What's made you not grumpy but not smile either today?

[StevenRB45]

Cars been a little bit wandery..

All things relative obviously but while it's not a precision instrument of speed and aerodynamics it's usually pretty happy to track straight.

I'll be honest not done tyres in a while, it's not moved much, and when it has it's not gone far.

But I'm off to see my sister tomorrow which involves some time on the A1 at 70 so thought I better give it a once over. Driver side tyres..both bob on, passenger side both 2 psi or so low.

No idea how that one has occurred, I'm either incredibly unlucky and have 2 slow punctures..or more likely when I last did the tyres.. passenger side had been in the sun and the drivers side is the side that's normally in the shade.

Hopefully be a bit happier to go in straight line now!

Oh and for fun...it's only a 3 cylinder how complex can it be?

That complex..

 

[The Panda Nut]

Cars been a little bit wandery..

All things relative obviously but while it's not a precision instrument of speed and aerodynamics it's usually pretty happy to track straight.

I'll be honest not done tyres in a while, it's not moved much, and when it has it's not gone far.

But I'm off to see my sister tomorrow which involves some time on the A1 at 70 so thought I better give it a once over. Driver side tyres..both bob on, passenger side both 2 psi or so low.

No idea how that one has occurred, I'm either incredibly unlucky and have 2 slow punctures..or more likely when I last did the tyres.. passenger side had been in the sun and the drivers side is the side that's normally in the shade.

Hopefully be a bit happier to go in straight line now!

Oh and for fun...it's only a 3 cylinder how complex can it be?

That complex..

View attachment 420583

A couple of PSI is entirely usual and probably within the differencesexpected between readings with relatively crude home equipment and even sun on a couple of tyres raising the pressure.. It will probably be the other side low next time! Thats an odd egine..... Its NO PANDA!!

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

A couple of PSI is entirely usual and probably within the differencesexpected between readings with relatively crude home equipment and even sun on a couple of tyres raising the pressure.. It will probably be the other side low next time! Thats an odd egine..... Its NO PANDA!!

We always park nose in towards the house so the N/S gets the sunshine until late morning. Like you Steven, the N/S will be around 2psi higher than the O/S if checked after the sun has been on them for a while. I try to only check them when it's not a sunny day or in the afternoon/evening when they will not have had the sun on them.

Oh and for fun...it's only a 3 cylinder how complex can it be?

That complex..

View attachment 420583

Yeh, that looks quite cramped, maybe not as much so as a new mini though?

My wee Ibiza is a 3 "lung" device too. It's really not bad for access, once you get rid of the air cleaner and it's trunking (easily done, minimum of tooling needed) the coil packs etc are all easily dealt with:

There's good access down the front so dealing with an alternator looks very doable

That plated metal thing at the top of the picture, with the pipes going to it, is the coolant regulated charge cooler (intercooler).

Lots of room too at the flywheel end which makes getting at the externally mounted (I'm pleased to say) clutch slave cylinder easy to get at:-

And lastly, what do you think the small shiny cylindrical thing lower left in this last picture is? It's the thing sitting at about 10 o'clock in relation to the blue screenwash cap with a black hose coming out of it? It took me a wee while to figure out what it was when I first opened the bonnet after buying her.

Did you get it? It's a vacuum pump and that hose tees into the supply to the brake servo. But why? some may be asking themselves. Well, it's a turboed engine so whenever the motor is on boost, even a very low boost like when cruising on a motorway for instance, there will be no manifold vacuum to give brake assist. Took me more than a minute or so to figure it out though but then I realised it's quite like the setup on a turbo diesel - although many of them will have a mechanically driven pump whereas the Ibiza's is electrically driven.

One thing that annoys me just a little bit is that you have to take the air filter right off the engine to renew the filter element. The little torx screws that hold the casing together - you can see the wee molded "lugs" on the sides of the casing in the pictures - are inserted from the bottom. If they were put in from the top it would make filter changes a doddle. Seems silly too as the only other reason you'd want to take the casing off the engine is to get to the plugs and they should last for several filter changes being as how they are the Iridium type.

