Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

I pick up the Saab on Wednesday.

I hang my head in shame on Thursday & Friday & Saturday we chill on Sunday.

Fixed.

My seatbelt has jammed, just a couple of inches shy of being able to lock.

i.e. it's useless at the moment.

Anyone got any hints or tips on how to get it to release without taking apart half the interior?

Loosen the bolt that attaches the reel to the car, and rotate it slightly.

Although the reel is probably under about 4kgs of plastic cowling.

...or lose a few pounds, fatso!

I can almost -almost- do the belt up by breathing in, but it just won't reach.

Obviously if I was to drop a few pounds then this would not be an issue.

That the reel will be under 4kg of plastic housing is a given- my major concern is breaking off the annoyingly fiddly and brittle locating tabs as I take it off.

Coming soon=volvo estate, weight optimised edition.

Result.
Golf sorted. Engine bay sparkling clean too.

Now to get some new HT leads, replace the spark plugs and the air filter for a bit of fun.

(probably)

Dammit- does it feel like there's a tangle, or is it the retractor that's locked?
Can you pry it loose with a scredriver and a tug or two?

RRC left on the road for just over a week without moving.

Return to her yesterday, caked in Sap. 45 seconds of windscreenwasherfluid spurting all over the screen before the sap even starts to budge. Same again at rear.

Start car, let her idle as off for a bit. Rolled a cigarette. Felt sick due to idle roll.

Headed off to SW6, got as far as Regeants Park, pull over as she's running 7 cylinders max. Have a route around, nothing to see. Electrics look fine. Went a bit further, got stuck in wrong lanes whilst reving engine to try and engage 8th cylinder (don't ask why but it worked before). Turn back imagining major cam problems, lots of expense, another visit to the mechs.

Go to JD's shop and properly have a look at the electrics. Take all HT leads off, remove and reconnect coil tighten 2 sparks. 1 had come loose, god knows how.

Restart, all is fine. Thank the lord, just majory stressful when she was fine when I left her to then find a loose spark. Seems weird

Dammit: did you ever get to the bottom of the issue with your volvo?
sorry i can't be arsed to trawl through threads, it's just i fear the cambelt's slipped on a car - it was loose and fucking noisy before, and now the engine doesn't start/turn over. it fired the first time and then made a noise and now doesnt do anything except whine when you turn the key.

happens to be a volvo as well. obviously this is a nightmare (write-off) scenario, but it could be anything really..

Short version= my cambelt slipped, engine initially turned and fired, destroyed all the valves, stopped firing.

After that you could spin the engine on the starter very easily as the engine had no compression.

What Volvo do you have?

ahh, was it not an expensive fix?
v40, it's my dad's.

a mate's taken it away at the moment so can't check if the engine will spin or if it feels like it's seized yet. definitely was not firing though.

V40 is the modular "whiteblock" engine, basically the same as mine less one cylinder.

These engines use a hydraulic tensioner to keep the belt nice and tight- the mistake I made was to run the engine in reverse (rolled down a hill in gear) which wound the tensioner in, hence the crank span independent of the cams.

Find a spare head, slap it on, pay the bloke £500.

i read that yeah, but the belt was not tight by any stretch of the imagination when the car was running. cheers anyway, hopefully it won't be too difficult to fix.

You'll have either 8, or (possibly) 16 bent valves, if the belt slipped.

That engine is never going to fire again unless you take that head off, and either replace the valves (pointless unless the heads been worked on?) or simply slap a new head on.

New belts and tensioners, button it up and you are good to go.

How old was the belt? The tensioner normally keeps them nice and tight, even way past the replacement mileage.

yeah you're right, top-end rebuild at least (if the valves have all been eaten by pistons). service history is patchy but i doubt the head's ever been worked on just by looking at it, also not sure how old the belt was but it is fairly old, and didn't run exactly straight which made a funny gurning sound as it rubbed so i presume that the tensioner mechanism was somewhat faulty too.

it was bought as a cheap write-off so it wasn't a surprise when we heard this funny cam noise and unfortunately the cost of replacing it and the mechanism was unfeasible, so we just did the cosmetic work needed to get it legal with a big mallet. we'll have to see what the guy having a look at it says, but it might not be the cam, nobody had time to check the timings this morning.

oh well! shouldn't be too bad in any situation..

Sounds like it might be best to get it scrapped and start again.

Was this one a turbo, or NA?

possibly.
we'll see.

NA, weedy 1.6 engine with a weird clutch.

Weigh it in, start again

it does seem to have been the belt jumping, but the valves aren't belt, so the engine must not have fully turned over the first time..

belt's on again in a pretty similar condition to what it was like before, and the engine is now firing again.
happy days! (sort of)

How many degrees was it out?

RRC left on the road for just over a week without moving.

Return to her yesterday, caked in Sap. 45 seconds of windscreenwasherfluid spurting all over the screen before the sap even starts to budge. Same again at rear.

Start car, let her idle as off for a bit. Rolled a cigarette. Felt sick due to idle roll.

Headed off to SW6, got as far as Regeants Park, pull over as she's running 7 cylinders max. Have a route around, nothing to see. Electrics look fine. Went a bit further, got stuck in wrong lanes whilst reving engine to try and engage 8th cylinder (don't ask why but it worked before). Turn back imagining major cam problems, lots of expense, another visit to the mechs.

Go to JD's shop and properly have a look at the electrics. Take all HT leads off, remove and reconnect coil tighten 2 sparks. 1 had come loose, god knows how.

Restart, all is fine. Thank the lord, just majory stressful when she was fine when I left her to then find a loose spark. Seems weird

Some spark plugs have crush washers that need to be replaced every time, also the ali heads might have had the threads damaged hence the plug coming loose.

Is this the ugliest SAAB ever