StrangeRover wrote:

From what I understand 140,000 on a RV8 cam means they're usually a write off..

Only if it is totally neglected and never given an oil change. That looks nice and clean inside so has been serviced regularly. My original cam was still OK when the engine was rebuilt at 287k and the new one has now done a further 203k and still going strong.

I assume you all know what these are and what they do, but for those that don't, they plug into the RF receiver under the RH rear shelf and prevent stray RF from constantly waking the BeCM and flattening your battery. Marty has been working away for quite a while and some of the components he needed to build them were NLA so they haven't been available for quite a while. Well, the good news is, he has sourced the required components and has a limited number available now. They can be ordered through his website (http://p38webshop.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&path=84&product_id=97) until the 20 or so he has are gone. So if you want one, get in quick.

Yes, one won't be locking and that is the faulty one.

That is an easy one and wants to be sorted asap before it locks you out and immobilises itself. It is caused by a dying microswitch in one of the front door latches. 3 of the 4 doors will lock, the one that doesn't is the faulty one.

Yes and yes. It won't affect the latch so the door will still close and without the exterior handle you'll need to open it by pulling on the rod with a pair of long nosed pliers through the hole in the door or by using the interior handle.

But replacing the T seals means removing the rear main bearing cap, so rather than it being a half hour job to take off the rear cover, fit a new seal and put it back, you are looking at dropping the sump to get the main bearing cap off. Even if they are leaking, surely the oil won't get past the rear main seal anyway if that is good?

No idea why they felt the need to use as many bolts as they did. When I put mine pack one I just put a couple of bolts either side at the downpipe end and one at the front to stop then flapping around. Drilled out the remains of the captive nuts and used small stainless nuts and bolts.

phazed wrote:

Are you saying that the pump will run with a door open?

The pump will run but having a door open will inhibit all suspension movement. So if the system is empty, it is better to run it with a door open so all it is doing is filling the reservoir rather than trying to fill it and pump the car up at the same time. If you have a faulty door or tailgate latch so it always thinks a door is open, it will never rise and if the reservoir is already full and up to pressure it won't turn on the pump. However, if the Nano is showing rear valves open, that isn't the problem as no valves would open if it is inhibited.

Yes, at the back of the motor, by the brushes. Not that easy to get to though and putting it back together can be fun (holding the brushes back while putting the back on again isn't easy).

Does the Nano show that the pump is on when it actually isn't? Is it pulling in the relay but the pump doesn't start? Are the contacts on the Maxi fuse clean?

If the thermal switch reads normal, that is good. I couldn't remember if it reads Normal or Hot or Open and Closed. If it is iffy, that would cause the pump to not switch on whenever it is showing hot. It may be a dying sensor or it could be a dry joint where it is soldered onto the pcb.

Pattern height sensors are well known for having a very short lifespan, secondhand originals from a low mileage car are a more reliable bet. The numbers aren't mm but bits, the sensors give a reading of between 40 and 225 as the wiper moves from one end of the travel to the other. You need to watch what happens as it moves between heights and look for jumps or intermittent obviously incorrect readings. So if it is moving from 90 to 110, it wants to stay in that range and not suddenly read 80 or something else obviously wrong partway through the movement.

Although not mentioned in the EAS System Information Document (see https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eHSEP_2OsOFxYZh-MgevIVRsDg5Tel2u/view?usp=sharing) word has it that the target settings at all heights need to be within a certain limit (6 or 8 bits) side to side and have to be within the acceptable range for the height (page 32 of the document).

Not a Mk3, only driven a Mk1 and came to the conclusion it should only be available in Barbie pink...... Everything was just so light, steering, gearchange, clutch, brakes, I came to the conclusion it was the ultimate hairdressers car.

Thermal switch will show open or closed. Should be closed if cold and open if it has overheated (or the thermal switch has failed). If the switch has failed, poke a piece of thin wire into the back of the connector to short between Orange and Black wires at the pump to simulate the thermals switch being good. It will always open the rear valves first, wait until the rear has lifted, close them and then open the fronts.

Start by clearing the faults and running the pump to get it to start working, then go into inputs and look at what the height sensors are showing you.

The self levelling will drop 3 corners to match the lowest so if it settles down low, then one corner height sensor is reporting it is lower than it really is. I suspect if you'd looked closely, you'd have seen one corner sitting higher than the others, that will be the one with the iffy height sensor. If it rose normally on start up, the ECU hasn't detected that one is giving an out of range signal so it assumes everything is fine.

