Pierre3 wrote:

IYou can be failed for orange bulbs not being orange enough, slight misalignment of headlights, incorrect design of number plates

All of those would be a fail here too. Indicators must be amber so when the orange paint starts to peel off and they show as white, that may be a fail or it may be an advisory depending on the mood of the tester and how white it is. Number plates too must be the correct font and spacing so ANPR cameras can read them (the argument they use is that if your car was stolen and had dodgy plates they wouldn't be able to track where it was if the ANPR systems couldn't read it, nothing to do with not being able to read it when you get flashed by a speed camera at all). They aren't too bothered about lights as long as there is no light showing above the horizontal line when on dip. The ones that fail regularly on lights are those where the plastic goes misty (some Renaults, Nissans, Hondas, Mercedes, Toyota, etc) so the light just gets scattered and there isn't really a beam there at all.

When the foglights can be used can be set in the BeCM, there's multiple different options so they can be switched on with just sidelights or with dipped beam or only when the rear fogs are on and so on. I think it used to be a case that front foglights could be used with sidelights and dipped beam but went out when you selected main beam. The theory being that if the fog was light enough that you could use main beam without the reflected glare dazzling you, then you didn't need foglights on. Mine is set in the BeCM for sidelights and dipped beam so may well go out if I use main beam, I've never looked to see. The problem I see with the DLRs on some cars is that they are much like a bright sidelight, so no beam setting at all, just a bright blob of light. I've taken cars with modern type lights in for MoT and the cut off is very sharp and is done on the back of the lens rather than an old school reflector and relying on the form of the outer lens. Always amuses me when sitting in the queue to get on the ferry and you'll see people trying to work out where to stick the beam benders on their plain plastic light covers.

Much, much better. When it is taken for test it is tested on the fuel it is presented for test on (although you'll probably have to tell the tester or he'll just test it assuming it is on petrol). Limits on LPG are CO 3.5%, HC 1200pmm, on petrol they are CO 0.2%, HC 200ppm and lambda between 0.97 and 1.03. Lambda isn't checked on LPG.

In saying that, it still won't be running perfectly on LPG if the petrol system is out (by how far? What actual readings did it show?), so might be worth checking it over anyway. High CO meas it is running rich so could point towards a dodgy lambda sensor while high HC is unburnt hydrocarbons so excess means incomplete combustion so points towards plugs and/or HT leads.

That's always the way, you start on one job then notice something else that needs doing while you are in there. In most cases it hasn't yet made it's presence felt yet but will do sooner or later. While changing my intermediate steering shaft recently I noticed one of the engine mount rubbers had perished and split so I've got a pair of those to fit sooner or later. I've got the new ones and it isn't a big job but it does involve dragging the engine crane out to support the engine to change them and that's down the side of the garage buried under all sorts of other rubbish.

No, step daughter was going to use it then got furloughed so had no need to go to work. She's currently in Holland until the new year so is now considering a moped should she need cheap transport (as everyone in Holland who doesn't ride a bicycle rides a moped.....).. Wait until there's frost on the ground, then she might not think it such a good idea...

Fitted a new battery to the Ascot as it hasn't had one on it since August. Immediately got the hazards flashing silently to themselves as the alarm sounder is disconnected, followed by KeyCode Lockout on the dash. Went inside for a coffee while I waited for that to go out. Once that was out, it was immobilised (as expected) so decided to try entering the EKA with the Nanocom. Being an early car (96) the BeCM is firmware V33 so I shouldn't be able to and it wouldn't even connect to the BeCM, so I couldn't. Had to use the waggle the key about method, which worked and it fired up first turn. Poked the EAS button to put it on High, it sat there for a couple of minutes then rose up off it's knees. Had an SRS fault showing but Nano cleared that and went through all the other systems and no faults found. I might even clean it now then think about selling it.......

On mine, all I've done is drive it on a 70 mile round trip to pick up a cylinder of Oxygen Free Nitrogen that I need on Friday (for work obviously).

Audi heater core will fit if you do a bit of fettling so it slots in. Then you have pipe stubs that you can put hose directly onto. I can't see anything wrong with the O rings myself, they last about 15-20 years before going brittle and starting to leak.

Quite a bit further North of you I understand.......

