Zel's Fleet Blog - BX, Jag XJ-S, Sinclair C5, Mercedes 208D & 230TE, AC Model 70.

[Zelandeth]

Excellent! Be good to see the Renault alive again Zel and a shame it's not staying with you - I know just what an absolutely lovely car it is

The Transverse A-Series was never that oil-tight so what you see is likely quite normal now - plus there's always a bit of residue that drips after the big leaks have been fixed...

Where the VDP is parked in the bottom photo is where my Bluebell will be parked tomorrow morning when we visit Costa for our post-Junior parkrun coffee

It will be a shame to see it go, but it just needs more time dedicated to it than I can offer. It's one of those cars that's in that awkward design era where such simple tasks can wind up being a major headache because it's modern car levels of complicated in many areas - but also old enough that parts (even before the Brexit nonsense totally messed up many sources) were tricky to find in many cases. It's also modern enough that many classic friendly garages don't really want anything to do with it, but others more comfortable with modern every day cars won't touch it because it's too old. It really just needs a home with a properly patient owner, and ideally a garage to live in.

I did end up just sitting in it for about an hour yesterday listening to music - the stereo still sounds absolutely improbably good. The Volvo might have a *slight* edge in how crisp the bass is on certain tracks - but it has fourteen speakers to the Renault's six, and one of those is a dedicated sub woofer and well more than double the power rating, so it *should* be a fair ways ahead. Really isn't an obvious difference though unless you listened to the two back to back. Certainly nowhere close to the sort of difference you'd expect from two systems with 20 years between them - especially when you consider how primitive most factory car stereo systems were in the mid 80s.

This must have seemed absolutely mad back in its day.

Definitely *far* better than anything we had in the house back then.

Is it possible I'll remember how much I really do like it once I drive it again when I go to get it tested (as I'm not exactly expecting potential buyers to jump at it in the current state) and question my decision to move it on? Entirely likely. However I NEED to cut things down by at least one car, so it really needs to go. It's another £220 a year in tax and somewhere around the same in insurance I really don't need to be spending aside from anything else - which given what's just been spent on the Trabant and the landscaping work, I'm more keenly aware of than some times.

Also, insomnia can get in the sea please. I eventually gave in and picked my phone up at about half four because there's only so long I can stare at the ceiling before starting to lose the plot! Wednesday is going to be a long day I fear!

[CitroJim]

Is it possible I'll remember how much I really do like it once I drive it again when I go to get it tested (as I'm not exactly expecting potential buyers to jump at it in the current state) and question my decision to move it on? Entirely likely.

Ahh yes, I'd have the same dilemma. How long before it's VED and MoT-free? Might it be worth the wait?

Also, insomnia can get in the sea please. I eventually gave in and picked my phone up at about half four because there's only so long I can stare at the ceiling before starting to lose the plot! Wednesday is going to be a long day I fear!

Hope that's only transitory Zel, I have a good friend who suffers badly so I know a little of how you feel.

[Zelandeth]

I need another camera like a hole in the head, so of course I picked this up today.



Been after a TLR for a while but hadn't seen one cheap enough. Had a roll of fully exposed film in too - which I'll definitely be getting developed to see if there's anything on there. May well be given that as far as I can tell this camera seems to be fully working.

Pretty basic little thing, just four shutter speeds - B, 1/25, 1/50, 1/100s, f/3.5-22, and that's about it.





The world being upside down and back to front in the viewfinder is a recipe for making yourself feel properly motion sick if you're trying to frame anything that's moving. It is nice bright and clear though.



A lot of photographers seem to like to hate on Halina, but I've had quite a few of their cameras and the worst I've been able to say about any of them, even the cheapest and most basic was that they were aversge and performed as you'd have expected for the price tag. Never thought there was anything wrong with them. Yes they churned out some utter tat in the late 80s and into the 90s, but you can say that about just about any company aiming at the general consumer market.

This one isn't going to give a Rolleiflex anything to worry about, but it seems absolutely perfectly fit for purpose, and I'd wager that with a bit of patience and practice it'll produce some cracking photos.

