Aragorn wrote:

A nice in-dash screen with Android Auto is on my list, i find it invaluable in my daily and feels like the thing i miss the most driving both my older cars.

I'm not too fussed about a big screen. My Kenwood head unit deals with sounds, Bluetooth hands free and audio streaming, while a Garmin sat nav stuck to the windscreen tells me where to go (and as it links though an app on my phone gives me live traffic too).

However, two things that I would definitely like so much that I stopped noticing them, rain sensing intermittent wipers and automatic headlights. The former worked perfectly when you get that light rain that you can never get the intermittent delay right by only wiping when a certain amount of wet was on the screen. The automatic lights are great when you go into a tunnel, not only for switching them on but switching them off afterwards. There's been numerous times I've driven miles with the lights on after forgetting to turn them off when I come out of a tunnel.

Having been driving a few modern cars just recently, I considered starting a similar thread. In the last few weeks I've driven a Hyundai i10 (hire car), a Mercedes E350 Cabrio and currently have an Audi S6 (standard Audi A6 body but with a 439bhp Lamborghini 5.2 litre V10 under the bonnet) parked outside. All have lots of modern driver aids, many of which will become compulsory in a couple of years and it set me thinking which would I like. Obviously all have a screen in the dash dealing with navigation, radio, media, audio settings and various other things that can be controlled by the driver but even at under 10 years old, the nav on both the Merc and Audi are getting a bit dated.

Reversing camera, yup, but that can easily be added to any car as can reversing sensors.

Then there are the driver aids, things like adaptive cruise control, brake assist, blind spot monitoring, lane departure warning, etc. I never use cruise control, preferring to to control my cruise speed with my right foot and on both that have it, it had been turned off anyway, as had the brake assist. The owner of the Merc told me that adaptive cruise was a pain as it would slow down if it saw a car in front of you travelling slower. Fine unless you intended to overtake that slower car because it expected you to indicate to pull out to overtake but if you were already in the overtaking lane, it had to be overridden.

The lane departure warning on the Merc and Hyundai would cause the steering wheel to shudder (and reduce the power assistance on the Hyundai so it felt like your wheels were in a rut) if it detected that you were drifting out of your lane. The only way to stop it is to indicate to pull out to overtake but you still had to indicate when you wanted to pull back in. However, if you indicated to pull in while the car you had overtaken was still in view of the blind spot detection in the rear view mirrors it got grossly offended and caused the steering wheel to shudder and it would beep loudly at you too!

I thought the blind spot warning would be useful and it is to a degree but I found it makes you lazy. As a big red triangle appears in the mirror if there is someone in your blind spot, I found I was relying on that rather than looking over my shoulder (what is known in motorcycle circles as the lifesaver), so while useful, not something I would consider an essential. At the end of the day there is no substitute for the Mk1 eyeball.

The Merc also had automatic dip beam which I must admit I really liked. Put the lights on main beam and if it detected another light coming towards you, they automatically dipped. Initially I thought the system may not dip when coming up behind another vehicle so I would blind them with the lights in their mirrors, but no, it detected them and dipped the lights. The only time it was fooled was on a section of road with Armco on the central reservation which obscured the other vehicles lights but not their windscreen so it didn't dip the lights but the oncoming driver got the full benefit of a pair of HID lights in his face. However, I did drive that car back from the south of France where there is hardly any traffic at night so I doubt it would be that useful in the UK when the roads are so crowded, even at night, you rarely get chance to use main beam anyway.

Although I've got my stereo as good as I can expect without spending a fortune (Kenwood DAB head unit with Bluetooth, JBL speakers in place of the originals and a powered sub under my seat), the Harmon Kardon system in the Merc and the Bose system in the Audi are absolutely amazing, so that would definitely be on my shopping list if it could be fitted without taking up any more space.

As Dave says, more power but having got out of the Audi yesterday and straight into mine, it still didn't feel underpowered, although I wasn't trying to break any records (which the Audi probably can do and sounds glorious when given some welly!).

