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4 Dec 2017, 17:31 (Ref:3785082) | #3526 | ||
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Talking about not being smart, I've just received an email from Ebay (if you are also a subscriber, you may have got it as well) which invites me to "Decorate your home this Christmas", except that they left out the "m" in home which gives a whole new meaning to Xmas. Especially for our cousins across the pond!
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4 Dec 2017, 17:51 (Ref:3785086) | #3527 | ||
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Yep, one of my buddy bought for cheap money a 530 ex TWR a road going car converted to race car and from LHD to RHD. Some parts are quite a challenge to find as you say, at least in France, exhaust manifold and the complete steering system because the early 5 series didn't have a rack and pinion system but the agricultural one which works great (identical to Bertone's and many others). The wiper system has always been kept as original so for a LHD car.
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4 Dec 2017, 17:54 (Ref:3785087) | #3528 | ||
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Au fait, mon ami Robert did you hear that Peugeot is complaining about Opel/ Vauxhall real financial situation? You know French people they make the deal and are happy with then they start complaining a while after signing for! Sooo typical!
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4 Dec 2017, 18:18 (Ref:3785094) | #3529 | ||
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Have you tried Android? I was about to but couldn't be bothered
Sent from my EVA-L09 using Tapatalk |
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Midgetman - known as Max Tyler to the world. MaxAttaq! |
4 Dec 2017, 20:46 (Ref:3785120) | #3530 | ||
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24th May 1981, RAC championship race winner in Van Diemen RF81 - The first time I met the man. |
5 Dec 2017, 09:50 (Ref:3785208) | #3531 | |||
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Quote:
I had noticed that it had been valeted inside possibly with a steam cleaner, the electric window multi switch in the door looked remarkably clean so I removed it and cleaned it out inside and bingo everything else started to work, a result for half an hours work The main problem with electrics in cars today is because of things working on micro volts with canbus wiring it only takes a small problem to cause all sorts of faults. |
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Balls of steel (knob of butter) They're Asking For Larkins. ( Proper beer) not you're Eurofizz crap. Hace más calor en España. Me han conocido a hablar un montón cojones! Send any cheques and cash to PO box 1 Lagos Nigeria Africa ! |
5 Dec 2017, 10:09 (Ref:3785211) | #3532 | ||
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I had similar problems with my wife's old Clio, it had all sorts of warning lights come up on the dash and faults came up and all caused by a bad earth on a brake light plug.
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5 Dec 2017, 10:35 (Ref:3785218) | #3533 | ||
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Quote:
Pics received this morning show the instrument cluster dead but the radio/aircon/heater lights are on. And the car starts and runs. Seems this sort of thing is not uncommon - as you said. Going to take a look this morning. Starting points are either the fuses or, apparently, a battery disconnect which is, it seems, the equivalent of a computer reboot. So many fuses in 2 locations that if the fuse diagram is missing I may go straight for the battery disconnect. I'll take some time to check for obviously clean or possibly removed and replaced panels that might be the result of the valet work. If there really is moisture in the radio display I guess anything is possible! Thanks for the tip Gordon! |
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5 Dec 2017, 10:47 (Ref:3785220) | #3534 | |||
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Quote:
We fitted a replacement battery to an Aston Martin DB earlier in the year, the battery is below the rear seat. Obviously, to do this we worked with the drivers door open. job done we sent the (happy) customer on his way. 10 minutes later he returned, to tell us that nothing electrical on the drivers door was working, electric windows, mirror adjust etc. After a lot of head scratching and checking with the magic diagnostic machine we decided to drop the roof, and reconnect the battery when the doors were closed. Thankfully this did the trick, so presumably if the door is open when the battery is connected, the clever car assumes that the door isn't there so refuses to work anything from it! |
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Incognito: An Italian phrase meaning Nice Gearchange! |
5 Dec 2017, 10:48 (Ref:3785221) | #3535 | ||
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Quote:
Elder daughter (yes, the same one that owns the BMW) has a Fiat Punto for her first car. She used it for work when she left University by which time it was about 5 years old. On a drive back from a client one night a headlight failed. That particular model of Punto had an interesting design quirk in the electrics that mean if one bulb failed the other would also fail shortly after. About 15 minutes in this case. So she ended up driving much of the way on side lights in the middle of winter. The Fiat service dealer told me there was a wiring mod available for a fee. As she was about to get a company car and sell the Punto we declined. Thanks Tim. Something else to consider given the in depth valet work that seems to have been required. Who know what might have got in where. Not good weather for helping to dry out any errant moisture. |
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5 Dec 2017, 10:57 (Ref:3785224) | #3536 | ||
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Sounds like it was fortunate that it was a soft top. The next step would have been to chop the roof off, Fire Service style! One more thing to bear in mind and I am very wary of disconnecting batteries but, apparently, it's quite normal approach with BMWs although not always successful. I suspect it may have a tendency to lose personalised settings .... but the car is for sale anyway so that is not a concern. Right, off to see what I can discover if I can find away to get across to the other side of the M1! |
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5 Dec 2017, 11:14 (Ref:3785227) | #3537 | ||
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I've just checked our workshop information system. There is no special battery disconnection/connection procedure listed so hopefully it is straightforward. Just make sue you don't leave the keys inside the car, sometimes the central locking triggers when the battery is re-connected!
