Mines the same. On a cold start, ignition in position 2, showing Open Loop and STFT at 0%, start engine and it stays at 0% but after 20 seconds or so, it changes to closed loop and the STFM starts to climb until it reaches +38.75% with the lambda sensor output staying at 5.07 V. After another minute or so, the lambda voltage starts flipping between 5V and 0V and the STFM drops down towards zero.

I'll be going out in it shortly so I'll see if it is the same on a hot start. As long as yours shows Open Loop and 0% STFM at start then it is correct but if it is showing the +38.75% before it starts that is the source of the richness.

I've noticed that, some testers invent advisories on items that aren't actually part of the test. Damage to the rear arch would only be relevant if it has created a sharp edge that could shred a pedestrian, then it become dangerous condition see 6.2.1 here https://www.gov.uk/guidance/mot-inspection-manual-for-private-passenger-and-light-commercial-vehicles.

Best one I've seen was Sump rusty.......

I'm still puzzled over the 39% STFT at start up. As far as I'm aware, as there is no output from the lambda sensors before the engine starts (and not for a few seconds after it has started) it should be running in open loop so the trims should be 0%. I'll have a look at the STFT on mine when starting it tomorrow if I remember (neighbours might object if I do it now.....).

How the hell did they pick up on a rear wheel bearing? You won't get slack in them as there's a half shaft attached to the back of it and they'd never be able to feel any roughness in rotation as it's attached to the diff.

You'll be OK, you've got a tame tester haven't you?

To remove the inner panel, lever off the tweeter housing, unplug it and put it to one side, remove the screw behind it, remove the screw holding the plastic surround that the interior door handle fits into and remove that (takes a bit of wiggling to get it at the right angle to come out), remove the two screws from under the armrest. Starting at the bottom, lever the door panel away from the door, then lift up and out. Disconnect the plug to the mid range speaker. You will find that some of the Christmas tree fittings stay in the door rather than coming off with the panel. Just lever them out of the door and fit them back on the panel before refitting. Rather than a screwdriver see if you can get a set of trim removal tools (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4pcs-Car-Removal-Tool-Radio-Set-Clip-Door-Body-Interior-Panel-Kit-Trim-Pry-Dash/312810575967) so you can get either side of the fitting.

I've never managed to break any of the plastic clips (and I've managed to break most things), you rotate them away from the rod and it pops out.

Not only does it tilt up and down, it pulls in and out too so you can adjust the reach (also makes getting the instrument panel out easier).

We have lawnmower racing in the UK, that looks quite fun http://www.blmra.co.uk/

So I arrange to be working in vaguely the right area so I can call in on Thursday. I'm armed with the Nanocom, my old Panasonic Toughbook with the EASUnlock software and cable, a multimeter and 8 short lengths of wire. Having thought about it, I was fairly convinced the problem was due to the disconnected lambda sensors. I’d tried to find the difference between the 5-0V Titania sensors with a black plug fitted to a 95-97 P38 and the 5-0V Titania sensors with a grey plug fitted to a 98 P38 and failed. As far as I was able to find, there was no difference other than the plug for some obscure reason. In fact, the lambdasensor.com website suggested the same universal 5-0V Titania sensor as a substitute for both. So I had made up 8 short lengths of wire with a male on one end and a female connector on the other. That way even though the plugs wouldn’t mate with each other I could connect the two together with 4 short lengths of wire. The EASUnlock software was because the car had previously had a bit of a list at the back and when I’d tried connecting to the EAS with the Nanocom, it had crashed the Nano??

Gave Mick a bell when I was on my way and he was already out there when I arrived bonnet up and all ready to go. Told him to start it up and it started, put the suspension on high and switched it off. Checked the GEMS ECU faults with the Nano to find lambda sensor errors on both banks and a long term fuel trim on both banks of -160% (which is a good trick if you can do it). In the Settings, as I’d since read that the country cannot be changed, it said Europe and 4.0 litre. Obviously as I’d tried to change it to Australia before it had ignored the change. My theory was that it was fuelling a 4.6 as a 4.0 litre so running lean and the lack of lambda sensors had also made it think it was running rich (0V being rich with 5V being lean on a GEMS with Titania sensors), so it had been weakening the mixture constantly until it was too weak to actually run. Leaving it for a while meant it thought it was cold, so it was richening the mixture until it warmed up when it became to lean to run. Crawled underneath (the reason for putting the suspension on high) and with Mick calling out the colour codes of which wire went to which (that I’d printed out before going), fitted my 8 short lengths of wire so it had lambda sensors. Reset the adaptive values to clear the long term trims and fired it up. This time it was running in closed loop with the lambda sensors flipping between 0V and 5V, the long term trims at 0% and the short term trims moving either side of 0%. Checked the alternator and found it putting out a healthy 14.1V so no problems there then. I suspect standing outside in the pouring rain before the engine was fitted had drowned the original alternator and taking it apart and drying it all out would be all it needs, but as they are pretty simple to change and Mick had the one from his old engine sitting there, swapping it seemed the easiest option.

