The Dark Wob

Making good progress and half way.

Heater fan stopped working below half at Stratford area. Now at Birmingham Frankley services to get my glasses out of the boot. Heater fan coming in and out randomly when set to full now. Iirc these are based on E46 and I remember they have a hedgehog something that causes issues? Just some old car fun.

Anyway roof is staying down for now as 18C. Pushing on.

Home. Bang on 200miles. Pretty respectable economy. I did get above 40mpg until I got near home and decided to have some fun. 

Need to figure why that airbag light is on. Code reader wasn't exactly clear what was the problem. Something about no communication with a Right Satellite module?

Now I need to go back out to pick up my Golf GTI from the train station!

So firstly the car is great. I'm mega happy with it. Like any old car they give shenanigans. Especially old German Premium cars. Not least I do tend to go hunting for issues and finding stuff.

What is there to do?

• Airbag light is on. I took a gamble buying this thinking it was just a loose seat connector. Having read the codes I don't think it is. There is errors relating to the "Satellite B Pillar" module and no communications. Googling says there is a module that lives in the footwell for the airbag system. We can all guess what happens to modules that live in convertible footwells. Go go BMW. Second hand modules can be coded in but you need BMW INPA. I don't have that, so I'll probably have to read and tool up.
  
  Need to fix the airbag system as the light is on and it'll fail it's MOT unless sorted.
• Sticking steering. TADIS. Made worse by having the heater on full. Apparently you can replace the grease or something to help sort it. Need to do further reading. Doesn't stop it being used as a car though.
• Heater fan temperamental. Anything above 50% on the climate control puts the fans on full. Then after a minute or two it cuts out. Wait a bit and it cuts back in. Not very useful for roof down motoring. Hoping it's the Hedgehog fan resistor module. Need to buy one and find out how to replace it in the car. Hopefully not a massive dash out job or something stupid.
• After a spirited drive off the motorway, I managed to now make the rear right brakes squeal. There is a light squeal when driving, more sometimes turning and louder when braking. Sometimes goes away. Presumably either sticky caliper or sliders. A strip down and clean up job. Had to do the same thing on the Golf too.
• Wipers don't park at the bottom. Work absolutely fine but it looks like it's had a new windscreen in its past. Whoever did it I don't think put the wiper arms back in the right place. It's an easy enough job to just reposition them.

That's it really. A few cosmetic things I could do like replace the scratched near side wing but tbh I can't be bothered just yet. Just want to drop the roof and go for drives!

Main thing is to fix the heater fan/fan resistor and the airbag system so the light goes out to pass another MOT in June. Caliper is just a Sunday afternoon/evening job. Steering is annoying but I'm going to leave for now as it's still usable as is.

Airbag light ...555 transistor and led will pass mot . One ebay set up here from my dead Golf if you want it.

The real airbag light has been on for 4 years but cunningly now hidden behind bluetac and another micro led hooked up to 555 !! 3 seconds after ignition ,and its off !! Pass !

Yeah nah. I want to sort this properly. Airbags are a useful thing to have when it all goes a bit pear shaped.

SiC wrote: ↑Sat Apr 13, 2024 9:48 am Yeah nah. I want to sort this properly. Airbags are a useful thing to have when it all goes a bit pear shaped.

They also probably won't work properly as they age. I think they are supposed to be replaced at 10 years or something like that. Old Volvo's had a sticker in the door post saying the expiry date of the air bag systems. Best not to crash in the first place to test them out. I had a pair of front air bags deploy due to a waterlogged ecu in a Safrane. They made a lot of noise and filled the car with smoke and did very little else.

panhard65 wrote: ↑Sat Apr 13, 2024 12:05 pm I had a pair of front air bags deploy due to a waterlogged ecu in a Safrane.

Quality* French tat.

I remember reading an article about the 10yr thing on airbags. When they were first used, that was the expected design life. However in reality they don't really degrade providing the enclosure the pyrotechnics they are in isn't damaged. That's why replacing airbags is no longer mentioned. Plus no one would actually do it nor would anywhere still make them that would fit.

SiC wrote: ↑Sat Apr 13, 2024 1:32 pm nor would anywhere still make them that would fit.

I think they would. Takata's fucking big bill for starters

Which reminds me, I must do that passenger side recall one day. The Covid™ fucked all that up.