 

[StevenRB45]

We always park nose in towards the house so the N/S gets the sunshine until late morning. Like you Steven, the N/S will be around 2psi higher than the O/S if checked after the sun has been on them for a while. I try to only check them when it's not a sunny day or in the afternoon/evening when they will not have had the sun on them.

Yeh, that looks quite cramped, maybe not as much so as a new mini though?

My wee Ibiza is a 3 "lung" device too. It's really not bad for access, once you get rid of the air cleaner and it's trunking (easily done, minimum of tooling needed) the coil packs etc are all easily dealt with:

View attachment 420665

There's good access down the front so dealing with an alternator looks very doable

View attachment 420666

That plated metal thing at the top of the picture, with the pipes going to it, is the coolant regulated charge cooler (intercooler).

Lots of room too at the flywheel end which makes getting at the externally mounted (I'm pleased to say) clutch slave cylinder easy to get at:-

View attachment 420667

And lastly, what do you think the small shiny cylindrical thing lower left in this last picture is? It's the thing sitting at about 10 o'clock in relation to the blue screenwash cap with a black hose coming out of it? It took me a wee while to figure out what it was when I first opened the bonnet after buying her.

View attachment 420668

Did you get it? It's a vacuum pump and that hose tees into the supply to the brake servo. But why? some may be asking themselves. Well, it's a turboed engine so whenever the motor is on boost, even a very low boost like when cruising on a motorway for instance, there will be no manifold vacuum to give brake assist. Took me more than a minute or so to figure it out though but then I realised it's quite like the setup on a turbo diesel - although many of them will have a mechanically driven pump whereas the Ibiza's is electrically driven.

One thing that annoys me just a little bit is that you have to take the air filter right off the engine to renew the filter element. The little torx screws that hold the casing together - you can see the wee molded "lugs" on the sides of the casing in the pictures - are inserted from the bottom. If they were put in from the top it would make filter changes a doddle. Seems silly too as the only other reason you'd want to take the casing off the engine is to get to the plugs and they should last for several filter changes being as how they are the Iridium type.

Ah this being french...you just pull a piece of sound proofing off to get to the spark plugs and coils normally it's all hidden. Suspect the large brown item on the top is the vacuums pump..


The air filter is down the front behind the headlamps and is 2 clips.

The water to air intercooler is interesting, one of the reasons for ours looking so packed is it's an air to air intercooler. You can see the hot and cold boost pipes running to the cooler on the drivers side which is behind the front bumper.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Brake fluid reservoir is a little difficult to access on the Ibiza (top left of my first and fourth pics, (yellow cap "hiding" amongst the pipes) Not too bad with a funnel, but hopeless direct from the container.

 

[StevenRB45]

Brake fluid reservoir is a little difficult to access on the Ibiza (top left of my first and fourth pics, (yellow cap "hiding" amongst the pipes) Not too bad with a funnel, but hopeless direct from the container.

Took me a while to spot it!

In general most things are easy to get in terms of service bits on ours, panel on the top literally pulls and off it comes. Cabin filter is behind the grille with the clips top left, air filter black box bottom right, again some clips, spark plugs and coils are one bolt. Oil filter is no bother either.

The weird one is the negative battery terminal. It's blocked by the start start capacitor (silver brick on top of the battery). So naturally they fitted a remote one...on the drivers side wing first place you'd look

It's none servicing on it I fear..if you look carefully at the boost pipes they were marked up so when it came apart for the valve clean it would go back together the same way. Understand most of what I'm looking it...but she's very busy under there.

The water to air intercooler in the Seat really tidies it up. You've only got one direction of piping, should help the turbo lag as well. Ours has got to pressurise a lot bigger area.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

The water to air intercooler in the Seat really tidies it up. You've only got one direction of piping, should help the turbo lag as well. Ours has got to pressurise a lot bigger area.

