OV9

Removed and cleaned, greased the relevant parts on the TT rear brakes. Bit annoyed at the state of the discs corrosion wise but hey ho.

Removed the new discs from the box and alas they are the wrong ones, bugger.

Parts arrived for the ML, fog lights are in-correct.

I chopped up some pallets instead and made kindling, cars suck.

Dave!

integrale_evo wrote: Mon Mar 04, 2024 9:31 pm I don’t know how a Damon good thrashing is any different to a damn good thrashing but I’m sure it’s worth a try

No light on Tuesday after an aggressive warm up. Got caught beyond a dithery old sod first thing this morning and light came back. Grr. It must be cat failing as the car drives fine otherwise, so I'll look to get a decent upgrade sport cat/system I think.

Took the Boxster to judo on Tuesday night as the Mrs had the Volvo. On the way there I noticed that both the outside lower displays on the dash (showing trip and odometer, and clock/outside temperature) were both blank. The main centre display is fine. Did a quick google and a couple of people have reported this but no definite cause has been identified. Some people reported it just fixed itself, some reported disconnecting the battery for 5 minutes cured it.I rang Strasse about it and they were as puzzled as I am. Other than hooking it up to a computer and putting it into delivery mode and back out again they had no ideas. Gonna try disconnecting the battery for a bit and see what happens.

Lambda sensors done. I realised I didn't previously do explainification about why I was changing them. The car was hunting pretty badly when cold. Not for long, but it shouldn't do it at all, and it was quite embarrassing as it always sounded like I was being a knob and revving the engine Also, I'd not noticed originally, but when it was serviced last year (at Meridien Modena, a main agent) they were tasked with investigating "rough idle", replaced the spark plugs, and noted something about lambda sensors. But didn't replace them. See previous post about the prices

It was actually an easy job. Less than an hour. Both sensors quite easily accessible. The two old sensors:



Well that looks dodgy. The one on the left is date stamped 2014. Looks OK but ten years in a high performance engine doesn't seem unreasonable. I don't mind replacing it. But the one on the right is from 2000 - it's the original factory fitment. 24 years & 80k miles. If the first one (on the other side) had failed in ~2014 this one must have been on its deathbed for yonks. Well overdue.



I started it up and it still hunted a bit - but not as much, and with a different tempo. As you might expect if the ECU is suddenly getting decent info again. It settled down pretty quickly. Looking forward to taking it for a spin later if I don't hit the booze immediately after posting this.

Although.... I'm now mildly worried whether it might have damaged the cat on that side. I'll leave that until MOT time.

I'd be surprised at a damaged cat. At idle only need tiny changes in fuel/air to cause revs to hunt.

Time to remove the cats.

Mito Man wrote: Fri Mar 08, 2024 6:46 pm Time to remove the cats.

No.

The car came with a Capristo exhaust and I took it off because it was too loud. The stock system is fine for me.

Sundayjumper wrote: Fri Mar 08, 2024 7:21 pm

Mito Man wrote: Fri Mar 08, 2024 6:46 pm Time to remove the cats.

No.

Many Others Are Aligned

After much searching and head scratching about new cars, it's now being decided we're moving, so the Jag is staying.

Yay and also

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/654884
Sign it so I can drive my car for free

You drive all of your cars for free.

NGRhodes wrote: Fri Mar 08, 2024 6:39 pm I'd be surprised at a damaged cat. At idle only need tiny changes in fuel/air to cause revs to hunt.

I was thinking more that it’s clearly been running very rich on that bank, and unburnt fuel can kill cats ?

(as opposed to unburnt fuel combined with a lit match to make a cat go woof, as per the old joke)

Mumble mumble something about you'd expect it to go woof after getting shit in it, that's what catty litter converter does.

Put the disco smoke machine in the driver's footwell of the chimera to try and work out where it was leaking from. Clutch slave cover and hear insulation rivet next to it were the culprits. Cleaned and resealed them with rtv utter that of a job, resealed all rivets internally too, refitted the carpet with contact spray glue after drying it out. Lowered drivers seat by removing spacer nuts and redrilling rails slightly. Cleaned hood with renovo cleaner twice and polished rear screen with renovo polish. Took it for a drive to sainsbury, still entertains. Got to find a new mot tester now and will need an mot map sorting first, so will be off to srr in the next couple of weeks for that.
It now lives in the garage since house renovations, so will be less weather beaten but now needs paint, thinking I will do mk3 lights at the same time as the colour change.

48k service on the Superb, spark plugs and oil and thorough checkover. Feels nice and fit, ready for big miles over the coming month.

Still doesn't excite me in any way, but it looks nice enough, fits loads of kit and returns mid to high 30 or more on anythin over a short run.

Still missing estate versatility now and then, and definitely prefer the look. Have a nice M340i Touring in mind in a few years as a possible replacement.

The glass panasonic [sic] roof on the Smart went pop on the M3 last night, whilst I was still 90 mins from home in the pouring rain. Luckily the journey was largely motorway which meant that I could keep to speeds above 50mph and the airflow would keep the rain out the car, so I just kept moving and chucked a tarp over the car when I got home.

Seems that it's as known phenomenon and Merc no longer have any stock of the replacement glass. Sourced a replacement plastic roof from eBay that I'll try and fit at the weekend.

Gavster wrote: Mon Mar 11, 2024 3:55 pm The glass panasonic [sic] roof on the Smart went pop on the M3 last night, whilst I was still 90 mins from home in the pouring rain. Luckily the journey was largely motorway which meant that I could keep to speeds above 50mph and the airflow would keep the rain out the car, so I just kept moving and chucked a tarp over the car when I got home.

Seems that it's as known phenomenon and Merc no longer have any stock of the replacement glass. Sourced a replacement plastic roof from eBay that I'll try and fit at the weekend.

Blimey I bet that was exciting (and suddenly very noisy!)

Sundayjumper wrote: Sat Mar 09, 2024 10:11 pm I was thinking more that it’s clearly been running very rich on that bank, and unburnt fuel can kill cats ?

Ah, I missed that bit, but yes it can.

Luckily I was wearing over-ear noise-cancelling headphones so the whole thing was rather quiet and chilled, aside from the loud bang when it went

Would be quite nice for summer if someone made an aftermarket targa style top for that