Project R19 16V Hatch Phase 2 UCC

FCS Event Manager Joined: 04 Jan 2005 Posts: 3680

It's soon gonna be mot time for UCC so need to sort out a couple of issues with it like the gearbox mount and fog lights.

The rear wiper, heated rear screen, rear fog light and the central locking has not worked since the day i bought it, one of those things that were put off because other stuff needed doing first.

Now the rear foglight and rear wiper are required items for the MOT so need to get those fixed.

did the usual and checked the fuses first, all ok, checked relays and again ok, checked the bulb and yep thats ok too, so has to be a dodgy earth in there, with the lights on i opened the rear hatch and BING, suddenly the rear fog was on, opened the hatch a little further and off it went, repeated that several times and the fog light was blinking on and off.

AHA! must be a dodgy earth i think . .

so i removed all the covers including the cover that keeps the wiring mounted inside the hatch, all the connectors were on properly, no corrosion on the heated screen connecters so i started wiggleing the loom and sure enough, the rear fog blinked as i shook the loom.

my conclusion was that there must be a dodgy wire somewhere in the loom, feeling down it i could feel a broken wire so i removed the insulation and was greeted with this!!

[img:816:616:5be25a5875]http://img126.imageshack.us/img126/6310/loom19mn.jpg[/img:5be25a5875]

not one wire broken but several of them ( i have pulled them apart for the pic to show the damage)

i stripped the insualtion back further and found several more breaks in the wires.

so no prizes for guessing why the wiper, fog, etc dont work . .

So i cut the loom out of GYP and used that to replace the dodgy section on UCC

[img:816:616:5be25a5875]http://img126.imageshack.us/img126/9576/loom25mb.jpg[/img:5be25a5875]

so now with the dodgy section replaced i now have a working rear heated screen, central locking motor, fog light and wiper Smile

next job was to replace the feckered gearbox mount

so got the car jacked up, wheel off, axle stand under and sprayed the bolts with loads of WD40

[img:816:616:5be25a5875]http://img126.imageshack.us/img126/3447/mount16ry.jpg[/img:5be25a5875]

got the first bolt halfway off when . . the heavens opened and it chucked it down with rain (still is) so a quick gather up of the tools and that looks like its gonna be it for today Sad

FCS Event Manager Joined: 04 Jan 2005 Posts: 3680

well i got lucky and the sun came back out Smile

so finished the job

Old mount out

[img:816:616:b7b5f3a17f]http://img371.imageshack.us/img371/2087/mount37ms.jpg[/img:b7b5f3a17f]

old and new mounts

[img:816:616:b7b5f3a17f]http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/4333/mount44ix.jpg[/img:b7b5f3a17f]

[img:816:616:b7b5f3a17f]http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/5536/mount52dz.jpg[/img:b7b5f3a17f]

New mount fitted Smile

[img:816:616:b7b5f3a17f]http://img371.imageshack.us/img371/4440/mount64om.jpg[/img:b7b5f3a17f]

another job done Smile

Level 7 User Joined: 06 Sep 2004 Posts: 230

The old mount wasn't to bad was it??

FCS Event Manager Joined: 04 Jan 2005 Posts: 3680

Xvisor";p="89571 wrote:

The old mount wasn't to bad was it??

the photo does not really show how bad it is, you can't see the split in the rubber which goes all the way along the front edge and is about halfway deep

[img:816:616:36466f9db6]http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/6457/mount79uh.jpg[/img:36466f9db6]

with it being split like that, it caused the engine to move about quite wildly during gear changes to the extent that sometimes you could not even engage a gear

FCS Event Manager Joined: 04 Jan 2005 Posts: 3680

right, have changed my image host so all the pics on page 1 should load up a lot quicker now Very Happy

Retroholic Joined: 12 Feb 2004 Posts: 5685

Much better!

Gaitor pic doesn't load up tho

Retroholic Joined: 23 Dec 2005 Posts: 3315

gear box mount the easiest off them all nice Very Happy

and that would be the 4th boot loom ive seen like that a common prob then Sad

Level 7 User Joined: 06 Sep 2004 Posts: 230

Pics are perfect now well worth the hassle putting em over Smile

Mr Quoter-vator Joined: 16 Feb 2004 Posts: 7405

yey i read it at last! Very Happy

pics load now!

good report neo!

FCS Event Manager Joined: 04 Jan 2005 Posts: 3680

Thanks JB

quick update

UCC got MOTed today, straight through pass with no advisories Smile

had a couple of last minute jobs to do this morning on it before she went down the MOT station, like the passenger side washer jets were not working so got a pin and cleared the nozzles and the front passenger side suspension struts top nut had come loose, so retightned that and also remembered to put the securing plate back onto the battery hehe.

UCC now also has GYPs front grille on it, the car came with this chicken mesh affair as you may just see from the first pic in this thread, tbh it did not look that bad with the bonnet closed but with it open it looked hideous!
UCC looks so much better now from the front with the proper grille back on her Smile

[img:816:616:b598d4b50e]http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/7263/front5ys.jpg[/img:b598d4b50e]

Site Subscriber Joined: 23 Jan 2005 Posts: 502

Mine had the same, broken wire's into the hatch

They get bent around with opening and closing.