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Incognito: An Italian phrase meaning Nice Gearchange! |
5 Dec 2017, 12:32 (Ref:3785238) | #3538 | ||
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Wow, who knew there was so much knowledge hidden away in HRT!
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Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere. (Einstein) |
5 Dec 2017, 15:35 (Ref:3785255) | #3539 | ||
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As a matter of interest the BMW 850 coupe was the first CAN Bus vehicle to enter the market in 1986. By reducing the vehicles wiring by 2km, the vehicles overall weight was significantly reduced by at least 50kg and using only half the connectors. For the first time, each of the vehicles systems and sensors were able to communicate at very high speeds (25kbps - 1Mbps) on a single or dual-wire communication line as opposed to the previous multi-wire looms. However, the introduction of CAN Bus also increased the vehicles complexity and made after market installations even more difficult and in many cases impossible to perform.
I remember a customer of mine decided to put a bulb in his car instead of asking me (I would have done it for nothing) it was in a Volvo that ran the sidelights all the time the ignition is on, he put a single pole bulb in instead of a double pole that joined the two connectors together in the bulb holder and sent 12v back to the ECU, the car refused to start and was relayed to me and it took a fair bit of time to find out what was wrong. This was a long time ago before the firms that check and repair ECUs came on the scene and he had to get a new one from Volvos at £600 ! Last edited by GORDON STREETER; 5 Dec 2017 at 15:50. |
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Balls of steel (knob of butter) They're Asking For Larkins. ( Proper beer) not you're Eurofizz crap. Hace más calor en España. Me han conocido a hablar un montón cojones! Send any cheques and cash to PO box 1 Lagos Nigeria Africa ! |
5 Dec 2017, 15:58 (Ref:3785261) | #3540 | |
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Well, I tried a few reet "tricks" but it wasn't responding to that.
Only one fuse location on this one - buried behind the glove box. OK if you are a supermidget but i could not get hand, light and line of sight to any of it through the access provided at the back of the glovebox. Decided against dismantling the dash in its entirety. So returned to the boot and grappled with the the battery terminal. Didn't seem keen to come off at first and there is limited space to grip things and get a good tug. Loom in the way too. Got it in the end. Left off for 3 or 4 mins, reconnected and everything came to life. Yippee! Current History is gone of course but who cares ... She had some concerns about the rear tyres or the MOT but I see at least 3+ mm so should be OK. Radio/Info display that looked like it was "half full of water" according to SiL it just the bottom half of the screen's pixels not working. Looks like about £190 to fix. 4x the cost of something similar on my Saab. Thanks for all the help folks. All good advice that made me more comfortable mucking around with this thing. It's not even high spec. I hate to think what one might need to watch for on anything with all the toys. No wonder modern card are so readily written off after small bumps. And insurance premiums keep rising. |
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5 Dec 2017, 16:03 (Ref:3785263) | #3541 | ||
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BMW used CAN bus wiring on the 1200GS motorcycle to save weight. Think first time used on a 2 wheeler. I replaced my 1150GS with one, and the electrics were a constant problem! Ironically my Ducati, a make with a supposed reputation for dodgy electrics, never had any problems, and still doesn't at 17 years old....
