Bargain Basement Electric

[NewcastleFalcon]

Page 1 Post 1 3¾ years ago

Now then, anyone got a tab packet? Could this be made to work? Assume this...

Yes, and very enjoyable motoring too

Take yesterday for example, the day when the mile-o-meter ticked over to 68,449 miles, 40,000 miles and 3¾ Years since buying the Leaf. Lovely tour of the Scottish Borders with a couple of charge ups, the second one being unnecessary but why not...15p/kWh at Woodmarket in Kelso right in the town square, and Fish and Chips to consume anyway. The first one, a nice wander down to the Tweed, camera in hand through a woodland path and job done on the charging front on our return half an hour later.

Currently the Leaf getting 5.1 miles/kWh, has 11 of 12 bars on the battery state of health, and more importantly gets us out and about around our usual stomping ground of Northumberland and Durham and the Scottish Borders, on many lovely trips out as well as the normal day to day duties.

Enjoy your motoring! Take some pictures!

The 40,000 mile trip in pics

Falcon Original

Charging up Newton St Boswells

Falcon Original

Falcon Original

Charging up Kelso Market Place

Falcon Original

Falcon Original

Neil

[CitroJim]

Excellent!

[NewcastleFalcon]

MOT Monday, Seaside Saturday

Falcon Original
Lovely Cloud Formation
Don't miss the subtlety...
Click twice to enlarge and reveal

Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Looks like i will have to get my hands dirty, the rear parking brake (foot operated) with the shoes inside the middle bit of the disc needs a bit of attention to get a MOT pass. Not unexpected.

What was unexpected was getting the car back with another item to sort...rear service brake binding on excessively. Cant argue with that it was/is but only after the testing process as a brand new item. You do not get 5 miles/kWh with a service brake which is excessively binding on or have very noticeably hot wheels and disk, and it certainly wasn't binding on before the testing process.

Hopefully it can be resolved without a new caliper, and I do have new "parking brake shoes" which I bought a couple of years ago but didn't use which may help sort out the parking brake fail point.

It's hard to extract any enjoyment from car-tinkering, other than a modicum of satisfaction when its finished, but at least I engineered a summer-ish MOT for the Leaf and its the only time I have to do this sort of faffing about, and that's mainly because I would find the invoice from the professionals even less enjoyable than actually doing the work myself.

To remind myself this was from a couple of years ago pre-MOT, similar sort of activity looms

Got the job done on the Leaf, bought new shoes for the disc/drum handbrake combo, but didn't bother fitting them old ones had plenty left, just did a bit of a clean up.

Obvious really, but back off the handbrake adjuster by clicking the cog through the hole for that purpose in the "disc drum" and the disc just pops off without any hammering.

Caliper Pistons were just push in, slackened off the 8mm Bleed nipples after giving the rust at the base where it enters the caliper a bit of rust removal and spray. What are car makers thinking of...8mm Bleed nipples, do they want you to buy a new caliper when they shear off Luckily both sides undid without drama.

The little bit of brake fluid spurted out on pressing the pistons back is hardly worth opening a bottle of the specified DOT3 for and the Master cylinder is still pretty much at Max.

So the first proper maintenance dirty hands job is done on the Leaf. Just like any other car except parts are a touch more expensive than on the bog standard 16 year old BB Micra.

Went with ECP as usual for convenience, but no doubt about it in my recent experience, although to all intents and purposes the same, carparts4less, undercut ECP prices (after disc) for exactly the same parts by a decent margin if you can wait for the free delivery to arrive.

Neil

[mickthemaverick]

A pity doing it again isn't quite as simple as reading it again but here's hoping you have a hassle free job. Good luck!

[NewcastleFalcon]

Thanks Mick, I think I made more of a meal of it first time around, and was grateful for the after the event tip you gave me about the brake shoes and the adjuster! which I will hopefully put to use this time

Whoops sorry!1 I could have told you about that but didn't think!! When clicking the adjuster with the flat blade screwdriver you will find the one on the nearside goes the opposite way to the offside to release the shoes. If you go the wrong way you will just lock the wheel and then have to go back the other way until its fully free. Once refitted click the adjuster until the wheel is locked then back it off one click and you should feel only a slight drag on the wheel. That will be fine after a few operations!

