The (sort of...) Jap scrap (sort of...) sensible turnip garage

[eamon343]

I've had that wiper thing before, the wiper arm wasn't putting enough pressure on the blade. Bit of oil around the joint at the bottom, make sure the spring is all good and work the arm back and forward to work the oil into it worked a treat for me

And I might have put a slight bend in the arm to make it tighter against the glass

 

[svensktoppen]

Thanks, that makes sense. Will have a go at cleaning up and lubricating the arm and spring next

Don't dare bending these. Impossible to replace in rhd. Might see if it's possible to swap out the spring maybe... Or maybe somehow rebuild from a lhd one... But will try cleaning first!

 

[Lyons]

A smaller update - mostly about lights.

As we all know, peak car was in the nineties and since then everything has got worse. Except one thing - lights. Lotus, Volvo, Evo, they're all barely more effective than shining the mobile phone out of the window, lol

With all the wonky or stupid bright lights on the road these days (Range Rovers and Teslas being the worst...), I bit the bullet and popped H1 led bulbs into Olive before the last trip to England. They were amazing, but I was flashed literally by every car the whole trip. Even in daylight

They could probably do with re-alignment, but I wasn't happy with how they fit either. Ok on the high beam so I've kept them there. On the dipped beam they didn't allow the cap to go back on, and felt a little lose for some reason. So I got "50% brighter" standard bulbs for dipped, and in all honesty they're absolutely fine. Much better than the original bulbs, but not stupid bright like the leds. High beam with the leds is hilarious though

Also got H4 leds for Mitsi. Fit much better, and work great. Not too bright standing in front of the car either. She is a bit squint eyed, lol, need to get the alignment sorted Should be fine after that I think. With the standard bulbs they're so feeble you'd never know they were wonky

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Another thing that's annoying but has stumped me - the driver side wiper on Olive. For some reason it only sweeps top and bottom, but not the middle bit. Not a clue what's going on. Popped on brand new PIAA blades before the last trip but same thing. Emma is fine so it's something weird going on with Olive. Anyone any ideas? Obviously new wiper arms are unobtainable in rhd (still available in lhd), otherwise I might have tried that...

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Finally, the windscreen washers on Olive had got clogged up so I got all of that stripped down and flushed out. Was a fair bit of gunk coming up the main feed from the bottle and that had clogged up the nozzles. All running clear now, hopefully stays like that.

A little thing, but matters at this time of year. You do notice when they are not working, lol.

Interesting, I thought it was just in my head that Tesla lights seem to be the brightest.

 

[svensktoppen]

Olive has been over in England again - summer in Cotswolds, rain in Cambridge, and winter in Yorkshire on the way back. All in the same week. It's getting there now though, dark and wet and horrible.

So decided to break her to cheer myself up Some old hoses that needed replacing and, well, while in there just keep digging What could possibly go wrong!

First rebuilt the evap lines. Old and crumbly on the manifold side. New silicon vacuum hoses in. The valve itself surprisingly seemed good still.

Good clean of the IAC, and new silicon hoses for that too.

Finally had a new silicon throttle body hose but they had sent the wrong one, it's for a larger throttle body...

So the old one went back in again. Incredibly I somehow managed to put it all back together again and it still worked! Nothing on fire or blown up

Well, until I hit the main road and the hose popped off the throttle body as soon as she hit boost She made it home fine though, and it's all tightened up properly now.

That's all folks.

Oh, hang on... Did someone say there's a larger throttle body for these? Hmmm... Let's see, where's that Google again...

 

[svensktoppen]

We are getting into proper winter now. Had Olive booked into a place in England called Rustbusters a few weeks ago. Being a thirty year old UK car, the dreaded R word is there. This is why we buy Japanese She's solid apart from round the sills where she needed some repairs, and it wasn't finished in time. So rather than waste the appointment I brought wee Red over instead.

They run a Lanoline based system of cavity waxes, seam sealers, under body waxes, etc. As well as cleaning and rust removal products, rust converters, etc. It's pretty comprehensive, all the way into pillars and stuff.

