New 1996 Legend owner

[Laird_Scooby]

It's what it always boils down to - bad management by the Peers of the Realm who inserted their digits in the collective BL/BMC/BLMC/AR/ARG/RG pie and royally screwed it over quashing developments of newer, better cars with a real future financially in favour of keeping cars that should have been pensioned off at birth, never mind given an 8 year lifespan and then an expensive Italian Designer makeover that changed the headlamps, tail lamps and bumpers and a few other minor details to give it a 2 year stay of execution.

[SteveThackery]

Cryistic writes: "SD2 and P7 were great cars killed off to find the money to update the bloody Marina..."

 

....into the "Ital"!   God, what a crap car that was.  A re-shelled Morris Minor, basically.

 

Thanks, Cryistic, for reminding me of the details.  I'd forgotten that Rover and Triumph were with Leyland, and Austin et al were with BMC (I can't remember calling them 'BMH' but I'm sure you are correct).

 

There were some very impressive cars in the Rover and Triumph stable - in a totally different class from BMC - and it is sad that they got pulled down with the rest.

[Mazda Man]

:lol:  You're not wrong about the Morris Ital, Steve.  What a bag of steaming #%@.  As was the Marina...oh dear.  Here's another one I remember seeing in a book at my local Waterstones once called '50 Crapest Cars Ever Made'................The Austin Princess.  Pretty sure the Allegro was in there too with it's square steering wheel!  :lol:

[V6vtec]

lol with the Marina Coupe too lol I agree Geoff, not my cup of tea either.

[Mazda Man]

:lol:  

[Cryistic]

I quite like the Princess (darling) they are a wafty old barge but the ride is good if the spheres have any fluid in them and they feel light and airy, shame they were "assembled" by some feckless Brummie

They look good in the Wolsley 18-22 guise with twin lights, there was also a couple of awesome looking estate conversions kicking about.

[Mazda Man]

Sigh...useless Brummies, eh.  Hang on....I'm a brummie.....alllllroight, bostin. 

[Mazda Man]

Steve - Any news yet regarding your Legend and what Plan you will be contemplating?

[V6vtec]

I cant stop laughing, and ford at Dagenham. I used to live down the road from ford in the 1970's 80's and they made some amazing cars like the orion and Cortina estate pmsl.

[Cryistic]

Found the Princess estate conversion, given some thought for production at the time apparently, I think it's a good looking motor

http://www.aronline.co.uk/blogs/concepts/concepts-and-prototypes/concepts-and-prototypes-triplex-10-20-glassback/

Let's hope he's outside admiring the quality of his new car not downing a beer to drown his sorrows.

[V6vtec]

And me being an Essex boy, come on Tracey you've pulled put your coat on darlin :lol: :lol:

[V6vtec]

beautiful car lol :D :D blinking beaudiful gorgeous

[SteveThackery]

Steve - Any news yet regarding your Legend and what Plan you will be contemplating?

 

Hi, mate.  No, I deliberately didn't ring today to see if they would ring me, but they didn't. Tomorrow morning I'll be ringing them.

 

I can't believe it can take so long to change an ABS unit.  I suspect the garage they are using doesn't know what they are doing.  

 

 

Anyway, I'll probably have some news tomorrow.  

[SteveThackery]

I quite like the Princess (darling) they are a wafty old barge but the ride is good if the spheres have any fluid in them and they feel light and airy, shame they were "assembled" by some feckless Brummie

 

Actually, my dad bought one from new and it wasn't all bad.  The interior space was excellent - far better than its competitors from Ford et al, and I think the suspension was rather good.

 

His had that grunty old B series engine, which was probably OK in its day but way past its useful life by the time the Princess came out.

 

There was one massive thing about them, though: built down to a price (crappy parts) and simply appalling problems with corrosion.  My dad had his car Ziebart treated from new, which you may recall was a pretty comprehensive treatment.  Comprehensive, maybe, but certainly not effective.  The car rotted like a corpse.  At just seven years old it had gaping holes in the floorpan.  Ziebart paid out and then promptly went bust.  I think the car was scrapped a year or two later.