There's 2 pages on the Nanocom that will display the live readings from the sensors. On the Settings page you have to click on a button to update but on the Inputs page it shows target heights and actual in real time. If you start with the car at Access and tell it to go to High, you'll be able to see the numbers rise steadily as the car rises. You are looking for a sensor that either hangs at a certain output or suddenly jumps.

Good point, try 18 then......

If it has detected a height sensor out of range, it will log a fault and not try to do anything in case it damages things which probably explains why the pump isn't firing up. Use the Nanocom to check the readings from the height sensors at all heights. I suspect you will find a dead spot on the track on at least one.

I left mine naked as it is the foam that causes the leaks in the first place. Damp and dust get into the foam and that acts like sandpaper with the added advantage of moisture causing corrosion. Left open to the air and it shouldn't leak again. I just leave mine set at 20 degrees Auto so it keeps the car interior down to that rather than setting it any lower and getting frostbite!

They must do a leak test otherwise they wouldn't know you had one? They won't be able to tell you were from but that is a different job and way beyond their capabilities. ATS, or at least my local one when the missus took advantage of their cheap deal, use the programmable machine as they don't really understand what it is they are doing. When I did my full FGas course to allow me to install domestic AC systems, I asked what the difference was between the full week course I was doing and the 1 day automotive course. I was told that the automotive course only teaches how to do it and not why you are doing it that way or how the system works. I paid an additional exam fee so I could do both exams and get both qualifications. Compared with the FGas exam, the 20 question automotive exam was so simple although they allow 30 minutes to complete it, I did it in under 5 minutes!

The process is to use a recovery machine to slurp out any remaining refrigerant (if there is any in there in the first place), pressurise the system with Nitrogen at 10bar and leave it for a minimum of 30 minutes to check that the pressure hasn't dropped, release the Nitrogen then vacuum out to 1000 microns (0.019 psi), then refill with the correct quantity of refrigerant along with oil and dye (if you can be bothered). In comparison on a domestic/commercial system it is pressure tested at 42 bar for a minimum of 60 minutes and vacuumed to 150 microns (0.002 psi).

However, other than having at least one person that has sat the exam so they have the required qualification, the ATS/KwikFit, etc. places use a machine to do it. They connect the hoses, tell it how much refrigerant the car they are doing needs (or leave it at the default 600 grams as refrigerant has shot up in price and it will still work after a fashion with a short charge), press go and leave it to get on with it. If the machine detects a drop in pressure on the Nitrogen test, it stops and tells them there is a leak, so that is what they tell the customer. They've probably forgotten everything they were taught on the course as they don't need to know it, the machine does it all for them. What they don't think about is temperature differences and a car with a slight leak will still pass the test. The Nitrogen bottle is at ambient, you drive your car in so the engine is hot, Nitrogen is put in at 10 bar but for every 10 degrees C increase in temperature, the pressure will increase by roughly 0.5 bar, or 7 psi. So the pressure actually increases and as long as it doesn't leak more than the 0.5 bar that is taken up by the thermal expansion of the gas, the machine is perfectly happy. If the car is cold and the Nitrogen bottle is standing in the sun, the opposite happens. The pressure drops as the temperature falls and the machine says you have a leak when you haven't.

Bloody hell, you're alive!!!! I've been asked by a number of people if you were still about and I've had to tell them that you (and Nick) had gone AWOL. Welcome back mate, are you in the UK or did you just manage to find a bit of spare time to pop up on here?

Martyuk wrote:

As Gilbert says, some of the earlier MG latches work in a P38 - though some have an extra wire as I think they supplied a signal when the latch was locked aswell as when it was unlocked - from what I can remember anyway.

The difference with the MG latches is that instead of having 6+1 connectors, they have 6+2. The 2 way connector has the Black ground wire in it the same as the single connector on the P38 latch and the other wire is simply the grey from the latch that appears in two places, once in the 6 way and again in the 2 way so can be ignored if using it in a P38. The 6+1 latch and the later ones (99 MY onwards) that have the 8 way (but with only 7 ways used) are the same latch except for the connector, even the wire colours are the same, so an MG latch can be used in a later car if the 2 plugs are chopped off and the later plug fitted instead.

phazed wrote:

Definitely no sign of a leak under the bit of foam on the top corner although the alloy is corroded there.

If it taking the best part of a year to lose a charge,you only have an extremely tiny leak so the STP leak stop will almost certainly cure it for at least a couple of years. Bear in mind that the system runs at 10 bar so to lose 1250g of refrigerant in a year is an extremely small leak.