We took it for a short test run, and I do mean short, like no more than 400 yards from Micks house, just in case it died again. Running nicely (despite the LH exhaust now blowing nicely from the leak at the manifold) and monitoring it on the Nano showed that everything was responding as it should. Got brave and took it for a longer drive, actually out of the estate and onto proper roads, with traffic that we could bring to a standstill if it did die, and it was still running nicely. Got back, checked the Nano and noted the only thing that wasn't quite right was the IACV was at 12 at idle (rather than the recommended 20-30) although we couldn't adjust it as most of Mick's tools were still at his mother's house. Tried the Nano on the EAS again, crashed it again. Tried EASUnlock and couldn’t get it to connect. Checked the timer relay to make sure it was still there and the bodging bastard that had owned it before hadn’t swapped it for a 4 pin relay and found it was but it still wouldn’t connect. Then realised it was actually sitting level at the back anyway so we didn’t need to get into the EAS.

Decided that it seemed to be OK and we could explain the previous problems so I set off to go home. Mick decided to risk a trip to the shops and was still in my rear view mirror when he turned off and he confirmed later that he made it to the shops and back without any problems. So all good up until now. The original plan had been for him to drive it up to me this weekend so we could reinstall the LPG system but at this stage neither of us thought attempting a 180 mile round trip would be a good idea. That will have to wait for another day. Much like pulling the old engine apart to see just how bad a state it really is in......

It lives again! Not at all as straightforward as expected but it looks like we've got there in the end. The owner of the car, Mick, works 4 days on, 4 days off and the only time I could get down there with the engine crane was last weekend (12th Oct). Dave shipped the engine on Monday, Mick was at home Sunday to Wednesday (and had taken Saturday and Sunday off work to get stuck in) and it was expected that the engine would arrive on Wednesday. But it didn't. Contacted Dave who said he would chase the courier and was told it would be delivered Thursday or Friday at the latest. Fortunately, it was being delivered to Mick's mother’s house (where there was more room so the transplant was going to be done there anyway) and she would be at home. Mick then gets a phone call on Friday morning to say it would be delivered on Monday..... Turns out the original courier had picked it up but then couldn't fit it into their delivery schedule so had subbed the delivery out to another company. The only option then was to collect it from their depot and Mick ended up getting a man with a van to pick it up for him so it was ready to go for Saturday.

I got there Saturday morning to be greeted by a complete, and I do mean complete, 4.6 motor sitting on a pallet. It had all the ancillaries still attached, alternator, starter, exhaust manifolds, power steering pump, AC compressor, oil cooler and hoses, water pump, viscous and fan and engine wiring loom. Nothing damaged (or so it appeared). Certainly looked a big bugger sitting there! Mick had been spending time stripping everything off the old engine so that looked pretty naked sitting in the hole. We got stuck in for the most miserable engine swap ever. Despite the garden gazebo over the working area, it was raining, constantly. The gazebo wasn't doing much, the tarp and cardboard under car turned into a gooey mass and we both (and Mick's wife, Sue) were absolutely soaked. The bellhousing bolts had been done up by a tame gorilla at Lode Lane when it had been put together in 1996 so while the bottom two were simple enough, and the top two could be got at through the hole where the ignition coils had lived, the two further up on each side needed multiple socket extensions, a pair of universal joints and a breaker bar before they came loose. Then there's the bolts on the flex plate. RAVE says 33 ft/lbs and Loctite and there must have been a hell of a lot of Loctite. To get better access, the sump came off but even then, only 3 of the 4 came out. The last one needed a 1/2" Irwin socket before it came undone with a healthy crack. So finally, after about 5 hours of swearing at it, the old engine was lifted out (not made any easier by the front bullbar meaning it had to be lifted that much higher).

The Spacer behind the flex plate was swapped over and we figured taking the fan off would give us a bit more space to play with. Would it shift? Would it hell, despite my home made bar to stop it turning and belting the fan spanner with a club hammer. So we decided the engine was going back in complete with fan on the front.

We had the gearbox angled upwards with a jack under it (and a lump of wood jammed in the hole at the bottom to stop the torque converter falling out) so the theory was that we could lower the engine in place angled upwards, bolt it to the bellhousing then lower it down onto the engine mounts. That was the theory anyway but with a complete engine, getting it hanging so the rear was down meant that the centre point had to be towards the front. With the lifting brackets at the rear right and front left, that then meant the engine hung right side down. So it would go in the hole but the RH engine mount was far too low for it to be moved into place. With it tilted the plenum was hitting the top of the bulkhead so it couldn’t go back far enough to reach the bellhousing. By now it was gone 6pm, we were all soaked to the skin and completely pissed off with the whole thing. Time to call it a day, so I went home.

