Zel's Fleet Blog - BX, Jag XJ-S, Sinclair C5, Mercedes 208D & 230TE, AC Model 70.

[Zelandeth]

Well there goes my chance to be productive this afternoon.

The same woman as last time decided to use my driveway as a parking spot again today - while I was in - so I felt it necessary to go and point out the error of her ways.

After which I realised that I'd walked out the house without my keys. Meaning I'm now locked out until someone else reappears from work. On the plus side, I did at least have the Activa key in my pocket so have headed out to get a late lunch. That one lives separately because my keyring keeps jabbing me in the knee while driving if it's all on the same ring.

Better about this than I used to be, still catch myself nearly walking out without them quite often though.

[CitroJim]

How incredibly rude and naughty of that woman... I was going to say lady originally but she's clearly not...

I have to watch doing exactly that with doors myself Zel, which is why every set of keys I have (one for each of the cars plus workshop) all have house keys on them... Plus another one stashed away in a combination keysafe in a secret place if the worst does happen...

I did that after doing exactly what you did years ago...

You should have rang me and joined Robyn and I in the Turkish restaurant in Wolverton opposite Tesco... If you like Turkish it is utterly excellent... We bot ate until well stuffed for a total outlay of just £25... Excellent!

[Zelandeth]

Been an age since I've been to a Turkish restaurant. There's one just off Rosemont Viaduct in Aberdeen (Skene Street I think), the name of which escapes me right now. Edit: Just consulted Google Maps, I was correct about the location, and it's the Nargile Restaurant. Well worth a look if you're up there.

Think I just struggle with this because right through until I was in my late teens we lived in a house where the doors were never locked - in fact we didn't even *have* a key to the front door until we moved in 1999. I'd like to get a keysafe installed for this sort of situation, however one of our household is rather security obsessed and won't entertain the idea unfortunately.

Not too bad this time as at least I have access to a car and my wallet so I can get some errands done. Last time I didn't have anything with me, even a jacket!

Will make a run by yours at some point this week Jim as I've a few more things in the boot you're welcome to before they're offered on the Vintage Radio forums. One I believe has Elma's name on, and I seem to recall you're still in contact with them.

In better news, I reckon I have now cleared a sufficient space for the Invacar to park in when it gets here. It's still a bit of a work in progress, but getting there. The amount of stuff coming out that I need to go through rather than just admitting it's rubbish is rather disheartening!

[CitroJim]

Will make a run by yours at some point this week Jim as I've a few more things in the boot you're welcome to before they're offered on the Vintage Radio forums. One I believe has Elma's name on, and I seem to recall you're still in contact with them.

Excellent Zel Yes, I am in regular touch with Elma and in fact speaking to him on Facebook right now...

And I'll never turn down any vintage electronics

If the weather is OK and more critically if I can walk (I barely can at the moment due to a knee injury) I'd be grateful if you could assist me in a quick bleed of Jodie's brakes... Should take ten minutes tops and all you need to do is sit in the car and press the pedal

I've mislaid my one-person bleeding device... It's been years since I've needed it... Last time I consciously recall using it was to bleed a Rover 75 clutch...

I have another on order from eBay...

[Zelandeth]

Was about to say I could drop mine by - but I can't as it's in the garage - which I can't get in to!

I'll drop you a text tomorrow and see if we can arrange something. More than happy to lend a hand (or foot in this case). It's astonishing how much difference to the pedal just a fluid change and bleed can make. Having done hoses as well I imagine you'll notice quite a difference.

Had always meant to get the hoses on the Skoda done as they're a bit perished, never quite made it to the top of the list - mind you, never got any worse in the time I had it either, and it was something I kept an eye on.

Slight delay on the arrival of the new project due to poor health over the weekend having meant the seller has been unable to prep it for transportation. So will look for an update next Wednesday when I'm back from my brief jaunt up north this weekend.

Bit annoying as it means I've got to pay for an extra month of insurance on the 107, but that's just how these things work sometimes.

[Hell Razor5543]

Something I have is a 'choke chain' with a latch on one end, and my keys on a loop on the other end. This chain is always clipped to a belt loop on whatever trousers I am wearing. I got into this habit when I was a security guard. I don't use one of those retracting belt devices, as I have had one occasion where the tether failed.

[Michel]

You have my sympathy as I've lost the Picasso keys in the last hour which has proven extremely frustrating! At least I've got the spare.

[Hell Razor5543]

You have my sympathy as I've lost the Picasso keys in the last hour which has proven extremely frustrating! At least I've got the spare.

It could have been worse. You could have lost your car keys in the snow. Oh, wait, you have already done that, haven't you?

[Michel]

You have my sympathy as I've lost the Picasso keys in the last hour which has proven extremely frustrating! At least I've got the spare.

It could have been worse. You could have lost your car keys in the snow. Oh, wait, you have already done that, haven't you?

The words "p155" and "off" spring to mind.

[Hell Razor5543]

Mind you, I did come up with a reasonable way to try and find them (garden rake).

You could always see if you can train your cats to find lost keys. That way you give them something useful to do.

[Zelandeth]

Lost my keys once helping John out with one of his bloody coach restorations. Escaped my pocket while I was dangling upside down through one of the access panels in the floor - and wedged themselves behind the fuel pump.

Turns out retrieving a set of car keys from behind the fuel pump of a Gardner 6LXW (I think) is actually quite fiddly. Especially when the key needed to open the other access panels is on the keyring you've just dropped behind the fuel pump.

Didn't occur to either of us that it would have been far easier if we switched the engine off and let it cool down first - the third degree burns just added to the excitement.

[daviemck2006]

The words p155o

Did you plug a Leia into Mr razors butt to get that fault code

[Zelandeth]

So much for getting anything outside done today. Tipping it down out there.

