Not long now!

Rambling from the Sage of Oxford
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Charles
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Not long now!

Post by Charles » Sat Sep 28, 2013 2:38 pm

#049 has been "resting" for the last three weeks whilst the valve chest is being looked at to deal with what appears to be a lazy valve preventing the lock-up clutch from releasing appropriately.

This has been a progressive problem over the last few months and by adjusting my driving style I was able to manage it but, eventually, the gearbox decided that it was time for a proper fix when it chose to stay permanently in fault/limp mode rather than allowing a soft reset after occasional faults.

Having had the gearbox fully refurbed two years (and 40k miles) ago, I was initially somewhat disappointed that this has raised its head, but the use of a donor valve chest has confirmed the original diagnosis and the mechanicals are completely fine. At the time, the chest was cleaned up and bench-tested, so I guess one of the valves finally reached the end of it's useful working life since then - unsurprisingly after 230k miles of usage :shock:

In the meantime, I've been clocking up the miles in a V-plate, 1.4 Megane and I didn't realise how much I appreciated the easy power, Germanic comfort and switchtronic gear changes of the ALPINA.

As I said, not long now ... :D
Charles
Teacher of Chemistry and driver of ALPINAs - not necessarily in that order ;)
B3S Touring (49/116) - been to the moon and now on the way back!
Renault Grand Espace - not mine but the wife's!

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Charles
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Post by Charles » Sat Oct 19, 2013 8:00 pm

Spoke a little too soon, but #049 is finally back home and running beautifully :D

In the end we had two problems - firstly there was a troublesome shuttle valve in the valve chest which was preventing the lock-up clutch from disengaging quickly enough. Secondly, we also had a gearbox cooling problem as a result of changing the radiator and not spotting that the cooling channel to the gearbox oil intercooler was set to "manual gearbox". Both issues have now been adressed - requiring the valve chest to be sent away for repair and the radiator to be "set" properly.

Pleasantly, the valve chest repair itself was only £275 but once you include the labour for removing and reinstalling the chest and some new oil then the bill was about double that. Whilst the car was off the road, I took the opportunity to have the VANOS sorted out and now I have a rattle-free engine. The final bill for all this was £850

I also discovered that when under major load (don't ask what speed this required but it was all in the name of testing the gearbox) the oil reached a peak temperature of 120C and at sensible motorway speeds it settled at about 105C. Useful information, I'm sure, for someone at some stage down the line.

Only one more thing to get everything straight and that's to replace the auxiliary brake pump which has packed in and results in a hard brake pedal when stationary. As discovered elsewhere here, the part is also found on Volvos at about £50 but it does require removal of the inlet manifold. It's not a problem to me as it failed a while ago and I've got used to it so this can wait until the next head gasket replacement :shock:

Much as I enjoyed rattling around in the Megane, after a while I was yearning to get my car back and I am delighted to report that normal service is resumed :D
Charles
Teacher of Chemistry and driver of ALPINAs - not necessarily in that order ;)
B3S Touring (49/116) - been to the moon and now on the way back!
Renault Grand Espace - not mine but the wife's!

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