The Lanoline based stuff appeals to me. Just throwing black gunk underneath might look good but you never know what's underneath. No matter how much it's been cleaned there's always something left to fester away under that black cover.

These Lanoline wax based products, they're transparent and you can inspect everything and address anything that crops up before it becomes a problem. It's also easy to clean off and re-apply when needed. They recommend inspection and top-up every two years, and renewal every six.

The Honda didn't need a lot of cleaning obviously, but it's still nice to have it all protected before it becomes an issue. Especially in all those hard to reach areas like arches and cavities.

Olive will need quite a lot of cleaning, cough. She's booked in again before Christmas when the repairs have been done.

Wee Red does like the English countryside. This time Spalding for the waxing, then Cambridge, Wiltshire/Dorset, and a bit of Oxfordshire for good measure.

Olive has been doing Volvo things - gardening duty, dump runs, lifting a 50l air compressor up to the shed, etc. She doesn't mind at all, just starts and runs and everything works. Might actually be nicest of the lot to spend time in, just so relaxed and made for winters too.

That's fifteen bags of compost and manure, plenty of room for more

And finally Princess is back! That cut oil hose finally back together again. I cannot belive how lucky we were there. A small change that wasn't noticed and left the hose up against the subframe. That's custom builds for you. Could have been so much worse, but all is well that ends well.

Out today in the winter sun. She's filthy, I'm frozen, but we were both grinning like mad. I've missed my wee Princess!

Have some plans for her over winter, but more about that another time.

 

[SoobyDoobyDo]

Watch those rear quarter panel arches, on Hondas that’s where they tend to start rusting first. Usually the paint will bubble up first, that’s the rust coming in underneath the paint. Hopefully after that wax/lanoline coating you won’t have to worry about all that…

 

[svensktoppen]

Yes, all the hidden areas, all cavities, sills, even up the pillars, it's all done. Sensible prevention I think.

It does smell of bees wax now, lol, but that's ok. It's a nice smell

 

[svensktoppen]

Wee winter update. Only wee Olive still soldiering on at this time of year, but she's doing a great job of it. Perfect for long motorways, and just lovely in winter cold. You really can tell with cars actually designed for proper winter

Was hoping to get the last rust repairs done before Christmas, but that didn't happen. But I did stop by Rustbusters anyway to get everything else cleaned, sealed and protected. Just need to redo a couple of areas later when the last repairs are done, but that should be easy.

Only slight issue, the last couple of weeks she has struggled a bit with cold starts. Fine once warmed up, just running a bit uneven while cold. Have tried the basics - checked hoses, cleaned out IACV, etc. The coolant sensor is new and seems to work ok, and no errors logged in the ecu either. Bit of a mystery.

Maybe get the injectors cleaned and checked at the next service. And check O2 sensor perhaps?

She made it down to Northern Spain over Christmas, which was brilliant and just one long party in spring sunshine, lol.

And then across to Yorkshire this last weekend. She doesn't mind at all

 

[gary1365]

You really do get around Nick

 

[mayweather]

Wee winter update. Only wee Olive still soldiering on at this time of year, but she's doing a great job of it. Perfect for long motorways, and just lovely in winter cold. You really can tell with cars actually designed for proper winter

Was hoping to get the last rust repairs done before Christmas, but that didn't happen. But I did stop by Rustbusters anyway to get everything else cleaned, sealed and protected. Just need to redo a couple of areas later when the last repairs are done, but that should be easy.

Only slight issue, the last couple of weeks she has struggled a bit with cold starts. Fine once warmed up, just running a bit uneven while cold. Have tried the basics - checked hoses, cleaned out IACV, etc. The coolant sensor is new and seems to work ok, and no errors logged in the ecu either. Bit of a mystery.

Maybe get the injectors cleaned and checked at the next service. And check O2 sensor perhaps?

She made it down to Northern Spain over Christmas, which was brilliant and just one long party in spring sunshine, lol.




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San Sebastián? Nice trip!

 

[svensktoppen]

Yep, well spotted And out around Basque country. By far the best bit of Spain, possibly the best bit of Europe full stop. Amazing food, and just has everything from mountains to the sea. Love it.

