Help please

[Mr Noble]

Hi Chaps,
Been out all day and had a wonderful time. Getting to grips with the throttle now, even put the peddel to the floor (once) felt like I was doing a wheelie!!

A few questions to ask,

1) Filled up with fuel to the top and came back from paying to find a big puddle of petrol on the floor. Coming out of the overflow pipe I think, under the car below the fuel tank. Is this normal? To full/hot?

2) Speedo stopped working 2 miles from home!! Anyone else had it happen? What do I do?

3) Seems to be getting a lot of stone chips. I have 3 little ones already, all missed the armourfend!! Seems to chip very easily, can I touch them up or prevent them?

Thanks guys. GN

[UFO 2 NOB]

Chips impossible to avoid,just wait till you have enough then respray clam.Speedo sounds good though,in a couple of years time you will have a really low mileage example but on the other hand a bunch of speeding tickets!

[robp]

Mr. Noble said:

1) Filled up with fuel to the top and came back from paying to find a big puddle of petrol on the floor. Coming out of the overflow pipe I think, under the car below the fuel tank. Is this normal? To full/hot? 2) Speedo stopped working 2 miles from home!! Anyone else had it happen? What do I do? 3) Seems to be getting a lot of stone chips. I have 3 little ones already, all missed the armourfend!! Seems to chip very easily, can I touch them up or prevent them?

Hi Mr. Noble!
Glad to hear you had a nice blat. Watch being over zealous with throttle if engine is still brand new. Occassional blip is healthy - ragging it ain't [but I'm sure you'r not].
1. Yes, occasionally you do get some spillage. If you use a regular pump and get to know it's cut-off threshold plus knowing roughly how much fuel you expect to put in; then problem disappears.

2. Yep -happened to me as well. Known problem in the wet (speed sensor located in front offside wheel assemby), But today was not wet. If it hasn't righted itself by tomorrow - get onto dealer/factory. May need a new speedo unit.

3. Don't drive up the a*s* of the car in front! Especcially on Essex/Cambridge B roads. Factory will send you a pot of touch up paint (Simon in stores) which you can use. Some folk don't bother, working on the principle that a re-spay in a year or so's time is a far better solution. Up to you.

Though of e-mailing you to meet up, but by the time I got to go out (around 4pm) it was a bit late. Still, had the take the beast out on it's first Birthday []and also a great hour's drive.

[Ash GTO 3R]

Fuel pool, normal. Try not to overfill. Caused by the heat from that fantastic twin turbo V6. The fuel expands.

Speedo, sorry, can't help.

Chips, means you are driving the car as she is meant to be driven.

[V6GTO]

1) Fill 'till the pump clicks off and then stop.

2) Has happened to others, don't know the answer.

£) The paint is thinner than a Rizla on my car...can only assume it blinded the sprayer, so only got one coat.

Martin.

[joust]

Mr Noble said:

1) Filled up with fuel to the top and came back from paying to find a big puddle of petrol on the floor. Coming out of the overflow pipe I think, under the car below the fuel tank. Is this normal? To full/hot?

You've overfilled it. If you take the filler cap out, and look in, you'll see to one side a hole. That leads to the overflow pipe that then dumps it straight on the ground.

Only ever "click, click, click" twice, and leave the nozzle in the hole for ~3-4 seconds and pull it out *slowly* once it's finished. If you pull it out too quick the fuel still left in the nozzle will stream out and find it's way down the hole as well.

Apart from that nothing to worry about.

Mr Noble said:

2) Speedo stopped working 2 miles from home!! Anyone else had it happen? What do I do?

Quite common. It's down to water ingress in the sensor, which is on the nearside front wheel. You can either try the hairdryer approach, or get the dealer to fit the newer version which doesn't suffer so much from it (my M400 hasn't gone despite me washing the sensor and hub like a demented washing person.

Mr Noble said:

3) Seems to be getting a lot of stone chips. I have 3 little ones already, all missed the armourfend!! Seems to chip very easily, can I touch them up or prevent them?

Welcome to paint on GRP cars! Unfortunatly modern water based paints (due to legislation about controlling VOC emissions) don't 'stick' very well, and as you have found out, Armourfend protects what it covers, but sod's law says the stones hit where it isn't.

You can spend your life touching them up, but unless you spend a lot of time, do the paint and then the clear coat and then flatten them down with rubbing compound the paint stick will look pants.

You can use the wax crayon that comes with the 'colour magic' wax range (or just buy a blue wax crayon that's the same colour) and rub that all over the chips and it will hide them.

Either that or just do what a lot of Noble, Lotus, TVR et. all owners do and ignore it and get a respray every few years.

