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

[Dormouse]

I will be using this style of socket throughout Pint Pot. The reasoning being that I should have a socket for just about all types of items like shavers, chargers and oddball power adapters as well as standard 13A - plus usb points in every socket.

[Zelandeth]

Today's main mission was to get the speakers I had just fitted wired in. I was not looking forward to this job as chasing wiring through the cab of the van is a royal pain as there's not much that comes off to hide it behind.

Helpfully I discovered that the speaker wiring for the original rear speakers in the ceiling of the living area runs through a grommet in the floor under the fuse box, across the rear cab chassis support and then up into the bodywork.

This meant I could reuse the bit between there and the head unit - I just snipped the wire under the van and dropped a cable tail down from the lockers right next to the speakers. Easy.

I've left the original wiring in place as my intention is to wire those up to the monitor in the back, giving us a self contained entertainment setup without the need for standalone speakers or anything.

While crawling around I discovered that the reversing light switch (which doesn't work) is actually external to the gearbox, attached to the back of the gearchange linkage.



I'll need to have a poke around at that and see if it can be adjusted/repaired or if it needs replacing. Could even just be old grease that's dried up over time.

While crawling around I had a hunt for something which has been bugging the heck out of me since the day I bought the van - an extremely annoying rattly buzz (or buzzy rattle) which appears whenever the engine gets anywhere towards the top end of the rev band. Which equates to any road speed above about 55mph.

I was pretty confident this was something to do with the handbrake cable. I originally thought it was coming from here where the cable passes through a chassis member.



Turned out that wasn't the culprit as putting a rubber sheath over it made precisely zero difference. A little more digging tracked it down.



It's the cable return spring that's rattling against the little eye it passes through.



I'll need to see if I can find a parts diagram to see if there should be something else there - it feels like there should have been a rubber boot or something to prevent this being an issue - as it seems like it will always have done this. I know mechanical refinement was never really the top of the priority list for a vehicle like this, but a noise as maddening as this surely never would have been considered normal.

I note that there are two holes in the cable yoke with nothing on them, I do wonder if there should be a spring or something hooked on there.

The speaker installation by the way appears to have been a success. While not stellar it's at least half decent now. Decent stereo separation, good chunk of bass and no real distortion - especially as the heavy lifting is now being done by the 6x9s rather than the tiny little speakers in the dash.

Last job before I downed tools was tweaking the offside wiper arm a little as I noted last time I was out in the rain that it was fouling the side of the windscreen.



Dropped it down by a couple of splines on the spindle and hopefully that will do it. There's no real way to get the wipers looking both tidy and have decent coverage. Not sure if this just something unique to the right hand drive vans or if they're all like that.

Oh, and I managed to fill three full size rubbish bags with bits and pieces between the nooks, crannies, drawers, lockers and pocket dimensions.

[xantia_v6]

Something looks wrong to me. The bracket with the oval hole looks like it should be the anchor point for a shorter spring. Maybe a wrong component has been fitted somewhere?

[white exec]

Agree. That yoke should be supported somehow, so it doesn't waggle on the long cables/rods.

How about a couple of grommeted brackets for the outer rods, attached to the chassis cross-member?
Not dissimilar to Citroen height control rod...

[Zelandeth]

My gut feeling is that something is missing there.

I don't think any of the fitted components are wrong, the return spring is a pretty specific one, not the sort of thing you would just find floating around in a box. Though I agree...it looks wrong. I really need to chase down a proper parts diagram and see what should be there.

Easy fix to try for now is just sticking a bit of hose around the cable and seeing if the additional weight is enough to shift the resonance point sufficiently that it doesn't make a nuisance of itself.

If it wasn't the handbrake cable I'd probably never have even known about it - the noise however is transmitted straight up the cable into the floor of the cab, so is really irritating.

[Zelandeth]

460 plus change miles covered today.

Three things to note.

[] Is there a running difference between the cheapest diesel I can find and She'll V-Power etc? In this engine, absolutely. Definitely less willing to rev cleanly on the cheap stuff.

[] The clutch pedal squeak is back. I was wanting to tear my own ears out to free myself from it after about three hours. It's getting some attention tomorrow.

[] I really do need to do something to tame the exhaust noise...I love the throaty, raspy side of it, but not being able to hear yourself think between 40 and 69mph gets wearing after a few hours.

Really is quite roomy when by yourself.



