Daniel_Bos

The old bit of cardboard.... It works, but not nearly as well as having a thermostat! Just limiting airflow through the rad still allows all that extra coolant to circulate, drastically increasing warm-up time. Since most engine wear occurs during the first bit of running, it's essential for longevity to reduce thee time it takes for the engine to be up to optimal operating temps.

My thermostat is shot (coolant not getting up to temp, oil not getting up to temp, all diagnostic readouts low). I understand the thermostat is in a place that makes it a bit of a job to change. I'm not scared of work, but don't have the time to do it at the moment (have a 1000 sheep yet to lamb and 100 cows to calve), I also don't have time to wait for a garage to do it, plus I sort of detest incompetent "professionals" messing around with my car, leaving a crucial bolt loose, causing grief and costing too much... In a previous life, many centuries ago, I owned a rover 75 diesel (actually still one of my favourite cars, the swan-song mobile) which had a similar problem with thermostats sticking open plus unreachability, as well as running relatively cool due to pretty high thermal efficiency. The easy "fix" for that was to leave the old thermostat in place and put the thermostat from a renault 5 inside the top rad hose. It fits in snug enough to not need any fixing, costs are very low, and it's a 5 minute job to do. It worked really well, with the added benefit of opening a little hotter (it ran more efficiently, fuel-wise at higher temperatures) and cooling was never an issue seeing as cars are generally designed to cope with temps well in excess of what one might encounter in northern europe. Towing a heavy trailer up the hills in 38C, not an issue. So....., Is there any technical reason I shouldn't do this to my trusty Scout? By technical I mean following actual logic, not vag fanboy reasoning such as "if it was a good idea, the manufacturer would have done it"... I know it's not a "proper" repair, but if it gets me by until I have time (or more honestly, inclination) to fix it properly I'd be happy. Cheers, Daniel

You can. But there are a few stumbling blocks. Most second hand steering wheels are sold without airbags, so it's easiest to find a steering wheel that has the same shape as your current one so you can use your existing airbag. To make the buttons work, you may need to change the clockspring/controller as well, depending on what is currently fitted. Some work only to pass on the horn and airbag signals, some have the steering angle sensor, some have maxidot compatibility, some have phone/radio connection and some cruise control. And all possible combinations of the above.. Then it will need to be coded to the car with vcds. You may also need a little additional wiring but I'm not sure.

Great news re starting again. Bit strange re having to pull fuses? Presumably having changed the battery there was a time where the car had no battery power which would have been the same as removing the fuses? Is it possible that one of the fuses you played with wasn't seated properly, or wasn't conducting as it should have? Did you replace fuses for new ones or just remove and then replace them to clear/reset the ECU?

Thanks, It'll probably not obscure it fully anyway, so i'll just see what happens.

I've never been heaps good at pulling out

Possibly. If you have a set of jump leads it's easily avoided though. After loosening battery clamps, connect that leisure battery you have positive to positive, negative to a good ground point, preferably a bit out of the way. Then just swap the batteries whilst making sure the jump lead stays on the positive clamp. Push clamps on, remove jump leads, tighten clamps, done.

Cheers Langers! Do you know what it actually senses and if it ties in with the rest of the car's systems like the auto headlights?

The Bosch s5 is a great battery! But if after charging yr current one, and stating yr engine is turning over fast there is still no start or change of symptoms, I doubt it'll solve your problems?

I'm a diy type... I'd suggest a slightly different approach: make your body out of whatever gloop you want, encase a bit of the correct diameter hose in it for direct connection. Then seal the end of that hose with a hard setting epoxy and drill a nozzle through once fully hardened. That way you can start with a small hole, test, drill the next size up, test, etc untill you're good. eBay will sell you some micro drill bits in 0.1mm increments. Pulling out a wire from setting epoxy isn't going to give you a consistent flowpath, if it doesn't collapse it'll likely be widest at the end you pull from, plus you'll have a longer flow restriction.

Hi, How does the auto dimming mirror work? It has sensors at both sides, both front and back? In previous vehicles I've had, I could make the mirror dim by covering/shining a torch at the sensor on the back (mirror side) but this one has a sensor at the front as well? Reason for wanting to know is that I want to fix a forward facing camera to the mirror, ideally on the passenger side, but there's a sensor there? What is that sensor for? Cheers, Daniel

Please make sure to disconnect the battery from your vehicle if you do any sort of reconditioning cycle! The way such a function works is by pulsing a much higher voltage spike, this briefly buckles the plates a little, causing the build up crystalline structures to break and fall to the bottom of the battery case. This high voltage pulsing can do funny things to delicate (vehicle) electronics. "funny" in the above sentence should be read as: potentially very expensive, destructive, lethal

personally the smallest charger I have is a 30A Victron, which would be overkill and then some for what you need... I believe Ctek is a well respected brand in the car world, you'd want something in the 5 to 10 amp range

But a "good" voltage reading doesn't necessarily mean you have a good battery... I've had batteries at 12.3v after a week fail to start a car, and ones at 11.6 start that same engine just fine... You can have very low voltage drop with the battery disconnected, yet lose all of that voltage as soon as a high load is put on. Hence my suggestion to just try to start it, it'll test the battery under load.

