#20 – Putting some light onto the situation

Cloudy – Faded – Misty – Milky headlights are cropping up on certain cars as the len’s start to fade due to damage from road (stone chips) and UV damage from the sun making light lens opaque causing a loss of light output

If the lens get to murky, the Mot could for-well fail due to a light pattern not been projected or lack of actual light output

Its a Slow process that gradually gets worse, untill you start wondering did you even put your light on?

Well thats slowly happened to me
Back in 2013, i took a picture which you can see the light hitting the light defects causing it to alter the light patter

Old 2013 picture of light hitting light lens

Current (2015) Haze has only continued to get worse

As the picture shows – the lens has only gotten worse

Time to tackle the issue
There are kits available to help correct this issue, Like 3M and turtle wax
However if you have the correct items, you can replicate these kits

So i started off masking the area off to prevent damage to the paintwork
So the process of Sanding begins with some 2000grit wet and dry paper, rubbing the surface evenly and smoothly around to remove the defect from the surface
Keeping plenty of fluid on the lens and even pressure produces a slurry and white even haze over the light unit

Next step is to refine, swapping to 3000grit wet and dry, repeat the step above with plenty of fluid to produce a less milky haze

Then the next step is to polish, using a Halfords Medium grade polishing pad intended for a polishing machine, i applied liberal amount of a abbrasive polish and worked it in by hand in a circular fashion, ensuring to cover the light cluster evenly to remove the light haze present

Again i changed polish compound to a final finish which was less abrasive, to give a better finish
Keep working the polish evenly over the light lens

Once the polish has fully broken down, simply buff the light clear

Resulting in a much clearer light lens

Driver side light – after

Just to compare the 2

A Clear difference between the 2, even with bright sunlight

The Passenger side received the same treatment resulting in a much younger looking front end once again

Both lights improved

From a distance the lights seem much clearer

Final Step was to give each light cluster several coats of sealant, to help prevent the UV light from causing the milky lights to returns so quickly. Reapplications will also be required in the future

This process can be carried out with any vehicle, If the lights are much worse, you could step down grades to say 1000grit or less to remove the heavier defects before refining with 2000grit

#19 – The rising handbrake

Meet Picasso – Not the painter, but the Citroen Xsara Picasso 2l Diesel (HDI 90 version)

2002 – ’52’ Citroen Xsara Picasso

The Vehicle has travel a large distance of about 109,000, and believed to be still running on original drums and shoes!

The car has to park on a steep drive, so the handbrake has always been good. However the owner noticed that the usual 3 clicks and its solid has started to creak and roll – and click no4 now required to hold the car still.

The handbrake was working strong as always, just had a larger travel on the lever.

Time to get the drums off and have a look to see whats going on!
So jacking the car up and onto axle stands, trims and wheels off – its odd what you can find living in weird places….
2x snails and something small and furry

Flicked these off with a screwdriver – i hate creepy crawlies

First task Drum off – remove locking screw, whack the face of the drum swiftly with a hammer (Not on the circumference edge though – risk causing brake rumbling if you mis-shape the drum)

Inspecting the drum, there is a tiny lip and alot of glazing on the drum, so remounting the drum backwards onto the hub, it makes a DIY lathe effect, i can spin the drum while holding 60grit paper on the lip to remove it, this is to ensure easy removal again in the future

Manual Powered lathe!

Next was to ensure nothing obvious was wrong – such as a leaking cylinder/ missing components or snapped springs

Common faults is the auto adjuster, gets stuck due to corrosion and brake dust, no matter how much the shoes twist to make it work, it refuses to budge. if this happens the adjuster would need to be removed, cleaned, free’d and rebuilt with anti-seize to help prevent it happening again.

Luckily ours was free, ensuring it could run smoothly, the adjuster was reset to its smallest setting while using liberal amounts of brake cleaner to ensure the threads were free and clean

Next was to remove the retaining pins, and lower springs to allow movement of the shoes to view the friction spots

Retaining pins removed – Friction Spots visibly rusty

Lower Spring is trapped by the lower anchor point

As you could see there is a lip of rust on the back-plate where the shoes rub against, this could be a contributing factor as the shoes would hit the lip and struggle to move as intended.

