Project HaeThere! (Coupé restoration)

[mjb]

Got me a crankshaft pulley off ebay for £5 !!! Going to change it as soon as I get it, and put a new belt on while I'm at it. Need to get a belt and some wheelarch liner screws to do that

Who knows how to work the V6's tensioner?

[Doggy]

Got me a crankshaft pulley off ebay for £5 !!!

Result! Sorry, don't know on the tensioner.
Fairlight08 maybe?

[mjb]

Got an aux belt from eurocarparts for £15 this afternoon, I'll be fitting it with the crankshaft pulley when it gets here.

Took the opportunity to try to get the car into the garage this evening. It's DAMN tight getting down the side of the house and requires some shuffling between the back of the house and the garage entrance, but it fits quite easily width-wise. Unfortunately since this house has a fully fitted kitchen, I'm stuck with a couple of fridges (3/4 and 1/4 height) and a tabletop dishwasher in there (anyone want for free?), so I only got about 2/3 of the car in.

Still, I was going to change the rear sparkplugs, but the engine was too hot so I decided to check out the earth point. It really didn't look good! Corroded to hell, virtually impossible to get a continuity beep from the multimeter, 200 ohms between the battery and the radiator

Took the battery box out (how hard is that?!?! getting the torx bit onto the aircon valve thing clamp was interesting), took the earth strap out, filed it down, attempted to put some solder on it (typically the bloody iron ran out of gas half way through), chopped+stripped the battery end, filed down the battery clamp... and re-fitted.

Took the car for a drive and WOW! It feels like I've got a lot more power. I was expecting the ecu reset effect, but this was a massive difference - MUCH more power 4-6000rpm, and it's picking up about 3000rpm now instead of 4000rpm. Nice.

The auto-dimming mirror's decided to work again too, which is a huge bonus


The real reason for me checking out the earth strap though - the offside front tweeter buzzing loudly - hasn't been fixed Looks like I may need to pull the boot lining out


Does anyone know if the engine should be earthed anywhere except for the alternator? I've got no continuity between the engine and body with the alternator earth disconnected. Doesn't seem right to me

[Doggy]

The main engine earth strap on mine, ( & I presume all models)? is on one of the starter motor mounting bolts.
(HBOL pic shows a cable, about 16mm2 with a crimp lug).

[mjb]

Does anyone know if the engine should be earthed anywhere except for the alternator? I've got no continuity between the engine and body with the alternator earth disconnected. Doesn't seem right to me

OK, here I'm *assuming* it's the alternator. It could be the starter... the wire just disappears "down" under the air box which I managed to not remove

[Doggy]

OK, here I'm *assuming* it's the alternator. It could be the starter... the wire just disappears "down" under the air box which I managed to not remove

A perfect illustration of Murphy's Law of access requirements:
'The more awkward an obstacle is to remove the greater the certainty that it will be necessary to remove it'.
But don't forget O'Leary's Access Theorem:
'The greater the effort and time expended on removing an obstacle, the less likely it is to be helpful'.

HTH

[mjb]

Well I've got me a new crankshaft pulley and aux belt fitted for a pretty impressive £20

Need to buy LOTS of wheelarch lining screws, find some way of fixing the bumper corner where it's threaded (so the under-bumper plastic, wheelarch liner and splitter are all flapping about loose now!) and get a new power steering pump since this hasn't fixed my lack of power steering at under idle

Also, I've discovered the ES9J4 has a manual tensioner. I expected it to be automatic due to the spring attached to it, but no, it doesn't move unless you undo the bolt holding the tensioner on. Here's the fun bit - the bolt is behind the belt!!!

I had to half-tension it with a socket on the belt, then over-tension it by belting the pulley with a 2lb hammer and socket extension, then tighten the tensioner bolt. What retarded design!!!

[mjb]

Bugger. Looked on servicebox and it's not just a bolt securing the tensioner - there's a cylinder behind it which goes into the engine. Bet it holds either a spring or bearing, which means my tensioner needs replacing. Fantastic. Another £122 the same month I need a new clutch, I go to Germany, and I get a bill from British Gas for £2500 (C*NTS )

[STALLED]

Why the large gas bill - Thats worth more than ten 406's over your way!

The engine bay for the 406 was designed with the V6 in mind, though there is a massive difference in space between the two cars. In the 4cyl you can practially stand on the crossmember and work away - not the case in the V6!

I couldn't tell you how to do the tensioner - I've only ever done them on XU series cars (BX XU9)...

The Xantias are worse. The timing belt job in them makes the 406 look like a walk in the park!

[mjb]

Why the large gas bill - Thats worth more than ten 406's over your way!

They've been ignoring their meter readings because they thought they were too high... so for the last 2 years they've been severely undercharging me. Now I've moved out they've decided to demand £2500 in one month! No, not demand.... TAKE. Thankfully I've cancelled the direct debit

I couldn't tell you how to do the tensioner - I've only ever done them on XU series cars (BX XU9)...

Yeah, I've done tubby belts in the past :/

The Xantias are worse. The timing belt job in them makes the 406 look like a walk in the park!

Eh? They're essentially the same car!

[mjb]

Parts ordered. Lets hope the weather's good next weekend as I've got too much crap in the garage to get the car fully in Might think about getting a few rolls of cling film to wrap the crap (fridges, dishwasher, etc) up in so I can just leave it all outside

Aux belt tensioner screws
Aux belt tensioner - £122!!!
Lower air intake pipe
Couple of door plugs
Various torx screws/speed nuts/washers, ordered loads of each
Gearbox drain plug and seal
Diff seals
Gearbox mount
Ball joint nuts
Clutch kit - £150 from ECP

The lower engine mount looks ok so I've left it out


So I think tomorrow I'll try to sort out the stereo which is really pissing me off. What's the betting the amp's hosed?

[STALLED]

The Xantias are worse. The timing belt job in them makes the 406 look like a walk in the park!

Eh? They're essentially the same car!

Smaller engine bay in the Xantia

[mjb]

Turns out all my speakers are working fine, but the amp's not liking the fact the line inputs seem to be floating around 0.15v below the amp's ground, producing buzzing in all speakers and not running the door speakers in the front or tweeters in the back Dunno how to fix, going to see how the line outputs look at the head unit end, and try to work out where the amp's grounded.

Also, while I had my car in (fully in today ) the garage, I noticed something as i hit the ignition ready to cancel economy mode... A loud buzzing from the engine bay. The idle control valve to be specific. The car ran normally with it unplugged, which means it's unable to close itself. That explains the reduced fuel consumption and thick layer of soot on the tailpipe... I'll whip it out tomorrow and give it a clean if I've got enough carb cleaner left from the other 406s, all of which I've had to do this on *sigh*

[jasper5]

The Xantias are worse. The timing belt job in them makes the 406 look like a walk in the park!

Xantias are easy peasy, I've owned 3 Xantias, superb car! I'm an expert on repairing the suspension on the Xantia.

I wish you could still buy them new, I like our 406, but I regret selling the Xantia, it only had 110,000 miles on it, the 406 is nowhere near as comfy, or as nice to drive.

[mjb]

The Xantia's just a D8 with ludicrously soft and unresponsive suspension