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Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere. (Einstein) |
5 Dec 2017, 16:31 (Ref:3785268) | #3542 | ||
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With reference to this business with the electrics on cars, I have noticed that every time improvements are made to pretty well everything, the manufacturers make the process more and more complex and complicated.
Not that I would do it nowadays, but to change brake pads 20 or 30 years ago was a few minutes job, which required just one, maybe two, pairs of pliers to pull the locking pins out of the pad retaining pins and a large screwdriver to prise the pistons apart. Last time I did this for my partner, you need spanners, ratchet and sockets, something to suspend the callipers whilst you then changed pads, and the reverse for re-attaching. How was that easier? And as Grant mentions, to change a battery on many cars you need to connect another battery by jump leads whilst you swap over the new and old batteries so that you can retain all the old settings. On some cars you could even lose the use of radio if you don't know or can't remember the special code! And to think that 50 years ago I built a car to go racing from a completely bare shell. |
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5 Dec 2017, 17:54 (Ref:3785276) | #3543 | ||
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I was asked by customer yesterday to reverse his car and trailer back to the workshop door. He had a brand new Audi of some sort. I was impressed with the sat nav display in front of him. It was blooming brilliant.The picture was just like having a camera on the front of the car just amazing.For sure I am glad I am not a modern day mechanic these days.
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5 Dec 2017, 18:21 (Ref:3785282) | #3544 | ||
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Iain, is there such a thing as a modern day mechanic in the car trade? Surely they are either technicians who can read what a computer is telling them is wrong, or a fitter who has been trained to replace parts whether they are needed or not?
On another track, why is it that manufacturers nowadays give so little consideration to the consequences of using small, cheap parts in their products that have built in obsolescence. One such part is fitted to my gas boiler to measure the water pressure inside the system. The sensor is of such poor quality that it requires changing at least once a year (the boiler's only 3.5 years old), and usually fails during the coldest spells. It's costing my gas supplier a fortune to keep coming back to change a tuppenny-ha'penny part that is just so badly designed. Last edited by Mike Harte; 5 Dec 2017 at 18:37. |
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5 Dec 2017, 18:55 (Ref:3785287) | #3545 | ||
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Quote:
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Semper ubi sub ubi |
5 Dec 2017, 22:04 (Ref:3785315) | #3546 | ||
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O well enough of cars let's talk about the weather. Henley on Thames we are in double figures tomorrow. Then day after it's going to be -2 . WTF is going on . Ah and another thing anyway else watched the latest Williams DVD . It's well worth watching loads of unseen footage as well as my old mate Dave Brodie f ing and blinding on it .
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5 Dec 2017, 22:08 (Ref:3785316) | #3547 | ||
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Even though these "modern" new fangled cars are supposed to only use a small amount of electricity when they are left parked up the battery will go flat after a while, the more upmarket the car is the worse it and it's not uncommon to only last a few weeks if not used. The recovery/breakdown guys are always in the long term car parks with jump packs/leads.
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Balls of steel (knob of butter) They're Asking For Larkins. ( Proper beer) not you're Eurofizz crap. Hace más calor en España. Me han conocido a hablar un montón cojones! Send any cheques and cash to PO box 1 Lagos Nigeria Africa ! |
6 Dec 2017, 02:38 (Ref:3785353) | #3548 | ||
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Here I think it was just a problem with some aspect of the on board computer network going into hibernation and failing to respond on a restart. It looks like it may be sold now. Someone has made an offer to take it as it is today and I think they will accept the deal rather than keep funding insurance and going for more cash by spending on MOT and negotiating anyway on a couple of tyres, maybe brake pads and the radio/info display. If it hangs about much longer they may have to keep it on the road into the new year. Better to move it on now. |
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6 Dec 2017, 05:37 (Ref:3785370) | #3549 | ||
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At the moment my Saab has s habit of dropping into limp mode. Switching off sometimes clears it as does disconnecting the battery. According to the reader it is something to do with the wastegate circuit. The CAN bus has also failed at the rear meaning the brake lights are stuck on.
Nothing is mechanically "wrong" with the thing, just an electronic fault. Which makes it basically worthless Sent from my EVA-L09 using Tapatalk |
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Midgetman - known as Max Tyler to the world. MaxAttaq! |
6 Dec 2017, 07:53 (Ref:3785376) | #3550 | |||
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Incognito: An Italian phrase meaning Nice Gearchange! |
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