My New Time and Money Sponge

[ChrisRidett]

POPPY PASSED!!!!!!!!!

ok, ok, technically second time round, failed first time on the front number plate, which i'd had on the to-do list for a while but didnt get round to.

Various advisories........but nothing critical, might need new rear pads at some stage, but on the whole....not bad!

That gives me some time to sort out the rest and spend a bit of time repairing the other things.... new front indicator clusters on the cards.

Noticed shes getting through a bit of coolant, will have to have a look if theres a leak somewhere...... oil seems clean atm no apparent mayo.

[chriskay]

Noticed shes getting through a bit of coolant, will have to have a look if theres a leak somewhere...... oil seems clean atm no apparent mayo.

Mine uses a bit of coolant too. We investigated at my dealer. We found that the system was holding pressure OK & no mayo, then the service manager, who's very experienced on the 480, had a look at the water pump & there was evidence of slight leaking there (staining, but no liquid). He said that what happens is that it can leak a bit as it expands with the heat, but then seals itself when it cools. A new pump would cure it, but he suggested just keeping it topped up until it gets worse & that it may stay the same for thousands of miles.

[ChrisRidett]

Noticed shes getting through a bit of coolant, will have to have a look if theres a leak somewhere...... oil seems clean atm no apparent mayo.

Mine uses a bit of coolant too. We investigated at my dealer. We found that the system was holding pressure OK & no mayo, then the service manager, who's very experienced on the 480, had a look at the water pump & there was evidence of slight leaking there (staining, but no liquid). He said that what happens is that it can leak a bit as it expands with the heat, but then seals itself when it cools. A new pump would cure it, but he suggested just keeping it topped up until it gets worse & that it may stay the same for thousands of miles.

Thanks for that, when I'm next under her I'll have a look at the pump.

[ChrisRidett]

Well Sunday was a DIY day.
First Priority.......Change Coolant on Poppy. Having topped her up a couple of times with water, and the colder weather coming in, I decided to drain and replace the coolant.
Was surprised when I undid the drainplug to find no water came out.....then I realised I hadnt undone the expansion tank cap....

Good job i did, there was only the faintest hint of anitfreeze in there, will top her up with some proper mixed stuff from now on.

Took a while to get all the air bubbles out, and for the heater to work ( despite bleeding it from a connection out from the heater matrix. )

Will monitor her for a while...

Oh ....computer working........and speedo defunct....lol...... really must find time to get that dash off and check the connectors.

That, topping up rovers coolant, repairing the back gate post, and re-silicon'ing the shower, and taking the little one down the park led to a busy day!

Really dont want to be in work this morning!

[ChrisRidett]

Well, winters on its way.

Poppy's now got a blow on the exhaust.......gives her a nice sound but an awful vibration at certain revs. ...lol

The blow is right at the join between the rear box and the main long pipe. U bolt all rusted up, have done a quick wirebrush to it and flung some rust kill on it, will wait for that to cure then will stick some penetrating oil on it. See it I can get it shifted.

If the blow had happened a couple of weeks ago, would have been picked up on MOT i expect for emissions.

If i can get the u bolt off I'll see whats best being replaced.....if I had the money i'd do the back box and the main pipe - can get these on ebay for sub £100 for both.

The rear box is really showing its age, but the main pipe is in good nick apart from the join........ will have to see what condition its in when i get the u-bolt off. Hopefully I can get away with just replacing the back box. Rear boxes on ebay for a turbo ~£50 ....HiQ wanted £130 fitted!!!!


Really wanted to get some winter tyres for her instead though! still got the spare black rims behind the shed.

Thinking of these..http://ssl.delti.com/cgi-bin/rshop.pl?d ... sowigan=Wi or similar.


I think winter tyres are really under rated in the UK , they improve wet stopping,driving in slush and snow....the only downside is you NEED all 4 , not just 2 on ....otherwise it really affects the balance of the car.

I think insurance companies should offer reduced premiums for those cars with Cold weather tyres on during winter months, at least then it would go towards the cost of the tyres.