 

[mayweather]

Yep, well spotted And out around Basque country. By far the best bit of Spain, possibly the best bit of Europe full stop. Amazing food, and just has everything from mountains to the sea. Love it.

I love it! I’m currently planning a trip to Seville, Cadiz and jerez

 

[Jbridges522]

Yep, well spotted And out around Basque country. By far the best bit of Spain, possibly the best bit of Europe full stop. Amazing food, and just has everything from mountains to the sea. Love it.

Did you take the irish ferry down? Trip id like to do sometime

 

[svensktoppen]

Got the ferry from Portsmouth to Santander, but they run from Ireland too. It's a long one, but saves an awful lot of French motorways. And a lot of French tolls too

 

[Jbridges522]

Yeah seems a pretty cheap way to get to decent weather in your car.

 

[svensktoppen]

Some big news today - just found out only wee Princess qualifies for the posh parking lot at Goodwood festival of speed None of the others. He's a tuff cookie to please the old Duke, lol.

With that out of the way, Olive has had a wee rest and Red has been out for a bit of fresh air. She loves an English country lane.

She also eats tanks for breakfast. Or just headbutts them

Absolutely bonkers wee car that, ridiculously capable down a country lane. Yet perfectly civilised in motorway traffic. Also uses unbelievably little fuel down motorways, loads of space inside, and super practical. She really just wants to race though

Still scratching my head with the cold idle issue on Olive. First stop - error codes. Emma is OBD1 only, but Olive being a 1996 car has OBD2. But no engine codes that way, just the "combi" (instruments), and gearbox basically. Turns out Volvo stuck OBD2 on in 1996 to meet US emissions regs. But they only gradually migrated stuff over the following few years. So on the earlier cars, like Olive, a lot is still OBD1. But accessed through unused pins on the OBD2 socket.

Volvo used to have a diagnostic tool to access that. But that's not been available for a long time. Building a "flash reader" is very easy though. So I did, and it worked!

There were a couple of error codes to do with boost control. So that's anything from a boost or vacuum leak, or a faulty TCM or MAF. The TCM is new, and I swapped over the MAF from Emma (see, having two old Volvos makes perfect sense ) to no effect. I've checked the obvious hoses, and swapped over IACV as well. Even blocked off the Evap system.

So it's over to the professionals, she's due a service anyway. Smoke test, compression test, new injector seals, and then go from there. She's also getting new silicon hoses for all coolant lines.

 

[svensktoppen]

Spring has sprung Well, maybe jumped the gun a bit, lol. But it was dry, and a nice day, and we both needed fresh air and stretch our legs a bit

Genuinely is like those well worn old slippers. Just with more noise, and a bit of attitude

Also decided to have a go at removing the injectors on Olive for cleaning and new seals. Pretty sure at least one is leaking air when cold. They're very easy to get to, just pull a cover and then two bolts to release the fuel rail. How hard could it be? Well...quite Stuck, and I didn't want to break anything, so leaving that to the professionals, lol.

Finally, my latest garage toy - a bonnet light bar. It's amazing, just fantastic, and not just in the engine bay either. Hook to anything basically. Might get a couple more, so handy. And to keep on the charger. Seem to last a good few hours on a charge too.

 

[EF Ian]

Good to see her out.

Imagine not even sharing the details of your light bar.



Any chance of your volvo going this way?

 

[svensktoppen]

Nope, lol. Emma is already cleaner than that, and Olive doesn't need to be.

There may be some racy bits coming Emma's way, but that's top secret and hush hush, on the QT

 

[Graham]

Nope, lol. Emma is already cleaner than that, and Olive doesn't need to be.

There may be some racy bits coming Emma's way, but that's top secret and hush hush, on the QT

Keep quiet, or Olive will get jealous!

 

[svensktoppen]

Got up this afternoon for a bit of tinkering on Olive. It's all quite handy actually. Great way to learn

Was missing a hose for the throttle body when I did the air hoses a while back. Noticed when I was in there last time that the vacuum hose to the brake servo looked well past its best. So I thought I'd do all of it today. What could possibly go wrong

Old vs new. I got a length of generic 3/8" brake air hose. You can actually see in the picture how stiff and brittle the old one was. Literally fell apart in my hands when I pulled it out

Part way through surgery. That's the old hose there. It runs from the bottom of the "vacuum tree" behind the throttle body, under the air box, up the bulkhead and round to the brake servo on the driver's side. Ended up pulling out the air box, the battery, and some other hoses just for better access. A couple of old broken clips up the bulkhead, used cable ties for now, will see if Volvo have new clips.

