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1

General Discussion Area / Re: What has P*ssed you off today?

« on: Today at 14:42:57 »

Looks like Thursday is old farts driving day out, for effs sake 35 in a 60 on a clear road. Then the road ruiners have filled a layby with gravel to wreck some side roads (same ones they ruined last year by the look of it) and have temp traffic lights so they can load wagons. 20mph and loose gravel signs on the main road so of course the old farts are slowing down even though the side roads have not been tared.

Round these parts, it used to be everyone drove 15mph below the speed limit* so when all the limits got lowered to 50mph, everywhere was 35mph, with not too many overtaking opportunities.  Now its started to creep to 20mph under the limit, making overtaking potentially easier.


*Except when they get to 30mph villages, when they speed up.

And that's just the old farts on the mobility scooters, forgot to ask, did you find the retirement property you were looking for?

2

General Car Chat / Re: "Starline" Ignition coil from Euro Car Crap

« on: Today at 12:31:33 »

Coil packs are one of those items that I have found are better to buy decent quality, the cheaper stuff either generates less energy and/or doesn't last as well

3

Omega General Help / Re: which brand do you recommend?

« on: Today at 10:19:17 »

TRW are owned by ZF, who also own Sachs Boge, so they could well be the same shocks as the Sachs

4

General Car Chat / Re: So what have you done to your car today?

« on: Today at 09:30:18 »

It took weeks for all the soot stains to disappear from my hands after that!

5

General Car Chat / Re: Mark Drakeford

« on: Today at 09:25:29 »

There's an environmental argument against such low speeds as vehicles simply aren't designed to travel so slowly... Not to mention the fact that localised pollution is increased by virtue of traffic build up.

Lundun being a case in point as localised pollution increases in direct proportion to each drop in traffic speed/flow.

Yet, some motorways have displayed the Matrix boards to reduce the speed limit to 60mph to 'improve air quality' (supposedly)...the M1 near Sheffield being one 

That's just ended because......work this one out.....air quality has improved. Now, has it improved because of the speed reduction, in which case why increase it again? Or is it just magic?

Or was it because all the traffic took a different route because that one was too slow?

It was 60mph instead of 70 between two junctions on the M1 at Tinsley.

Or was it because there are less of the pre Euro 4 emissions vehicles about now rather than the speed.........(including lorries)

6

General Car Chat / Re: So what have you done to your car today?

« on: Yesterday at 07:57:12 »

Finished a head gasket repair on a friends 1.4 Turbo Zaf C.

I guess that is the smaller vent hose from the top of coolant elbow at the gearbox end of the engine to the header tank?

Yes it was this hose, 5 minute job thankfully. So much space in the engine bay!

I'm wondering about the exhaust flexi though when the time comes, can same thing that was done on the old 2.2 Omega's be done. In that the old flexi is cut out and a replacement welded back in?

I'd also like to clean the throttle body but not sure how. The ZafiraC forums are all into bonnet lip spoilers, rear wiper deletes and air intake replacements. 

I find them a pain to work on as you have to remove the skuttle 

The throttle body just bolts onto the inlet, not to hard to get at and remove at all, its just inlet duct off, four bolts and an electrical connector, no coolant hoses to worry about.

7

General Car Chat / Re: So what have you done to your car today?

« on: 23 April 2024, 07:58:16 »

Finished a head gasket repair on a friends 1.4 Turbo Zaf C.

Wife has one of these (2016 SE 1.4 Auto) - I really should dump the coolant on this. Been giving it annual oil changes with Dex1 Gen2.

It does low miles, but lots of stop/start town stuff.

It's been very reliable so far, just changed the coolant hose that goes from the coolant tank and plumbs in what I assume is the main coolant engine feed. The one with the metal clip, it was starting to weep a bit.

It blew a windscreen washer pump around 2 years ago.

But apart from that since 2019 been a solid mummy wagon.

I guess that is the smaller vent hose from the top of coolant elbow at the gearbox end of the engine to the header tank?

The hose end goes brittle and fractures, the part with the metal clip is actually (and rather crazy!) an adaptor with an O ring on it (easy to swap the O-ring), the main hose has a plastic clip integrated into the end

8

General Car Chat / Re: Arrival of new Vehicle.