So the bottom line is that while these modern driver aids may be useful, there isn't really any of them I would insist on having, except maybe the blind spot monitoring in the mirrors.

leolito wrote:

Now the next following question would be ... how do you "unfreeze" it? 🙃

You don't, you sling it in the bin. I've replaced all my woofers with JBL Stage 600 speakers (https://www.amazon.co.uk/stage-600CE-170mm-Component-Speakers/dp/B06XHL5R74). Fit straight in and sound way better than the originals. Even if you just get a pair, you can put them in the front and the known good ones from the front can go in the rear. You even get a pair of replacement tweeters which you could fit but I didn't bother as my old ears couldn't hear any difference.

Are you sure your spare speakers are good? Testing them for resistance will show if the coil is good, but not if the cone will move. Just about every one I've looked at where one woofer isn't working I've found the cone has seized so can't move. I'd start by swapping the speaker with the one in the other rear door which you know is good, just to be sure.

What's weird about the wiring? Pins 1 and 2 from the amp go directly to the speaker coil. The amp incorporates a crossover so full range going in and it is split so bass only to the woofer and mid and higher frequencies to the midrange.

I miss out a couple of steps. When I'm pulling up to park it is footbrake on, parking brake on, gearbox into P, engine off and get out of the car. There was someone on the other side that was complaining that with his car in P it would still roll. After checking that the gearchange linkage was correctly adjusted he ended up pulling the transfer case and gearbox tail housing off and finding most of the slots on the park plate had been worn away so the pawl against it was doing nothing. I suspect he (or a previous owner) had been putting it into Park while still moving which had destroyed it, but even so, it is only a bit of plain old mild steel after all.

As said, there's nothing wrong with your pump so you'd just be wasting £200. If the pump is running to get the system up to pressure then cutting out, it is fine. It is when it runs constantly and the ABS and TC lights stay on that you have a problem. The pump supplies pressure to the accumulator which is stored and used to operate the brakes. As said, the ABS system releases a brake when it detects a wheel turning slower than the others so isn't using any pressure at all.

I've just read the manual too and you are quite right, it does say on vehicles that can't be tested on the rollers need testing by the alternative method but nowhere can I find what says is suitable or not. On the section on the parking brake, it does specifically mention brakes that operate on the transmission and say that both wheels must be tested at the same time, not individually.

I would totally disagree that a parking brake is redundant on an automatic. If you take the tail housing off the gearbox and look at the thin steel plate with notches in it that a similarly thin piece of steel slots into, you would see that relying on that to hold the car on any sort of incline is asking for trouble. The parking brake is to stop the car rolling down a hill, not the park position in the gearbox.

Does it kick down when you floor it at 2,000 rpm? On mine it will change up at around 4,000 rpm unless it is in Sport mode then it will rev to the red line before changing. In Sport it also kicks down more readily.

Don't you just love stupid testers? I had one tell me that there was no point in testing my car as the ABS light was staying on until his boss told him it will until the car reaches 5mph. Show him the owners handbook that clearly states that it will stay on until the car is moving so it can check the outputs from the wheel speed sensors.

If the pressure was low the pump would run continuously, the brake efficiency would be low and the TC and ABS lights would be permanently on as the pressure switch would never close to switch off the pump and extinguish the lights.

If they insist on using a two wheel roller, the Traction Control must be disabled as per the instruction posted by Pete above.

Assuming they test the parking brake the same as they do here, they will normally do one wheel at a time which will result in no brake force at all displayed as the opposite wheel will be turning in the other direction. Point out that the parking brake operates on the rear propshaft so both wheels need to be turning at the same time.

The only way you can actually test the ABS is by stomping on the brake pedal on a loose or grassy surface.....

Aragorn wrote:

If its a petrol, at wide open it shouldnt be trying to shift until at least 5k.

So i would actually suggest the opposite is the problem, the gearbox isnt shifting because the engine hasnt reached the shift point yet... Something on the engine side is stopping the RPM climbing any higher.

Lifting your foot will have lowered the shift point and so it changed gear.

Will it rev past 4k in neutral? Any fault codes on the ECU?

Agree totally. Shift points are set by a combination of TPS and MAF sensor readings but if it isn't revving beyond 4,000 rpm, then that is your problem.

Aragorn wrote:

I also reinstalled the passengers side exhaust manifold heat-shield, and peered at the drivers side one thinking how the F am i getting that back in there... any tips?

Shove it down at the back, then rotate it so the front comes down. It bends easily enough so will go in (if you are brutal enough) but you can always bend it back into shape once it is in place.