[hughezee]

Hi, mate.  No, I deliberately didn't ring today to see if they would ring me, but they didn't. Tomorrow morning I'll be ringing them.

 

I can't believe it can take so long to change an ABS unit.  I suspect the garage they are using doesn't know what they are doing.  

 

 

Anyway, I'll probably have some news tomorrow.  

 

Yeah please keep us posted m8y and ABS pumps are not hard to do its the bleeding process that throws some monkeys (mechanics) as it can take up to three attempts to purge the pump of air with the engine running if they are bleeding it old skool e,g with the pump not powered it will never bleed properly

[SteveThackery]

Hey, I gotta tell you about a brilliant fault my dad's Princess had.  The symptoms were that it would start and run just fine until it went up a hill.  Then it would misfire and eventually cut out.  Eventually it got to the point where it would cut out even just facing up hill, without even moving.

 

I won't bore you with the long story of failed diagnoses and cut to the actual fault.  The ignition coil was mounted horizontally with the contacts and HT lead facing towards the front of the car.  Due to a poorly designed bracket* the coil rubbed against something adjacent and eventually a tiny pin hole appeared, out of which the oil inside the coil began slowly to dribble, depleting the amount inside the coil.  When the car was facing up hill, the remaining oil ran to the back of the coil, exposing the high tension post inside the coil, which then sparked internally to one of the other electrodes.  Face the car downhill, and the oil would immerse the high voltage parts and insulate them again.

 

So the cure was a simple coil change and a rearranged bracket.  I seem to recall that later cars had a different arrangement for mounting the coil.

 

*I seem to recall the coil was mounted on the engine, and thus suffered considerable vibration which made the rubbing worse.

[Laird_Scooby]

Yeah please keep us posted m8y and ABS pumps are not hard to do its the bleeding process that throws some monkeys (mechanics) as it can take up to three attempts to purge the pump of air with the engine running if they are bleeding it old skool e,g with the pump not powered it will never bleed properly

 

Can you clarify that please Stu? The way i've just read the bit about bleeding the ABS it's self-contradictory - could just be me. Are you saying the engine should be running so the ABS system is powered and vacuum is present at the servo?

 

Steve - looking forward to a good result on your Legend!!!

[Laird_Scooby]

I quite like the Princess (darling) they are a wafty old barge but the ride is good if the spheres have any fluid in them and they feel light and airy, shame they were "assembled" by some feckless Brummie

They look good in the Wolsley 18-22 guise with twin lights, there was also a couple of awesome looking estate conversions kicking about.

 

I had a couple of Ambassadors (facelifted Princess), pretty good motors with the "O" series lump in them. Won't set the world on fire in terms of performance but definitely a comfy ride trying!

My dad also had one as a company car from new - with a faulty battery! Was an absolute pig to start first thing in the morning until one wednesday the battery went bang and i mean bang! The sunday after i opened the bonnet to check the oil etc and discovered half a battery! Following morning it wouldn't start at all so a hire car was delivered and the Ambassador taken off to have a new battery. Was good as gold after that for the short time he kept it. By rights he was entitled to a 2.0 GL or 1.6 GLS in his job and the Ambassador was a 1.7HL - oops! The cock up came about as he originally opted for a Cortina 2.0 GL but Ford pulled the plug on it as the Sierra was due to be launched soon. So he said he would have the Ambassador instead. The irony was, the day he picked up the replacement for it which was a Cavalier 1.6 GLS (first of the Mk2 GLS saloons) was 1/12/82 or the day Ford launched the Sierra or at least released it to fleet buyers. He was happy with the Cavalier though, once he got some decent plugs in the thing!

[SteveThackery]

I never imagined my "Hi, I've just bought a Legend" post cause a three page discussion!  

 

The reason I say that is because I can see it extending to four pages.......

 

The dealer just rang.  They've fitted the new ABS unit and guess what - the ABS light is still coming on.  So now they've decided to order a new ECU for the ABS.  This is their last throw of the dice, they reckon, and if that doesn't work they'll give up, reverse the deal and sell it on through the trade.  I've suggested that I might still consider buying it for trade money (or a little more, we'll see).

