945 Niggles

[bluebrickrick]

Yes, other than the CO emissions, not bad Joe, hope that is a simple one to sort! and you sound as if you are getting to grips with the belt stuff.

I suspect there is a further reason than Dave offers, there has to be a benefit to the test stations to show that they are failing some vehicles, not suggesting they have a quota but it shows diligence, where I have asked them to fix something and then test it annoys me, particularly now the history is online, as it implies the driver / maintainer of the vehicle is doing a bad job.......

Ah so you were once nearer here than you are now Dave and knew the old Hall before they went all pre dismantled parts on racks and concrete bunded stripping area Do you go back far enough to have used either Ben Jordan at Coltishall (now a shadow of its former self but still run by his son Benjy) or the infamous Lennie Medler or Jamie Cann yards on Shorthorn Road?
My pre Volvo history was an HA Viva van, ex GPO, cut down to a pick-up, ex Aylsham Auction and didn't make it to the end of its first MOT with me, too much damp sand under the deck and they didn't want it on their rolling road
Then came Annabell my 1950 S1 80" soft top Landrover ('pimped' with a downdraft SU carb which once raced at Brooklands) I still have her but due to outdoor storage she is not terribly well.
Next came a company Cavalier, died terminally in Devon due to a head on with a stone wall (over load and over work!), followed by a series of 2/ 7 / 945s the last of which I bought off them and is awaiting diagnosis of serious lost compression, hence the recent MOT on its emergency replacement / supplement last Feb, hopefully will be able to keep at least one of them on the road until old age or lack of parts overtakes them or me!

Now, latest niggle to get back on topic, I can't see if the rear washer hose runs up and along the roof or down and along the floor - anyone know before I have to start popping trim panels or headlining ?? it has a nip up, knot or other stoppage somewhere which even my airline couldn't shift.

Rick, amidst frost at Bogside sur Bure

[Joe of Loath]

My mum had a 1995 Cavalier SRi, that was a fun car. Great sleeper, burned off many a boy racer on family trips out. Blew a head gasket or something unfortunately and wasn't worth fixing.

Alas, if I had my car I'd follow the washer hose for you, my car has no headlining currently so that would be an easy one.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Joe of Loath

Yes, could be worse I guess. It's not had an oil change yet so that will need doing, and probably spark plugs too (I'm assuming gummy plugs will cause incomplete combustion?). The throttle position switch was gummy too, so if it's an issue at idle then I think I know the cause. It was a London car so I probably still need to blow the chunks out, it's only had a tank of Italian tune up so far.

Spark plugs can (and do!) cause incomplete combustion but that would send the HC figure up which is unburnt fuel. The fact it's high CO (running rich) and no mention of the HC is encouraging as it means it's burning completely (or as completely as it can) but it's just burning more fuel than it needs.

If the plug gap is too large then they will need a richer mixture to be able to spark properly. It could be the mixture has been tweaked up to give an acceptable idle without misfiring and now because of other factors, it is now excessively rich.

These factors could include dirty air filter, dirty oil and filter, blocked PCV breather system, plugs and their gaps, dirty/worn rotor arm and dizzy cap and maybe a couple of other things that are less likely.

In short, change the oil and filter, check/change the air filter, new plugs (gap to 0.7 - 0.8mm), check/clean or renew the rotor arm and dizzy cap and clean (or renew) the PCV system parts, making sure the stub on the inlet manifold is clear as well. You'll need some carburettor/intake cleaner to clean the PCV bits but it's surprising how much difference that will make.

Once you've done all that give it an Italian decoke and get it back in for a retest on the emissions.

If you're not too sure about where the PCV bits are, give me a shout and i'll dig out some of the old photos from my last 740 GLE - i also re-routed the flame trap (usually the bit that blocks because of where it's mounted) to help prevent further blockages and make future cleaning easier. In the end i had it running so well the MoT guy was searching for the cat because the emissions were lower than a cat equipped car! That car had about 240k miles on it so nothing to do with age/miles, it's all to do with how well looked after it is.

[Joe of Loath]

Thanks, that's helpful! I was wondering about the PCV system, I did the test with the upside down filler cap (didn't have any gloves handy) but it rattled off the engine before I could work out if there was any suction or not.

Photos would be very helpful, although I'm not sure how much chance I'm going to have to work on the car now it's sat at the garage with an expired MOT...

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Joe of Loath

Thanks, that's helpful! I was wondering about the PCV system, I did the test with the upside down filler cap (didn't have any gloves handy) but it rattled off the engine before I could work out if there was any suction or not.

Photos would be very helpful, although I'm not sure how much chance I'm going to have to work on the car now it's sat at the garage with an expired MOT...

