The Joy of Running an Old Shed (Vol 2)
Discussion
r3g said:
SD_1 said:
Decided against the S80 in the end, instead I'm picking up a 2014 Mondeo Titanium X 2.0 diesel at the weekend. 120k, new clutch, timing belt done, for £2.5k. Very happy with that result and quite looking forward to having a shed again.
That's some brave bills on a 10 year old TDCI ! Injectors, EGR, DPF, DMF are known to throw up gigantic bills on those.Please keep us informed on the Mondeo.
Some day I will have run out of roadworthy 20+ year old sheds and will have to buy somehting newer
greenarrow said:
Shed Astra H went straight through MOT yesterday which is good. Just small advisories which will get done, the oil cover gasket leak which plagues the 1.6 petrol model and has been a small issue since we got the car. The driver employed by the garage said he was surprised how nicely it drove, "like a new car". Everyone who drives the unassuming Astra expects it to be a heap but comes away saying stuff like "that is such a sweet driving car". Honestly, if it wasnt for the fact that its going back to my daughter this August, I would seriously considering keeping it myself and selling my F30 3 series!
Had my astra h retest yesterday too. Failed last week on a front spring and the headlights had gone yellow. £35 later in parts and it's got another year.Irreversal said:
greenarrow said:
Shed Astra H went straight through MOT yesterday which is good. Just small advisories which will get done, the oil cover gasket leak which plagues the 1.6 petrol model and has been a small issue since we got the car. The driver employed by the garage said he was surprised how nicely it drove, "like a new car". Everyone who drives the unassuming Astra expects it to be a heap but comes away saying stuff like "that is such a sweet driving car". Honestly, if it wasnt for the fact that its going back to my daughter this August, I would seriously considering keeping it myself and selling my F30 3 series!
Had my astra h retest yesterday too. Failed last week on a front spring and the headlights had gone yellow. £35 later in parts and it's got another year.r3g said:
That's some brave bills on a 10 year old TDCI ! Injectors, EGR, DPF, DMF are known to throw up gigantic bills on those.
I reckon it should be ok - most issues seem to be improved on the mk4.5 version and they have better DPFs as well. Lots of reports of them going to big miles with minimal fuss. Could be famous last words mind you! QBee said:
Thanks for posting SD1. I assujme you sold the old Rover then?
Please keep us informed on the Mondeo.
Some day I will have run out of roadworthy 20+ year old sheds and will have to buy somehting newer
Think you may have me mixed up with someone else - no Rover here. Hoping the Mondeo will provide some comfy cheap motoring for a while, shall keep a realistic diary of running costs / failures though. Please keep us informed on the Mondeo.
Some day I will have run out of roadworthy 20+ year old sheds and will have to buy somehting newer
RazerSauber said:
Irreversal said:
greenarrow said:
Shed Astra H went straight through MOT yesterday which is good. Just small advisories which will get done, the oil cover gasket leak which plagues the 1.6 petrol model and has been a small issue since we got the car. The driver employed by the garage said he was surprised how nicely it drove, "like a new car". Everyone who drives the unassuming Astra expects it to be a heap but comes away saying stuff like "that is such a sweet driving car". Honestly, if it wasnt for the fact that its going back to my daughter this August, I would seriously considering keeping it myself and selling my F30 3 series!
Had my astra h retest yesterday too. Failed last week on a front spring and the headlights had gone yellow. £35 later in parts and it's got another year.RazerSauber said:
Irreversal said:
greenarrow said:
Shed Astra H went straight through MOT yesterday which is good. Just small advisories which will get done, the oil cover gasket leak which plagues the 1.6 petrol model and has been a small issue since we got the car. The driver employed by the garage said he was surprised how nicely it drove, "like a new car". Everyone who drives the unassuming Astra expects it to be a heap but comes away saying stuff like "that is such a sweet driving car". Honestly, if it wasnt for the fact that its going back to my daughter this August, I would seriously considering keeping it myself and selling my F30 3 series!
Had my astra h retest yesterday too. Failed last week on a front spring and the headlights had gone yellow. £35 later in parts and it's got another year.Why do manufacturers make things so difficult?
On the upside, at least Astras don't rot in the sills and doors like our previous MK1 Focus did and on that car, the rubber bushes were horrific to change due to all the bolts seizing up with rust!
greenarrow said:
Why do manufacturers make things so difficult?
