Peaklander

The saga continued as the car developed a leak in a power steering pipe that's exposed to crud where it runs on the subframe. As I was sorting that the starter motor failed (solenoid). To remove it needed amongst other things, the egr valve and pipes to be removed. So I ended-up cleaning a mountain of carbon from the egr port into the throttle body / inlet manifold, as well as rebuilding the starter and the job therefore extended by many days. Had a little scare about fumes and oil and stuff, documented here... Handed the car back and the family are very pleased with the way it runs. To address the title of this thread, I had no idea if ECU controlled injectors would even work if they'd been changed and the new ones not coded. In fact the engine started on the first crank and you'd never know that they aren't coded. One day they will be, when it's connected to a suitable diagnostic system but I doubt the £30 - £50 it will cost will be recouped very quickly with better fuel economy. Anyway I can now go back to working on my 110 300TDi but to work in such depth on a more modern engine has been a real learning experience and it's great to now have a bit of know-how.

Just to close this off. The fumes were from a leaky ring seal onto the catalytic convertor, which I replaced. The turbo people showed me that the cartridge was out of balance and shaved it a little to get it back to spec. That was £100 cheaper than replacing it. They said that the bearings were ok therefore the oil seals would be too. Put turbo back in a second time without undoing any engine mounts, which isn't easy. Test drive and then handed back to daughter and family. Phew.

I replaced the driver's footwell and pillar with the YRM items. They also sold me part of the footwell kit for the passenger side, as I didn't need the side piece. That was a 'special' price. I've also used their parts for under tub repairs - the second row crossmember, heel up-stand, C posts and all the tub supports and floor. None of these parts have caused me any problems and delivery has been very quick.

I have taken the turbo to a local rebuilder and they are going to check the balance and see what they can do without replacing the cartridge, which they say probably won't be necessary. Hopefully they will confirm the seals or replace those and then I can be confident that it is OK. I wouldn't have done this if I'd not had to remove the turbo a second time. I was happy with the vane cleaning that I did, to get the whole thing to move properly once again. Now though I just think that a second opinion after 262K miles, has been a wise thing to seek. It will cost about £150 and that is on top of a fairly hefty parts bill for the cam and oil chain kits, injectors, intercooler, power steering pipe, starter solenoid and all the service parts. A cheap car purchased with risk is no longer quite so cheap!

Hello peeps. Forgive me for little activity on here recently but I am still spending excessive time on the Honda CR-V, about which I posted some time ago. I'd like to ask some advice on this forum as I trust the feedback. I won't talk too much about the work I've had to do since doing the timing chain and cleaning the VN turbo, except to say this: Pinholes appeared in a power steering pipe that needed to be replaced - easy. This led to a co-incidental fail of the starter motor solenoid as I was bleeding the new fluid. On this car (Mk3 2008 2.2 i-CTDi with 262K miles), removing the starter is not easy. The EGR pipework, EGR cooler valve and main EGR valve, are all in the way. However I replaced the solenoid and checked and cleaned the motor. Re-fitted it (but hadn't pushed the solenoid connector fully home - cough). The EGR pipework was blocked. I had to dig it out with a knife, a vacuum cleaner and copious carb spray. Got it all back together and then the starter wouldn't start still. So removed EGR again, pushed the connector home on the solenoid and then assembled and started only to have the EM light come on. An EGR related valve, (intake manifold runner control valve) was open. I have no idea why this suddenly happened but the cause was a blocked air filter in the vacuum pipework where it is controlled. Then I ran the engine and saw fumes from the rear of the exhaust manifold. I had seen this after the original reassembly (after chains and turbo clean). Eventually I decided to remove the turbo so that I could look at the exhaust manifold. This was today's job and whilst I haven't got a cracked manifold, I can see a lot of oil (I think) in it. That's what I'd like to ask about. Oil in exhaust manifold - how much is too much? It can't come back into the manifold from the turbo can it? I assume the positive pressure would keep it out. Where else could be a source - I have no 'operating' knowledge of this engine. Should I look for a leakdown test maybe to verify valves and rings? How much is excessive? Should I just put it back with a new manifold gasket? I honestly can't face head and sump off. It is an engine-out job to do both ends - I know that from the experience I've already had. Any advice will be appreciated, as always. Thanks

Yes, 3/8" drive makes it easier to get to the one @cackshiftermentions.

