chris r

Stumbled across some old Korean videos on YouTube Might need to re index the torsion bars in the front and find some shorter springs for the rear

Speedo was doing stupid things and when I revved the engine in park it'd say I was doing 20k. Trans also felt like it was trying to take off in second and wasn't shifting nicely I thought there may be leaky caps or dry solder joints in the transmission computer. Whipped it out as it was only under the passengers seat. Looks mint, did a quick and dirty re flow on solder joints on the header plug and stuck it back in Ssangyong barry forum said the tps are common to shit the bed or come out of adjustment and its fairly common for the speedo sensor wiring to have issues. Checked tps and it was within spec and the voltage didn't jump all over the show when it moved through its range so that's ruled out. Crawled under and had a look Initially looked okay when I unplugged it so I dug a bit deeper Yeah that's not quite right De pinned the connector and put some heat shrink on https://i.imgur.com/vIe9Uhc.jpeg And more for good luck Put it all back together Got annoyed at the diesel oil schmutz on stuff so took it to wash world on the way home Now I can figure out where it's actually leaking from. Bonus it'll be less dirty when I fondle the injection pump and wastgate hose. The transmission now actually shifts like it should and doesn't feel like it's slipping or doing dumb stuff. It's less slow now the transmission knows what gear to be in and torque converter lockup operates

If its going to be slow it may as well be cool (inside) Chucked the gauges on and it had sfa pressure. Had a small top up can so shoved it in Compressor and TX valve are doing what they should so I'll get another couple of cans and see how it goes. Sticker says system charge is 750g. Cans are about 250g from what I can find so I'll get two more and see if it starts cooling

Thought maybe exhaust was blocked so I unbolted it Still slow. Spotted a fuel hose that had been replaced with a vacuum hose that had gone to shit as its not diesel rated So I replaced it with another vacuum hose and it'll be future Chris problem I thought possibly some air was getting in through the shit hose and causing the lack of power. Nope still slow Repco $7 clearance air filter was wrong and the other listings were much more than I wanted to spend Turbo and intercooler had a decent coating of pcv schmutz so I'll find my alix catch can and plumb that in at some point Had a moment of excitement after changing the fuel hose Thought it was going to run away, pulled the feed line to the injection pump and it turned off thankfully. Turns out it had a split vacuum tee to the pump so jammed it back in and it turned off

Behold It's less ugly than I was expecting. I don't actually hate it, and you can't see most of it from inside so it doesn't matter Mm plastic fake wood Sideways extra seat for max carsick Doesn't go hard for what it is. Well it's got 1/3 the power of the wagon so it's probably where it should be tbh. Ac doesn't blow cold so I'll look into that when the egr falls off

Semi kept it in the mercedes family Seller is leaving the country so met in a park, looked at the oil, took it for a drive around the block and made a offer. I should take possession after dropping them to the airport

Can't be driving a vehicle with no wof so time for another shit box. 5 cylinder 4wd turbo sounded like a good idea as a daily

Just been doing daily stuff and wafting along in semi luxury. Failed a wof so as a Mercedes owner means time to buy another car right? It's s had a small clunk for a while, I've had a arm in stock but didn't check the ball joint so have ordered it and will do both. Tyres I know, been keeping a eye for a set of 19" wheels that fit slightly better

Pretty sure I've got most of a box of muffler packing kicking around if you want to steal some

Got lucky at zebra the other day and a concerto had come in, same ac lines as other ef Civic stuff but it's a concerto so noone wants bits off it. Got the un cut factory lines and reciever drier mount so I don't have to run my welded mess. Found a new reciever drier locally too https://imgur.com/a/AFYji47

My low voltage cutout worked, my fucked 3ah battery lasted a good 8 hours so pretty happy with that. The voltage booster let its magic smoke out so I'll have to get another one

Finally got around to installing the low voltage cut off relay into the Bluetooth speaker (I've already cooked one battery from it going under voltage. Tidied some of the cabling up while I was in there Will give it a good test tomorrow at work and will see how long a battery lasts

crunchy plugs were crunchy. I tried being nice and de-pinning the coil plugs but it ended up being easier to snip them apart with my flush cutters I'm glad I got 8 replacement plugs as they were all pretty brittle. Put it all back together and no misfires (not that it had any before) so that is a win

