Soot Monster

[Nick Jones]

It’s always taken 10 miles to warm up. Direct injection diesel….. it’s the way they are. At the moment though it takes about 15 miles for the gauge to come off the stop (50C) and then the climate control wakes up and starts taking heat so it just sits there. The heater works fine once there is some heat in the system….

 

[mpbarrett]

our old Rover 75 diesel (BMW engine)  would take ages to warm up and then produce very little heat from the heater. 
It had a factory fitted  auxiliary Webasto heater that was meant to preheat the water on cold morning, but I never got it to work.
I think diesels are just too efficient!  

mike

 

[Nick Jones]

I’ll test it tomorrow ….. in the GT6 today. That warms up in about a mile and the heater works well. Just can’t direct the flow of sir at present. It did work - I think that wrestling the Mazda box under the dash has deranged something…..

[Gt64fun]

My Mazda 6MPS started running cool and required a change of thermostat. I was worried that cool running might upset the ECU and result in overfuelling. Was apparently a pig job to do but it sorted the problem.

I think you might be onto something with the viscous fan. Would be nice if you manage without.

Ian

[thebrookster]

5 hours ago, Nick Jones said:

It’s always taken 10 miles to warm up.

................

At the moment though it takes about 15 miles for the gauge to come off the stop (50C)

 

Have you checked that the sensor is reading accurately as well? I've had a few "mishaps" in the past where we struggle to find a problem, only to find there isn't a problem, just a dodgy sensor!

When in doubt, blame the electrics. It's a good motto to live by.

[Nick Jones]

Yeah, have that t-shirt also, but not on this car. I’m pretty sure the gauge works properly. What’s happening on the water gauge is mirrored on the oil temp gauge (has an oil/water heat exchanger) and it will heat up to the proper mark if given enough work, but never goes over it.

In the past I’ve also interviewed the engine ECU with VCDS software. That has its own sensor in a similar location which tells the same story.

[Nick Jones]

So, been using it today and the fan removal has had an effect. It’s a fair bit quieter and even seems freer-revving.

And it warms up, not especially quickly (too much to expect!) but almost to the mark, where it holds. Testing will continue but I’m calling it a win for now.

[Escadrille Ecosse]

[Nick Jones]

It soldiers on. However, the battery has shown a few signs of distress in recent days and on the way home this evening I noticed odd behaviour from the volt meter, not in its usual just-under-14v-whatever position, but just over 12v. Then it came up after a couple of miles, then sagged again when I put the lights on….. Doesn’t appear able to manage full current.

Could it be that the alternator wants a set of brushes after a mere 340k….? Or something more sinister? Bloody rubbish, you think it would last longer!

[Nick Jones]

A new brush pack did fix the alternator….. 

Meanwhile back in early spring junior management started complaining that the junior Sootmonster (04 A4 Avant) was “making a noise” failure imminent. He reckoned it was a wheel bearing, probably front left. I took it out and could hardly hear anything at all (because deaf old git apparently ).  I did buy a wheel bearing, but the weather was crap and the car mostly either somewhere else or just about to be somewhere else.

He did observe a few days ago that “it’s really quite loud now, even you could hear it”. He’s also gone away for a few days and left it on the drive, so I took it out again. He’s right. It has got louder. Much louder. Also very obviously front left as it was really howling when going right. It was even getting quieter under braking that generally means it’s starting to fall to bits.

So I took it apart

Its a bolt-in job, which would be a good thing if gaining acces to the bolts didn’t mean either dismantling the front suspension (notoriously awkward on these, due to some poor design choices) or removing the driveshaft, which meant taking off the under tray. I chose the latter as being less likely to lead to collateral damage.

Bottom ball joints on left, bolt holes lower centre, partially removed driveshaft top right. The 4 bolts are M12spline (triple square) with remarkably shallow engagement. Also very tight. I managed not to strip any. The bearing assembly had similar tendencies to our soon to be ex-PM and violence was needed to evict it. It was indeed bolloxed. Crunchy and squeaky with a fair bit of float.

This was the only obvious damage, though the inner race had clearly been getting hot having cooked its grease and turned the balls a funny colour.

When back together reasonably easily. Apart from the bloody undertray.

It has an MoT approaching. Definitely needs front tyres, now really. Probably rear brakes and the suspension…… has many possibilities….. that could go either way. It’s ridiculously complex with many, many ball joints and bushes, which are all getting on a bit. Deep Joy. The headlining is falling down too. Drawing pin time!

[Escadrille Ecosse]

Good job. That is an ex-bearing.

I realise we have discussed this before but given all the design tools at their disposal and 100+ years of experience modern cars really are stupidly awkward to work on.

[Nick Jones]

There are alot of these B6 A4s, and the later B7s in scrapyards. Mostly decent looking cars. The B7 2.0TDIs might be there because that engine is crap and has blown up, but the rest are there because they have failed mots on multiple fairly minor faults making them economic write offs. Wasteful.

This particular car has done just under 140k. The major mechanicals are easily good for double that with a bit of servicing, which is alot more than can be said for  its successors!

[Hamish]

That looks like a big job. 
aren’t these moderns designed just for ease of assembly and not dis assembly/repair ?

