Damn, signature won't update......

nigelbb wrote:

Richard, you need to update your signature to include the new acquisition. It looks like quite a project that you have taken on but I'm assuming with all the issues that you got it at a good price.

Signature updated. It was advertised at £995, I knocked him down to £700...... Once I've sorted the mechanics and Dina has done the interior, it should make a nice car.

I thought you had a couple of steering columns there, so put one to one side for me in case I can't get the one I have sorted out. I'll be there on either 23rd or Friday 26th, whichever suits you best. I will also take one of the front bumpers as I had a call last night from the owner in Spain who has had an argument with a concrete post in a supermarket car park so wants one. He's prepared to pay money for it too but quite how we are going to get it to Spain is a different story.....

Other things I discovered on the new one, it only came with one manual key, no remotes but the BeCM is unlocked so I have the lockset number (and EKA), heads on the engine looked new and checking engine the number shows it to be a 46D, so not a 4.0 litre but a 4.6. It has another number manually stamped into it, JQ1035, so I suspect that is a number put there by someone that has rebuilt it. Anyone know who stamps a number in this format onto engine blocks as it would be interesting to see what was done to it, if we're lucky it may even have been top hatted.....

You got home then, or are you still heading north? I'll post pictures of my new acquisition if you post some of yours.....

What have I done today? Only gone and bought another one......

I have always said that my ideal colour combination would be Rioja Red with the dark grey interior but most seem to have Lightstone which I honestly don't like. Then I found one, a '98 4.0SE in Rioja Red, with LPG, 134,000 on the clock, 9 previous keepers and no MoT as it has been stood for 3 years but with, you guessed, bloody Lighstone interior. However, the price was right and Dina said she liked the look of it. So the plan is to sell the Ascot (a 96 4.6 HSE with LPG) and keep this one instead. In fact, Dina has said she might even consider selling her Merc and running it all the time.

Picked it up today, battery had been put on charge by the seller (so he claimed) but it still wouldn't turn it over so got my spare Hankook MF31-1000 out of the boot of my car and fitted that. It also had very little, or no, petrol in it so bunged a gallon in out of a can also from my boot. Bodywork and paint is in pretty good nick but the interior is disgusting. No rips or splits in anything but absolutely filthy, bits of trim removed but most are in the boot, No idea why they had been taken off but even the cowl around the steering column was off. Started it on petrol as half of the LPG system has been removed and there's no power to the switch. Ran reasonably well but wasn't too keen on idling, AC compressor bearing completely shot so howling away all the time and the message centre (after it had told me about all the windows not being set, came up with EAS Fault, ABS Fault, Traction Failure and sometimes, Gearbox Fault. Nanocom told me that the RR height sensor was out of range and was showing a permanent 253 bits, ABS gave loads of fault codes but the engine was running, the gearbox fault only came up if I started it in P but not in N and the brakes stopped it, so it looked like I could drive it the 80 miles to get it home.

Fortunately I have a trade insurance policy covering me for any car I own or in my custody for motor trade purposes, so armed with a copy of the certificate for when it pinged up on the ANPR in a passing police car and having primed my tame MoT tester that it was booked in later today if a policeman phoned him to check if I really was on my way to a pre-booked MoT, we set off. First stop was for some petrol and while there put some air in the tyres and off we went with Dina following in my white one. It's got 19" L322 wheels on it (fitted with 20 year old tyres!) and started to shudder pretty badly between 55 and 60mph and at anything over 60 it got a bit unstable as the EAS fault had caused it to rise to High. Quite how anyone manages to drive one that has been lifted is beyond me....

At a steady 60mph, the trip computer said it was doing 21.6mpg and seemed to be reasonably happy but with about 20 miles to go, it started to misfire. Having the Nanocom plugged in so I could reset the EAS fault if it decided to drop me to the bumpstops, I reset the adaptive values which made the misfire far worse to the point it wouldn't do more than about 40mph but I found that if I poked the Sport button and floored the throttle, the misfire disappeared over 3,500 rpm and I got it home.....

Had a look through the bits in the boot, found a replacement AC compressor, so fitted that, now it ran without howling. Checked the idle air valve setting and after adjusting the idle screw got that to where it should be and it idled a lot better. Then thought I refit the steering column cowl but first, I needed to investigate why the steering wheel could be moved in and out but not up and down. It was jammed in the highest position so it wasn't possible to see the message centre without leaning forward and peering over the top of the driver's airbag. Having had a look at it, it soon became obvious why it wouldn't move. Some dickhead had welded it! Now I know that the system isn't perfect and often gets gummed up with lack of use (when I first got the Ascot I tried to adjust the steering wheel position and it wouldn't lock, driving along with a steering wheel that flops up and down is an interesting experience) but welding it in place rather than un-gumming the works is a bit extreme. I'll be attacking it with the grinder in the near future and will report on how I get it to work as it should or not as the case may be.......

ABS sensors are ABS sensors, it doesn't matter if they came off a car with Wabco D or an earlier one.

If you want to change the bearings in the hub, yes you do need a big hydraulic press irrespective of what brand you buy. Far easier to just buy the complete hub assembly complete with bearing like this, rear https://www.island-4x4.co.uk/rear-assy-eurospare-ftc3223-p-27885.html and front https://www.island-4x4.co.uk/front-assy-britpart-ftc3243-p-27181.html or https://www.island-4x4.co.uk/front-assy-timken-ftc3226-p-27883.html.

