PaulS

Very similar to what happened to my C240 a few months back. That was a hole in an unseeable bit of the supposedly metal pipe. Pumping a lot whilst static showed where the puddle appeared on the ground so that gave me the clue of where to look. I guess the rear axle area towards the middle of the car in your case.... You regularly look at the calipers and would have seen a rotten looking bit of pipe there. Rather annoying though, wrong time of year, cold, dark & wet do replace an awkward to get at piece of pipe.... you have my sympathy. Kunifer is the right pipe material in my experience, although others use copper or stainless - sometimes even braided... just avoid mild steel (I am sure you know that anyhow)

Just as well you looked and found it. Not that many of us would have even looked unless there was some sort of wet patch underneath.... A saluatory warning to us all I think. Much better to spend a hour at home sorting it out than suffer the consequences and aggro of a roadside breakdown somewhere inconvenient at a very inconvenient time - bound to be at night in a dark place when it is raining!!

The heatedseats started working again yesterday, but for no apparent reason... I had fiddled aroud a bit a couple of days earlier, but they did not work after that, but yesterday they just worked again without me doing anything.... An ongoing mystery why they stop & start like this but, no doubt temporarily, I am happy again and will not poke & prod around again with them unless they stop working....

Some more options for you. I suggest you: slice a tight fitting grommet such that it is intact but with open sides, put a thin layer of silicon grease on the wire put the sliced grommet around the wire superglue the cut ends of the grommet together again & leave it to set, then you will have a slideable grommet around the wire. If it is too slack, you can use some more silcon grease . Alternative 1: put some silicon grease on teh wire before applying your Sikaflex. That way the wire will be removeable To fix the duff thread, I wonder if you could insert a correct size rivet nut in place of the duff thread (you can get these as rubber insetrts as well as alloy & steel.? Alternative 1: can you fit a helicoil insert of the right size for the existing bolt into the damaged thread? Alternative 2: mix some JB weld or similar into the damaged thread hole, let it set, and then drill & tap the JB weld with the correct tap to suit the bolt. Put silicon grease on the bolt before fitting. It is also possible, though fiddly, to lightly silicon the bolt, put JB weld around the silicon and ( being careful to not get any JB weld onto any unsiliconed part of the bolt) push the wet mess into the damaged thread. leave to set, then you should be able to simply unscrew the bolt. Any visible JBweld can be sanded or filed off once set. Of course you could use your Sikaflex in the same way - put a thin layer of silicon grease on the bolt first and then use your Sikaflex. The Sikaflex should stick to teh damaged thread and part form a new thread on your siliconed bolt. What I do not like about Sikaflex is that an tiny unnoticed drop of Sikaflex that goes somewhere you do not want is almost impossible to get off again. If you notice it in time - ie before it starts setting (and that does not take long!) it comes off with Glue & Tar remover....

You have the patience of a saint, but one without other options.....

Might be worth simply pulling off the live feed wire to the interior light and measuring again. I too have had that be an unexpected drain. You might then have the culprit and no need to look at the central locking.... fingers crossed....

Stu seemed to think it could be the multiplexor playing up, but needs to investigate a little more. However at present I think Stu has his hands full enough trying to sort out Ruby.... As both seats started and stopped working in tandem, it would seem to be power supply issue. Presumably both seat heaters are supplied from the same relay by the same power wire. But the signal to the relay telling it to switch on might not be delivered - and as far as I understand it - that is (in part) what the multiplexer delivers.

Well the temporary magic rebirth of my heated seats last weekend proved short lived.... they have stopped working again! The mystery continues. Must admit that I thought it a bit bizzare that the heated seats should both suddenly have started working again without anyone really doing anything other than swapping the relay (which seemed not to have achieved anything). Just for the record, the drivers door actuator which had also stopped working last weekend and started working properly again the following day is still working just fine. Well it would, thanks to Stu I have a good spare for that ready to install....

Is it feasible that the heat in a wire (or a short circuit occurring in the fire) could have damaged the ECU? Can you swap that out too?

I would have been interested (and close by too) - but I bought a spare set only recently....

I'm shocked! Not with your good work on the car but that such a thing happened - especially to you.. I seem to think that if it was not for bad luck, you would not be getting any luck at all recently... You might remember my earlier reference to a voodooo doll picking on me.... I guess it has another target now. Time to leave you alone too I think. Is there any possibility of transferring over good bits from Baldrick to replace burnt bits on Ruby? Hence Baldrick's demise could help Ruby live on.... Or is the fire devistation simply too great?

