What did you do to your x40 today???

[aldred309uk]

Originally Posted by canis

My T4 is smoking. Like, a lot. Grey smoke, I suspect it's over-fuelling.

Ideas please!

Boost leak?

[clarkey1984]

Originally Posted by aldred309uk

Boost leak?

Seconded, when the mechanic was looking into mine he ran it for a few seconds with the boost hose off to check for excess oil escaping, it idled slowly and smoked like a pig, and reeked of fuel.

[canis]

It does idle slowly. Too slow for my liking. And I have from time to time wondered if i could smell petrol.

Can you elaborate a bit? I've never had a turbo before.

[aldred309uk]

Originally Posted by canis

It does idle slowly. Too slow for my liking. And I have from time to time wondered if i could smell petrol.

Can you elaborate a bit? I've never had a turbo before.

On my 1.9D it measures the air the engine takes in between the air box and the turbo. When I had a boost leak, in a flexible pipe between the turbo and the manifold, air which the car had measured was leaking out. The car was fueling for 100% of the air which it measured but only 60% of that air actually reached the engine. So the car is putting in too much fuel for the air which is actually inside the engine. On my diesel it meant I was getting a hissing noise on boost when the compressed air leaked out, poorer acceleration and thick black smoke from the unburnt diesel.

[canis]

Mine (petrol) has an intercooler. The turbo is connected by a large rigid pipe which goes up and over, into the bottom of the intercooler, then out the top with a large flexible hose to the throttle body.

I suppose maybe I could disconnect the turbo end, stuff it with a rag or something, and pump air into it, see where it's leaking. Certainly the pipes offer no resistence when given a squish by hand, but that might not mean anything.

There must be some clever mechanics trick for finding air leaks.

[clarkey1984]

There's a spare fitting which is capped off somewhere near the idle control valve, you could put a piece of hose on it and then use a home compressor with a regulator to turn it down to say 15 psi and then just feed it the air, see if you get any hisses.

[clarkey1984]

Just fitted my new front number plate as I clipped the wall at work and cracked the other one, got a pair off eBay for 14 quid, the listing states show plates and not road legal (probably worded that way to get around having to show your v5 etc) but they're standard font and spacing, reflective, have the makers postcode on and show bsau 145d so should be fine.

Also shot a glance at the t4, all the windows are condensated to hell, whole interior is covered in mould so I'm off to get 2 gallons of petrol, then let it rock over with the heaters on full and the windows ajar for a couple of hours, also going to stick one of those dehumidifier crystal things in there, hopefully that'll dry it out.

[aldred309uk]

Originally Posted by clarkey1984

Just fitted my new front number plate as I clipped the wall at work and cracked the other one, got a pair off eBay for 14 quid, the listing states show plates and not road legal (probably worded that way to get around having to show your v5 etc) but they're standard font and spacing, reflective, have the makers postcode on and show bsau 145d so should be fine.

Also shot a glance at the t4, all the windows are condensated to hell, whole interior is covered in mould so I'm off to get 2 gallons of petrol, then let it rock over with the heaters on full and the windows ajar for a couple of hours, also going to stick one of those dehumidifier crystal things in there, hopefully that'll dry it out.

I saw that post heading in a dark direction when you said about getting 2 gallons of petrol but you saved it Haha.

[baldmosher]

Originally Posted by clarkey1984

Just fitted my new front number plate as I clipped the wall at work and cracked the other one, got a pair off eBay for 14 quid, the listing states show plates and not road legal (probably worded that way to get around having to show your v5 etc) but they're standard font and spacing, reflective, have the makers postcode on and show bsau 145d so should be fine.

Also shot a glance at the t4, all the windows are condensated to hell, whole interior is covered in mould so I'm off to get 2 gallons of petrol, then let it rock over with the heaters on full and the windows ajar for a couple of hours, also going to stick one of those dehumidifier crystal things in there, hopefully that'll dry it out.

Originally Posted by aldred309uk

I saw that post heading in a dark direction when you said about getting 2 gallons of petrol but you saved it Haha.

I think I've had a flood in the recent ice/rain/ice weather, as my driver's carpet seems to be wet, and I'm sure it was fine at the weekend.... And it hasn't even rained since.

[clarkey1984]

She seems pretty dry inside now, windows aren't steaming up anymore in any case which must be a good sign, I'm currently negotiating somewhere to store it on the site where I work on the landlords bit as they have huge sheds, that'll be happening once payday rolls around as I need to get a new turbo feed pipe and a 2nd hand steering rack as oil leaking from this pipe and a leaky rack were both failure points on the MOT.

This week I decided to attack the series of dents in the drivers wing of the SE at work, first tea break, apply filler, lunch time sand filler off with 240 pads on the DA, then last tea break dust with primer, did that Monday and a few spots were slightly low, plus a big high spot in the metal itself just above the biggest dent, so precision tapping with a small hammer knocked these in and more filler added and sanded yesterday, as well as a light dusting of primer again. Today I used 800 grit paper by hand to get everything nice, then one thin coat of white etch primer (I ran out) followed by 2 coats of grey high build, I'll 800 it off again if it needs it tomorrow and then progress with the silver, I'm not expecting brilliance as the filling isn't perfectly flawless, and it's going to be from a rattle can but better than the dents.