Cheers Lee - after 2 weeks obsessing with the car I'm doing absolutely nothing else now, except a bit of cleaning ... !



That's the plan. Although yes I had thought about running it as a tail-light / fog instead for extra visibility - what's involved with fitting a relay? (You'll be pleased to hear I'm not so worried about extra wiring as I am cutting holes in the fixtures & fittings )



You're very welcome to try - if you can bring my lacquer disaster back from the brink I will be extremely impressed! I really messed up the spoiler from the sanding stage, though; I'd got the hang of it by the time I did the rest of the car. It will do for now, but for definite I'll have to do it again sometime, or get it done professionally.

S

really nice Serena!

today I finally open the plastic that I have in my spoiler to see if he have a brake light that that was painted or to be sure it is plastic cover only... and yeah, plastic cover...

not even have the wires, like in your case...

but its strange, like you have said, if dosn't have brake light in spoiler at least should have in tailgate, but not there too...

So Im starting seriously in search for one spoiler brake light, I mean, Im already search for one about some time, but im been looking for something sheep and good... but probably I will use your link...

But really good work you did, I'm afraid of removing spoiler all by my self, even with your guide

CSR

Thanks CSR!

Really, don't worry about removing the spoiler. It's just a few bolts, it must be one of the easiest removal jobs on the car. Refitting is just as easy, it takes maybe 10 minutes.

There's nothing you can break (except maybe the plastic boot trim inside the tailgate, which you must remove to reach the centre bolt). And be careful when you lift the spoiler off: the black foam underneath the spoiler may stick to the tailgate.

The wires came with the new light; they weren't on the spoiler already, there was just an empty hole under the cover. So if you do find an original light, check that it still has the wire attached.

Go for it!

S

yeah I have seen today where are the bolts, only dont find the middle but i Thought may be inside the panel reflector... one of theses days I will remove it to install an UK reverse light, so then I will see...

firts I need to buy and get the brake light...

Serena I saw that the wires came with the light but, where I conect to? Sorry if its an stupid question, but like i said, e have never removed the red panel reflector yet... its there a connection inside?

CSR

Just to check, I assume the underneath of your spoiler looks exactly like this, with two holes in the middle part, and two holes at each end...



... and not like this, with two studs sticking up out of the middle part:



If it is like the top one (mine), and has holes, not studs, then there will be a middle bolt here [1]:



Here's how you will see it close up, from underneath (of course, the wire won't be there, there will be a bolt instead. The bolt goes through the hole, direct into the spoiler)



The light I bought comes with a very, very long wire - a couple of metres of it. You run it up the side of the tailgate, under the plastic trim [2] and then splice it into the existing brake light wiring [3]. I can't remember what colour the wiring is; I think it's green and white, Hughie or Stu Spel will tell you as they spliced mine at JAE (please check this before you do it, I might not be right about the colour!)

Of course, as you don't have a high-level light at the top of the tailgate, the brake light wiring MIGHT NOT run through there - can anyone else help here, as I don't know?

Anyway, you won't have to touch the reflector panel, as you only want the brake light wiring.

S

yeah, dont have to remove painel, juts remove al the plastics in the interior part of the tail gate

but that helped a lot!!! thanks Serena

Remember the guide you did for areal? well that helped me a lot, but I just destroy almost all the screws and now i need to buy news XD but is not hard to find here...

so when I have the brake light and if I need something I will tell you... If in meantime anyone know the exactly color of the wire I appreciate...

CSR

Bit of a close shave over the weekend!

I shot out of bed shouting "NOOOOO!" when I heard the chainsaws at 7am (as in this neck of the woods 7am chainsaws mean only one thing, and this is the only tree in the road). Fortunately it was only one massive branch, and on the other side of the tree. Bits of wood scattered all over the end of the road, though, it seems to have exploded. Lightning strike?

The tree had already showered conkers on the car in October, and I had to park somewhere else. Clearly I have Bad Karma with this particular horse chestnut.



Will Sundance make it to his 19th birthday in March, or will the evidently enraged tree spirit do better next time? Stay tuned ...

S

Get Sundance inside the garage! Now!

I'd love to. But sadly, the garage is so small that if I drive the car in there, I won't be able to open the car door and get out.

The garages were built in the 1960s for the tiny cars everyone had then. Nobody in the street can get their cars into their garage. The garages can only be used for storage

S

I know what you mean, no really i know!
My dad build garage for his Moskvich back in the days and now he cannot put his Laguna inside..
Same storry like yours.. shame...

