What did you do in the garage yesterday?

[QBee]

What I did in the garage next Tuesday.
Fitting a new battery. That's about the limit of my skill level.
I change wheels, batteries, fuses, relays and alternators.
Full stop.

I was hoping to get the two year old, failed, gel battery replaced under warranty, as it now won't hold enough charge even for ten seconds to start the car. But the original was bought from a reputable source the other side of the country, and the warranty process takes up to 3 weeks, so I have given up and bought a replacement. Too much summer a-wasting. The original is still sitting on my hall floor in a box, awaiting collection.

Lesson learned - whenever possible, buy your parts locally. My previous failed lead-acid batteries were all replaced on the spot by Allwoods, my local car spares place, without the slightest delay or quibble. good people, worth supporting.

[phazed 11.83]

Well here's a tale of buy right the first time, et cetera, et cetera.

My trailer rear lights had corroded internally and needed replacement.

I had a nice set of LED trailer lights which I inherited with the previous trailer and never used. This, I thought was a great time to use the replacements on my trailer.

I remove the old, made new brackets up and fitted the LED trailer lights.
This entailed cutting off the old multi pin connectors and soldering on new connectors.
I did have a sneaking suspicion I may have problems and when testing with the car connected they did not work correctly due to the LED lamps being incompatible with my Mercedes on-board computer thingy.

Straight onto eBay and I sourced a direct replacement, made in Germany pair of proper lights, £88 delivered including new multi pin connectors which I had to solder back onto the trailer loom!

Moral of the story, pay a bit more and buy the right thing first time.

[Sardonicus]

phazed 11.83 said:

Well here's a tale of buy right the first time, et cetera, et cetera.

My trailer rear lights had corroded internally and needed replacement.

I had a nice set of LED trailer lights which I inherited with the previous trailer and never used. This, I thought was a great time to use the replacements on my trailer.

I remove the old, made new brackets up and fitted the LED trailer lights.
This entailed cutting off the old multi pin connectors and soldering on new connectors.
I did have a sneaking suspicion I may have problems and when testing with the car connected they did not work correctly due to the LED lamps being incompatible with my Mercedes on-board computer thingy.

Straight onto eBay and I sourced a direct replacement, made in Germany pair of proper lights, £88 delivered including new multi pin connectors which I had to solder back onto the trailer loom!

Moral of the story, pay a bit more and buy the right thing first time.

CANBUS dear boy inherited with modern vehicles

[N7GTX]

Sardonicus said:

phazed 11.83 said:

Well here's a tale of buy right the first time, et cetera, et cetera.

My trailer rear lights had corroded internally and needed replacement.

I had a nice set of LED trailer lights which I inherited with the previous trailer and never used. This, I thought was a great time to use the replacements on my trailer.

I remove the old, made new brackets up and fitted the LED trailer lights.
This entailed cutting off the old multi pin connectors and soldering on new connectors.
I did have a sneaking suspicion I may have problems and when testing with the car connected they did not work correctly due to the LED lamps being incompatible with my Mercedes on-board computer thingy.

Straight onto eBay and I sourced a direct replacement, made in Germany pair of proper lights, £88 delivered including new multi pin connectors which I had to solder back onto the trailer loom!

Moral of the story, pay a bit more and buy the right thing first time.

CANBUS dear boy inherited with modern vehicles

The new TVR will have canbus? Or is it still going to be old skool so owners can tinker?

[QBee]

My Volvo has Canbus. Utter pain in the bum. One thing goes wrong, 10 others cannot be seen on the network, and every item you replace has to be brand new at vastly inflated prices and computer matched to the car. For example, one circuit board size of a fag packet - £1800 from Volvo. It has effectively made the car, with 100,000 miles life left in it, utterly unsaleable. It would be worth £4000, it will have to be scrapped.

Hope TVR have more sense.

[OleVix]

Have had a misfire on the turbo chim lately. Turns out the crank sensor was touching the triggerwheel! Gave lots of noise and disturbance in the MS3. Spaced it out 0.5mm. All good!

Put in the 8psi spring in the wastegate to see whats what and oh my lord! Trevor is hard to keep in a straight line on full boost now, jesus.

[QBee]

OleVix said:

Have had a misfire on the turbo chim lately. Turns out the crank sensor was touching the triggerwheel! Gave lots of noise and disturbance in the MS3. Spaced it out 0.5mm. All good!

