Accord V6 Screech & Bang

[PaulS]

Cable ties arrived and got more paint so work continues. After primer and colour paint dried, I sprayed Lanoguard everywhere I could find.  Then refitted RH headlight unit, screen wash bottle, RH wing liner and all electrical connectors for both sides. Also refitted aircon rad after finding the mislaid top pipe.

But 3 things have foxed me so far:

1. How does the power steering fluid cooler pipe that should sit in front of the aircon rad thread through and fasten in front of the air con rad? I might have damaged or misplaced something in either the original crash or subsequently....

2. Where does the outlet hose on the bottom of the screenwash bottle fit on to? This is the fatter hose on the engine side of the bottom of the screen wash bottle.

3. Is the front right anti-roll bar naturally bent or straight? Mine has bends in it and I am unsure whether this was another bit of crash damage or not..

Obviously I have no before pictures and my parts CD does not give answers to any of the questions... all info gratefully received.

Cheers

Paul

[PTR200S]

On 9/30/2023 at 8:17 AM, PaulS said:

Cable ties arrived and got more paint so work continues. After primer and colour paint dried, I sprayed Lanoguard everywhere I could find.  Then refitted RH headlight unit, screen wash bottle, RH wing liner and all electrical connectors for both sides. Also refitted aircon rad after finding the mislaid top pipe.

But 3 things have foxed me so far:

1. How does the power steering fluid cooler pipe that should sit in front of the aircon rad thread through and fasten in front of the air con rad? I might have damaged or misplaced something in either the original crash or subsequently....

2. Where does the outlet hose on the bottom of the screenwash bottle fit on to? This is the fatter hose on the engine side of the bottom of the screen wash bottle.

3. Is the front right anti-roll bar naturally bent or straight? Mine has bends in it and I am unsure whether this was another bit of crash damage or not..

Obviously I have no before pictures and my parts CD does not give answers to any of the questions... all info gratefully received.

Cheers

Paul

1.  Do you mean the lower feed pipe down to the metal pipe to the rack ??

This one ?

It goes straight down the front inner panel and then 90 degrees back over the front subframe...

 

 

 

2. Umm!, dunno but if its the outlet then up the side of the inner wing to the scuttle. 

3.  Yep, its bent !! Three big bends....but not necessarily in the same position as yours 😜

 

[PaulS]

3 hours ago, PTR200S said:

1.  Do you mean the lower feed pipe down to the metal pipe to the rack ??

This one ?

That is the outlet from the resevoir but it is the metal cooler pipe (you can see it through the front grill) where I have the problem. Quite how the cooler pipe fits through between the bodywork is my real question.  Without the 2 rads in the way it is easy, but it must go in front of the air con rad but still feed the pipes through to where the rubber hoses are.

3 hours ago, PTR200S said:

3.  Yep, its bent !! Three big bends....but not necessarily in the same position as yours

Everything looks in the right place and the distance between wheel centres front to back is the same on both sides. And as far as I can tell the subframe & mountings were not bent anyhow, but it was worrying to find the RH side bar bent when the left is straight!

 

 

 

[PaulS]

Obvious really, the big outlet hose from the windscreen washer bottle actually fits to the headlight washers on the front bumper.  Much easier to spot when one has the bumper to hand....  Last time I was trying to connect up everything without the bumper....

Only need to find the feedthrough spot for the power steering cooler now.

[hughezee]

1 hour ago, PaulS said:

Only need to find the feedthrough spot for the power steering cooler now.

They are basically both located on the lower front right side of the car, see pic's below.

[PaulS]

Thanks fot the pictures - no wonder I could not spot the mount as after the crash that area was well bent up & the mounting point is not too visible, but the bracket was still there although well crushed and unrecognisable.  After a substantial  session of bracket bashing and bending, the newly shaped bracket now fits the shape changed mounting point  & the pipe now fits more or less where it should be.   Rain stopped play again today though.... 

[PaulS]

More progress:

Radiator mounted in, water hoses connected and car running, started first time again. At present I have not connected the transmission cooler nor the power steering cooler, leaving hoses bypassing both to see what else needs sorting.