Firstly you are legally entitled to drive a car home from the MoT station, to any permanent place of repair and to the MoT station without an MoT as long as it is insured and (these days) taxed so no worries there - you can at least get it home. One proviso of taking it to another garage or even back for a retest or even the first test is that if the MoT is out, it must be pre-booked and the garage must have the cars make and reg number.

Secondly, assuming the cap was still the right way up and just resting in its hole, there definitely isn't any vacuum but there is pressure which is what forced it to rattle off. That means unless the rings are shot to bits that the PCV system is blocked. This is the most likely blockage :











You can see how badly blocked mine was! Also what it should look like! PFV do replacements for a few quid if you don't fancy cleaning yours out :

http://www.partsforvolvosonline.com/...oducts_id=5277

They used to do the relocation kit as well but i can't seem to find it now. This is how i did mine :



You can see the clear tube i added to extend the air filter side and what you can't see is a similar one to extend the bottom hose to the oil separator on the block. Also visible is the vacuum hose that goes to the manifold - make sure the stub on the manifold is clear as well, sometimes a drill bit is necessary (i think it's 2.5mm) to clear it properly. Check and clean all the hoses and stubs, make sure they don't collapse under vacuum etc and that should be a lot of the battle. Then do the oil/filter change, air filter, plugs etc and book a retest - warm it up on the drive for a while before the test then give it as much of an Italian decoke as you can on the way.

[Joe of Loath]

Thanks!

Sorry for the thread hijack (again) Rick. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by bluebrickrick

Yes, other than the CO emissions, not bad Joe, hope that is a simple one to sort! and you sound as if you are getting to grips with the belt stuff.

I suspect there is a further reason than Dave offers, there has to be a benefit to the test stations to show that they are failing some vehicles, not suggesting they have a quota but it shows diligence, where I have asked them to fix something and then test it annoys me, particularly now the history is online, as it implies the driver / maintainer of the vehicle is doing a bad job.......

Ah so you were once nearer here than you are now Dave and knew the old Hall before they went all pre dismantled parts on racks and concrete bunded stripping area Do you go back far enough to have used either Ben Jordan at Coltishall (now a shadow of its former self but still run by his son Benjy) or the infamous Lennie Medler or Jamie Cann yards on Shorthorn Road?
My pre Volvo history was an HA Viva van, ex GPO, cut down to a pick-up, ex Aylsham Auction and didn't make it to the end of its first MOT with me, too much damp sand under the deck and they didn't want it on their rolling road
Then came Annabell my 1950 S1 80" soft top Landrover ('pimped' with a downdraft SU carb which once raced at Brooklands) I still have her but due to outdoor storage she is not terribly well.
Next came a company Cavalier, died terminally in Devon due to a head on with a stone wall (over load and over work!), followed by a series of 2/ 7 / 945s the last of which I bought off them and is awaiting diagnosis of serious lost compression, hence the recent MOT on its emergency replacement / supplement last Feb, hopefully will be able to keep at least one of them on the road until old age or lack of parts overtakes them or me!

Now, latest niggle to get back on topic, I can't see if the rear washer hose runs up and along the roof or down and along the floor - anyone know before I have to start popping trim panels or headlining ?? it has a nip up, knot or other stoppage somewhere which even my airline couldn't shift.

Rick, amidst frost at Bogside sur Bure

I was trying to give the garage the benefit of the doubt Rick but almost certainly you are right as well.

I don't think i ever knew those yards Rick, may have been there once or twice without realising though but back in those days i was (mainly) running SD1 Rovers and used a place called Rover Engineering near Kings Lynn and occasionally RPi in St Faiths i think it was.

Was it the Land Rover or the carb that raced at Brooklands? I have a set of wheels that once graced the ex-Tony Pond 827 Vitesse (the one he broke the record with on the Isle of Man TT course) but they were only fitted after he had driven it and it was used as a pace-car at Thruxton. They have now been replaced with a set of S/V40 "Teleston" wheels though.

As for your latest niggle, is wet stuff actually reaching the tailgate? Might sound daft but the jets have a nasty habit of blocking up. As long as water is actually getting to the jet, pop the jet out and soak it in a strong solution of vinegar (preferably white) and boiling water then give it a good rinse and normal service should be resumed. If not, as far as i can see it looks like it runs across the roof but there are other non-return valves in the pipework near the reservoir and many places round there the pipework can get kinked.

Good luck with it!

[Joe of Loath]

Just called the garage as I hadn't heard anything, apparently it's in for re-test right now, so they must have tweaked it enough to get it to pass. Was probably the throttle switch in that case.

[Laird Scooby]

Find out what they did to get it to pass, if they've altered the mixture it could be out right across the rev range when you clean out the breathers etc and then you could have more problems

[Joe of Loath]

Passed! Not spoken yet but it shows up online.