Fresh coffee, instant dissolves (like it's supposed to do) and your hands smell nicer but you can't tell if you've washed them or not.
Or washing up liquid and some sugar also does pretty much the same job as swarfega... Haven't heard the coffee trick before... must try that!
Gilbertd wrote:
Fresh coffee, instant dissolves (like it's supposed to do) and your hands smell nicer but you can't tell if you've washed them or not.
LMAO.
As if you answered that!!!
oh by the way, still no neutral. Had to put car bits on the back burner as i'm renovating a new house. Will have to wait til the weekend i reckon.
But it's only a 10 minute job? Suspension on high, crawl underneath with someone in the car and the ignition on, slacken off one bolt and one nut, turn the switch until your assistant yells at you to tell you it's showing Neutral, nip up nut and bolt, check that all the other gears are displaying correctly, tighten up nut and bolt, job done. A bit more difficult if you don't have an assistant though......
but it's cold out!
It's England, do you seriously expect it to get any warmer?
Got round to having another look at the XYZ switch. Got both nuts slackened off and was able to move it. No change inside the car though. Neutral doesn't light up. Is it a take the switch off, open it up and clean it job??
With it fully slack and the gear lever in the Neutral position, you should be able to get the lights to swing through from Reverse to Drive by turning the switch. You can open it up but be very careful. There are three little plastic shuttles in there that have a habit of falling out and hiding in the most awkward places.
But, as I said before, the neutral light should be lit when the Y switch is grounded and the other two are open. That would make you think that the Y switch is not closing (so not giving a ground signal) but as Reverse is X and Y both grounded, Reverse would read as first because first is X only grounded. No output from any switches (which you would get when in Neutral if Y has failed) is not a valid combination so would bring on the Gearbox Fault message and no lights. It almost sounds as though someone has been in there before. Is the switch riveted together or have the rivets been drilled out and replaced with screws? In which case all bets are off and you'd best start looking for another XYZ switch.
It appears to be still riveted together. think i may just as well go get one from the scrapyard. There's a p38 just arrived that was fully working. I've looked it up on google and people reckon they can get water ingress down the breather thus knacking it up, Perhaps this is what's happened.
some of the wiring connectors are grey, and some are black. Is there a difference?
The p38 in the scrappy is a 2002. Mines a 2000. Same switch?
Thanks
IIRC the early black plug ones had extra microswitches (for Park/ Neutral interlock) compared to the later light grey ones. Changeover might have been the same time as GEMS/ Thor, but I'm not sure.
Go with one with the same socket colour that you currently have (probably light grey?).
Yeah, the breather hole is on the top but the pipe falls off. As it is directly below the AC drain on that side, water drops straight into it. When that happens you usually get all sorts of weird readings where it shows you to be in a completely different gear to what the lever says. If you do replace it, which is probably your best option, stick a bit of washer hose on the breather tube and loop it over so it points downwards.
It might be worth a shot with some contact cleaner first - Mine decided to play up in such a way that the car wouldn't start, but seemed to show all gears except 3/2/1 (blank on those). Thats on a Disco 2 though so may behave slightly differently, though its the same switch as far as I can tell.
I took it off and sprayed it with contact cleaner down the hole that the wires go into (mostly as it was stuck in a place it couldn't stay in for long) and its been fine since, though i have got another switch since then just in case (as it prevented it starting).
BrianH wrote:
It might be worth a shot with some contact cleaner first - Mine decided to play up in such a way that the car wouldn't start, but seemed to show all gears except 3/2/1 (blank on those). Thats on a Disco 2 though so may behave slightly differently, though its the same switch as far as I can tell.
I took it off and sprayed it with contact cleaner down the hole that the wires go into (mostly as it was stuck in a place it couldn't stay in for long) and its been fine since, though i have got another switch since then just in case (as it prevented it starting).
Cheers, but for the tenner at the scrapyard, i'd rather be safe and go with the new one rather than take the old one off the car, open it up, potentially break something in the process and then be stuck with no car to get anywhere.
blueplasticsoulman wrote:
BrianH wrote:
It might be worth a shot with some contact cleaner first - Mine decided to play up in such a way that the car wouldn't start, but seemed to show all gears except 3/2/1 (blank on those). Thats on a Disco 2 though so may behave slightly differently, though its the same switch as far as I can tell.
I took it off and sprayed it with contact cleaner down the hole that the wires go into (mostly as it was stuck in a place it couldn't stay in for long) and its been fine since, though i have got another switch since then just in case (as it prevented it starting).
Cheers, but for the tenner at the scrapyard, i'd rather be safe and go with the new one rather than take the old one off the car, open it up, potentially break something in the process and then be stuck with no car to get anywhere.
Not suggesting taking it apart - I've seen photos of the insides of them and that doesn't look like a good idea to me. Though if you can pick up one thats ok that cheaply it would be a good idea. IF it works!
Hmm, might be worth a shot then.
Contact cleaner or car cleaner?
Give it a squirt of contact cleaner down the hole where the wires go in and another squirt down the breather tube hole. It might work, you never know. but I'd grab another if you can get one from the scrappy.
BrianH wrote:
blueplasticsoulman wrote:
BrianH wrote:
It might be worth a shot with some contact cleaner first - Mine decided to play up in such a way that the car wouldn't start, but seemed to show all gears except 3/2/1 (blank on those). Thats on a Disco 2 though so may behave slightly differently, though its the same switch as far as I can tell.
I took it off and sprayed it with contact cleaner down the hole that the wires go into (mostly as it was stuck in a place it couldn't stay in for long) and its been fine since, though i have got another switch since then just in case (as it prevented it starting).
Cheers, but for the tenner at the scrapyard, i'd rather be safe and go with the new one rather than take the old one off the car, open it up, potentially break something in the process and then be stuck with no car to get anywhere.
Not suggesting taking it apart - I've seen photos of the insides of them and that doesn't look like a good idea to me. Though if you can pick up one thats ok that cheaply it would be a good idea. IF it works!
This stuff or similar (any halfway decent factors or car parts store should have something similar)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/CarPlan-WBS400-Bright-Spark-400ml/dp/B00499DFP0/
Mine started playing up on starting - it wouldn't crank, suspected it was either the starter motor beginning to die or the alarm playing up. Till it decided to not start at all at 9pm on the Friday before the last bank holiday weekend. Once it decided to do it consistantly it was much easier to troubleshoot!.
Getting the spare one wouldn't be a bad idea either way though.
Here's what the early XYZ units look like, full of cr@p and opened up!
I can't imagine much contact cleaner will find its way into those microswitches if just squirted through the vent hole so think you were lucky there BrianH
Yuck, that one has definitely had something inside it. Water in the vent hole or someone has already tried filling it with WD40 or the like. Normally they are dry inside or at least should be.