Todays issues noticed:

1. Only one fan  (battery side) kicks in as the engine gets warmed up - is that normal?  If so when does the other kick in?

2. Still jacked up with wheels off, I discovered the brakes had stuck on. I will have to service both calipers as the pistons are not that easy to retract at present. After a bit of temporary work, including sanding the discs & pads & putting them all back together, both discs now move reasonably freely, but it seems I have some drive shaft wobble on both inner joints which is more pronounced on the right than left.  Is that normal?

3. There is a bit of a judder as one brake or other binds and stops one wheel or other spinning. Is this as a result of the still slightly tight brakes or Is this the diff playing up?  Maybe as a result of the original problem?  No noticable drive shaft wobble when I remove  all the brake pads - the wheels drive smoothly in both directions.

4. There is also a sort of ticking coming from around the main drive belt pulley - sort of like when as kids we used to put lolly sticks in our bike wheels to make a noise.  Not loud , but definitelt sounds like something catching but I cannot see or feel anything obviously hitting anything spinning, nor can I see a bit of a belt catching anything.  Any ideas anyone?

 

But with runniong engine, I have put it in forward and reverse gears and left it running in both directions for around 15 minutes each  to see if there is any sign of the original problem, but no sign so far.  No water, ATF, or power steering leaks seen either - and as far as I can tell I have managed to reconnect all wires correctly with no loose ones spotted anywhere, and no warning lights on.

[Laird_Scooby]

2 hours ago, PaulS said:

1. Only one fan  (battery side) kicks in as the engine gets warmed up - is that normal?  If so when does the other kick in?

When the AC is in use or when the engine temp climbs above 97C(?) so yes, it is normal.

I'm going on memory from the Rover saying 97C, even that may be mixing it up with something else but in simple terms, the second fan comes in after the first if it appears the first isn't coping or if the AC is in use.

2 hours ago, PaulS said:

3. There is a bit of a judder as one brake or other binds and stops one wheel or other spinning. Is this as a result of the still slightly tight brakes or Is this the diff playing up?  Maybe as a result of the original problem?  No noticable drive shaft wobble when I remove  all the brake pads - the wheels drive smoothly in both directions.

Could simply be one brake is contacting the disc sooner and causing an imbalance in speeds through the diff and an obvious imbalance to you as the wheels are off the ground. When you get it back on the road, see if you notice anything driving it.

2 hours ago, PaulS said:

But with runniong engine, I have put it in forward and reverse gears and left it running in both directions for around 15 minutes each  to see if there is any sign of the original problem, but no sign so far.  No water, ATF, or power steering leaks seen either - and as far as I can tell I have managed to reconnect all wires correctly with no loose ones spotted anywhere, and no warning lights on.

That all sounds good to me - next stage is to get those fluid coolers reconnected, repeat the above tests to ensure no leaks and then the acid test, see how it drives!

[PaulS]

2

22 hours ago, Laird_Scooby said:

next stage is to get those fluid coolers reconnected, repeat the above tests to ensure no leaks and then the acid test, see how it drives!

In theory yes I agree.  But as I am quite nervous about not really finding any cause for the original charge into the wall, I prefer to leave those hoses on byepass until I am happy it does not decide to ram anything unexpectedly again.  Those pipes squirting their newly released fluids& their respective messes over our path caused me a lot of grief (from the other half plus time & materials) to clean up. 

If everything drives well along the alley behind my house, then it seems it will be the right time to reconnect them.  Driving the car such short distances and not pushing either steering or transmission whould not get the fluids hot enough to need cooling - especially as the weather is cooling off again.

If all is well, I plan to then reconnect the hoses properly and re-tax it again on 1st Nov before taking it on cautious road tests for a couple of weeks.

Then assuming all seems OK, I will hopefully arrange to take it down to Hughezee for a proper inspection.......

Well that is my plan at the moment....

[PTR200S]

Properly impressed with your progress !!

Hope everything goes well on the test runs, I bet you can't wait to get back on the road again 🥳

[hughezee]

On 10/10/2023 at 9:57 PM, PaulS said:

Then assuming all seems OK, I will hopefully arrange to take it down to Hughezee for a proper inspection.......

