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Messages - petec

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1
Had the same problem on mine. As far as I remember I cut it to get it out but it is impossible to get the replacement into the same place. I ran it beside the ABS unit and protected it with pieces of rubber sleeve in the places where it might rub against the bulkhead etc.

That makes sense. Presume the pipe would run between ABS and the inner wing. Did it need much bending of pipes to get the new pipe in line with the existing connector from the bulkhead

2
Omega General Help / advice needed on removing air con pipe
« on: 16 May 2015, 22:31:41 »
I have an air con leak on my facelift 2.6 estate so decided to have a look at today as sun was shining.

The problem is a leak in the pipe which runs from the bulkhead, under the ABS unit along the nearside chassis rail to the condenser (yellow dye all along it and top of chassis rail and no refrigerant left)

I am doing some other jobs as well so have currently got battery, bagpipes, Coolant rad, condenser and compressor off. Have disconnected offending pipe near bulkhead but it has bends on both ends so does not just pull out.
struggled with it a bit, drank tea, stared at it a bit, drank more tea even tried swearing at it which usually works but its not clear how to get this pipe out. Apparently its a bit of a weak point on omega's so I am hoping someone knows the best way to get it out, or more importantly to get a replacement back in without trashing it!

I imagine the pipe will need to come out forwards but does ABS unit have to be removed to release it and/or nearside manifolds ????

Any advice please...........other than don't bother :)



3
Omega General Help / Re: hotspot on leather heated seat
« on: 06 December 2014, 01:45:59 »
Well I started this thread ages ago and really meant to sort out my seat heater in September....best laid plans and all that.
Anyway I decided to have a go this week (as summer actually seems to be over now) and see how do-able a repair would be.

Having got the drivers seat out of the car and into a warm living room (SWMBO out for the day) surprisingly it only took about an hour to fix and now things are toasty again (but not too toasty) just in time for the snow.

I just thought I would post some observations in case it helps anyone. Bear in mind this is a facelift leather seat, the fabric ones seem a lot simpler to get to heating elements.

First off, my seat had a hot spot toward the front left of the seat cushion just inboard of the front to back stitching for the bolster, this is a point where the element across the cushion is soldered and it seems over time the element had flexed where the rigid solder ended and strands broke, increasing the resistance at this point and caused a local hot spot. If you have similar symptoms then a fix could be viable. Instructions for seat removal are in a mtce guide. be sure to disconnect battery and leave for a while before unplugging seat to ensure air bag deactivated.

If your heater does not work at all then, assuming the fault is actually in the seat and not the switch, connectors or supply you will probably have great difficulty finding the break as the element is fixed to the underside of the leather which is then covered by a foam layer and a fabric layer which is stitched into the cover so you need to know where to cut to find the problem. In that situation the good advice from others to look for a replacement seat seems fair :'(.

I found that in my case it wasn't necessary to completely strip the seat or remove all those pesky steel rings because the fault was near the front of the seat cushion so before removing seat  I stuck a piece of masking tape on the spot where it got too hot. Then with seat on floor I removed the plastic rake adjusting knob (2 screws), unhitch the plastic trim it sits on (I screw front underneath and couple of push in clips along length. I did not need to completely remove this trim, just release the front so didn't need to remove seat back adjuster etc. Next remove 4 bolts underneath frame to release seat from chassis, motors etc. and you can then get to the lower front edge of the seat cushion. You will need to clip off a few tie wraps holding wiring in place, make a note of positions of cables and ties before you remove them to make sure nothing gets trapped or mis placed when you put it back, I always take a few pics on my phone to remind me  :y.
 The bottom edge of the leather cover has a strip of rigid card sown into it which hooks over a lip around the steel seat base. If you compress the cushion, relieving the tension on the edge of the cover it can be unclipped all round and the  front can be folded back off the foam to the first row of lateral stitching which in my case was enough to get at the problem. You will find there is a steel ring holding the cover down to a wire in the foam each side which will be in the way, I removed one and had sufficient access.

The inside of the cover has a cloth layer, under this a layer of foam and then the element is stuck to the leather. I made a  cut in fabric under point where I had stuck masking tape, then carefully through foam to expose heating wire. The wire zigzags across cushion and (certainly the front element) is soldered where it meets the bolster. Mine had frayed where the rigid solder ended. The element is finely stranded copper based wire. It was a bit blackened and worse for wear at the joint so I cut it back about 3cm, cleaned the wire by gently scraping with craft knife and then I slipped a couple of 6cm lengths of heat shrink tube along the element and crimped it to the soldered end with a small crimp and a ratchet crimper I then ran some solder over join to be sure although I think crimp is sufficient.  I then slid the heatshrink tube over the join and shrank it on so wire would not flex as much at the join again. nearly done. I just glued the element back down to the cover, glued the cut edges of the foam together and stitched the fabric covering so it would not pull apart when there was weight on the seat. then just reassemble and hopefully it will be good again. ...... ;D


 

4
Omega General Help / Re: Air con repair advice plse
« on: 13 November 2014, 08:51:12 »
The pipe running along the passenger chassis leg is a common one to go pourous. Its not the easiest to replace, but "doable"

that's encouraging, on 2.6 v6, what needs to come out in order to remove it and is it best to pull it back towards scuttle or forwards and out from underneath?.

