Hmm, only 20 quid less than I paid for the Ascot...... and that has 5 amps in it, one in each door and one in the sub.

Not at all, saves lots of jacking. However, you'll probably find that without any weight on them, the bags won't fully deflate and there will still be a bit of pressure in them. Soon comes out when you pull the lines out though.......

That's right, no need to remove the rear wheels. For the fronts it's easier to remove the arch liners but I found that you can pull the liner outwards and jam a WD40 can in there which gives enough room to get in and change them with the liner still in place. Not quite as easy but quicker.

For the rears, big trolley jack under the towbar (assuming you've got the factory swan-neck one), for the fronts, same trolley jack under the crossmember across the front beneath the radiator. Axle stands are a bit of a non starter because you've got to lift the body up from the axles so wouldn't normally be tall enough.

gordonjcp wrote:

I wonder if 255% is that it's wrapped around to -1% position?

Probably, as it's using ordinary motors and gears rather than stepper motors, a bit of slop in the gears is going to allow the resistance from the pot to be lower (or higher depending on which way it's wired) than is expected. Same reason it shows over 100% at the other end of the travel. I suspect when brand new with no play in the blend motor gears or the cog on the end of the flap, it would read from 0 to 100%.

Probably but it made sense to me. On mine changing the temperature rocker altered the blend motors a bit at a time. Setting it at a fixed temperature and starting the engine caused it to raise the blend motor positions to get more warm air into the car quicker, as the temperature in the car came up, it wound them back to the position it thought was correct for the selected temperature.

On the Ascot, at anything other than LO, it whacks the blend motors to full heat right from the word go, presumably to speed up the heating when it's cold and then winds them back as the temperature comes up. As the aspirator isn't showing an increase in temperature in the car, it doesn't wind the fan speeds up but still winds the blend motors back so you don't get ridiculously hot air coming out as the heater core temperature rises. I'm assuming that's something that was changed in the firmware on the later HEVAC unit the same as it would no longer get offended if the compressor appeared open circuit like the early ones did if you added a relay without a big resistor.

So, been outside and done some testing. The Ascot and my ex-plod have both been parked since last night although the Ascot is possibly shaded from the weather a bit more than mine. To start with I checked mine before starting the engine, then started it, let it warm up and noted what it was doing. I then did exactly the same with the Ascot and it seems I owe OB another beer. The aspirator doesn't seem to be doing a lot. When I was doing the blend motors I noticed that the Ascot has the later HEVAC fitted in it so that probably explains the difference in blend motor positions as I suspect it has a different strategy. At no time did the fans speed up though and I suspect it was waiting for the aspirator temperature to start to rise before doing that.

Results are below

You'll notice that despite the Nano showing blend motor positions as a percentage, Mr Valeo has managed to achieve both 105% and 255%! But the difference in positions on mine does explain why I have to set the drivers side 1 degree higher than the passenger side to get air at the same temperature on both sides.

Nope, same temperature no matter what vent it's coming from.

Dunno, that was going to be the next thing I checked but Nano shows it to be reading roughly the right temperature and it dropped rapidly when blasted with brake cleaner. So even if the fan is gunged up, I can't see it making that much difference. Mind you, one of the backlight bulbs has gone in the HEVAC so only half the buttons light up so it's got to come out anyway.

Taxed the Ascot so I can run around in it to see if there's anything that still needs doing to finish it off and to see what packs up. Dina got in and realised she seemed to be sitting a bit high and it turns out that the passenger electric seat was stuck at the highest position at the rear and wouldn't go down. The front would go up and down but lowering it just succeeded in her sliding forward on the shiny cleaned leather. So spent the morning getting that working. Then turned my attention to a bit of testing on the HEVAC.