That was very nice to watch. It played back in 1080p on my Mac (before i saw the direct link). I was chuckling when you were talking about the 500' above ground level (and before you mentioned military). Where we are, on the edge of the Hope Valley 100' above the bottom, it's about 1/2 mile wide with 1,300' - 1,500' hills on either side, the C-130 transporters come around from the Ladybower / Derwent reservoirs and are no more than 100' above and a little to the side of the houses. You usually get a few seconds warning as they are quite loud and appear to be moving very slowly. So I can imagine how important spotters are.

What would you do with the engine though? V8 versus economy for longer trips?

Only slightly off-topic I think... I recently broke a Draper 1/2" breaker bar. It's around 600mm / 24" long and I snapped it at the knuckle without any extender pipe on it. I was trying to undo the crank bolt on the Honda CR-V that is mentioned elsewhere in a thread. Got in a good position, braced and pulled very hard. Then BANG. I had no idea where it had been bought but was in the last six years or so and I approached Draper direct with an email. They asked me to return it at my cost, with the broken bits, to their 'workshop' and they would inspect it. A week or so later they emailed to say that they will replace it - although I have had to wait a further three weeks for one to be available. It's coming next week. So not a bad aftermarket guarantee honoured, in fact I don't know if they advertise a lifetime guarantee or not. In the meantime I bought a replacement from Halfords and it is a better design at the knuckle. The Draper bar splits at the end to wrap around the socket adapter whereas the Halfords one remains as one piece and it's the adapter that wraps around the bar. A 3/4" bar would be better but I have a decent old skool tommy bar for that size and a nice scaffold pole.

I haven't yet had a good blast in the car but yes, I hope the turbo is OK. I didn't disassemble it any more than I described, so those three torx screwheads that you can see were left in. I'd had no dramas in splitting it to get that far and I didn't want to create one unnecessarily. After cleaning I looked hard at each of the vane actuators and their corresponding slot in the ring. I can see one that appears more worn than the others so that vane would have a tiny bit of a delay in movement. I hope I have saved the cost of an exchange unit.

Carb spray and lots of wiping. The ring, the three little support wheels for it and three pins that are the axles for those wheels, all lift off. The rest of the top side and the vanes and the turbine fan were cleaned with a toothbrush and rags. The carb spray instantly dissolves the carbon. I kept looking at pics of new ones to drive me to get it cleaner.

Thanks @cackshifter. I haven't quite handed it back yet to daughter #1. The last few days have been spent refitting the front bumper and various plastic guards and then I went for a proper drive and flooded the top of the engine with diesel. I hadn't quite got the union lined-up on one injector (short pipes off the common-rail) and had it tight but leaking. It was a novice mistake, where I had tightened the straight end of the pipe rather than the union at the other end which was on a bend. Must have pulled it off centre. So I removed it and tweaked the pipe a little. You can imagine where the diesel went after the top of the engine. All underneath was coated and the the mist had come back up all over the tailgate. So that took some cleaning. Then I hosed down the drive but managed not to look at the road. Second test drive had some 'smoke' coming up from the rear of the engine which I hope isn't an oil drip (turbo). It might be a poor exhaust joint as there are several high up. After the manifold theres a 90deg bend then a pre-cat with another bend down to the flexible coupling. Hope it's nothing major. I then looked at the rear end and saw this joint at the mid to rear box connection. The mid box (genuine Honda) is all in great condition except for the welded flange where the material is presumably compromised at welding. I hope to fit a new flange by cutting it in half and welding back. (well not me, a proper welder).

Any use?

Maybe this will help although the photo from the book isn't very clear - in fact it doesn't even look like the right hand side of the gearbox! I will see if I can get under mine and take a photo. Edit Here’s mine, it’s on the rhs of the transfer box. This is the view looking back alongside the front prop.

That is the earth connection on the side of the R380. Not sure that I have a photo of mine but the bolt is somewhere there in the right side of the box.

