c16rkc's mad house

[Hell Razor5543]

I just recently read Peter Hamiltons' book "Mindstar Rising", where Wisbech play a part where a finale happens. I take it there is an old mill there?

When you do start installing the software for the Lexia there is a file you need to copy elsewhere after each update. If the software locks out you can copy that file back and it should unlock it again. I would not go past version 7.58 of DiagBox, as later versions rely upon connections to the PSA systems for certain functions, and (as your 'copy' will not be authorised) you may find they switch off your system.

DiagBox is the main software that runs the system. If you are connecting to an older model vehicle DiagBox will then call up the older software (such as Lexia) to allow it to work.

[c16rkc]

I would imagine there are a lot of old mills here... the only one I can think of is close to the town center, next to our Quick-Fit. This one:

https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/ ... ry/1279307

It's a market town with docks, and clearly was very prosperous at one point. There are some enormous and very prestigious houses here. There is a lot of agriculture in the area, and a lot of factories, so that's led to the need for a lot of factory workers housing and the inevitable decline of the area that seems to follow that, with lots of very rough housing estates peppered all over the area. I think things have been steadily improving since the 1990's and many of the rough areas are much cleaner now.

It's a very odd area, as house prices have gone nuts over the last few years. In our sleepy little village of Walton Highway, the bottom/mid end of the market has not moved all that much, but the bigger 4/5 bedroom houses you could buy for £250-350K just 3 years ago are now selling at £450-550K and sometimes more. I wish we had traded up from our 3 bedroom house while we had the chance. In contrast, the neighboring town of Kings Lynn does not seem to have seen the same scale of increase, which is very odd.

[Hell Razor5543]

The old mill was on a mound, and (unfortunately for it) was the target for a space probe. It (and the area for around 1KM) were destroyed by the impact.

[c16rkc]

Sadly Wisbech is still here... so I am assuming the book was fiction.

It's pretty flat in the fens, and around here anything higher than 100mm is classed as a mount...

[c16rkc]

I just googled it and I see it is a work of fiction, so I wonder if the Mill on a mount is made up to.

Besides the events in that book would never affect us in Wisbech, because none of us believe in global warming...

We're all too busy revving our Diesel tractors and chomping on cows.

[Hell Razor5543]

Peter Hamilton is English, and (although his work is science fiction) he seems to do his research pretty well, so it is possible that Leach's Mill was the aim point.

When you need to get new parts you might want to look at GSF (German Swedish French), and even sign up to their news letter. Their prices are good, the quality of they parts are good, and (if you did sign up) the discounts can be quite useful. You probably would want to steer clear of ECP (Euro Car Parts). They have a (deserved) poor reputation, and are known around these parts as Euro Crap Parts.

When you connect up the Lexia you will be asked to provide the RPO number, This should be stuck on the B pillar, with quite a bit of information. The tenth post on the following thread will show you what it looks like (as thee is a photo of one).

https://www.aussiefrogs.com/forum/index ... 876/page-2

You can also use the RPO with the following link to find out when you car was produced, and where.

http://www.citroen-ds-id.com/gen/Gen_Organr.html

As it has recently been updated I found the link re. steering racks;

viewtopic.php?t=60155

[c16rkc]

Thanks James - that's some great advice and I really appreciate it!

My Lexia turned up yesterday, but it turns out it's not Lexia at all, but something called "Citroen Dog box". I downloaded and set it up on my antique laptop yesterday, getting the nasty surprise that my laptop battery no longer holds change

But it seems to load up, and I look forward to plugging the cables in and getting to grips with it on the car. I just hope it can help me solve the wiper and suspension issues.

Oh and thank you for the links on the steering rack. My car has receipts for a reconditioned steering rack in 2017, but I am not sure how good this unit was. For the time being it works OK and if I get a failure I guess I'll have another refurbishment. The costs do not really scare me much as Lindsey's Audi A7 has just had it's steering rack reconditioned at a cost of over £1,300 so the Citroen one is rather a bargain in comparison.

The Germinator

So that leads us neatly on to Lindsey's German tank Audi A7, which she collected back from the garage yesterday afternoon. I got home to find it sitting proudly on the driveway, and having not seen it for a few weeks I had forgotten what a formidable and sleek beast it is.