FCS Event Manager Joined: 04 Jan 2005 Posts: 3680

today saw the fitting of GYP's stainless steel exhaust and decat onto UCC and GYP's rear bumper onto UCC.

UCC's rear bumper was not an original item, all the paint was flaking off it and you could see its original colour, red, underneath the blue paint

much nicer now

[img:816:616:48f2e715bf]http://img102.imageshack.us/img102/2085/bump10ua.jpg[/img:48f2e715bf]

Retroholic Joined: 23 Dec 2005 Posts: 3315

can i see under the bonnet or is that still to come??

FCS Event Manager Joined: 04 Jan 2005 Posts: 3680

engine bay

bit of a mess at the mo thou

[img:816:616:a9d28d5025]http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/2834/bay18nb.jpg[/img:a9d28d5025]

Retroholic Joined: 23 Dec 2005 Posts: 3315

still looks quite tidy under there

i like the direct air intake lol

FCS Event Manager Joined: 04 Jan 2005 Posts: 3680

its just a piece of ducting pipe that goes straight to the original air boxs cold air intake feed from the front end, the original piping bends under the airbox, that one is direct to the IK, less bends = better air flow

Retroholic Joined: 23 Dec 2005 Posts: 3315

i take out the plastic panel below the airfilter and send it almost to the floor seems to work as its away from the heat

FCS Event Manager Joined: 04 Jan 2005 Posts: 3680

Right, there are still FOUR major jobs that UCC requires

1: Headgasket
2: Cambelt & Tensioners
3: Clutch
4: Engine Mounts (x2)

i want all of these done and out of the way now so today i started those jobs.

First thing i want to do is get the head off whilst the engine is still in the car.
Why?
because as i have no where to hold, stand the engine when its out of the car i figure it will be easier to undo the headbolts whilst its still bolted in

so to start with, i started the engine to warm it up whilst i jacked it up into the air and put it on axle stands.
With the engine warmed up, i shut it down and drained the oil (always best to drain the oil when its hot)
As the oil was draining i removed the strut brace, top and bottom cam belt covers and the rocker cover.
next job was to make sure all the timing marks were lined up before the head gets removed.
next was to release the alt and remove the aux belt, then undo the cam tensioner and remove the cam belt.
then i removed the top and bottom hoses and removed the radiator.
then off with all the electrical plugs and anything else thats attached to the head that will prevent its removal like the fuel lines etc.
At this point i got stuck . .
its easier to remove the head with the inlet and exhaust manifolds still attached to it but when i tried to remove the exhaust manifold to the downpipe nuts with a deep 13mm socket, they both rounded off!!

BUGGER!

so i had to do things the hard way and remove the exhaust manifold from the head by removing the nine 10mm nuts,
I gave them all a liberal dose of WD40 and went inside for a coffee and a smoke.

when i returned to the job, i got a pleasent surprise . . ALL NINE of the nuts came off dead easy, wow thats a first lol

so exhaust manifold off and the head was removed

[img:816:616:c8bf1e3d11]http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/3576/h16ey.jpg[/img:c8bf1e3d11]

[img:816:616:c8bf1e3d11]http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/9783/h26ar.jpg[/img:c8bf1e3d11]

Yep the headgasket had gone but had only just started to go, traces of oil in the header tank gave that away, had i have left this job thou, you can gurantee the HG would have gone halfway to FCS or something

[img:816:616:c8bf1e3d11]http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/377/h36lb.jpg[/img:c8bf1e3d11]

So now i got to clean up the mating faces of the block and head ready for its new headgasket and prepare the block for removal from the car so i can do the clutch, engine mounts and of course the cambelt

Level 6 User Joined: 10 Nov 2005 Posts: 149

my 19 16V also has the habbit of making it hard to change/engage gears, and its definately dependant on revving the engine, etc.. i first thought it was the linkage underneath that needed adjusting, but maybe my gearbox mount has gone as well...

FCS Event Manager Joined: 04 Jan 2005 Posts: 3680

right, today i finally managed to get the rest of the engine out

[img:816:616:488c0b3d03]http://img415.imageshack.us/img415/5549/en12gy.jpg[/img:488c0b3d03]

this is so i can put a new clutch, waterpump, tensioners etc onto the engine

[img:816:616:488c0b3d03]http://img447.imageshack.us/img447/7729/en25bg.jpg[/img:488c0b3d03]

and give the engine bay a bloody good clean as well as the block

here it is covered in good old cillit bang lol

[img:816:616:488c0b3d03]http://img447.imageshack.us/img447/2623/en34bi.jpg[/img:488c0b3d03]

A BIG thanks to neal for use of his engine hoist Very Happy

FCS Event Manager Joined: 04 Jan 2005 Posts: 3680

bottom end cleaned up with new water pump, lower idle pully and new oil filter fitted

[img:816:616:eb70a3afcc]http://img506.imageshack.us/img506/7695/en41ob.jpg[/img:eb70a3afcc]

too dark now to do any more work and pizza is on its way

I am hoping to have the engine refitted by next weekend