Turbo lag is pretty minimal throttle response under most driving conditions is very good, you really don't notice anything. Where you do notice it is if you are being "silly" - for instance, near my younger boy is a large new school/community centre/library complex, all on the one site. We take the grandchildren swimming there most Tuesdays after school. On the approach roads around it there are multiple examples of very aggressive sleeping policeman (full width) speed bumps (more accurately speed mountains!) Hit them too fast and they'll take the front bumper off just before they launch you into orbit as the shockers bottom out! Consequently I select second gear as I approach them and let the revs die to tickover which equates to about 9mph. She goes over very nicely at that but when you put your foot on the throttle nothing really happens until you're about a car length past them. I've found if I apply a fair bit of throttle just as the front wheels clear the bump acceleration comes in as the rear wheels have cleared the "obstruction" and are back on the flat. This only happens if you let the revs drop off to lower than about 1,500 rpm otherwise there's just about no detectable lag.

Edit. Meant to say mine also has a remote negative connector battery terminal but it's mounted right beside the battery on the inner wing. Couldn't see the logic behind it because the terminal on the battery is readily accessible. Then I learned all about the wee battery condition monitoring thingy (which you can see on the negative terminal clamp) and how you mustn't connect chargers or jump leads (jump leads if you are very brave or foolhardy I presume) directly to the battery. All then became clear.

 

[StevenRB45]

Turbo lag is pretty minimal throttle response under most driving conditions is very good, you really don't notice anything. Where you do notice it is if you are being "silly" - for instance, near my younger boy is a large new school/community centre/library complex, all on the one site. We take the grandchildren swimming there most Tuesdays after school. On the approach roads around it there are multiple examples of very aggressive sleeping policeman (full width) speed bumps (more accurately speed mountains!) Hit them too fast and they'll take the front bumper off just before they launch you into orbit as the shockers bottom out! Consequently I select second gear as I approach them and let the revs die to tickover which equates to about 9mph. She goes over very nicely at that but when you put your foot on the throttle nothing really happens until you're about a car length past them. I've found if I apply a fair bit of throttle just as the front wheels clear the bump acceleration comes in as the rear wheels have cleared the "obstruction" and are back on the flat. This only happens if you let the revs drop off to lower than about 1,500 rpm otherwise there's just about no detectable lag.

Edit. Meant to say mine also has a remote negative connector battery terminal but it's mounted right beside the battery on the inner wing. Couldn't see the logic behind it because the terminal on the battery is readily accessible. Then I learned all about the wee battery condition monitoring thingy (which you can see on the negative terminal clamp) and how you mustn't connect chargers or jump leads (jump leads if you are very brave or foolhardy I presume) directly to the battery. All then became clear.

You can see how it's a good idea in light duty applications, assume the turbo is round the back, black pipe coming round is the charge tube, straight into the cooler and I assume the cooler is basically bolted to the inlet ports. Not a large area at all to build boost in, should do so quickly. Compared the route ours takes...out of the turbo, into what appears to be a resonator..down to the front bumper, into the intercooler, out of the intercooler back round the other side of the engine round the corner and into the inlet side.

Which does somewhat beg the question why you would you use air to air? but I think the answer lies in that this the smallest car this engine is fitted to. If it had a water to air set up in say a Peugeot 5008 and you were going up a motorway hill fully laden, that's a lot of heat to dump into just the radiator, especially given the position of the cooler means it'll get heat soaked off the block and raise coolant temperatures further. In VW land bigger car gets a 1.4..in PSA they just turn the boost up so it needs to deal with it.

At least if I need any turbo work it's front and centre..though I live in fear of a slight frontal impact as the clearance between radiator and turbo is minimal.



Battery wise I've generally been quite glad of the capacitor, despite the car standing for long periods in the past it seems to have kept the battery in decent condition and the stop start working no bother. If memory it takes the high charge voltages from the variable alternator and also any transient load and then feeds the battery with anything it doesn't need so the battery has less work on it.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

You can see how it's a good idea in light duty applications, assume the turbo is round the back, black pipe coming round is the charge tube, straight into the cooler and I assume the cooler is basically bolted to the inlet ports. Not a large area at all to build boost in, should do so quickly. Compared the route ours takes...out of the turbo, into what appears to be a resonator..down to the front bumper, into the intercooler, out of the intercooler back round the other side of the engine round the corner and into the inlet side.