« on: 19 April 2024, 15:24:06 »

....
Changing the oil+filter is interesting,  if car isn't high enough you can't drop undertray flap down enough,  .....

you need a Pela oil-sucker-outerer 

 I'm of the old skool,, undo sump plug, and make a mess on the floor as the tray is positioned wrong,

I've a Pela because one of my Smarts doesn't have a sump drain plug, but I do remember having a car where the under tray fouled the floor before it came off.

I have the same for the F-type, it actually has a metal tube inside the oil filler which passes down to the base of the sump by the drain hole to suck the oil through:



It is by far the easiest car I have ever changed oil and filter on 

9

General Car Chat / Re: Front suspension mk 7 golf

« on: 19 April 2024, 13:44:20 »

Spec for a Golf is circa 0.5

10

General Car Chat / Re: Front suspension mk 7 golf

« on: 19 April 2024, 07:28:55 »

Yes springs will be worn. Yes I think the OEM shocks are sachs.

The negative camber is just one side so something bent or damaged on drivers side I suspect.

Measure the ride height both sides, I bet the drivers side is lower

There is pretty much nothing you can bend which will impact camber and not toe 

11

General Car Chat / Re: Front suspension mk 7 golf

« on: 18 April 2024, 16:13:46 »

Primary height setting on those is the springs, as the car ages the springs weaken, the suspension sags a bit, the static position of the wishbone sits a little higher and you get a bit more negative camber.

Just changing the shocks will yield poor results, springs are the primary 

I suspect the standard Golf shocks ae ZF (so Sachs/Boge) and the WSS setup would be Monroe

12

General Car Chat / Re: Cadilac Catera 3.0 V6 is it worth to buy for fun or collection ?

« on: 16 April 2024, 08:03:44 »

That points towards an issue either with the cluster or the connection from the engine ECU.

The dash is the one major difference between the Catera and Omega, and without seeing behind the cluster there may be additional wiring/plugs for the extra displays/warnings.

I suspect that the alternator only feeds the charge light (and battery voltage gauge), whereas the rpm signal comes from the engine ECU information (crank and/or cam sensor).

If the pedal trick works*, any codes may highlight a discrepancy.

* It should as the car is DBW.

The speedometer issue is almost guaranteed to be unrelated.

But engine right on high rpm. Car starts to stall when accelerating. Maybe I should start with (crank and/or cam sensor)?
Previous owner said that they changed crank sensor from omega.

Fuel filter ok?

if it miss fires on acceleration that points to ignition voltage and coil packs

13

General Car Chat / Re: So what have you done to your car today?

« on: 15 April 2024, 16:29:38 »

(head gasket on these is done without removing the chain assembly and timing cover).

I really can't picture how this is done. 

How do you remove the head and cams without taking the cam sprockets with it?

Cam sprockets are unbolted and have the chain on, tension is removed from the tensioner and the sprockets sit in a casting on the timing cover, head slides out and up (having disconnected the inlet, exhaust, water outlet, a few water pumps bolts, and some timing cover bolts.



On re-fit, crank t 90degrees before TDC (all pistons to the half way), head on, set the cams and lock them, bring the pistons to TDC and and lock the crank. Cam sprockets bolted on, tensioner released and tighten the bolts. 

14

General Discussion Area / Re: Middle East

« on: 15 April 2024, 12:13:21 »

On my India trips recently we have indeed been traveling across Iraq and hanging a left before Ukraine when heading to/from Dubai   

15

General Car Chat / Re: So what have you done to your car today?

« on: 15 April 2024, 12:09:33 »

Finished a head gasket repair on a friends 1.4 Turbo Zaf C.

Been a pig of a job, mainly thanks to the moron garage that has been taking cash for previous work and servicing.

Head skimmed as it had been cooked and warped, broken coolant hose replaced (it had been wrapped in self amalgamating tape), repaired the vac connection from the manifold to the brake servo which had been snapped off and plugged with a bolt, replaced the missing two bolts on the water pump,  fitted a new stat as they had gutted it so no internals (how the hell did they think that would help!).

Got it running and it shat its oil load all over the road as the turbo oil feed pipe fractured due to being distorted/bent and rubbing on the manifold, the chain tensioner also decided it had had enough (head gasket on these is done without removing the chain assembly and timing cover).

I have not seen black death in a cylinder head like this since the days of the crappy Ford CVH lumps, two hours cleaning and a couple of trips through the dish washer (bottom end was not as bad as I dropped the sump to check big ends and the pickup gauze) to get it up to scratch