Not as a buffer but as a supply to run your extras from. Think about it, if you try to pull 200A to run your winch from the vehicle battery, you'll flatten it in no time meaning you won't be able to start the car. If you try to do the same with the engine running you will be drawing more than the alternator can supply (either 100, 120 or 150A depending on which alternator you have) so could burn out the alternator. So have a second battery, charged through a split charge unit when the car is running but disconnected when not. Use that to power your winch with the engine switched off so it isn't connected to the vehicle battery, but if it starts to go flat, disconnect the winch, start the engine and run that for a while to put some juice back into the secondary battery.

+2, without diagnostics to see what it is that is bringing the book on, you can spend weeks chasing your tail. You need to read the fault and it will tell you immediately if it is blend motors, blowers, AC clutch, etc then deal with the fault. Everything (except the recirculate flaps) feedback to the HEVAC so it is detecting a fault somewhere but you need to know where.

That looks more like you forced the sleeve on when you replaced the seal. You have to put it on at an angle, push it right down then twist it. Twist it too soon and it nips the seal.

If you'd fitted remoulds or some Far Eastern no name tyres, I could understand them needing that amount of weight, but not with immaculate wheels and decent branded tyres. Looks like they understand balancing wheels as much as they understand re-gassing an AC system......

Today I finished off my 400,000 mile service with an oil and filter change, new spark plugs and an air filter. I also found, and hopefully dealt with, a strange honk noise I'd been hearing at very odd times recently. It sounded a bit like a sticking brake pad but would still do it when I wasn't moving so it couldn't be that. Seemed to only be noticeable at low speed, although it could have been doing it at higher speeds and I just couldn't hear it. Then, while the engine was idling and I had my head under the bonnet, it did it. Just as the AC compressor clutch kicked in. Out with the airline and blew a decent cloud of dust out of the compressor clutch and it hasn't done it since.

Just the MoT at 7:30 in the morning (the only time they could fit me in before the second week of September!).

I would have thought a black car would have come with silver originally. It seems that light colours got basalt while dark ones got silver.

Run two cables front to back, don't rely on using ground. At the sort of current you are drawing even the tiniest bit of resistance will have a big effect. I've still got the two cables running to the boot from where plod had an auxiliary battery in the RH side of the boot. In fact, it might be better if you run two cables and have a secondary battery in the boot rather than risking your vehicle battery and alternator.

StrangeRover wrote:

I might get a solid workshop in the future!

Cheaper option is what I do. Previous house had a concrete driveway, this one has gravel so I've got a couple of sheets of 5/8th ply that I put underneath. Trolley jack rolls properly on them and it's more comfortable to lay on too.

Yes, the white ex-plod. Others have come and gone but my daughter reckons they're probably going to bury me in it, I'm never getting rid of that one.

Blimey, I've done more than that in the last week and got another 6,000 or so to do in the next month. Although I did have a head start as mine had 205,000 on it when I got it 10 years ago.

Yeah, but mine is 4 years older, you've still got time to catch up.......

You'll find that when you start torquing the inlet manifold down, it will pull the valley gasket down so the bolt holes and ports line up. Hardest part is getting the first two bolts in (one on each side), but after that the others go in easily. That's why they say to only nip up the end seal plates finger tight and then torque them down once the manifold is properly torqued down.

It left a lot to be desired (and still does, even more so now) which is why this forum came into being in the first place.

Good point, it will wallow around if too high.

The first one I bought was a Eurospares (not sure where from as I bought it about 3 years ago, then adjusted the steering box and only got round to fitting it during lockdown as I had nothing better to do) but that had the play in it when I finally fitted it. LRDirect had a number of options so I called them and asked if the OE one was the original alloy one or the steel one. They weren't able to check and tell me but said that the OE one would be made by whoever made them originally. When that arrived it was another steel one but without the play this time. You do need to do the pinch bolts up with a fair amount of grunt and with the steering lock off so everything is free to move and not under tension.

Yup, you've killed it, new battery time.

Yes, intermediate shaft is the silver one. That is one of the later all steel ones with a hexagonal centre rather than the alloy ones with a splined centre. I bought one of those and there was play in the bottom UJ, the one that goes onto the steering box. I bought an OE replacement and that was the same type but without the play. Check it very carefully.

That sounds fine, as long as it maintains that pressure when you rev it.

+1 on the intermediate shaft, particularly as it's the only bit you haven't changed. The tiniest bit of play in either UJ or the rubber coupling results in a lot of play at the wheel. If you get someone to wobble the wheel you should be able to see where the play is.

Not the BeCM draining it then. Has anything got wet recently?