Today I did something to my car (volume 2)

passatman86

@Titzon Toast that box reminds me of back to the future for some reason.. Anyway plenty of patience doing that job - car should drive lovely when done

zg3409

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120652946#Comment_120652946

I would recommend you use a cheap odb adapter and a phone app to monitor how often the dpf is regenerating. If it happens every 400km you are ok, if every 100km then dpf is probably full of ash which cannot be removed by cleaning. Fuel consumption will be bad too.

I don't know the exact engine in that car but there are specific free apps for some makes that show the dpf status easy and help you to decide best action such as a trip round the block or to give up. Even just measuring exhaust temperature when it goes above 400 Celsius and reset trip on car, then check when it rises again can tell a lot.

Above is an example of a very good one for vag cars. The bar with "75%" shows how full dpf is right now and a regeneration will start before 100%.

Titzon Toast

Yeah, I've got my work out for me that's for sure. Folk recommend using Teflon tape along with the lube to help stop them squeaking.

colml cule

I use the car scanner app on Android to keep an eye on the DPF.

I noticed there is a field for "[ECM] Total Distance for Ash calculation", not sure what this is?

hoodie6029

Cheers @zg3409 and @colml cule

I have a Bluetooth obd so will try a few apps and see what results I get

Titzon Toast

Finally got a start on installing my polybush kit.

Installing the new ones is handy, getting the old ones out isn't!

I also did a repair on one of my side skirts that was rattling and driving me nuts.

I've two small wishbone bushes left and one corner is done.

hoodie6029

Number plate light stopped working on my 1990 Golf. The bulbs were fine so it must have been the wiring. Quick look and I located this corroded household connector holding some wires together 🙄

Connected the wires back together with some of these heat shrinks with solder in them. They’re great if you haven’t come across them. Picked up a pack last year and they are very handy of little jobs like this.

Next item to attend to it is the intermittent starting issue. Sometimes it starts right away and other times I get nothing. Cleaned electrical contact on the starter and the battery is good too. Any ideas?

zg3409

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120822018#Comment_120822018

Ash is the grey stuff left behind in a fireplace as compared to the black stuff which is soot that can burn off. Ash cannot be burned and typically cannot be cleaned. When dpf is full with ash, there is no room for soot and it's blocked and cannot be burned clean.

Total distance may be the distance travelled since the new dpf was installed. The amount of ash and soot is a guess based on differential pressure before, during and after a heat based regeneration. Whatever is not burned off is assumed to be ash, what was burned off was soot, and pressure difference is used to guess amount in grammes.

After a DPDlF replacement you ask the car to relearn values and so it resets and relearns it's guesses. You should not do this if dpf is not empty as car gets very confused.

Slideways

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120887998#Comment_120887998

You get to the bottom of your start issue?

Im assuming it isn’t cranking?

you can rule in or out the starter motor and pull in coil by using a piece of cable to cross the starter motor.

If memory serves me correctly there’s a relay that used to give bother. Can’t recall the number of it though. The main earth leads from chassis to engine gave trouble too sometimes

hoodie6029

Cheers Slideways, I’ll check out those connections. I’ll have a look on the Haynes manual for a wiring diagram with that relay in it.

Sometimes it cranks but other times when I turn the key I get nothing. I hear click of the starter engaging when the is at ‘on’ but once I turn it to start there is just no response.

zg3409

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120898137#Comment_120898137

It may be the contacts at the bottom of the key switch.

I am no expert but there is probably one relay for on, and a separate relay for start. Then there is a solenoid right next to starter motor for starting it. I suggest get an old school mechanic to check the basics. Typically starter motors can give trouble, but on an old car it could be switches,wiring, relays, corrosion etc.

Ideally you need an electrical expert to test each thing.

Titzon Toast

That's three corners polybushed and one CV joint changed. It's getting there.

wotzgoingon

What was wrong with the CV? Like was it knocking or did you just change it for the sake of it.

Titzon Toast

It was slightly knocking and was getting tired. Might as well change it while I was in there.

Tazzimus

I've had a CV joint try pull me into the dividing wall on the m4 on the way to get it replaced, and then self destruct as I pulled into their estate.

BlakeS94

Easy one this morning, full service on the brothers 2012 Astra, along with front pads, took my time cleaning and filing the calliper bracket and cleaning the slide pins, everything went back together so easily.

Car was hunting at idle, fuel filter was more black than the oil filter, air filter was warped and crushed, oil filter was dirty but not too bad, had an oil change 1 year ago.

Car is running so much better now, my guess is the fuel filter was causing fuel delivery issues which led to the hunting at idle.

PITA to bleed the diesel through, turning the key didn't work, battery went flat, bled through the return line in the engine bay and jump started it, fired up straight away.

Simple maintenance goes a long way.

fancy pigeon

Where the f*ck did that year go...