I can't see why not. As you say, the additional flexi is probably there so the hard lines on the chassis can be connected to the others on the body. I can't see there being any movement between the two, it isn't a Classic where the body mounts will have rotted away years ago and the body to chassis distance will vary every time you go round a corner.....

I think it is to keep the flexi short while still allowing full suspension movement without it flapping around and risking getting snagged on anything. There's doesn't seem to be anything stopping you from doing a sort of hybrid, half early/half late, arrangement though. Other than not being able to buy a suitable flexi that is. I wanted to replace all the pipework on one of my other cars. making up new hard lines with Kunifer wasn't a problem but I was then told that flexis were NLA (for a 1990 car?). I bought a length of Goodrich hose and the correct ends from https://www.merlinmotorsport.co.uk/s/goodridge-fluid-transfer/goodridge-600-series-brake-clutch-hose-fittings and following the guide here https://www.merlinmotorsport.co.uk/knowledge_base_articles/view/how-to-assemble-your-own-brakeline-266 made my own.

My money would be on a collapsed flexi. Usually makes its presence felt after the flexi has been clamped for work to be done, but there's nothing to say it can't happen with an old hose. Particularly on the front where it is constantly bent back and forth when steering.

V8 Developments do ported heads in 3 stages (http://www.v8developments.co.uk/headporting.htm) but I'm not aware of any 4 valve or OHC aftermarket ones. While checking out the Wildcat heads, I came across this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/115732141242, a pre top hatted block for not that much more than the cost of getting top hats fitted to an existing block. A good mod if building an engine is to use the 4.6 crank and con rods with 4.0 litre pistons. As the 4.0 litre pistons have a smaller dish, that ups the compression ratio to around 10.3:1 (ish). Pre-ignition won't be a problem with the knock sensors to back off the ignition timing if it occurs or if running on LPG with the much higher octane rating.

It looks as though the centre has broken so the inner bolts fixing it to the crank and the outer ones connecting it to the Torque converter have moved in relation to each other. So the bolt heads against the flywheel access holes are all that is transmitting the power. Although there is damage to the flywheel, it doesn't look too bad and I would be inclined to leave it as long as it doesn't have any cracks.

You can either shift the transmission back to gain access or, in my view easier, move the engine forwards. If you disconnect the exhaust downpipes from the manifolds and remove the radiator and viscous fan, you've opened up a lot of space at the front so with an engine crane (and disconnecting the odd coolant hose and electrical wiring), you can unbolt the engine mounts, raise the engine slightly and move it forwards. With it hanging on an engine crane makes the job a lot easier than trying the support the gearbox and transfer case as the shape and uneven weight distribution makes it awkward. The last thing you want it the transmission dropping on you while you are underneath changing the flex plate.

Although RPi, who have spread the story that every engine will fail sooner or later, always maintain that the 4.6 was affected most. I've always assumed that there were more 4.6 engines made than 4.0 litre so it stands to reason that more would fail.

Need to request access to look at the pics. I think you need to change the permissions on them.

In the US, maintenance seems to be a dirty word and when they try, usually get it wrong. I've imported around 40 cars from the US and long ago realised that all US vehicles should have a label on the bonnet saying "Do Not Open, No User Serviceable Parts Inside". If there is a right way and a wrong way of fitting something, you can guess which way they've done it.

I agree, the easiest way to kill the engine is to allow it to overheat. Rings nip up in the bore so rather than the piston moving in the liner, the liner moves in the block. No different to any other alloy engine with either a steel liner or plated bores, moving parts that are overheated and expand, don't move as well as they were intended.

It may well be as I can't really see a block going porous.

From what I have seen the problem with the police ones was the way they were being used. They would often be sit idling for hours at a time before being suddenly booted off down the road and run flat out for miles. Not something a normal owner would do. A friend used to work for BMW and he said they are no more reliable than anything else, just that BMW were really good at covering it up. I suspect they decided it would be better to refuse to supply them than risk a well publicised court case.

I like those Audi style pipe connectors. As they wrap around, they will also take up and slight difference in pipe sizes too. I used one on one P38 that had been fitted with a non-standard stainless system so the flange had been cut off the downpipe section. Far better than the bodge using GunGum bandage that whoever fitted it had used.