Power to the switch and display goes via the RH one, the data signals go via the LH one. I had a dodgy connection in the LH one on the Ascot, every time I went over a bump the height light would go out, then come back with all 4, then go back to just one, all accompanied by three beeps and EAS Fault coming up on the dash.

I think in future we should stick to Port and Starboard, that way there shouldn't be any confusion....

Swapping bits around, particularly trying to mix GEMS and Thor components is only going to make a simple swap very complicated. The 4HP22 is good for 380Nm so should cope with the 4.6 easily unless you flat foot it to the red line all day every day. Swapping a Thor engine for a Thor engine, irrespective of engine size, is simply that, a swap. Everything will mate up and all electrical connections will mate up and be in the right place. Externally the only way of telling a 4.0 litre from a 4.6 is to look at the engine number prefix, the differences are internal (crank, rods and pistons). On a GEMS the obvious way of telling the difference is by the 4.0 or 4.6 cast into the top of the plenum but I know of at least 2 cars where the plenum says it's a 4.0 litre but the engine number says it's a 4.6 (even the throttle bodies are the same), both still running the original 4HP22 gearboxes without problems.

The 4.6 torque converter can't be bigger, the spacer between the crankshaft and flex plate is about 10mm thicker on a 4.6 meaning it must be slimmer.

Power to the inhibit switch comes directly from the fusebox, so doesn't go via the connector on the Port side. It's a dual pole switch, one pole simply brings the light on.

Driver pack isn't involved as all it does is convert low current signals from the ECU into high current ones to operate the solenoids.

Just had a look at the diagram thinking that the feeds for the 4 lights would come on 4 different wires but they don't, there's electronics within the rocker switch/display unit so the fact that someone has been inside it suggests that may be where the fault lies.

A man after my own heart, I don't have a problem with O rings. OK, it's a bit fiddly and kneeling on the ground with your head in the footwell can get a bit uncomfortable after a while, but it isn't difficult. I've done at least 8 sets and only had a problem getting the screw out on two of them, but was able to drill the head off in both cases.

RR.net seems to be getting worse. There's two threads where I started off trying to be helpful but what's the point in giving advice when people seem to completely ignore it?

If it was fuelling and what you've been hearing all this time is pre-ignition, check that the knock sensors are still connected as they should have detected it and retarded the ignition of the appropriate cylinder to stop it. Admittedly GEMS so not quite as intelligent as the Motronic but when doing the core plugs on the Ascot I found that one of the knock sensors wasn't connected and the plug was so mangled that it couldn't be connected anyway. Nothing at all shown from reading fault codes.

All 4 lights and the Extended Height symbol on the dash usually signifies a fault but that would usually be accompanied with EAS FAULT on the dash. There's two fault modes depending on what the ECU thinks it has seen. In one mode it drops to the bumpstops, gives all 4 lights, the warning on the dash and the 35 MPH Max, the other mode puts it into High and gives the same indication with the 35 MPH Max message. In either case it wouldn't be adjusting height with speed though.

It does sound like an ECU problem, or there's still some extra wiring that you haven't found and removed yet. Nano should be able to tell you if the compressor is running or not and this will coincide with the pressure switch OPEN or CLOSED indication. Wiring from the ECU to the switch and display goes via the connector behind the LH kick panel. In your case this would be the one on the drivers side, left as sitting in the car, the side with that big round thing you use to make it go round corners.....

It was no problem on my 98 as the cables were long enough. On the Ascot, same year as yours, I had to alter the run on the positive so it runs over the bundle of cables going into the ECU box (not sure if you even have that bundle on a diesel though) and extend the negative. The negative had been butchered as someone had fitted a battery isolator before I got it so needed replacing anyway, so I just got a pre-made negative cable that was slightly longer.

There's no connections at all between height sensors and ECU. Front right connects directly to pins 21, 23 and 24 (24 is common to all 4 sensors). 21 to 24 is each end of the pot while 23 is the wiper. Colours are pin 21, Orange/Purple, pin 23, Orange/Yellow and pin 24 Black/Pink. The 4 Black/Pink wires join at splice S116 but I've no idea where that lives I'm afraid.

