I can recall someone I knew with a broken clutch cable on a Citron Xantia being quoted 7 hours to replace it - Due to a lack of space around it where it came through the bulkhead you had to move the engine to allow access. The 7 hours being for the RHD version and Citroen's own times for the job, LHD was 45 minutes!. All due to a broken plastic fitting on the end of it.

dave3d wrote:

Worth investing in a radiator pressure testing kit. You can then pressurise the system with the pump that comes with the kit and see where the leak is coming from.

Would agree with this - far easier to find coolant leaks with a cold engine that way. Think someone else here recently made one with a replacement pressure cap with a hole drilled into it, and a suitable pump (a bike tyre pump would be adequate as you don't need much pressure there, you just need a way to get it into the pressure cap then).

Morat wrote:

Heater cores are always buried in the dash and dashboards are always tedious to remove :(
When I rule the world, all cars will have maintenance hatches for any component that isn't guaranteed for the life of the owner!

Tell that to Renault! I've spent this weekend underneath an Espace to get to the heater fan, as they have located the fan, heater core and resistor pack under the drivers seat with access from below.

Probably preferable to removing the dash though.

Lpgc wrote:

Smug mode ;-) I've developed the habit of never leaving keys in a vehicle unless at least a window is down, I won't even do it with my own cars. P38s are among vehicles I'd worry most about breaking the habit with.

With you on that one - Fords being particually bad, I've only ever locked myself out of the car once, by locking the keys inside the boot (including the house keys) when putting stuff into it. Though i've known the locks on a few of mine to be heard trying to lock or unlock when driving along for no apparant reason, so I just don't trust them.

You might find that if the car isn't sat level when your filling that the level it cuts off at is different, but it should be 20%. Though the cut off on a multivalve is a bit hit and miss at best (the single hole tank i had on previous car tended to cut off much more predictably at the same level).

Also depends where you can buy LPG from locally given the low mileage, if its somewhere you'd go past or close enough to not matter all well and good, if its miles out of your way perhaps not so much. Though given you already have the kit (and its secondhand value is not particually high) it would make sense to use it to me. I found by comparison I would run through a full tank of petrol in around 300 miles, i could get just short of 300 on about 98 litres of LPG, costing around £52-£65 now (the equivalent petrol would cost approx £110). Even on that, you'd save more on the mileage you'd do than you'd be likely to get trying to sell the kit separately. Really the only downside is not having the spare wheel in the intended location provided by Land Rover for it.

I have one of these (similar, not identical one) down the workshop rated at 12 tonnes
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PROGEN-12-TON-TONNE-BOTTLEJACK-WORKSHOP-GARAGE-SHOP-FLOOR-STANDING-PRESS/232754307796

Thats been fine for everything we have wanted it for so far, without taking up too much space (wouldn't be to difficult to disassemble to store if you didn't want it for a while either).

RutlandRover wrote:

It's had a new sump gasket too - had to fish a screwdriver bit out after my bit holder disintegrated while assembling the top end.

TBH I've no idea if it's marking its territory - I've not driven it since I out it back together. The MOT was its first journey.

The running rich thing might be to do with idle speed. When I bleeding the coolant system this morning I noticed that it seemed to be holding the revs when revving the engine. I'd blip it, they'd rise, then fall and at around 1500rpm they'd kind of hover and then drop more slowly. Once or twice the revs got stuck at 3000 or so, even though the pedal was no longer pressed and the cable at the throttle body end was resting against the stop. Had to switch the engine off when that happened.

Need to look at that but I just needed it running for the MOT at that point. MOT guy didn't mention any problems when he brought it back though.

Disconnecting a spark plug and injector to lower emissions would lead to very lumpy running engine and possible warning lights/error codes (on a more modern car) wouldn't it? I'm sure that would give other problems for an MOT.

You wouldn't really need to disconnect the spark plug, just the fuel injector would be enough on an injected car. Though on a modern car that would bring the MIL on anyway, which would fail the MOT.

Given the performance (or lack of) when one of the spark plugs was ejected out of the Galaxy i've also got, running it on 3 cylinders somewhat hits the performance - lumpy running with a real lack of power. You might get away with it on something with more cylinders, though it would probably still be noticeable.

The last MOT my Disco had struggled slightly on petrol to pass, tester was hesitant to test on gas but decided to try once I'd guided him away from the cng options on his tester towards the lpg ones, It passed on that with what turned out later to be a dying coil pack (probably the cause of the original failure on petrol, combined with a cat thats seen better days).

We have had the aircon compressor off a TD5 on a Disco 2 this weekend, mounting looks similar to where the space where one would be on my Thor engined Disco 2, 4 bolts one on each corner. We just undid the bolts and slid it to the side (needed to get to the water pump beneath it now we have fixed the rest of the leaks and found what looks like the original leak). Can't guarantee that there was anything actually in the a/c system there though, as we noticed the condensor was disintegrating when replacing the radiator. But you should be ok as your not moving it very far.

