E61 V8 Bearding
Discussion
trickywoo said:
ATM said:
smashie said:
Jobbo said:
Just refilling with the proper fluid is £300 or so, isn't it? Has the price of the right fluid come down now?
Been told £20 a litre for transmission fluid when I was chatting to the guy at the garage when I took my car in.If anyone has or knows of a nice later model touring I'm in the market for one. There's a few nice saloons about, and an 06 550 at James Paul's which looks like an SE? Read up about the company and there are some terrible reviews so I'll give that one a miss I think. Would prefer an enthusiast owned car that's had some TLC!
happybiker said:
If anyone has or knows of a nice later model touring I'm in the market for one. There's a few nice saloons about, and an 06 550 at James Paul's which looks like an SE? Read up about the company and there are some terrible reviews so I'll give that one a miss I think. Would prefer an enthusiast owned car that's had some TLC!
The guy who bought mine is putting it up for sale imminently... it’s pre lci but if you want one that’s properly looked after it’s your car.Had valve stem seals done, full gearbox rebuild, quaife lsd, lci head/tail lights amongst other things and a history file like you’ve probably never seen before or will see again.
happybiker said:
Great, thanks philmots. Don't you already have one ATM?
Yes i do. Great car if you ignore the fuel bill. Also very cheap considering what you get. I cant decide if mine should stay or go so for now its staying. If i found a better one I'd consider a swap. I've had mine for over 2 years now which is a while for me but now i have a few cars rather than just the one which keeps things interesting. TL;DR - Scanned for errors, cleared them, changed a spark plug and the car is running better than ever.
So, time for an update from me...
Car started running rough under load and throwing CELs on Sunday. They seemed to clear when switching off and restarting but would reappear with any acceleration under load.
Had a feeling that it was losing spark on one cylinder and assumed it would be a coil. Some may remember I bought 8x plugs and coils last year as I was going to change them all but ended up deciding life was too short, when I saw the access on the back cylinders (3&4, 7&8).
Anyway, didn't want to take it to a garage so invested £25 or so in the BCables cable and software from ebay (blue cable). Got that all on the laptop and plugged into the car and fired up the INPA. I had loads and loads of faults come up! Dozens! However, bear in mind I haven't ever cleared them so they could have been there years.
Cleared all the faults and took the car out for a run to try and mimic the problem... It didn't take long. Was left with 3 errors. 2 of them referred to a misfire (checksum and cylinder 6) and the third referred to a charging problem, which seems quite common after a Google.
I pulled the engine covers off to get access to cylinder 6, whipped the old plug out (didn't look great) and threw in a new plug and a coil from my supply. Nice, the fix only cost £25 for the cable and software! But no... Put it all back together and same problem. Well, I say that but I put the battery on the conditioner while I was doing all this, which seems to have fixed the charging fault (will keep an eye out but it was probably a weak/ old battery causing it) but I now had the two misfire faults.
I took it all apart again, pulled the new coil out and chucked another new plug on the end to see if I could see a spark...Nothing. Put the old plug back in and... nothing. So, I went and got the old coil (lucky I kept it), threw the new plug in and promptly gave myself a fair old shock!! So, the old coil was working!
Old coil back in, new plug in engine - all now working perfectly and no errors. A 15min job turned into 2hrs but at least the car is purring like a kitten again. Should probably change all the other plugs now but I can't face it in this weather. A job for spring if the rest of them survive the next few months (probably <2,000 miles for me).
Interesting side effect of clearing all these errors and conditioning the battery etc... The gearbox seems to be changing smoother. Could that be psychosomatic/ coincidence/ something else? Will take it out for a longer run over the next few days but I don't appear to have the 30-40mph 'hesitation' that has been present since I had the oil changed and the software updated (2yrs back?).
The more annoying 'side effect' of all this is that I have £150 worth of new Bosch coils that don't seem to work. They were bought through ECP in summer 2016 so I doubt I am going to get a refund. They look similar to the coils in the car in dimensions and the electrical plug is obviously correct/ they fit but the spark plug doesn't seem to seat in them well/ make a good connection. The coil body seems completely black/ rubber whereas the original ones are silver and plastic/ smooth and the spark plug almost 'clicks' in, as does the electrical plug. I thought Bosch ones would be good but they don't seem to be nearly as well made as the original ones.
I've sent ECP a message on the off chance they're willing to exchange them or something but I don't hold out much hope (or expect them to do much). Perhaps they're not even the right ones. Will grab one and do some Googling on the part number over the next couple of days.
Long and the short of it is that the car is running better than it has done for the last 2 years, all for a £25 cable and a spark plug! Shame the bodywork is looking a bit shabby at the moment. If the car stays running well; I may be inspired to sort that out a bit!
So, time for an update from me...
Car started running rough under load and throwing CELs on Sunday. They seemed to clear when switching off and restarting but would reappear with any acceleration under load.
Had a feeling that it was losing spark on one cylinder and assumed it would be a coil. Some may remember I bought 8x plugs and coils last year as I was going to change them all but ended up deciding life was too short, when I saw the access on the back cylinders (3&4, 7&8).
