SirWiggums guide to COM2000 renewal

[sirwiggum]

Attempted the COM2000 renewal at the weekend.

Saturday

- Attempt to get on broadband to access the 406oc guide. Curse the broadband provider for not enabling account yet.
- Dig out haynes manual
- Have lunch
- Dishes
- Get rid of other half to beauty parlour for a few hours
- Follow the maze of haynes manual links (indicators -> steering wheel -> airbag module)
- Open bonnet
- Attempt to find a spanner to fit negative battery terminal nut
- Use shifter to undo negative battery terminal
- Lookup haynes again, note that centre console removal should allow enough time for ABS ECU to clear
- Take out rear ashtray. Note disgusting chewing bum on base, throw onto driveway.
- Push seats forward, undo bolt
- Take out front ashtray. Note disgusting ash below this, several euros and pennies in change
- Use a wrench with an attachment to undo front screws as screwdriver wont fit
- Unclip off footwell bits
- Take off handbrake and gear gator bits
- Centre console will just about raise enough to get hand at ABS ECU
- Break top off blue clip taking ABS ECU cable out
- Nip hand on centre console
- Beer
- Consult Haynes
- Push screwdriver up steering wheel
- Select larger screwdriver from toolbox
- Airbag half pops out. Curse haynes for making it look so easy (Airbag pops out after you push screwdriver on spring)
- Spend 2 1/2 hours trying to get airbag off.
- Beer
- Use little bit of brute force to get airbag off
- Note the wire which has came right off the solder of the green airbag connector
- Look at central bolt, try every possible tool to undo it including allen keys and torx bits, all of which are too small
- Glue up the green airbag connector as it looks important
- Prettier half gets home
- Reconnect battery, wind up drivers window, lock doors
- Decide to re-open doors and disconnect the battery, manually lock car
- Go out, have juicy steak and several beers

Sunday
- Go with prettier half (in her car) to her parents. Find them not in. Go home again.
- Fry up
- Go back to car
- Look at big steering wheel bolt
- Persuade prettier half to borrow her car to go to DIY supermarket to buy tool to undo big steering wheel bolt
- Spend £20 on what looks like a torx allen key big enough to do the job (T40)
- Come home
- Try new tool
- New tool not big enough
- Persuade prettier half to borrow car and go to Halfrauds, buy bigger security torx allen key set (including T45)
- Come home
- Rejoice that T45 works
- Take steering wheel off, carefully feeding wires through. Show other half you using Peugeot steering wheel like a "Wii" wheel. Note her unimpressedness.
- Take off steering surround cover
- Note old indicator stalk surrounded by stuffed up newspaper - previous owner clearly had the issue
- Behold the old COM2000 in all it's glory
- Note that green airbag connector you fixed is actually part of the COM2000, so will be on new one, rejoice
- Figure out how to undo COM2000
- View new COM2000 and note the big round bolt clip on back and 2 clips onto steering column
- Take out COM2000, undoing the wires on back
- Figure out how to swap the radio controls over
- Place COM2000 on, connecting wires then clip on and do up bolt on back
- Feed wires through steering wheel
- Rejoice as you connect wires to airbag and clip on
- Reel in horror as you spy the steering wheel bolt on the passenger seat
- Curse as you try and take the airbag off again
- Note the broken blue connector this time as the wires come off the solder
- Take off steering wheel again
- Undo steering column surround again
- Take off COM2000
- Phone prettier half's father, arrange to use soldering iron
- Take new COM2000 and old COM2000 (to use as reference) to prettier half's parents
- Solder the wires back onto the blue connector
- Spend a couple of hours there chatting
- Note impending evening, go home
- Refit COM2000, steering surround, steering wheel, steering wheel *bolt*, airbag
- Try and push Airbag ECU connector back in with broken blue clip
- Reconnect battery -ve terminal
- Turn on ignition standing outside car in case airbag explodes
- HORROR - Airbag warning
- Disconnect battery -ve terminal
- Take broken blue clip off Airbag ECU connector
- Reconnect battery -vr terminal
- Turn on ignition standing outside car in case airbag explodes
- Rejoice! No Airbag warning
- Put centre console back together
- Wonder why screws on back of centre console wont fit, realise they're the front ones
- Bolts on back, screws on front, centre console screwed back together
- Check indicators, lights, wipers, etc, all seems well

Monday
- Lunchtime take expensive ill-fitting tool back to B+Q for refund
- Go to car wash to celebrate
- Exhaust starts blowing
- ABS light flickers on briefly
- Dispair

At least the indicators feel a lot more solid!

[teamster1975]

My god, what a mission!

[Welly]

Bejesus! and I bet you thought it would take an hour tops

Nicely written Sir and very funny

[sirwiggum]

Bejesus! and I bet you thought it would take an hour tops

Someone on the forums mentioned once it was a half hour job.

These "simple" jobs rarely pan out as planned...

Nicely written Sir and very funny

Cheers, can look back at the frustrating weekend and laugh anyway

[Welly]

The last time I did some work on a car for real was a 'simple' oil change on the HDi....

A very badly cut hand, a bad back and a load of oil everywhere later and I retired my kit (if you can call it kit) for good

[jasper5]

Brilliant read Wiggum Now maybe you guys understand why I get wound up now and then.

BTW Welly, the Volvo Master Tech that my son works with says timing belt interval at 6 to 10 years or 108,000 miles, all depends on chassis number.

[DaiRees]

That £20 my garage quoted for changing it looks ever more inviting....

[406Iain]

I was going to take my airbag out to try and sort the fact my horn only works on one spar of the steering wheel,After and hour I got fed up and left it!
Plus I was getting grief from the woman,we always seem to have something to do together when I have the car in bits.

[steve_earwig]

Can't see what the problem is Mine was a small piece of fairy cake

[highlander]

Fairy cake?

Maybe someone was attempting to engineer the Total Perspective Vortex machine by using a Peugeot 406...

[steve_earwig]

you are here
.

[sirwiggum]

I was going to take my airbag out to try and sort the fact my horn only works on one spar of the steering wheel,After and hour I got fed up and left it!
Plus I was getting grief from the woman,we always seem to have something to do together when I have the car in bits.

I wonder if the 2 connectors on the back of the airbag, blue and green, are for the 2 sides of the horn? When I took my airbag out, both times, one of these would always break, the wire comes off the solder in the connector very easily!

I had assumed they were airbag related. I should really check my horn before MOT.....

Can't see what the problem is Mine was a small piece of fairy cake

Well I should have driven to Croatia, bought you a few beers and let you loose on mine! It was a nightmare!

[steve_earwig]

They're for the airbag - they don't look like something you want to break!

[sirwiggum]

Fairy cake?

Maybe someone was attempting to engineer the Total Perspective Vortex machine by using a Peugeot 406...

Only getting that now!

Working on a 406 feels like an Infinite improbability drive - will it be straightforward? will it work? will something else break?

If I replaced the HDi with an infinite improbability drive it would be a flying machine!

They don't look like something you want to break!

I didn't want to break anything! But the spring where the screwdriver there goes up only seems to pop the airbag out a little, and it takes a little force to extract the airbag, the connectors tend to stay on the airbag and the wires tend to stay with the steering wheel, the weak point is the solder, snappity snap!

[steve_earwig]

So you broke the connectors on the new one too?

It took me a few goes to get both sides to pop up together but then it just lifted off.

If you're fiddling with the Infinite Improbability drive I suppose it's the same deal as the airbags - reach in to turn the key. Things might get a bit cramped if it turned into a bowl of petunias.