I've replaced one blend motor and given the other two a good clean out, check and re-grease and they are all working fine but..... It's been about 15 degrees so setting the temperature to 20 should result in hot air but it doesn't. To get hot air, the temperature has to be turned up to 26. If I poke the Program button the air comes out at maximum temperature so it isn't like the heater matrix is just cold, Nano shows it to be 65-70 degrees. Nano shows the two temperature motors to be giving a feedback figure of 83% when set at 20 degrees and rises as the temperature is turned up. Checked mine and got a figure of 70% when set at 20 degrees. Figured that the interior temperature sensor may be reading high so the HEVAC isn't giving hot air as it doesn't think it needs any but Nano shows that to be correct. Blasting the interior sensor with brake cleaner and the reported temperature dropped to -1 degree and the blend motors opened up and gave me hot air from the vents. But once the temperature sensor reported 10 degrees or higher, the output went cold again.

So it's doing everything it should, it's regulating the temperature it just needs to be told to keep the car hotter than it should. Both blowers are working, both pollen filters are new and a decent amount of air comes out of the vents, it's just the temperature is lower than it should be. I've even used the Nano to calibrate the blend motors and that made no difference. No book symbol on the display either. Any clues anyone?

The tool I made.

The hooked bit formed by welding the second bit of steel to the bar is then used to hook onto the R clips and pull them out (in theory). The right angle on the other end can then be pushed up the side of the old bag, hooked under the flat plate bit on the top and used to pull it out.

I've made clips out of welding rod in the past, I know they will go rusty but so do the real things. You can make up a tool to pull the rear top clips out, took me about 4 hours to make though and only worked on one side, the other side wouldn't shift. The alternative method number 1 is to bend the original spring until it snaps off where it goes through the top of the air spring and then use a long thin punch to push the remains out through the other side. Alternative method number 2 is to slide a 1" wood chisel under the clip, then give it a good whack with a club hammer. This chops the top off the air spring and, in theory, it just drops straight out. In practice they never drop straight out as there's going to be a build up of rust where it fits onto the chassis that will hold it in. Thin pry bar between the body and chassis should allow you to lever it out.

If they've been replaced there's always a chance that something wasn't torqued up tight enough and has some play in it? Front end bolts are pretty tight to get off so they need to be done up with the same breaker bar that you used to get them off.

Certainly sounds like it might be a CV joint, or even a loose hub nut (pretty unlikely though). I'd get the front in the air and start giving everything a good wiggle and see if you can find any slack anywhere.

no10chris wrote:

I’ve seen that interior in an H&H before, personally I think it’s bloody awful, but each to there own.

Glad I'm not alone. It always looks to me like someone had a lightstone interior and decided to dye the seats a darker colour but leave everything else lightstone. Somehow it just doesn't work and looks a bit of a mish mash. I must admit I like the exterior colour on the H&H though.

As it's in Glasgow, maybe Gordon could give it the once over, assuming he can get an appointment......

blueplasticsoulman wrote:

I guess it would be unusual for all 4 bags to spring a leak at the same time?

Not really, they will all be the same age and all done the same mileage so why wouldn't they all age at the same rate? In saying that, rears almost always start to leak before the fronts.

All in order on Firefox 52.3 on Windows XP Pro.

Probably but it will depend on the amount of weight in the car. Think about it, if you put 55 psi in the rear bags and it sits at normal height, as soon as you put some weight in it, it will sag so need more air which will raise the pressure.

blueplasticsoulman wrote:

I thought more of an inline isolation valve like you'd put on a tap or shower.

So then you are adding 2 more connections and potential leaks, at least using these there's only one additional potential leak point. It would probably be more expensive to buy 4 inline valves than a set of these too.
blueplasticsoulman wrote:

Are these just a push fit with a Schrader valve on the other end?

Yes.
blueplasticsoulman wrote:

And probably most importantly, what pressure is meant to be in a bag?

Whatever pressure is needed to lift the car. The system cuts out at 10 bar, roughly 150 psi, which is obviously adequate to overcome the weight of the car, but it is volume of air rather than pressure that dictates how high the car sits.

You could fit a set of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/P38-RANGE-ROVER-AIR-SUSPENSION-SYSTEM-EAS-EMERGENCY-VALVES-SET-/272726482487, pump each corner up and see if they still drop. That will tell you if it is the bags and not the block that is leaking. I've got a set that I keep in the car just in case I get a terminal fault that the Nano can't deal with when I'm hundreds of miles from home, so worth having anyway.