Omega Owners Forum

Chat Area => General Car Chat => Topic started by: feeutfo on 05 January 2010, 00:40:38

Title: The cold, gremlins and my car.
Post by: feeutfo on 05 January 2010, 00:40:38
-7°c on the way home tonight.

pass front door refused to work with central locking, aux belt was squeeking until warm, car tram lined all over the place until the tyres warmed up a bit on the motorway, my slight lag in lpg set up was worse on gear changes and it switced to petrol twice on its own, pulled up at the lights and there was an almighty thump on the roof, sun roof popped open on its own with a bang koz it was frozen all round the seal, bloody shat me pants as i thought i had been rear ended or something. THEN, get home park up sit down and settle in front of the telly, woop woop, alarm goes off at 11.15 at night. Mad panic to grab the key before the neighbours start moaning, go out and the cid and head unit are lit up, get closer and i can hear the radio on, open the door, WWAH, its on almost full blast(think thats what set the alarm off) also informing my neighbours of my music taste.

What the hell is going on? Bloody gremlins dont like the cold do they!
Title: Re: The cold, gremlins and my car.
Post by: Broomies Mate on 05 January 2010, 00:45:36
Stop listening to George Michael and Boy George and you wont have to worry about your Neighbours  ;)
Title: Re: The cold, gremlins and my car.
Post by: feeutfo on 05 January 2010, 01:27:13
Quote
Stop listening to George Michael and Boy George and you wont have to worry about your Neighbours  ;)
Oi! your not talking to loo knee now ya know. I hear hes got them and Rick Astley in his white Escort convertible cd changer. ;D
Title: Re: The cold, gremlins and my car.
Post by: Hannah Judes Dad on 05 January 2010, 08:52:00
Quote
Stop listening to George Michael and Boy George and you wont have to worry about your Neighbours  ;)

Lets be honest it was Bros and Elton John
Title: Re: The cold, gremlins and my car.
Post by: Kevin Wood on 05 January 2010, 09:36:42
Hmm. Worrying that the LPG is playing up. Mine runs the same from -10 to +30. I wonder if the vapouriser is not getting enough coolant?

I've been getting the squeaky aux. belt too (and on a relatively new belt) but no other issues.

Kevin
Title: Re: The cold, gremlins and my car.
Post by: Lazydocker on 05 January 2010, 09:40:45
Quote
Hmm. Worrying that the LPG is playing up. Mine runs the same from -10 to +30. I wonder if the vapouriser is not getting enough coolant?

I've been getting the squeaky aux. belt too (and on a relatively new belt) but no other issues.

Kevin

Mine's been running fine too... It's a bit lumpy at idle occasionally but I don't think it's a problem with the LPG. Timing belt is due soon and Mark suggested a while back that the timing may be a fraction out, causing the slight flat spot I've got, so I'm hoping for a dry day to get on and change the kit.

I had the squeaky aux belt yesterday morning too!
Title: Re: The cold, gremlins and my car.
Post by: MikeDundee on 05 January 2010, 11:08:28
I had to get my car jump started yesterday, as had'nt driven it since news years eve, normally don't have any problems with it, assume its the cold weather and the fact that had'nt done much driving prior to christmas, havin to go to all those chrimbo do's gettin pissed - pmsl
Title: Re: The cold, gremlins and my car.
Post by: feeutfo on 05 January 2010, 14:39:37
Quote
Hmm. Worrying that the LPG is playing up. Mine runs the same from -10 to +30. I wonder if the vapouriser is not getting enough coolant?

I've been getting the squeaky aux. belt too (and on a relatively new belt) but no other issues.

Kevin
my suspission was coolent  was getting cold by the time it got to the vapouriser but your suggestion seems more likely. I did make sure of using the biggest nylon elbows possible with that pipe bore size, from memory, i'd better check to be sure.
Title: Re: The cold, gremlins and my car.
Post by: tunnie on 05 January 2010, 14:48:36
my aux belt has been squeaky when cold, once warmed up its ok, but pulling away feels very gruff for the first few miles until the oil warms up fully.

What was cause of the roof bang?? Did you open the sunroof?  :-/

Sounds like lump of ice or something fell on the roof? Sounds like some strange leccy issues there.

My 2.2 *touch wood* has proved very reliable in this weather, old girl is doing me proud for a 10 year old 130k car
Title: Re: The cold, gremlins and my car.
Post by: Kevin Wood on 05 January 2010, 15:01:56
Quote
my suspission was coolent  was getting cold by the time it got to the vapouriser but your suggestion seems more likely. I did make sure of using the biggest nylon elbows possible with that pipe bore size, from memory, i'd better check to be sure.

A heater hose ought to flow enough coolant. Was the issue when the engine was cold or also when hot?

Just thinking, your modus operandi is probably a bit different to mine (at a guess, onto the motorway from cold?) whereas mine doesn't get fast cruising until warm. Having said that, LPG boils at -40, so even if the coolant is at (say) 25 degrees, when you switch over it is still hot relative to that required. If flow is too slow, it might not be allowing the heat to be transferred fast enough.

Is your vapouriser plumbed in before or after the flow through the heater matrix?