Might be asking granny to suck eggs here, but just in case I am wrong: Have you got a DC clamp meter (goes around power leads at the battery)? If not, can you put an ammeter between the battery and battery lead? If so, take a reading with everything turned off and doors locked closed. Is there any draw? Likley so, as clock , alarm etc running. Then check one load at a time - specifically looking for expected current draw related to the item switched on. Also note anything that when switched on does not draw any more current - if so that is the most likely suspect. I have had door courtesy light switches and radio etc continue to draw when supposedly off... When all else fails, can you fit a battery isolator until you do find the offending bit?

Must admit, I would rather know if I had serious enough rot in my cars that the jacking points would give way. I always lift one corner of my car at a time on my jacks to do any work underneath or on the wheels... If such rot is there and has to come to light, I'd much rather it appears in a workshop or on my path than when driving innocently along the road...

NSX?

Lets see what Stu has first - the main fob case seems fine....just need the opening cover I think....

Actually the back cover is not buggered - but as it does not close properly (and if I forced it shut, I might never open it again), I am worried that it might fall apart in my pocket and lose bits. Even if that does not happen, I might well get some muck inside and stop the thing working.... In itself the fob & cover is a trivial thing, but being out & about with the immobiliser set, bits lost in the dark, and no way to reset it might well prove disasterous if it happens....

The starter motor seems well hidden will little room to get a spanner / socket im. I guess there was a fair bit of dismatling required to get at it for a swap out? Or was it easier than it looks?

Thanks Stu - please put one out for me. I will try it there and then - otherwise it seems I'll have to try the one Pete found with a removable cover .. I doubt if I could get an eBay delivery before next Saturday anyhow... and it is not so urgent. I just want to sort it for the future.... I am intending to keep the Coupe until something major goes wrong - like a collapsed jacking point....

For a couple of weeks, I have had to get ever closer to my Coupe before my remote would open the doors.. Typical of a dying keyfob battery.... I have a good supply of CR25 batteries so I thought it would be a simple job to change mine. But could I get the fob's battery compartment to open? NO. Usually I use a coin to open these, but no coin I had would twist the compartment lid / lock from closed to open. Neither did any screwdriver do the job... Eventually, I used a hammer and punch to open it, Yes, the old fob battery was low.... Much better range with the new fob battery.... I am in the market for a new fob battery compartment cover so wondered if I buy a new pattern Honda fob, will that fit my original fob? I seem to remember some folk have upgraded their fobs and might have the experience to answer this... Any other ideas?

Guess you will now have a few parts available to fix Ruby.... hopefully it will properly run again soon.

What an absolute nightmare disaster. My heart bleeds for you after all that effort.... and being so near to getting it back on the road again. Still, not that it is much consolation, it is better that it died in your hands and not the week after you had sold it when you would have had to face an angry purchaser and suffer the fallout from that scenario. I feel sure that the spare parts will come in.... will have a think to see what I would like in my own spares kit (but not so flush at present after the unexpected heavy spending fixing my Merc last week). Perhaps we can discuss this next Saturday at the meet (assuming it is still on and that you have not become a suicide case after this mega disappointment....)

I really hate it when this type of failure sequence occurs, I have had more than my fair share of them too.... Luckily you have a good range of serviceable spares to hand and do not have to go searching the world for them to effect repairs.... and wait & wait for them to arrive and find the wrong one was sent....

Old cars always sem to be a challenge and unfortunately often not something for the faintheated - but at least we loose very little on depreciation! A neighbour bought a 12 month old supercharged Jag XF 2 years back and has already lost around £15k due to depreciation. And never forget just what a great car and what great value for money the coupe is. Do not give up! You could just sand back the rust, filler it over and hand brush colour on until you can afford the full job... Or - as you have already done so much.... How handy are you with a dremmel to cut out the rot? A mobile welder could probably patch in a piece of metal and you could hand paint it temporarily until you can afford a spray job... Just a thought.... Alternatively, you could perhaps consider buying another coupe without the rot and transfer all your good bits...

fingers crossed for you

It makes me wonder if anyone can actually refurb shocks? It must be a relatively simple process , a bit like brake calipers in a way... Plenty of hydraulic rams get refurbed....