Your fleet running reports

[Jimmy Choo]

Managed to do ~2400 miles in nine days in the Galaxy. Forest of Dean and back
<snip>

Last time I remember you down in gloucestershire, my internal organs decided to explode. I think I got away with it this time...

[DeskJockey]

Managed to do ~2400 miles in nine days in the Galaxy. Forest of Dean and back
<snip>

Last time I remember you down in gloucestershire, my internal organs decided to explode. I think I got away with it this time...

It was mentioned on the drive over. The only medical intervention we needed was plasters when my daughter came off her bike on a gravel path.

[Sundayjumper]

I converted our car charger from untethered to tethered yesterday because I needed a longer cable and found a s/h 10m tethered cable for very very cheap.

It's not quite as simple as wiring it in place of the socket as there's some interactions between charger/cable/car. In this case it needed a 220Ω resistor added. The whole charger logic is explained well here:

https://xj600e.com/2020/01/20/charging- ... ec62196-2/

[V8Granite]

After an annoying air-con issue for the last 6 years, a few specialists just said fit a new compressor, Mercedes said fit a new compressor.

As new compressors don’t always fix the issue I managed to fix it with a 6p diode in the sensor wire.

Very pleased with ice cold air-con in the ML whenever we want it, not just when it feels like it.

Will give it some TLC later now.

Dave!

[Jimmy Choo]

It was mentioned on the drive over. The only medical intervention we needed was plasters when my daughter came off her bike on a gravel path.

No near death experiences definitely makes for a better holiday.

[DeskJockey]

Zoe is back and charging again, which is a relief (and £600-odd cost).

He's replaced the entire charging port assembly, as it comes as one.

First picture shows the state of the offending item in the charging port. Interestingly it is a signal wire that's burnt itself to a crisp.


He was a bit surprised to find signs of water ingress in the inner connector where the the charging port assembly connects to the battery control module (at least I assume that is the box).


Thoroughly cleaned and tested, all is good.

[Sundayjumper]

That last one looks like limescale on the inside of a kettle ! The signal cable should not be carrying any significant current. See the link above - it provides a square wave signal and each end is a voltage divider to negotiate the charging current. It looks like one end is not behaving right.

[Sundayjumper]

I just had a superficially helpful but actually spammy message on ebay about the 5-Series:

Hey mate, I would suggest selling this on Bmwflipper.co.uk if it's not already on there. It should sell on there.

So I clicked, and it looks fairly professional but I couldn't get past the repeated grocer's apostrophe abuse. BMW's. I just can't.

[Gavster]

Smashed through 940 miles in the Ateca over the weekend, up to Cairn Lodge services and back, and it was 53mpg (indicated 56mpg) on the way up and 56mpg (indicated 61mpg) on the way back. No surprises, it's a really nice easy car to cruise along in and plenty big enough to get changed in when arriving somewhere and needing to get hiking kit on.

The big question now is whether a bougie farm shop in a service station makes up for the fact there's no fruit machines

[16vCento]

First failure of the Golf.

Charging flap actuator has stopped actuating.

Email to the dealer, booked in for the day after, currently being served coffee for the morning whilst it's fitted.

Can't argue at that service, a lot to be said for having a newer, warrantied car, CBA with the messing about any more.

[DeskJockey]

That last one looks like limescale on the inside of a kettle ! The signal cable should not be carrying any significant current. See the link above - it provides a square wave signal and each end is a voltage divider to negotiate the charging current. It looks like one end is not behaving right.

His hypothesis is that the signal connector hadn't been properly seated, so was sparking.

It charged without issue, so hopefully no more problems.

[Swervin_Mervin]

Used the E91 to head down to Suffolk last week. First long journey since swapping the main DISA valve, and it has made such a massive difference to driveability (change yours pronto @Beany !). Economy hasn't really improved, but then that's probably because I've been driving it like a dickhead as it has so much more urge. We managed pretty much bang on 30mpg over the c550mi, which isn't bad for this thing. I have seen higher in the past (34mpg) so suspect there are still some parts that I could change out - potentially the whole CCV could do with being renewed. But at the moment it's running really, really well.

It's 20yo next year and it still amazes me just how good this era of car was.

[Beany]

Noted - I have realised that it's not given the howling intake noise since my drive back up, and that might well be intake related so it's worth adding to The List.

So far
Brake fluid
Undertray fastenings
Rocker cover gasket/Valvetronic gasket (mild weep from rocker cover, but have both and a local specialist who knows how to do it properly so why not?)
And if that's coming off, might as well pull the intake and do both DISAs 'while you're in there' (I believe it's the small one that's potentially dangerous, the big one is less likely to get sucked into the intake? ), check the vacuum lines/PCV etc.

Apparently there's a 'corner sensor' somewhere in there that can cause all sorts of woes if it goes potty - again, similar 'while you're in there' sort of job.

So building a nice little list of preventative bits.

[Swervin_Mervin]

Noted - I have realised that it's not given the howling intake noise since my drive back up, and that might well be intake related so it's worth adding to The List.

So far
Brake fluid
Undertray fastenings
Rocker cover gasket/Valvetronic gasket (mild weep from rocker cover, but have both and a local specialist who knows how to do it properly so why not?)
And if that's coming off, might as well pull the intake and do both DISAs 'while you're in there' (I believe it's the small one that's potentially dangerous, the big one is less likely to get sucked into the intake? ), check the vacuum lines/PCV etc.