Speaking as someone who works with OEMs, there's never an intent to make things 'difficult'. It actually suits them to make it easy. Often it comes down to compromising the packaging for some other reason. Some companies are better than others when it comes to prioritising servicing. Sadly, with often low expectations of some parts being taken out (e.g. the washer bottle), some things that need attention later in the car's life can become difficult. Bigger OEMs have people or even whole teams who's sole job is to analyse the accessibility and ease of removal of various parts for servicing. I have seen examples of absurdly difficult and complex operations (e.g. remove twenty bits to access x) because it was too expensive or made something else difficult. Sometimes things get changed last minute (rules, regulations, something failed, someone high up wanted something else) and what was a great solution suddenly becomes a poor one.The assembly sequence is designed to suit the plant, not the garage or customer, and can lead to some arrangements that may seem, from the outside, utterly bizarre or frustrating. Sometimes it works the other way - for example there's a grommet on the MX-5 mk3 door that, when removed, gives perfect line of sight to a bolt that would otherwise appear to be an utter swine to access. When you apply the logic 'how was this put together' and work backwards, things get easier. Sometimes.
Sheddy spec repairs continue...
True to form, having parted with my XC70 and bought something newer... with the old V50 dodging yet another bullet and being deemed good enough to continue as second car / shed, it promptly decided to have a hissy fit.
Reverse is lush down the entire gearstick then left and up. Only out of the blue it decided it no longer needed the reverse lock function and thus it was a complete lottery if you get first... or reverse. Which made setting off at junctions interesting. Online research was it's usual futile / wild goose chase... with talk of reverse lock solenoids, CEM failures, ABS related etc etc which all seemed a bit far fetched.
So, off to the breakers and a whole one pound later (!) I had a gear stick assembly from a fresher S40, working on the basis the reverse lock was integrated into the gear stick as confirmed by testing said gear stick off the car. Assisted by an enthusiastic 6yr, swapped it over, broke some bits of plastic in the process and lost one screw - opted to ignore it and carry on. No difference on the car. Strange.
Confirmed that the selector on the gearbox was fine, it was going into every gear when manipulated by hand and the gearstick was corresponding correctly. Much scratchy head and much thought of "Sod this, just scrap it" until a mate suggested adjusting the cables. Say what now? They adjust? And they do... or at least one does via a strange spring and cheese wedge clamp on the gearbox end of said cable.
Said cheese wedge duly loosened, pulled about 3mm of cable back and reclamped it whilst thinking it was little more than pissing in the wind. Jumped in and it's fixed... reverse lock now functioning as expected, all gears bang on and chances of wifey reversing into the car behind at the lights reduced.
It's next "longest journey in 4 years" which was a mere 70 miles confirmed the OSR where bearing is starting to make its feelings about being a wheel bearing for much longer known via the medium of noise. But that can wait.
True to form, having parted with my XC70 and bought something newer... with the old V50 dodging yet another bullet and being deemed good enough to continue as second car / shed, it promptly decided to have a hissy fit.
Reverse is lush down the entire gearstick then left and up. Only out of the blue it decided it no longer needed the reverse lock function and thus it was a complete lottery if you get first... or reverse. Which made setting off at junctions interesting. Online research was it's usual futile / wild goose chase... with talk of reverse lock solenoids, CEM failures, ABS related etc etc which all seemed a bit far fetched.
So, off to the breakers and a whole one pound later (!) I had a gear stick assembly from a fresher S40, working on the basis the reverse lock was integrated into the gear stick as confirmed by testing said gear stick off the car. Assisted by an enthusiastic 6yr, swapped it over, broke some bits of plastic in the process and lost one screw - opted to ignore it and carry on. No difference on the car. Strange.
Confirmed that the selector on the gearbox was fine, it was going into every gear when manipulated by hand and the gearstick was corresponding correctly. Much scratchy head and much thought of "Sod this, just scrap it" until a mate suggested adjusting the cables. Say what now? They adjust? And they do... or at least one does via a strange spring and cheese wedge clamp on the gearbox end of said cable.
Said cheese wedge duly loosened, pulled about 3mm of cable back and reclamped it whilst thinking it was little more than pissing in the wind. Jumped in and it's fixed... reverse lock now functioning as expected, all gears bang on and chances of wifey reversing into the car behind at the lights reduced.
It's next "longest journey in 4 years" which was a mere 70 miles confirmed the OSR where bearing is starting to make its feelings about being a wheel bearing for much longer known via the medium of noise. But that can wait.
My new shed Merc R320cdi has been having difficulty starting and diagnostics are reporting issues with 3 of the 6 glow plugs. It's not the glow plug module as that's already been replaced, codes cleared / rescanned and the same plugs are showing as shorting or open circuit. Wouldn't you just know it but all 3 are seized solid and needing to be extracted by the garage... I'm bad at this "shedding-on-a-shoestring" malarkey... Then again buying an 18-year-old Merc for shed money is always something of a gamble...
At least it's not rusty!
At least it's not rusty!
Not wanting to worry you, but be careful extracting those glow plugs.
I used to have an ML with the 270 cdi engine and two of my 5 glowplugs needed replacing.
In the end we couldn't extract them without risking breaking them off, so just left them and lived with it.
