As you may recall, I recently picked up a felly for SWMBO to learn in; since then I have been giving it a good going over and sorting out various issues - most of which stemmed from it being left standing for nearly a year.

 

But many of the faults I have found are plain stupid, for example.

 

Nearly new drums are fitted, with all new innards, but nothing was copper greased and everything was seized up.

 

A new lock mechanism and latch were fitted to the boot, but the cylinder wasnt changed to match the key, so it couldnt be locked.

 

New (expensive), NGK spark plugs were fitted, but not gapped correctly (nearly 2mm instead of 0.9mm).

 

The sunroof has no visible problems, and no signs of it ever leaking - but it has been black mastic'ed shut.

 

Everything was insanely overtightened!!

 

And finally (and most idiotically), a new fan, thermostat and thermostat housing were fitted, but the burnt out connector plugs/sockets werent replaced, so the cooling fan and temperature gauge dont work!!!

 

I have managed to sort everything except a couple of connector plugs; I have bypassed one, but I need either a 2 pin plug for the fan switch, OR a new fan switch with spade terminals.

 

Anyone got either hanging around spare??? I cant find the plugs anywhere online, but then I dont know the part numbers to search for, and the few parts suppliers I have found with felly parts dont list ANY connectors at all.

 

I DO have an identical 2 pin connector plug just hanging loose in the engine bay, right next to the alternator, with no obvious place for it to go; so if anyone can assure me it is not used for anything, I can cut it off, secure the cables, and use it instead

 

 

 

 

Do not use coppergrease anywhere inside the rear drums mate, it just attracts the dust and gunges it all up, the brakes were designed to work dry but do suffer from the handbrake lever seizing up if left too long, just work it free for a while and wash the rust out of the moving part with brake cleaner.

It is a felicia so the sunroof WILL leak at some point, the sealing strip shrinks and pulls inside on the corners, remove the sunroof frame and reseal it with flexible sealant (mastic or caravan sealant) while you have the chance and it is dry.

spare plug is likely for front fog lamps (unless already fitted I guess) so should be a good donor for the fan otherwise just swap the sender for the earlier type and 2 spades.

Whilst talking about copper grease, please NEVER apply it the wheel securing bolts, or any other bolts that require critical torque. Simply use a small amount of engine oil instead. Reason is that copper grease will give a higher than normal torque figure due to it's chemical properties which can cause premature failure of a bolt or stud.

Thanks for the advice - but too late on copper greasing the insides of the drums. What are you supposed to use when the parts get stuck??

 

Having reset the shoes, I gave everything several good "nudges" with a sturdy lump of wood, but it was still sticking.

 

I didnt go overboard with the cooper grease, just a light spray on the joints., and  I did remember not to use it on wheel bolts etc.

 

As I said in a previous post, no rust inside, it was very clean, just a bit of dust from the shoes.

 

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The sunroof seal is pretty well covered in black mastic, I am struggling just to get the drips off of the door sills; what is best to use on it??

 

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No fogs fitted, so I suppose it could be for that, although why isnt there one on the other side?? (there isnt - I looked). If I get a chance tomorrow (dentist at noon - ARGH!!), I will stick a meter on it and try all the switches to see if anything tries to feed power through it.

 

Once the switch is fixed (assuming it is only the plug), I can let SWMBO go out for a driving lesson, although I still have a few electrical glitches to sort out, the interior lights arent working, the cigar lighter isnt working (maybe the socket is OK, I need to check), and the rear demister may not be working. ALL the fuses are ok, so maybe it is something stupid like him not replacing the bulbs or unpluging a wire somewhere.

 

ALTHOUGH

 

 

It is obvious that he did something very stupid, judging by the number of burnt out wires and connectors I have found so far, so it might be he blew other circuits at the same time. There is evidence of the battery bursting and I found receipts for a new battery and alternator in amongst the document pile I got with the car. You can see the damage to the paintwork done by the battery acid - underneath the battery housing and along the places any acid would flow - and a replacement master cylinder and other parts next to the battery.

 

 

This all sounds very expensive, but so far all I have had to buy is a new battery as the one he fitted was already dying (the only cheap and nasty replacement part I have come across so far); and the normal expenses for a good service - oil, plugs & filters. I am guessing the battery got some further abuse before he sorted out whatever he needed to get the car running again as they usually last more than 2 years.

As you may recall, I recently picked up a felly for SWMBO to learn in; since then I have been giving it a good going over and sorting out various issues - most of which stemmed from it being left standing for nearly a year.

Did you just say you have been giving a good going over to your better half? Because she was left standing for nearly a year?

GG, it's not as difficult as you might think to replace the entire engine bay loom in a felicia, most of it is modular except the bit that goes to the headlights and indicators, the radiator fan in a seperate loom that unplugs from the main central wiring harness down near the front drivers side headlight on a 2 pin plug. So you might be able to just grab that piece of loom you need from a breakers yard.. The engine management harness plugs in on 2 multi pin plugs to the left of the battery on a little steel f shaped bracket on the back of the charcoal canister, so if theres any damaged plugs just pull it out and stick a second hand loom in there

Thanks Tom, it is something I will look at for the next time I have a few days off. I want to get this sorted as much as possible today - as I have a centre console mod to do in my car- which has to be finished ready for work Monday morning.

 

The point near the alternator where the looms join and branch off to the horn, fan etc, the 12v "live" is burnt out on BOTH sides of the plug/socket connection, and everything in the area is covered in soot, although there is no sign of a fire or melted plastic. Whatever happened burnt out the plug to the fan switch as well, the contacts inside are gone on the "live" side - burnt away.

