Right with the piccie done a little bit of catching up to do here as I've rather neglected this blog. The V6 had been sitting in my driveway up until very recently as the tax had run out just prior to going on holiday to Kos in August and with Dawn enjoying the delights of convertible motoring it was pointless re-taxing it until just a couple of weeks ago not because Dawn particularly wanted to drive it but I needed the use of an automatic as I recently had surgery to sort out a hernia I've been suffering from for some time. Thankfully the operation went well, it was a day surgery treatment with a general anesthetic but I was rather surprised to be on my way home just an hour and a half after I came out of theater, no messing about at Ascot Hospital! As a result of that surgery I've been off work for and recovering but unable to wield my spanners on a number of jobs I really want to knock off my list of things to do such as re-seal the engine oil sump on the V6 as it drips oil at random intervals.
My Hdi has been running well apart from a couple of issues which are really starting to bug me, the first one is that the heater fan runs fine on manual speeds but when becomes rather erratic when set to auto. I've used my Lexia to try and diagnose the fault but it points to a faulty earth or feed,,,,,somewhere, any clues? Having taken a cursory look at the obvious potential cause I'm now at the stage where I'll be replacing parts wholesale
.
The second issue is one of wheel wobble, the car has always suffered from it to some degree and to that extent I have replaced the driveshafts (one was new from Citroën, the other a spare from my store of used parts) and recently I had four new tyres fitted to the Exclusive wheels which are always a challenge to get balanced correctly due to the lack of a centre hole. If anything the vibration was worse with the new wheels so I've had them rebalanced which has improved things but the wobble remains. I'm now left having to swap wheels with my V6 to eradicate the wheels from the investigation but at the same time I'm now pointing my finger towards one of the driveshafts as I've recently noticed that when I'm braking very gently below 10 mph a slight stiffness can be felt in the running gear as if one of the driveshaft U/J's is stiff so I'll have the front wheels off the ground and "run" the car in gear at speed whilst I observe the driveshafts to what side is causing the problem.
The Goddess is now effectively in hibernation away from the salty roads which gives me the time to investigate a few issues that have come to light over the summer, one is a slight drip onto the top of the gearbox which I'm told will be a leaking steering rack, the other is the short interval between the HP pump operating (its about 20 seconds) and that the front of the car tends to drop too soon for my liking after switching off the engine (I've replaced the accumulator). Whilst it could be leaking rams somewhere another possibility is that the pressure regulator is out of adjustment due to the spring being under tension for thirty seven years. In order to investigate this I've just bought a 200 BAR hydraulic pressure gauge which I'll attach to a pipe I'll borrow from my sphere tester so that I can observe at what pressure the regulator is cutting in and out. Should I find anything then I'll be visiting Martin at Plieades for a replacement pressure regulator.
Like the Goddess my VSX is tucked up in the garage at work hidden under a dust cover, when I'm working I always run the engine and A/C for a good thirty minutes every fortnight to keep the A/C seals lubricated and exercise the suspension.
Dawns' BMW just works, day in, day out, although it did have one hiccup with the climate control panel a couple of months ago when the screen went blank and we lost all control of what was happening both with the temperature and A/C which would run at random
. New climate control panels are expensive @ £300 a go but a quick search on the internet revealed a link to a straightforward fix of obtaining a component from Maplins for 69p then soldering it in, job done
. Whilst BMW's aren't for everyone, its not difficult to see why they are so popular when I compare the constant fettling necessary with a Citroën with the get in and go every day from the BMW
My BIL has a 2.1 Exclusive Xantia he bought through me a couple of years ago, the car has a very good history file but we really ran into problems having changed the cam belt whereby the crankshaft pulley bolt would constantly undo despite using Loctite and tightening the bolt "F" tight. The car trashed two pulleys which caused great concern due to the potential for damaging the crankshaft nose, not to mention the hassle factor and the cost of another pulley. It appears that 2.1's are prone to this fault as when I started looking around to source a replacement pulley a large number of 2.1 engines in cars being broken had already had the pulley removed. Following the second occasion I took Jim with me for a trip out to the seaside (the BIL lives there) where we fitted pulley number three and tightened it up triple "F" tight
an excellent photo opportunity was missed as three of us were backed up against each other with Jim kicking my breaker bar to tighten the bolt. Just to make sure the bolt doesn't undo again a quick spot of weld had been put between the pulley, washer and bolt head.
A couple of weeks ago I popped down to see my parents when my BIL turned up in his Xantia, the trouble was it was several seconds prior to seeing him that I was aware that a car had turned into the close due the awful racket coming from the engine. It turned out to be a knackered bearing in the eccentric pulley, quite possibly due to my BIL not replacing the lower engine covers (good tip Citroenxm-Paul
) after Jim and I did the pulley.
Last month we had a family trip over to Leuven in Belgium to meet up with some very good friends of mine who live in New Zealand but were also visiting their daughter who has married a Belgian and they were having a christening for their first born. We drove over in my HDi and had an excellent time in an very interesting town. If the name Leuven sounds familiar take a look at a Stella Artois beer can as its where the factory is, hic! More importantly the town hall there is a real sight to behold, the detail cut into the stonework is breathtaking, well worth a visit.
well the Goddess has had the chassis repairs completed now and to give some idea as to the amount of work involved these photo's explain somewhat easier than words 
"Did I see a bump in the road surface back there because I didn't feel it?" 
so that regulator will remain in its place of semi retirement on my sphere tester.