Apparently there's a 'corner sensor' somewhere in there that can cause all sorts of woes if it goes potty - again, similar 'while you're in there' sort of job.

So building a nice little list of preventative bits.

You wouldn't be pulling the intake off to do the rocker cover gaskets. In fact, I'd go so far as to say absolutely don't take it off if you can help it as it'll no doubt result in broken plastic pipes, thus adding to the costs. Most importantly, it's the large DISA that's the one most likely to fail and that gets sucked into the head and that you should do! It's literally a 15min job. And at £300 per DISA I'd just do that one for now.

[Beany]

Yeah I was reading up on that a bit earlier, unless you have evidence the little one is going, then it's probably not going. The bigger one is just more fragile, unless it's been replaced with the latest revision with the metal parts on it - if that's the case, you just need to worry about seals degrading etc.

Most likely I'll get

The rocker cover/valvetronic gaskets done (the ones I have)
Disks, pads and fluid
The intake/PCV smoke tested to flush out any 'not quite a problem yet' problems - or just loose clamps etc

...and have the car used as a shop slag for the afternoon so they can work out the suspension clunks.

Anything that comes from that can be dealt with separately, he says, closing the tab with Bilstein B6s he has open.

[Swervin_Mervin]

I'd just do the bigger DISA regardless. If it goes, it's potentially dead engine time. And there are several that have done it only to find it already broken up in the inlet manifold.

Mine wasn't broken (completely rock solid in fact) but I'm wondering whether the seals on the unit had failed and it had maybe filled up with oil. It clearly wasn't functioning correctly, but that only became apparent after driving it with the new one fitted. No codes or anything beforehand. I guess it wasn't opening/closing fully and/or quickly enough. It genuinely feels like I've gained 10hp/many torques in the lower rev range.

[Sundayjumper]

Break out your smallest violin - this is what just over £400 of cheap aftermarket parts looks like. Not even genuine.

IMG_4338.jpeg (148.92 KiB) Viewed 533 times

The lower bushings press in easily with some sockets & studding. Obviously not possible on the uppers so I had to put them in the vice. And they’re pretty tough. I really need to get myself a hydraulic press.

IMG_4344.jpeg (182.66 KiB) Viewed 533 times

IMG_4345.jpeg (190.95 KiB) Viewed 533 times

The OEM lowers are actually ball joints. I’d not appreciated when ordering that these replacements are plain rubber bushings. I doubt I’ll ever notice the difference in practice.

I’ll reassemble onto the car tomorrow.

[tim]

Jaguar XF Portfolio S 3.0 V6 stinkydiesel

So I've had it a week and 500 miles now, and it really is everything I'd hoped it would be, with a terrible infotainment system. It's got loads of history, was with a Jag main dealer in Twickenham for half it's 65k mileage and then with the same owner went to an independent. She owned it until 2022, the next owner had it for a year and about 2k miles in which the turbos were replaced, and then the guy I bought it off had it for a year and 10k miles.

The last service done was at a random garage and just written up as "Service", and the seller was very open about this and said it needed doing soon. The service light hasn't come on yet tho.

Knowing these engines are sensitive to oil, I figured I'd just do an oil and filter change myself, and then get my local Jaguar specialist to do a full "B" service before we go away in August. When I called them to ask about service pricing, he suggested I change the fuel filter also ASAP as they're often overlooked on independent services and they do crap up and affect performance.

So I ordered 7 litres of the correct spec Millers oil from Opie, and an oil filter cartridge, and picked up a fuel filter from ECP locally.

The XF's engine bay is nicely laid out and super easy to service thanks to some handy features.



With the cover off, the oil filter housing on the top between the V at the back - you can just see the 28mm hex head on the top of it. The fuel filter is on the right hand side and just 4 quick-release fixings and a screw in on the base, but the best bit is the oil extraction tube, handily located at the front of the engine.



Just twist off the cap, attach a suction device and pull all the oil out. No mess, no fuss! I bought a 9l pump off Amazon and it works a treat.



The oil filter is a cartridge insert, I've never seen this arrangement before in all my years of servicing, and again a very simple process to take it off, and swap out the internals.



So the whole thing was done in half hour, without any need to jack up the car, take undertrays etc off. Will make keeping on top of the half oil change interval recommendations a doddle. I'll just get it serviced once a year at the Jag Specialist and do the oil/filter myself in between.

[Sundayjumper]

The ebay classified listing for the 530d ended on Monday. 30 days with no genuine interest. Not a single request to come and see it. Despite it being the cheapest F10 530d listed and having a higher spec than any of them regardless of price. Enquiries received were all one of the following:

* "best price". Very predictable and I know from experience you'll never get a reply if you answer, unless you decide to troll them by giving a stupid low figure. I do that sometimes for LOLZ.

* "phone me". With no niceties or asking of questions first you're not getting a reply. They're always accounts with zero or very low feedback. I have a vague hunch they're bots harvesting phone numbers.

* Questions that are already answered in the text or photos.

Sigh.

But I don't need the car any more, the VED runs out this month and the insurance renewal is next month, there's no point renewing but I will need to so that on the off chance a real person shows up they can test drive it. I could relist as an auction but again from experience, I know that there's a very good chance the winner will ghost you or just generally be a d**k about it after the event and you lose a week or two before relisting again.

Sigh.

Sigh.

[Sundayjumper]

The oil filter is a cartridge insert, I've never seen this arrangement before in all my years of servicing...

"Tell me you've never owned a BMW without telling me you've never owned a BMW"