The permanent supply comes from Fuse 14 which is 20A but it does feed the CD changer as well (if you've got one). Ignition switched supply comes from fuse 8 (30A) via a relay inside the BeCM.

StrangeRover wrote:

Smart motor that is Richard.

It is. It is OldShep's old car. It was pretty tidy when he sold it but the guy that bought it neglected it and caused a few more problems by following the advice of 'experts' on facebook. Since we got it, it has had a new headlining, sunroof seal, the drivers seat and steering wheel have been cleaned and re-dyed, a pair of new rear brake callipers, metal brake pipes, a couple of brake hoses, new water pump, rocker cover gaskets, valley gasket, power steering pipes, a couple of tyres, a Marty special DSP replacement, new window switchpack, new heater blowers, HEVAC zebra strip, throttle body heater gasket (and the brittle plastic pipe replaced with copper LPG pipe) and various other bits and pieces. The valet guy did a superb job on it, and the picture doesn't really do it justice. Just waiting for the nuts the battery cover screws fit into so even that will fit properly. That was Danny's idea, as I told him, until I first saw that car I'd never seen one with a battery cover but he's insisted it's got to be right. He even got me to take the side repeater indicators off so he could clean the dirt out from inside them with a small toothbrush......

We've left that bloody horrible stainless exhaust on it though. We could have taken it off, sold it and used the proceeds to buy a standard one but then we'd need to change the rear bumper too as that has had bits cut out of it to clear the tailpipes.

Finished off the Vogue just before the guy turned up to give it a full valet. Almost ready to put it up for sale now.

The 4 way plug behind the LH rear light is there in case you want to fit dual socket electrics for your towbar. It has reversing light, ignition switched supply, permanent supply and ground. I've used it to provide an additional power socket in the boot and a feed to a reversing camera. Sounds like someone has done the same in the past. The plug blank is there to stop it dangling. RH sidelight failure (does it say front or rear?) is telling you a bulb has gone. Sidelight is English for tail light, this is a picture I did to help out an American woman who didn't know which bulb to look at......

Lpgc wrote:

Anyone have a BMW engine'd L322 to compare readings?

No but I've got RAVE that covers it:

Mass Air Flow/Air Intake Temperature (MAF/IAT) Sensor
The MAF/IAT sensor is located in the air intake ducting, between the air cleaner and the throttle body. The sensor outputs intake air flow and temperature signals to the ECM to enable calculation of the mass of the air entering the engine.
In addition to the air flow and temperature outputs, a regulated 5 V feed and an earth are connected between the sensor and the ECM, and the sensor receives a battery power feed from the main relay.
Air flow:
The air flow signal is produced from a hot film element in the sensor. The film is connected between the 5 V feed and the air flow output to the ECM. The film is also heated by the battery power feed and cooled by the air flow into the engine. The greater the air flow, the greater the cooling effect and the lower the electrical resistance across the sensor. So the air flow output voltage varies with changes in air flow and, from voltage/air flow maps stored in memory, the ECM determines the mass of air entering the engine.
Air intake temperature:
The air intake temperature signal is produced by a NTC thermistor connected between the 5V feed and earth to complete a voltage divider circuit. The ECM monitors the voltage drop across the thermistor and, from voltage/temperature maps stored in memory, determines the temperature of the intake air.

Can't find any data of what the output from the MAF should read though. The same section on the P38 gives figures for idle and at 3,000 rpm but the L322 manual doesn't seem to show that.

Discovered that one of the knock sensors on one of my cars was broken off and the wires were just dangling, no fault codes recorded though. Try unplugging them and see if it is happy with them disconnected.

Just took the Ascot for MoT, passed with no advisories. Emissions amazed me and the tester. Running on LPG using a singlepoint system, CO was 0.02% with HC at 6ppm (limits on LPG are 3.5% and 1200ppm HC). With emissions like that it would have flown through the petrol limits even (0.2% CO and 200ppm HC).

Now about to drive mine over to my mates to do a bit of finishing off on our Vogue......

I heard the most sensible thing I think a woman has ever said last night. There was an advert on TV for the new Audi RS e-Tron GT, which we both agreed was a pretty nice looking car but when my missus realised it was an EV her comment was that it was just wrong. Her view is that EV shopping trolleys are a good idea, even smaller family cars used to take the kids to school too but an electric sports car is going to be like a man having sex with a plastic doll, it just isn't the real thing. Admittedly she drives a Mercedes SLK280 with a petrol 3.0 litre V6 under the bonnet and wants me to change the exhaust system for one that isn't as quiet......

Do they still exist? Don't recall having seen them for years.