Which does somewhat beg the question why you would you use air to air? but I think the answer lies in that this the smallest car this engine is fitted to. If it had a water to air set up in say a Peugeot 5008 and you were going up a motorway hill fully laden, that's a lot of heat to dump into just the radiator, especially given the position of the cooler means it'll get heat soaked off the block and raise coolant temperatures further. In VW land bigger car gets a 1.4..in PSA they just turn the boost up so it needs to deal with it.

At least if I need any turbo work it's front and centre..though I live in fear of a slight frontal impact as the clearance between radiator and turbo is minimal.



Battery wise I've generally been quite glad of the capacitor, despite the car standing for long periods in the past it seems to have kept the battery in decent condition and the stop start working no bother. If memory it takes the high charge voltages from the variable alternator and also any transient load and then feeds the battery with anything it doesn't need so the battery has less work on it.

Yup. The turbo is quite high up on the back of the engine. If you look at the third picture down that I posted you can see the outlet from the air filter which sits feeds right into the turbo inlet. As you correctly identified the "charge tube" is indeed that black pipe running forward alongside the air filter case and the intercooler is basically the inlet manifold, bolting directly to the ports. It probably has about a third, maybe less, of the volume my old 1.9 VE TDI had which had an air to air cooler low down at the front almost under the rad and lots of big diameter pipes running all over the place.

The turbo itself would be a bit difficult to work on - and she had to have a new one in her second year of life due to the wastegate actuating linkage seizing solid. Luckily warranty took care of that and the new one has a different design of connectors (more like rose joints) and, so far has been fine. Although I wouldn't want to have to work on it what with it being down the back, it does mean the exhaust is, so far, showing very little signs of rust - unlike the Panda with it's exhaust on the front where it gets a full on blast of rain and road salt.

I like the idea of your capacitor. That makes a lot of sense for stop start. Must admit I tend to cancel stop/start all the time. My reasoning is that doing that saves the battery, starter and it's solenoid, ring gear/pinion and I like the idea that the oil supply to the turbo is not being continually stop/started too. I don't like the idea of some heat sink effect going on due to fluids flows being interrupted although I know mine has a secondary electric water pump which circulates coolant round the turbo - yes it's water cooled too I believe - when the engine stops. Oh dear, so much to potentially go wrong!

 

[PuntoHowTo]

Yeh, that looks quite cramped, maybe not as much so as a new mini though?

While the little Mini's are a little tightly packed I'm not sure they're worse than any other modern care these days. My Punto EVO was terrible and you could not take the oil filter out without drenching the subframe in oil.

I'll try and get a pic under the bonnet of our countryman there is loads of room under the bonnet of that car.

These days engines are designed as a "package" so even on a car with a big engine bay if there is another car uses the same engine in a much smaller space the "engine package" tends to be the same from one car to another so even where there is a lot of space the engine itself can still be tightly packed.

 

[StevenRB45]

While the little Mini's are a little tightly packed I'm not sure they're worse than any other modern care these days. My Punto EVO was terrible and you could not take the oil filter out without drenching the subframe in oil.

I'll try and get a pic under the bonnet of our countryman there is loads of room under the bonnet of that car.

These days engines are designed as a "package" so even on a car with a big engine bay if there is another car uses the same engine in a much smaller space the "engine package" tends to be the same from one car to another so even where there is a lot of space the engine itself can still be tightly packed.

Having read this I thought I'd Google aforementioned 5008.. expecting it to have enough space in the engine bay to stand next to the engine...

