Roger - No 71 2.0T Illiad Blue readers car thread

bencollins

At least it is warming up on Friday.

renoman1975

Chances are there is a bad connection to the bulb or the bulb filament is on its way out, you will have to remove the dashboard cluster to replace the bulb and I can almost guarantee more bulbs will stop working due to being disturbed, I normally change all nine of the main 12v 2w bulbs while I’m in there and the Rev counter bulbs as well.

bencollins

that makes sense. is there a spec for the bulbs other than 12V 2W?

bencollins

this sort?

bencollins

right im really flapping now lol, have bought 20 of these lights. (wedge type) hope that is correct! The garage will try and do a get me through fix on the handbrake and replace the boots, at the end of the day on a ramp everything becomes simpler. I will have a go at the tell tales on Friday (my day off). In theory these are brighter so should jolly up the dashboard, hoping the orange effect is a result of the see through bits, not the actual bulbs themselves.

bencollins

Thanks for the gearbox refurb offer Gib, but pretty happy with the one on the car as is. Longer gear should mean more economy, but a few more gearchanges on the annual trip on the M74 over Hadrian's wall and into bandit country.

Avantime4mike

@bencollins The photo of the bulbs above doesn't really give us any information. Posting a link to where you found them would be better. This is what you are looking for but cheaper:- https://www.halfords.com/motoring/bulbs/297-car-bulb-manufacturers-standard-halfords-single-pack-717482.html

bencollins

lol including fitting for £5...............so they are gonna dismantle and replace the dashboard top for £5. Not really cheaper...that is for one not ten! Thanks for the link though. Looks similar to the one purchased. Fingers crossed, i.e. wedge type. Hopefully new ones will be a bit brighter but not glaring. Beating a new path here in Avantime dashboard illumination, my sacrifice and failure is part of this process for the greater good!

Avantime4mike

I meant you need the Halfords type but at cheaper than the Halfords price. £7 is indeed a good price to fit it but I wouldn't let their paws anywhere near my Avantime.

mark1

I had a similar problem , some of the dashboard warning bulbs had worked themselves loose. A lot of work to fix !

bencollins

Might be the bumpy roads! The retest was yesterday, the tell tales decided to work (which they do 80%) of the time. the ABS light stayed off (cable was snagging under the seat under sliding), which it does 95% of the time.
New brake pads on the rear got me through the handbrake test apparently. I don't think it has fixed the underlying problem though.
Thanks for all the inputs.

TLDR: PASS! £210 all in including retest.

Avantime4mike

"cable was snagging under the seat" was it the cable to the yaw sensor? I can't think of anything else around that area that would affect the ABS.

bencollins

sorry i meant airbag light, the ABS light pops on from time to time as well!
We managed to go up a dead end quagmire rallying today on a walk by the Wash here....
Also some pics of the car with the four kids in the back, the worlds only 6 seat Avantime!

bencollins

Rally!

6 seater

GeorgeinBelgium

A rarity indeed, a mucky Avantime. You forgot to mention the dog ...

Tempest

I often joke about the Avantime being like a bus. You just proved it...lol

Avantime4mike

bencollins said:

sorry I meant airbag light

That makes more sense and a common fault especially when the cables are not retained correctly by their Christmas tree clips.
Important to get the airbags reliably connected especially given your payload.

renoman1975

Wow, that’s quite an achievement getting four kids and a dog in the back of the car.

As your family grows I can’t see the seating arrangement working out much longer.

Do you have another car?

Avantime4mike

I thought it was the parents who suffered lack of sleep with larger families? Your dog looks like he's not getting a great deal of shut eye.

Tempest

In all fairness, with the size of an Avantime boot, the doggie has loads of space to spread out, unless the poor thing is balancing on a couple of fold up pranks....

bencollins

There were three kiddy bicycles in the back as well, anyway doggy has his own spot, larger than the rest of us! Yes, long term the seating arrangement has a time limit, still probably 3 years left. We have an Espace S1 1987 and a 1968 Mercedes 280S, but we are planning also a swap to something like a Galaxy or S3 Espace to keep it Matra! Or get the Espace S1 full rollcaged up. We will see! The curse of the idiotic "Smart" motorways in the UK, means we need something 99% reliable.

bencollins

Quick update:

1) Gearbox usage update: now regularly getting over 500 miles per fill up (530 last time). Admittedly fenland roads are flat and usually everyone drives at 55mph. Most of our journeys are out of town, albeit plenty of 6 milers to children's activities.
Thats 500+miles/15 gallons roughly 33/34 mpg or 8.5l/100km if you are a fancy pants.
In general the Diesel gearbox's 6th gear cant be used below 50 but obviously much of our miles (@80%) are 50+ trundling about.

2) Dog sleeps a lot!

3) Have replaced the rubber on the 20 year old spare with a part used run flat - must check the date on that!! £20 local Kurdish car wash.

4) I'm thinking of running the engine in summer without its cover on as it does seem extra warm after a run......but temp gauge says OK so perhaps just paranoia. What do the cognoscenti think? >See pics

5) Have been looking at Toyota Alphards (yes, me neither until recently) as a replacement, an equally left field choice. It would have to be LPG converted or the hybrid one, even so the engine runs on the rather nifty and sensible Atkinson cycle.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atkinson_cycle#:~:text=The Atkinson-cycle engine is,in some modern automobile engines. i suppose the Avantime may get the boot in Spring, or I park one of the "classics" somewhere else undercover and keep BlueBlobby (as it is known) as a second wagon, we really do need two (working/taxed/insured/fully imported) cars.

Tempest

Toyota Alphard was a new one on me. Looks fun!

bencollins

might do this to it:

but seriously, two electric sliding doors, 8 seats in a 5m long package ticks a lot of boxes. We are too cool/snobby to drive a van with seats like a VIANO or VW. (Even though this is clearly a van with seats just that they thought about it a bit more).
Alphard:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Alphard
2002 version shown below. Probably gonna get a 2008 in due course.

Tempest

Power ranger meets Godzilla. I love people vans.

bodie

might be worth taking a look at the Elgrand too...such as..
https://www.japanesempvmotors.co.uk/nissan-elgrand-35-v6-xl-business-edition-fresh-facelift-model-mpv-4wd

AviNL

https://www.raccars.co.uk/car-60141268?i=1&m=sp

Honda Stepwagon.

bencollins

Honda Stepwagon looks interesting I must say. The El Grande is 3.0l petrol automatic, so i don't fancy the fuel consumption on that much. TBH loathed to lose the everyone-behind-us situation we have now. Whoever ends up on the third row will be isolated, a positive when they are moody teenagers, but right now they are still lovable and cute.

Tempest

just get a longer stick with a boxing glove gaffer taped to the end...... or is that no longer the way of producing well disciplined children (asking for a friend...lol).

bencollins

Steering rack has failed and the effects have marmalised two 3 month old good years groan. What do the cognescenti-savant reckon for a reconditioned rack - is it off a laguna also? or espace IV? or Espace III? anyone got one?