Its not a castle nut. Its a normal nyloc, but welded to the chassis is a piece of folded wire thats stopping me getting a socket or spanner onto it...

As per Mr Oranges pic :)

I'll give it a belt with a hammer.

I'm trying to remove the panhard rod.

On the drivers side, theres a nut and bolt. i can get my breaker bar in on the bolt head, but the nut has like a bent wire loop welded over it stopping me getting anything onto it. Before i get medieval on the wire loop, is there something i'm missing?

can someone move this to the right section please :)

I've just installed a new front track rod, and am looking for some pointers on aligning the steering box.

the box has a sorta line/nub thing on the side of it, and the input shaft has a smooth collar with a bump on it.

If i line the bump up with the line, the steering wheel is miles out, about a 1/5th of a turn to the right.

the wheels are also steering slightly to the right.

Have i got the right marks, and given the steering wheel error, i presume i need to remove the wheel and centre it? Then if i wind the adjuster on the track rod to lengthen it, that should bring the wheels streight?

ta :)

i dont think it prompts to enter the EKA, you just do it anyway once it ends up in that "press remote" state?

depends on your motorfactor. Mines completely useless.

I went in looking for a replacement sump plug for the Autobox, clearly their computer isnt going to list the auto, but i hoped we'd be able to find an engine sump plug with the same thread.

He stared at me with a blank face going "cant do anything without a reg" "we dont sell gearbox drain plugs" proper robot spec. I ended up standing in the shop, on Google, trying to find a car that had the same thread. In the end i discovered the BMW 330d used the same thread size as the autobox, and gave him the reg of the one i used to own. Then he sprung into life and went and fetched it no problem.

I then asked for some Copper washers as i wasnt sure if the new plug was going to seal properly (it came with an alloy washer on it), nope dont do them. the only thing they had was a big "garage kit" with about 200 washers in it of all different sizes and it was about 30quid.

You used to go into these places, and they'd have the computer, but they'd also have the old paper books, and those usually had some generic cross reference etc in the back of them so if you werent quite sure, they'd get the catalog out and you could have a look thru it. The bloke behind the counter actually knew cars, knew what you were asking for, probably had an idea of alternatives etc etc. Nowadays, the folk that work there seem to be no different to the folk operating the till in Tesco. They dont actually have a clue.

The computer software my local place uses will perfectly happily allow you to do a manual lookup, you can input make, model, year, engine etc and it works fine. Feeding it the reg simply pre-populates the fields automatically, but they will actually refuse to do a manual lookup if your looking for a part off a different car or whatever. I've had him refuse, then ended up standing in front of him googling the car make and model on my phone, and pulling a random reg from ebay before...

These days i try to avoid using them, i normally order online, or from EuroCarParts, and only go there when i really need to. Half the time i go there they dont even have what i need either.

Maybe unlock with fob disarmed it?

Seen that a few times on VAG cars. The VAG bottles go yellow/brown over time with staining from the coolant, so swapping in a new clear one is a common mod to tidy up the engine bay, and the last one i changed was covered in hairline cracks and crazing. I'm amazed it was holding coolant!

I also had a fairly decent coolant leak on my A4 after a similar split appeared in the plastic coolant elbow that comes off the back of the cylinder head. Almost completely invisible on the outside as it was along a moulding seam, but on the inside you could see a distinct black line.

oh yeh, swathes of them are vulnerable.

I bought a accident damaged A4 (albeit an older 2000 model) a few years back, which came with one key, that was snapped in half and glued back together. I bought a new case and attempted to swap the internals and managed to break the transponder chip in half leaving me with an immobilised car.

Got a lead off ebay for about £30, and a new blank transponder, and coded up the new key in a few minutes.

I guess the issue is, security access needs to be possible with an immobilised car, otherwise the dealer cant program new keys when you turn up having lost them... And once the security protocols over OBD are cracked, then anyone can buy the lead and do the same. The immobiliser has a secret key code a bit like the EKA, which needs input into the software while programming the key. This code is dealer only and unlike landrover they wont even give it out to end users at all.

