I've had 80's cars that used full flow heater matrices and a mechanical blend door. Seemed to be a bit of a mixture back then, but everything has gone that way now. Engines need coolant flow even when the thermostat is shut. Everyone eventually realised that pumping it thru the matrix was the easiest way to achieve this and keeps the coolant circuit nice and simple.

I've run a dehumidifier in mine quite a bit, the cable just squishes into the seal if you place it carefully at a corner. Part of the problem though is coolant doesnt evaporate very readily at low temperatures, which you'll notice if you spill some on the garage floor. Which means extracting it with a dehumidifier will probably take eons.

It would seem i was worrying unneccesarily, once i drove it up the road all the lights went out and it seems happy.

I do have a question mark on the brake pedal feel though. Perhaps others can chip in with how theirs feels?

Previously the pedal was very "hard", there was a bit of initial travel, then it would come up kinda solid and it felt like brake modulation was simply via pressure on the pedal.

Now the pedal is much softer. I would hesistate to say spongey but certainly very much softer than before. Brakes come on immediately at light effort like you would expect, but it no longer has the same solid feeling, the pedal moves down as the braking force increases, more like a typical car.

I'm fairly sure its always had the "solid" feel to the pedal the whole time i've had the car, so this differnce has me questioning what it should be doing.

I may well go back thru the whole bleeding routine again, its just a faff and takes about and hour and requires an assistant.

Spend the weekend wiring in the 99 spec wabco ECU and corresponding modulator to replace my broken one.

Finally got everything together, brakes bled, ECU powered, everything looks good....

Except the dashboard says Traction Failure

I've not actually driven it yet as i need to put the coolant tank and stuff back in. Scanned for fault codes and none are found. Is this perhaps normal for a WabcoD after the battery has been removed? Or do I have a problem somewhere in the wiring 🤔

I think calling it CVT is actually a bit of a disservice, as that name has been applied to a range of pretty crap mechanical gearboxes, originally developed by DAF and used by Volvo and Audi amongst others, which are nothing like the Toyota box.

The Toyota/Lexus hybrid transmission is really very clever in comparison, with the CVT ratio being created by a planetary gearset and electric motor working together.

Awesome thanks.

I managed to get it apart with bruteforce, couldnt actually see anything wrong with it, my suspicion is one of the ABS solenoids has stuck.

Guide is super handly though incase i need to replace seals etc.

Philip wrote:

Luton fire was started by an early diesel L494 RR Sport, wasn’t a hybrid.

Statistics show that EV's are much less likely to go on fire than ICE vehicles. Not really a surprise given one contains heat and flammable liquids... The medias anti-EV crusade ofcourse likes to highlight every fire caused by an EV, giving people the false impression that they're exploding all over the shop.

Interestingly diesel is amongst the worst. Because its difficult to set alight, it tends to move around. A petrol fire will go kaboom and burn off quickly, a diesel fire will instead create a nice river of burning diesel on the ground which flows across the car park, setting fire to other cars as it goes. It also enables the fire to travel between floors as the burning liquid fuel can enter drainage pipes and whatnot.

The 300h box has a mechanical/cable linkage from the shifter to the box, whos entire purpose pretty much is engaging the parking pawl in "P".

The gearbox otherwise is entirely electronically controlled, infact its not really a gearbox at all, its a pair of electric motors.

Ordered up another Wabco unit from the bay and started the swap procedure today.

Removing the modulator is fairly straightforwards if a little awkward, however i got hit with a bit of a snag... The top bolt that holds the modulator to the bulkhead was properly stuck. After heaving on it i got it moving and eventually it worked its way out of the nut, but wouldnt move any further. Corrosion between the ally housing and steel bolt.

I ended up managing to remove the L bracket between the modulator and bulkhead, which was a proper pig as the bracket goes in before the steering column, so getting at the two nuts requires lots of creativity...

With that off, the modulator came out and i managed to free the bolt off with a punch and big hammer. Oddly the bolt actually appears to be slightly bent (possibly due to me beating on it...), so i'll need to sort another one.

Then it got dark so i gave up for the evening.

I did discover something odd, with all the brake lines removed, the pedal on the old modulator still wouldnt depress... It moved about 1cm then went solid. I would sort of expect to have got a long spongy pedal with all the lines removed?

When i got it on the bench and prodded it some more, eventually i opened the bleeder for the master cylinder. When i did that and pushed the pedal fork, fluid shot out of the bleeder and the rod now moves.

Does anyone have the actual teardown/overhaul guide?

I'm wanting to take apart my broken unit... So far i've removed the two steel pins and the hex head thing from the opposide side.

However the round ally piece that the pedal attaches to wont come out the front, not sure what i'm missing here? I've tried crowbarring at it somewhat, but it wont move.