Sunday morning and I drove back to Mick’s to continue. This time I had bought a couple more jacks, some lengths of fencepost and some more ratchet straps with me. Mick and Sue had already started trying to get it in place but it was still sitting lopsided. We lowered it down so the crane wasn’t supporting the weight and took off the plenum and upper manifold. That way we could release the ignition coils to get access to the top bellhousing bolts and the plenum wouldn’t be jamming on the bulkhead. We rearranged the fixings, adding a couple of ratchet straps so we could adjust the angle and started again. This time, with the aid of a bottle jack and lump of 4x4 fencepost under one rear corner, we could get the angle right and finally, the engine slid back and mated with the bellhousing. Bolts in, me underneath with Mick laying across the top of the engine doing the top ones. Flex plate bolts were put back in, engine mounts bolted up and, while I was under there, I figured I would reconnect the lambda sensors. Then found a problem. The car was a 96 with the black plug on the lambda sensors while the engine had come from a 98 with the grey plug and they wouldn’t connect. Bugger, that will need a bit of thought.

The top end of the engine was put back together only using the plenum and throttle body from the original engine. The 96 has the tube from the purge valve going to the upper inlet manifold while the 98 has it going to the throttle body. Mick’s original engine also had a multipoint LPG conversion so the upper manifold also had the additional vacuum take offs so these were plugged for the time being. The plan is to get it running initially on petrol and then re-install the LPG system later.

Connected up the loom (except for the lambda sensors of course), coolant hoses, including the new throttle body heater hose that had caused all the problems in the first place, fitted the radiator, filled the cooling system with plain water initially (no point in filling it with coolant if there’s a possibility it is all going to pour out of somewhere), bled the air out, filled the engine with oil and it all looked ready to go. Fitted the battery and plugged the Nanocom in. The ECU was set for a 4.0 litre engine for Europe so I thought I could get clever. Set it for 4.6 (as it now had a 4.6 in it) and Australia as Oz spec cars don’t have lambda sensors so it wouldn’t miss something it wouldn’t be looking for. Reset the adaptive values and all should be ready to go. Told Mick to turn the key to spin it over and make sure we had oil pressure and it fired up instantly! That should have been a cause for rejoicing but as we hadn’t connected the exhaust downpipes to the manifolds it was a little on the loud side in a quiet residential cul-de-sac. Sounded bloody gorgeous though. So, all we need is the exhaust reconnecting and we should be in business.

Easier said than done though. We all know what a pig the manifold studs can be to undo and we found that the RH manifold had one sheared off stud in it (but two usable M10 threaded holes) while all three were sheared off on the LH one. With a lack of grinder or decent drills, we decided to call it a day and Mick would sort that out over the next couple of days. All sorted, just got to run it to check for any coolant or oil leaks and the job is done. Or so we thought.......

I rarely stop for a lunch break, I eat a sarnie while driving. The sort of work I'm doing I will rarely need to park for more than 2 hours in one place anyway, so that isn't so much of a problem. What I don't understand is the resident permit holders only areas when that only works during the daytime. During the day there's loads of spaces as the residents have gone to work but anyone can park there at night. If I lived there and was paying for a residents permit, I'd be well pissed off if I got home from an evening out and found nowhere to park. My logic is that it should be residents parking at night but during the day if the residents aren't there then anyone should be able to park there.

Spray it with lots of lube and work it back and forth. To release the lever it needs to be pulled out before pulling it towards you which confuses some people. As it is something that doesn't get used that often, in fact, if you are the only driver once you have got it set then why would you move it, it can gum up. When I bought my Ascot I picked it up in South London so had to drive through London to get home. Steering wheel was way too high for me so I pulled on the lever to drop it down, moved it and released the lever. Had the opposite problem to you as it wouldn't lock. Trying to drive through London traffic, at night, in the pouring rain, with a steering wheel that was flopping up and down was a little interesting to say the least.....

mad-as wrote:

the only electric vehicles that we will be driving in the future will be mobility scooters , might convert mine to petrol , who wants a race?

Been done and has to be done again..... https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=i2D2fP6yBzU

I don't care about it. I'm getting paid whether I'm sitting in traffic or going round in endless circles looking for somewhere to park..If I get a job in EC, it can take me at least 2 hours to get there, another half hour to find somewhere to park then 2 hours to get home again. So that's 4.5 hours out of a 7 hour working day meaning I only have to do 2.5 hours work.......

