YAAAY!!

[Maria]

I sent my VP's stereo off to be repaired last week. I sent it on Thursday and got an answerphone message on Saturday morning to say it was done - how's that for service!

For anyone who's got a radio problem but wants to keep their unit standard, I can heartily recommend Mike Goodall: http://freespace.virgin.net/mike.mjgoodall/

The problem I had with mine was that the motor had gone, so that the tape was constantly being turned over and over instead of played. The repair, plus glueing the whole front back together, which was necessary because we couldn't get the U-shaped removal thingies to work properly, was £45. I'm so chuffed to finally have music back in the car!! Had a bit of a scary moment when I refitted the unit before I worked out that the fuse was duff.

I've had an up and down sort of day with the car today. I went into town at lunchtime to get the camper's tax, and went for the first available parking spot, which was a little tight, as I found when I scraped a small amount of paint off my front bumper on a Vauxhall Combo van! :rolleyes: :banghead:

Got into the next space, and was straightening up, when I suddenly found I couldn't get reverse - a worry when you're facing downhill and now have your front bumper 1in away from an armco barrier!

I went to get the tax, with visions of having to go and buy some pliers to pop a gear linkage back on. Popped the bonnet when I came back to the car and didn't see anything wrong. Decided to give it one more go, this time with plenty of the gas pedal, and thankfully that worked! I reckon I had a wheel in a dip which was causing the problem.

Anyway, later this evening after I'd refitted the tape player, I was driving back from the garage and decided to wipe a few drops off my windscreen. Pressed the stalk and nothing happened! It's not the first time the car's been silly with its wipers recently.

I found the right fuse in the fusebox at traffic lights (the fusebox on the Mk1 dash top is handy!), and wiggled it - nothing. Took it out and put it back in again - still nothing. Decided to test the wash function - small pause, then everything suddenly worked again *shrug*


Anyway, all these suspected gearbox wiper and radio fuse dramas made me think: isn't it nice to have a car where you're reasonably confident that you can fix most breakdown problems yourself? How many modern cars will let you access the fuses and relays so easily. Would you even know where to start if you had gearbox problems on a new car?

[Austin-Rover]

New cars arent designed to be messed with by their owners. Thats why there are big plastic coveres over the engine bay and computer ports where the fuses should be. This all means that simple jobs on a Maestro or Montego become expensive trips to the main dealer with a modern car!

The more gadgets they stuff into newer cars means the more likely it is there will be problems, and of course, they make it far to difficult for the average person to fix.

Thats the joy of owning an older car - it can all be fixed at home - and in Maria's example - on the move too!

:laugh:

[e692wtt]

It takes a certain amount of courage in one's convictions to fix problems while waiting for the lights to change, but jumping out of a car shouting "it's F***ed" does, I've found, give one some breathing space... not that I've ever had to do this with Monty, but my old Mini was a b*gg*r for this sort of stunt, as was my VDP.

Being able to get to the 'important bits' on a car when said bits fail is important, and I've never been delayed for more than a second or two when Monty's bits have played up (eg Indicators failed? Reach down, remove the fusebox cover, remove and refix the Indicator Relay making sure to 'tap' it while it is out of its 'hole' - this got Monty thro his last MoT...), and experience as to what *may* go wrong and what to do to rectify any fault like this, gives enormous peace of mind.

Try this on a modern car...

The other other Rich.
:cool:

[Maria]

It was raining when I got in the car this morning. Guess what happened when I switched on the wiper stalk. Yep, sod all. The washer was working, so it's obviously not a fuse problem. I left the switch on and jiggled the steering column, and also the panel at the top of the glovebox which is where I guessed the relay might be (although that's really a very wild guess!) - after about a minute of having the stalk in the up position the wipers suddenly started to work. not sure if that had anything to do with my jiggling things though!

I can see some investigation is coming up in the near future.. http://www.maestro.org.uk/forums/images/smilies/irked.gif

[MaestroMatt]

My first Maestro (a 1.3l) had a great problem - the clips on the connector that joined the ignition coil to the distributor had snapped off and changing rapidly into second would often unplug this wire causing the engine to completely cut out. Every time this happened (normally on a roundabout or slip road) I could whack the hazard lights on, leap confidently out of the car with a confident "I'll fix it!" and have it running again in about 30 seconds which gave me a reputation as a mechanic par excellence! I would much rather own an old - and idiosyncratic - car that I can tinker with than one on which I can't even see the spark plugs (e.g. Audi A4) when I lift the bonnet.

The same 1.3L had a similar problem to yours, Maria, but with the rear wiper - it turned out that the area around the top of the motor, just about where the wiper arm joins on, was caked with dirt and rust. The motor would struggle to move it for a while then spring into life for a while before being halted - often mid swipe - by another lump of rust. Not that I would suggest that your Maestro would have even the slightest trace of rust, Maria, but could it be as simple as a physical blockage of some sort?

[Maria]

Slightest trace of rust????!!! :laugh::laugh::laugh:

Try "Shed On Wheels!" :D Poor old Hexie is looking VERY sorry for himself at the moment! I'm putting off doing anything major to him until I can get either the 1.3 or the Turbo on the road so I can take Hexie off the road and do a full bare metal restoration on him.

Don't think it's rust on the mechanism - it seems to have happened quite suddenly, and is intermittent. I'm going with the "electrical weirdness" theory! I'll have a look under the scuttle sometime and see if there is anything obvious. Personally, I think Hexie's just being a git :)

[H48HPE]

ive had that problem with my stereo.

this is how to fix it yourself (philips R570/670):

spend a couple of sunday mornings at carboots.

u will definitely see these radios there cos ppl take them out b4 scrapping a car and keep them , then when they go to the car boot they decide to take em. they only cost a couple of quid each. or go to scrap yard and pick one up there for a fiver. dont wory about codes, if its got one great if not it dont matter u just cant use the unit itself.

obviously you can put the spare radio in and try it out if you have the code. if not see below

u will need a torx screwdriver to gain access to the internals and to remove the cassete deck. remove the two torx screws holding the front panel on and remove it. you can then take the top off the radio, i think this is a press fit so just lever it off. now inside you will see the casette deck. its held down by about 3 or 4 torx screws, remove them. the tape deck is connected to the circuit board by 2 (i think) little multiplugs. pull these out and remove the whole tape player bit complete with its motor( it just lifts out) do the same on the original unit then refit the donor tape player to the original radio ( obviously in the reverse order to removal) fasten everything back up and have a go with it.

it took a couple of radios for me to find a good one, but it works perfectly now, in the end i spent about 6 quid and 2 hours time.

the donor radio came from a guy on a carboot who had removed it from a subaru cos he wanted a cd player. the unit was externally diferent but i had a feeling it would be internally similar and i was right.

i dont know if philips can still supply you with a new replacement casette player part, it might be worth a try.

i hope this of some help to someone.

andy