Put in the 8psi spring in the wastegate to see whats what and oh my lord! Trevor is hard to keep in a straight line on full boost now, jesus.

Eann fitted mine with a variable wastegate and a little bleed controller - a thought going forward? It means he has been able to give me a selection of 3 maps (1. Norwegian winter, 2. Twisty track day, 3. Balls out, go for it). I am on Emerald.

[OleVix]

QBee said:

OleVix said:

Have had a misfire on the turbo chim lately. Turns out the crank sensor was touching the triggerwheel! Gave lots of noise and disturbance in the MS3. Spaced it out 0.5mm. All good!

Put in the 8psi spring in the wastegate to see whats what and oh my lord! Trevor is hard to keep in a straight line on full boost now, jesus.

Eann fitted mine with a variable wastegate and a little bleed controller - a thought going forward? It means he has been able to give me a selection of 3 maps (1. Norwegian winter, 2. Twisty track day, 3. Balls out, go for it). I am on Emerald.

I will certainly look into that... MS3 has a boost control feature... on the other hand, its not that hard to control the boost delivery, just give 40% pedal instead of 100

[QBee]

QBee said:

What I did in the garage next Tuesday.
Fitting a new battery. That's about the limit of my skill level.
I change wheels, batteries, fuses, relays and alternators.
Full stop.

Whoopeeee!!!

Got home, big box has been delivered by courier.
Open it carefully, smaller box inside, heavy and suspiciously wet.
Carefully taste test the wet.....acid.
Bloody gel battery has only gone and leaked in transit, a clear colourless liquid my tongue says is acid.
Puzzled, I thought a sealed gel battery wouldn't leak, never mind liquid acid.
I thought the whole point was that you can mount them on their base or side?

Back to the drawing board, aka call the supplier first thing tomorrow.

[N7GTX]

Talking of disasters and I managed a proper balls up. After putting the Leven cover back on the car decided to cut up some old cheque books no longer required. Except I managed to cut the end off the middle finger of my left hand Cue, lots of the red stuff and other half practically fainting especially when she saw the tip of the bone.....
After 10 minutes of trying to stop the mini Vesuvius, I was ordered into her car to be taken to A&E. She managed a 100 yards before I passed out then had a mini fit when I came round. Strangely, was having a nice vivid dream before she woke me up again . Arrived at said A&E in pools of sweat and almost delirious. The usual checks were done, pulse, blood pressure etc etc but they never bothered with the bleedin' finger! Rushed into Resus - can you believe it? - as pulse is 30 and blood pressure is dropping rapidly.
So a night in the lovely hospital and now wearing a condom bandage (doctor's words, not mine) and it bloody hurts like plus a heart monitor FFS. So I am officially a pillock

[QBee]

When your mates said it was time you grew some, they meant "grew some", not "gruesome".
That made me feel a tad queasy, and I was a medical student back before the Boer War.

[Steve_D]

QBee said:

........ I thought a sealed gel battery wouldn't leak, .......

Sounds like you have an 'AGM (Absorption Glass Mat)' battery rather than gel.

'AGM (absorbed glass mat) is a special design glass mat designed to wick the battery electrolyte between the battery plates. AGM batteries contain only enough liquid to keep the mat wet with the electrolyte and if the battery is broken no free liquid is available to leak out.

Gel Cell batteries contain a silica type gel that the battery electrolyte is suspended in, this thick paste like material allows electrons to flow between plates but will not leak from the battery if the case is broken.

More often than not AGM Batteries are mistakenly identified as Gel Cell Batteries. Both batteries have similar traits; such as being non spillable, deep cycle, may be mounted in any position, low self discharge, safe for use in limited ventilation areas, and may be transported via Air or Ground safely without special handling.

AGM Batteries outsell Gel Cell by at least a 100 to 1. AGM is preferred when a high burst of amps may be required. In most cases recharge can be accomplished by using a good quality standard battery charger or engine alternator. The life expectancy; measured as cycle life or years remains excellent in most AGM batteries if the batteries are not discharged more than 60% between recharge. There are some AGM batteries we sell that offer excellent 80%+ deep cycle abilities.