Well that is my plan at the moment....

🤞

[PaulS]

Bit of a problem - a hernia and corrective op has left me temporarily unable to do the last remaining bits sorting out the calipers  which have stuck due to rusting up through lack of use I guess.

Also both the inner drive shaft joints do look like they might be bent as the inner ends of the drive shafts seem to be wobbling around (though do not feel loose to the touch) when the drive is engaged.  Have not worked that out yet.  Could the diff be damaged or are wobbly looking inner drive shaft joints normal?  All opinions welcome...

To top it off, I fell down some steps into the back of the car and bashed a dent into the vertical part of the boot lid!  Head seemingly OK thankfully...

[hughezee]

On 11/4/2023 at 9:13 PM, PaulS said:

Bit of a problem - a hernia and corrective op has left me temporarily unable to do the last remaining bits sorting out the calipers  which have stuck due to rusting up through lack of use I guess.

 Hopefully just suface rust on the discs 🤞🙏

On 11/4/2023 at 9:13 PM, PaulS said:

Also both the inner drive shaft joints do look like they might be bent as the inner ends of the drive shafts seem to be wobbling around (though do not feel loose to the touch) when the drive is engaged.  Have not worked that out yet.  Could the diff be damaged or are wobbly looking inner drive shaft joints normal?  All opinions welcome...

I would expect a smidge of movement from the inner CV joints not much though and as long as no ATF is leaking from the differential I would suppect the outer joints will need packing with fresh grease to settle things down. 🤞

On 11/4/2023 at 9:13 PM, PaulS said:

To top it off, I fell down some steps into the back of the car and bashed a dent into the vertical part of the boot lid!  Head seemingly OK thankfully...

Sorry to hear this 😢 glad you are ok which is the main thing.🙏

[PaulS]

22 hours ago, hughezee said:

Hopefully just suface rust on the discs

Alas not,  one piston on each side at the front has rusted so they need carefully pushing out and the rust sanding off so that they retract properly.  I have already sanded both discs and the brake pads so that the discs go round but they still catch and impede the rotation, I was wondering if this had the impact of causing the inner drive shaft wobble....  Just cannot bend down for long enough at present.... hence investigation and remedial action stalled....

 

22 hours ago, hughezee said:

as long as no ATF is leaking from the differential I would suppect the outer joints will need packing with fresh grease to settle things down

No ATF leaks (and yes, there is a good volume of ATF back in the gearbox!).  How does one get at the shaft output joints? and which grease should I use to repack?  

 

So near and yet so far....

[PaulS]

I was going to have another go at my coupe today (now it has stopped raining!!!) But it would not unlock due to a flat battery (charged last week!)  No problem, unlocked using the key.  Put the charger on again and found the RH headlamp flashing on and off and the relays clicking like mad....  Stopped that by pulling the main fuse, however quite why / how the lights come on at all when they are switched off at the stalk.  Charged up the battery again and refitted the fuse and the relay clicking restarted and the lights flashed again.  Spent a couple of hours looking at this but could not spot anything...

Anyone got any ideas?  I cannot start the car with it in this condition....

[Laird_Scooby]

1 hour ago, PaulS said:

Anyone got any ideas?

Gremlins - don't get them wet or feed them after midnight!

Seriously though, it sounds like you may have a multiplex problem but that could be caused by a slightly flat battery. That said, it's a bit of a wild guess without seeing it and you'd really need to work through it methodically eliminating parts of the various circuits until you find the one causing the relay to cycle on/off etc.

[PTR200S]

Did you charge the battery whilst connected to the car ?

If so disconn at least the earth cable before charging.  Its possible that the battery is shorted inside and bizarrely I have seen the flashing headlight problem before with relays clicking on and off,,,all down to the battery !!! Maybe the bcm is having a fit....

what was the battery voltage ?? Was it completely flat....may have done a plate in the battery..

Of course that doesn't answer the question in the first place as to why it went flat to start with.