I think the main problem with a lot of newer cars is what we assume to be fog lights are the Daytime Running Lights, compulsory on all new cars from March 2018 but fitted to many before then. These can't be switched off and come on as soon as the engine is started. I agree that fogs can dazzle and the law says they should only be used in fog and falling snow but I suspect that is likely to change now the difference between front fog lights and DLR lights has become blurred, if you'll excuse the pun. Having replaced one of my front fog lights today for one that didn't have a stone chip hole in it so had filled up with rainwater, I checked the alignment against the garage door. The front fogs on a P38 give a very wide, very flat beam of light with a sharp cut off at the top. They have less range than dipped beam even, so light the edges of the road directly in front of the car but don't illuminate anything further away. Although I've never tried it, (except using them as DLRs in Poland and further east where DLRs or dipped headlights must be switched on at all times) I suspect that trying to drive in the dark just on front fogs wouldn't be a good idea at anything over about 20mph as you can only see what is immediately in front of you.

Ah, yes, that's pretty essential. Whenever I've moved the first evening at the new place has involved a trip to the local rather than cooking so glad I'm not moving at the moment.

Didn't think you were allowed to go out at the moment, not for anything that isn't considered 'essential' anyway.

Probably. You wouldn't want an oily residue on brake discs so it should work nicely.

Switch cleaning spray will usually leave an oily deposit so will just make the sticky mess even stickier, that's why I said to use brake cleaner as it evaporates and doesn't leave a deposit. The switch is right inside the lock so the whole lot has to come out and be taken apart. There also a couple of little springs in there that are a real fiddle to get back. Brake cleaner using a long tube so it gets right inside the lock and flushes the muck out is much easier.

When you open the door after taking the key out, does the dash beep and say Ignition Key In? In which case it won't let you lock it so you don't lock the keys inside. There's a microswitch in the bottom of the ignition lock that detects if the key is in or not and it can get gummed up with dust and rubbish. A good squirt with brake cleaner (as it evaporates and doesn't leave a residue) and work the key in and out a few times should clean it out. If you do it with the door open, the dash should tell you if it is working or not.

Hello and welcome. Where are you?

Bought a few ex-MoD series 3s when they got rid of them all and replaced them with Defenders. All 2.25 petrols, and all much the same as you described, noisy, slow, rattly, uncomfortable but I never drove one far enough to check the reliability due to them being noisy, slow, rattly, etc. I picked up our brand new works Disco 1 from the main dealers when it was supplied to us new in 1993. Got it back to the office and was asked what I thought, my comment at the time was that if I wanted to drive a truck I'd prefer to have a Scania.

Due to one of our works Discos getting rolled when being used off road, everyone that drove one got sent to Solihull for the off road course. This would have been when the P38 was still current and I asked one of the instructors which was the best off road expecting him to say the Defender but he didn't. He reckoned the best by far was the P38 on EAS. What I did learn on that course is that the driver will run out of bottle long before the car runs out of ability and you don't need to fit huge wheels and tyres and lift the suspension to make it capable of being used off road.

That Disco 1 lasted 10 years before it was pensioned off and went to auction where it was bought by my mate who lived up the side of a mountain in the south of France who kept it until a couple of years ago. It broke the gearbox first motion shaft and got a new gearbox under warranty but after that all it needed was routine servicing and a couple of propshaft UJs. I even lapped the Monaco Grand Prix circuit in it one day.....

Originals are FW26025A1, datasheet and equivalents https://alltransistors.com/transistor.php?transistor=69253

Phone them and speak to Dave, he'll tell you exactly what bits you need to change.

Not necessarily but you will need a flat straight piece of road to check it on. Drive the car so it is tracking straight ahead, then with the steering lock off (key in), check the steering box and see if the marks are aligned. There's a lug on a plastic ring around the input shaft and a matching lug cast into the steering box body. If they aren't, there's your problem so you need to adjust the drag link. With the wheels on the ground and the steering lock off, as you adjust the drag link (you'll probably need lots of Plus Gas and a big pair of Stilsons and the suspension on high to give you more room to swing on it), it will turn the input shaft rather than the wheels. Once the box is centralised with the wheels straight ahead, you can adjust the steering wheel on the splines either at the intermediate steering shaft or the steering wheel itself. Don't forget that any adjustment of the upper column will affect the indicator cancelling. If that is keener to cancel when turning one way than the other, the upper shaft isn't centralised, so adjusting at the intermediate shaft is where you want to make any changes. If it appears to be central, it is the wheel that needs moving on the column.

There's multiple splined joints between steering wheel and steering box, so the column and wheel can be set just about anywhere you want. The steering box needs to be centralised (lug on the input shaft) and the column and wheel then set straight with respect to that. Then you adjust the centering on the drag link. If you set the wheels in straight ahead, adjust the drag link so the box is centralised, then adjust the wheel to that.