I'm not really sure theres any point at this stage rehashing the legal implications of a RF receiver on a 30 year old car. Its crap, we know its crap and workarounds exist. Its extremely unlikely that anyone, as a customer/end user, is ever going to be able to talk to anyone far enough up the chain in engineering to know or find out any actual real details about the EMI certification or any other technical detail on the receiver. Thats why you were fobbed off, and would be the same with any auto-maker.

I've had engine disabled once, in the car park of the harry potter tour in watford.

I unlocked with the key and the central locking didnt fire. I for some daft reason thought the battery was flat rather than trying the door lock again, i turned the ignition on. Set the alarm off and got engine disabled.
Thankfully, i disconnected the battery, reconnected with all the doors shut and tried the key again, and the car unlocked and the message went away. Which is good, because i didnt have the EKA on me 400miles from home!

To make the journey even more fun, the fuel hose out of the filter split on the way to the hotel, which i only discovered after parking up in a multi-story car park and realising there was a river of fuel running down the concrete.... Quite topical with the recent events at Luton (caused by a landrover) and also the Echo Arena fire a few years ago, also caused by a landrover... Thankfully my P38 didnt set the entire car park alight, and i had a long walk to eurocarparts the next day to buy a piece of fuel hose.

Thereafter i realised that some small portion of the time, the car wouldnt unlock when the door lock was turned. If you simply locked and unlocked again it would almost always work. Thats what prompted me to get the latch rebuilt.

I imagine if you turn off passive immo, then in effect you end up with the same setup that i have?

My remote has not worked for ages. Initially it worked, but had the drain issues so i eventually unplugged the receiver, then some time later i bought one of the filter kits and reconnected the receiver and when trying to get it all working the remote is simply not detected by the car. Its not the filter, as the same thing happens without it. Seems to be a weird BECM issue of some sort.

Thus I only use the door lock, which i had rebuilt a couple of years ago. The car doesnt have passive immobilisation enabled and from what i can see it basically Just Works.

If you never lock it with the fob, it seems that it never actually wants the EKA, nor does it get itself in a tiz. The only time i've ever needed to use the EKA was after locking it with the fob, and the battery door on the fob came loose in my pocket requiring it all to be resynced. Since then i simply never lock it with the fob any more... Even when the fob was working, i only ever used it to unlock the car after that situation...

I've contemplated getting a cheap remote fob kit for it and tapping it in across the wires for the drivers door lock. That way the latch microswitch isnt getting hammered, and i can unlock from the other side etc.

okay sooo its still broken.

Swapped the passenger front flexi this afternoon. Was slightly worried to see zero fluid coming out of the line when i disconnected it from the hardline. Put the new line in and pressed the pedal and... nothing. Exactly the same as before, no pressure getting to the caliper.

I then grabbed the old flexi i removed and tried to skoosh some WD40 thru it, and sure enough, its not blocked and the spray comes flying right thru.

So something weird going on inside the Wabco unit?!

I connected the nanocom to see if there were any faults, and there doesnt seem to be any.

On the outputs page there are 8 options, front right inlet and outlet valve, front left inlet and outlet valve etc for all four corners.

No idea what they do but i decided to start pressing things and discovered a discrepancy. If i apply some brake pedal and click any of the four inlet valves, i get a small kickback from the brake pedal. If i then click the corresponding outlet valve, i hear a distinct click from the Wabco unit, except for the front left... For the front left i get no click when i press the outlet valve.

The inner workings of the Wabco are a bit of a mystery, but it would seem that its faulty in some way?

scuttle probably drains out in that area too.?

To check for a matrix leak, get a couple sheets of kitchen roll and slide them in between the underside of the heater box, and the carpet. If its leaking you'll soon see the paper get wet.

FWIW, my slightly broken engine used more coolant on short trips than long ones. I can drive 100miles continuously without needing to top up, but a few trips back and forth to the nursery would see the tank empty. Not got enough data after the head gaskets to see how that has changed.

Thing is, the TPS doesnt do a huge amount, its used for idle control, transient fuelling/accell enrichment and as a backup for when other sensors have failed.

MAF is the primary input for fuelling on Motronic. There is essentially direct lookup table that pulls the MAF value and turns it into an injector duty cycle. Everything else then feeds into what the MAF is saying as corrections/adjustments/trims.

Sometimes you'll get a code for sure, but they are well known to have this silent failure method.

I dont really get the stop start hate. I suspect its just the usual humans-dont-like-change thing that applies to so many things... As the chap above points out, if it was always there you wouldnt think twice about it.

End of the day, you visit any major city and you'll find thousands of vehicles sitting stationary at lights and junctions, spewing out emissions for no reason. Its much better for everyone that isnt in a vehicle to just shut it off.

There might be the odd situation where it adds a little inconvenience to the driver but personally i think thats fine. Perhaps some implementations are worse than others. Most manuals will restart as soon as you depress the clutch to select a gear for instance. Hybridisation will as mentioned help fill the gap too.

