Part 20 - Patience tester
So i got the van nailed back together last friday. Last job was to change oil, bought 5ltrs of Elf evolution 5/40 from Renault with purflux filter.
Next step was insurance - Rang Greenlight as already had a quote. Come in at £300 all mods declared fully comp - decent as a lot of places wont touch engine swaps nevermind modified vans. So with that purchased a test run was in order ! Fired it up and warmed up - driving down the road i noticed a lot better pickup low down in the rpm range - engine is willing to go rather than feeling flat and non responsive. I can only assume the timing was affecting the low down torque massively. It feels nice and linear pickup through the rpm range which is how i expected it to be - on initial driving back from collection i noted the engine had a vtec style switchover at 5k which seems to have smoothed out now. Had no issues drove it pretty hard - even Shez commented on how much of a difference it has made. Noted gearchange was shit so something to look at.
Obligatory test drive pics

With the megane before Blyton. Basically chucked it in the garage and that was that

So after Blyton was over we return and i grab the van out of the garage. Noticed that it does not start first attempt just cranks over. Earlier on in the week it has done this so knock ign off and it fires up. Reverse out of garage and notice puddle of gear oil. So go and buy 3ltrs of mobil 75/90 as that is the best i can get on a Sunday and think its best to drain & actually see if it has any oil in as planning a journey to Birmingham in it.
Get van back to house and jack it up - Go to undo drain plug on gearbox and its loose. Check driveshaft boot bolts and the lower one is loose - no wonder its pissing out oil. Check wheelbearing on passenger side and play in it - nip hub nut and get at least 1/4 of a turn on it easy which removes all play - go to the other side and repeat. Cowboy garage changed the gearbox for Chris god knows what oil was in it - had plenty of oil in luckily.
So refill with fresh oil and all bolts nipped up and the gearchange is 100% better & oil leak is reduced by a fair bit. Still seems to be weeping oil out of the casing joint but not at an alarming rate. With this done i give the van a clean up - Clay bar - SRP - collinite by hand. The paint is very flat and rough however it comes up half reasonable by hand - trim gel and tyre gel applied. Not bad, not bad at all, its no show winner but cleans up ok.

Note badass negative camber up front

Updated service history

Whilst im cleaning Shez finds a free kitchen for the garage on Gumtree so arrange to collect. Go to fire the van up and it fires up & conks out - the fuck is going on !? crank it a bit and fires up - running now so just drive. Go and collect kitchen units fit in ok

Fuel gauge is low so go to the garage and stick some bp ultimate in. Fires up again and conks out at the pump ! what the fuck is going on ?? Chris told me that the sender pipe had issues however i have already checked this out and the pipe looks fine & the back of the van is full of kitchen so no access to the sender unit so roll it back out of the way. No fuel pump priming with ign on and typically my AA membership has just expired so mess about under bonnet and eventually fires up - Breakdown number 1. I note it nearly cuts out when cornering at one point so thinking fuel pump or wiring issues..

Get it home and pull the engine bay fusebox to bits to check the relays - green with corrosion -replace one with one out of stock and clean the other up - clean contacts up refit

Fires up straight away willingly and repeats so take it out for test run - Stay local just incase of issues. Get out of the end of the street and about half a mile away from the house it cuts out. Fires up straight away so continue with journey to Mcdonalds (piri piri grilled chicken wrap). Park up and go to fire it up again - fires up straight away - go to put rubbish in the bin and hear it conk out. Go to fire it up and it wont have it - just cranking over no fuel. I have relays out and fecking about and no joy at all. Breakdown number 2 !!
If you recall my breakdown has expired so call in my mate Alex who promptly comes in his vr6 mk3 golf convertible with solid bar. Have to whip bumper and arch liners off to get to towing eye better and get dragged back to the house - tow of shame.

I cancel my trip to Birmingham next day and get on with fixing the van. I stick key in and it fires up first crank !! i hear fuel pump prime however it does not sound right. So with this in mind i get the test meter straight on pump wiring. Solid 13.5v when running so no problems there. Whip pump/sender out and replace it with the one i have in stock from the breaker 172 earlier in the thread. Change fuel pump relay for another and it had never failed to fire up since - new pump sounds a lot better so hopefully the end of the non start. I give all the relays the wiggle test pulling them out when running to find out whats what as the wiring is non standard in this. So go out for test run locally do 70 or so miles in total no issues so fingers crossed its sorted.
Only had one no start issue which may be tdc or uch related. The uch wiring is not correct as no courtesy light is coming on when unlocking doors & no flash when doors are locked which results in 2 clicks on the fob. Basically the door plungers are not wired up correctly which from experience plays funny buggers with the uch (had this on the dci) as the uch assumes you have not entered the car and kicks the immobiliser in after so long so a simple lock/unlock on the fob and it fired straight up. If you park up and lock the doors then unlock no issues - seems to be an issue if you stop and don't lock it/unlock. Spent a bit of time on Tuesday tracing wiring and trying to sort it - pulled UCH out and traced/ checked wiring to passenger side connector. Rats nest and wires nicely soldered in the wrong place but on the plus side found the obd connector.
Not sorted yet but will crack it with the help of VISU.

Re arranged the trip to Birmingham to this Saturday. Will it make it or will it be on the back of a recovery truck ?? I have relays and wiring and a spare plug for sender unit - If needs be the pump will get hardwired to the fucking rear interior light

P.S i am now officially an expert in clio/kangoo canbus wiring
