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Rainbird's LCR
- Thread starter rainbird
- Start date
Only had a cutting disc on the grinder, so lopped the top of the bolt down then got my trials rider rim grind skillz out and separated the remains of the head from the bolt. Then remembered I never used to like much of a grind and smoothed it out some more.
Still took a fair old whacking with a lumphammer to remove the rest, but clearly I'd been having major issues with the head (giggity) rather than too much down the shaft (giggity).
This one b*****d had been the bane of mylife last day or two.
Still, end result, these buggers are out:
And this is still in one piece:
If I can find a decent degreaser kicking about I'll give it all a good clean down before it goes back near the car of course. Wishbones should see a lick of paint and new bushes tomorrow, and assuming the extra few bushes I ordered this morning get here quickly I should be able to refit it all either tomorrow or Saturday.
In other news, found a stash of liquid gold...
Still took a fair old whacking with a lumphammer to remove the rest, but clearly I'd been having major issues with the head (giggity) rather than too much down the shaft (giggity).
This one b*****d had been the bane of my
Still, end result, these buggers are out:
And this is still in one piece:
If I can find a decent degreaser kicking about I'll give it all a good clean down before it goes back near the car of course. Wishbones should see a lick of paint and new bushes tomorrow, and assuming the extra few bushes I ordered this morning get here quickly I should be able to refit it all either tomorrow or Saturday.
In other news, found a stash of liquid gold...
Got bored. Started taking things apart with no intention of putting them back together for a while:
Short term Forza seat:
Now in bits:
Broken plastic tabs on the inside, rear plastic casing is cracked on one seat and they both need a good clean internally before (hopefully) making up some new covers for them and refitting. Miiiiiiight get away with a repair, clean and refit of the original covers at a push, but would quite like to go a little more custom while I'm at it and to fit the car better. We'll see.
Sorry for PotatoCam.
Short term Forza seat:
Now in bits:
Broken plastic tabs on the inside, rear plastic casing is cracked on one seat and they both need a good clean internally before (hopefully) making up some new covers for them and refitting. Miiiiiiight get away with a repair, clean and refit of the original covers at a push, but would quite like to go a little more custom while I'm at it and to fit the car better. We'll see.
Sorry for PotatoCam.
Another incredibly minor and boring update from Rainbird's Correctional Facility:
Since popping the coils, bushes etc on the car I've only driven it twice due to being away for a week with my girlfriend and bikes. It was making a pretty nasty rotational grinding sound that changed with road speed, which had me a little confused as although it sounded like something grinding with the brakes applying them made no difference at all.
I'd ruled out the possibility of a bearing as numerous 12-6/3-9 checks hadn't shown any movement at all and had also pretty much eliminated thoughts of a CV joint as all felt good with no nasty noises before and they tend to give a clicking rather than scraping, plus change with wheel loads unlike this noise. Given that I have to make the 170 mile trip back to base tomorrow morning I thought I'd better get to the bottom of things so I could book a train if I didn't have time to sort things out today.
I was fairly sure that the noise was coming from the OSF so popped the corner in the air (although being so stiff the whole side of the car came off the deck; always nice to see) and pulled the wheel off. As hoped, it was a nice easy fix and was simply a case of the crud-guard rubbing against the disc where I'd inadvertently bent it a smidge the other week. Quick bend back by thumb and all sketchy noises are completely gone. Simple!
Since popping the coils, bushes etc on the car I've only driven it twice due to being away for a week with my girlfriend and bikes. It was making a pretty nasty rotational grinding sound that changed with road speed, which had me a little confused as although it sounded like something grinding with the brakes applying them made no difference at all.
I'd ruled out the possibility of a bearing as numerous 12-6/3-9 checks hadn't shown any movement at all and had also pretty much eliminated thoughts of a CV joint as all felt good with no nasty noises before and they tend to give a clicking rather than scraping, plus change with wheel loads unlike this noise. Given that I have to make the 170 mile trip back to base tomorrow morning I thought I'd better get to the bottom of things so I could book a train if I didn't have time to sort things out today.
I was fairly sure that the noise was coming from the OSF so popped the corner in the air (although being so stiff the whole side of the car came off the deck; always nice to see) and pulled the wheel off. As hoped, it was a nice easy fix and was simply a case of the crud-guard rubbing against the disc where I'd inadvertently bent it a smidge the other week. Quick bend back by thumb and all sketchy noises are completely gone. Simple!
So it's been a while since my last proper update due to being extremely busy with work and my only free weekends being busy with weddings, aninveraries, medical stuff and the like.
In all honesty, not much has happened with the Leon for the reasons above so this won't be anything particularly interesting I'm afraid. Here are the cliff notes:
Got incredibly lucky:
Hit a milestone:
Had some GOOD NEWS!
Put in a 225 refitted one of the dash rings that had fallen off before I bought the car
Then today, I had an afternoon with a lathe and not much to do, so made up a new crankcase breather to replace the current cracked/nasty one. Need a new o-ring before this goes on
Also picked up this.
