but only as a temporary measure. It's now had the jumper removed and a replacement thermal switch fitted.
Can confirm, I put Boges from Island on mine and they were great. They did take a bit of settling in though.
gordonjcp wrote:
Can confirm, I put Boges from Island on mine and they were great. They did take a bit of settling in though.
I found that with mine.
When I fitted the fronts, I followed the proper priming process and exercised them full range 6 or 7 times then kept vertical before fitting.
When I fitted the rears, I just put them on out of the box
Result- back end alternately flopped around and pumped up until I'd put a fair few miles on it.
All lovely now though!
Well today got off to a good start...
I did a bit of dismantling on the refurb'd valve block I'd been given and the o rings were nice and soft and still looked round so I fitted that and the new compressor I'd made from the two.
I then moved onto the steering pipe. I was going to remove the radiator so I drained the cooling system and then realised I could do it with the radiator in situ just with removing the fan, fan cowling and moving the top hose to one side.
The new pipe went in easily enough but caught the plastic coolant pipe that carries the return from the throttle body which was nicely brittle and snapped. I've ordered a new one of them that should be here in a day or two so as a temporary measure I sleeved the old one so I could get the car mobile.
Anyway, I fitted the pipe, fitted two new dowty washers that I had in the workshop to the banjo, filled the power steering reservoir and filled the cooling system. I started the car and the power steering pipe was doing a bit of grumbling however a few slight turns of the steering wheel shut that up.
I heard a hissing noise and looked under the bonnet and found fluid pishing out of the union that I'd just refitted. I nipped them up a bit more before reading RAVE and realising that they should have been torqued to 50nm. I think as it was dark by now I've only torqued them to 40nm. The leak has slowed down but not stopped.
I'll fit 2 new washers again tomorrow and retorque it to 50nm in the hope that it'll cure it.
Has anyone else had any problems resealing the steering pipes to the steering box?
David.
dhallworth wrote:
Has anyone else had any problems resealing the steering pipes to the steering box?
No- mine went back fine. Needed a wobble bar or two on the torque wrench.
You are fitting the 14mm Dowtys to the LP and the 16mm Dowtys to the high pressure lines?
I've only had the 16mm banjo undone so no chance of screwing that one up thankfully.
I'm just petrified of over tightening it. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to sort it out. Fingers crossed anyway!
David.
Gilbertd wrote:
but only as a temporary measure. It's now had the jumper removed and a replacement thermal switch fitted.
How is it running, Gilbert? Your pal got a bloody good deal there when you consider some of the problems the guys here have.
OldShep56 wrote:
How is it running, Gilbert? Your pal got a bloody good deal there when you consider some of the problems the guys here have.
Absolutely perfectly, he's towed his caravan with it a couple of times, almost got nicked for speeding towing his loaded car transporter trailer at 80mph and reckons it's the best car he's ever owned. He's painted the front grille, cleaned everything, put a boot liner in it to keep it clean when his dog is in the back and his 12 year old son has worked out how to program the sat nav. I replaced the idler pulley which was making the whining noise which we thought was the alternator and gave it a new serpentine belt, replaced the full run of cruise control hoses so that works but we still haven't done the rocker cover gaskets, he's always driving around in it!
I'm really pleased to hear that!! You know I was having second thoughts about selling it. At least it has gone to a good home. It's not the weather for doing those gaskets atm. It's not a massive leak and has survived over a year so can hang on until the warmer weather arrives.
Well, this afternoon we had better results. I popped to the local hydraulics company and bought some new 16mm dowty washers to go on the banjo. I removed the banjo and the old washers and decided to try the other banjo that I had. I believe the one I had fitted was from the breaker I've got so the other was put in in it's place.
I topped the reservoir up and bled it through as per RAVE and I'm pleased to say there was no fluid hissing out under pressure this time. I've cleaned the top of the steering box so that I can keep an eye on it but daylight had run out when I'd finished so I left it alone for today.
The compressor that I made from the two seems to be doing it's job perfectly as the car came up off it's bump stops nice and quickly. I've left it on full height and disconnected the EAS ECU so there's no self levelling going on so I'll hopefully get an idea if there's any bad airbags on it.
I bled the cooling system through and made sure I had a nice steady return coming into the coolant bottle. Once I was convinced there was no air in the system I put the cap back on and left it running for 20 mins. The thermostat opened and everything felt nice and evenly warm. I checked a few things with an IR thermometer and everything appeared to be at the same temperature. I've left it over night to cool so I'll top the coolant off tomorrow when it's cold and we'll go from there.
Fingers crossed yesterday was just a spot of bad luck!
David.
