S1 V6 auto back on the road at last!! - Problem solved!!

[russ92xmsed]

Seats and bonnet lining look great Matthew. The foil idea is a good one.

I have used the under bonnet light once, and that was simply to push a relay back in. Surprising amount of light.

[Dean]

Yes Matthew, do tell us more about this seat change you talk about...

On the leather at least the seat bases just unclip and you can swap the passenger and drivers side so you even out the wear on the right bolster on the seat base. I swapped mine about 7 or 8 years ago, its very easy to do, i sometimes unclip them to clean under the seats.

D

[MTXM]

It is just as Dean explains Ray and you release the clips along the front rail underneath by hooking a screwdriver behind the wire. There is a bit more work involved if you have heated seats as the cables need to be disconnected beneath and behind the base. Regards, Matthew T.

[Dieselman]

It is just as Dean explains Ray and you release the clips along the front rail underneath by hooking a screwdriver behind the wire. There is a bit more work involved if you have heated seats as the cables need to be disconnected beneath and behind the base. Regards, Matthew T.

Heated seats. We can tell you're not from Yorkshire.

[raynoon]

Thanks for the replies!

[Eddie nuff]

This swapping seat bases is all a bit too intricate really. I just got an interior off a Froggy car.

[alexm]

Lovely clean engine, i like mine to be like that, you are lucky man Matt.
Good seats too.

[MTXM]

Thanks for your comments chaps and sadly the heated seats stopped working long ago! Here are some photos of how the car looked at my acquisition in 2010. Regards, Matthew T.

[MTXM]

I was clearly tempting fate with my earlier comments, since I now have another major problem with the car!! On a work trip up to Lincolnshire last week a further external or semi-external mechanical chattering began to appear from the lower engine area, which worsened to the point I could not proceed. My hope was that the starter motor pinion cog retraction spring had failed/jammed and was permanently engaged, although the starter appeared to operate as normal.

Over the weekend I removed the starter and all looked fine, apart from some very light filings around the mouth, but after further investigation I found a much worse problem. Basically the starter ring has cracked and separated around the central crankshaft fixing and is hanging by a thread that was clearly the source of the clattering I heard. It seems rather unlucky that both the flex-plate and ring have failed and, although they are admittedly connected, the ring only takes direct load when the starter is engaged.

After taking advice from gearbox specialists locally and elsewhere the causes could simply be age and fatigue, possibly combined with poor alignment of the engine and box and/or an imbalanced torque convertor. It happens the tc was rebuilt by a recognized specialist in Scotland and had a small balance weight attached, plus there was no excessive vibration while driving. The alignment could be effected by missing dowels between the casings, but I know at least one of these is definitely in place and nothing was removed. Another possible issue is excessive crankshaft end-float, which I confess I did not measure on the last rebuild, but the flex plate broke with a different engine. The worst thing is that the engine and box must come out again,a fourth time in fact, which I will not be rushing to do!

For the present the car is at least in my garage and will hopefully be temporarily replaced by the gold manual V6. The other good news is that I have already located two replacement V6 starter rings, apparently in good shape and not too expensive, so watch this space. I seems I am rather ill-fated with this car, which I nevertheless I still love to bits, however crazy that may sound!

With regards,

Matthew T.

[Dieselman]

A strange fault.