What did you do to your x40 today???

[bimmer49]

Lock Down Bodgit n Scarper jobs!

I've had a torque reaction thud from my engine ever since I had the car. There are 4 engine mounts, finding the right one is the issue. Top ones OK so it must be a lower one.
Drop the lower engine support....back bolts OK but the fronts were rusty and the spacers seized to the bolts. Wire wheel and a pair of stilsons released one spacer but the other stuck fast. Coppa slip everywhere and that will do.
The lower front bush had parted. Found an old shock absorber bush to fit in the void to aid support. Rebolted back up. Road test was smooth!

The Starter motor:
This had increasingly been making a noise as in the starting gear missing the ring gear.
15 mins and it's out! Unbelievable. I've known starters take 2 hours to get out!
The reason was the nose "bearing" was ****ed. There is NO nose bearing, just the metal casting. Crap for a Bosch starter. I wanted to dismantle it but the solenoid bolts wouldn't budge.
I had to take up the wear slack. Looking around for donor parts, I don't have a lathe....I found a copper pipe joint of 15mm. By cutting out a small section and reforming the circle I doffed it into the shaft void. Cutting off the excess and lubricating the new bearing, making sure the motor still turned, seemed good.
Refitted, 15 mins that's all! Wanged it over, perfect! How long for I dont know.
If it and the engine mount last until the summer, result. Parts too expensive here.

[clarkey1984]

It certainly seems the day for it @bimmer49, excellent ingenuity there, it's amazing what you can make work when in a bind.

Today I decided to do the brakes, took the old disks off and thought hmm, these calipers could do with brightening up a bit, so found a tin of rustoleum hard hat aerosol in a nice blue, the same blue I did my springs with, ideal, then once I'd done the rears were letting it down so I took those apart and did those too, I also swapped the front and rear wheels over as the budgets that were on the front weren't good, squirmy torque steer in 3rd on a dry road is never great, I figured that rainsports with ~2mm left have to be better than the nearly new nankangs in terms of grip.

The new top mounts also arrived today, but for reasons I can't quite fathom, and despite being in identical boxes, one is new and one is used, and well gone too, 15 minutes after I emailed the seller he apologized and got another one ready to send out, can't say fairer than that.

[P156KWJ]

Was fed up of constantly changing traditional filament bulbs in the number plate lights, as of course every time you slam the lid you're damaging the filament a bit, and on the S40 it means taking the carpet off all the time, so went against my traditionalist view of keeping things fairly original and installed LED bulbs (keeping the original lenses) and I must say I do like the result. Not bright enough to light up half the world behind you like a lot of aftermarket crap seems to, but brighter and more reliable than the old bulbs.

Also took the opportunity to try them in the side markers and quite like the result. Slightly brighter but not daft looking at all.

[Endorphin]

Ok, was not today, but ..
ReWorked the whole fuelling system on Ph1 T4, now the petrol is circling around endlessly through the Rail combined with External fuel pump, which for my surprise fits perfectly on the place of the Petrol filter + fit smaller filter above the Fuel pump also fits, with the same in and out as the OEM one.
It would be for a new Thread I think, I think might be interesting.
No problem though, fuel pump is (well not OEM) but 044, so it is .. more than enough.

[bimmer49]

Lockdown boredom:

Well not really, a noise emanated from my right hand drive shaft, click click click. I know what that is, CVJ. I had heard it before but dismissed it......2 YEARS AGO!
I had bought some CVJ's but found out after 3 months they were too big. So last summer I bought the smaller types.
The first issue was the 36mm head transmission nut. I only have an open ended spanner that size. Bar in the wheel studs, 36mm on the nut and a ring spanner in the end of that, boom she moved. The rest is "easy". Drop the bottom swivvel off, track rod end off and for convenience the uplink for the anti roll bar.
Take off the old CVJ and clean the grease up.
Whilst in there I noticed the anti roll bar bush was worn (there was a clunk). No time like the present. A few months back I had replaced the left side because it had snapped off. Scrap yard provided me with a whole bar and 2 supports. Time to use the other one. NOW! as the left side was missing I had nothing to go on. Doing what I did before: Release the subframe 3 bolts until their last few threads (I took them out and coppaslipped them and refitted a few threads). Lever it down and wedge it away from the chassis. This gives you the room to get in with a 1/4" 12mm socket and ratchet. Plenty of WD40 required. It's slow but you can get it off. Slide the mount along the anti roll bar. Mine is a PH2 and this is an aluminium 2 piece mount plus a bonded rubber. The replacement is a one piece steel mount from a PH1. Wire wheeled the bolt and liberal amounts of coppaslip and refitted, no problem. Whanged up the subframe bolts.
The boots on the uplinks were split so purloined some from previous spares, regreased them and fitted back on.
Time for the new CVJ to be refitted. No issues there. the good thing is the replacement part is equipped with a 32mm nut so I can use my biggest 1/2" drive socket to secure.
Don't forget your coppaslip on everything.
Quick road test....no clunking or clicking!