Simply remedy is to rub these flat using the same paper as before to remove the rust and gunk leaving a smooth surface. A thin layer of copper grease ensure the shoes can move freely as intended. The shoes also received a quick de-glaze, to help with co-efficiency of friction.

De-glazed shoes + Friction spots cleaned up

After reassembling, the adjusters required resetting, you could do this by continually pressing the brake pedal, but this would take some time, its best to manually adjust little star shaped adjuster till there is resistance felt on the drum.
Pressing on the brake pedal  and applying the handbrake several times, ensure the drums remain free to spin with that slight resistance.

Both sides were treated to the clean and adjustment. The handbrake was a positive 3 click once again, with the 4th click still available but required some force to apply.

# Diagnosis 15 – Revisiting #8, the soggy feet

Well the soggy feet returned with the cold snap that occurred, the car was freezing inside and out with the cold

The car had been sat for a few days parked up though several days of rain. eager to ensure the fix had been sorted, i checked the floor to see what was going on.

To my disappointment the floor was wet again, but there was a clear evidence of what was going on

Very similar to the last, except the water was actually flowing. The car been parked passenger kerb side up encouraged the water run down the door over the current seal – Result been no amount of padding the seal would cure this
Knowing that from google searchs, this is an on going problem for the Citroen C1, its brother the Peugeot 107 and Toyota Aygo, there was an additional seal that was fitted to the more current models to help combat the numerous leaks occouring around the doors

Rung the local dealership up to enquire about the seal, and was advised the “extra” seal @ £55 would be the answer .

However not willing to fork out such a high value that was proven to cure the fault, i spent my time researching some more. i eventually found that running a universal seal around the door itself to create a new water path had been proven to work on most cases. Ebay provided the goods of a D shaped door seal for under £9, following a video guide made, i copied the process onto the vehicle in question as trying a £9 fix was a better option vs the dealer option.

Here is the end result

The seal running around the top of the door and down the side

In the door shut

The Critical part, the seal prevents the water entering cabin

So far the car has remained dry and less internal frost when the temperature drops below.

#14 – Ford C-Max alternator failure

The Gelopy returns with a bang
Quiet literally…..

The owner has experience a bang
shortly followed by, ABS light and Power-steering light activated
the power steering the switched off while driving.

The car also started to make whining noise.

Once shut off the car failed to restart

Not good…..

So what was originally thought of been at fault
Loss of major electrical systems – Failure to start and whining suddenly appearing
These are all linked electrically to 1 major thing, Charge/lack of power

The bang was suspected alternator or auxiliary belt having let go, resulting in electrical systems reporting voltage/power related issues and shutting down to prevent potential damage. The car was still able to run as the battery did have some charge remaining, but if it was on a discharge, the battery will run flat, resulting in a failing to start

So time to visit the vehicle

Turn the key and does it start – Simple answer Nope, 1 crank and the car died / dashboard resets
what state the battery is in? Volt meter on the terminals returning a very low reading of 8.3v, simply its Dead

Battery Reference

Swap the battery to one that’s charged and get it running and limp it quickly to the garage, sticking the original battery on charge

So the starting voltage is noted 12.34v – Not fully charged, but the vehicle drove 1mile and started twice.

When the engine was started you are met with a strong whine originating from the left hand engine bay low down

Engine running – no load

Engine Running – Low Load

Engine Running voltage should be 14v +

I’ve already checked the auxiliary belt was present, tensioned, spinning/moving and the alternator was also spinning

As you can see the voltage has dropped and it remained below 12.3v, this slowly decreased as the engine ran, applying some revs failed to alter this

As I suspected, the voltage only dropped more with a low load, the alternator wasn’t coping with running the headlights and sidelights
Access to the rear of the alternator is not exist as its hidden well under the inlet manifold

But based on the mileage, symptoms and everything that has happened, I was fairly strong in my diagnosis of a failed alternator

Old (left) vs New (right)

