J.

[kyepan 291]

I'm having to work on the car in secret at the moment, so went over to dads to deliver his birthday pressie...

 

and sneakily fitted a new negative battery terminal.. this time it's one of the bolt compression clamp types..

ALso got some nice new bolts for the fuel rail and washers.. tightened everything up..

 

 

turned the key and it span over very quickly... this whole dodgy earth thing still astounds me..

 

Took for a spin and it's oodles smoother and more urgent under acceleration...

 

get those earths checked boys.

[GLPoomobile 958]

I've just taken mine down to Dan Taylor this morning. The original plan was quite simple, I had asked Dan to sort out some of my sheared bolts, weld up my exhaust and make me an AFM bracket. But then on my first journey after the car being sat up for the last year I noticed an annoying clunk coming from the drivetrain. Then this morning on the way down there, I found at about 80-90mph I was getting a noise like grinding from the front n/s, a bit like the caliper dragging on the disk, but it went away when I dipped the clutch. Hopefully both problems are the same thing (both n/s) rather than 2 separate problems. Bloody annoying though

[jdb1964 0]

Is there a thread starting 'random electrical failure of the day' ?

 

So went to get hair cut, fine , started the 1.9 up for a trip to getting the tracking sorted, car starts , no radio, no indicators, no dash dials working just speedo and rev counter, fortunately not too many cars on road and only a couple of turns back to my house ...

 

what to do, turned her off, swore, started and guess what yup you've guessed it all 100% fine !!!

 

Anyway right rear slow rim leakage sorted, tracking corrected inc acetylen on track rod end to loose nut & allowed to cool down - was 10 degrees (?) out apparently and all for £15 cash.

 

Spent rest of day with fiddling with bits and pieces inc applying PLASTICARE to rear panel and rear bumper - looks good so far...

[kyepan 291]

yesterday,

 

the nearside front indicator, and repeater stopped working.

 

that will teach me for moving the loom to rewire the fuel pump...

 

out comes the haynes.

[Paul_13 212 1 Cars]

 

You really don't have luck with it do you Justin

 

You need any help give us a shout

[welshpug 1,657]

dirty plug on the indicator at a guess, or dirty earth for that corner

[kyepan 291]

dirty plug on the indicator at a guess, or dirty earth for that corner

cheers guys..

 

will get the multimeter out at the weekend and see what's what.

[kyepan 291]

dirty plug on the indicator at a guess, or dirty earth for that corner

cheers guys..

 

will get the multimeter out at the weekend and see what's what.

[kyepan 291]

heater fan sounds like it has a leaf trapped in it,

 

front right top mount rubber has disintegrated because of the speed bumps between me and the station, i really do slow down for them... suspension rattling.

 

joy.

[DrSarty 90 1 Cars]

I put that leaf in there.

 

I say leaf, but it's actually a £50 note.

[kyepan 291]

engine sounded a bit .... noisy.. yesterday evening, just sounded hoarse and rough, plus vibration at certain rpm coming through the engine mounts into the cabin.

 

oil ok, water ok... confused.

[welshpug 1,657]

exhaust fallen off again?

[kyepan 291]

exhaust present and correct, top end sounding... noisy.

 

Will take it for a good blat to see if that clears it out.

[kyepan 291]

ok that top mount has got much worse over the past week, the whole car feels generally nervous at speed, and is just generally a bit inconsistent, also if you hit a slightly rough or serrated patch of tarmac the front just rattles across it understeering....

 

these top mounts are only 20k old....

 

and a stupid question because i can't remember, to take the struts out, do you need to undo the wishbone lower pinch bolt, or is there enough travel in the wishbone to take the strut out without... i've had them off several times, but for the life of me can't remember!?!?

Edited April 27, 2010 by kyepan

[Anthony 1,003]

and a stupid question because i can't remember, to take the struts out, do you need to undo the wishbone lower pinch bolt, or is there enough travel in the wishbone to take the strut out without... i've had them off several times, but for the life of me can't remember!?!?

Should be able to remove the strut with the hub still in place - just be careful that the hub doesn't pull the driveshaft out of the gearbox and dump gearbox oil all over the drive. Otherwise, it's just a case of disconnect the drop link, unclip the brakeline from the strut, hub clamp bolt and the three 11mm nuts on the top.

[welshpug 1,657]

easy enoiugh on shorter springs, tad tricky with standard ones

[treesimon 0]

I replaced my struts recently and was able to leave the drive shafts still attached to the hubs.

 

The n/s is the hardest to do as the shorter drive shaft doesnt give you much play.

 

That was with standard springs.

[happygoron 2]

Did it with standard springslast year. Easy enough, use some string to tie the shaft into the gearbox to save the oily mess.

[kyepan 291]

i'm hoping the bearings are ok...

[kyepan 291]

Taking the struts off, there was horizontal play and they were basically loose, despite the strut top mount being on tight, really dodgy. handling was really dodgy to match. This must have been adding camber caster and god knows what else as you clattered over bumps......

 

now fixed, car now handles again, not just noticable, old mounts were deformed and roughly comparible to a chew toy for a dog in stiffness...

 

 

on and off in under two hours (would have been much less if not faffing around bleeding brakes etc. , everything came apart very easily, because of some reasonable fastidious copper slipping last time round

 

anyway, I digress.

 

cheers

 

J

Edited May 2, 2010 by kyepan

[Paul_13 212 1 Cars]

O dear, I've got a set of new top mount rubbers in shed mate if you need them. I couldn't tell if you had new'uns.

 

Fitted your rack yet mate? I'm around tomorrow if you want a hand?

[kyepan 291]

not fitted yet, still need to source (or more accuratly actually pick up) the pas pump, wire in bla bla bla...

 

Car now corners properly.. really like i remember it did, it's amazing what you get used to over a slow period of change...

 

very very little understeer anywhere, again.

 

this might explain why i had no tire wear until fairly recently, then loads...

[kyepan 291]

ahhhhh.... my car loves me..

 

This morning as soon as i started it it was blowing big time, and got worse until it sounded like a spitfire, Went to town and it sounded like a harrier, stopped in the carpark, the back box decided to part company with the exaust..did it back up, and it parted company again... so it required a bit more attention.

 

later we gave it a bit more TLC, changing the flexi braded hose to a longer one, redid the hard pipe that was welded to the union, we then noticed that the ball joint on the right lower arm has enough play to explain the "lively" handling.. enough play meaning, a s*it load. I swear the speed bumps in between me and the station are to blame..as with the top mount on the same side.

 

and the rear left tyre was almost completly flat.. no signs of a puncture.. pumped up, stayed up..

 

This flatness would explain the power oversteer moment at 6:15am on thursday morning, required more than a dab of oppo to correct, and we wern't going quick.. my passenger did grab the jesus handle though...

 

I've just replaced the wishbone bushes six months ago with OEM bushes... and now the ball joint has died, that's barely 2 years it's been on the car, and probably no more than ten thousand miles.

 

Sigh...Still it's going like stink at the moment, famous last words.

 

J

[kyepan 291]

exhaust parted company again..

 

speedhumps + worn out rubbers = detatchment....

 

replacing rubbers.

 

ordered wishbone... mot due soooon.

Edited September 20, 2010 by kyepan