Neil

[aneesh84]

Compared to the things that have gone wrong with my older diesel citroens over these years, the Leaf is feels so robust and reliable. Just what machines should be: simple, minimal moving parts and easily user servicible. The only thing that I am a bit concerned is quite a few cases of Leaf 40 having isolation faults in the battery modules. The vast majority of such cases in Portugal have occured in Taxis with lots of fast charging and battery overheating , which will never happen to my leaf. But the occasional battery manufacturing defects do occur, and removing battery packs seems way beyond my competence. I do hope that such issues with the battery have a low probability and in a few years even if I need to swap a defective battery module, the savings in diesel would more than compensate for that cost.

[CitroJim]

And the same from me Neil... May the job go all easily and smoothly I must admit I still thoroughly enjoy getting the spanners out and it's good to know there is still a few bits you can do on the Leaf...

[NewcastleFalcon]

And the same from me Neil... May the job go all easily and smoothly I must admit I still thoroughly enjoy getting the spanners out and it's good to know there is still a few bits you can do on the Leaf...

Thanks for the comments Jim, I think the forecast is ok for this week, but I would rather get on finishing the signal box shed, than having the car to sort. The BB Micra of course is sitting there taxed tested and insured as the other part of the detached hybrid to get us mobile, but yes I did put off getting a replacement radiator so now it requires a bit of gentle handling and plenty of water both on board and at the beginning of a journey to avoid an overheating situation. Fine for round the doors van duties though.

Neil

[CitroJim]

Yes, one reason I opted for a new car was because I want to crack on with the house and not have the bother of having to fix a car so I totally understand.

Currently, new windows and doors are being fitted...

[NewcastleFalcon]

and removing battery packs seems way beyond my competence. I do hope that such issues with the battery have a low probability and in a few years even if I need to swap a defective battery module, the savings in diesel would more than compensate for that cost.

Simon (Mandrake) on his first EV a Peugeot Ion did do a removal of a battery pack, and a replacement of selected cells on his driveway, but yes not a thing I would relish doing. He has a Leaf now, but if you want to read about his battery swap on the Ion the tale starts round about here

viewtopic.php?p=624171#p624171

On a completely different level to DIY of course NIO have stations that swop out batteries in under 3 minutes. Bet the standard time for a Nissan workshop to remove/replace batteries would be considerably longer than that.

Most of the time my Leaf is recharged at home still using the "granny Cable" at a very gentle rate.

Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

This looks simple enough, its the rear nearside which was temporarily in the process of the test and for a few miles after "binding on". Undo the slider pins, and grease them.

I did acquire the entire world supply of red rubber grease a couple of years agoi

Today I have taken the first steps to being a Red Rubber Grease tycoon.

With a quick cost benefit analysis, a big tin in the hand for just over £10 from the Agricultural engineers was a better deal than spending at least £6 in petrol consumed, and probably 1.5 hours, going to the nearest factor who would have something in stock and paying another £5 for a little tube, or a few sachets.

When I said thats a big tin, the guy at the agricultural engineers said..."What you really want is a bit from our tin".
Couldn't do it, far too cheeky Always good to cultivate a decent relationship, and over the years their Aladdin's cave of stock has saved me a fortune.

Neil

[mickthemaverick]

I don't think I'd use rubber grease on the caliper pins Neil, a silicone grease or even copper grease would be my choice. I usually use copper grease on the pin and a dab of silicon grease inside the boot where you could use the red rubber. It will be interesting to hear others views on this one!!

[NewcastleFalcon]

What needs sorting out to restore a non-binding rear service brake from its currently "binding on excessively" classification by the MOT tester

Slider pins? Those pad clips, the pad "ears" which fit into those clips, the pad backs, the end of the calliper piston and the accumulated gunge and rust on and round it.

Clean up the piston end and see if it does its out and in job freely after a bit of a clean up.

In 43 years of many MOT's I have never had to replace a brake caliper or fit a DIY repair kit. The vectra maybe got one in 160,000 miles of motoring at some point, but fingers crossed the clean up will suffice.

The crux of the problem may well not be the calliper piston sticking but those pads were rock solid to remove from their little guide clips and a very tight fit with no freedom of movement.

Falcon Original

Falcon original

Falcon original

Neil

[RichardW]

I had a rear brake pipe rot though on a Xantia - on stripping down the outer pads were seized in the calipers - so much so that I had to saw them in half to get them out!! Despite this it had never warranted a mention on MOT, and it all freed up nicely and worked afterwards - I even managed to persuade the bleed nipples out (with plenty of heat and Plus Gas!). Hope yours works out equally as well, Neil!