The shell was still sticky but as you are going to stick more material to it, it doesn't matter as long as all the bits of old foam are removed. Dina was doing that with a wire brush and it comes off easily enough. The sticky lumps of foam stuck to the soles of her shoes, which then picked up gravel so she could generate sparks when she walked.

I couldn't find any mention of an Ascot edition either. I was going to buy the P38 bible but Amazon want £60 for it! Paint is Altai Silver (code 567) but it has a blueish tinge to it and it looks more blue under a blue sky but much less so on a cloudy day. V5 says colour silver too.

Only if it comes at the same sort of price. No, this is going to be a sort out the problems, get it looking tidy and flip it (in fact, I've already got one potential buyer). That seat looks slightly worse than the passenger seat but a lot better than the drivers, I'll get a picture of it in daylight tomorrow (only just got in from work), it's bad, really bad. I wouldn't need any of the electrics, they all work fine (even the memories with both keys), just the actual seat base. That just bolts onto the framework with a bolt in each corner. A replacement seat cushion and a bit of leather clean and feed stuff should be enough. It's also got a droopy headlining though but Dina looked at it with glee, I think she enjoyed herself far too much last weekend.

Anyone got any info on the Ascot variant? It says it's an HSE on the V5 but it does seem to have every option going except for extra wood inside. It's even got a sunroof but I must admit I haven't even tried it yet as I've never had one with a sunroof before although the AC works too.

Someone has obviously been in the BeCM. Firmware version is 33 as it's quite an early car but passive immobilisation has been disabled but so has EKA, not sure what effect that has. In with the huge wad of papers that came with it there's a service booklet with 3 numbers written in it. There's a long number which I assume is the key barcode and the other two are 4 digit numbers so one will be the EKA and the other the radio code but I've no idea which is which. As the radio doesn't seem to work (there's a red LED with CODE next to it but that doesn't come on so I've no idea how that does whatever it should do) I can't see which is the radio code by trying them both and with EKA disabled in the BeCM, I don't fancy deliberately immobilising it just to see if I can make the EKA work. As the BeCM is locked the Nano won't tell me what the EKA is either.

Couple of months? I expect to have it done by next week. For the mot it was tested on petrol and it runs fine on that, it's just ridiculously rich on gas. The only thing I was able to find was the disconnected fuel pressure vacuum pipe so no idea why it had failed on emissions.

Picked it up from Battersea last night in the pouring rain. I can confirm that the wiper blades were indeed split, the passenger and rear screen ones just had the rubber backing, the actual blade had fallen off long ago. As there was an advisory for a coolant leak, I topped it up before setting off with my daughter following me in mine. Got as far as the Edgeware Road and the temperature gauge shot up to the red. Stopped, let an awful lot of pressure out, refilled it, grabbed a few bits out of the boot of mine and told my daughter she may as well go home, I could always call the AA to pick me up if I can't get it back myself. With the Nano plugged in so I could see the temperature, carried on but as it was getting up to 110 degrees there was a filling station so pulled in there. Put some petrol in it as it didn't run well on gas (even though the gauge showed 3/4 full). Let more pressure out and refilled it again but as I was on a filling station forecourt rather than clogging up a main road through London, took a bit more time about it to make sure I got rid of all the air. For some reason I looked at the viscous fan and noticed the reason why it was running hot, there wasn't one! Fan and viscous coupling were missing. Figured that as long as I could get out of the traffic, once I got to the A1 I should be OK with the airflow through the radiator. So, with one more stop when it started to get hot I soon got clear of the traffic and the temperature came down, and down, and down until at 60 mph on the A1, the Nano was reporting a coolant temperature of 71 degrees! Methinks the thermostat has been gutted. When I stopped it gave me a chance to read the other faults. It has an SRS fault which is reported as driver airbag open circuit, it had an ABS fault which went away once I'd cleared it and is now working as it should, the HEVAC has the chequebook showing due to a duff passenger blend motor and the engine had no stored faults whatsoever.

So, what about the huge list of MoT failure points then? Well, as I'm working a late start, late finish today, I've had a couple of hours to play with it. £3.99 each has sorted the wipers, despite it failing on brake efficiency, there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with the brakes, it stops fine, the parking brake was obviously tested a wheel at a time on a roller as that is working perfectly too, the insecure drivers seat is caused by one front bolt being not there, no idea why it failed on emissions as it runs fine, the lambda sensor are both working and switching as they should but the vacuum pipe to the fuel pressure regulator was off at the inlet manifold, so that may have had something to do with it and I haven't been underneath to have a look at the ball joint rubbers or rusty brake hose ferrules yet but £25 from Avenger 4x4 has got it a viscous coupling and fan, EAS is also working perfectly and has a pump dated 2014. The gas system is a single point Leonardo with a separate 0-1V lambda sensor to drive it and that has obviously died as it runs stupidly rich on gas. The cruise control doesn't work, but the pipe to the brake switch had split and fallen off but even with that back on it still doesn't work. That may point to a problem with the rotary coupler which would also explain the SRS fault. Can't test the radio buttons as the original radio display lights up but doesn't show CODE, or anything else for that matter, so doesn't do anything. Oh yes, and the drivers door doesn't lock or operate the central locking but the other doors all lock and unlock on the fob so a bit of door latch rebuilding is called for.

Overall, it seems very tidy except for the drivers seat base which is split on the side and not much better on the top. From the stored memory settings on the drivers seats, I suspect it's been owned by a fat b*stard which would explain that. So I'm on the lookout for a light blue/grey leather drivers seat if anyone has one and doesn't mind splitting a set.

Yup no problem. I'll be working late tonight but Thursday or Friday I'll be here.

blueplasticsoulman wrote:

gave me the alignment printout which was correct according to the RAVE values. Still didn't drive right.