Huh??? Other than the sound proofing I'd removed..and slightly different placement of the washer bottle..(expansion tank is probably identically placed just the bay is deeper) and ECU being next to battery rather than in front that is an identical set up the first foot of this car must be just empty

 

[portland_bill]

Once again, next door are having work done to the house. Easy when it is owned by a housing association!
But why do tradesmen always park their vans nose in? Then spend so much time walking the length of the van to get stuff out of the rear. Reverse it in, everything is closer, and more secure, rather than having the open van at the kerbside. And safer for all when departing.

 

[bugsymike]

Once again, next door are having work done to the house. Easy when it is owned by a housing association!
But why do tradesmen always park their vans nose in? Then spend so much time walking the length of the van to get stuff out of the rear. Reverse it in, everything is closer, and more secure, rather than having the open van at the kerbside. And safer for all when departing.

100% agree I always taught my daughters, back in and drive out. You can be waiting for ages in Supermarket car parks for some drivers.
The only time not to is if asked, where they have a nice white painted wall.
We used to have a saying that someone "Couldn't drive a stick up a cows behind"

 

[portland_bill]

100% agree I always taught my daughters, back in and drive out. You can be waiting for ages in Supermarket car parks for some drivers.
The only time not to is if asked, where they have a nice white painted wall.
We used to have a saying that someone "Couldn't drive a stick up a cows behind"

I do have to park the Doblo face-in, which does hurt. If I reverse it onto the drive, I cant load the wheelchair, as the drive is not long enough. With it facing in, I can drop the ramp, which nearly meets the footpath, and can run the chair around and in easily. Necessary, but still uncomfortable every time I loom out the window at it.

 

[PuntoHowTo]

Yeh, that looks quite cramped, maybe not as much so as a new mini though?

Ok, I’ll take it back
You can barely get a hand anywhere around this thing.

In my defence I don’t open the bonnet much the computer tells you if fluids are low no dipstick and it has a winter pack with an enormous washer bottler ?4-5 litres so not much need to check under the bonnet.

This is the 150bhp 2.0 litre diesel

 

[portland_bill]

The Doblo seems to have lots of space around the engine, which is handy, as I'll have to replace an oxygen sensor early next week. Might have to stand on tiptoe to reach though.

 

[StevenRB45]

Dobbin went up to a 1.6 or 2.0d if memory serves. 1.4 petrol would be significantly smaller in both terms of block and required ancillaries so should be loads of room around it.

 

[StevenRB45]

We always park nose in towards the house so the N/S gets the sunshine until late morning. Like you Steven, the N/S will be around 2psi higher than the O/S if checked after the sun has been on them for a while. I try to only check them when it's not a sunny day or in the afternoon/evening when they will not have had the sun on them.

Hmm unfortunately doesn't seem to be that.

Got mildly bitten on the bum by not performing a check before an unplanned longer trip.

Happily rolled down to the A1 but as soon as it was up on the motorway "bleep" tyre pressure light, "Adjust all 4 tyre pressures and re-initialise". Which is car speak for "you've got a puncture Dingus but I'm not telling you which one".

Given I'd been driving for 20 mins or so all the tyres weren't cold so no point referring to cold pressure. Fronts were 34 and 34.5 nah that's not gonna be it. Rears were 34 and 29...29 will be the winner then.

Blew it up to 34...to match the other but I know they are gonna be all over the shop as the one that was 34 was warm to the touch the 29 was stone cold, so likely much closer if they were both the same temp. Of course when I came back to the car end of day..the sun had been on the other side so the differential was pretty much reversed.

Will square them up tomorrow...then I'm sure end up trying to crowbar it into somewhere for a puncture repair before bank holiday weekend. Usually I can spot a nail hanging out of a tyre but been round it and no.

It should be around 34 front and 32 rear..them all being 34 warm doesn't particularly make sense at all either.

 

[The Panda Nut]

TV chnannels that broadcast adverts sound at 2000dB but the films at 2dB. What exactly is the matter with them....

 

[StevenRB45]

TV chnannels that broadcast adverts sound at 2000dB but the films at 2dB. What exactly is the matter with them....

So you can hear them in the kitchen

Puncture is irreparable apparently a stick/bit of wood has gone through the sidewall..

Will add that to the to-do list then.