I'm away for a fortnight or so now, but once I'm back and have a spare couple of days I'll be looking to get the new turbo, manifold and exhaust on the car. Don't hold your breath for that happening any time soon though...
In all honesty, not much has happened with the Leon for the reasons above so this won't be anything particularly interesting I'm afraid. Here are the cliff notes:
Got incredibly lucky:
Hit a milestone:
Had some GOOD NEWS!
Put in a 225 refitted one of the dash rings that had fallen off before I bought the car
Then today, I had an afternoon with a lathe and not much to do, so made up a new crankcase breather to replace the current cracked/nasty one. Need a new o-ring before this goes on
Also picked up this.
I'm away for a fortnight or so now, but once I'm back and have a spare couple of days I'll be looking to get the new turbo, manifold and exhaust on the car. Don't hold your breath for that happening any time soon though...
Minor, semi-related update: Insurance all sorted for another year thanks to Neil @ Greenlight. Good price, great cover and nice to know it's all in the hands of folk who are genuinely into their cars like the rest of us. Highly recommend giving them a call next time you need to renew.
Tiny update again, apologies for being boring but work has been pretty nuts recently.
They've finally sorted out the lifts at work now. Took them long enough! Managed to get under the Leon for 15 mins last night to nip up a few bolts, but will be booking it a few evenings at some point to get some more things ticked off the list including finally refitting the bloomin' rARB!
Have got an exhaust, turbo and mani to fit when I get the chance though Im tempted to pick up a forged engine and do the lot at once to save having to rip things apart twice. If anybody knows of an engine up for sale let me know please.
They've finally sorted out the lifts at work now. Took them long enough! Managed to get under the Leon for 15 mins last night to nip up a few bolts, but will be booking it a few evenings at some point to get some more things ticked off the list including finally refitting the bloomin' rARB!
Have got an exhaust, turbo and mani to fit when I get the chance though Im tempted to pick up a forged engine and do the lot at once to save having to rip things apart twice. If anybody knows of an engine up for sale let me know please.
Went to hop in the car and pop to town to run errands this afternoon and the bloomin' thing wouldn't start. Fuel pump doesn't sound like it's priming which can be a decent indication of either the pump dying or more likely the relay associated with it. That said, I have a sneaking suspicion that it may be down to the microswitch in the driver's door, which has a habit of playing up on mk4 based cars.
Typically, the week I forget to bring tools to base with me happens to be the one where things play up. This means I've not been able to diagnose properly this evening, so will try and borrow tools tomorrow to check it out.
Typically, the week I forget to bring tools to base with me happens to be the one where things play up. This means I've not been able to diagnose properly this evening, so will try and borrow tools tomorrow to check it out.
Well it's 100% the relay.
Pulled it out last night and tested it with a multimeter and with power across it there was no contact to the switched pins. New one arrived at around 1100 today, however despite checking part number and confirming model of car I'd been sent the wrong one
As you can see, the unit is somewhat smaller than the stock one (not necessarily an issue) but also has a pair of pins missing. Not ideal, but purely for the reason that I had the multimeter out I figured I'd fidget out of boredom and see if they were otherwise the same so I checked what seemed to be connected where in the new one then picked up the old, dead one to pull apart.
For whatever reason and I'm not sure why I tested the old relay again, obviously expecting nothing given it had been dead on testing last night. It wasn't.
Very odd, but it seems the relay wasn't actually fried. I assume that with the cold wet weather it'd just become a little damp and had messed things up a little inside. Stuck the heat gun on it (gently!) for 5 minutes and it's now back in the car and functioning perfectly once again. Typical!
Still, I now have a random spare relay for future use...
Pulled it out last night and tested it with a multimeter and with power across it there was no contact to the switched pins. New one arrived at around 1100 today, however despite checking part number and confirming model of car I'd been sent the wrong one
As you can see, the unit is somewhat smaller than the stock one (not necessarily an issue) but also has a pair of pins missing. Not ideal, but purely for the reason that I had the multimeter out I figured I'd fidget out of boredom and see if they were otherwise the same so I checked what seemed to be connected where in the new one then picked up the old, dead one to pull apart.
For whatever reason and I'm not sure why I tested the old relay again, obviously expecting nothing given it had been dead on testing last night. It wasn't.
Very odd, but it seems the relay wasn't actually fried. I assume that with the cold wet weather it'd just become a little damp and had messed things up a little inside. Stuck the heat gun on it (gently!) for 5 minutes and it's now back in the car and functioning perfectly once again. Typical!
Still, I now have a random spare relay for future use...
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All dried out and working fine now - have made sure that the car is bone dry inside (have also bought a soad of butyl seal in case things start getting wet this winter) but seems to be ok now. No biggy, just a pain that it happened the one day I wanted to use the car last week really!
![[B)]](/forums/styles/seatcupra/oldforumsmileys/shades.gif "Cool [B)]")
Ha, thanks Matt! I don't know if I'd quite go that far, but it's nice to be able to get the car back to it's former glory (perhaps). Will be nice to improve on that a little more over the next 12 months or so for sure, when I have the time away from work to allow me to do so. Just need to get around to selling this turbo kit so I have the funds on standby really.
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