In cold weather, we used to leave it an extra 10-15 seconds after the glow plug light went out before attemtping to start the car.
My experienced garage guy said that they keep heating well after the light goes out, so it would start better on 3 if we got the max out of the working ones.
I used to have an ML with the 270 cdi engine and two of my 5 glowplugs needed replacing.
In the end we couldn't extract them without risking breaking them off, so just left them and lived with it.
In cold weather, we used to leave it an extra 10-15 seconds after the glow plug light went out before attemtping to start the car.
My experienced garage guy said that they keep heating well after the light goes out, so it would start better on 3 if we got the max out of the working ones.
QBee said:
Not wanting to worry you, but be careful extracting those glow plugs.
I used to have an ML with the 270 cdi engine and two of my 5 glowplugs needed replacing.
In the end we couldn't extract them without risking breaking them off, so just left them and lived with it.
In cold weather, we used to leave it an extra 10-15 seconds after the glow plug light went out before attemtping to start the car.
My experienced garage guy said that they keep heating well after the light goes out, so it would start better on 3 if we got the max out of the working ones.
I didn't want to try changing them myself for exactly this sort of reason, no mention of them ever being changed in the history and at 18 years / 113k miles, fully expected them to be well and truly stuck in there. I used to have an ML with the 270 cdi engine and two of my 5 glowplugs needed replacing.
In the end we couldn't extract them without risking breaking them off, so just left them and lived with it.
In cold weather, we used to leave it an extra 10-15 seconds after the glow plug light went out before attemtping to start the car.
My experienced garage guy said that they keep heating well after the light goes out, so it would start better on 3 if we got the max out of the working ones.
But even cycling the ignition 3 or 4 times until the glow plug light goes out, or giving it 30s - 1 min before attempting to start doesn't seem to make it start without a lot of turning over and then a lot of unburnt fuel smoke when it does fire. Cylinders 4, 5 and 6 are all open circuit plus 4 is short to ground.
-Lummox- said:
QBee said:
Not wanting to worry you, but be careful extracting those glow plugs.
I used to have an ML with the 270 cdi engine and two of my 5 glowplugs needed replacing.
In the end we couldn't extract them without risking breaking them off, so just left them and lived with it.
In cold weather, we used to leave it an extra 10-15 seconds after the glow plug light went out before attemtping to start the car.
My experienced garage guy said that they keep heating well after the light goes out, so it would start better on 3 if we got the max out of the working ones.
I didn't want to try changing them myself for exactly this sort of reason, no mention of them ever being changed in the history and at 18 years / 113k miles, fully expected them to be well and truly stuck in there. I used to have an ML with the 270 cdi engine and two of my 5 glowplugs needed replacing.
In the end we couldn't extract them without risking breaking them off, so just left them and lived with it.
In cold weather, we used to leave it an extra 10-15 seconds after the glow plug light went out before attemtping to start the car.
My experienced garage guy said that they keep heating well after the light goes out, so it would start better on 3 if we got the max out of the working ones.
But even cycling the ignition 3 or 4 times until the glow plug light goes out, or giving it 30s - 1 min before attempting to start doesn't seem to make it start without a lot of turning over and then a lot of unburnt fuel smoke when it does fire. Cylinders 4, 5 and 6 are all open circuit plus 4 is short to ground.
QBee said:
Not wanting to worry you, but be careful extracting those glow plugs.
I used to have an ML with the 270 cdi engine and two of my 5 glowplugs needed replacing.
In the end we couldn't extract them without risking breaking them off, so just left them and lived with it.
WD40 or penetrating fluid. Douse them in it. Take car out for drive, get engine red hot. Come back, get socket on it and gently slacken them off a few mm, then tighten, then slacken, then tighten, repeat. Don't force them, they'll snap and then you're in a world of pain. It may take an hour or more, just 'rocking' them backwards and forwards, but each time you'll get them a bit further. It can be a long job and the screeching as they turn will make you wince, but they will come eventually. Patience is key. Not too bad if they're on the front of the engine but they're a real PITA if they're on the back. Done loads of them and only ever had one snap, which was on a Merc funnily enough!I used to have an ML with the 270 cdi engine and two of my 5 glowplugs needed replacing.
In the end we couldn't extract them without risking breaking them off, so just left them and lived with it.
-Lummox- said:
My new shed Merc R320cdi has been having difficulty starting and diagnostics are reporting issues with 3 of the 6 glow plugs. It's not the glow plug module as that's already been replaced, codes cleared / rescanned and the same plugs are showing as shorting or open circuit. Wouldn't you just know it but all 3 are seized solid and needing to be extracted by the garage... I'm bad at this "shedding-on-a-shoestring" malarkey... Then again buying an 18-year-old Merc for shed money is always something of a gamble...
At least it's not rusty!