What was the slogan? What has a hazelnut in every bite? Squirrel sh*t......

Far simpler than the 2007 Merc my other half owns which is all Canbus. That has door outstations too (although Merc call them Door Control Modules) but they have to be programmed, like nearly all of the other 20 odd modules, to tell it what engine is fitted, what gearbox is fitted, whether LHD or RHD, etc. Had to change the passenger door outstation only to find that the passenger electric window button on the drivers door wouldn't work but the one on the passenger door worked perfectly. Couldn't find a problem with the switch or wiring only to discover that the outstation comes programmed for a LHD car so was ignoring the input from the drivers door. £60 to Mr Mercedes to plug his computer in and tell it that it's fitted to a RHD car so can expect inputs from two switches.

It's all done to keep down cost and weight. Copper wire is both expensive and heavy so a pair of wires can supply power to the outstation and it can, under control of the BeCM over a data line, supply that power to the door latches, electric windows and mirrors (2 supplies required, one for the side to side motor and one for the up and down motor) rather than using 4 pairs of power wires. That reduces the amount of heavy current wire required, the number of wires needed and the overall weight. On the E32 7 series BMW, which used conventional wiring rather than an outstation controlled system, the wiring loom was the heaviest single component on the whole car, heavier than the bodyshell or engine even.

No, the earth from the microswitches goes to the door outstation to report the status, That then informs, over a data line, the status of the switches to the BeCM. When locking or unlocking is required, the BeCM tells the door outstation to change the state of the locks which applies power to the motors. Or in the case of the rear doors that don't have an outstation, the BeCM powers the motors directly. The ground going to the tailgate switch is the only time it is actually used to pass current, the rest of the time it is merely to signal a low state. Think pulling inputs high or low rather than applying a ground.

No, the French did it about 2 years ago (although using a Russian design) and NASA have recently produced a small prototype with the intention of using it to power deep space missions. It does exist and the sooner it becomes mainstream the better.

One of the offshore windfarms is on Scroby Sands off Great Yarmouth. When it was first proposed to put 24 turbines there all the local fishermen told the developer they will all fall over, Scroby Sands are shifting and move with every tide. The developers claimed that their geologists knew what they were talking about and they would go down as far as the solid ground under the sands to give a firm foundation. Since they were finished there is a dredger constantly running around them all dropping rocks around the base to stop them falling over. If it wasn't for the green grants they would never cover the manufacture, installation and running costs before they get too old to remain serviceable.

The difference between the pre and post 99 latches is the connecting plug. Early ones have two plugs, a 6 way and a two way, where the P38 only uses one wire but the MG uses both, whereas the post 99 has a single 8 way plug. The latches themselves are the same even down to the wire colours so you can chop the two plugs off an early one and fit the plug from a later one. The internals are also identical so the switches and motors can be swapped over too. Pushing the sill locks down while driving locks all the doors, in fact, many modern cars do that automatically once you reach 10 mph. To unlock them, you just pull the button up again when you find that your passenger has accidentally pushed the button down with their elbow and the door won't open. The switch makes the circuit when the doors are unlocked (the same ground through the CDL switch is passed to the tailgate release, ground there and the tailgate can be opened, no ground means the tailgate can't be opened), again a failsafe so a broken latch for whatever reason keeps the doors locked.

Without a latch in bits in front of me, I'm not 100% on whether the pip is pushed in or open to close the circuit but I'm fairly certain the CDL switch needs to be pushed in to close the contacts. If you look at the way the switches are arranged, you'll see that they can be either, and two of them work one way round while the third works the other way.

Rather than try to build up the plastic, one option that I did on one latch (where I broke the pip off completely) was to add a metal wiper strip as used on some other microswitches and bent it so the switch was operated with only a very small amount of movement.

Like I said, secondhand is a gamble. Buy it, test it and find it is fine but how close is it to being worn out and putting you back at square one?

It's not bloody renewable electricity, electricity from renewable sources maybe, but you don't renew the electricity, once you've used it it's gone. At least one of the energy companies include nuclear as a green source of power so it's about time they built a few more. Then maybe they'll stop cluttering the countryside with windfarms with a design life of 20 years even though it takes the first 18 to get back the production and installation costs

All that will happen is when you unplug the latch, all the other doors will lock as the ground will be removed from the Green/Red wire. To the outstation it will appear that you've pushed the sill locking button down. Just ground the Green/Red to cause them all to unlock again.

Door latch for an MG TF is the same as the pre-99 latch and is a direct swap although there are two versions, one with key locking only and one with key and central locking, it is the latter you need. I've bought a couple of secondhand MG latches in the past but you've no way of knowing if the switches are good or on their last legs and about to fail. One I bought failed within weeks of fitting it.