[ChrisRidett]

Oppps..... seem to have hemorrhaged too much cash these last two months, and have felt the wrath of the other half.

Just seemed everyone wanted more money off me this month in bills etc.

Needing to buy Poppy a new exhaust hasnt helped.

And the fact i bought a totally unneccesary car radio ( that plays DVD's !! ( It was a refub one from Halfrauds- Sonichi S7000 ) ) for £50 for poppy wasnt exactly a clever move either. And before anyone says ' What do you need a car radio that plays DVD's on a tiny screeen for ? ' all i can say is..........i-spy tends to get boring quite quickly for a 5 year old.

Although the Gungum hasnt cured the blow completely, it has stifled it considerably.It makes driving poppy around with it bearable
The exhaust bits have all turned up, causing much mirth in my office!
So I cart them back on the train, all going ok, with the intention of loading them on the bus and picking up my boy from school after dropping them at home. Oh the best laid plans ..... etc
I get off the train and the queue for the bus is MASSIVE - the chances of me getting on with a Rear box and Centre section went from good to non-existant! And with the buses being 15 minutes apart and not being sure I can get on the next, one Shanks' Pony it was.

So 30 mins later i arrive at the 'After School Club' worn out, sweating like hell , arms aching , just on the dot of closing time ! They must think I'm mad !

Did manage to wash poppy, although she still looks dirty! and put some Rain-X on the windscreen

[ChrisRidett]

Poppy Status:

new number plate.
Exhaust fix pending

May try and do this at the weekend at my folks ( they have a drive & and garage)

Not looking forward to it, cat bolts to centre section look seriously rusted.

Dont want to screw up the Cat getting it off- rest should be awkward but manageable hopefully

Have only got Axle stands so ......we shall see.

[ChrisRidett]

Well, despite getting the exhaust sections, and really wanting to do it myself, I find i'm seriously lacking in available time.

I did get under poppy ( at my folks place ) , but the bolts from the rear of the Cat are barely recognizable as bolts, and would require splitting and tapping or possibly drilling out.

Not having set of decent ramps to hand ( just axle stands )& no flat car stand at home i have shamefully asked if a local garage can fit the sections I need doing. They've quoted ~£45 to fit my centre and rear box, and I'm going to take them up on it. I feel like a sellout, but the blow is getting worse and i could really do with poppy working as the cold weather kicks in.

I've ordered a cheap set of snow chains for her ( £40 ) .........really wanted to swap the tyres on my spare rims for winter ones, but am still short on cash.

Oh, and one of my DRL's at the front has popped.

On the up -side.......was amazed that my drivers heated seat actually works .

Winter always draws out the failure points in cars, I know poppy is no different.

With the Rover only surviving on periodic additions of coolant+K-seal, it would be good if poppy was in a reasonable state.

With the exhaust blowing I cant ' tune in ' to the engine et al, and hear for weak points. ( I know I know ...I'm sad )

Safe winter motoring guys!

[ChrisRidett]

Well poppys had her exhaust changed by a local garage. I'll post up some details later about that debacle.

The cold weather is pointing out the faults on her, the rear brakes were stuck on yesterday, and the water pump is squealing a bit when first cold.
This ties in with ChrisK's comment about slowly losing of coolant, so at some stage a water pump replacement is on the cards.

Have swapped her for the rover's position on the road, parking on the slope will add stress to the handbrake. And I have a few things to sort on the Rover as that Mot is due in early Jan ( yeah ....like thats gonna pass- expecting emissions problems due to HGF )

[ChrisRidett]

We've had a bit of snow

[ChrisRidett]

I wouldnt mind, but thats not in a snow drift, and i brushed some off!

Deepest snow I've seen. 18inch-> 2 ft in places

[ChrisRidett]

Well Poppy's chains work well.......a bit too well......pulled us up and over a large lump of ice without complaining......only the front splitter decided that it wasnt strong enough for that sort of ice and I lost a section out of it.

Yes ....I know its not an off roader, but give me a set of chains and I could prob get further in poppy then most of the local muppet 4x4's and thier drivers.


