Mukiwa wrote:

When I say Limoges it depends on the route I take down.

My route is A16 down to Paris, then round to the west and pick up the A10, A71 and A20 until J56. Limoges is about the only civilisation on the route....

If it is the TC, £175 for a new one (https://www.ashcroft-transmissions.co.uk/miscellaneous/torque-converters/torque-converter.html) so not a bad deal really.

Mukiwa wrote:

Due another run to Limoges again at the end of May so I'd like to fix this.

I drive through Limoges now my mate has moved, went through there on Tuesday. It might be worth giving Ashcroft Transmissions a bell, see if they have come across the problem before and whether it is a simple fix or a sign of impending doom.

I knelt on the slam panel to get to the back and I've suggested she drops the suspension down to the floor and uses steps to get in there. She wouldn't object to me saying this but she is a rather large lady too! She'll be doing it on her own too, her husband is a history Professor and possibly the most unpractical person you could ever meet. It's the pipe from number 1 to the FIP that is pissing it out at the moment, and the bung at number 6 is nice and tight, so she could just do the bit that is easiest to get to. The state of the other hoses suggests they will start leaking in the not too distant though so doing them all would be worthwhile. The car is at her base, she lives about 15 miles west of Paris but now my mate has moved from near Nice to the Dordogne, my route to him passes within about 3 miles of her house so I could finish it off next time I'm passing if she can't get it done. I'm sure I'll get a phone call in the next few days when the kit arrives......

Thanks Dave, just picked up a kit. Length of 3.2mm hose and 2 bungs for the end, £3.99. It'll be in the post to Teri in the next half hour or so,

Got back in the early hours this morning from another trip over the Channel ('twas a bit bumpy too....) and on the way back I called in to see Teri (Mymisteri) just outside Paris to drop off a Hankook battery for her. Got there to find she had a slightly more pressing problem than a battery that wouldn't hold it's charge for more than a couple of days. Her car had started scent marking it's territory in a big way. She though it was a leak from the front diff as that was where the liquid was dripping from but a quick look underneath suggested it was from higher up. She started the engine and diesel was pouring down the side of the engine block. Took the plastic cover over the injectors off and could see a jet of diesel from the split bung on number 6 fuel injector. Replaced that with a bit of washer hose with a 13A fuse jammed in the end and tried again. This time there was another jet of diesel from a small hose running from number 1 injector to a banjo union on a metal pipe. These are what I think are the leak off hoses that leap frog from one injector to the next and all of them were perished and cracked along their length so need replacing. As she is an American female, living in France and driving a P38, she'll no doubt be charged about €100 for a set of pipes and 10 hours labour to replace them if she takes it in anywhere (not to mention having to wait at least a fortnight to get it booked in and done). Having seen the pipes she's pretty confident she can change them herself if she has the hose to do it. My local motor factors do a leak off pipe kit of a length of hose and a bung for the end but I seem to recall from the last (only) time I had anything to do with a diesel, there are different sizes. What size do I need to get so I can pick a kit up and bung it in the post to her? It's a '99, late EDC engine if that has any bearing on it.

Bass speakers rusting so the cones can't move is a pretty common problem. One of mine was seized solid when I took them out to replace them with JBL units. Although there was still sound from that door from the mid range so it wasn't that noticeable until you turned the volume up.

No not Alpine, Clarion will do the refurb treatment on the ones fitted to earlier cars but I don't know of anywhere that offer a similar service for the Alpine ones.

Just deleted your duplicate post so you don't end up with 2 threads running with answers in both but I'm 99% sure it won't work. The keys are coded to the BeCM and unless you were supplied with keys with the same code to match your vehicle, they aren't going to sync. If you have the data sheet for your car it will have a number for the lockset barcode stated on it. Over on the dark other side they reckon that there are no more NAS keys available so it seems highly likely you've been supplied with fobs that aren't coded to your car but are just random fobs. You may even have been supplied with 433 MHz rest of world fobs rather than 315 MHz NAS ones, in which case the receiver would need to be changed for a 433 MHz one as well. To get them to sync you need to find out what code is in the keys and then program that into your BeCM. However in order to do that, the BeCM needs to be unlocked. At the factory they were programmed and then locked so critical settings couldn't be changed by someone poking around with a Nanocom or similar. To unlock them, you need Marty who has the kit to read the code from a key, unlock a BeCM and program the same code into it.

and now you've said it is OK, something IS going to fail to make a liar out of you......

The foam comes attached to the condenser and causes the corner to rot away and all the refrigerant leaks out. It's the thing that everyone leaves out when they have to replace the condenser. The wire loop is to prevent the nut from falling off, a lack of panhard rod would make the handling decidedly iffy.

Not sure I understand. What are you testing and how?

Yup.

That's the one. But test yours first in case the wiring has shorted and there is nothing wrong with the motor.

At risk of sounding like someone else, read the diagram. As I explained in the other thread, power from Fuse 15 goes to the tailgate motor, then to the pushbutton, then through the CDL switch in the door latch and the door outstation to ground. I suppose it is feasible that the CDL switch was burnt out with 20A+ going through it (they are rated at 0.1A and a 20A fuse would need about 40A for a very short time to blow). So, either your tailgate motor has gone short circuit (or the wiring to it has shorted together) so as soon as you pressed the pushbutton you were connecting the power directly to ground. With the wiring to the tailgate disconnected, you won't damage the replacement latch but you do need to investigate the motor. I think I have a spare one floating around if you get stuck.

If the fuse blew when you pressed the button, the tailgate latch motor has gone short circuit. The circuit is arranged in this order, power, fuse, motor, pushbutton, door latch switch. So a duff latch switch (which would normally fail open circuit anyway), won't cause the fuse to blow.

Presumably you got one of Marty's refurbed ones and not a full price new one?

1) Yes, the tailgate release takes it's ground connection from the drivers door latch. So if the drivers door is unlocked, it will open, if it isn't, it won't.

2) Fuse 15 supplies power to the tailgate latch release but it shouldn't take out the fuse, it is only the ground that goes through the latch, not the power.

3) Remove door trim, remove old latch, fit new latch, replace door trim. Nothing complicated, no need to disconnect the battery, just make sure the electrical connections are clean, tight and clipped away so they don't get caught in the window.

Cheapest I've found in London is the Sainsbury's at Becton by the A406 North Peculiar, A13 junction.

I know what they are supposed to do, I'm just surprised I hadn't noticed it when it first went, whenever that was. It must be down to the EAS doing such a good job as on anything else you'd notice it wallowing around all over the place. The only thing I can think of that was similar was many years ago I had a Citroen DS with the hydropneumatic suspension and drove around with a totally flat rear tyre. I didn't notice anythig until I reversed into a parking space and could hear a strange noise.

As I've got a 1,800 mile round trip with a big trailer next weekend, figured I'd give the car a 10,000 mile service (it was only 300 miles short of one anyway) today. While underneath draining the oil and greasing the propshaft UJs, I noticed this

Not noticed it before and no idea how long it has been like it, although it must have been OK at the last MoT, although that was in August last year. A quick call to my local motor factors who seem to stock just about everything, and picked up a new one half an hour later (not too bad at £16). The car feels slightly different on the 160 degree adverse camber corner into the village but other than that, it doesn't drive any differently. So why do we have anti-roll bars in the first place?