All it's needed as far as I can tell was freeing up the focus control which was a bit gummy, and cleaning the cobwebs off the viewfinder screen. Has some relatively cheap film in just now as a test run.

[CitroJim]

Wow! That's awesome Zel That film might have some interesting images on it...

[CitroJim]

And, if you want to get the C-41 process chemicals, you're more than welcome to use my facilities to process that film Zel

You might like to try, given that film looks quite elderly, to have a try at processing it in standard black and white chemistry... The results might be interesting

Given the age of it, I can't imagine the dye-couplers being all that colourful now...

[Zelandeth]

Well this isn't ideal.



My camera has got hopelessly confused with the colour balance here (I did spend several minutes fighting with it before giving up). The offside headlight is actually a normal neutral 4000K-ish white. The nearside one however has turned a distinctly orangish-pink colour.

Good side:


Bad side:




This is a pretty standard failure mode of any metal halide discharge lamp, automotive or otherwise. Basically as the lamp ages the halide salts are used up, until eventually the balance is thrown off - or blackening of the arc tube causes is to start overheating, which also throws things off and will usually manifest as a colour shift. It's pretty important that as soon as a halide lamp starts to show any change in characteristics that it's replaced then - don't just leave it until it stops working. For a very simple reason, it might explode! The halide salts are actually corrosive and over the life of the lamp do eat away at the envelope, so if operated until the very end they can (and in some cases do) go pop. Especially keeping in mind that the atmosphere in ones like this is somewhere in the region of 7 bar when operating, so there's quite a bit of pressure in that tiny little quartz capsule.

New ground for me as this is the first car I've ever owned with HID headlights (which in this case also swivel to look round corners), but something I figured I'd need to do battle with at some point, especially as the lights on this car are always on when the engine is running.

Surprisingly there is actually provision for replacement of the lamps here and it's not too bad to get to them. Though on the nearside the air cleaner/one of the ECUs is just close enough to the back of the headlight to be REALLY ANNOYING.



The connector just pulls off the bottom, then twisting the big black tab you can see at about 10 o'clock anticlockwise releases the lamp from the housing.



The silver boxes attached to the lamps contains the high voltage igniter - these require a pulse somewhere in the region of 20-30kV to provide the ability for hot restrike (as waiting several minutes to relight a lamp in an automotive application is a big no no). This arrangement with the igniter integrated into the lamp base vastly simplifies the wiring arrangements as the line between the ballast and lamp only has to deal with ~100V rather than the starting pulse. It's also the most likely component to fail, so having a new one fitted with each lamp isn't the worst idea.

A new pair of lamps are on the way and hopefully will be here tomorrow. At which point I'll find out precisely how much more annoying the proximity of the air cleaner housing is going to be in getting the new lamp into place.

[CitroJim]

Interesting stuff Zel Good to see they're not hugely difficult to make good again... I would imagine those bulbs are quite pricy compared to a good old H4 Halogen?

[myglaren]

Thought you were going all nautical there, with port and starboard markers.

[MattBLancs]

How about removing the headlight complete? I am sure I read somewhere about the whole headlamp assembly being very easy to remove on certain Volvo models. Can't recall which, so typically unhelpful there, sorry!

[MattBLancs]

How about removing the headlight complete? I am sure I read somewhere about the whole headlamp assembly being very easy to remove on certain Volvo models. Can't recall which, so typically unhelpful there, sorry!

Hmm, he's taking the bumper off here:

But some of the comments reckon that might not be necessary.

[Zelandeth]

Interesting stuff Zel Good to see they're not hugely difficult to make good again... I would imagine those bulbs are quite pricy compared to a good old H4 Halogen?

They are comparatively pricy at around fifty quid a pop. Though if they only need changing every 75K miles or 18 years I'm honestly not going to complain. Yes you can probably get them cheaper if you're willing to use ones from a brand you've never heard of or play the counterfeit lottery on eBay/Amazon - personally I'm not though. The lamps are comparatively cheap and easy to replace - the ballasts aren't and require me to dismantle a not inconsiderable percentage of the front end of the car to get to.

