J.R.

DONT TELL EM PIKE! 😄

The complication of these vehicles is increasing well beyond the competence of the poor mechanics expected to fix them and the cost to the hapless owners of the misaimed parts & labour cannon rises exponentially. I dread to think how much the OP has been taken for so far 😒 Its time that the training and occupation of vehicle mechanic was elevated from the craft intake, technician in a few cases to higher than that of a surgeon or lawyer. The N82 valve sounds probable.

You spoke of disabling the start/stop mechanism so I am assuming you would be happy to live without it of your battery would charge properly, ie in the way that they always did before all this nonsense, is that correct? If so then simply disconnect the shunt resistor connector that is on the battery +ve (or is it negative?) lead and the vehicle will revert to a standard alternator charging profile, no start/stop and you can put away your battery charger for another decade!!! At present you are charging it and the battery (mis)management system promptly does its best to drain that charge to allow regenerative charging nonsense, you are fighting a battle that is already lost, best bet is to hobble the system in my view, a lot less complicated compared to what you are proposing and free!

They also stated if there were ANY stickers on the car they would also cancel the policy and again not even allow you to remove sticker to conform 😄 And people wonder why I only take out insurance when its a legal obligation and then only the minimum cover required! I could not be doing with all the BS nor paying for all my neighbours to have new freezers, televisions, automatic gate systems etc with the installers (the BIL's of the insurance agents) putting the failure down to electrical storm damage. I have only been here a year and the above is the claims from just my 2 closest neighbours, when the hailstorm swept through it shattered the plastic chairs and table set on my balcony that I had only bought 2 weeks before, hey ho, these things happen and it was only €60, probably about half of what their monthly premium is now, they were gobsmacked when I said I wasn't insured and it was just bad luck, I should have known better. Oh I forgot there was another claim to add to the above, my neighbour a frail 88 year old was outside pulling down an asbestos roof over a lean to, I immediately went over to help, well put him safely to one side and do it for him, then he had to explain to me that I had to do it so that it looked like hailstone damage like the one small part that had fallen down because the timber structure was rotten, the insurers paid for the whole structure to be replaced with new, it would have fallen down within months anyway. I know that overall they are actually losing, the insurers never lose in the long term, they are simply ripping the ar5e out of it more than other policyholders, I refuse to put any of my money into that racket.

Can you take a photograph of the tyre 180° away from the damage please? Its hard to see from that photo but there could be a groove running all the way around the tyre, it looks like it might continue downwards out of the photo frame. What has the wear been on the previous tyres? Uneven tread wear or the inner sidewall being ripped?

Inner tyre wear is the term used by some to express uneven wear across the tread of the tyre with the inner treads being more worn than the outer ones. This is not uneven tyre wear and nothing to do with alignment, the inner tyrewall has been ripped out, does it happen on both sides? It is either impact damage from hitting potholes etc with silly rubber band tyres which has torn the re-inforcing wires but then it has continued to propagate because the tyre has not been checked, given this has happened before I would be physically inspecting every inch of all the tyres on a weekly basis and immediately after hitting a pothole or coming into contact with another object. I dont believe it can be related to the spring or spring platform as that is above the tyre, the wrong rims is a strong possibility but any tyre fitter, mechanic or diligent owner come to that would easily see what it has been coming into contact with (if that is the case) by polish marks, paint or underseal worn through etc.

Thanks, the photos were not showing for me when I read the posting, that is usually the first sign that my crappy internet connection is about to drop out. If I don't see anything then I dont know that something is missing, yes damp trap is quite obvious now seeing the photos.

Brake test them.

But what did you mean to write? The only thing I could think of was damp rags but you would not want them in the car, damp clothing in boot yes, did you mean the humidity absorber things?

What are they?

Thankyou for your kind words, setting the racism jingoism aside I didn't tell anyone their legal status.

A lire si vous êtes un con 😀 I have third party only liability which they will always pay out on, I dont really give a four X for any of the conditions which would not affect me, its the car that is insured not the driver, they have a condition that if someone under 18 is driving and has an accident then my franchise (excess) is doubled, except twice nothing is still nothing, there is nothing that I could claim for so I could never pay a franchise.

Do you understand the difference between "should" and "must/has to be"? Take a look at your policy terms and conditions.