So, so much was piled on that I cried enough is enough (I'd actually mentally switched myself off a few months prior) and moved jobs. No more vans to mind, weekends and evenings for myself once again. I can finally start on the Z once again, even though my mental deadline to have it running again has long since past. I can sort out jobs on family/close friends vehicles I've put on the long finger. Apart from the aforementioned, I can finally focus on working my way up the IT ladder

I'll just share these 2 pics, the annual S60 service, accompanied by the king himself. The S60 has undergone some work I'll go into another time. Long story short, it's even more fun to drive now, but I don't drive it as much as I should. With all this new free time, I might get to pull out that C220 in the background and finally start again on it (and far less enthusiastically, that 156)

https://imgur.com/cVAVbPA

I spend more time driving this though

https://imgur.com/Hu1pRaG

Fully road legal (I never thought I'd see the day it would be) Not a telephone book of advisories, but simple sh*te (but thanks to the aforementioned fleet of vans, again missed the deadline for a retest the first time)

Most consumables have been changed, especially with steering/suspension all new quality components make a huge difference compared to some cheap knock-offs. My father's quality work on having the key diamond Schwartz parts of this car gleaming. Surprise surprise, I ended up having to make up one of my own exhaust "specials" (I asked Souhans, they inspected, the price was a little too much, brought the car away and left it at that, then I asked another place...) which consists of mismatched off-cuts, other vehicles and of course bullwire (I welded in a pair of bridging pipes from a W126 to allow a section from an E32 to mate to a 535i centrebox for example, seamless of course), after an insulting quote. Just be honest and tell me you don't want to to the f*cking job, instead of wasting days of my dwindling f*cking time with the car in the garage when I could be sorting stuff for it's test. Wasted my fathers time too collecting the car, do you think he has nothing better to do with his time. Fool of me to trust outsiders and listen to their f*ckology, let my guard down eh... Whoops, back on track we go

Ironed out a lot, and I mean a lot, of niggling electrical and mechanical faults that caused it to run poorly, or not at all in some instances. The car worked when I needed it the most though

It's been very cost effective to put right and run, you may even have seen me out and about in it. There's still a few issues but I'll get to them, now that I have the time, for now

passatman86

The legend that is @fancy pigeon

Great to see you post updates - but i will patiently wait for my yearly 300zx update 😂.. Well done for still being dedicated

wotzgoingon

That is good you have more free time. I remember when you were dgt and would take cars apart while fixing them. You must have had a lot of free time back then.

passatman86

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120984164#Comment_120984164

The name dgt sounds familiar from an old car forum. @wotzgoingon were you on any the car forums back in the day. Dtdirl.com, Toyota owner club, midnight club. Honda-haven etc

Actually was anyone here on them forums lads

wotzgoingon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120984178#Comment_120984178

Fancy Pigeon used to be another username on here called dgt. He is even the first poster of this thread if you want to look. Mad that was 10 years ago. I was on Mitsipieces(Irish site) and another BMW one(Irish as well I think but I forget) and dtdirl(I think this was Irish if not I was on another Irish car forum not dedicated to any car). I was on one or two Honda sites too and then a ae111 site too.

wandererz

E90 3 Series with Sunroof.

With all the rain we have been experiencing the past few months the rear driver side footwell has been flooded. Also some damp in the driver and passenger footwells.

I looked at numerous YouTube vids about how to fix the problem. Most of them recommended freeing a drain in the wheel arches or eventually behind the jack point.

I could not find these on a 2006 E90.

People and videos recommended spraying compressed air through the drain holes in the sunroof.

I did not have an air compressor nor cans of compressed air.

What I did have was a portable tyre inflator that plugs into the cigarette lighter socket.

So I connected a pin/plug to it and inserted it into the drain holes and nothing happened except bubbles back at me.

In frustration I decided to remove the sun visor, the luggage handle and separated the head lining to expose the rubber connector hose.

I separated the hose from the connector and plugged in the tyre compressor hose for 2 mins.

Connected everything back, poured water into the sunroof and it drained perfectly! (as opposed to not at all previously).

Repeated on the other side.

Job done!! I hope...

Removing the side arch bolt, the sun visor and the luggage handles seemed like too much effort initially, but it turned out to be the easiest thing in the world to remediate this problem. 10mins each side max.

A decent Torx set, flat headed screwdriver and a tyre inflator is all that's required.

I suppose I should make a YouCrap vid of it now.

Perhaps...

Titzon Toast

New inner tie rods this morning. The old ones weren't completely gone but they weren't fair off.

passatman86

@Titzon Toast what's it like to own the best looked after prelude in Ireland 😂🇮🇪

Titzon Toast

It'll be nice when I finally get to drive it again!

It's been stuck on axle stands for a month now. I'm waiting on a camber correction bolt to land. Getting my hands on one has been an absolute nightmare.

Titzon Toast

Camber correction bolt finally landed, also managed to find the last new 4WS arm in existence. Two of them would have been nice but I just changed the one that was most worn out.

Got it all tracked and driving as straight as an arrow but something didn't feel right. One of the inner CV joints **** the bed completely.

They're impossible to find on their own but I managed to track down a complete half shaft instead. I'm looking forward to testing it all out properly tomorrow.

passatman86

@Titzon Toast that really broke apart.. was it knocking

fancy pigeon

Blow the cobwebs off this thread...

The E34 is now converted to manual, 6 speed at that. Done over 2 (short) days and designed to be reversible if one would want to go back to autotragic (I don't know why I bothered but I did anyway)

Parts and research took about 2 months to gather fully. Big thank you to KilianManning as always for supplying the box/flywheel/clutch and other small bits you shouldn't really need to think about

Still lots to tidy up, but the car drives great, always how I wanted it to be. I would like to go to a solid flywheel, so if you know of anyone who needs an M20 flywheel, clutch and starter let me know

Hopefully I'll make more videos of the E34 and other project stuff I have. Next to figure is a standalone ECU I have sitting to one side for it but all in due time

Go easy on me, this is my first time ever using Final Cut Pro, trying to figure out HDR filters etc

https://youtu.be/VvnTxQBZFiw

bazz26

posted in wrong thread.

joujoujou

Great to see you again Mr. Pigeon, long time no see!