Pacoryan

I wedged old newspapers under my carpet, did a great but slow job of extracting water from the soundproofing- it isn’t the carpet that’s hard to dry out but the sponge beneath it. Easier on the passenger side if you can whip the seat out for a bit. Ever since I reseated the hood cover seal on top of the B post it has stayed dry thankfully.

I ended up buying a CTEK charger and binning my ancient Halfords one, have to say it does a great job and has resurrected the battery I thought I’d killed. Am now putting every car battery I can find through the reconditioning process!

Great idea, will be doing this as I have one wiper that insists on hopping across the screen.

What did I do today?  Forgave it for waking me up with a flat battery alarm two months ago.  I was ready to sell it frankly but the sun was out, it fired up from a jump start and we had a great 30 minute zip around the lanes on what little petrol was still in it.  At which point I thought “this car is absurd value” and then reminded myself to order some tuning forks to stop the snooker ball rattle I had forgotten about.

Spose it can stay a little longer…

Mine has a drain which may have killed the new battery I put on it last year despite the Halfords trickle charger “maintaining” it. Found out at 3am recently when the alarm kicked off.  It’s been sat since disconnected.  Hooked it up today and jumped it, a brief struggle but then it fired right up, went for a half hour blast but then running out of petrol, so came home before being marooned at a petrol station!  I have disconnected the car and put the battery on charge, but I’m not optimistic.  Might look at a better battery monitor/charger, ideally I’d find the drain which I think is probably just the immobiliser but that’s a whole world of pain (key fob kaput too).

Thing is do I buy a new charger or a new battery and a new charger?!! Or just disconnect when not in use?  (Rarely in use in the winter)

System holds refrigerant with no leaks, yay!

air doesn’t blow cold though. Boo.

Hopefully pressure switch… probably compressor.

Swapped out the a/c condensers, and cleared the rads of 20 years of leaves and feathers. Not totally convinced the “o”rings have seated properly, so it may all need to come apart again, but at least I know the drill now.  All made a lot easier by buying some plastic ramps to lift the nose enough to access everything. Had to drill out one of the hidden screws behind the indicators, just too rusty.  So I need to order a new captive nut and screw for that too.

Found my locking wheel nut key! The tide is turning!

39 minutes ago, ½cwt said:

I'd put tuning forks up this list to just after a/c, or even before.  Makes a huge difference to the enjoyment of the car.

I think you’re right, the noise is p’ing me right off and the handling is not as good as it was when I got it back from JMG last year after new track rod ends/ball joints so I suspect the new bits have just highlighted/exacerbated the wear in other bits.  The Forth Bridge part of old car ownership!  I’d rather spend my time and money on suspension & powertrain than A/C, that’s for sure.

Just bought new condensing rads and O rings, conveniently ignoring all the more pressing stuff that needs fixing.  Also bought an Evapourator because it seemed to make sense for so little money.  Then I read the article about how to replace it.  If the rads solve the problem, it may stay on a shelf for a while...

Good to know about the tuning forks, I had the same problem with the drop links which were knackered and after four hours I gave up and drove it around to the garage, £35 and not much time later job done - I didn’t have heat!

But I do still have a stupid clatter that could be the tuning forks.  Next job then... after the a/c, soft top bushes, paint work...

Just now, red rocket said:

Have you checked the glove box? That's the best place to keep it if you've followed advice here.

If only I had one (early 986).  It used to live in the cubby behind the handbrake, and reminded every time I braked or accelerated 😂

Mine is exactly the same, and it’s due a visit to JMG for an annual wallet-bash as I gradually improve it, so this will be on the list. 

Realised I seem to have lost the locking wheel nut key. I need the wheel nut key because I’ve worn the tyres out.  Got a quote for fixing the paint which made me wince. Smelt a bit hot-oily after a thrash down the bypass.  Confirmed my only intact key remote isn’t talking to the car any more.

Feels like an expensive W/e so far.

Cheers bally4563 too, yes I made sure I tucked away anything I might melt unintentionally!  Good call re. The rears - not touching those right now!

48 minutes ago, ½cwt said:

It needs heat and lots of working back and forth with a breaker bar and or good impact wrench. Where are you in the country, a few of us have magnetic induction heaters which we've found to be a massive help, still not easy but makes it possible, estimate 15-20 mins work to get it out even using heat.  I got the whole upright off my car and even hitting with well aimed blows a 14lb sledge hammer made no difference at which point I invested in the induction heater.  One other member used a press and said it took 5 tonnes to move it!

Basically the steel rod and the alloy casting corrode together. WD, Plus Gas etc often have little effect.  You need to cut the link end off the rod to expose the 17mm hex end so you can get on it properly.  When it does come out you get lots of fine off white powder which is the aluminium oxide that has built up in the bore of the hole.  Use lots of assembly compound (Coppaslip, AL1100 or similar) when you reassemble in case you need to get them off aging in a few years.

Thanks for this, my weedy little heat gun certainly isn’t going to cut the mustard!  Shame because the L/H one just took a few taps with a drift.  My drift now resembles a banana after attempts on the R/H one!  I can see the corrosion so figured that was the problem, and was just about to try and cut the old link off to try and get a socket on it.  I’m working on axle stands in a singe garage so space for leverage is limited.

I’m near Wimborne in Dorset, technically Bournemouth so went in to tier 4 this am :o( but I shall research induction heaters over my coffee, thanks!

MoT notification just came through for 27th Jan, this was my one “to do” before then but I can’t spend four weeks on it!!

Tried to change the front drop links, one side was easy, on the driver side the top bolt that passes through the hub carrier is proper stuck. Even with my most convincing persuasion tool it won’t budge.

left it soaking in WD and today I shall deploy heat. If that doesn’t work, Christ knows.

Good point. Kind of feels like admitting defeat though! Especially as I can see the seal isn’t right.  The hood does get saturated though in a major down pour, even though I’ve treated it, so a half cover could be a very good idea.

Sworn at it because the passenger floor is soaking again.  Got digging and found the rubber seal between the hood cover and body isn’t seating properly at one end and I can’t work out how to fix it (see technical post!) then I saw the seal is actually slightly damaged too.  Then I saw the price of a new one.

But I did get to see the engine for the first time ever!!  20 years of dirt isn’t very pretty, but at least I know how to get to it now.   

Right better go and put it all back together before the F1 starts.

The Thatcham team have insured our cars for years, apart from a weird time with a V8 Discovery 3 that they were really pricey on. Rang them first when the Boxster was bought and the premium was £350 or so, didn't even think about ringing around at that point.  Didn't know about the discount then... Doh!

I have also had to make a claim in the past and they were dead easy to deal with, I recommend them.

cleaned it and fixed 4 rattles from the frunk and wind deflectors!