[clarkey1984]

Today I was in the shed outside looking for another amp to use in my hastily set up mixing station in the caravan (the vinyl turntables and records have come out after 6 years) and on a shelf in that shed, a shed where I'm absolutely sure I've never put any car spares, was a black bag, and look what was inside the bag, I really wish I'd found this while the car was in getting the engine change, because I've removed and refitted the one on the car before, and it is a mare to do on axle stands in the driveway, another job for next week then, I seem to remember that sticking the banjo bolts and sealing washers together with thick grease seemed to work well last time.

[clarkey1984]

Well, that was a mare, today was replace the top mounts day, they're both leaning in and creaky so they needed changing, hopefully this will cure the horrible clonk I'm getting over bumps too...

I got the car on axle stands and took the wheels off, then started by disconnecting the droplinks on both sides, oh dear God, so this is why the car is clonking then, huge huge play in the ARB on the driver's side, I now know that the ARB bush setup is in 2 parts, and the bottom half had somehow come out completely, but by some miracle had become wedged in place somewhere else, which was handy.

Right, I'll undo the ARB clamp, slot the bit back in and do it back up, easy, in theory, actually doing it was an approximately 2 spanner rating, however the patience required means it's actually about a 426 spanner rating, no tool I had was capable of fitting in the gap, until I found some small screwdriver bits with socket heads on, I nearly binned these in the past because I'd deemed them to be useless, but they were absolutely perfect

A 12mm headed one of those and a 1/4 inch offset ring spanner meant I could just get about an eighth of a turn each time, it took about three quarters of hour to undo it far enough, tedious wasn't the word, especially when the socket fell off the bolt after nearly every turn.

Then in a questionably unsafe act I wedged a crow bar under the ARB and trolley jacked it up as high as I dared, then I covered everything liberally in spray grease, whacked it back in with a small bar and did it back up, from start to finish it took about 2 hours in total.

In contrast the top mounts took about 20 minutes each side and went without a hitch, all I had was a partially jammed up top bearing on one side, a quick blast of the aforementioned spray grease had it nice and free, and replacing the turbo oil feed hose was similarly easy, a quick road test gives a dead silent drive and the steering feels better too, thank god all that's done.

[P156KWJ]

Finally got round to doing the reverse light switch on the gearbox today as well as an oil and filter change.

A job that looks far more threatening than it is. Battery off, air filter out, filter box and MAF sensor off, then with a trolley jack supporting the gearbox, undo the bolts in to the box and slacken the nut on the mount to swivel it out the way for the switch to be changed. Gatos has a brilliant guide available in more detail.

Switch cost me about £6 off the net and it took me no longer than an hour working leisurely.

Worth noting if you buy a genuine switch from Volvo they will sell you the new variant that requires some modification to the plug. Aftermarket switches you get a choice of the old or new. Took a gamble and luckily mine was the older variant which is what I purchased. Lights work perfectly every time now.

[clarkey1984]

I blasted 2 of my wheels the other day, uhp water as grit is just messy and puts a heavy amount of dents in aluminium unless you're really careful, my silver came off, then some other silver layer, then black, then some horrendously thick white primer layer that took ages to get through, even at 50,000 psi, then under that some light yellow etch primer, then finally the bare alloy, then I discovered something...

These have been grit blasted to death in the past, serious mottling all over them, damn it, wish I'd just sanded them now, but no matter, I'll just filler prime them loads, then I remembered something else, we have gallons and gallons of industrial grade 2 part epoxy paint that's designed to be either an undercoat or a top coat, ideal, so I mixed a batch of that up and brushed it on nice and thick, a couple of days wait and then I can sand it back so it's all smooth, then spray apply the top coat, I've settled on white.

[bimmer49]

Well the shed is booked in for retest next weds.

So stripped off the exhaust system. A scrappy back box was going to cost me 20€ so I took the system to my metal man for a battering.
I live down a 3 mile rough un made track. The exhaust gets a pummeling. Center section is only a year old but was developing cracks on the silencer in and out pipes. These got welded up and flitch plates added.
The back box tail pipe had cracks because I reversed into a stone block.
Pipe removed, new metal added and a new straight 2" pipe welded in, plus a flitch support. A small rust patch welded over. Chrome tailpipe boy racer style added!
All for the princely sum of....30€ TOTAL! Worth every penny and better than new.

Shoved it all back on with slop on the front joint behind the CAT and plenty on the 3 bolt flange (the gasket was a bit rotten).

Fired up, a small gas leak from one of the lambda sensors, nipped right up, more slop wiped around the front joint for good measure, nothing from the 3 bolt flange.

Sounded ok. Now I'll know if its gas tight if it don't pop through the pipe when decending the mountain. We'll see tomoz!