Tricky-Ricky

Question for those that have had to do some serious interior cleaning, or valeters. The wife's sister has just given here an older Vauxhall Astra as a learner car, ......BUT its been used to transport a dog and has hardly ever been cleaned, add to that she was a smoker, so you can imagine the state of it. She has given it all a good repeated scrub, i removed the seats as well, but the plastics are still ingrained with dirt despite repeated tries, the same goes for the seats and carpets, stain's etc. So i wanted to ask if anyone could suggest a cleaner colour restorer to get the plastic back to black/grey black, and something that will shift the stubborn stains, that's not going to cost the silly money that some of the valeting products command?

Yes you can run a single turbo on a V motor, but what i am saying is not just on one bank, and with the positioning your proposing it would not only be impractical, its would cause a lot of heat issues from the extended pipework required, which is why i said that a rear mount was the only sensible option.

The fact that it seems to be appearing on the top of the pistons over night would indicate the stem seals, however it would only happen on the cylinders with open valves, and also the drains on the follower buckets would have to be blocked to get any appreciable amount of oil, The idle/low load side of the PCV system (the one with the one way valve) tends to generate the most oil vapor, which is why most fit a catch can to stop the accumulation of oil pooling in the plenum, The high load side witch is unregulated, and operates via the intake vacuum at larger throttle openings is the one which is more important, but seldom gives trouble.

First off your going to run into major problems trying to run a single turbo on a V motor, you cant just run a turbo on one side, therefore if your intending to try and run one off both manifolds the only sensible way is to run it rear mount.

Have you run compression and leak-down tests? to check if its ring related first, stem seals are usually most apparent on cold start, however its the same for worn piston rings, you would likly see smoke during overrun due to both conditions though, which make for hard diagnosis.

Can i ask how your actually intending to run this setup? IE exhaust setup and routing for a single turbo?

This! or just find a switched live off the back of the ignition switch and add an in line fuse.

Something to talk about in the pub!

Walking away is good. (1) There is no circlip. (2) There is no hydraulic tappet. My bad, wrong terminology, i meant to say Lifters. LOL that pic is of a push rod motor lifter.

Sounds like it went into limp mode for some odd reason.that or a bad earth.

1 minuets will do just the same.

Can i ask what sort of speed and RPM your doing when you shift to 6th and loose power? PM me if you don't want to post here, the fact that it only occurs in 6th is very odd, and you also say its only since fitting decats?

While it will be needed no doubt for track use, you may find it will cool too much during normal driving, you may need to block it altogether during winter, as too low oil temps are just as bad as too high, Modern oils are designed to handle temps in excess of 130C, you also don't want to be running normal oil temps of lower than 90c and ideally 100c, if i where you i would fir an accurate aftermarket oil temp gauge, as the std unit is rather broad in its range of normal.

The voltage you see at the gauge will vary a lot depending on system load, and battery charge state, you should see anything from 12.8v to 14.2v. however charging voltage is not really an indication of the alternators health, just the system load.

That's OK, everyone has to live somewhere.

Haha so is it not good? May be worth upgrading to 4K box? I believe it has rj45 port and a bit more meatier. Reviews suggests that it supports 4K streaming over wifi without any problems. So I guess for normal and HD use it will be spot on. No chance wifi can support full bitrate 4K, it struggles with 1080p. Theoretical limits on wifi are great, but in the real world it just won't cope. For Netflix-quality 4K though, it's probably fine. 4K is a very short lived fad, HDR offers far more benefits for a much lower cost for content producers, and a higher quality product for the end user too. But I digress, that's another rant for another day My ATV4 box is just about the best multimedia box I've used, but obviously you pay top dollar for it and it has limitations when you're trying to run hooky software/access pirate streams. For Plex and Netflix though, it's superb. Exactly my issues too! No proper multi-channel audio makes it a very poor solution for people who have even a low-end surround setup. Not sure i would agree over the Netflx 4K and HDR, before i reverted to my current 4K TV a 2015 model i was supplied the current top model which was capable of Netflix with HDR, and it coped very well but i wouldent class HDR as the ultimate IMO there is not a vast difference in colour rendition with a decent 10 bit panel, Same goes for streamed HDR content stored on a NAS over wifi, however i have yet to see any HDR from a UHD disc spinner, so i may have to retract my words if its vastly better. I was looking for a multimedia box solution to supplying my TV and surround system with most codecs/decoders for bot video and audio from both network and internal storage, which included both 3D and 4K, at 50 and 60Hz, which as far as the Himedia Q10 Pro was concerned it managed most but not all video, needed to use Kodi for some and internal system for others, which proved to be a complete pain in practice, and still wouldent deal with a lot of the HD multi channel audio, as i wanted to change my amp to an Dolby Atmos model. And its not like i didn't do my research, but i guess if your not prepared to pay in excess of 1K or more on a media box, you just wont get what you want.

I can remember the C word when its was a proper celebration and holiday........shame its all turned to commercial crap....hate it now.

I ordered a multimedia (Himedia Q10 Pro) box a while back, that was supposed to do everything, and ran Kodi and another system, but i found Kodi a PITA, and it also didn't run all the multi channel audio i wanted so it went back.

You said it has just had a service, has the oil grade been changed? could just be a failing oil pressure sensor/gauge.

Just a word of warning regarding using engine flush on an engine that either has uncertain maintenance and or high mileage, in my experience it can do more harm than good, as it can dislodge sludge or hard deposits within the oil system, which is fine if they all shift at one time, and don't end up blocking oil screens and strainers, but if it happens some time later it can be more trouble than its worth.

I always find it quite ridiculous that the manufactures don't fit a low oil level warning light on most modern cars, and particularly on this model due to the hard to read dip stick, which would also apply to a lot of other cars I'm sure, makes me wonder at the reasons. My old Supra engine was saved by the low oil level light due to a failed oil seal, needles to say the level light got fitted with a super bright LED and audible warning after that.

They are notoriously difficult to read the dip stick, as for oil light i would have to check the manual to tell you the exact low pressure required to trigger the oil light, but the general consensus is that if you see the light its probably too late, obviously low pressure is directly linked to very low oil level, as the oil pick up is likely to be picking up air as well as oil, and cavitation in bearings is not at all good. The fact that you didn't see the oi light could mean you have been lucky, does the oil light work OK when you turn on the ignition?

+ 1 on the voice of reason above, its not always down to just the one CEL code that's shouting at you, other dependent parts can cause the same CEL, although i would start cautiously by unplugging certain related parts/sensors and go from there, rather than jumping in and start buying parts. And on the subject of only using OEM parts, i have always used third party manufactured parts, especially considering a lot of these parts are actually manufactured by third parties in the first place, and often by the same company, but carry the OEM stamp. I have never had any problems with said third party spares.

LOL! Cyber terrorists turning off your telly in the middle of corrie. :lol: :lol:

I ran a RGB LED strip in a hidden channel along the cornice on the short wall i my living room, and another behind the TV, works very well, any colour you like and can be dimmed too.