Not trying to teach you to suck eggs but can you try another fully charged battery first before dismantling the car completely 🙃🙃

[PaulS]

Thanks guys,

I will investigate further.  Yes, the battery was charged in the car with leads connected.  I had tried pulling relays that clicked on and off, but that just started the next ones clicking.... Hence pulling the main fuse.  Not sure the battery was completely flat, I had 12.2v when I first measured it.  Yes, I have another fully charged battery but with  reversed connections so I can only try it out of the car.

Must admit, I am getting mightily fed up with all these supplementary things going wrong just as I was ready to try the car on the road again after all the rebuild work

[Laird_Scooby]

The battery wasn't completely flat and 60% might sound like quite a way from fully flat but one attempt at starting would be enough to make it so close you wouldn't get a second chance (usually) to start if it didn't.

It is low enough to likely cause problems with various ECUs thinking the battery voltage is too low though so Petes suggestion of a known good, fully charged battery instead is the best starting point.

[PaulS]

Further progress of sorts

I charged the battery again, it held at 13.3v for a couple of days with nothing connected, hence it seems the battery is OK.

I chased the circuits one by one but did not find any issue at all anywhere.  Then I put everything back to the original configuration and there was no more relay switching at all.  Started and ran teh car for 15 mins, turned off, then restarted again.  No problems encountered.

Most annoying that again I found nothing, but everything electrical is (currently) back to normal.   3rd time I have had wierd electrical problems that seem to have no identified cause - but I have spent hours chasing these phantom electrical issues which could have been better spent sorting the brake calipers etc....

 

But at least I am now back to where I was nearly a month ago!

[PaulS]

Unfortunately I have now lost my storage facility so my coupe has had to go.  I am gutted after doing so much to get it back on the road.  But now even if I did sort out the last few issues, I have nowhere to keep it unless on the road where it would not last long.

But it has now gone to Stu who will use the many good bits to help keep other Coupes going that bit longer...  It was a sad day as it went off on the transporter, loaded with all the useable coupe spares I had.

I now have to find homes for my 2x 40' containers (no easy task!!) and my Mitsubishi.  My Renault Laguna RT Auto will also become resident in a local breakers yard... And I have now found a new home for my car ramp in a local garage who will use it much more than I did and give me reasonable free access to it (well I gave it FOC to him!).

A new era dawns for me.... But loads more stuff to find new homes for....

[PTR200S]

That's a real blow  😭😭😭

Coupe might live again with Stu ....

I take it the storage facility has closed...nowhere else locally ??

Could you find a single garage for the Mitsubishi , maybe temporarily??

Bit of land for the containers ????,  store cars in ?? Or was that where the cars were ?

[Laird_Scooby]

1 hour ago, PaulS said:

And I have now found a new home for my car ramp in a local garage who will use it much more than I did and give me reasonable free access to it (well I gave it FOC to him!).

A new era dawns for me.... But loads more stuff to find new homes for....

Those are the positive bits and why i reacted with a hand-clap in case you're wondering.

New eras can be daunting - scary even but i'm a big believer in everything happening for a reason, some good will come out of the whole situation!

[PaulS]

1 hour ago, PTR200S said:

I take it the storage facility has closed...nowhere else locally ??

Could you find a single garage for the Mitsubishi , maybe temporarily??

Bit of land for the containers ????,  store cars in ?? Or was that where the cars were ?

Yes storage yard is closing, might  - stress might - move elewhere but then only temporarily and move & move again.  Not an option for me moving the 2 containers full of stuff.  3 other storage facilities locally have already closed so a lot of other people are having to move cars, motorhomes, caravans, trucks, minibusses, speed boats etc. Moving things one can tow is much easier than moving containers which have to be emptied and things put somewhere whilstthe move happens....

My Mitsubishi will find a new home somewhere as yet undecided (at least temporarily assuming I can relocate the containers).   Same problem of lack of localish facilities .  And I want somewhere dry & secure away from prying eyes and fingers....

[PaulS]

I should add that the two 40 ft containers are joind together lengthways with the common sides removed & welded to make a single space which is lined & wood panelled and dehumidified .  Just seperating them to move, then rejoining will be difficult enough - and they have to be well levelled when reassembeled....  Transporting as a single wide load is sooo complicated and expensive that it is not a viable option.