I mentioned fuel filter as I had the exact same symptoms. It was a different era, different vehicle and petrol. I had dragged-up muck from the bottom of the tank. Had a horrible journey down the A1 from Durham in the dark and cold. A surge of power then slow almost to a stop, then repeat for 140 miles. The next day when I cleaned the bowl filter, it was full. Fingers crossed for you.

Maybe a blocked fuel filter?

The CR-V is almost back together now after a few weeks of turmoil. How different it is working on an engine that sits fairly tight in the engine bay. As well as replacing the cam and oil pump chains, I managed to remove the turbo and stripped it down in order to clean the VNT mechanism which was coked-up and there had been a turbo over-boost fault the last time the car was driven. Along the way I lost a turbo nut into the exhaust and it rattled its way along to the front end of the cat as I tried to work out where it was. I had to cut-off the cat in order to tip it back out. I also had two M10x50 bolts left over. They were probably the only ones not labelled and it took hours of looking and thinking, before an extended session (at 1:30am) in front of a parts diagram indicated where they should have gone. Luckily there was only the intercooler to turbo pipe to move to fit them. Generally I found things very hard work. The engine had to be lifted up and down to get stuff in and out. The sump is only removed with the front subframe lowered a few cm. The turbo will only come out with the engine in place (and lifted up and down) if all the stuff over the gearbox is removed, so that's battery and (rusted-on) box, gearshift cables, air box and pipes, fuel pipes, etc. etc. I'll be glad to get back to my 110. The new injectors haven't yet been coded to the ecu but starting was no problem. The first video is the engine running before I started the job. The second is the start after the injectors were plugged into the loom after a few cranks on the starter to get diesel up and hopefully some oil into the turbo. Compare and contrast 😁

Glad it's in and working Ralph. The heater box is a tidy option and you will get used to the raised cubby position. It's hard to tell whether it's as noisy as mine is at start-up but the outside sound level doesn't seem too bad at all in those videos.Enjoy the warmth!

I don't mind the pump noise. It is just a ticking and the frequency depends on the rate at which the burner is running. The standard fix is a rubber mount in a clamp, as in my photo. When the heater is on full fire the noise of the pump disappears!

Yes It has an after-market one on. I have been moaning about it for some time but haven't yet tried any other solution such as a genuine exhaust silencer or one on the inlet. I believe that these newer D2 heaters (at least) always go onto full flame at start-up for at least a minimum run time, in order to ensure that carbon build-up is minimised. I am guilty of spreading that rumour as I don't definitively know that this is correct. The noise is only an issue on the outside of the vehicle; that's what I mean about spoiling the tranquility. If its windy it's no problem but in a quiet spot or campsite, in the early morning, it can be loud.

I'll be interested to compare the noise of your heater with mine. We may need to share videos. I can't get used to the jet engine roar of the burner during the start-up / warm-up phase. It makes a tranquil early morning a little less tranquil. However heat is better than cold!

Yes that sounds like a good reason.

I lifted my body to swap the chassis. I used the experience of @western above but eventually decided on a scaffold. The details are on page 3 of my thread here. The main lift points were either side of the bulkhead, a scaffold pole under the tub just forward of the rear wheels and at the rear door (just in case). I think I went a bit overboard with the scaffold but I really didn't know what to expect and also how long it would be before the new chassis went back underneath.

I recently claimed on my Ctek guarantee. The charger has a 'mode' button which you use at switch-on, to cycle through the battery type (AGM or normal), car or motor bike (assume thats 12/6V) and recondition or not. It hardly ever got pressed and then when I did need it to change from AGM, it took loads of fiddling to get it to change over. I couldn't open the case without probably breaking it so I looked for my receipt. Fortunately I keep the eBay purchase emails and it was just a few weeks inside the 5 year guarantee. The eBay website doesn't offer you the transactions older then a couple of years or so but having the email showed me the seller (PayPal didn't have enough information either). The seller was still on eBay and still selling Ctek stuff so I sent a message. Very quickly I received a reply asking me to return the unit and it would be sent on to Ctek who would then instruct. Only a week or so later I was told that a new unit would be sent out.