So a quick number crunch to local suppliers to locate an alternator for the vehicle, followed by a dash out to get the part quickly
Luckily the alternator comes with a nice 3 year warranty, with no exchange which is good news – A new paper weight

After removing the battery for safety reasons, the vehicles under tray, auxiliary belt and tensioner were also removed.
The 3 fixings holding the alternator into place were slackened, the power feed and connection were disconnected followed by a good wriggle and rotation the alternator was teased out past the bottom of the engine bay

Refitting in the reverse of the removal, working the alternator back up into its location followed by attaching the components removed. A few engine rotations ensured the auxiliary belt was sat happy in its original track before fully starting the engine.

Engine running – idle / no load

New Alternator was proving to a good strong ox, as it should do out the box (120Amp version)

Bearing in mind it was -1℃ when I was testing, the engine was very cold too, so as a result the engine idle speed was higher than normal (around 1200rpm vs 800-900rpm under normal conditions). You can’t alter this idle speed as the vehicle is a “fly by wire” system, the engine control Unit was providing the slight throttle opening

Either way, the alternator was able to produce a very strong 14.45v at idle
Right at the top of the recommended scale at idle (14v – 14.5v)

Engine Running – High Demand Voltage

Time to load up the electrical juice to see what’s going on
sidelights, headlights, front fogs, rear fogs, rear demister, front quick demister), interior fans on speed 4 of 4

The alternator proving to be a strong ox again, pumping out 14.38v
meaning the alternator was able to cope with the electrical demand and still charging the vehicle battery

This also was a slightly higher idle speed, as the vehicle was registering cold and cold outside

Happily the vehicle was running again as it was before

Diagnosis #13 – The Stuck EGR

Time for another diagnosis and repair

This time on a 2007 ’57’ 1.9 CDTI Vauxhall Zafira MPV sporting just under 50K

A colleagues, Vauxhall Zafira 1.9 Diesel

The owner has just had some issues with vehicle, after a recent repair at another garage, the cars service / Engine check light was coming on

This was put on the Maxi code reader knowing its pretty good at diagnosing Vauxhall cars
P0400 – EGR (exhaust gas recirculate) Flow Malfunction

MaxiScan MS309 Code reader – Code Retrieved P0400

I’ve had this fault code appear on another Vauxhall beforehand (Astra 1.3 version – solid with carbon build up).
To ensure it wasn’t “just a blip” it was cleared, to see if the code re-occurred like I suspected it would.

A Short time later the vehicles lights were back on, with the same P0400 code.

Since the car was pretty much sure the EGR was problematic, I suspected it was most likely gummed up with carbon deposits causing the mechanical valve inside to be stuck.

Strip down time – Since the Zafira has a large engine bay, the engine sits nicely inside, but the opening of the bonnet isn’t as great…..  So making it a little harder to get my club hands in to remove the valve
After Removing 3x Longer Anchor bolts, 1 electrical connection and 4x Pipework bolts the EGR valve was pulled free!

EGR Valve – EGR to Intake system – gunked up

EGR Valve – Feed to the EGR Valve

So away I went using a screwdriver to scrape all the gunk and hard carbon deposits out of the valve to enable to some flow of gasses.
The valve physically couldn’t open as the carbon build up inside was so bad; it couldn’t compress and allow any flow of the gas.

A small amount of gunge removed from one side of the EGR Valve

So time later with a toothbrush and a can of brake cleaner, the majority of the gunk was pulled out, leaving a visible improvements

EGR Valve – Feed to the EGR cleaned out, much of an improvement

EGR Valve – Feed to the Inlet manifold

Using a socket and a hammer, the valve was operated till it was free to operate by hand

Next the electrical side of the valve was looked at – removing the small amounts of carbon present from the spacer gasket and the little actuator rod

EGR Actuator – Cleaned up

Slight problem been the valve was fully retracted inside the actuator – meaning I was unable to ensure it could move freely, as I didn’t have the diagnostics equipment to carry out actuator tests. This caused me the concern that it may result in the fault code re-occurring due to been a failed actuator.

