It has been a very long time since I last reported on the Avi, and that's not because it's been quiet!
In June of last year the car failed it's MOT... with the brake pipe 'apparently' bursting during the MOT test. I was not impressed with this and I was told the car was dangerous to drive so I had to fork up the cost to get this done so I could take the car home and do the rest. The rest being another excessively corroded brake pipe, which I made myself and replaced. The bracket for the headlight levelling sensor also was a fail item.However, this was always broken but I had always had it pushed together (hasn't affected levelling system) but a while back I pulled it down to remind me to replace it. What a mistake that was! It is not a part i could get so I had to make a bodged repair with Quik Steel which did do the job...eventually! It was round this time that I hit the 100,000 milestone on a trip to Goodwood!
I arranged an employee car show at my place of work in order to raise some money for charity. Of course, being my event, the Avantime was to be involved and I got quite a lot of interest from people intrigued and surprised by how amazing it is! Others were still confused about my enthusiasm and the point of the car, but then haters will hate.
Having changed my job a couple of months later and covering 50 miles a day in my commute, I decided to take the old girl off the road with the good intention of doing some repairs on it, with regards to the suspensions knocks and the like. I very much wanted to do a full rebuild on the front corners and get some parts powder coated. Good intentions maybe, but I did not get off to a good start, with trying to remove the wiper arms to get powder coated, I actually ended up causing some damaged to the windscreen which just got worse and worse over the winter. Stupidest moment of my life, or at least one of them! I never did get the wiper arms painted, or the front corners rebuilt.
One trip the car did get out to do was to go collect a job lot of Avantime parts! Some of them I wanted for my own Avi and some for any future Avi! I hope to buy a 2.0T later in the year to double my Avi count. The job lot was a little more than I was expecting and filled the car and I do now have more spares to shake a stick at! There are now countless wardrobes full of spares, some under the bed, across the garage beams and one box even blocking the rear entrance to the house... Things I do to keep this car going...
One of the biggest problems I've had with the car is finding that it became a V5... The idle became lumpy, performance tardy and the car juddery at low revs. Knowing that failed coils are pretty common, I left the car running and disconnected the front three coils individually to see if they were at fault. And they weren't... So I then decided to get to the back coils. I took the inlet manifold off which is a nightmare of a job and very little space to do! Then working blind at the back, I swapped front and rear coils over. I ended up losing my socket down the back of the engine! With the manifold back on, I could then leave the engine running and try the front coils again (that were the rear). I then found the coil that didn't cause the car to dip to 4 cylinders, and I replaced it for £20. The car now runs as smoothly as ever, but I do think some others might be on the way out as when cold, it can be quite lumpy but it is much better than it use to be!
Now back to the windscreen, so having contacted my insurer, it was as I expected; they could not get a windscreen. However, a new batch of reproduced windscreens had been arranged by the owners club with a UK specialised windscreen manufacturer. After direct conversations with them, a windscreen was imported back from a buyer in Europe and the windscreen was fitted, 8 weeks after the first enquiry. I was not so impressed with National Windscreens who fitted the windscreen. There is much mess to the dash that was not cleaned, and the clips on the left hand side a pillar trim had been broken and stuck back on with windscreen sealant the RH a pillar trim had some of the fabric worn away. Luckily I had a spare one from my job lot which I replaced this with. The washer jet hoses hadn't been put back properly and loop out the top of the bonnet and the side rubber trim on the exterior are not flush. The windscreen had to be done at their depot in order to fix up the heating element wiring but I was not impressed with the job and care taken! I guess I will have to finish their job for them. I hope to be able to find out soon if the heated windscreen works, only a couple of elements worked beforehand.
They did eventually come out, do a continuity on the car and windscreen which eventually proved positive. Still have no proof of it working but was getting nowhere with them. The wiring was still messy but was at least resoldered and shrinkwrapped. Clips inside the car replaced, although the grommet and the windscreen seal is still not sorted. The windscreen seal they said they would but never did and I just could not do with the hassle...!
Couple of minor jobs I have done however; taken the armrest off and repaired it properly so there is now less play in the hinge, replaced my stereo remote control with one with no crack in the screen and a battery cover (had to glue the backlight button) and replaced the engine temperature sensor. I replaced the sensor as the car does not get up to temperature but this has not seemed to solve it.
Having taken so long to write this post, the car was in for another MOT. This time failing on a rear number plate light and the handbrake. The number plate light I assumed was a bulb, but oh no, it was something else. Some looking around found a lump of tape around the cable once I traced it back under the car. Taking this apart found that the wires had been cut into and held together with double sided tape! This had come away (no idea how it survived at least the 3 years I've owned it up until this point...!) so I soldered and shrinkwrapped this properly and it was all good.
I was able to put the old girl back on the road for a short trip to the lake district taking on Hard Knott Pass in Cumbria! It was a hot day and the road was very steep being a 30% climb in places, so she was worked hard. All was well but there was a lot of rain coming back on the M6 on the Sunday, and I had noticed at the services and when I got home that there were some strange electrical problems that had suddenly appeared. The radio/CD player has stopped working, the left sidelight no longer works (not bulb) and the buzzer to let you know your headlights are on have stopped. In addition to this the car was dead the next day, but when recharged on a trickle charger has been fine since on that front. The other issues I assume water has got in somewhere and caused a fuse or grounding issue. Will take some investigation I think...!
As always, I hope to actually do some jobs now she is again off the road. I will powder coat the wiper arms this time! Also try and solve these electrical problems.
No comments:
Post a Comment