However for a lot of the cars, the ebay leads can actually extract the key code from the RAM of the cluster after an OBD connection has been made. The cluster has to load it into ram to compare it with the input version, and someones figured out how to dump the RAM of the microprocessor over OBD. Thus you simply connect, read out the SKC, and then program a key using the standard routines that a dealer would use.

The Audi and BMW both have transponder chips in the key which are seperate to the alarm fob. The transponder is used to disarm the immobiliser and is checked on every start. The RF remote for unlocking is a seperate system and isnt not part of the immobilisation process.

I guess when the immobiliser system detects a valid key, it also signals the alarm/locking system to disarm and unlock. So if you jammed a copy key (or screwdriver) in it wouldnt disarm the alarm, and the engine wouldnt start either.

On the Audi the immobiliser is handled by the instrument cluster, whereas the locking and alarm is handled by a comfort unit in the boot. The BMW has a combined comfort/security module that handles both.

Yeh i did wonder. We're still mostly using the key as the antenna is unplugged and the fob range is useless, but i had a feeling that when i came in the other day i had stuff in my hands and just hit the fob button to lock, so thats probably what its been.

Both my A4 and my E90 BMW do effectively the same thing. If you unlock with the key, only that door opens and the alarm goes off. Once you put the ignition on the alarm stops and the rest of the car unlocks. I guess the range rover pre-dates the integration which allows the alarm to realise that a valid key is present in the ignition, and hence have the awful EKA system instead!

Ok, so we said it'd return and it did...

This morning the missus went to get in, used the key in the drivers lock, only the drivers door unlocked. She didnt open the door, but locked and unlocked it a few times, same thing, so she called me.

I told her to try using the remote, holding it near the drivers rear window. She did that and it unlocked immediately.

Now, i cant actually remember if i locked it using the remote or the key last time i used it, would that make a difference? I'm sure i read something about if you lock with the remote you cant then open with the key, but i cant really remember. If it doesnt matter, then clearly it implies something iffy with the drivers door lock? I presume a bad microswitch or similar?

I just dont trust the electronics well enough. If something goes wrong with it superlocked, its break-a-window time and i dont want to end up in that situation. At least if its only locked, i can mechanically open it with the key etc. Its more likely to lock me out and cause me headaches, than it is to prevent someone breaking in.

Its good to know it wont superlock with one press though. i guess that means i can use the remote in the mean time.

Thanks those pics are pretty good. No idea how they create the images for the likes of haynes, maybe they lift the car with a crane :P

As for why, mostly curiosity, helps for plotting vapour builds in my head :P

And yes, i could go crawl underneath, but that requires effort when a random "i wonder if part X is in the way of part Y" thought pops into my head.

For instance earlier i wondered if you'd get away with a normal RWD transmission (from say a Jag XJ8) powering the rear axle. Afterall XJ8's are super cheap, have a lovely AJV8 and make decent power. Now i can see the fuel tank is very much in the way.

Anyone happen to have an underbody shot of the P38?

Something like this (i realise its a model):

https://www.megamo.hk/assets/images/LR/org/d90org_006.jpg

I know the old haynes manuals used to include it, but i dont have one for the P38. Had a good google search but cant find anything!

well they all suffer that fate with the old receiver, it just depends if the right RF signals are present. Often various household stuff uses the 433mhz frequency. For instance i have a wireless thermostat for the heating that uses it.

When i parked it directly in front of the house, it certainly drained the battery within a couple days, enough that i went and bought a solar panel to keep the battery topped up. However parking to the side of the house for several weeks without the solar panel attached seems to have no drain issues. But clearly refitting the antenna i'm sure will make it much worse

I'm still slightly wary about using the remote, because i dont want it superlocking itself and leaving me stranded. I've not quite managed to figure out what makes it superlock, so for now i've been locking with the key and unlocking with the remote. I will at some point disconnect the superlocking wires within the locks to ensure it cant do that!

Thats what i thought initially, but reading between the lines he seems to be suggesting that the "external" tanks should have their valve (or the whole tank?) physically outside the vehicle, as he's talking about cutting a hole in the wheel well and avoiding ARB's...

My tank has its valve on the outside surface of the tank, but still inside the car.

What's the difference between internal and external?

Mines always above max every morning. Start the car and the pump fires up and the level drops down.

Mines always above max every morning. Start the car and the pump fires up and the level drops down.