Decided to finally have a look in the giant box that arrived from Lada...probably a couple of months ago now. Being completely honest, I couldn't even remember what was in there!

So...what does roughly £500 get you? Note that these are all current production factory new parts as well, not NOS or secondhand stuff.

On the left: 2x Front engine mountings and rear gearbox mounting. Below that, new rotoflex coupling. Slightly to the right is a new clutch fluid reservoir and a bag of miscellaneous fuel system O-rings.

Centre frame: Two sets of both upper and lower front suspension ball joints. Fuel tank to filler neck flexible joint. Fuel injection pump. Reversing light switch. Fuel filter bracket.

On the right, every fuel pipe needed save for two long straight rigid pipes to/from the tank. Making up the remaining two should be a pretty trivial matter. Given they're about 80% of the length of the car, shipping them would have been utterly impractical!

Oh...and this.

Don't think you need me to tell you what that is...

In fairness the only expensive bits in there were the fuel pump and the tank itself (£120 & 250 respectively I think), don't think anything else was much more than a tenner. Despite that I've never (and I'm going back to 2003 here) had a duff part from Lada.

Slightly hacked off that the tweaks that are just coming in/just came in to the MOT mean that my dead check engine light is now a fail...So the search for a new ECU continues. Or if it comes down to it, I get more inventive. A single failed transistor is not keeping my car off the road!

[CitroJim]

That's impressive for £500 Zel...

Looks like a big project will soon be under way there

If you need any help with the dark EML of yours, shout... There are 'work-arounds' if necessary

I must look carefully at these MoT 'tweaks' and see how they might affect my fleet...

According to those august fellows across on Pistonheads, these are the main changes...

The 'Minor' is an interesting new category...

So...

Advisories are being replaced with minor fails. These are all pre written & approved by DVSA. You will still get a pass but they will be noted on your test certificate. Manual advisories are still being worked out but may disappear completely.

Those of you who have changed your standard headlight bulbs for HID's will now get a major fail even if the aim is correct. It has always been an offence to fit HID bulbs to halogen headlamps so the MOT is now in line with that.

Reverse lights are now part of the MOT for any car registered from 1st September 2009 (59 plate onwards). Daytime running lamps (DRL's) & front fog lamps must work on vehicles registered from March 2018 (18 plate onwards).

Engine Management Light is now a major fail. It must come on with the ignition and then turn off when the engine is started.

Brake pad warning lights are a major fail

Handbrake with excessive travel is now a major fail. Before it would only a fail if there was no reserve travel.

Contaminated (dirty) brake fluid is a major fail. Not sure how that will work as the MOT tester isn't allowed to remove the fluid cap.

Oil leaks (engine, gearbox etc.) can be a major failure if they are deemed large enough.

It seems they have removed the failure for tyres not being fitted according to sidewall instructions. Inner/outer or rotation incorrect.

Any modifications/removal to emissions related devices, this includes DPF'S and EGR's is now a major fail.

Where a DPF canister has clearly been cut open and re-welded, it will now fail.

A vehicle fitted with a DPF that emits any kind of visible smoke during the metered test will now fail

Emissions limits for diesels registered on or after 1st of January 2014 have been reduced. All diesels will now need to pass the limit that was set by the manufacturer when the car was new. This can be found on the VIN plate. For example the current limit for your diesel car may be 1.50. That could change to as low as 0.30 with the new rules.

How exactly will the brake pad warning lights be tested? And what about many Xantias where the wiring has broken and has been removed?

In the Xantia at least, it's not a light that's tested at 'POST'-time like the Engine Management or Airbag light.. In more moderns do the pad warning lights self-test like that?

[Zelandeth]

Pretty much every warning light under the sun seems to self test on the modern VWs we see through here. I suspect what they're meaning though is that if the pad wear lamp is on it's a fail now.

Big headache for the check engine light is that they've got a bloody great table which tells them exactly how the light is meant to behave in any particular vehicle. So just stuffing a 555 timer down the back of the instrument panel to make it stay on for a few seconds or paralleling it with the ignition light aren't going to fool them...Reckon we'll be seeing in a couple of years time it being mandatory for an OBD session to be initiated and any logged faults being a fail. That's already the case in a couple of EU countries (Sweden?) I believe. That I'll obviously dodge as this thing as an ALDL system which pre-dates what became the OBD protocol at least. The check engine light in this case is dead due to a dead transistor in the ECU. Unfortunately that transistor is buried deep within a custom Delphi IC, and that IC controls a lot of things depending on what data it's being sent...so it's not a matter of just sticking a few bodge-wires in and tacking a transistor on top of it. Apparently it's quite a common failing in this ECU in several of its forms.

Not too major a project ahead - mostly just removing my bodged together fuel lines and pump and "drop in" the official stuff. Only bit of fabrication that will be involved will be braising a couple of pipe-ends I've got from the donor Niva to a length of pipe to make the run along the underside of the transmission tunnel.

The rest of the stuff is mostly just service items and such that I know need to be done at some point. The engine mounts are all shot because of the horrendous oil leaks the car had when I got it, the reversing lights have never worked, the lid on the clutch reservoir is cracked etc...Just made sense to get everything ordered at the same time. Mainly though, I really didn't want to take a car to an MOT with the fuel pump cable-tied onto the car. This should eliminate all of my dodgy looking home-brew hose to metal connections too. Everything will be proper high pressure connectors when done - even though I know the fuel pressure regulator is set at 27psi.

I might have a look around and see if there's anywhere that does fuel tank coatings before I fit it, just as a bit of future proofing as the injection specific tanks are one part that I'm sure will become NLA at some point in the not too distant future given they were only fitted to a handful of cars in the grand scheme of things. I did wonder if there would be a date stamped on mine anywhere, but I couldn't find one.