I've said it numerous times before, although not on this thread, but in many (most?) cases, people are selling or have got rid of their (personally owned) car because it had problems or they were aware of problems brewing. This is particularly common with diesel powered vehicles from this century due to their complexity and wallet-emptying insane costs to fix the usual stuff that goes wrong on them. It's a case of get rid of it before it properly breaks, meaning that they won't nave to pay ££££ to fix it and it can be someone else's problem.At least it's not rusty!
Your Merceded purchase strikes me as being a perfect example of this. IMO the owner knew full well about the starting and glow plug related issues, hence why the module has already been replaced and not fixed the problem. Then he discovered the plugs were seized and that was when he offloaded it to you whilst keeping schtum.
IMO you've got to have your 'brave' pants on to buy ANY age diesel vehicle out of manufacturer warranty period nowadays and the petrols aren't far behind them in the (un)reliability stakes either.
r3g said:
WD40 or penetrating fluid. Douse them in it. Take car out for drive, get engine red hot. Come back, get socket on it and gently slacken them off a few mm, then tighten, then slacken, then tighten, repeat. Don't force them, they'll snap and then you're in a world of pain. It may take an hour or more, just 'rocking' them backwards and forwards, but each time you'll get them a bit further. It can be a long job and the screeching as they turn will make you wince, but they will come eventually. Patience is key. Not too bad if they're on the front of the engine but they're a real PITA if they're on the back. Done loads of them and only ever had one snap, which was on a Merc funnily enough!
Had several doses of pentrating fluid on the plugs over the week or so before taking the car into the garage in the hope it would free them up / anticipation of them being stuck. As others have speculated, when I saw faults on three of the plugs I assumed that the previous owner had just been ignoring the problem knowing it was likely to be expensive / a hassle to fix and tried to maximise the chances of it not being as bad as it might be... didn't seem to make much difference. Access isn't actually too bad on the plugs on the OM642 engine so hopefully even if they snap, extraction won't be as much of a PITA as it might be. Just more of a PITA than it might have been.
And yes, buying any diesel car of this age is a gamble, but frankly buying any car of 10+ years age is a gamble to some extent. Some gambles are potentially more ruinous than others...
I mentioned rot only because I've seen many mid-2000s cars from various marques (Mercedes included) that are absolute rotboxes and this one is actually remarkably clean underneath. Mercedes main dealer performed a visual health check on it whilst remedying a recall FOC for me that the previous owner hadn't bothered to do and emailed me a link to the video inspection of the car (I'm guessing they were fishing for faults in the hope that I would pay them to sort them out) but the tech doing the inspection was actually very complimentary of the state of the brakes, suspension, underbody etc and it all looked clean as a whistle - better than some 5 year old cars I've seen up on the ramps. I'd rather be dealing with mechanical faults than structural rust, at least... silver linings and all that...
-Lummox- said:
r3g said:
WD40 or penetrating fluid. Douse them in it. Take car out for drive, get engine red hot. Come back, get socket on it and gently slacken them off a few mm, then tighten, then slacken, then tighten, repeat. Don't force them, they'll snap and then you're in a world of pain. It may take an hour or more, just 'rocking' them backwards and forwards, but each time you'll get them a bit further. It can be a long job and the screeching as they turn will make you wince, but they will come eventually. Patience is key. Not too bad if they're on the front of the engine but they're a real PITA if they're on the back. Done loads of them and only ever had one snap, which was on a Merc funnily enough!
Had several doses of pentrating fluid on the plugs over the week or so before taking the car into the garage in the hope it would free them up / anticipation of them being stuck. As others have speculated, when I saw faults on three of the plugs I assumed that the previous owner had just been ignoring the problem knowing it was likely to be expensive / a hassle to fix and tried to maximise the chances of it not being as bad as it might be... didn't seem to make much difference. Access isn't actually too bad on the plugs on the OM642 engine so hopefully even if they snap, extraction won't be as much of a PITA as it might be. Just more of a PITA than it might have been.
And yes, buying any diesel car of this age is a gamble, but frankly buying any car of 10+ years age is a gamble to some extent. Some gambles are potentially more ruinous than others...
I mentioned rot only because I've seen many mid-2000s cars from various marques (Mercedes included) that are absolute rotboxes and this one is actually remarkably clean underneath. Mercedes main dealer performed a visual health check on it whilst remedying a recall FOC for me that the previous owner hadn't bothered to do and emailed me a link to the video inspection of the car (I'm guessing they were fishing for faults in the hope that I would pay them to sort them out) but the tech doing the inspection was actually very complimentary of the state of the brakes, suspension, underbody etc and it all looked clean as a whistle - better than some 5 year old cars I've seen up on the ramps. I'd rather be dealing with mechanical faults than structural rust, at least... silver linings and all that...
I've recently had it up in the air as the engine mounts need doing just to have a gander and it's like new under there, very impressive for a 19 year old car.
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