 

Anyway, by the time the ECU has arrived and been fitted it'll most likely be Monday!  

[Laird_Scooby]

Have they removed the fuse to clear the fault code memory? Could still be showing a fault even though the fault has been cleared.

 

Personally i think they should bypass the "middle man" (no offence Steve) and send it direct to Stu to be fixed. They foot the bill, your car gets fixed, Stu gets more work - win/win/win!!!

 

 

I never imagined my "Hi, I've just bought a Legend" post cause a three page discussion!  

 

The reason I say that is because I can see it extending to four pages.......

 

The dealer just rang.  They've fitted the new ABS unit and guess what - the ABS light is still coming on.  So now they've decided to order a new ECU for the ABS.  This is their last throw of the dice, they reckon, and if that doesn't work they'll give up, reverse the deal and sell it on through the trade.  I've suggested that I might still consider buying it for trade money (or a little more, we'll see).

 

Anyway, by the time the ECU has arrived and been fitted it'll most likely be Monday!  

 

 

Yeah, but which Monday??????? :lol: :lol:

[hughezee]

All sounds very odd to me, these units on this vintage of legend do suffer niggles and are very sensitive to wide variation of things and if they haven't got the test procedure they will never find the fault and swapping parts is an expensive gamble

[Mazda Man]

 

I never imagined my "Hi, I've just bought a Legend" post cause a three page discussion!  

 

The reason I say that is because I can see it extending to four pages.......

 

The dealer just rang.  They've fitted the new ABS unit and guess what - the ABS light is still coming on.  So now they've decided to order a new ECU for the ABS.  This is their last throw of the dice, they reckon, and if that doesn't work they'll give up, reverse the deal and sell it on through the trade.  I've suggested that I might still consider buying it for trade money (or a little more, we'll see).

 

Anyway, by the time the ECU has arrived and been fitted it'll most likely be Monday!  

 

   That's the joy of this forum, Steve.  Unlike other forums where you just get (try to get) the answer you want to problems - and because everyone on here is so friendly and amiable - we tend to get the banter going, talk about others things and go off on tangents!  This is all good in my eyes and makes the forum very informal and friendly, just the way we like it.       That's why simply saying "Hello, I've just bought a Legend" has resulted in 4 pages of comments.  We're all keen Honda (and Rover) enthusiasts therefore we're genuinely interested in your Legend.  I think the longest thread is Dave's now famous "What a Palaver". 

 

Regarding the ABS - again I stand to be corrected - despite fitting a new pump - but unless you clear the fault as Dave advises, then surely the fault will remain and the ABS will still light up?

[Laird_Scooby]

Couldn't have put it better myself Geoff and the "What a palaver" thread has now just got a bit longer - with good news this time!

 

Some interesting pics of the old ATF, engine oil and a bit of repurposing of a decorating tool!

 

http://honda6.ipbhost.com/index.php?/topic/42-what-a-palaver/page-7#entry6260

[SteveThackery]

Guys, I've no idea whether they have tried to clear the existing fault codes.  As far as I know this is just an ordinary garage with ordinary mechanics who undertake work for this particular dealer.  It seems clear to me that they haven't a clue what they are doing when it comes to the Legend (no specialist knowledge at all), but I'm not really in a position to intervene as they seem to think they are following the best path.

 

At best they'll fix it and we'll both be happy.  At worst they'll waste a lot of their own money.  The only frustration for me is having to wait while this silly process plays out.  

 

I'm gonna HAVE to make a "This is not my car" poster for that bloody Smart car in my drive.......

[Laird_Scooby]

I hope they manage to find and/or fix the fault even if only by luck rather than judgement! A silly thought occurred to me and Stu can verify or refute this but if the front and rear tyres are unevenly worn because it's all wheel drive, this could throw the ABS out causing a fault to register even if there isn't one with the system. I know Volvo XC70's can suffer this problem too.