Potential failures

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Grumpy-b
Posts: 991
Joined: Sat Dec 01, 2007 12:06 pm

Potential failures

Postby Grumpy-b » Tue Sep 24, 2013 6:16 pm

A few things worth keeping an eye out for.

Uneven wear on the front tyres, with quite a lot of weight on the front tyres, pressure and wheel alignment is really important, if left un adjusted the tyres do tend to wear on the inside.

Check your main inlet socket. The small sleeve around the cable does split and let in water. I have seen many with rusted pins, if they fill up enough you may get a short. I replace with a really good version that seals by compressing a seal around the cable.

Mains inlet plug on the car. Check that the earth pin is at the botton, and the drain hole is free. Also check that you cant rotate the plug in the fuel hole. If you can check that the large plastic ring isnt moving in the rubber of the fuel inlet Its held by a jubillee clip behind the wing. If it is tight and still rotates, you have to drill a small hole in the slot between plug and plastic ring, countersink it and fit a small self taping screw to pin the two parts together.

Mains inlet socket and mains plug. Check the terminals are tight, I recently had a car come in with a melted socket and plug, likley to have been caused by loose terminals. Same with any13amp plug, but also make sure the fuse is held tightly and if the pins are loose in the moulding, if they are then get a new plug.

If your vacuum pump runs all the time, check the tube onto the servo is tightly fitted and has a jubilee clip on it.

Winter is coming, check your heater works. If not then a new hot water heater may be available at about £4to500 or I have a new PTC heater that goes into the old heater radiator position for around £240

Drivers side motor mount. The later cars have a one piece item that has a couple of folded bends, I have seen a couple fail in the fold, looks like the pressbrake used too much pressure and caused a potential weak point. This can be impossible to see if the powder coat is intact. So look for any flaking or cracking in the powder coating.
If this fails the motor drops and the driveshaft will fall out. The mounting plate can be welded, and I prefer to weld all of the bends inside and out to ensure no future failure.

Check that the DC to DC convertor, is functioning and that the 12v battery is in good condition. Do a simple Voltage check with out a load with a load (Headlights) and the ignition turned on.

Wiper blades, I am finding almost every vehicle has blades with the ends parting. So about 3yrs looks like the life of the blades. Cost about £9 for decent Bosch blades. Its not worth saving a couple of pounds for cheaper ones. But do make sure the clips hold the blade onto the arm, some dont seem to clip properly, so change the plastic clip from the old blade.

Rear number plate lights. The clear plastic cover to the bulb falls off, this is not available as a replacement, which is a complete light housing costing about £10 from a main dealer. If its at all loose prise it off and stick it back with superglue and a small silicone bead on the outside.

Grumpy-b
Last edited by Grumpy-b on Wed Sep 25, 2013 6:57 am, edited 1 time in total.

genawin
Posts: 66
Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2007 5:39 am
Location: north somerset

Re: Potential failures

Postby genawin » Wed Sep 25, 2013 6:19 am

Super advise - much appreciated , You are a great asset to our forum , Thank you very much for all your help !

Genawin.

Grumpy-b
Posts: 991
Joined: Sat Dec 01, 2007 12:06 pm

Re: Potential failures

Postby Grumpy-b » Mon Mar 17, 2014 8:45 pm

The cell wires have a small section of single strand wire at the battery connection end. (In effect a fuse)This is merely crimped into the 8mm eye crimp terminal. I have come across a few of these that are giving problems of incorrect voltage readings which can give rise to vehicle shutdowns as the BMS thinks its detected a cell failure. Many are just loose.
I have only seen this on the later ones with one cable to each cell. Dont just undo the connection, the surge can damage the BMS. Simlpest is to just re crimp the connection. I remake the whole thing and shrink sleeve the connections, but I also shut down the BMS using the internal Dip switches. This ensures that you dont damage the BMS.

Grumpy-b

Grumpy-b
Posts: 991
Joined: Sat Dec 01, 2007 12:06 pm

Re: Potential failures

Postby Grumpy-b » Tue Mar 25, 2014 8:27 pm

I have mentioned that the inlet plugs can be a problem, with no drain hole, and rotating. But today I came across one that had a poor earth connection. In fact no earth connection to the chassis. I knew it was connected to the chassis, but on taking the undrained plug apart, it was obvious why there was no continuity. Whoever made the original connection in the plug, tightened the screws onto the insulation of the wire, not only on the earth but live and neutral, the latter two having split the insulation and so made contact. Worth checking the earth contiuity.

Grumpy-b


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