And humpty dumpty back together again, including shiny new silicon hose for the throttle body too. Amazingly it all seems to work still

Not bad for a couple of hours!

 

[svensktoppen]

Been quiet on the western front, but not quiet in life. It's that time of year, waking up the sleeping beauties and getting ready for another year.

Olive is still struggling with cold starts. Might try swapping the ignition coil as well, but that's about it for me. She's due a big service anyway, time to call in the professionals. It's a really weird one.

Wee Red went on another trip to England. There is genuinely nothing on the planet, this side of an Evo, that destroys a country lane like this car does. Just astonishing.

She's been away for a big annual service. This time including fuel filter and water pump. The fuel filter is integral to the fuel pump housing, so handily that whole assembly has to come out... And it's under the centre console... Equally handily, the water pump is blocked in behind the ABS pump and whatnot. The packaging is very tight on these. It doesn't help that the engine sits so far back it's basically underneath the windscreen. The brakes will need done soon, and drop links too, but that's for later.

Princess has been out a few more times when the weather permits. Just lovely every time I had plans for her this winter but just never had time to get round to it. And now spring is basically here and I don't really want her off the road like last year. So I'll probably postpone that until next winter.

And finally, the beast has awoken. They do look good together

And instantly ripped apart...

In readiness for a wee drive I got a couple of Stack Pro gauges wired in for oil temp and pressure. These being rally cars with number plates there already are take-offs in the oil filter mount, so just pop in the sensors and job done. I also got an intercom wired in, and mounted it at the back of the centre console. Looks right at home there.

She has also got new front tyres and all new silicon boost hoses, along with the annual service. Other than that, literally just turn the key and drive. So realiable.

So that should be the family news letter up to date. Thanks for reading

 

[big_pete]

You have the perfect fleet. I’m not mad in Evo’s at all but that car of yours is so right, the only evo I’ve actually pined over out of the dozens of them I’ve done over the years

 

[svensktoppen]

Been a busy and eventful month to say the least, lol. First of all, went for a wee drive over Easter...to Malaga Via Yorkshire. Then Plymouth, where we were turned away from the port on a Sunday night because of the mother of all paperwork snafus.

But the lady from the ferry was really helpful, so got on a ferry to France from Portsmouth the same evening. Down to length of France and into Basque country. A couple of days there, then picked up a friend in Madrid, and the long way down country lanes across the hills and olive fields to Malaga. More mountains and fantastic places over Easter - Granada, Ronda, Cordoba. And then a few days near Antequera up in the hills above Malaga for the European Championship. Before reversing back the same way basically, except the ferry to Plymouth this time.

It was alright I guess

Someone needed a wash after that

Oh, and never let a girl drive your rally car while you snooze Her excuse was 100+ felt like 50 in her Kia In fairness they just collected some € for no UK sign, and for using the intercom headsets. Guess who paid that

Mitsi never missed a beat, and needed nothing once home except a good bath. And since it's spring, swap for Princess of course. Whose battery had gone flat, making the alarm system go insane, and also losing all key pairings... She was definitely jealous And swapping battery on these is a nightmare. Had to jerry-rig it with the new battery in the passenger seat to drive and enlist two Polish guys to manhandle it in, lol.

So I took her on a trip to the Cotswolds to cheer her up, and it worked She goes where most Range Rovers never do. A wee spot of yellow happiness in the sea of grey boxes.

Meanwhile, Emma has been doing what any self respecting Volvo does - trip to Ikea. She's away at the moment for an annual service, and to chase down an oil leak. Which I think has now been located where the oil return pipe from the turbo meets the block. Fingers crossed a wee o-ring is all she needs.

That's all for this time folks, thanks for reading

 

[Lappintyre]

Now thats an update!