Resurrection of my CQ20V

[Bowie69]

OK, time for an update!

Transmission slop has been increasing recently, and front suspension started clunking -turns out all the bushes etc are fine, just the front right CV joint is toast! clicking and smacking when on/off power.

Have ordered all four joints for front driveshafts, as I see the other side has a torn boot, and play as well. Ordered SKF items from onlinecarparts.co.uk, so fingers crossed that they arrive OK

Whilst in there I will be swapping top mounts, and hopefully getting camber adjusted to be sweet again, and then the tracking, been a bit wandery recently

Then yesterday on way back from holiday, towing a folding camper (~800Kg), the clutch hydraulics developed a fault..... doh. Pedal began sinking to floor more and more and eventually my left leg had nothing to do for 60 miles home(!)

I got home and unloaded and drove up to parents place, and bled the clutch with the nose of the car pointing down to see what would happen. I got pedal back, however on the drive home it was still a variable experience, as to where the bite point was. Bit fed up, as I replaced the slave not that long ago (and was a pig of a job), it leaks, and now appearst to be failing again. The master was also replaced not long afterwards, so I am hopeful it is not that.

This comes on the back of the slave beginning to leak a little, and the clutch bite point being variable, mostly sorting itself out after a short drive, but sometimes after a longer motorway run, the bite point woul dbe almost on the floor.

The only other thing it could be is the flexi-hose breaking down I suppose -but that is a one piece item, which includes the steel parts, and is NLA. Anyone had any experience with that? I am sure I could get a line made up somehow, or maybe even the steel parts being re-used, but don't know of anywhere around here that can do that.....


BTW, I have been running the RED STUFF pads in the front for about 5K now, they are excellent, not difference in normal road conditions, and once hot, continue performing very well. The bonus is my wheels stay nice and clean!

Cheers


Peter

[Bowie69]

Well, red stuff arrived, they fit! Brakes feel sharper than ever now...

Will see how they get on once bedded in properly.

Found why one wheel was duster than the other, one slightly seized slider pin, all cleaned and sorted now though.

[Bowie69]

Yes, definitely not Servotronic, hmm. Will knock up western Power Steering and see what they can do.

I've run fast road pads on cars before, the type of driving round here is country lanes and often braking, they seem to suit my style - I've gone with red stuff as it happens anyways, less dust is a plus too.

[Mikes2]

3B will be a servotronic rack which wasn't fitted to the 20v cars. I got a replacement rack from Western Power Steering in Bristol - they were very helpful. I wouldn't even consider yellow stuff pads on one of these cars for road use. Think the ones I'm using now were about £12 delivered

[Bowie69]

I shall have a look tomorrow.... Thanks newsh!

[newsh]

Pretty sure, the boot is all torn, and the lines seem dry, will check again, 3B rack may be good... Same spec, I presume?

I think so, has yours got the electrical connector?

[Bowie69]

Pretty sure, the boot is all torn, and the lines seem dry, will check again, 3B rack may be good... Same spec, I presume?

[newsh]

BTW I’ve got a 3B rack here if you want it

[newsh]

Are you sure it’s the rack that’s leaking?
Mine was the badly made T piece in the return line, oil would run from there back to the rack and made it look like the rack was leaking. I posted on here about it a few years back, fixed the T and still no leaks.

[Bowie69]

One other thing, I swapped the radiator fan out for an ebay second hand jobbie, was only £25, and clearly from a later at as had 5 blades to my 4, a LOT quieter than the old one when running and no screechy bearing noises either

[Bowie69]

Well, MFTS still working as it should!

Front drivers side wheel started making a noise on way back from holiday towing a folding camper (yes, this really is a daily driven and used car!) , felt and sounded like wheel bearings, stopped when touched brake pedal, only thing is, I changed them not that long ago, and then seem to run for ever....

Whip the wheel off when back, discs are worn our and while the pads weren't quite to the metal, (3-4mm left) the wear on the discs was enough that the edge of the pad backing plate was just brushing the disc... doh.

New discs arrived from GSF, £45 for the PAIR, which was, I think, an end of line bargain, as they only had one pair left, and the box had obviously been around a bit.

Brake pads - I went hunting for these, tricky to find now in some ways, ended up finding EBC Red STUFF pads for £51 on Eurocarparts, most other places are £70 for stock spec pads, as I do drive it hard, this seemed the way to go. Ordered, and arrived Thursday. stripped the passenger side down, got everything clean to put back together, fit disc caliper carrier, and opened the pads -the pads are about 20mm too short, GRRRR.....

Cue phone call with local Eurocarparts, get the kid right out of the Simpsons on the line, sigh, they call EBC, they say they don't fit because the 'RED STUFF PADS WON'T, COS YOU NEED YELLOW STUFF ON THAT CAR'. I asked the question, politely and calmly, why the pad material would affect the fitment, to which they were confounded. They rang up EBC, called me back after nearly 2 hours, and said, yes, yellow stuff only, and this is the part number. I check this against EBC's own website, and it is different, totally, utterly different. At one point the guy on the other end of the phone said 'can't you just order them from EBC direct?' "Well yes, but ordered them from you!!!!! I was hoping you might be able/willing to sort it out for me, but clearly not!" Honestly, muppets.

Bottom line, wasted almost and entire day and still had to put the old pads and disc back on the car to get me running, no-one locally had anything, despite ringing about 6 different places.

This isn't the first time ECP have got stuff wrong for my car. Spark plugs for example, the Bosch Super 4 were a cheaper alternative once (on offer), I ordered, they didn't fit down the spark plug holes... Fuel filter... well it was about a quarter the size of the one fitted to mine. I'm not likely to fully trust them at all in the future.

Sorry for the rant

I did manage to get the air filter changed in between phone calls, that is about the only positive...

Oh, and my steering rack really needs a solution to stop it spewing fluid everywhere, it is running own the track rod and covering the inner wheel arch, anyone know of a solution out there?

Thanks!


Peter.

[add]

Some people refer to the mfts as the 'cotton reel sensor'.....i was half expecting it to be full of cotton considering the amount of issues people have with them

[Bowie69]

I did that with my old one, neglected to take pics, but there is a load of electronics in there!

Will see if I can find the remnants...

[newsh]

I’ve got an original here somewhere that I cut open, I’ll try and find it!

[Rikki Kitto]

Great surgery I've wondered for ages what goes on in the MFTS cheers