[Gt64fun]

12 hours ago, Nick Jones said:

very obviously front left

Years ago my Mazda garage made a similar diagnosis on my 6MPS.

They changed it...but it turned out to be the right one after all, so it was a case of 'buy 1 get 1 free'

[Escadrille Ecosse]

46 minutes ago, Gt64fun said:

Years ago my Mazda garage made a similar diagnosis on my 6MPS.

They changed it...but it turned out to be the right one after all, so it was a case of 'buy 1 get 1 free'

Lucky. Usually they just try to charge you again 

[Nick Jones]

2 hours ago, Escadrille Ecosse said:

Usually they just try to charge you again

This…..

[Nick Jones]

More junior soot monster action.  MoT time meant a general look over resulting in new discs and pads on the rear plus a seal kit on one side due to the dust covers having been butchered by the baboons at the garage that used to "look after" it.

Also two new tyres on the front.  The Avon ZV7s  had worn very strangely, as though they'd been run constantly over-inflated.  They haven't.  However, records show they've actually done over 30k, so I forgive them!  Young sir got a deal from KwikFit on a pair of Michelins.  Apparently the drive is transformed.... new tyres do tend to drive nicer than ravaged old ones.  KwikFit failed to fix the aircon.  Apparently "your compressor is knackered mate".  It'll definitely be something else!

MoT passed without comment.  I had concerns about balljoints on the front (there are 5 each side including TRE which is excessive) as there have been advisories for two years.  Our new man even asked if they been replaced as he could find no fault...... nope.....  But I'll take it!

Meanwhile some trawling through the service records revealed that the cam-belt was last done at 62k.  It's now on 140k. Oops.

Typically, access is a bit restricted.  The front clip has already been pulled forward a bit in this pic.

The approved method is to take the car's face off..... involving multiple fasteners of various types and resulting in a huge heap of parts, including (as usual), the bloody undertray.

Took about 90 minutes to get to this point though I reckons I can do it in under half that next time (god forbid) now I know how and fasteners have been greased.

With the face off the actual belt job was pretty easy as they go.  Then you have to put the face back on.  Good for another 60k now.  About three years at the current rate!

 

 

[Escadrille Ecosse]

[Nick Jones]

It’s done 100 miles today. I guess it’s ok…..

[Nick Jones]

On 8/18/2022 at 10:41 PM, Nick Jones said:

About three years at the current rate!

Many have over estimated this…. He’s added over 4k in the last 5 weeks as the team chase car in a 7 day ladies stage race in southern France……  

Guess I got the cam belt right!

Stopped for a cheeky ride up Alp d’Huez “on the way home”

[Escadrille Ecosse]

16 minutes ago, Nick Jones said:

Stopped for a cheeky ride up Alp d’Huez “on the way home”

Quite right too. Good climb that

[Nick Jones]

Meanwhile, the actual Soot Monster is due an MoT. It’s 19th in my ownership. 
 

Always a bit of a concern as she’s had a bit of a long, hard life. Gave it a look over and seems in reasonable fettle. Hope our man agrees.  
One MoT related detail that has been pissing me off intermittently for years is the screen wash jets, which block regularly. Especially the drivers side obviously. Usually worse when you use the heated rear screen as the jet heaters come on with it.   I poke them through with a pin and that sort of fixes it, for a while. Anyway they were both blocked again so I’ve finally worked out how to extract them from the double skinned section of the bonnet. It’s fairly easy when you know how…. It’s finding out how is the tricky bit…..

Obviously some rampant internal corrosion going on internally as the wires had rotted off.  I would just buy new ones without heaters (£50/pair for heated ones and the water freezes on screen instead anyway) but no one in the UK seems to sell them. So I got a bit medieval with one and got it apart without fatally injuring it. The metal heater block inside is indeed very corroded so I’ve just drilled a bigger hole through it, sleeved it with a bit of nylon tube (lucky find in random things, maybe useful one day box) and glued it back together with silicone. Even managed to repeat on the second one. Hopefully they’ll work properly for a bit now. Sorry, no pics but pretty unexciting….. anyway 

[Nick Jones]

6 minutes ago, Escadrille Ecosse said:

Quite right too. Good climb that

Very indirect way home mind….

[JohnD]

That is maintenance with maximum prejudice!

No, please work!  No, I hope this works! Not even, you had better work, or else!   

It's, " Don't bother working - I'm just going to drill the guts out of you and fit a prosthesis!"

Right on, Nick!

Edited September 18, 2022 by JohnD

[Nick Jones]

Well, I sort of cornered myself. I thought I’d found some on UK eBay that were reasonably priced and available. But they weren’t actually the right ones when I checked more carefully. Prions being ridiculously expensive heated ones or reasonably priced ones from Autodoc, which will probably take 2 weeks to arrive, and I need something working before that.

In other news, I was getting fed-up with its reluctance to fire up from cold or even cool. This normally a sign of retarded pump timing and it’s been on the list to sort, prevented by my copy of VCDS software needed to time it properly refusing to play ball. So I’ve just tweaked it a few degrees anyway and now it starts much easier and seems to run a bit better too.