Currently it's 6C and tipping it down outside... I'm quite happily listening to it on the roof and am just as warm and comfortable as I would be in a real hotel room. Heck, every single hotel I've been in in living memory I've had to take my own extension lead with me so I could charge my phone near to the bed... I've got four accessible USB charging points here within arm's reach and an extra two if I open a locker up. Take that Premier In...

[NewcastleFalcon]

Need some holiday photos outside the Van for our entertainment Zel. The Aurora borealis was out and about last night up North! I doubt some of the photos though, not many are straight out the camera

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... Devon.html

Regards Neil

[myglaren]

Sent that to my Teesside daughter, she is planning an Aurora holiday and was asking if I had seen them when I was in Sweden - never did. Grandson saw them earlier this year when he was in Norway and did tell her that they are visible from the UK.
I have seen nothing but clouds. I often have a peep out to see the Muskolites flying over. Only seen a couple in the past 18 months. On the rare clear nights they had buggered off somewhere else.

[Zelandeth]

Need some holiday photos outside the Van for our entertainment Zel.

One from earlier this afternoon.



At the traditional spot where I usually snap a photo of my cars up here.

[white exec]

You're not wrong about differences in performance (especially pulling power) between budget fuel and the leading branded stuff.

The difference is in the additives that get put in (often at the bunkering depots, apparently, where multiple-brand tankers fill up). The additives are relatively costly, so get left out/minimised for the cheaper fuels. For diesel, it's the cetane improvers (naphtha etc based) in better fuel that improves the way the fuel burns, and which result in a quieter and torquier engine.

Not every engine/driver appears to notice the difference, but all the diesels we've had (XUD N/A and turbo, Toyota D4D) have been noticeably nicer to drive on good fuel. The RAV4 D4D just would not cope with certain steep inclines on budget fuel (needing a drop into 1st to climb a steep hairpin) but would just plough up in 2nd on the good stuff. The 2.5td XM is the same.

Average fuel can be pepped up by adding your own improvers. There are some on the market that are themselves indifferent, but those marketed/made by Miller's (Diesel Power Plus*), Wynn's (Diesel Fuel Improver*), and 3CV (Diesel Fuel Treatment*) all seem to work well, at the recommended 1:200 for a remedial clean, and 1:1000 for routine use.
So far as I can tell from the MSDS sheets, appearance, and the distinctive smell) all these products are the same, and possibly made by Wynn's in Belgium. (*Names change; these are what I recall.)

There's also snake oil on the market, some of which was shown to be nothing other than standard diesel. Beware some of the "one shot" small bottles, intended for treatment of just one tankful. These can be ridiculously expensive. Buying in a 1L container is the better way to go, and those listed above are all available in this size.

My recollection of UK diesel fuel was that Esso (standard grade diesel) was excellent stuff, and knocked spots off supermarket fuel. Even in standard form, it ran really well, with no obvious gain in paying more for the posh version. Repsol, here, seems to operate in similar fashion, and we use it all the time.

[mickthemaverick]

I have been running all my cars, both diesel and petrol, on Shell VPower since long before it was even called that. I have found all the engines run smoothly and the biggest difference I notice is that my engine oils just don't get fully black between changes. In all the cars I have recorded slightly better mpg than manufacturers combined figures. I cannot possibly quantify the costs in engine maintenance which I have saved over the years but I suspect it may well offset the extra few pounds for each tank used. What I can say is that with an average annual mileage over 20k I have not had one head or lower engine problem since the head gasket blew on the ex wife's Astra in 1985. I will rock on with it anyway now as it also has the advantage of being E5 and therefore fully compatible for my MX3 where Mazda advised me not to run E10.
To avoid bogging down Zel's blog I have posted some evidence of my statements here.

[Zelandeth]

I've used V-Power right back to when it was still Optimax until the arrival of ethanol, when I switched to Esso Supreme +, which at least in my area is still ethanol free.

Diesel I usually still use Shell's fancier one...more out of habit than anything. Plus the diesel pumps at the Esso garage are an absolute pain (you have to fill the tank *really* slowly because the tank ventilation setup is awful), and the Shell ones generally behave so long as you hold them upside down and go dead slow.

Town I'm staying in only has two fuel stations... Morrison's and Tesco...neither of which have any alternative diesel blends...you have a choice of basic E10 unleaded or basic B7 diesel and that's your lot.

Might see if I can find any of the additives mentioned tomorrow as I was dealing with a headwind today and honestly I was worried something was wrong - I was barely able to hold 50 in top and was knocked back into fourth gear on any even slight gradient. Then on the return trip was flying along at 60-ish exactly as normal...so I guess a relatively small performance drop combined with the aerodynamic profile of a block of flats really does make a huge perceived difference.