Warning :Rant coming.
So Poppys been snowed in for a couple of days, the first day I get a chance, me and the lad clear her off , fire her up and dig her out. After popping down the road for a new set of boots for the young 'un and a coffee, we drive back and SOME GIT IN A 4x4 with Rear blacked out windows has nicked our freaking spot!
Nearest spot to park due to the ice is best part of quarter mile away. So i left a note saying how 4x4's shouldnt use spaces that 2wd cars can use in bad weather.
Turns out, it was a neighbors visitor, and after a while, they moved it .....onto their drive.....in front of the neighbors 4x4. And they still had space for a mini.

It amazes me how people think any 4x4 can go anywhere. They have no idea whether their particular 4x4 has diff lock or when they should use it even if they did know if they've got it.
one local guy looked perplexed when he couldnt get on his flat iced up drive .......reason?,....cos two wheels didnt have any traction - one at the front and one at the back.

which begs the question.....

I wonder what a 4wd 480 would have been like in a rally stage?

[ChrisRidett]

Coooooo innit cold!!!!

Not quite as cold as GJ's hometown, but being a southerner we aint used to this weather!!

Sat was the fun day, took my boy down to the local high street, and it snowed so hard we got about 2-3 inches in less then 2 hours.
Got so thick I decided we ought to head home, out came the chains, and away poppy went no problems!
All the main roads were gridlocked , but the back roads , being all snowed up, were quiet, and proved easy for Poppy.

Even ended up digging some guy out who tried to turn his car round in the main road to avoid the queue and got stuck. ( in this weather, spade in the boot permanently )

Currently parking poppy on the road again to ease the stain on the handbrake cable.

Up till recently I figured the ABS was defunct, and just working as normal brakes, but after tapping the brakes to get into a petrol station and elegantly gliding past the turning with the brakes buzzing , I figure its working ok!

And i wonder about the ' wheelspin reducer aka TractionControl-ish ' working as well.

Was heaving poppy off the drive, and with the handbrake sticking it was having a hard time, then I got to a point where the pavement was icy and the wheelspun, whereupon i heard the buzz of the ABS kicking in!

I'm in denial that these features actually still work after 17 years!!

The dashboard is having a bit of a personality problem atm, with the chains on , the speedo decides to work, without the chains, after a few mins of hot air, the computer lights up and the speedo fails. I'm hoping to get time to have a look at the connectors for the dash at some stage over the hols.


And a word of warning if it gets any colder......check your antifreeze mix.

Most antifreeze is good to cover the recent temperatures, but if your mix isnt right, the protected temperature range could be a lot less. !!!
Although the last time i went to Halfrauds to get a tester , they had sold out!




PS
I now have a spare centre section exhaust pipe, however from experience I have found out that not all of these are the same!!!
Turns out the Cat end of this pipe can have either a cup-type fitting or a ball type fitting, and I had got hold of the wrong type for my existing cat.
I believe the one I have spare is a Cup fitting.

[ChrisRidett]

Well, due to a long list of DIY jobs created by the other half, I havent spent a great deal of time on Poppy!
But managed to earmark my last day off to have a look at Poppys dashboad.

After following this, I managed to get the dash out http://volvo480.dragons.org.uk/forum/vi ... bb91907fed

So this is the back of a Turbo Dash


And I removed the plastic case,


Getting braver I eased the square pcb off and uncliped the blue connector at the bottom

So after much searching I find a Torq 10 screwdriver and take the screws from the large PCB . They were very tight.

This was the sight that greeted me


Note the white staining, this is normally a sign that the PCB has got damp, and the staining is where it has dried.
When this happens , contacts tend to get an oxidising film on them causing problems. So based on that I check the connections to the display unit.
I've not seen this method of connection before, but am familiar with the concept.
These contacts are easily oxidised, not having a covering on them, so the most likely cause of the problem with the computer display will be these contacts.
Some guys use a flat screwdriver to scrape off the oxidisation, but I dont hold with this, as its too easy to bend the contacts back.
So I find the finest grade sandpaper, and tear off the thinnest strip possible.
I poke it through the contacts on the PCB and draw it though once only on each side.