 

@adurer

 

Swmbo has also been left idle for a year - blame having a baby, she is also due a good "service" any time soon.

Be careful with the sun roof.  These are known to leek.  The one on my 97 Felicia GLi developed a leak.  Nothing other than sealing it shut fixed the problem. 

Be careful with the sun roof.  These are known to leek.  The one on my 97 Felicia GLi developed a leak.  Nothing other than sealing it shut fixed the problem. 

 

Yes I know, I expect that is why it was mastic'ed shut in the first place; but as mentioned, there is no real need to do this, just pop it out and sort out the seals, even if it means making a new one from a suitable gasket rubber compound.

 

I took the car out for a good run this afternoon, everything is working, the interior lighting and cigar socket problem turned out to be a miscount on the fuse position, it had been fitted into the "AirCon" slot, swapped it back and everything worked.

 

Other than spots of rust, the only other issue is slight hesitation under heavy throttle, which might be crud in the fuel line, or might be a vacuum leak, it idles ok, but with an occasional burp of about 200 rpm, not sure if this is related or not.

 

The hesitation is more pronounced between 5,000 and 5,500 rpm, it feels like the engine is holding back slightly, but consistently, all the way from 5k to the red line.

 

I have sloshed in a bottle of fuel line cleaner (One bottle treats 80 litres!!), without much in the way of expectations, and will take "Big White Car" out for a slog up and down the motorway sometime over the weekend to see if some consistent high load clears the problem. I think it is crud in the line, because I dont remember feeling any hesitations when collecting the car from Cheltenham.

One other point, I have a cheap OBD-II  ECU tester, but it says it cant connect to the fellys ECU when I plug into the test socket; is the felly too old for this to work, am I using the wrong device, or is  the ECU tester faulty??

 

I havent used it before and it was only a cheap thing from the internet (made in China of course!!)

Yes the felicia is obd1, it uses a kwp 1280 system which pre dates obd2.

Thanks, the thing is an Elm327 and it says it will work with Vagcom.

 

Anything I can do, software wise to get it to connect, or am I buggered and need to buy something else?? If so any recommendations?? Nothing too expensive though, it might be SWMBOs car, but she is not happy with me spending money on it.

No sorry I don't think the elm327 chipset is even backwards compatible with kwp1281.. It probably will work with vagcom but only if the car is a later model, from 2000 onwards they started using kwp2000 with has an sae number which escapes me right now which would work but the felicia retained the earlier kwp1281 protocol till the end of production.

I wonder if you can get flash codes from pin 7 on the diagnostics socket? On some cars you can just put an led across 2 pins and it will flash certain sequences which depict fault codes, I'll look into that.

I am getting confused, according to a few websites, the Felicia requires a 2x2 adapter to work with the vagcom machines/software; but the car has a standard ecu port that the ELM plugs into; and the photos of the adapter shows two plugs that wont fit into the ecu test socket.

 

no those 2x2 adaptors are only used on really early efi vw's like the mk2 golf and mk3 polo, all cars built after 1996 should have a standardised 16pin euro d connector. there actually is an old proprietry skoda diagnostics connector inside the engine bay but it's obsolete and ive never even heard of anybody using it either.. just use the nommal 16pin obd socket under the bottom edge of the dashboard on the drivers side

Thanks for that Tom.

 

One kind soul has sent me a link to a (I assume old) version of the VAGCOM software to try, so I will give it a whirl tomorrow and see what happens - assuming it will work with a bluetooth virtual com connection.

 

As vacuum leaks are another possible cause for hesitation, I looked up methods of detecting them.

 

I came across the home made smoke system, which looks interesting; although a cigar seems a bit extravagant, I am thinking an old incense cone would produce more smoke, and smell better.

One kind soul has sent me a link to a (I assume old) version of the VAGCOM software to try, so I will give it a whirl tomorrow and see what happens - assuming it will work with a bluetooth virtual com connection.

VAG-COM release 409 is the highest version that works with OBD I cars. All newer versions are only OBD II compatible.

Going back to the subject of wiring block connectors, a company called 'Vehicle wiring products' are worth a look at for bits and pieces, they have a handy free catalogue that you can  send off for on-line.

Thanks for that.

 

I picked up a new switch for £8 from my local motor factors as he was right next to the scrap yard, it has the spade terminals, so I fitted some crimp connectors and got it working. With the fresh anti-freeze it took some work to get the engine hot enough for the fan to cut in!!!

Even after a couple of vigorous 10 mile runs, I still had to sit with the engine revs at about 3,000 rpm for 5 minutes to get the water hot enough for it to cut in!!!

 

I found another obscenely overtightened bolt though, the coolant drain; even with the largest extension bar I could find, I couldnt get the thing to undo, it was starting to round off!! So I had to settle for undoing the lower hose and flushing/refilling the radiator and expansion tank only - 4 litres instead of the full 6 litres. Luckily it appears there was NO anti freeze of any type in the old water - just rust and possibly "Radweld", so I didnt have to worry about mixing anti-freeze types. (I checked it with a tester before starting).

 

I used the pink stuff, it is only a 1/3rd mix; but hey, I can only remember it getting down to -18c once in the last 30 years around here. The tester says it should be good down to -25c anyway.

 

I need to work on my hand muscles, I used to be able to crimp hundreds of 1.5mm cables every day with no effort, but I needed two hands to close the crimpers on those spades!!!!

Edited 10 August, 201312 yr by GentleGiant