The problem is that there are two lots of adjustment that are quite separate. There is the tracking, which ensures that the wheels al point in the right direction but that doesn't necessarily mean that the steering wheel will be straight. As Marty said, check that when the wheels are straight ahead that the marks on the steering box show that to be centralised too. If it isn't, you need to adjust the drag link until it is. If the steering box is centralised, then it's the column between the steering wheel and steering box that need changing. Rather than taking the steering wheel off, it's easier to move the wheel by moving the splines on the centre column and there's less chance of damaging the rotary coupler too.

Marty, a word of advice on doing the sunroof blind trim. Make sure you wrap the material at the front right round so it actually goes up on to the top and don't get glue on the strips down each side that it slides on. Probably worth putting some masking tape on to keep the glue off it or you'll need to clean it all off again as Morat and Smiler had to on his.

Thanks for hosting a great weekend, we enjoyed it but as you say, with a 2.5 hour drive to get home had to leave when we did. Dina had one complaint though. With 6 or 7 headlining shells to strip the old trim, foam and glue off she kept herself busy doing that all day Saturday but was complaining she was getting bore on Sunday because there was nothing she could do. Although she is fully experienced at the old up, down, up, down routine when it comes to brake bleeding, I suspect she wouldn't have been too happy to wait until the early hours to help with doing it.

You can have the seal, I blagged the last one he had from Avenger 4x4 and was going to drop it in to him so he'd got one on the shelf. Yes, it's wheel off, caliper off, unplug the ABS sensor and pull the cable out of the clips, 6 bolts on the back of the hub (13mm, 12 point), pull hub and driveshaft out, lever old seal out, tap new one in and put it back together. If you want to be really thorough, you can take the brake disc off and clean the oil from the inside of the disc and backplate while you are at it. Shouldn't take more than an hour start to finish.

Easiest way to connect a charger if the battery has gone completely flat and you can't get into the car is by crawling under it and clipping onto the big positive terminal on the starter. Another good reason for making sure your EAS is in good nick so it stays where you left it and doesn't sink to the floor (unless you are even skinnier than me!).

You probably don't want to here this, but looking at the optical illusion that makes the front radius arms look bent or straight depending on the angle you look at them from, I've just noticed something else. Your offside rear axle oil seal is starting to leak, you can see the damp patch on the brake backplate. It's a simple enough job to change one and as it happens, I've got a brand new axle oil seal in it's packet here that you can have. I ordered one and paid for next day delivery for the car in France that I went over and changed the rear wheel bearing on, it didn't arrive in time but I managed to get one locally so I now have the one where next day was actually 3 days. My own fault, to make the postage worthwhile I ordered a couple of extra bits but failed to notice that if anything is a non-stock item, LRDirect wait until they have the full order before sending it out even if you do pay for next day delivery.

Marty, have you confirmed the Wattage needed to satisfy the BeCM? I only ask as Dina's Merc complained about a blown front sidelight bulb. I didn't have any 5W capless bulbs but did have a couple of spare 3W P38 dash illumination capless bulbs so put one of them in instead. Bulb lit up nicely, and you couldn't see any difference between that one and the other side with a 5W in it, but the car still complained that the bulb was blown. Swapped it for a 5W and the car was happy again.

But if you look at the last two, you can see what shape the front radius arms really are. It's just the angle you took the first two from.

and as it's at a DAF main dealers, I suspect the lift is, shall we say adequately, rated. Now that's what Marty needs to get before next year........

No, but I have to ask, why? If you want to know what is underneath, crawl under and have a look.

It should only superlock if you press the button on the fob twice, one press locks it, two presses superlocks it. So if you have a bit of key bounce in the fob you could superlock it when you don't mean to. Same with locking with the key, turn it once to lock, twice to superlock. When you lock it the indicators flash once, when you superlock it, they flash 3 times and about 15 seconds after you lock it you hear the superlock motors do their thing. I know the earlier ones are worse for problems but I always superlock mine, it's just habit to press the fob button twice and it hasn't locked me out yet (although we did discover at last years Summer Camp that the superlock on my drivers door doesn't work). All 433 MHz devices are licence exempt as momentary operated devices so shouldn't transmit all the time but they must be the only devices known to man that when they fail they don't stop working they work continuously and that causes a problem. You'll also flatten the battery if something is momentary but transmitting very frequently. The Watchman units on heating oil tanks have a habit of transmitting every few seconds instead of every hour when the battery in them starts to go flat. Then your BeCM never gets chance to go to sleep and the car battery will go flat.

One thing we discovered this weekend with Smiler's early DSE was that if Immobilisation was turned off in the BeCM, which you would normally do to stop the engine being immobilised if you don't start it within 30 seconds of unlocking the door, it immobilises it permanently. Very early cars didn't have the mobilisation coil around the ignition switch so we suspect that if that isn't there they don't have the passive immobilisation enabled anyway and turning it off causes the whole thing to get very confused.

I could when the pair of you were following me. OB's headlights were a bright white but not dazzling in my mirror (so obviously set up properly) whereas yours were decidedly yellow looking. A bit too yellow looking I thought, are you sure you've got bulbs in there and not candles?

I think you've just found your problem......

Doesn't matter, it's a simple on-off switch. Make sure you give a good squirt of contact cleaner into both multiway connectors before putting it in.

Main difference between and internal and external tank is the way they are intended to be secured. You can have either a toroidal (with the multivalve in the empty centre of the tank) or a filled toroidal (which as there is no hole in the centre has to have the multivalve on the outside) intended for internal or external mounting. The tank you have could be mounted externally as it has the lugs all the way round for mounting straps.