EGR Actuator – Pintle in middle – fully retracted

Rebuilding the EGR valve, the attention was pulled to the pipework that the EGR uses.
The Return from the EGR to the Intake wasn’t as bad as the EGR, but still coated in oil and carbon, a quick spray with cleaner and wipe out removed the majority of the gunk.
The feed to the EGR from the exhaust system wasn’t able to be cleaned as well due to no-access. Using a screwdriver and spending some time, the gunk was removed to help improve the flow of exhaust gases to the EGR valve.

All back together, followed by a code clear, the car was sent back on its way with the owner, in hopes the actuator was able to operate the valve properly. Should the code return; the valve will simply need to be replaced and another attack of the feed pipe to pull the gunk out.

However – now the valve can work, it may now be able to pull sufficient of the exhaust gasses to give its desired effect of cooling the combustion chambers temperature

Diagnosis #12 – Noisey Gearbox

Back again with my 1.2 8v Fiat Punto

So the car had a replacement gearbox at 60k when I brought it due to been very noisy
Well now sitting at 76k, I am back at square one, with a heavy ratchety noise which was present in all conditions, sat in neutral but settled with the clutch depressed/disengaged,
but while driving on heavy acceleration and heavy engine braking the noise can be heard in the video

(Video will come shortly once its been put through an editor)

So first things first – disconnecting and removal of many parts
battery, battery tray, gear-linkages, gear-linkage holder, Reverse and speed sensors, starter motor, numerous retaining bolts and R/H gearbox mount and body mount, gearbox fluid,  drive-shafts and holding the engine up with a trolley jack with a plank of wood

With the Gearbox out, left 1 of the drive cups still attached, using a screwdriver to tap the stuck drive-cup out, upon removing the shafts and looking at the oil, tiny metal shards can be seen
Even a small tiny ball bearing can be seen here
so whatever has dropped / failed / breaking down has caused the gearbox to be filled up with swarf

So off to a local refurbishment company to complete an exchange service with them

Whenever the gearbox comes out, it makes very logical sense to inspect the clutch or just replace it

Even though I had no issues with the clutch’s performance, been smooth and taking drive up nicely, it appears that the bearing has had a fight with the clutch and caused some uneven wear on the clutch fingers
The release bearing spun freely but a little bit “”loose”” and raspy but physically looks fine

Raspy and slightly loose release bearing, but looks physically fine

The friction plate was showing signs of been worn, one side had lost its channels grooved into the material on one side, but not on the other, showing a little bit of sticking, but still some material left before the rivets

Flywheel side

Pressure plate side

The diaphragm fingers were certainly showing wear, it was certainly wearing heavier on one side versus the other

Clutch release fingers, getting deeper as it goes anti-clockwise

Clutch release fingers with most wear shown

All in all, the clutch was best of been replaced to ensure peace of mind

So time to re-assemble

Using 120grit paper the flywheel was lightly scrubbed to remove the shine before bolting the clutch loosely into place. Aligning the centre boss perfectly with the centre of the flywheel for the gearbox input shaft is essential. There are several different kits available to help with alignment of the clutch components, but this can be sometimes avoided by inspecting the alignment however you may find the alignment may be out slightly and prevents the gearbox from fitting correctly. I used a deep 10mm socket and an extension-bar to allow adjustments to be made.

Using a torque wrench tightening the bolts up in sequence to pull the pressure plate square to the flywheel
*Ping* and next bolt *ping*

Oh dear, 2x bolts snapped due to fatigue a faulty torque wrench
Luckily, 1 bolt was able to be pulled out but by the skin of its teeth
The other a small slot using a dremel with a small cutting disc, to allow it to be removed using a screwdriver.

Bolt luckily made it out alive, but only just

Bolt has a small slot cut into it

So using donor bolts and setting up the clutch alignment again the clutch was installed allowing the rebuild to continue.

Lubing the splines on the gearbox input shaft, a small amount on the centre boss of the clutch followed by the friction spots on the release fork and bearing to allow free movement of the clutch parts, the gearbox and clutch mated nicely on the 2nd offering

I decided instead of using my normal substance, I purchased some lubricant that LUK made for clutch installs themselves as this ensures a free moving clutch and helps prevent binding issues.