JeremyAldermartenQC wrote:

There must be an easier way!

There is, but you won't like the price, https://www.island-4x4.co.uk/front-door-latch-assy-9499-fqj103220-p-1772.html for up to 99 or https://www.island-4x4.co.uk/front-door-latch-assy-9902-genuine-fqj103260-p-1774.html for 99 onwards. It is Marty who does refurbished door latches (www.p38webshop.co.uk) but he is currently in NZ so not able to supply at the moment. The main problem with changing the switches is that while they are the same size as standard microswitches, the mounting pins do not line up with the mounting holes on a standard microswitch.

You've got it right, when unlocked the CDL switch is closed so the pip is pushed in but with wear it doesn't get pushed in far enough for the contacts to make (ignore the self proclaimed experts on Youtube as most of them seem to have got it completely wrong). It's a failsafe, if the connection is lost, the doors will lock. Assuming you've got it right and it is the Red wire (it's the one that connects to the Green/Red in the loom to the outstation), grounding that will cause all the doors to unlock, except the drivers door as that is the one supplying the ground therefore it must be unlocked already. However, putting a manually operated switch in there is almost certainly going to cause you problems. If the switch is left closed (so the doors are unlocked) and you try to lock the car with the fob, the outstation will pass a message to the BeCM that the drivers door isn't locking (as the ground won't be removed), so you will at best, get a mislock, at worst, it will lock then immediately unlock all the doors. If the switch is left open, and the microswitch has failed completely (or has decided at that particular moment to be permanently open), it won't try to lock the drivers door as it is already locked. If you try to lock with the key, it will probably set off the alarm and/or trigger the immobiliser as they will be a pulse from the keyswitch but not a change of state from the CDL switch.

You could, as a temporary measure, fit an external switch that is operated by the movement of the rod or linkage from the sill locking button, so when the button is up (i.e. door unlocked) the switch is closed and when the button is down (locked) the switch is open.

Halfords HSBxxx, Halfords Starter Battery type number, Yuasa YBX5xxx, Yuasa Battery X5 type number.......

Drove it and called in at my local Flogas depot to fill the LPG tank, but have been having a play with the Ascot. Had to take a friends car in for MoT this morning and, as the ticket on the Ascot ran out a couple of weeks ago, booked it in for Friday morning. Figured it might be worth nipping into the village and treating it to a Romanian wash as it's been parked under a tree for the last year and what bits weren't covering in pigeon crap had started to go green. Having got it washed and looking pretty respectable, took it to Flogas (twice in an hour) and filled the LPG tank on that one too. Then on the way home the dash beeped at me and it came up with Airbag Fault and the SRS light came on. Not going to pass the MoT with that on, so plugged the Nano in and it came up with Driver Airbag Open Circuit. That'll be that damned plug under the dash, so out with the wire cutters, heatshrink and soldering iron. Reset it and the bugger came straight back again.

So it wasn't the plug, it's either the rotary coupler or the connection to the airbag itself. As the radio controls and the horn all work, unlikely to be the rotary coupler, so must be the airbag connection. Out with that, squirt of contact cleaner in the plug, plugged it in, ignition on, reset the fault and success, it didn't come back.

Then I had an idea as I was this far in. The steering wheel is black leather and has all the buttons for the stereo and cruise control but the legends have worn off so none of the buttons are labelled. But I also have an identical looking black leather steering wheel with buttons that still have the legends on them which was given to me (thanks Tom) when it was swapped for one with the coloured leather and wood. Fitted that and just before bolting the airbag back in,thought it might be a good idea to check that all the switches worked. They do but I found an interesting incompatibility. The Ascot, being a 96 model, has the Clarion system but the wheel I had been given was from a later car with the Alpine. Checking it I found that the down volume button worked as expected but the up volume button cause it to step through the radio station memories. In fact, the volume down button was the only one that did what the legend said it did, so I gave up and swapped them back. It may not have a legend on the buttons but they at least do what you expect them to do.

Sounds like it has jammed so it is not quite in high or low, but with the teeth just touching and causing the grinding noise. They should be able to take the motor off and turn the triangular spindle one way or the other. It turns though about 300 degrees to go from high fully engaged to low fully engaged.

They aren't in the centre but they are further from the battery edge than others. I fitted one to a 99 DSE and don't recall any problems. On my car (98 4.0 litre petrol) the existing leads fitted fine but on the Ascot (96 4.6 petrol), the positive was just that little bit too short so had to be re-routed and fed over the ECU box rather than behind it.