Is my car jinxed???

[steve 944t]

I should have realized from the numberplate of my car (JNX) that all was not going to be plain sailing. Having spent all weekend replacing the radiator (7 hours on Saturday plus about 4 hours Sunday and Monday trying to bleed it properly) I thought all was well. I then noticed, while searching for an annoying rattle from the rear, that someone has fitted the wrong anti roll bar bushes (too small). Not a problem, they are on the list of jobs anyway. Better have a look at the front ones - look pretty worn, better change them too. Driving to work this morning - oh great, the fan now only works on maximum speed. Oh, what's happening now - the driver's side windscreen wiper has disconnected itself. Bloody hell, I only fixed that a few months ago.
Aaaarrrrgh!
Porsche - there is no substitute!

Steve.

(I still love the car, but just needed to have a bit of a whinge)

Oh, and if anyone wants a "how to replace a radiator thread" let me know.

 

[John Sims]

Hi Steve,

There is nothing worse than fixing something only to have it go wrong again. []

No, I take that back. It is worse when you fix one thing only to discover three other things that need doing that you didn't know about previously.

My fan did the same thing quite recently but righted its self without intervention. If yours doesn't; I was reliably informed that it is controlled by a resistor pack on top of the fan unit. Apparently the contacts corrode and just need cleaning up to get it all back to a full choice of blow settings.

 

[steve 944t]

Thanks for that John. I'll add "check resistor pack" to my to do list. It'll probably go in at about number 27!!! None of the things are particularly serious, apart from the fact that the car seems to be a bit down on power and (I think) is running a bit rich. Hopefully the Jamsport rolling road day will give me a clearer picture of where I am.

 

[Diver944]

I'll bet it was a sunny day and you have a black (or dark ) car.

The resistor pack often seems to play up in warm weather and you lose 1, 2 and 3. Johns cleaning advice worked for my black one

 

[Guest]

Can you give an 'idiot' location for the resistor pack[&:], as I noticed at the weekend I've lost 1,2 and 3.
So, if you are jinxed I've been hexed[]. First, sunroof now this.
Or just the joys of car ownership (of any make) I guess.

 

[steve 944t]

OK I'm feeling better now! I have refixed the wiper arm (reinforced with elastic bands this time!!!) It appears to be the season for fans packing up - detailed instructions and a pic can be found here - http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=103133&f=48&h=0
Looks like a job for lunchtime, along with reapplying the rain-x to give my dodgy wipers a hand.

Steve

 

[richthomas]

Rain X helps a lot with dodgy wipers, mine are a bit juddery and it smoothes them out quite a bit. My old car was even worse, with more play in the ball joint and it helped loads. I gave a detaied description on how to fix the resistor in an earlier thread:

I had exactly the same thing just before christmas, and managed to get mine working again fine.

Lift the plastic shroud over the heater blower in the engine compartment, and on top there is a resistor, held on with two cross head screws. Everywhere I read up on it about said it was white, but mine was black [&:]

It's about an inch wide and 3 inches long. when you get it out it looks like 3 sets of coils, small medium and large. They would have had some sort of ceramic protection but a lot of mine had flaked off. There is a small thermo contact switch between the coils and the conector, and mine had corroded, I think it is to shut the fans off if the resistor gets too hot. A bit of a rub with some wet and dry, clean all the contacts and make sure the switch held properly and it's been fine ever since []

 

[Fen]

On the wiper thing, a new link is under a tenner IIRC and the new nylon socket at either end is what you need. Elastic bands break very quickly but mine has been fine since I replaced the link rod. The ball usually hasn't worn. I greased mine up well before I fitted the new one to hopefully delay it happening again.

 

[steve 944t]

Hi Fen - I replaced the link a few months ago (about £7 from memory) so unfortunately it looks like in my case it is the ball which is worn, which is a bit strange. I remember at the time that the OPC parts guy said the arms are no longer available, so I guess I will either have to get a second hand part and hope the ball is better than mine, or figure out some other way of securing the ball in the cup. But in the meantime I am hoping that my combination of rain-x and multiple laccy bands will suffice!