Car Talk

[Regulo]

Mull over this and give me your thoughts.

I was in a stationary queue of traffic, immediately behind a learner. Traffic starts moving, learner stalls. No problem to me, we all had to learn, and we've all stalled the car at some point. After 5 seconds, some oik further behind starts leaning on his horn. The passenger/instructor of the learner turns in his seat and starts angrily gesticulating at me. Question: what gesture or sign can I give, to indicate "It's not me, Guv"? Preferably one that won't result in making the situation worse!

[Troyboy]

Just forget it. If he got out of his car and challenged you about it you can put him in his place.

[LondonRascal]

It has been time to treat my Volvo XC70 to some love - and since I bought it, it had a broken lower tail light. I replaced the red lens tape and it worked well but it has always bugged me because I have worked my way through dealing with just about every other niggle on the car but this.  Finding these tail lights is easy, but not with the clean lenses and integrated red LED side markers.  Out of the blue one came up for sale on E-Bay - upper and lower unit, with postage for £50.00. I jumped on it and it duly arrived recently.

Normally Volvo's are easy to work on, but as you will see below in order to change the lower tail light a great deal of trim needs removing and the loosening of the upper tail light too. When dealing with brittle old plastic trim one is always worried a clip may sheer and a new world of pain will open up. Thankfully it was not the case and I now have a flawless tail light. 

Now I await a new Swirl Flap actuator arm to sort a problem FOUR garages and a Volvo specialist have failed to get to the bottom of: Why at 70MPH+ and 'engine system service required' message appears. Codes generated point to the EGR this has been out and cleaned, all inlet ports clean, MAF sensor changed and all will be perfect, until you hit 70MPH and bingo up comes the error. No alteration in performance, no limp mode etc, 2-3 days later self clears itself and will never come back until you reached the magical 70MPH again. Cruise at 68MPH and won't come on. I was cleaning the engine and saw the swirl flap actuator motor and arm but it looked like it was missing something. You Tube showed it to be the arm, finding a replacement has been hard - even Volvo Grantham were stumped to begin, as what they had in stock did not fit. Turns out my engine is a very early 'silver top' D5 and the arm fitment changed after a few months so, just like my light cluster, getting a new one has been hard. Mines coming from Latvia!

The hole:

Well then, let's begin taking apart the car..

Yep, even the roof trim needs to come down...

And the side trim too...

With the upper section also loosened off, finally I could get the old lower tail light out...

And the new one installed...

And all the trim back together again...

A truly rugged car and great hill climbing torque

The Yorkshire Dales seems the perfect environment for an all wheel drive, raised estate

ALL the buttons, and a pop-up screen for the Nag Nav if needed, but not bad for 17 years of use...

[grendel]

Finding the correct replacement headlight for my broken  one wasn't easy, apparently I have the R model, so a different t headlight to most, I have got one for £60, en route, fitting is pull one pin, unplug the old one, plug in the new one, and replace the pin.

[grendel]

Thanks a bunch unknown person in the car park.

[grendel]

Well changing the headlight over went well, it took nearly twice as long to swap the one non functioning  bulb, the 'sidelight' or parking light bulb, as a cess is through a small cover, but it's done.

Pull the pin

Remove the light, unplugging the connector

light out

plug in connector

re-insert pin

headlight changed (i will tidy up the dent and scratch at a later date

Darn it a bulbs out- its in here somewhere (fishing hook remover pliers needed to get it out)

All done and working again

first image 15.19.22

refitted headlight at 15.21.25

refitted bulb at 15.38

so it took 2 minutes to swap the headlight

and 17 minutes to change the bulb

[grendel]

difficult bulb circled in red

 the main beam bulb isnt the easiest either as its longer than the space behind it.

[Regulo]

Not got a dashcam, Gren? I had them front and rear. Worth every penny in case of accidents - no arguments over who did what. 

[grendel]

I do have one, its currently not fitted, and as the car was parked up, would probably not have recorded anything anyway

[ZimbiIV]

Most dash cams have a g sensor built in and do not need to be powered to record impacts.

My problem is my car does not have a 12v supply only usb.

paul

[grendel]

mine was a cheap usb powered one, fine as long as the car was supplying power, but not enough spare to keep it powered up for sensing purposes after the car was switched off, eventually it killed the battery

[Regulo]

Use a 12v to usb adapter plugged into the 12v power outlet. If it's not live at all times, it can usually be made so quite easily. Or get a hard wired kit onto a spare fuse. I won't venture onto the roads today without my dashcam working. Can't be too careful. 

[BrundallNavy]

Today was spent updating the Z4 stereo. The current system is quite outdated and doesn’t support DAB. 
 

The small box is a plug and play which requires a connection to the Idrive and one to the head unit. I then plugged the phone in by using the usb to update the settings and hey presto I now have an up to date display that uses Apple car play or Android Auto. 
 

Before and after pictures. 

[Mick64]

59 minutes ago, BrundallNavy said:

Today was spent updating the Z4 stereo. The current system is quite outdated and doesn’t support DAB. 
 