Should we prioritise the people in the metal box spewing out toxins, or should we prioritise the health of everyone else? Most drivers in this country seem to default to the former, but there really needs to be more balance.

Given you have mixture codes, why would you think its related to the TPS?

As i said a few posts ago, when bosch MAF's fail, they tend to under read (often worse at high load), and will often cause mixture codes. They do so in a way that the ECU doesnt really notice its wrong, but because it doesnt reflect the actual airflow the fuelling ends up wrong.

Unplug the MAF and see if it drives any better.

If the MAF is "working" but providing incorrect data, the engine wont run properly.
If the MAF is not working at all, the ECU will ignore it and use backup parameters, which are usually close enough.

Thus if it runs better without the MAF you have a reasonable indicator that its at fault. Its not 100% but certainly a good indicator.

I much prefer Android Auto to standalone nav having had both options over the years. The traffic-aware routing etc on google maps is fantastic, and it being fully integrated with your phone is also super useful. Being able to seamlessly play music or pull in podcasts etc is also handy.

Rain sensing wipers are nice for sure, but i've also had cars where your constantly adjusting the sensitivity of the sensor, just as youd end up having to adjust the intermit settings. I have noticed on a few occasions with the Skoda, that i've left them on auto and they fire up with a few drops of rain (or perhaps a car in front has washed its windscreen) and they just smear everything because the screens dusty and there isnt enough water... Overall i'm neutral on those.

A lot of these aids have pros and cons. Lane assist can be annoying, but if it gets people to actually use their indicators to stop the car annoying them then great...

Lights i just leave them on all the time if possible. On the P38 i set the BECM to run the lights all the time (the only nuisance is it doesnt illuminate the instrument cluster). Anything to make the car more noticeable to other drivers is a must. Modern cars have DRLs for exactly this purpose, although those have their own flaws, including not lighting up the rear of the car.

I didnt order adaptive cruise on the Skoda, and at first was kinda annoyed with myself. But having driven another Skoda with it, i found it was too eager to back off in traffic. You'd be catching a lorry on cruise at 70mph, put the indicator on to overtake and by the time youve switched lanes its already slowed to 60 or 65, and then has to accellerate again when it realises the road is clear. If your in denser traffic where your just staying in lane and not really worried about changing lanes it works okay. In effect it encourages lazy lane-hogging driving, because trying to keep left just becomes irritating.

Automatic emergency brake is a no brainer ofcourse. I've never actually needed it, but had the pre-warning a few times and its sorta comforting to know the car was on it.

A nice in-dash screen with Android Auto is on my list, i find it invaluable in my daily and feels like the thing i miss the most driving both my older cars.

I would also like the sunroof to disappear...

Working aircon would be nice too.

Brown leather seats have been on my wanted for some time, as well as ditching all the grey plastics for black ones.

The biggest thing? Time. I have endless lists of things that need done and no time to actually do them. Work on cars seems to revolve around firefighting whatever has broken and never actually getting round to the "nice-to-have" bits.

I think the only time the handbrake gets used in mine is when it goes for its MOT 🤣 That said, i have used it occasionally when parking on an actual hill, i just dont do that very often.

Interestingly, earlier variants of the NCT manual had examples in those braking sections about what types of vehicles should be tested with a decellerometer, which included vehicles with permanently engaged 4 wheel drive. At some point circa 2015, they adjusted the wording to simply say "cars of a type that can't be tested". No idea why they chose to add that ambiguity.

The first thing to replace, if your going to replace anything, would be the accumulator. The pump itself is clearly working, but given its restarting so frequently the accumulator may be getting tired.

Its always frustrating when testers have a disagreement like this. I had a similar issue with my old Nissan LEAF. It had a foot operated "handbrake", using a pedal in the footwell. Before the test i'd noticed it was a bit loose, so i adjusted up the rear shoes as per the manual and checked it was all working to spec. The manual says something along the lines of that you should apply 50kg of force to the pedal and it should move 6 clicks. I actually went to the effort of putting a bathroom scale in the footwell to get a feel for how much force i should be applying, and got it all set nicely. Brake felt MUCH better than it had been.

Took it in for its test, and he failed it for too much travel. I decided to overtighten the cable to try and get it passed, and he failed it again. Cue an arguement in the parking lot, i showed him that three clicks on the pedal (half nissans spec!) i could floor the accellerator and the car wouldnt move... He got in and shoved the pedal with all his might and managed to make it move about 12 clicks, and was going "see, too much travel"....

I'm like sure, all your doing there is stretching the crap outta the cables. The brakes were on hard after 3 clicks and you've moved it 12...

After some back and forth he eventually agreed and passed it, but unneccesary hassle and stress for something that i know is working.

I also had them fail my A4 for a non-working engine management light... It doesnt have one. For whatever reason Audi didnt fit the light to models between 1996 and 2000. I ended up taking in the wiring diagram for the instrument cluster, which clearly showed the wiring for the light was "for model year 2001>" and they eventually accepted it.