So a little about it....

We bought the car last year, as a replacement for Lindsey's Lexus RX300h. The Lexus was leased, and I wanted to reduce the monthly household costs (due to the amount of money I was hemorrhaging on my property investment I purchased in the local town), so we went for this nice car as it had a nice spec and Lindsey liked the style.

This is it from the advert photos.





The biggest problem with 90's and 00's era German cars is the trim levels are near to pointless, because none of them really include any options and are usually just cosmetic. So when we saw this one we were quite impressed. It has a lot of options like keyless go, radar cruise control, lane assist, extra large navigation screen, Bose sound system, Comfort front seats etc... I forget everything. But safe to say the first owner ticked lots of options and that's quite unusual. I have never seen another one like it; particularly with the 3.0 litre diesel engine rather than the high performance Petrol units.

It's done around 150,000 miles (I forget the exact number), but it has been Audi main dealer serviced it's entire life, and we were impressed that it drove like a brand new car. No expense seemed to have been spared with the upkeep. Of course the main dealer history has ended now, as I took it to an Audi specialist garage for the last two services - I actually think you get a better service than a main dealer; though surprisingly it can sometimes be more expensive.

Shortly after getting the car, I filled in the stone chips, wet sanded them flat, and compounded them. They are still not perfect, but it takes the eye away until such time as we go for a front end respray.





We also shampood the matts as they were a little grubby - they came up really well.





But having kids means they got dirty again rather quickly... I think we need some black ones...

The 19" wheels were looking a little tired, so earlier this year I treated Lindsey to some newer 20" ones that are the style fitted to the newer Audi E-tron. Lindsey picked the wheel style, and I think she did well as they suit the car well.







It's been a really solid car, and gives us something luxurious to go on family trips with. We took it to Wales last year for a family holiday, and we also took it to Birmingham for a family week away earlier this year. It always drives faultlessly.



However late last year Lindsey saw a "Steering failure" error on the dashboard. The message lasted just a few seconds and then vanished, so we did not get too worried. But we booked it into the Audi specialist garage "VW/Audi centre" in Kings Lynn.

They said they could not find anything, and we went away thinking it was just a fluke... but then over a few months Lindsey saw the same message 2 or 3 more times. It was never there for more than a few seconds, but it had to be indicating something.

Then a couple of months ago, the Audi came up with a "battery not charging" error, and Lindsey kept driving it that day anyway The car died later that day, and she managed to steer it into a layby.

By fitting a 2nd freshly charged battery (non AGM, but good enough to drive it) I nursed it to the Kings Lynn VW/Audi centre again, and they diagnosed a broken alternator pully. But we also told them to look into the steering rack error again.

The car was returned, but even though I explained to them the situation with the battery, they charged the wrong one, and did not refit the AGM unit - leaving all the trim in the boot loose for me to put back together. The car also came back with a blank non-working Nav screen... but most annoying of all they still maintained that there was nothing wrong with the power steering....

....I suspect they were not even checking the steering... because my own "carista" code reader was indeed showing an error code for the steering rack, and what followed confirm that.

Rather than ask them to put right the Nav screen, I decided it was time to try a new garage.

We took the car to A Reeve performance in Kings Lynn, and I have to say I was much more impressed. Where as teh young lad on the phone at the KL VW/Audi centre was always rushed, and spoke to you like he was doing you a favour just by letting you bring your car there, the A Reeve performance garage are totally different. Much more polite, and better still they quickly repaired the Nav screen, and diagnosed a faulty steering rack, due to water ingress.

A new steering rack from Audi was over £3,000... a pattern part was £2,000... but a company called "western power steering" would recondition your old one for £600. We booked it into A Reeve for the removal of the rack, and they kindly packaged and sent it up to Western Power Steering. A week later and it was on it's way back completed. A few more days and it was fitted, and I got the call on Monday to say it was ready for collection. The bill was £730 for removal and fitting, so the whole job cost me £1,330 in total. Not bad when Audi wanted £3,000 for a new rack without fitting!