Spent 10 minutes today dealing with a bit of surface rust on one of the bonnet seams underneath (no photos, it' was too ****** cold to hang around with a camera!! )

I declare the race to be ready for JAE 2016 officially ON

S

Taking Sundance to renew his ticket this morning.

Wish us luck!

S

Good luck to you both!

Failure ...

... But only on CO emissions and my wobbly mirror

Nothing else at all, not even an advisory!

Booked back in for investigation & retest. Can't be the cat, it was new last year. What else is likely to cause that?

S

Oh, sorry to hear that Serena. It could be any one of a number of problems, hard to diagnose from a distance, but essentially the fuel / air mixture is probably wrong. Could be a lambda sensor, faulty fuel injector, faulty MAF sensor, or simply that the engine operating temperature wasn't high enough, or even something else!. Sorry if that's not much help, but it shouldn't be a costly repair provided the diagnoser gets it right first time.
I do hope the cat is ok, it should last many years if it was a proper one.

Just had another thought Serena, when did you last replace the air filter? Probably a long shot, but if it's totally stuffed up with dirt then that could cause the high CO.

Another sugestion is to go to the highway and drive the car on 3-rd gear up to 4-5000rpms for about 3-4 min.
That could help a bit, if the car is a daily drive and goes short destinations.

Cheers JB.

Filter changed within the last 12 months but no harm switching it again, they're cheap enough. I do a lot of London driving, maybe the pollutants have killed it?!

It had better not be the cat, that was replaced at MOT last year, when the previous *** 7 month old!! *** cat was found to have failed completely.

And for general advice, that wobbly driver's door mirror that so many of us BA owners get, was a MOT failure as it was logged as "insecure" - bear that in mind, chaps. The garage say they'll tape it up for me, just to get it through the retest, which is decent of them.

S

Yes, good point: it only gets occasional long runs these days. Thanks!

S

Good luck with the re-test

Right, Club, I need your help.

Sundance is still at the garage having the engine emissions looked at; no news from them yet, I assume it will be tomorrow.

I'm not so happy, however, that there ARE a whole list of advisories that I hadn't been made aware of last week. I've just found out about them, because I went to the .GOV MOT website to see if they'd retested it yet (they haven't).

Essentially I have the following "advisory" issues, none of which have ever come up on a MOT test before. I don't know if these guys are being excessively cautious, or if the last few MOT testing stations I've used were just crap. The place I went to is a MOTEST centre, who do these things day in-day out.

The list:

front and rear suspension components corroded < I presume springs? Yes, intend to replace anyway
front crossmember under radiator corroded < solid, I think, I know it needs cleaning & painting
slight play in offside front lower ball joint < this can be sorted
front to rear fuel pipes corroded < Straightforward to sort??

both sides outersills corroded and weak < bugger
both sides rear closing sills corroded < bugger

What I really need is to get the car on a ramp, alongside someone who knows what they're looking at, and find out what to do about these last two, and whether they are terminal. Can anyone help me?

I'm not one to panic, but right now I'm wondering if I'm going to have this car much longer

S

Considering the age of these cars that is not bad. As time goes bay deterioration will take take place. Nothing terminal there!

That's not good Serena, however as Tickler said there's nothing there that cant be fixed relatively easy

Don't worry Serena, it depends which garage you take it to.

Hi serena please dont tell me you have taken sundance to KWIK_FIT they will have your arm and leg.
It all depends on the MOT station And i really do hope you get SUNDANCE sorted can you get Sundance on some ramps and take photos of the areas that need sorting.
I know some one who will weld it for you but yes i know its a treck to Sheffield.
Can you get some one else to have a second look for you and how much have they qouted you for the work involed and the emmisions could it just be a bad cat......... lamba sensor.......air filter just a guess

Sorry to hear about Sundances MOT fail, I always fail on emissions, but if they let the car run a while and heat up I tend to barely scrape thru. Also might be worth looking at your local councils fleet garage, they wont repair cars, so that tend to be a little less unscrupulous when testing, I.e not 'finding' things which need repairing, especially welding jobs.

Morning, everyone. Thanks for the advice / reassurances, much appreciated

Fortunately the only actual failure item was the emissions (and the wobbly mirror, but that's nowt).