I would take a simpler first step: Next time you park it up (for a few days) just disconnect the battery negative. If it starts fine next time you come to use it, it's not your battery or alternator. Not really any need for charging and measuring etc. Measuring the voltage of a battery doesn't tell you everything...

What you essentially need to do, is make the meter part of the circuit, so the current flows through the meter. So, for the meter to measure all the current flowing out of your battery, you need to put it in between the battery terminal and the battery clamp. To not interrupt the "sleep status" of the car by disconnecting and then reconnecting the battery, you'll have to connect the leads to pole and clamp respectively, then remove the clamp from the pole without breaking the contact between the meter probes and the pole on one probe and the clamp on the other. If you do that, all the current flowing out of your battery now has to flow through the meter, allowing the meter to measure just how much current that is. An alternative way to do the above is as follows: Take off the battery clamp. Tightly wrap a length of bared wire around the very base of the terminal and twist it so it'll stay put, leave a short length of wire sticking out with the insulation still on. Stab one of the probes of the meter firmly into the end of this bit of wire so it is making good contact and won't come out. Put the clamp back on but don't tighten it. Attach the other probe to the clamp, you can tape it on or use a large peg etc. Anything that'll hold it in place securely. Then put the key in ignition, leave it for a minute for the car to "reset" after having it's power supply interrupted. Then (with the bonnet close sensor clamped/disabled) lock the car, leave for 30 mins before removing the clamp from the battery. Having the probes pre-attached means you can use your hands to shine a torch, or pull fuses to see which circuit makes the power drawn significantly less and thus try to identify what's causing your car to wake up tired from it's slumber.

Any bit of hose of the correct diameter will do. (As long as it can cope with the heat under yr bonnet, so a bit of standard fuel hose, or some silicone is fine) Doesn't need to be the exact same shape, as long as it doesn't collapse when you bend it around that corner. I'd suggest you start with a bit too long, test fit, then progressively trim until it seems about right.

Yup, I have one of those. It's in my workshop in the Netherlands though, and I'm in the UK at the moment.

So, finally had a chance to have a proper go at this yesterday. I tried to take the arm off last week but it was Very, very stuck. I doused the spindle with penetrating oil, put a locking nut on, but not right. That way, if it decided to free itself it couldn't come off. It did not free itself at all. To remove the arm I had to shape a piece of ply to cover the plastic surround and part of the windscreen. Then pry a big lever under the arm (using aforementioned ply as a place to use as a fulcrum without breaking the plastic surround or glass) and hit the spindle with a hammer whilst the arm was levered up. Even using this method I needed to have someone help me as I couldn't put enough force on the lever to free it. It eventually popped off. I moved it in one tooth and tightened her up. Fixed...? No! Now the outer end of the wiper hit the inner end of the other! So I tried to remove the other arm to move that one tooth, and yes indeed, Very very much stuck. Tried the same method of penetrating oil, pry bar and hammer but she wouldn't budge. So, I doused her in more penetrating oil, put a lock nut on loosely and will leave it like that for a week or so whilst praying to the deities of galvanic corrosion free-uppery. Plenty of wiper action to come this week by the looks of the forecast (and the skies through the window) So to make it work and stop the self destruction attempts, I slightly bent both arms a bit until they cleared each other. Whilst doing this I noticed that the whole mechanism seems to have more play than I think it should have. Not the linkage I reckon, but the mounting points. This would make sense as the spring in the arm levers against it, and would lift the mech up a bit possibly resulting in my problem. I can't address or investigate this however until I can get both arms off...! Such fun To be continued

Is it possible your maxidot doesn't show the phone controls etc because you don't have all the phone control hardware fitted?

If it was my problem, I'd just drill out the center of both parts of the assembly and stick a little bolt through, (locking nut on the inside so it can be just right enough to be snug but still moves freely) refit, job done. That would keep it working until you find a replacement?

Hmmm. Isn't that just the difference between the "multifunction display" and the maxidot? Rather than two maxidot versions?

I do indeed. It's a moot point anyway, the scout is only 33mm higher which would have no noticable effect on any trailer.

Excellent, I didn't think there would be any differences, but better to ask!

Nah bro! It'll mainly tow a drawbar trailer, I could put a towbar a metre off the ground and it still wouldn't be any different.