Anyway, didn't want to take it to a garage so invested £25 or so in the BCables cable and software from ebay (blue cable). Got that all on the laptop and plugged into the car and fired up the INPA. I had loads and loads of faults come up! Dozens! However, bear in mind I haven't ever cleared them so they could have been there years.
Cleared all the faults and took the car out for a run to try and mimic the problem... It didn't take long. Was left with 3 errors. 2 of them referred to a misfire (checksum and cylinder 6) and the third referred to a charging problem, which seems quite common after a Google.
I pulled the engine covers off to get access to cylinder 6, whipped the old plug out (didn't look great) and threw in a new plug and a coil from my supply. Nice, the fix only cost £25 for the cable and software! But no... Put it all back together and same problem. Well, I say that but I put the battery on the conditioner while I was doing all this, which seems to have fixed the charging fault (will keep an eye out but it was probably a weak/ old battery causing it) but I now had the two misfire faults.
I took it all apart again, pulled the new coil out and chucked another new plug on the end to see if I could see a spark...Nothing. Put the old plug back in and... nothing. So, I went and got the old coil (lucky I kept it), threw the new plug in and promptly gave myself a fair old shock!! So, the old coil was working!
Old coil back in, new plug in engine - all now working perfectly and no errors. A 15min job turned into 2hrs but at least the car is purring like a kitten again. Should probably change all the other plugs now but I can't face it in this weather. A job for spring if the rest of them survive the next few months (probably <2,000 miles for me).
Interesting side effect of clearing all these errors and conditioning the battery etc... The gearbox seems to be changing smoother. Could that be psychosomatic/ coincidence/ something else? Will take it out for a longer run over the next few days but I don't appear to have the 30-40mph 'hesitation' that has been present since I had the oil changed and the software updated (2yrs back?).
The more annoying 'side effect' of all this is that I have £150 worth of new Bosch coils that don't seem to work. They were bought through ECP in summer 2016 so I doubt I am going to get a refund. They look similar to the coils in the car in dimensions and the electrical plug is obviously correct/ they fit but the spark plug doesn't seem to seat in them well/ make a good connection. The coil body seems completely black/ rubber whereas the original ones are silver and plastic/ smooth and the spark plug almost 'clicks' in, as does the electrical plug. I thought Bosch ones would be good but they don't seem to be nearly as well made as the original ones.
I've sent ECP a message on the off chance they're willing to exchange them or something but I don't hold out much hope (or expect them to do much). Perhaps they're not even the right ones. Will grab one and do some Googling on the part number over the next couple of days.
Long and the short of it is that the car is running better than it has done for the last 2 years, all for a £25 cable and a spark plug! Shame the bodywork is looking a bit shabby at the moment. If the car stays running well; I may be inspired to sort that out a bit!
Funny, I bought "delphi" coils from ECP and ended up using my old Delphi coils and am still running with those old oils because the new "delphi" coils failed after a few hundred miles and varying stages. Got my money back on a couple (connectors were not tight and plugs kept coming off) and another I kept and took it apart - had burnt right through the heatshielding.
I reckon they were fakes or factory rejects personally.
I reckon they were fakes or factory rejects personally.
Yeah, I've learned a bit of a lesson today after spending some money to refurb the ignition system... If it ain't broke and all that!
I can highly recommend the cable and INPA though - Incredibly useful tool. Probably still saved money Vs. a garage diagnosing the fault, despite the 'faulty' coils.
Also washed my filter (Piper/ K&N or something - can't remember now), so the car is a happy bunny.
I can highly recommend the cable and INPA though - Incredibly useful tool. Probably still saved money Vs. a garage diagnosing the fault, despite the 'faulty' coils.
Also washed my filter (Piper/ K&N or something - can't remember now), so the car is a happy bunny.
Another tourer appeared....
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2017...
Got a bit excited when I saw it was an 07 that it would be an LCI car, I’d probably snap one up if there was even though timing right now is hugely inappropriate!
Anyway, it’s otherwise identical to my old one, bit of TLC required.
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2017...
Got a bit excited when I saw it was an 07 that it would be an LCI car, I’d probably snap one up if there was even though timing right now is hugely inappropriate!
Anyway, it’s otherwise identical to my old one, bit of TLC required.
Just tried to fire up mine after I think 2 months of inactivity. Battery completely flat. Had to use the metal part of the key to open the door. Couple of minutes on the jump leads and eventually fired up into life. Now it is on the battery charger / conditioner. I wander how long it will take to get juiced up.
Any of you ever had the car crank for a while before starting?
It's a 7 but same engine...yesterday when leaving work it took a few seconds for the engine to fire into life. Cranked just fine though.
Noticed perhaps a very slight hesitation again this morning and tonight but nothing near yesterday.
It's a 7 but same engine...yesterday when leaving work it took a few seconds for the engine to fire into life. Cranked just fine though.
Noticed perhaps a very slight hesitation again this morning and tonight but nothing near yesterday.
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