 Will take bagpipes off anyway and remove compressor so I can clean mating surfaces as has been suggested as its a good point about crap around the joint on top.
I would like to get pipe along chassis leg out without trashing it further as local air con guy reckons he can rebuild pipe for less than cost of replacement (hes got flexi hose, crimps tube etc). Not a good time of year to play with aircon...outside in the cold and dark but don't fancy another winter of steamed up windows :(.

5
Omega General Help / Air con repair advice plse
« on: 11 November 2014, 20:36:58 »
I have been having problems with aircon for a while now. Regas last year only lasted 4 weeks, pressure test showed slow leak but there was no dye in system and hard to pin down. The condenser was in a pretty sorry state, cooling fins were dropping out and was sagging badly so I changed it and the condenser. Very helpful local specialist pressure tested system and all seemed well so recharged , plenty of dye and freezy again...for about 4 weeks :'( :'(.

This is where I would like a bit of advice guidance please.
I suspect there are 2 separate leaks, both look pretty awkward to get at so an idea of how much stripping out is necessary to fix.

There is a lot of dye along passenger side chassis rail along the route of the high pressure pipe from the condenser back toward the accumulator in the cabin, its difficult to see where the leak is as the dye has soaked into the cotton wrapping on the adjacent wiring loom for about 50cms along the pipe but the dye is not coming from the connection block with the condenser, its somewhere along the pipe, possibly where the flexible section is below the battery. The question is, how difficult is it to get this pipe out as it is pretty well tucked away under misc hoses, the power steering reservoir and ABS unit.
I am thinking I probably need to take out the radiator to get to the connection block at the front and access at the rear seems ok from underneath but has anyone had to change this pipe how awkward is it and is this a known weak point?

The second apparent leak seems to be from the connection plate above the compressor. Dye appears to be coming out between the plate and the top of the compressor and running down the back of the compressor. I am guessing the seals (dowty washers?)have given up so the question here is ..is it possible to replace these seals without removing the compressor. The mtce guide is very handy with pics of the seals but its nor clear whether there is sufficient space to unbolt the connection plate and lift it enough to replace the seals without dropping the compressor.. advice please.

Any assistance welcome

6
Omega General Help / Re: Poor radio reception with easy cheap fix
« on: 25 September 2014, 19:02:54 »
I did read in a post somewhere on the site that the aerial lead to head unit connection is a potential weak point.  Apparently there is also a connection in the wheel well, not sure which side which needs checking. You could unplug there and check continuity between there and head unit connector if you have a multimeter. Not sure about tightening the connection, its been a few years since I saw it. Normally either the pin or the socket will have split/sprung sides which holds plug in place, if so a bit of judicious tweaking with a fine screwdriver to spring the sides out a bit might help.

It might be worth temporarily sticking an extra earth cable from the head unit chassis to a suitable nearby earthed point to prove the earth in the loom is ok if the above doesn't improve things. Looking at a Haynes wiring diagram which may be accurate :-\  the aerial lead screen is grounded at the head unit and the amplifier looks as though it is integral with the aerial base on the roof. The screen would only normally be grounded at one end to prevent an eth loop which itself could generate noise but its possible the base unit fixing screw could be providing an eth to screen the electronics so next place is probably to check the mounting is clean and tight. Hopefully you would be able to drop the back edge of the headlining enough to check this out without major strip out although not had to go there myself (yet). ??? I would be interested to know how you get on.

7
Omega General Help / Re: Broken down coolant loss
« on: 25 September 2014, 17:29:48 »
Do you know anyone with "personal" recovery membership i.e. it covers any car they are driving or passenger in rather than just a vehicle. If so they were probably in your car when it died and so could call on recovery to repatriate you all.....just a thought ;)

8
Omega General Help / Re: No traction control as standard on 2001 CDX??
« on: 25 September 2014, 17:19:14 »
I have traction control on my 2.6 but to be honest it's crap and you find urself 3 foot across a round about when the power cuts and ur facing a truck coming the other way. I turn mine off every time I drive it and control it myself, it will spin up in any condition if I want it to and can be gentle in the rain and it won't step out, unless I want it to of course  ;D

