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Title: Another Scorp on the road for a while! Post by kev2scorps on Aug 1st, 2008, 11:10pm Hi all, Yesterday, my 97 2L 8V Ghia estate, (a bit of an old smoker with 223k miles on the clock, and a bit difficult sometimes to put into 1st or reverse), finally passed its' NCT, (National Car Test, Irish equivalent of English MOT, except it lasts up to two years)! It has been a long long struggle though..... Since I bought the car about 18 months ago, I drove it for a few weeks, then the timing chain became very noisy. After investigation, I discovered a broken chain guide. The car had over 200k miles on the clock at that stage so I decided that it wasn't worth spending too much money on. Fortunately, I have a 95 2L 16V for spares, (a car which had sucked up water and broke a con rod only a few thousand miles after a new replacement engine had been fitted, car came with receipts from F.M.D.). So one evening after reading the relevant pages on this site, I replaced the old rattly timing chain, sprockets and guides with the almost new ones from my doner car, and of course fitted a new tensioner. After a few more miles, I started to notice the steering getting a little vague, always needing constant correction, especially over 50MPH and very noticeable at 75MPH! So after further investigation, I replaced both front wishbones and associated busings, and a track rod end on the passenger side. Got the tracking done and noticed that the vague steering had improved greatly, but still was not quiet right. I suspected some worn bushings somewhere on the back end, as I had noticed a clunk from the back left when driving over rough ground and found that the bottom bush on the self levelling shock was shot. After discovering the price of a replacement shock, I decided to drill out the bush so that the hole was round, then wrapped the cross bar with many, many tight turns of black electrical tape, sprayed it with oil, then squeezed it back into place with a vice. 6000 miles later and it is still fine, and the N.C.T. inspector did not spot it, or perhaps just didn't comment on it. I changed oil, oil filter, air filter and give the car a general check over. I got 4 new Firestones on, checked brake pads and discs, fluid levels etc, washed, hoovered and polished. The following morning, I noticed exhaust fumes in the cabin, and after investigation I discovered a cracked, and previously welded exhaust manifold. I removed it and got it welded, replaced it on the car, started up and she ran like an old tug boat, clouds of white smoke coming out the exhaust, eratic idle etc. two of the rubber hoses of the EGR valve were perished and cracked, (my removing and refitting them did not help I'm sure). After replacing them it ran better, but still not perfect. I checked the emissions with a tester borrowed from work, and they were touch and go. I cleaned the MAF, replaced spark plugs and checked emissions again, not much better. I have the OBD2 cable and software from Alex Pepper, so checked front lamda sensor, and it was switching a bit slowly, so I bought a spurious sensor, fitted and retested. Emissions now seemed better. I reset the engine emissions related stuff, and took her for a drive to retune herself. She just passed the emissions test in the N.C.T. However, the N.C.T. inspector did spot the reason for the remainder of the vague steering, a broken spring! The top 1st turn of the front passenger side coil spring was snapped! A replacement was going to have to come in on "back order" and would take 2 to 3 weeks, so I decided to take one of my doner car, clean it up and pop it on. Bad news though, between the first test and the repeat test, the exhaust manifold cracked again. I have repaired it for the moment with "gun gum" and so far so good, but I know that I will have to replace it at some stage in the future, so if anyone has an exhaust manifold, (without a crack), for an 8v, and is willing to post it to Ireland please contact me re. your price. The N.C.T. inspector passed it yesterday evening! I took the car on a 130 mile round trip today and it drove perfectly, no fumes, no rattles, no vagueness in the steering, The N.C.T. cert lasts until June 2010, and who knows then? |
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Title: Re: Another Scorp on the road for a while! Post by gozz on Aug 1st, 2008, 11:31pm kev. Interesting to hear of your Scorpy exploits,bags of direction there,more power to your elbow!My brother Richard Godsland,an English fellow,is a NCT inspector in North Tipperary,he lives in Cloughjordan near Nenagh,and wanders around the area overseeing different sites.At least he is a real long term hands on mechanic,and is fair and reasonable.I have been across several times and had hitherto seen the parlous state of Paddy's transport,not that Paddy was the slightest bit concerned ! Oh the joys of being European ! All the best GOZZ. |
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Title: Re: Another Scorp on the road for a while! Post by kev2scorps on Aug 2nd, 2008, 12:05am Hi Gozz, Many people here complain about the N.C.T. but personally I think that it is a great thing. Most of the N.C.T. inspectors here seem fair, but I have heard stories about soem very strict ones, (indicator bulbs not the correct shade of orange, or not orange enough, or pedal rubbers excessively worn on a car with 40k etc)! In general, all the old rust buckets and dangerously unsafe cars have been removed from the roads, and people are more aware of keeping their car in good working order. All the more important now that the roads are so much busier than in years gone past. Being a d.i.y. mechanic and a bit of a worrier, I am always wondering "did I tighten that bolt properly", or "did I do that job correctly", etc. At least the N.C.T. gives me some re-assurance. |
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Title: Re: Another Scorp on the road for a while! Post by Savvy on Aug 6th, 2008, 1:00pm I like hearing stories like that. Too many people are keen to throw cars away these days but it's nice to see you've really made a go of keeping it on the road! ;) |
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Title: Re: Another Scorp on the road for a while! Post by kev2scorps on Aug 6th, 2008, 9:27pm Thanks, I have always tried to keep cars going for as long as possible. When you have done so many jobs on them yourself, I guess yhat you get a little attached. When you go to look at possible replacements, especially cars over 6 or 7 years old, (for not a lot of cash), and the lack of attention that they appear to have received in recent years encourages me to keep the old bus on the road for a while. I went to look at a Volvo V70 estate recently. It drove fine, but had a few problems which I spotted within a few minutes to the shock of the sales man! Broken bracket on exhaust, rear brakes excessively worn, (metallic screach when breaking), dodgy bearing noise from under cam belt cover, which supposedly was changed only 20k miles ago, badly worn auxiliary belt, new oil but evidence of head gasket problem on edges of oil cap, (not cleaned properly), no service history so no evidence that the head gasket had been done, etc.... He looked really surprised when I said that I wouldn't be bothering to bring in my laptop to check for faults and mileage adjustment! I think I will try to keep the Scorp for another while - better the devil you know! Kev. |
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