J

[chillidog]

Overfilled it once - literally right to the very top . A kind lady at the garage offered me a sponge and bucket to get the petrol out of the very top of the filler ... As for the overflow pipe, there's a pipe but it didn't do anything useful!

As others have said just get to know the amount it takes and go slowly with the petrol pump when it gets close to full.

[DanH]

The overflow works, only downer is it drops it right in front of the NSR tyre! Not ideal if you pull away quickly!

[Mr Noble]

Thanks lads, very helpfull.

So what is the truth in the owners manual saying not to let it go below 1/4 full? I have been re-filling at the 1/4 mark, but this only gets me 130 miles and only allowes me to put 35 liters in, which is why I have been trying to fill it so full! It seems silly to have to fill it up when there is still a good 15 liters in the tank!!

Guess the stone chips are sods law. Breaks my heart but I will have to live with that.

I hit full throttle in 2nd! OH MY LORDY!!!!!ITS ******* FAST

[joust]

1/4 full rule is only if you are doing track work or "extreeme" road driving.

On 'high lateral g' corners if the tank is under 1/4 full the lateral g can slosh the fuel away from the pickup, you get a lean mixture in the engine, and if you continue to do that you'll melt the pistons.

For normal town / country driving you'll be fine to go down to 0.

J

[chillidog]

DanH said:

The overflow works, only downer is it drops it right in front of the NSR tyre! Not ideal if you pull away quickly!

Thanks to this thread I now realise my overflow doesn't work; I literally couldn't put the cap back on without it spilling out over the top - hence the sponge. Now that I know what's supposed to happen I can get it seen-to.

[paulcundy]

just stuff a wire down the hole, will probably clear it.

[lucozade]

I was told that speedo sensor was in offside NOT nearside front wheel.

I had a few problems with mine especially after it was washed. Dealer spent some time during service a few weeks ago and the problem has never came back. It even works in the wet and after being washed. Something to do with a "transducer" - possibly got the words wrong !

[Mr Noble]

robp said:

Hi Mr. Noble! Glad to hear you had a nice blat. Watch being over zealous with throttle if engine is still brand new. Occassional blip is healthy - ragging it ain't [but I'm sure you'r not].

Rob, my car was not new, some other lovely chap ran it in for me and then passed it on with 2.5k on it.......perfect!

Thanks guys, I will hope to see the speedo back on then, I had waved the hose (carefully) around under the front clam, but I did about 50miles after that before it stopped working.

[chillidog]

paulcundy said:

just stuff a wire down the hole, will probably clear it.

Ta for that.

It's going in for short service tomorrow for some minor bits: possibly rattly heat shield (there's a vibration at 2200 prm when properly warm which has been present since new), possibly alt. belt slack (there's a whining belt sound from the back end which again only accurs when warm).

I'm also going to get the seat adjusted as my helmet *just* touches the roof and I'd like to keep the seat cushion in place when on track as it stops me sliding around in the seat.

I'll add the "stuff a wire down the hole" to the list.

[Mr Noble]

My 'heat shield' rattles too at about 2300-2500 rpm. It seems to come from the front, down by my feet. Was told they all do and its normal. I just live with it, but would be nice to get it stopped.

[joust]

lucozade said:

I was told that speedo sensor was in offside NOT nearside front wheel.

My M400 def has in on the nearside

J

[AMG Merc]

Mr Noble said:

My 'heat shield' rattles too at about 2300-2500 rpm. It seems to come from the front, down by my feet. Was told they all do and its normal.

Not true! ;-(

[chillidog]

chillidog said:

paulcundy said: just stuff a wire down the hole, will probably clear it. Ta for that. It's going in for short service tomorrow for some minor bits: possibly rattly heat shield (there's a vibration at 2200 prm when properly warm which has been present since new), possibly alt. belt slack (there's a whining belt sound from the back end which again only accurs when warm). I'm also going to get the seat adjusted as my helmet *just* touches the roof and I'd like to keep the seat cushion in place when on track as it stops me sliding around in the seat. I'll add the "stuff a wire down the hole" to the list.

Update:
Lowered drivers seat so now fits ok with the helmet on =>



Alternator belt not loose at all but they re-welded broken exhaust bracket at no charge (spot the shiny weld on the siliencer) =>




However I've still got my suspected heatshield buzz at 2200 rpm

...and finally I've apparantly not got an overflow hose for the filler cap. Well I'll put that one down to a mis-understanding as it's a bit obvious to miss =>



... yea I know, I'll get a piece of wire and prod it to clear any blockage.

Edited to add pic of new seat position.

>> Edited by chillidog on Tuesday 15th March 13:15