Well i decided to take the truck in to work today. My commute is 40miles each way, so a decent road test for it.
No breakdowns, everything worked as it should which is a good start!
Highlighted a few things that need sorted though.
Primarily there was a vibration at higher speeds. 55-60ish i guess it was most pronounced, but it wasnt entirely consistent. The steering wheel didnt seem to shake, it felt like the whole car was vibrating. At 70 it went away a bit. It was still there but less pronounced. One thing that was consistent, was that lifting off the throttle at 70 made a very distinct deep droning noise. The noise went away with reapplying the throttle.
Brakes felt lacking, as mentioned in the other thread. They worked ok, but i wouldnt like to have to stop quickly in it. So i'll need to strip the brakes down and check the pistons and sliders etc.
Achieved 15mpg on petrol. Not tooo bad i guess, but need to get the LPG system sorted out!
That was overnight. I guess as long as its not indicative of a fault i can ignore it. Other more important issues to concentrate on!
yeh it took a good 20-30 seconds for the TC light to go out and the pump kept running for a bit longer.
Had it out on the motorway today and they're definately lacking. Will have to strip things down and investigate!
RutlandRover wrote:
Are they determining left/right relative to sitting in the driver's seat or standing at the front looking the vehicle?
Its always relative to sitting in the drivers seat looking forwards.
The right side of your body doesnt change if someones looking at the front of you, does it ;)
usually the difference is the bleed nipple position. If you fit them on the wrong sides, the nipple ends up at the bottom.
So yesterday i moved it back into its usual parking spot, having sat for 24hrs. This time it immediately lifted itself up.
I tried removing the exhaust silencer and feeling for a leak but i wasnt really sure what i was seeing.
I couldnt feel or hear any hissing, i jammed by thumb over the hole and felt pressure build up behind it then release with a hiss when i removed it. However after doing that twice, it stopped doing it any more...
You sure? the noise is unmissable :P
around 3-4 seconds, the last half turn of the wheel before it hits the stop.
The rest of the video is just me silently twirling the wheel as it didnt want to make any noise.
i think it might well just be the old-car vs new car thing.
My A4's brakes used to be fine, but since driving the 330d and B250e they now feel pretty poor. The P38 is worse than the A4 though.
A good hard shove on the pedal and it certainly seems to stop, and the MOT tester had no issues with it. I'll try some vigorous braking at higher speeds next time i have it out and about.
Is it normal for the brake pump to run for ages at first startup?
Tried to get a video, as usual it was proving stubborn :P It only made it once for a short time:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ziikv1ok8rktht8/2017-04-12%2016.27.45.mp4?dl=0
I dont think its hydraulic. It sounds like its inside the cabin, unless its vibrating up the column shaft or something. Its not the lock-stop/PRV groan that is common with PAS systems. Its movement related.
I sorta thaught it might be the steering damper originally, as it looks to have been leaking and i figured it might be knackered, but it really does sound like its inside the car :/
Sorted!
Rutland: I'm fairly tall and found that i was sorta ducking down to look under the sun visor.
Seems if you push the whole switch down it moves the front and back motors simultaneously. Somehow when i tried that the other day only the front was dipping and i couldnt figure out what was going on. When you do back only, it sorta feels like your adjusting the seat back so i ruled that out, but played around and realised the headrest switch also did the back angle!
I've actually got the paper owners manual, i should go dig it out and RTFM! :P
Cheers Guys.
cheers, will try that this evening!
Do the electric seats have height adjustment?
I feel i'm sitting too high, I've tried to adjust the seats but pushing the lever down seems to tip the seat base rather than actually lowering it. Maybe i'm doing something wrong!
The bit thats really puzzling me is i'm sure it was fine until the missus drove it and spent about 5 minute pissing about with the seat control and now it feels jacked up! I need to figure out the memory functions so i can store my position!
Sorry for the seperate posts, but its better to keep each issue in its own thread i think.
Another issue i've got is the steering makes a sort of groaning noise when turning to the extremes of travel. It also feels fairly stiff especially at low speeds.
When driving its mostly fine, but navigating a car park for instance where your turning to full lock it makes a weird noise. I guess i should try to record the noise as its hard to explain!
yeh i guess at some point i'll have the calipers off and clean everything up, grease all the sliders and make sure pistons are all free and check the pads while i'm in there. Its not went far in 5 or 6 years so might be a bit siezed.
They dont feel spongey any more, the pedal feels fine, it just requires a lot of pedal effort to generate good retardation.
So when i got the P38 the brake system was broken. The pedal was spongey and brakes were barely effective, one press of the pedal had the pump running and the lights on the dashboard flashing up. It did stop, but the travel was long and the brakes were really weak.
I replaced the brake accumulator, and did a full system bleed, and the problems seemed fixed.
However when driving the brakes dont seem all that powerful.
I've noticed that on startup, the brake pump runs for quite a while, then once driving, every 2 or 3 applications of the brake you hear it start up and run for a few seconds.
Once driving the pedal seems firm, but theres not a huge amount of power unless you really lean on it. Maybe its just an old car thing, and i'm more used to modern stuff. I dont remember my old trooper being quite as bad though.
Any thoughts?
yeh, i should have pulled the exhaust silencer out and had a feel/listen, thats the next job.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/tub1jpsjw518xwp/2017-04-11%2016.18.01.mp4?dl=0
Quick video.
That was first startup after it having sat since saturday evening.
I reversed out the drive after making the video, and drove to the end of the cauldesac and the lights finally went solid.
I'll do that this evening and see what it does.
Soo finally got a spare half hour on saturday evening and took the P38 to collect a carryout.
On return i parked it on the flat driveway, and pulled the EAS relay.
Measured the distance from arch to ground at each corner (i know ideally i'd measure bumpstops, but this was quicker and my dinner was waiting :P) and i got roughly 81cm on the drivers side (front and rear) and 82cm on the passengerside (again front and rear). There was slight differences in the 5mm range but i ignored those.
Left it there a few days and re-measured this morning. Drivers side front is down to 79 and rear is at 80.5, passenger side front is at 80 and rear is at 81.5.
So all four corners have dropped a bit, but none of them are on the bumpstops, so clearly theres no significant leak in the bag circuits, though there are some minor leaks. Oddly the front bags have dropped the most despite looking significantly newer than the rears.
I dont think that level of leakage is anything to worry about at the moment (though i might be wrong?), so i need to move on to looking at the tank side and potentially the NRV.
I guess i could pop a pressure gauge inline with the tank to see whats going on there. Will plan out some diagnostics. I meant to get it levelled off and park it on the flat driveway overnight last night, but apathy set in and i couldnt be bothered :P Will see about doing it tonight.
I've also found a melted hose that runs from the passenger side corner of the bulkhead down under the car. Looks like someones spliced or repaired the original black nylon pipe with something less heat resistant, and its melted on the downpipe. Dont think its EAS related though, Maybe an axle or trans breather line? Need to trace it, and get some new pipe!