Working around the gearbox all the components removed were rebuilt back into the vehicle and tightened.

Once the vehicle was secured back onto its own wheels, the gearbox was refilled with fresh 75w-90 semi synthetic gearbox oil, as the blend was made to replace the 75w-85 that the manual specified.

The vehicle was once again able to roll on its own steam without making a racket.
A test drive to confirm no more noise and that no leaks were present from the gearbox shafts or joins

 

 

 

Diagnosis #11 – The Cracked Manicat

Back to my car for another required repair

the Fiat Punto 1.2 8v 2004

You learn what your own car sounds like, and you know a new noise when you hear one
Well yup i developed a different sounding exhaust over a period of time, slowly getting more noisey in what was the front of the car

A quick crawl under to check where the flange meets my middle pipe hadn’t become the prime suspected i soon saw a trickle of water spraying out of my exhaust where it shouldn’t

Hence the noise – a nice new crack had formed around one of the lambda holes

First step is to get the whole lump out as some preparation work was needed

8x bolts for cylinder head + 2x for exhaust flange + 2x connections for the lambda wires

Dropping the Cat to the floor and jacking 1 side of the car up allowed the cat to be pulled free from underneath

Cat disconnected and dropped to the floor

Car jacked up and the Cat pulled free

The crack ran around about half way around the pipe (160 to 170 degrees)

Crack running around lambda hole

Crack then ran around the front

So first port of call is stop the crack dead in its tracks, by drilling 2 holes at each end of the crack using a 2.5mm drill bit

Then using a wire wheel attached to an angle grinder spent some time cleaning the affected area up to ensure there was a clean surface to be welded on

Cleaned and Drilled on side

Cleaned and Drilled part B

I then ran off to a local firm near me who TIG’d the crack and filled the drilled hole to seal the manicat once again

Tig Welded A

 

Tig Welede B

I used the chance while it was out the vehicle to remove the lambda sensor while access was good to ensure i could replace them easily in the future if need be, using a quick wire brush to clean the threads up

 

Now sealed up manifold and should be good for a few more years

Diagnosis #10 – The wheel bearing drone

A short and sweet right up for this one as unfortunately i didn’t get many pictures of the process

So the vehicle is becoming my friend – its quiet reasonably easy to also work on
The now 120k Ford C-max as in my previous posts

The customers complaint – a droning noise, the faster the louder it gets, cornering one way makes it quieter and louder the other

To me this sounded like the classical case of a wheel bearing starting to fail

After a test drive with the owners – the noise was very much coming from the N/S/F wheel bearing and fitted everything the customer had stated

To make the process a little easier, Ford make the front wheel bearing and hub all in one, which i quiet like, it makes it quicker for wheel bearings to be changed, only downside is, it costs a little more for the part as you’re getting 2 in 1

Ford Focus C-max Wheel bearing

Image Sourced Via Google Images
The strip down means having the the suspension, wishbone, brakes, steering and drive-shaft been disconnected and removed to allow for the hub to be free’d from the vehicle

Steering knuckle/hub disconnected from the vehicle

This then allowed me to spend a little bit of time gently teasing out the fragile ABS sensor and the lower ball joint cover

Once fully stripped, you could hear and feel the gritty-ness of the wheel bearing when been spun on its own, compared to the new bearing which i didn’t get a video/image of i’m afraid

Anyway, the bearing needs to be pressed in and out using a hydraulic press, which i’m afraid i did not have, so off with the new part / hub to a mechanic friend who did have a press, who kindly did press the bearing out and new one in for me

New bearing in, the hub was rebuilt and reinstalled into the car, followed by torquing the removed components back up

Once settled onto its own 2 feet, a quick spin confirmed the noise was removed ready for another set of journeys!