You might find it easier to take the front bit of the manifold off or separate the throttle section from it (i'd need to have a look to see exactly where it splits, but you can separate the front bit from the Bananas I think)

Congratulations - you just need to fit that silicon hose now!

Morat wrote:

Yes, there's a bit of tension building!
It's not really big bumps, it's asymmetric bumps. If you hit a speed hump straight on, no problem. If you hit one at an angle the wheel will tank slap left and right 3-5 times in about a second. There's also a lot of vagueness in the steering, especially when on cambers. It adds up to making a wide car feel even wider on narrow roads.

That sounds like the symptoms I had - hit potholes at any significant speed and you'd feel it, but not be able to predict what it would do. Replaced all 4 balljoints (both lower ones very shot) and the n/s front wheel bearing and it cured it (n/s bearing had a lot of play in it once the wheel was lifted up, but no noise from it).

Lpgc wrote:

Yeh, can read a few implications into what you've said and would agree with them. Dial the number for the Merc dealer and the recorded message (press 3 for parts dept etc) sounds like a well spoken professional young lady.. and I'm sure that if I pressed 1 or 2 or waited to speak to someone the phone would be answered very soon... But I had to press 3 so had to wait 10 minutes for someone to pick the phone up, their answerphone system trying many times to connect me to someone in their service dept between the music and unfinished messages advertising they'd pick my car up to service it etc (presumably if I'd bought a fairly new Merc from them). Surprised that the young lad didn't know that locking wheel nuts slot in at only one position (around 360deg) though.. In his box the masterkeys were all facing key side up and given the shapes of the key it should have been a bit obvious... They make toys for 3 years olds where shapes only slot into holes at one orientation eh!

Maybe thats why he was in the parts dept and not the fitting bays?

I've seen Britpart manage to screw up with a slotted head machine screw from my mate with his series III. If they can screw that up, they can screw anything up (slot in the head on the screw not in the middle of the head - really can't get any more simple than that, and they still got it wrong, luckily they only sell them in packs of 10 so he could manage in that case without a couple of them).

I've got the Icarsoft for Renault, and Clip. Out of the two of them, Icarsoft is the least useful, as while it can display stuff and clear codes thats about all it can do, and it does alot of that badly (modules that should work don't, I have to use a combination of different car models to speak to all the modules in the Espace etc etc).

I wouldn't waste your money - as Richard says it won't speak to your engine (and if it did, might not do so in a very predictable way or with results you can rely on, I've seen some of the sensor data for pre 2001 stuff when torque and the like is used, and its frequently wrong, such as a battery voltage of 37v on a vehicle that clearly doesn't have any charging issues). As Richard says, the unit is the same hardware as the creader with different software loaded onto it.

If you want to spend money on diagnostics (or need to!) then you'd be better getting something that isn't VIN locked, as you can always either resell it later, or use it on another vehicle if you end up with one, or come into contact with one belonging to someone else.

Only thing i can think might have an effect in one direction only is the steering damper. Should be easy to prove by disconnecting it and seeing if theres any improvement?

You might also be able to get it via the logbook and the local dealer - It might be an idea to ring them and see whats said if you can't find anything on the existing bolt.

If the gearbox mount is not doing its job it might be allowing the cv joint to turn in a way its not supposed to which could account for the clicking, without someone having a look underneath to see what the problems are being caused by its hard to say, though would expect if they were trying it on to gain work that they would invent MOT issues and try to insist on fixing them rather than letting it through.
Though the wheel nuts working loose could just be coincidence given the recent work they will obviously have been undone so worth a check.

I've had a drop link on a focus fail and cause all manner of strange noises - didn't know where it was coming from and it was due an mot anyway, took it in hoping to find what was causing the noise at the same time only to find the tester didn't notice it. Only eventually discovered what it was when the thing actually came apart completely so they can miss stuff.

I was surprised how much play was there with no sound generated from mine, a good inch or so of movement once the wheel was raised off the ground, so its possible.

BrianH wrote:

You might find more luck approaching the dealer to get a replacement key - I know someone else recently was shopping around for them, and found out they were around £17 from the dealer, or more expensive elsewhere. Though being a merc you might be out of luck there. Is there a key number stamped onto it?

Infact just remembered it was a guy down the road from me with a Nissan - I found his key in the road a couple of weeks beforehand and returned it to him, but he managed to lose it again after that!

You might find more luck approaching the dealer to get a replacement key - I know someone else recently was shopping around for them, and found out they were around £17 from the dealer, or more expensive elsewhere. Though being a merc you might be out of luck there. Is there a key number stamped onto it?