When you're talking about a 78bhp 2.8t brick you need every advantage you can get!

[mickthemaverick]

I've used V-Power right back to when it was still Optimax until the arrival of ethanol, when I switched to Esso Supreme +, which at least in my area is still ethanol free.

That is interesting Zel, I wasn't aware that the Esso Supreme+ is still ethanol free. It may even help to explain why I thought the car seemed a tad chirpier during the fuel issues last month when I was forced to put £30 worth of Esso in when VPower was not available!!

[Zelandeth]

I've used V-Power right back to when it was still Optimax until the arrival of ethanol, when I switched to Esso Supreme +, which at least in my area is still ethanol free.

That is interesting Zel, I wasn't aware that the Esso Supreme+ is still ethanol free. It may even help to explain why I thought the car seemed a tad chirpier during the fuel issues last month when I was forced to put £30 worth of Esso in when VPower was not available!!

It isn't everywhere, but in quite a few regions still is. The information is buried on their website somewhere. Note that the pumps are still labelled E5 as the labelling is mandatory...and there's no E0 standard label...so the "up to 5%" labelling is used.

Buried down under "How much ethanol is in Esso's E5 fuel" on their FAQ page:

https://www.esso.co.uk/en-gb/fuels-faqs

"How much ethanol is in Esso's E5 fuel?

Esso Synergy Supreme+ 99 contains zero ethanol, except (for logistics reasons) sites supplied from Scotland, North Wales, North England and Cornwall."

If they see a spike in usage with the rollout of E10 I wouldn't be surprised if they see fit to find ways around those logistics issues, after all money talks...Note as well to add confusion, that's sites *supplied from* those areas...not necessarily just stations *in* those areas...so it's definitely no guarantee.

The one thing which hit me *immediately* when I started putting it in the tank was that it actually smells like petrol, rather than the more gas-like (well, the stuff they put in bottled or mains gas so you can smell it in the case of an escape, but you know what I mean) smell which has been the norm for the last few years.

It's an utterly useless bit of information really, but it made me more confident in putting it in the tank.

Edit: Forgot to add as well that on the advice of a friend who has been building, rebuilding and autopsying dead diesel engines for more than twice as long as I've been alive, I always add a dash of two stroke oil when filling up too. Basically to help offset the lack of lubricity of modern diesels due to the low sulphur content. Shouldn't really affect the engine running at all, but makes the life of the fuel pump far more pleasant. Really is just a tiny dash too so nowhere near enough to cause smoke issues.

Speaking of smoke, the MOT garage ran the test twice on it because they doubted the reading the opacity meter showed as she was so clean. Which ties in with my experience - you never see smoke at all when driving, even flat out in the headlights of following cars.

Yes, there is a part of me which goes. "Hmm...wonder if the max fuel adjustment could stand to be tweaked a bit..." However that bit is firmly reminded that I ain't touching adjustment screws (if they're even accessible) on that fuel pump without the diesel guru I mentioned earlier being stood next to me!

Remember the last project he was working on prior to us losing touch because I moved was propane injection on one of his coaches to provide a short term power boost when dealing with really steep gradients. Apparently It's quite common to see in the US, especially on Detroit powered coach/bus based RVs, but not something either of us had ever encountered over here. Curious to know if he went ahead with it and if so whether it worked as expected.

Looking for information on that did end up with his randomly finding a new old stock Detroit 671 engine in Buckie of all places, which he immediately bought and we both nearly deafened ourselves when we started it for the first time. In hindsight doing that *outside* the workshop probably would have been smarter. Both because of many, many decibels and the fact that we rapidly discovered we couldn't see anything because of the smoke. Beast of an engine though, and so, so smooth.

[white exec]

There was/is quite a lot on the web about adding 2T oil to diesel, both to add lubricity and as a cetane improver.
Recommendation was to use the basic (mineral oil based) stuff, and not the synthetic variety.
We tried it out here (XM and RAV) but found running not as much improved as the pukka additives, and no price advantage.

SFAI understand it, the cetane improvers have a quietening effect on the engine by smoothing out the combustion: instead of a short, sharp thump to the piston which cheap fuel delivers (and which results in diesel clatter), a more controlled and complete burn persists for longer as the piston moves down the bore.

For regular use, I decant additive into some small 50ml 'miniature' (mini-bar) type bottles. Convenient, as 50ml is the right amount for a 40?50L fill-up. Just tip one in and fill.