Another Ng 9-5 joins the forum

[sgould]

Page 67 for spark plug. https://www.ngkpartfinder.co.uk/assets/Uploads/ngk_spark_plug_diesel_glow_plug-2017_3_.pdf

[carrera]

Thanks, so good old NGK then, ILTR5D, whatever they are 

Front & rear brake pads have arrived, as has 23mm deep socket for wheel nuts and a little power supply to repair the LED bar. I'll wait until the LED's arrive first though

[welshwizard]

I have seen comments about the satnav, mine appears to be set to UK, though I haven't used it in anger yet, may be worth comparing software versions.

you might have the latest software, I could never persuade the garage to update mine...

In other news I have sourced a new cap for the washer bottle. Genuine Vauxhall quality 

Funnily enough mine has gone missing too.

[JTC]

Go on then, what's it drive like? Knowing your driving capabilities 

[carrera]

I'll do one in a week or so. It's been frost & ice here, wet when not, so no real possibility to find limits sensibly. I'll probably do 500 miles in her this week, provided i get the brakes done tomorrow.

A couple of minor jobs today, front number plate, washer bottle top, getting ready to fit the Pure Highway so I can get DAB+ as well as original DAB

[carrera]

More bits & pieces today:

* Fitted the Pure DAB, I'm pleased with the install, wires properly hidden, connections straight into the USB/3.5mm input
* Dried out OSF indicator, resealed it, there may still be some condensation in there, but no water & is clear. No s/h spares available
* Used my (modified) special tool to release the aux belt tension. Noise when cold confirmed to be the idler pulley. Some oil has silenced it, but a new pulley & drivebelt are on order
* The screen has some light scratches from "dry wiping.". I dug out the cerium oxide & started treating it. I'm taking it steady, but the visibility seemed a fair bit better when I drove home. I'm very much aware of the rarity of these screens with rainsense & HUD 

Guess what I didn't do... yep brakes, that'll be tomorrow, I hope

I've also ordered all the service bits. ECP wanted £16 per spark plug,so I bought on ebay  More than that, WIS states that the plugs are good for 10 years /  100,000 miles. I'm simply not buying that 

Bit by bit she's getting sorted

[carrera]

Brakes are done, but I have a problem.

I have a "soft" pedal, which pumps up when the engine is off. When the engine is on & foot hard on the pedal it slowly moves to the floor.

I initially forgot to remove the reservoir cap when pushing the calipers back, & had all 4 pushed fully back with excess fluid overflowing.

The symptoms are of air in the system, no hydraulic components were removed, I'm now going to attempt a rather thorough fluid change. Hope the master cylinder seals haven't been pushed back or something gone wrong on the ABS unit

It was stopping rather well with 2mm material on the front pads 

[carrera]

Ok, so I bled all 4 calipers, I don't have a power bleeder so it was the old one bleed operation. Nothing really came out. OSF had some micro bubbles visible when I looked with the light in a certain way.

Followed the 9-5 NG WIS procedure.

With the engine off, handbrake off, the pedal is solid & in the right place.

If I start the car & press the brakes, the pedal is soft and over about 5 seconds with moderate force will end up at the floor. Pumping the pedal does lift the pedal. Leave the car 10 minutes, start the car & the pedal goes almost straight to the floor.

The operation of the servo (vacuum & pump fitted) is what causes the symptoms, but what's the cause. I could accept master cylinder, if it behaved the same with the engine off. Some thinking & reading to do

[sgould]

Pedal going slowly to the floor with the engine ticking over is normal operation! I worried about it when I discovered it 30 or more years ago, but there was no need.  All my cars have done it.  If the brakes work when you are driving, it’s fine.

[carrera]

I was aware that the pedal will go down when the engine is started, so just fired up the DE to see how she behaved.

She had a firm pedal on idle of 900 rpm

I haven't dare take her off the ramp yet either

[carrera]

I wasn't going to touch the car today, have some other things to do but as the VXdiag turned up I wanted to see if that would play with me. Nearly, but not yet... I think I do have a laptop based Tech II though.

Then I double checked the front pads, added the anti squeal shims, which involved pushing the calipers back again, not much I tried the brakes. Pretty vmuch as before, then I applied the handbrake & tried again, thinking this might isolate the problem. Well it did. The firm push on the brake pedal resulted in a couple of seconds into a damped glide to the floor. There is no pedal to speak of now, even with the engine off, so I've just arranged to pick up a master cylinder for a swap. Unless anyone else has better ideas...

[Geoff1951]

 Sorry carrera, can't offer any suggestions, but it's good to read about your efforts to get the car sorted.

[carrera]

I sourced & changed the master cylinder today. One of the challenges of working on a new car / manufacturer is figuring out just how all the fixings & wiring connectors work. So, now I know master cylinder change is pretty straightforward.

However, that was the wrong diagnosis 

After much bleeding & no pedal I looked under the car. I had already done a quick pre-mot on it, so was reasonably sure the brake pipes were in good condition. They are, except for one of them above the petrol tank.

It's difficult to understand how they can get corrosion in there, unless a mechanic has been in and scratched away the protective paint

So, here's a photo, the tank is already lowered on the right hand side strap. I'm going to see what I can do without removing the tank, parts of the 4WD system, exhaust and all the pain that will go with that.

On reflection, I am happy that the pipe failure happened on the ramp

[sgould]

Wow!  That's a bit worrying.  Are the other pipes up there OK?

[carrera]

That's the thing. All the brake pipes everywhere are perfect. Just there.

I noticed that the petrol tank has some writing on it "PB" and that what looks like some type of supports seem bent out of position. I'm thinking the tank has been out / replaced for some reason & that brake pipe got a heavy nick on it. I don't know about the 9-3, but on the 9-5 the pipe really is not visible with the tank in position.

I have managed to get one flange done on the steel pipe, the second one is proving to be a bit of a challenge, well to be more precise, getting the nut back down to the joiner is, as I kinked the pipe a little to stop the flare tool tool slipping, but I have an idea...