All the other items are advisories, so I have at least have 12 months to sort them out (and no, I probably won't go back to the same place next year, beause I'll probably have moved).

The garage is a specialised MOT place, I picked it because it had good reviews, it has extended opening hours so I can get to it, and there was a branch locally. They're only investigating / dealing with the emissions so they can retest and issue me a new ticket. They're not doing anything else. I'm assuming that as a specialised MOT place they have to be much stricter than other places, but still: the list of things I've never been warned about before, is alarming.

No, I wouldn't touch Kwik Fit with a ten foot pole (although in the past I've had to, in an emergency), and if I needed major work I'd speak to you lot for help / recommendations first.

My major concern is the sills. As many of you know I've had my head under the car on plenty of occasions tidying them up - it's mostly been light surface stuff and small paint bubbles - and I've spent a lot of time looking for corrosion. There are no actual holes in them, or anywhere else, that I know of.

For peace of mind I want to get the car on a ramp and have a good look underneath. Last year I was planning with Marc to get it undersealed at his place, that will have to be a priority for me now, this year.

Not long ago I looked at ramp rental places. It seems there aren't many, and the hourly costs were ridiculous, you may as well throw your money on a bonfire

S

UPDATE

I called the garage. They tell me the cat is definitely dead, although the car also needs a new oxygen sensor.

They're claiming that a cheap cat can burn out within a year, which is probably why I've had 2 die in under 18 months.

Does this sound plausible? I'm not convinced.

S

EDIT: I'm reading up on this. Apparently a faulty O2 sensor can compromise the cat by exposing it to the wrong temperatures, excessive carbon build-up, etc. (??) So, is it possible that my O2 sensor has been dying/dead for a while, and has caused these failures (??)

Hi Serena,

Bad luck about the MOT but at least you have a decent testing regime. Especially given the rust issues, would you really want cars on the road with perforation rust in the chassis structure?

Can you get the AA/RAC (do you still have those?) to check it for you and give an opinion? Otherwise ask them to put it up on the hoist and show you. I suppose if it's advisories only there's a chance they're genuine as you don't have to fix them. If they can't/won't show you, smell a rat and get some advice!

Just seen your last post. Whilst it's possible, another engine problem could be killing it too. If your O2 sensor is dead too, perhaps they've been poisoned- in Oz in the old days, leaded petrol would do it. But overcarburetion, other contaminants...also O2 do die sometimes and that could overcarburste and possibly burn out the cat.

Here in Oz it's strange, if they catch you tampering with the emissions systems you could be up for a $10000 fine (apparently) but no testing is done (much...I think) certainly nothing to worry about. Your cat could be toast, as long as the exhaust appears intact you're ok. 25 y.o. car with 406000km had no trouble passing. No major rust mind you- whacked the sill on a large kerb 15 years before-never bothered to fix it, remained surface rust only.

I cry for you guys trying to look after and fix your vehicles whilst the environment trashes them whilst perfectly good bodies here in Oz are junked for $100 scrap value. I wish there was a way to ship 'em to you!

Good luck with the MoT.

Patrick

Thanks Patrick.

Yes, I'd rather know when things were wrong. However the variance in the tolerances of UK MOT testing centres means I'm never sure if they're being ultra-cautious when they throw advisories at me, or at the other end of the scale, completely unobservant by letting stuff pass that shouldn't. Usually Sundance sails through without any advisories at all.

Take his CV gaitors, for example: at the previous few MOTs they were advisory; advisory (AFTER Hughie had fixed them perfectly for me); passed: then warned about 8 weeks later by the same garage during a service with a different technician And this year in a different place they passed without comment.

I think the advisories this year are probably genuine, but because this place is solely an MOT shop it has to protect its rep by being as harsh as possible. And some of the advisories were things I knew about, that have been on the car for a while, that aren't usually advisories.

The positive is that it's made me reconsider what I'm doing with the car, and forced me to confirm to myself that I do want to keep it on the road

What's the alternative, anyway? I need a car. Right now I can take SD off the road and spend £££ on another 2nd hand car that then dies in a few months or has other problems; or I spend the £££ on the car whose history I know about, and spend the cash to keep that on the road. Either way, I have a bill this week.

I'll also be getting into a better service / engine cleaning regime from now on. The last year has been a tough one for me personally, as some members know, so attending to the car just hasn't been a priority. Hopefully his year will be better ...

S