A strong possibility but did you miss where he said the cam belt has just been done? Checking the valve timing would be my instinctive reaction. Mind you we dont know how long ago "recently" was or whether the fuel consumption has decreased only in the last 2 weeks or has only been noticed since then, perhaps by having to refuel at less miles than usual.

100% with you on the questioning of whether the oil pump is actually new, even if he does now have a garage who doesn't make stuff up there can be misunderstandings, we are not dealing with the horses mouth. My suggestion of the N428 valve being suck open came from reading the self study guide you posted, I am sure it said the piston cooling was only activated on the high pressure pump operation, I think that may be a dodgy translated term as I think the pump switches between high and low flow rate (are there 2 pressure relief valves?). I dont have time to read it through again and in any case I get the impression that the OP will not be funding the fault finding any further, disconnecting the valve is something that he can do without cost. It will be a shame to see him lose the vehicle and money knowing that someone else will get stitched up with the problem just as they did, resolution has to be the best outcome.

That just about sums up the level of stupidity, they do an oil and filter change, the engine knocks and the low oil pressure warning light come on, do they question what they did? No they expect a fault code reader to tell them whats wrong!!! Shame there is not an OBDII code for incompetent mechanic.

Timing chain will not cause lack of oil pressure, the missing seal will. However the lack of oil pressure will definitely cause timing chain rattle and also top end tappet noise. I feel so sad for those who have no choice but to put their vehicles in the hands of garages, many would be better off running them into the ground and never even having the oil and filter changed compared to the damage that all too frequently occurs when they pay supposed professionals to do it.

A good observation. I definitely honed my skills on old nails with skinny balding cross ply tyres, snow was a summons to go out and play, sometimes with not so good consequences. Anybody remember James Hunt owning an A35 van and his comments on why he did so? I took my driving test in a complete nail of an A35, I had bolted up tight the sliding clevis to the mechanical rear brakes from the master cylinder, it was the only way to get them to work (for my limited experience), it meant when you braked hard the handbrake lever came up and held the brakes on with its ratchet, as the lever was between the drivers seat and door I thought the examiner would not notice me repeatedly releasing it, quite the opposite but I believe he realised that if I was capable of double declutching (syncro was shot on all gears) while keeping a straight trajectory against the wheel shimmy with one hand while pushing the handbrake down with the other I perhaps deserved to pass. I took my test 14 days after my birthday and had no driving lessons from anybody, when he told me I had passed and asked for my license he saw that it was already full of endorsements 😒

Blue smoke is a red herring, it has nothing to do with oil pressure loss.

Worn piston rings will have zero effect on oil pressure, if they are indeed worn (does the vehicle have a thirst for oil?) then that will have an economic bearing on whether you spend more money or sell the vehicle on. Vehicles like this get sold on and on through the trade each time causing grief to another retail punter who throws it back, eventually they get to someone like myself who likes a challenge and to buy cheap. I nearly always see similar evidence of the parts cannon being fired with the customers money and the solution every time to date touch wood has been either low cost or no cost. My gut feeling is that the piston ring jets are in constant operation through a stuck valve or wiring fault, it could also be a missing flow restrictor to the valve gear or the wrong gasket used, maybe a seal missing on the oil pump. Did they or you check the O rings on the oil filter centre spigot? That sounded like a strong possibility.

My vehicles have all displayed negative Celcius temperatures.

Yeah right! As if that would ever happen! Still I am ever the optimist. It's not about whether he would inconvenience anybody that time, its the tone deafness of it, something shared with many of the influencers who think pavements and double yellow lines, preferably both and outside some luxury store (whose staff have to grit their teeth and smile at them) are reserved for them to be photographed in front of their flash car (probably hired) showing off their "haul"

Because raising the CoG of a vehicle always improves handling right!

If its a cherished classic vehicle you would not want my old type of repairs but that does not seem to be the case with the OP. Like as not it will continue to get the same advisory on MOT's for the next decade without ever having the work done, its taken a quarter of a century for it to become even worth mentioning!

Anyone doing welding repairs will be capable of making a patchwork of pieces of sheet steel to do the job without a repair panel, its what I did from 18-24 to pay my rent and put me through college, most of the time at the side of the road and I had never even seen an angle grinder let alone been able to afford one, it was all done by hand including cutting off the old panels (door sills usually) with a club hammer and bolster chisel. I still have the bolster chisel in my toolbox and use it frequently, each time I pick it up the knuckle of my left index finger winces and says "no more please!" 😒