OV9

Tracking done on the Merc, one front wheel was way out and it handles like a different car now.

The Vito steering wheel is a horrible plastic/rubber thing so I’ve been keeping an eye out for a leather replacement but haven’t had much luck. I decided to get a standard wheel and send it off to Royal Steering Wheels for a re-trim. It arrived this week and I fitted it today, very happy with it.

I've not seen anything from Jim that didnt look superbly made from good materials.

Disco lights in The 7

And after that important work, I refitted the dash cam that I'd previously used in The 5. But this time I wired it in properly. Last time, I piggy-backed it onto the back of the lighter socket in the centre console. The socket is powered on when you unlock the car, and stays on for 5-10 mins after you lock it. It worked fine.

This time, to try and reduce disruption to the car, I figured I could pick up power from the sunroof / interior light console. Strangely the internet was no help in this. I could not find anything to help me. I couldn't even find a proper wiring diagram for the F01. Lots of American posts saying you can use the pre-installed connector for the garage door opener; sadly this was not standard fit on Euro cars. Lots of people just plug it into a USB adapter in the lighter socket. I can't be having that.

I took a guess on the wiring in the end. There's quite a lot of cables up there. One is a fairly chunky red/blue. Red normally means live of some sort and chunky means it's at least a medium power circuit and hopefully won't chuck a wobbly at little bit of extra current (about 200mA). Wired up to that and an adjacent brown. Brown is always earth. Worked fine.

Having put it all back together and waited and checked the car every ten minutes for over an hour I discovered this is a permanent live

I decided to RTFM....

And it turns out this is fine ! The camera has a g-sensor, if it realises it's not moved for 15 minutes it will switch to time-lapse mode where it records at 1fps for either 15 mins/1 hour/3 hours/24 hours before shutting down. You just need to select it in the options. It then fires up again next time the g-sensor is triggered. Opening the door and getting in seems to be enough. I'd never realised it could do that.

mik wrote: Sat Jan 25, 2020 5:54 pm I've not seen anything from Jim that didnt look superbly made from good materials.

They always look well done and I want a retrimmed wheel for my e36.

However he doesn't use ( and apparently can't get ) proper black leather, it's always a charcoal colour which would look odd against the black plastic bits on my steering wheel, and properly black leather seats and black plastic dash.

John's wheel doesnt exactly look white?

mik wrote: Sat Jan 25, 2020 8:25 pm John's wheel doesnt exactly look white?

Haha

The new wheel looks blacker than a mole !

mik wrote: Sat Jan 25, 2020 5:54 pm I've not seen anything from Jim that didnt look superbly made from good materials.

He did my friends Mustang and the stripe at the top of the wheel was obviously wonky, it took a lot of faffing for him to re-do it sadly.

Mine will still go to him but I will be checking it quite closely.

Dave!

mik wrote: Sat Jan 25, 2020 8:25 pm John's wheel doesnt exactly look white?

No, it looks charcoal grey.

Zonda_ wrote: Sat Jan 25, 2020 9:29 pm

mik wrote: Sat Jan 25, 2020 8:25 pm John's wheel doesnt exactly look white?

No, it looks charcoal grey.

Correct.

It's definitely not proper blacky black like my oem one.

Anyone ever come across a vag key dying completely? My Skoda one has stopped working- tried a new battery and it doesn’t work the keyless and no buttons work and the little led isn’t flashing anymore. It’s completely buggered. No kind of lead up to it, just stopped out of the blue

Wheel looks great - I saw a couple of wheels come back from Royal and I'll have to be honest, some didn't seem the best but everyone seems to swear by them.

integrale_evo wrote: Sat Jan 25, 2020 9:35 pm proper blacky black

Can you say that?

jamcg wrote: Sat Jan 25, 2020 10:09 pm Anyone ever come across a vag key dying completely? My Skoda one has stopped working- tried a new battery and it doesn’t work the keyless and no buttons work and the little led isn’t flashing anymore. It’s completely buggered. No kind of lead up to it, just stopped out of the blue

Transponder unseated? Open it up and looky look.

integrale_evo wrote: Sat Jan 25, 2020 9:35 pm

Zonda_ wrote: Sat Jan 25, 2020 9:29 pm

mik wrote: Sat Jan 25, 2020 8:25 pm John's wheel doesnt exactly look white?

No, it looks charcoal grey.

Correct.

It's definitely not proper blacky black like my oem one.

Racialist.

Great days fettling on the MX5 yesterday. We'd done the cambelt, water pump and associated gubbins the other day so had to refit all the covers, pulley wheels, pipes, radiator and intake stuff. We refilled the system with tap water, the engine with some cheap synthetic oil, a filter and the plugs so it was the moment of truth and time to fire it up for the first time in 7 years.

We'd spun it over a few times with the plugs out to get some oils around the motor so start up was easy, even with 9yr old fuel it caught straight away but was a little lumpy. Cylinder 4 was also missing. We pulled the plug but it was sparking strongly so ran the engine without that plug and it didn't look like cyl 4 was getting any fuel.

We then undid the fuel rail and removed injector 4 and sprayed with brake cleaner and also swapped it with now. Popped it all back in and it ran like a dream

We went and got some power steering fluid as the pump was noisy due to lack of fluid and some v-power. Added both, got it up to temp and added engine flush. Once ready we dumped the oil and the tap water and did both jobs properly.

I couldn't believe how well it was running and was very, very happy. Just need to fitted the rear calipers when they arrive, bleed the system and add new fluid, do springs and dampers (thanks again Jobbo!!) then check we have missed anything. It can then go for an MOT and they can tell me what I've missed

Looking forward to more MX5 updates. And you’re welcome, glad I found a use for them!

M235 hit 50k last night. I would have owned it for 5 years in June. Time flies.

Interesting setup having the LCD cut across the bottom of the dial. Always wonder what discussions end up making these design decisions - why have that bit of the dial digital, and not analogue? Why not run the display across the entire bottom of the panel and have the petrol digital too then make the warning lights digital too? It'd certainly look far more uniform.

Matty wrote: Sun Jan 26, 2020 1:14 pm Why not run the display across the entire bottom of the panel and have the petrol digital too then make the warning lights digital too? It'd certainly look far more uniform.

Because you can sell it as an option It’s known as 6WA in BMW world. After that they moved to 6WB where the whole thing is digital including speedo & revs.