Kevin
Title: Re: The cold, gremlins and my car.
Post by: feeutfo on 05 January 2010, 15:30:17
Quote
my aux belt has been squeaky when cold, once warmed up its ok, but pulling away feels very gruff for the first few miles until the oil warms up fully.

What was cause of the roof bang?? Did you open the sunroof?  :-/

Sounds like lump of ice or something fell on the roof? Sounds like some strange leccy issues there.

My 2.2 *touch wood* has proved very reliable in this weather, old girl is doing me proud for a 10 year old 130k car
i had that thought re ice falling as i was under a lamp post at the time but the sun roof did open to full tilt, or it would have done if i hadnt closed it. I wondered of the dial was not quite on closed and by the time a came off the motorwaying the heat in the car had melted the seal, if the motor was under strain it may have banged open ?

the radio coming on, well i.ve had trouble with the on off knob since owning the car, it also controls the volume.
Title: Re: The cold, gremlins and my car.
Post by: feeutfo on 05 January 2010, 15:51:31
Quote
Quote
my suspission was coolent  was getting cold by the time it got to the vapouriser but your suggestion seems more likely. I did make sure of using the biggest nylon elbows possible with that pipe bore size, from memory, i'd better check to be sure.

A heater hose ought to flow enough coolant. Was the issue when the engine was cold or also when hot?

Just thinking, your modus operandi is probably a bit different to mine (at a guess, onto the motorway from cold?) whereas mine doesn't get fast cruising until warm. Having said that, LPG boils at -40, so even if the coolant is at (say) 25 degrees, when you switch over it is still hot relative to that required. If flow is too slow, it might not be allowing the heat to be transferred fast enough.

Is your vapouriser plumbed in before or after the flow through the heater matrix?

Kevin
vap is plumbed direct from the block then to hbv. It did play up when cold and engine warm.

my comute is sub 50mph until warm/showing on the gauge. Heater blows warm within 2mins in a 30limit. Its not possible to reach th motorway before the car temp hits 80c.on either journey.

Title: Re: The cold, gremlins and my car.
Post by: Kevin Wood on 05 January 2010, 19:38:27
OK. Plumbed the same as mine and commute probably similar. :-/

If it's switching over to petrol the vapour pressure at the output of the vapouriser is low.

Have a look at what the threshold is set to. Maybe it was marginal anyway and the cold was the last straw. Mine runs at about 1.25 bar, drops to maybe 1 bar under full load at full RPM and the threshold for dropping to petrol is 0.8 bar IIRC.

Kevin
Title: Re: The cold, gremlins and my car.
Post by: Lazydocker on 05 January 2010, 22:12:14
Also keep track of the Vap Temp... I had a sensor go faulty a while back, which Teilo diagnosed by text message and sent the replacement next day, FOC of course :y :y
Title: Re: The cold, gremlins and my car.
Post by: feeutfo on 05 January 2010, 23:08:59
pressure does seem to vary when watching it at tick over. takes a little while to rise and settle, i increased it to 1.3bar a month ago and it seemed a little better. But seems to have tailed off again as temps gradually drop.
Even H has noticed it. Maybe time for another curry? that'l sort it. ;D ;)
Title: Re: The cold, gremlins and my car.
Post by: feeutfo on 05 January 2010, 23:20:38
Quote
Also keep track of the Vap Temp... I had a sensor go faulty a while back, which Teilo diagnosed by text message and sent the replacement next day, FOC of course :y :y
yeah ive been meaning to bother him with this general problem anyway. I'll have a winge tomorrow i think as it looks like ill be working from home anyway.

Which reminds me, i lost his details recently, anyone got them?  :)
Title: Re: The cold, gremlins and my car.
Post by: Lazydocker on 05 January 2010, 23:58:48
Quote
Quote
Also keep track of the Vap Temp... I had a sensor go faulty a while back, which Teilo diagnosed by text message and sent the replacement next day, FOC of course :y :y
yeah ive been meaning to bother him with this general problem anyway. I'll have a winge tomorrow i think as it looks like ill be working from home anyway.

Which reminds me, i lost his details recently, anyone got them?  :)

Don't bother for a moment... He's out of the country!

I'll try and get hold of him again tomorrow and get him to give you a call :y :y
Title: Re: The cold, gremlins and my car.
Post by: Kevin Wood on 06 January 2010, 00:47:09
Quote
Also keep track of the Vap Temp...

Agreed. In fact, do a trip into work with the laptop logging everything and then save the trace for scrutiny later.

Kevin
Title: Re: The cold, gremlins and my car.
Post by: feeutfo on 06 January 2010, 01:05:14
Quote
Quote
Also keep track of the Vap Temp...

Agreed. In fact, do a trip into work with the laptop logging everything and then save the trace for scrutiny later.
 Kevin
yeah....knew i should have got some practice in with that software.

Cheers chaps. :y

Title: Re: The cold, gremlins and my car.
Post by: feeutfo on 06 January 2010, 01:21:00
by the way, has nobody else noticed increased tramlining until the tyres warm up?

running  conti sparts cotact 3 tyres. Very pleased with them in normal conditions but unsuprisinly, they seem fairly appaling in the snow. Not that i have much snow driving experience. I guess any summer tyre will be crap in these conditions, but esp these due to the 3 ribs along the direction of travel.