Of course it's a thousand times better than the LED setups on virtually everything in the last couple of years where there are no user replaceable lamps in there at all. It's new headlight time - which often have four figure price tags attached. I can honestly see a situation where headlights failing simply due to the bell curve of natural attrition over time start to write off cars which are only around ten years old.

How about removing the headlight complete? I am sure I read somewhere about the whole headlamp assembly being very easy to remove on certain Volvo models. Can't recall which, so typically unhelpful there, sorry!

Sadly that's a "dismantle the entire front of the car first" job on this one. Which is a pain as getting the units on the bench would make getting them properly polished up WAY easier than it is trying to do that with them on the car without damaging surrounding paintwork. I don't think it's as involved as on some cars, but it's still far from a five minute job.

Thought you were going all nautical there, with port and starboard markers.

Nah, I'm saving that for when I inevitably at some point end up with a proper American barge which really deserves them!

[Hell Razor5543]

On my V70, if I put the light switch into the middle position, the headlights are off. You have to remember to put the switch into the 'Off' position so that the sidelights are off when she is parked up. Something you might want to check out is to see if Volvo can turn off the DRL option for you. It can be done on mine (according to the handbook), but I don't know if they would charge for this.

How about removing the headlight complete? I am sure I read somewhere about the whole headlamp assembly being very easy to remove on certain Volvo models. Can't recall which, so typically unhelpful there, sorry!

This can be done on my V70 (2012), as there are a couple of 'pegs' holding each headlight assembly in place.

[Zelandeth]

Replacements arrived today. Shown here during the standard customs inspection.



Failed inspection on account of being too boring and not edible. Better put them in the car then if they're not allowed in the house!

Shiny.



Part number for those of you playing along at home.



The driver's side is really easy. You can clearly see where the access cover is off below. This took roughly 30 seconds to install.



Passenger side, not so much.



Of course this one was the side which refused to just slot in wasn't it. Cue escalation.



Eventually I figured out why it was refusing to seat. Around the perimeter there are a bunch of springy copper "fingers" which grip the metal housing of the igniter, presumably for RFI suppression. Two of these had been bent over so were getting in the way. Just to the right of 6 o'clock in the photo below.



Given how ridiculously tight the locking ring was when I tried to remove the lamp from this side and scratches in that area on the lamp i removed I reckon these have been bent out of shape for a long time. With them bent back out of the way the lamp just slotted in and locked into place without needing to use unreasonable force. Which given the whole thing you're locking it to sits on a gimbal arrangement which can move in all directions is nice as you really don't want to break it as then it would be new headlight time.

Much better.



Both lights are now the same colour. Definitely better than they were - definitely had a distinctly greenish tint before.





Be curious to take the car out after dark to see if they're noticeably brighter - kind of hard to tell just sitting in the driveway. Really do need to get the lenses properly polished up though as they no doubt aren't helping, and do let down the look of the car a bit. Job done for now though.

Now just to wait a couple of weeks for the skin on my right wrist to grow back!

[CitroJim]

Now just to wait a couple of weeks for the skin on my right wrist to grow back!

I feel your pain Zel Apart from that, good work

[Zelandeth]

On my V70, if I put the light switch into the middle position, the headlights are off. You have to remember to put the switch into the 'Off' position so that the sidelights are off when she is parked up. Something you might want to check out is to see if Volvo can turn off the DRL option for you. It can be done on mine (according to the handbook), but I don't know if they would charge for this.

How about removing the headlight complete? I am sure I read somewhere about the whole headlamp assembly being very easy to remove on certain Volvo models. Can't recall which, so typically unhelpful there, sorry!

This can be done on my V70 (2012), as there are a couple of 'pegs' holding each headlight assembly in place.

I'm not really worried to be honest. I don't see the DRLs as a bad thing given how utterly clueless and blind so many drivers I encounter on a daily basis around here seem to be. Anything that makes me more visible is a good thing.

A hundred quid consumable that only needs replacing every 50-70K miles of driving doesn't seem at all unreasonable to me. It's less than a full tank of diesel in the long run, and in 18 years I'd probably have spent near enough that in replacing H1/4/7 incandescent lamps anyway. Especially given that their output seems to drop off a cliff after about a year's use these days.