New genuine coil plugs (same as cam sensor plugs on other vehicles) and some trim clips to stop the trim falling off every time I open the doors. The barry in me was hoping for Mercedes branded bags similar to the Honda stuff @Raizer found me a nos boot tie down anchor kit on up garage for mega cheap. (freight was killer though) Had a nice box waiting for me on the doorstep yesterday

The car came with a phone kit from factory but that's long since redundant. I carefully disassembled the center console lid and removed the old phone mount thing Carefully trimmed the mount so the usb charger would fit Same deal, soldered wires on and screwed it back together Clipped back into the base Fished the cable through and connected to the cigarette lighter feed And all reassembled Factory cap even fits over the top

Orderd a couple of bits from alix and the courier must have had the waste gate welded shut. I ordered a couple of usb charger boards, cup holder and a Bluetooth to 3.5mm aux jack adaptor. The wagon has a factory aux in jack in the glove box and I wanted a clean looking installation. Soldered on some wire to the jacks Covered the lot in heat shrink. Fished the wire through to the cigarette lighter. Tapped into that and hid the whole lot behind the glove box light And put everything back into the glove box. Yes that's a hardback 4B1 notebook as it'd be rude not to continue with the barry notes and stack of receipts

Mine didn't come with the Scandinavian option so I'm a bit disappointed there. It is a really nice place to be and quite nice to drive (even in Auckland traffic) had it a hour out of town and it's so comfortable for touring Secondary de cat and possibly center resonator delete and replace with a x pipe is on the cards. Seems like I've got the quiet taxi spec mufflers as can't even hear it. I don't want it super loud but no point in having a v8 and not being able to hear the exhaust note

@Raizer is going look at making some links for his au so if they work out I'll get him to make me a set. Will wait until the tyres are more worn before they get sacrificed as I'm a tight arse I'm aware it'll potientally be expensive for now the comfort is worth it/ it'll be future me problem and when it breaks down I'll have a nice leather seat to nap in I felt a bit bad loading this lot into it but wagons are for hauling stuff at the end of the day

Spark plugs are not often changed on these and there are 16 of them so they don't often get changed and cause issues. I found a couple of write ups saying they are a mission but they weren't too bad, if engine was hot it'd suck as your arm needs to go along the manifold. It turns out a previous owner had changed them which is good to know Rock auto ftw Broke a couple of coil plugs but new genuine are cheaper than a aftermarket pigtail so I've orderd a replacement set. Yes the air suspension is going to fail at some point. Rock auto have struts for a small fortune and it's easy enough to change.

After picking up @Raizer new au and falling for the power and lush air suspension I wanted something similar. Criteria was German v8 wagon because wagons are awesome. Had a nosey around and saw this E 500 on trademe. Went and had a look and a deal was done. M113 v8 and 7 speed auto so goes hard for what it is Had some tints installed Previous owner just had a $6k service done. Engine mounts and rocker cover gaskets, rear tyres and a alignment. It's come with a stack of receipts and barry notes from a past owner

Orthia has been sold and will be on its way to the new owner at some point this week. New daily has been acquired (E500 merc wagon)

The orthia is now on marketplace. I've got my eye on another car which is most likely a stupid daily and a liability but where's the fun in that

Boring daily maintenance update. Replaced the trans fluid with liquid moly stuff and found the crush washer I ordered and forgot to install last time. That hopefully had fixed the weep I thought was a axle seal on the trans. I've noticed a small bit of oil sitting on the transmission and corner of the head gasket and kept cleaning and ignoring it. Finally had a look and it was distributor o ring. Finally got around to replacing it so that should be fixed now

Saw zebra had a ef Civic so grabbed a spare bonnet slam panel and lower rad support to replace the one that's on the car and slightly sad. Also got a battery tray incase making a sealed enclosure in the boot ends up in the too hard basket And did a couple of things on the orthia. Finally got around to replacing the broken door handle Saw someone parting out a prelude and it didn't have the ugly cruise control buttons so grabbed a spare steering wheel for the shroud Much cleaner now without the buttons

Am I able to replace that lower bumper support section with a bit of box section? Or does it have to be oem? And what's the deal with trimming /making existing holes bigger. And would using intercooler to replace the vertical bonnet catch section be okay