That's the external temperature sensor, not the aspirator. Aspirator is JTF000030 which is available but a little more expensive https://parts.jaguarlandroverclassic.com/jtf000030-sensor-in-car-temperature.html?code=60907

I have a feeling I have a spare one, I'll have a look later and see if I can find it.

Why are you buying stuff from Aus when there are numerous breakers in the UK (and probably a few in ROI too)? Whether it has had only tarmac use or has spent its entire life off road won't make a blind bit of difference to ABS sensors.

That is the height sensor so it reports the height of a corner to the ECU so it knows whether to inflate or deflate the air spring to keep the height or that corner correct. If it is broken or has come adrift, the ECU won't know what height the corner is at and when it puts more air into the spring it won't see the height change so will result in an EAS fault.

A corner going down has nothing to do with the ABS, that is, as you suggest, a problem with the air spring.

Unlikely to be a CV joint but could be either of the other two. The reluctor ring has one tooth fractionally higher than the others so the sensor is tapped in as far as it will go and after one rotation is pushed out so the air gap is correct. It may be that the sensor coil is breaking down every so often (it contains a coil of thousands of turns of extremely fine copper wire) which triggers the fault or it could be a worn wheel bearing that isn't running true so pushing the sensor out too far.

Kbs wrote:

When using post image site, I must copy the "direct link". There are about six options, it's the direct link that I've used here.

Yes, use the direct link option which should give you a link with .jpg at the end. Without that the forum software doesn't recognise it as a picture.

Just edited your post so the pictures show. No matter what hosting you use, as long as the file ends in .jpg, it will work.

In your case, the top picture is https://i.postimg.cc/25dMvmDM/20240401-200138.jpg, while the bottom one is https://i.postimg.cc/JzFZqB1B/20240401-195939.jpg

When typing your reply, put the cursor where you want the picture, click on the box with a picture in it (5th one along), paste the URL for the image into the pop up box that appears and click OK. That then puts the picture into the post. If you click on Preview, you can see what it will look like.

Amongst the assorted bits I rescued from Marty's workshop yesterday before they get consigned to a skip, was a rear wiper motor. Had no use for one at the time but having stuff is always useful so it got bunged in my trailer. Looks like that will find a home soon too.

Sounds like, if you can live with it until then, an aspirator clean is on the cards when you come to collect your DSP amp......

There's a good reason for recommending Low range when shunting a caravan or trailer around. All trailers, whether ones you live in or ones that you put things in or on, over 750kgs, will have overrun brakes so as soon as you try to reverse a trailer, the brakes will come on meaning you are pushing it against the brakes. Reversing a trailer uphill on mud usually means the trailer wheels are locked by the brakes so you just do a bit of reverse ploughing, much easier in Low range. If you are doing a lot of shunting around, using High range means the torque convert will always be slipping so you run the risk of overheating the transmission fluid too.

At Marty's workshop yesterday, Jacckk turned up with a very nice Brian James covered trailer to collect the non-running 2000 Vogue that Marty was disposing of. To get it into a suitable location to line it up to winch it into the trailer, it had to be towed up a pretty steep concrete slope. Towing strop on the back of the 2000 and the front of mine and in low range reverse I just had to give it a touch of throttle to get it moving and after that I could just let the engine idle with Marty walking alongside to steer it and we got it exactly where we wanted it.

The reverse position for the mirrors needs setting as it will have lost the setting when the battery was disconnected. Procedure is in the owners handbook but it is fairly simple.
Ignition switch in position 1 or 2 but engine NOT running.
Gear lever in Reverse
Adjust the mirror to the downward setting you want
Press the MEMORY STORE button along with button 1 or 2 depending on what setting you have the seat set for you for 2 seconds. Dash will say Mirror dip stored.

If it is playing up and you want to turn the feature off, it's the same process as above except you only press Memory Store without pressing one of the memory buttons for 2 seconds and the dash will say Mirror dip off.

If the aspirator thinks the inside of the car is 25 degrees and you have got the HEVAC set to a lower temperature than that, it will try to cool the car down to get it to the target temperature. A simple test is to give the aspirator (located behind the little grille below the clock) a squirt with brake cleaner which will cool it down rapidly (Nanocom should show that too), so the heater should ramp up the temperature from the vents very quickly.

What I want to know is when are they going to start charging duty on EV owners for charging at home? Petrol, diesel and LPG sold at filling stations has Road Fuel Duty (RFD) and VAT at 20% on the price. If you live in a rural area and have an LPG bulk tank for heating and cooking and have a tank with a bottom take off for liquid so you can fill your car from it too, the tank supplier has to inform HMRC. You then have to log how much LPG you take out for your car and notify HMRC who then charge you the RFD and, as domestic fuel only has VAT at 5% applied to it, the extra 15% VAT. However, if you have an EV and charge it at home, you aren't paying RFD and are benefiting from the discounted, domestic, VAT rate. Surely they should also log how much they use to charge their car and be billed for the RFD and extra VAT?

Nah, when you lay underneath and push the bumper forwards, it lands on your stomach.....