DWRDeep

Eventually I found that the trigger that releases the large electrical connector, also behind the left headlamp, was broken & wasn't really holding the halves together. Cable tied together, all faults cleared, car runs really well again. Thanks all.

Great while that lasted. All codes returned after about a mile, car was just about running. No oil pressure problem though, on the bright side.

The loom looks good, but there are a few earth ring connections to bolts just behind the left headlamp which were in a terrible condition. A bit of wire wool & a broken sharp screwdriver blade, some Vaseline, all connected back up again & all faults are cleared, no alarms. I'm so happy I'll treat the rust on the doors soon.

Ah... Into the spaghetti then... Cheers!

Good advice thank you Pete, but now I've borrowed my mate's oil pressure gauge, which gives me about 5 bar so with all those other codes throwing up too I'm looking for the ECU... I think it's under the windscreen wipers.

During heavy rain and fog a few nights ago I had fluttering engine symptoms that I've come to associate with sticky turbo vanes - though I'm not certain. I find that when this happens momentarily switching off the ignition resets the car and it usually runs fine. This time I had to do so half a dozen times in about 6 miles, so the next morning I ran a diagnostic which came up with lots of codes about exceeding the injectors' regulation limits & overboosting the boost pressure limit, glow plugs, air con (that hasn't worked since I bought the car 3 ½ years ago, garage told me it would cost £300+ to fix so I haven't worried about it), P0113, intake air temperature sensor too high, P1592 altitude & boost pressure sensor, & P3101 & P3102 - the intake manifold flap motor. I've done a bit of connector cleaning, as well as cleaning up the EGR & the intake flap, and During heavy rain and fog a few nights ago I had fluttering engine symptoms that I've come to associate with sticky turbo vanes - though I'm not certain. I find that when this happens momentarily switching off the ignition resets the car and it usually runs fine. This time I had to do so half a dozen times in about 6 miles, so the next morning I ran a diagnostic which came up with lots of codes about exceeding the injectors' regulation limits & overboosting the boost pressure limit, glow plugs, air con (that hasn't worked since I bought the car 3 ½ years ago, garage told me it would cost £300+ to fix so I haven't worried about it), P0113, intake air temperature sensor too high, P1592 altitude & boost pressure sensor, & P3101 & P3102 - the intake manifold flap motor. I've done a bit of connector cleaning, as well as cleaning up the EGR & the intake flap, and During heavy rain and fog a few nights ago I had fluttering engine symptoms that I've come to associate with sticky turbo vanes - though I'm not certain. I find that when this happens momentarily switching off the ignition resets the car and it usually runs fine. This time I had to do so half a dozen times in about the same number of miles, so the next morning I ran a diagnostic which came up with lots of codes about exceeding the injectors' regulation limits & overboosting the boost pressure limit, glow plugs, air con (that hasn't worked since I bought the car 3 ½ years ago, garage told me it would cost £300+ to fix so I haven't worried about it), P0113, intake air temperature sensor too high, P1592 altitude & boost pressure sensor, & P3101 & P3102 - the intake manifold flap motor. I've done a bit of connector cleaning, as well as cleaning up the workings of the EGR & the intake flap, and the car starts and runs fine though the flap motor code won't clear - but now I have an oil pressure warning once I take it over 1500 revs. Needless to say I took it the ½ mile home at a very slow speed. Some of the fault codes have returned -glow plugs, air temperature, altitude & boost sensors - I don't have the right connector for my pressure gauge, but I'll get the sump off next and see what I find... Perhaps it's just crud at the ECU (which I haven't found) or abraded wires? Both helpful and rude comments welcome. I hope you enjoyed this news.

Cheers. The gaiter was too small, and as you say there is limited space to play with. I'm very pleased, I'd almost given up hope. Nice cheap MOT pass, can't be bad for an 18 year old car. ☺️

Thanks, I know nothing. Fortunately my sister-in-law devised what I will call the much simpler condom method. I rolled the end inside out, butted the gaiter up to the housing and pushed the lip back over. Sweet.

This was the largest section.

The new (neoprene?) rubber gaiter for the tie rod shaft is a universal kit, all I could obtain. The problem is that it needs to be stretched over the housing where there is very little access. I've given it a few attempts and there's no way I can push it on and stretch it at the same time. My thought is to make a tube of ice larger than the housing's diameter, push it into the gaiter, then freeze both overnight. Next day put almost all of the gaiter into hot water & when it's stretchy again push out the ice ring & quickly slide the stretched end into place. Wish me luck.

That's what I thought, but it's good to know if others have done the same and not had disasters. https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/torque-lubrication-effects-d_1693.html

Thanks, I've already put the (new) bolt in, but didn't clean the grease out. I've torqued it up as much as I could with a few locked nuts on a bolt, won't be finishing that (nor driving it) until the new Allen sockets arrive.

Does anyone know whether this is for a dry or greased bolt? It's a hell of a lot of torque, scary to put in such a mechanism.

Thanks, that's great.

Revival, hope that's ok - does anyone know whether that stupid centre can be easily drilled out for an ordinary spline socket? What a con.