So that brings us up to date, and I have to say we are really pleased with the Audi. The only future expenditure I am slightly worried about is the DSG automatic gearbox clutch...

[CitroJim]

Loving your avatar Chris

Reminds me, I must get diagnostic kit for my Picasso. My old Citroen ELIT - dating from the early 90s just won't cut it any more

[c16rkc]

Thanks Jim - that photo in my avatar is two and a half years old now, but I love it so much. It makes me smile every time I see it and remember how excited Aston was holding his brother for the first time.

Spencer on the other hand, looks less than amused...

I'll let you know if my diagnostic Citroen Dogbox software works, it was £130 from Ebay. Took me several hours to download the software and install it last night, I am hoping I installed the right files as there were 4 or 5 to choose from

[c16rkc]

Dog box

Plugged in my dog box, and I am pleased to say it all connected pretty much straight away.





Within a few clicks I had a list of all the faults, and this is what I have.











Dog box is relatively user friendly, which was a pleasant surprise.

First off all there's a slave wiper error. I am under the impression that means the passenger one, and if that's the case I am puzzled as thats the one I replaced with a brand new genuine motor assembly.

When first powered up both motors did actually twitch, but in the "down" direction rather that up where they should have gone. But now the passenger side won't work at all.

I used the dog box "park in service position" and while the drivers side moved gracefully and obediently into a vertical pose, the passenger side remained motionless. Its very odd...

I tried a "slow wipe" using dog box commands, and the drivers side moved a 3rd of the way up, then stopped. Very odd. The drivers one does seem a bit intermittent with it's function, and the random places it stops.

I checked the fuse box, but both wipers are served by the same fuse so I doubted that would be the issue. Sure enough the fuse was fine. So I am puzzled what else it can be?

So odd how the drivers one has been "sort of" fixed now, but I can't get the passenger one to budge. Does anyone know if there's anything to reset maybe?

So then on to the naughty suspension!

There are faults for both front and rear sensors, but I guess these may be red herrings, as the car is jacked up at the front.

Tomorrow I'll remove the undertrays and lower the car back on to its wheels to take more readings. But it seems safe to say the front height sensor needs changing.

If anyone has any other insights... I'm all ears and appreciation!

[Hell Razor5543]

You can ignore P1351. It seems that most (although not all) HDi engines have this 'fault' and manage to plod on without complaining about it (my current C5 is not showing that error, but I hope it doesn't read this thread, in case it gets any ideas!). I wonder if (as suggested by a different member in a previous post) a magnet has come adrift in the slave assembly? If it has, the system will not 'want' to move it very far, in case it hits the end of its' travel unmonitored, causing damage.

[c16rkc]

Is the slave definately the UK passenger (left) side?

It seems surprising that's at fault when it's brand new.

[c16rkc]

Ahuh..! Its the other way around! I found this in another thread written by our treasure of the forum Marc:

There is a master ECU and a slave ECU and they need to talk to each other so the wipers don't collide.

The Master ECU is always in the left hand wiper motor and the slave ECU is the Right hand wiper (regardless of Right or left hand drive vehicles).

Rain water gets in and damages the electronics. This is why it can be hard to troubleshoot the correct wiper, as it may be the opposite motor that is faulty to the wiper that is causing problems.

So its likely I need to replace the drivers side; the one I was told had already been done... not a complete surprise considering how old it looks.

[GiveMeABreak]

Thanks for digging that one up Chris, I wish more people would search the Forum as I've lost count of the times I've had to repeat info

Just a few fault codes then.... plenty to keep you busy then!

Clear all the faults and re-run the diagnostic again to see which ones remain.

Probably better to list any faults you want help with on the Citroen Technical Forum, as I will likely miss them here (most of my time is taken up on the tech Forums), and I only picked this up because you quoted me and I got alerted.

[c16rkc]

Thanks Marc yes I'll post there too then. I had to scan pages and pages about C5 X7 wipers to find the answer... then there it was - fantastic!

As you say the topic has surfaced quite a bit over the years. A lot of posts seem to suggest the right hand side is the master, but I can only guess people get confused because our cars are right hand drive, rather than left.