I lightly clean some of the other contacts and re-assemble the unit.

Change the failed bulbs with proper 3W units. ( nearly put 5w's in )

After much hand squeezing, pinching and scraping I managed to get the dash unit back in.

and





Yayyyyy works.......at least for the moment.
Obviously theres a slight condensation problem.

So Dash now is fully illuminated, and the computer works as do all the bulbs!!! but the speedo is still defunct.

Thinking about it ,the speedo was failing in a strange way, sometimes it would pulse the speed, rising and falling, but the rising and falling being at a steady rate.

Maybe the sensor needs a clean or replacing. Will check it out at some stage

[ChrisRidett]

Sometimes I'm a complete muppet.

So surprisingly my local Volvo dealer manage to source me a replacement speedo sensor by the following day,, and armed with various bits of information I venture out on Sunday morning to try and fit it.
Of course, I remove the Crank sensor by mistake, get it out only to curse and swear that Volvo have given me the wrong part.

Then brain actually starts to kick in, the muppet cloud lifts and realization dawns. With hindsight the sheer location for a speedo sensor was wrong , but right for a RPM sensor. ( thoughts of manual boxes with overdrive cogs clouding my brain )

So I clean the sensor up and re-fit it and go on the hunt for the real speedo sensor.

Haynes says the sensor is ' right hand side of the transmission near the inner shaft ' ........ no mention of a covering plate.

By this time, ive managed to put a crease in my drivers door sill thanks to me jacking the car on the opposite side and a poxy axle stand inadvertently leaning against it . Really unimpressed with myself for that!!! Know i know have to deal with this before the whole sill decides to rust off!

So - i fiddle and fart arse around, manage to get the covering plate off and ......oh ...goody.
When G Jim said the sensor was in an awkward place with a turbo ....he wasnt kidding.
The sensor is above the inner driveshaft for the OSF wheel, and there appears to be a pipe between the Turbo and the Sump right where you would put your socket! Its appears to be plastic and jubilee'd. From the looks of it - I'll need to disconnect it to get to the bolt for the bracket for the sensor, but i figure after a morning of magnificant failures & time ticking away i decide that its time to bolt everything back together and re-visit another day.

Going to post a question in the Engine section

[ChrisRidett]

Well, nothing much to report so far. been too cold to do much on Poppy

I have manged to remove the broken drivers seatbelt arm which , for the last year, has been threatening to blind me each time I got in or out of the car.

The info center petrol gauge working is soooo handy...lol.... its amazing how much gratitude 8 little LED's can produce.

I've done a bit of testing and research on the speedo sensor etc, heres what I've discovered.

1) Modern sensors primarily use 3 wire to power an integrated chip so the output from the sensor is nice and clear and the signal doesn't degrade through the loom.

2) The original sensor only has 2 pins, and the chip to decipher the signal is embedded on the Speedo Chip on the back of the dashboard. This means...

3) the output of the sensor is a very small signal, and relies on good integrity cabling between the Chip and the sensor. Any connection problems through the wiring are likely to make a small signal unreadable.

Looking at the wiring diagram and the dash this is the best I figure it.



Wiring diagram points to pins 2.6 and 2.12 ( I read this as Dash Connector 2 , pins 6 & 12 )



Unfortunately this is where I lose the trail as I've not taken a pic of the PCB without the daughterboard on.

Will investigate further!!!

If anyone has a spare dash lying around couldnt take a pic of the back without a daughterboard on could ya?? ( I know turbos and NA's have different dashes but the electronics would be similar)

[ChrisRidett]

Captain Slow to the rescue!!

Thanks to CS for the pic , managing to take shots late last night!


Heres the shot of the reverse of the PCB , its linked to the second ribbon cable.


This makes sense as this connect directly to a socket on the back of the plastic moulding leading to the actual speedo unit itself.