Battery Tender Plus Gel ProfileGel Cell Batteries are typically a bit more costly and do not offer the same power capacity as do the same physical size AGM battery. The Gel Cell Battery excels in slow discharge rates and slightly higher ambient operating temperatures. One big issue with Gel Batteries that must be addressing is the GEL CHARGE PROFILE. Gel Cell Batteries must be recharged correctly or the battery will suffer premature failure. The battery charger being used to recharge the battery(s) must be designed or adjustable for Gel Cell Batteries. If you are using an alternator to recharge a true Gel Cell a special regulator must be installed.'

[QBee]

Spot on Steve. Checked the manufacturer' website - it's an AGM battery.

Still don't understand why it's wet With battery acid fresh out of the box.

[Classic Chim]

N7GTX said:

Talking of disasters and I managed a proper balls up. After putting the Leven cover back on the car decided to cut up some old cheque books no longer required. Except I managed to cut the end off the middle finger of my left hand Cue, lots of the red stuff and other half practically fainting especially when she saw the tip of the bone.....
After 10 minutes of trying to stop the mini Vesuvius, I was ordered into her car to be taken to A&E. She managed a 100 yards before I passed out then had a mini fit when I came round. Strangely, was having a nice vivid dream before she woke me up again . Arrived at said A&E in pools of sweat and almost delirious. The usual checks were done, pulse, blood pressure etc etc but they never bothered with the bleedin' finger! Rushed into Resus - can you believe it? - as pulse is 30 and blood pressure is dropping rapidly.
So a night in the lovely hospital and now wearing a condom bandage (doctor's words, not mine) and it bloody hurts like plus a heart monitor FFS. So I am officially a pillock

Hope your out nice and early Iain. Careful man

[N7GTX]

Cheers Al. you can officially call me a divvy.

[Classic Chim]

I can think of at least two of us in that club Iain

I've been using a towel doing excersises to strengthen my neck muscles as sudden direction changes,,, mostly backwards can throw your face into the steering wheel, even drag racing I need a seat belt. That's proper Divvi that is
I took a chunk out of a thumb once, went green then white and only just made it to hospital before going very dizzy.
Keep your pecker up and possibly your finger elevated for awhile ouch, bet that's hurting.

I'm sure this is an excuse for not coming to Shakey and meeting all the other fast car owners like yourself. Awesome weekend mainly cos of the nutty fast Tvr there. Turbo cars being the main reasons other than Peter and Daz defying the odds with very fast n/a cars
It's actually more about the evening and havin a beer you know.
Anyway I'll stop pushing the weekend as I'm not even driving now
Get home safe mate.

[portzi]

Classic Chim said:

N7GTX said:

Talking of disasters and I managed a proper balls up. After putting the Leven cover back on the car decided to cut up some old cheque books no longer required. Except I managed to cut the end off the middle finger of my left hand Cue, lots of the red stuff and other half practically fainting especially when she saw the tip of the bone.....
After 10 minutes of trying to stop the mini Vesuvius, I was ordered into her car to be taken to A&E. She managed a 100 yards before I passed out then had a mini fit when I came round. Strangely, was having a nice vivid dream before she woke me up again . Arrived at said A&E in pools of sweat and almost delirious. The usual checks were done, pulse, blood pressure etc etc but they never bothered with the bleedin' finger! Rushed into Resus - can you believe it? - as pulse is 30 and blood pressure is dropping rapidly.
So a night in the lovely hospital and now wearing a condom bandage (doctor's words, not mine) and it bloody hurts like plus a heart monitor FFS. So I am officially a pillock

Hope your out nice and early Iain. Careful man

Just too make you feel that your not the only total plonker on Pheds Iian, this is what I did to my finger 15 years ago, I chopped it off on a bridgeport milling machine

[Classic Chim]

portzi said:

Just too make you feel that your not the only total plonker on Pheds Iian, this is what I did to my finger 15 years ago, I chopped it off on a bridgeport milling machine

I think I understand your words of caution when peeps come on here with little experience now. I thought that was Iain's finger for a mo. : yikes:

[N7GTX]

Classic Chim said:

portzi said:

Just too make you feel that your not the only total plonker on Pheds Iian, this is what I did to my finger 15 years ago, I chopped it off on a bridgeport milling machine

I think I understand your words of caution when peeps come on here with little experience now. I thought that was Iain's finger for a mo. : yikes:

Wow, that's far worse than mine. Shouldn't be allowed to scare us before the 9pm watershed.....

[Classic Chim]

I was going to have sausages but gone off the idea now.
Shocker