Must admit I turn TC off if its a bit wet and I'm in a hurry. Unless you are wearing special lead soled driving shoes it is more predictable to control with the throttle rather than lurching from oversteer to understeer as power is cut by TC even tho the 2.6 estate is naturally a bit more tail happy than my old saloon  ;D ;D

9
Omega General Help / Re: Mayo in overflow. Yuck.....
« on: 25 September 2014, 09:45:03 »
I had to take the oil cooler/heat exchanger out of my 2.6 a couple of weeks ago to fix a leaking cover plate although in my case rad was stainless steel and in good nick thankfully. Not difficult to replace but as stated previously a bit time consuming and fiddly  ;). If the garage you plan to use is not a VX stealer then it may be worth checking that they intend to fit  new dowty washers to coolant bridge and that they are going to use the proper Vx grey goo to seal the cover plate else you will probably end up with coolant leaks. Think I have read elsewhere that the new cooler comes as a kit with nuts and sealing washers so less chance of getting that wrong.

If you decide to do it yourself then apart from warm overalls a 3/8" drive socket set is useful and you will need some torx bits and ideally a low range torque wrench or just well calibrated fingers :y

10
Omega General Help / Re: Dead key fob
« on: 20 September 2014, 00:04:42 »
So I got fed up looking like a dickhead setting the alarm off all the time, so this morning I pulled the horn fuse, "That'll sort the bastard" I thought.  ::)

It didn't .....  :-[ :-[ :-[  ;D ;D ;D

There are 3 horns and the electronic power sounder, I suspect the horn fuse only kills the normal pair of horns under the front valance. There is another one next the power sounder under the scuttle where you can't get at it without tools...drivers side tucked away just outboard of the brake servo. This one and the power sounder will still go if the alarm is tripped.
Isnt locking the car by Broomies method working for you   ????

11
Omega General Help / Re: Dead key fob
« on: 17 September 2014, 12:29:27 »
If you use the key to auto close the windows it will also turn on the alarm, at least it does on facelift.  Best method is the one mentioned earlier IMO, open back drivers door, press button on drivers door then close the ( drivers side ;D,) rear door.
This method is also useful if your power sounder randomly entertains your neighbours in the middle of the night as it does not turn on the alarm ;D

12
Omega General Help / Re: Dead key fob
« on: 16 September 2014, 20:45:21 »
This is likely to be due to a fairly common problem, one terminal of the battery holder comes away from the PCB leaving you with a dead remote. A temporary fix which often works is to put a bit of folded paper between the battery and the case to push the battery holder down tighter on the circuit board.

a reliable fix is to take the circuit board out of the fob and on the side away from the battery holder you will almost certainly see that the connection tag from the batt holder has  come away from the board, sometimes the tag breaks and sometimes the bit of track on the board its soldered to will have broken away. Just resolder the connection and it will live again. I have fixed both of mine  ;D

13
Omega General Help / Re: Poor radio reception with easy cheap fix
« on: 16 September 2014, 12:27:49 »
I just found this old post from 2004 on another site which relates to MW interference when moving

I have a 2003 Vectra, which suffered from severe radio interference on
 medium wave, but only when the car was moving. There are several
 newsgroup articles describing this problem which also affects Astras,
 but with no definite solution. I took it to the dealer several times,
 and they first reseated the cables, then replaced the radio (under
 warranty), then reseated the cables again, and each time it was OK for
 a day or two, then the problem returned.

 Finally, I persuaded them to talk to Vauxhall technical support, and
 they were advised to fit a suppressor to one of the cables (sorry,
 they couldn't tell me which one), and this has cured the problem.


It sounds very similar, no idea where a suppressor may have been fitted but it sounds as though this may be a known problem and maybe there is a technical bulletin covering it if anyone can find it.

14
Omega General Help / Re: Poor radio reception with easy cheap fix
« on: 16 September 2014, 09:45:12 »
[quote   AM is wiped out as soon as the wheels move, AND I MEAN AS SOON AS THEY MOVE,i am thinking abs sensor is causing it.
Good fix all the same. :y
[/quote]
That's an interesting problem, presume am band is drowned out with interference as soon as you are rolling. Often that type of interference is caused by bad earthing/ dodgy screening.  I seem to recall that there is a "speed" pulse supplied to the radio connector which allows  head unit to increase volume as road noise increases, that might be the nearest candidate for motion related interference. I wonder if you have a loose chassis earth to head unit or interrupted screen to aerial coax. The aerial screen will be grounded at the head unit and I believe there is a connector in one of the foot wells. Might be worth checking all plugs are firmly in place before looking further.

15
Omega General Help / Re: Poor radio reception with easy cheap fix
« on: 15 September 2014, 21:13:11 »
think I've got an old 16 foot ex-wd tank aerial somewhere in the shed, just the job although you would need to be a bit careful under low bridges ;D ;D ;D

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