So the connectors involved with the speedo are ( from the sensor end )

1) Twin connector from sensor to loom
2) Connector to Dash ( Large multi-connector number 2 )
3) Connector to Speedo unit. ( Short hard wire ribbon connector- blue end )

So there are several points that can cause a questionable connection. Also these hard wired ribbon cables can be very susceptible to movement.

This should equate to a fairly straightforward continuity test.

I will investigate further.

[ChrisRidett]

Wooow cant believe its been so long since my last post.

I have tinkered with Poppy, so thought I'd post the results.

Instrument dash : Ahhh the 'ol touch it more then once for different results each time' ruse

So feeling adventurous I stripped out Poppys cluster again, this time armed with a meter, soldering iron and solder. All my investigation into the way the signal reaches the speedo had indicated to me that the problem was more then likely to be the dash pcb. So I strip it out, re-solder a load of joins ( mainly the ones I traced and a few others that looked suspect ) and put everything back ..............only to find that ...........speedo still didnt work.

So I fitted everything back.

two days later I found that my main beam indication bulb wasnt showing ....D'oh.

Was, by now, disheartened.....then the weather started to get a insy-tinsy bit warmer.

and Knock me down with a wet haddock and call me a fishermans friend........................the bloody speedo starts to work again. And actually has done for about 200 miles now.

Water pump still squeaking on startup....thats my job for when the weather Really warms up!

Oh, and finally managed to get a pair of the tyres swapped over for the Yokohama's , so now have a spare pair of badly painted silver rims to put winter donuts on if poppy lasts that long. ( will get the others done next month )

All in , Poppy is doing well, I had to put some self tappers on the drivers doorskin as the catches had got tired, and I suspect the drivers window motor / guides are getting old. but all in .....poppys managed to survive a nasty winter and I'm looking forward to hopefully making more progress on her as the weather changes.


The same cant be said of Rover, who's head gasket failure is seriously starting to show now. Thought it had popped for good last week, but after a drain out and flush , a change of expansion tank and a new bottle of Kseal, I'm hoping I can coax a bit more mileage out of the old girl...lol. the colder weather is helping too, i think the first warm day will see Rover expire in a cloud of steam and that will be game over.

Mrs wants another Volvo diesel, so I'm checking out the early V70's , preferably an automatic. But with her history of remodelling the fronts of cars she drives, I'm looking for one about£1500 , and we'll see how she gets on!

Personally I'd go for an ex cop one, but they're all petrol and I'd reallly like a T5 variant < evil snigger > ....hey I can dream!

[ChrisRidett]

So I was out in Poppy the other night and decided to work out just what the 'all lights' button does on the panel near the heated seats switch.

Normal High Beams


HighBeams + All lights switch on


So i got ambitious and braved the last switch.

Highbeams + All Lights + Front Fogs!!


Poppy lit up like a christmas tree!!!
I hate to think how many amps are flowing when that lot were on !!!

[ChrisRidett]

My arms and hands ache.

But poppy now has a new water pump and belt.
Took ages to get all the crud from the old gasket off.

I reckon the pump was starting to get tight and hot at times and caused poppy to cough and splutter when at idle. I noticed the Voltage drop just before the engine would cough and catch itself.

The pumps been on the cards since the snow, so I'm glad I got it done.
I'd forgotten to get a new belt and when I got the old one off, it was ropy, so I managed to get hold of a replacement at short notice, the local motorfactors.

I got a Quote from a garage just out of interest , they quoted me £40 for the pump and £260 for the rest.( fitting, antifreeze etc )

So my local guy charged me £30 for a new water pump with gasket.

Driving down to my folks to do the work I got about 30mpg., driving back the same route, not going over 2000rpm again, this time poppy managed 40mpg.
It was a slightly better run back traffic wise , but not too much difference. I wonder if the engine has been working harder to keep the tight pump running.


Other news: The rover has had its throttle body swapped back, and the K&N air filter removed and a basic one put in, as its being traded for a v70 on Thursday next week. Deals all done, just got to get it up to northampton to changed them round.
So over to the MG Rover site to advertise the spares!!