Well, I looked out of the window this morning whilst having a cup of coffee and noticed that the rear end of the VSE was in the air and the front was on the bump stops.
Hopefully there should be a delivery tomorrow or Friday with some nice shiny bits from Island 4x4 and we can get this thing properly on the road by the weekend :)
David.
Is there a valve block O ring kit in your expected box of shiny parts Dave?
One end down could be just two equally tired bags, but could also be leaks on the NRVs in the valve block, or perhaps, but less likely, a sensor.
Pulling the EAS timer relay overnight will eliminate electronics/ sensor driven stuff.
Interesting. Is the NRV for the fronts the one in the middle?
There's an NRV for the tank, an NRV for the "up" valve and an NRV for the "down" valve. The reason the valves need them is that they're only held shut by the air pressure "behind" them and if the air pressure against the seat ("against" them) was greater then it would just blow past them.
This red VSE is really testing my patience just now...
The replacement for the coolant pipe that broke the other day arrived yesterday so I went to fit it last night. The old one was indeed a right mess and was breaking as soon as you touched it so it definitely needed replacing. I wasn't convinced that the throttle body end of the new pipe was right so I thought I'd run it in and see how it looked.
I routed it behind the battery box and up to the coolant bottle, that bit was fine, I routed it through the clips onto the engine, that was fine, however it wouldn't go behind the air con compressor due to clearances and me not wanting to break the new pipe. I looked at the compressor and thought "It's 4 bolts, I'll take it off and route the pipe". That would of been well and good if the 4th bolt hadn't sheered in the bracket that holds it.
I tried to finish routing the pipe and sure enough, the end that goes onto the throttle body is the wrong one. It's about 4" to short. I rang the dealer I bought it from back this morning and they have advised that LR have superseded the part for GEMS and THOR to the same pipe and that's the only one available.
I've found a breaker locally who has a 99 4.6 in for breaking so he's gone to check the bracket is still there whilst I type this. Fingers crossed anyway! I think I'm also going to buy a roll of rubber pipe and replace the plastic pipes with rubber as it solves the problem of length and means they won't go brittle again.
David.
Auto Silicone Hoses sell the correct spec silicon pipe. Their inventory is pretty shitty so you might end up waiting but it should be a final fix to this issue. Several of us have replaced that pipe and the one from the radiator -> expansion tank with silicon. When the plastic gets brittle it's definitely a ticking time bomb.
This is the stuff you want http://www.autosiliconehoses.com/8mm-silicone-1-ply-radiator-heater-hose-1-metre-to-50-metres-blue-black.html
Rubber, especially is you use fuel hose (which is easy to get hold of in the correct size) will go hard and brittle with coolant running through it.
Well we had another couple of hours on the VSE yesterday. The coolant pipe was replaced and the return pipe from the radiator was "borrowed" from the Oslo Blue VSE so that we could get it running and bled through.
Gordon popped down yesterday and gave the car a once over, we noticed that the microswitch in the drivers door latch doesn't recognise when the door is opened so I'm going to hassle Marty for a latch when he returns.
The dilemma of the power steering fluid leak is still on going though. Gordon had a look yesterday and we were fairly convinced it had stopped. We filled it with fluid and took it for a run. We had to top it up when we checked it half way and put it down to bleeding out. We got home and checked it again and it was still ok level wise so we thought it was done.
I went out a couple of hours later and started it and noticed a funny grumble. I checked the fluid and sure enough it was empty again. I cleaned the top of the steering box this morning using a cleaning spray and a rag and started the car and there is still fluid coming out from under the 16mm banjo.
I think I'm going to order a brand new pipe rather then trying to get the one from my breaker to seal again incase there's something there causing problems, if that doesn't sort it then it's going to have to be a new steering box by the looks of it. I'm just getting really frustrated by this as I've never had problems getting something to seal like this before.
The car needs the heater matrix o-rings replacing as there's a damp feeling to the carpet inside and it tastes sweet.
I can confirm though that this things drives brilliantly and is a pleasure to be behind the wheel of. It's incredibly quiet and runs perfectly.
Fingers crossed I can get this pipe before everywhere starts shutting down for Christmas, that way I can hopefully get it sorted and driving ASAP.
David.
Also, whilst I remember... GSF have got a 57% Discount Code running this weekend. If you use the coupon code "XMAS57" at checkout, you get a 57% discount.
I just bought 25 litres of Dexron III and 4.5 litres of EP 75w-90 for £99 which includes free delivery to the door.
The oil is CarLube so it's not the best stuff out there but at that price, I'll change it more frequently :)
David.
Just a thought. Have you checked that the banjo bolt isn't cracked or damaged?