Diagnosis #9 – The Non-Starter

Meet the Little Clio

{Picture to be inserted here}

Its a 2006 Renault Clio 1.2 8v, Campus, with less then 51K on the clock

The customer complained of a non-start, when it was only just driven a very short period before
The vehicle was restarted with the use of a jump start
However the vehicle would appear flat once left

The battery had been removed by the owner and charged overnight
When tested again in the morning, the vehicle again failed to start

Time to step in
The battery was already free from the vehicle, which showed a very low score of just 4.2v

Battery Test after Charge – Only 4.2v

 

So time to insert a donor battery to ensure everything else is okay with the vehicle.

Battery Showing only 12.1v (low charge state) but was still able to start the vehicle

So next step is to see if the alternator is charging okay, with a few cranks it springs into life, with the voltage climbing upto 14.2v

Engine running – Battery voltage goes upto 14.2v Indicating the alternator was charging okay

Next time to crank up the demand, switching as many electrical demands (Lights, fans and demisters)

Engine running with electrical demand @ idle

With the engine only idling below 1000rpm, the voltage slowly started to drop, averaging just under 13v.
Ideally i would like to see over 13v, but 12.9v is pretty close.

Next adding a few more rev’s to simulate cruising down the road with the same electrical demands running returned a very healthy score

With a high electrical demand and around 2000rpm been displayed, the alternator was happily providing a charge

So the alternator was able to charge the vehicle battery, indicating the alternator wasn’t the cause.

To ensure they vehicle was going to “”sleep”” when it was locked up, a parasitic drain test was carried out.

So with the multimeter connected in series set to 10amp scale and on the negative terminal of the battery to prevent possible sparks / shorts, it showed 0.05amps pull when first connected

Parasitic drain test

Since the meter indicated a draw less then 200ma, the scale was swapped to show a more detailed reading

Showing a reading just shy of 54milliamps (0.054amps)

The reading was just a touch higher then a requested 50milliamp draw, however the engine ECU wasn’t given a long period of time to enter its “”sleep”” state, which would have given a potential lower reading

 

So since the vehicles alternator was able to charge the battery and there wasn’t a huge drain on the battery while it was left locked up it all pointed back to the battery has just failed

Since it was a Renault branded battery from what i suspect from factory back in 2006 – its covered 8years, which is the average life of a battery. Lack of use since its only done 50k (around 6,250 miles a year) i suspect the internals had started to break down/the individual cells inside had possibly popped due to lack of use/age

So a short spate of number crunching to local part shops to locate a new battery with a reasonable warranty and price. A new battery was installed and secured into place.

The vehicle is starting on request no problems.

 

 

Diagnosis #8 – Soggy Feet

Meet Oscar – The 2009 ’09’ Citroen C1

Oscar

With a weird and completely random problem of the passenger floor becoming wet. It didn’t always become wet when it rained, sometimes it will remain perfectly dry, sometimes slightly damp.

Its had the upper half of the door seal packed before, as there was evidence that water was slowly dripping from up above. However this has remained dry indicating there was now another way the water was getting in.
This was quiet an detection, throwing a little bit of water over the vehicles passenger door while it was raining, it became clear there door seal was remaining dry where it should and wet where it should, except for 1 random place on the lower part of the door

Over the seal

and onto the floor (you can see a faint darker patch as it branches into 2 paths)

So the next task was to pack the door seal with a narrow 3mm poly tubing, this would mean as the door closes it’ll clamp the doors seal tighter onto the door – hopefully preventing the water getting into the vehicle.

By the looks of it, when manufactured they simply produce a massive length of the door seal, cut to length and stick it together. Which meant in the middle of the door there is the join, meaning i have todo 2 runs instead of the 1

Black line shows the seal join line Green and yellow lines shows the tubes paths

 

Luckily since the seal has numerous vent holes to prevent the seal going bang when you shut the door due to the trapping air, i picked 2 holes to feed the tubes

 

B Pillar – Feeding tube via a breather hole

 

Feeding tube via a breather hole, near the door hinges

Since the tube was cut to length, its an invisible repair and hides perfectly inside the door seal.

With the door sealing tighter against the seal and frame, the car should remain dry on the passenger side once more!