Yes, you are misreading the values that you see. The Idle speed is idle speed reference so it is at 625 rpm and that is the target idle rpm that everything else adjusts to maintain it at that. The next one down is the IACV and will show a number between 0 and 200, which is the number of steps it is open and not a percentage. It is this one that you can alter using the idle screw so it is between 20 and 30 at warm idle. The others are learnt values that the ECU uses to correct for tolerance variations in components, fuel pressure, etc.

Some London Borough's, and the number is increasing all the time, load the parking charges for diesels too. For me to go into Central London in my works 2015 Renault Kangoo van costs £10.50 Congestion Charge, £12.50 ULEZ charge (as it's only Euro 4, Euro 6 didn't come in until 2016) and then a minimum of £6 an hour to park the pile of crap. Not sure how they can justify charging someone extra to park it when they are already paying extra because of the emissions. At least when it's parked it isn't generating any pollution (other than visual as it's a bloody ugly looking thing too).

Exactly. I once read that the lowest polluting vehicle of them all is the Mk1 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow. While it may have a 6.75 litre V8 in a 2 tonne car, it is so well made that will last for years so any pollution generated in producing it and running it, is overshadowed by the fact it will last hundreds of years (well, nearly) before more pollution is generated in disposing of it.

Unfortunately you are applying common sense and logic......

Confused me for a moment there, talking about lambdas being at 10%, then realised you are talking about the short term trims. Lambdas should be flicking between 0 and 5V (although in reality they will often go up as high as 6V). 5V is a weak mixture, 0V is rich, the opposite way round to a 0-1V Zirconia sensor as fitted to the majority of cars. So at idle both banks should be showing Closed Loop with the lambdas flicking between 0 and 5V.

In Open Loop condition the short term trims should be 0%, default for the programmed fuel map. 39% would show adding extra fuel which may have something to do with your hot start problem. However, don't forget that once it has completed it's learning the long term trim will adjust to offset any wear or variation so the short term can move either side of 0%.

I don't follow your comments on the IACV at all. What do you mean by long and short? At idle it should be between 20 and 30, which are steps over closed, 0 being fully closed. You adjust it using the screw that is directly above it on the throttle body (that once had a blanking plug in it). Air through the passage to it can also be drawn in through the pipe from the purge valve. Now that might be relevant as the purge valve opens to dump excess petrol vapour into the inlet but only when running at speed. If the purge valve is opening when you try to start it, you could be getting a big dollop of petrol vapour being dragged in. Check that it seals and maybe try unplugging it.

I registered a 2015 Bentley Continental GT Speed that had originally been supplied to Russia with DVLA. That involved an IVA test and as the emissions aren't checked (other than to MoT standards) at the IVA, there were no emission details shown on the V5. It was subsequently sold to a buyer in Holland and the Dutch authorities refused to transfer it to Dutch registration without the emission figures, particularly the CO2 grams per kilometre (the one that dictates how much road tax you pay over here), being shown. I downloaded the UK brochure for that particular model which showed the emissions and asked Bentley to supply me with a letter confirming that the emissions on a Russian spec car were the same as on a UK spec car. That was enough for DVLA to add the missing details. But of course that relies on being able to get the figures from the manufacturer. If Nissan won't issue a letter, then you are stuffed.

If imports are no longer exempt that means that when it was called the T Charge a lack of information meant you were exempt, now a lack of information means you aren't. Unless the vehicle is taxed as Historic, i.e. over 40 years old, so we've got to wait a bit longer before we can use that as a way round it.

Not not quite but not at all. If you read what it says:

"If your vehicle has been converted to run on LPG you may meet the emissions standards. However, the emissions standard of the engine will be considered to be the same as it was before it was converted.

If you have replaced the engine with a spark ignition (petrol) engine as part of an LPG conversion, the emissions standard of the new engine will apply. You must tell the DVLA of this type of engine swap and send us proof that the new engine meets the standards".

So in other words, if you convert to LPG they assume it doesn't make the emissions worse so a Euro 3 engine converted to LPG is still a Euro 3 engine.

There is the alternative of the CVRAS scheme, but that can't be made to apply as

"The ULEZ scheme allows for some vehicles to retrofit emissions reduction technology to meet the ULEZ standards.

Retrofit technologies will need to be certified by the government's Clean Vehicle Retrofit Accreditation Scheme (CVRAS). The CVRAS currently only has emissions reduction technologies certified for buses and coaches, although equipment suppliers can test and certify equipment.

More details on the retrofit accreditation process and suppliers are available on the Energy Savings Trust website"_

Now you try finding out the cost of getting a vehicle tested to ascertain the CO2 emissions. Carbon Monoxide is checked during the MoT but not Carbon Dioxide which can only be done by a very few specialist test houses, like MIRA, and it would be cheaper to buy a new car or three than having one tested.

So the bottom line is that there are NO concessions given to LPG fuelled vehicles.