You can do a straight swap and even use the original ECU. The GEMS ECU has to be told whether it is fuelling a 4.0 litre or 4.6 but the Thor uses the same one, it, presumably, just uses the lambda sensors to learn the fuelling.

The bell housings are the same as the blocks are externally identical. Torque converters are different between a GEMS 4.0 litre and a GEMS 4.6 too but not on the Thor so if you decided to use the GEMS box you'd probably need to use the Thor torque converter. I believe the gearboxes are different lengths if it's from an early GEMS, so sticking with the 4.0 litre Thor gearbox would keep it simple.

I did some work on a 4.0 GEMS that wasn't starting. Started to suspect the crank sensor and pulled that out. On a GEMS, due to the different torque converter, the spacer between the flex plate and crank is a different thickness, so the crank sensor has a spacer on the 4.6 and not the 4.0 litre. Found this one had a spacer but with the lower inspection plate off, could see that the CPS was positioned correctly. Turned out, after cleaning paint off the area of the block with the engine number on it that it was actually a 4.6 (with the 4.0 litre GEMS plenum) running through the original 4HP22 gearbox without any problems.

How long it takes is going to depend on the charger, so maybe your charger is dying?

The one I uploaded is the English version.

Just had to do that on the Masser callipers but they'd been rounded off in the past so I soaked them in Plus Gas then put the bleed nipples in a bench vice and unscrewed the calliper from the nipple.

BrianH wrote:

Still not got yours fixed I guess?

He's only a youngster with too much disposable income and likes wasting money......

It's just a later version of the OMVL XXI system with different firmware and a few extra features. There was the original OMVL Dream which was just called the 21, then it became the 21C, then 21N but by then they had gone over to Roman numerals making it the XXI-N and the the XXI-P for the Piro. When I first bought my Classic, with reducer in parallel, it would freeze within 300m on a cold day and the P38 the heater would drop to lukewarm at idle. On both I changed the plumbing to series which cured both problems as the coolant had to flow through both rather than having a choice of which way to go. On the GEMS it's much easier to get neat pipe runs doing it that way and there's also less joints to leak but IIRC it isn't as easy on a Thor.

Go wash your mouth out with soap and water, why on earth would anyone want to spend on petrol , even at the current low prices, when they can run on LPG at just over half the price?

I believe the P suffix means it is the Piro system, no doubt Simon will pop up sooner or later and confirm, but the installation is the same on all the OMVL systems. I've just uploaded the installation manual to my Google Drive here https://drive.google.com/open?id=1QUYczdyovWh4kzWAX7igisoVIrnT_aUU. If you can, it's better, on a car with a full flow heating system, to plumb the reducer in series with the heater matrix with the flow going through the reducer first. It ensures you get full flow and also warms up quicker.

I don't suppose it could be a knackered engine mount allowing things to move when under load?

It's Gordon you need to thank for setting it up, but the rest of us for contributing. For months now RR.net has been propped up by Rob, me and no more than half a dozen others and it's got even more US biased than it ever used to be. This place is a bit different, think of it as a virtual pub, come in, sit down, ask a question or just join in a chat. The other bonus is we've got things like the summer camps being organised. Marty, who knows more about the electronics side of things than the guy that designed it, has a workshop that he rents. We've had a few weekends where a group have gone there and tackled the jobs that people either didn't feel confident in doing or their own or didn't have the tools to do them. We had a mass headlining session one time where we did 7 and a radius arm bush replacing weekend where at the same time a few heater core O rings were changed along with the odd blend motor. If everyone mucks in, it's easy and Morat is a dab hand with the barbecue to keep everyone fed.

Even though they made me a moderator and I've been pretty active over on the dark side recently, I'm getting more and more pissed off with some of the new members on there with their stupid questions and almost total lack of understanding. So I've invited a few of the more practical, UK based, members over to here. A couple have joined up already, so welcome to them. You never know, we may even get a couple more at the post apocalyptic summer camp.......

The reviews are right, I tried grey bumper paint and it did indeed dry brown and looked disgusting. I've done mine with bumper black along with the strips below the headlights and the bumpers too. In fact, I did the side rubbing strips and sill covers while they were off when the car went in to be resprayed about 4 years ago.

This was it just after it was done, about to set off for yet another trip to the south of France