The small box is a plug and play which requires a connection to the Idrive and one to the head unit. I then plugged the phone in by using the usb to update the settings and hey presto I now have an up to date display that uses Apple car play or Android Auto. 
 

Before and after pictures. 

what is the "small box" ?

[BrundallNavy]

29 minutes ago, Mick64 said:

what is the "small box" ?

One of these. 

[BroadAmbition]

I had briefly considered upgrading Zebedee's (2002 Z3) ICE but decided to leave it as original fit.

It has a remote CD autochanger along with a cassette player and the capability of just five pre-set am/fm radio stations - Nostalgic or what?

Griff

[grendel]

Quote

The repair and mot will end up costing you more than the car is worth?

And shouldn't these posts be on the 'Car Thread' ?

Griff

You are probably correct, it should be here, the original post was just a daily update on the state of play- 

Now down to the old question of how much to spend on a car before it becomes too much?

I have a philosophy, based in general upon the cars I can afford (generally second hand with over 100,000 miles on them). and that is its better to spend money on a car you know, with the faults you know if it is otherwise in good condition, than spend a similar amount replacing the car, only to find the new one has an unknown (at the time of purchase) fault that costs you more in the long term, so yes, generally I will spend money on the car I have for that reason.

the second reason in this case is that my current diesel car is one of the last generation to not require additives to reduce its emmissions, as such its going to retain value amongst car enthusiasts who worry about such things, and with the changeover to EV's that too will mean that it will hold its value amongst the anti EV diehards (personally I am not anti EV, its just that I cant afford one, and more to the point have nowhere to charge one for the forseeable future anywhere near my house or work, and dont plan to waste time sitting in a motorway services while the thing charges- always assuming there is an available not in use ev charger there).

[BrundallNavy]

7 hours ago, BroadAmbition said:

I had briefly considered upgrading Zebedee's (2002 Z3) ICE but decided to leave it as original fit.

It has a remote CD autochanger along with a cassette player and the capability of just five pre-set am/fm radio stations - Nostalgic or what?

Griff

The kit I used is totally reversible. You don’t have to modify or cut anything it’s all just plug and play. It looks totally stock from inside and still allows you to use the OEM functions. 

[MauriceMynah]

2 hours ago, grendel said:

You are probably correct, it should be here, the original post was just a daily update on the state of play- 

Now down to the old question of how much to spend on a car before it becomes too much?

I have a philosophy, based in general upon the cars I can afford (generally second hand with over 100,000 miles on them). and that is its better to spend money on a car you know, with the faults you know if it is otherwise in good condition, than spend a similar amount replacing the car, only to find the new one has an unknown (at the time of purchase) fault that costs you more in the long term, so yes, generally I will spend money on the car I have for that reason.

the second reason in this case is that my current diesel car is one of the last generation to not require additives to reduce its emmissions, as such its going to retain value amongst car enthusiasts who worry about such things, and with the changeover to EV's that too will mean that it will hold its value amongst the anti EV diehards (personally I am not anti EV, its just that I cant afford one, and more to the point have nowhere to charge one for the forseeable future anywhere near my house or work, and dont plan to waste time sitting in a motorway services while the thing charges- always assuming there is an available not in use ev charger there).

I agree with both of your reasons, and apply them both. What year is your current V70?

[grendel]

its actually only 4/5 of a v70, its a 2 litre 2008 v50

[oldgregg]

14 hours ago, BrundallNavy said:

Today was spent updating the Z4 stereo. The current system is quite outdated and doesn’t support DAB. 

An E89? Great cars, I drove one recently and was very impressed even with the four pot.

And unlike an MX-5, it's actually suitable for a taller driver.

[BrundallNavy]

1 hour ago, oldgregg said:

An E89? Great cars, I drove one recently and was very impressed even with the four pot.

And unlike an MX-5, it's actually suitable for a taller driver.

Yes it’s a E89 tin top. 

[grendel]

update on the car, DHL are still struggling to find where they delivered my ABS pump to, and recover it, (they did manage to ascertain it was signed for at 8.30pm (I wonder how many businesses are open at 8.30pm) the person that signed for it is unknown to the garage it was supposedly delivered to (the garage of origin as apparently they had been unable to deliver it at its destination) so the latest news is they have the driver who delivered it going to pick it up again, then it still has to go away and be repaired, returned by DHL (god forbid) and fitted to the car. in anticipation that it will actually be found and fixed, I have given up and transferred to plan B for lads week- train ticket is booked- as quick as driving and as cheap as the fuel, so no problem there. its high speed train as far as norwich, then the short hop to hoveton & wroxham.

with any luck the car might be fixed by the time i return. (not holding my breath)

[Mouldy]

Good to see that DHL are living up to their nickname - Drop it, Hide it, Lose it! 😉

[BroadAmbition]

Trevor Transit - That’s another 10’000 racked up so oil n filter changed but this time (every 30’000) it’s got flushing oil, diesel filter and ZX1

Beta next

Griff