nelmo

While talking to a specialist tuner about getting my Emerald ECU mapped to my Zetec, he said that a Lambda sensor is essential; not necessarily to get the required emissions (although he said it would be much easier) but to protect the cat long-term. He reckoned i'd kill the cat in 'no time' without a sensor. Is this true? I haven't got one fitted at present and I wasn't going to, mainly because I don't understand what it really does or how to set it up. I thought you just had to adjust the map through the Emerald software.

It's the toe I'm most concerned with. Also, it occurred to me, when I first put my tie rods on, I just had the steering rack centralised by eye - is that OK? Doesn't feel right to be honest...

I have finally got my car on wheels and moving but I'm pretty sure the front wheels aren't correctly aligned with each other. I think I have the following options to correct this: 1. Use some fancy electric/laser gadget/aligning kit (i've got the technical terms sorted). 2. Use some straight bits of wood/metal/string. 3. I'm guessing the answer to this final option will be 'Good God, are you mad!?' - Halfords/Kwik-Fit alignment service? Assuming option 3 is crazy, is option 2 accurate enough? Or any other options?

Yes, I saw that eBay item but that diagram actually shows 2 of them... I'll try go to a dealer, as you say...

Does anyone know what item B in the diagram below is called? I know it says 'thrust washer' but I need to buy them and I can't find anything when searching for 'thrust wahsers' related to Ford. Or does anyone know where I might be able to get them?

The only ones I could find for under £400 were from CBS (about £250) but they didn't look great IMO. Went for the GBS ones eventually at about £400. I did see a quite nice set from VDO for about £300 but they were only available in the US and I got no response by email from a US shop that said they offered international delivery!?

Interesting town hall you must have...:-)

Oh yeah, I forgot about Gimp (https://www.gimp.org) - free and does layers but horrendously complicated. I've never got on with it but maybe worth a go...

I had to make the switches from a combination of boxes and circles, they're not a standard shape. But when you do the lines, you select the start and end and the software routes the line as best it can and you can fine tune it. If you then move the object the line is connected to, the line does move with it.

Yeah but mines got colours and looks impressively complicated to the layman ☺. Below is a link to a screenshot of what KT is referring to (it looks better in Excel - I'm doing this from Android) : https://goo.gl/photos/vfsX3QwcExXNieWq6

I just used the drawing module of OpenOffice (https://www.openoffice.org). Not perfect by any means but does most of what you want and it's free. If you look on the 'electrics' page of my blog (link below), you can see what I produced.

I called the DVLA and they mailed me back with all the required docs and a guide on how to fill them in.

I'd probably want it to set fast, otherwise it would flow down to the pointy end, no? I think it's too high to grind down and get a decent slope on it. Digging down is going to be tricky - what do you reckon is the thinnest I can have the bottom of the ramp? Is 1 inch too little?

Thinking about it, my drive is not solid - gravel above very compacted earth/soil/rock and not perfectly level, so trying to drill anything down is going to be tricky to keep level - I might just go the concrete route. My main concern with concrete is making the bottom of the ramp too thin, so it cracks. Will need to try dig down a little to get some depth at that end, although not sure how easy that will be.

Doh, ali, why didn't I think of that! Thanks for the offer Jaimo - if you can find yours, let me know but don't knock yourself out, there are several companies on eBay who will make them to measure. I might try do it myself although I don't think I have the equipment to bend ali that thick...

Please be gentle, I work in IT so know nothing about what I'm about to ask (apart from the brick bbq I built a few years ago)... My garage has a one inch lip down to a slightly sloping drive. When rolling my kit out of the garage for the first time at the weekend, I used a couple of wooden planks but when reversing back in (under power), the planks just shot out as the wheels turned on them. Reversing up without the ramps, I think my bash plate hit the lip. So, I was thinking of building a simple concrete ramp using the ready-mixed stuff from Wickes (or similar). But looking online, a ramp may not be as simple as I thought. Has anyone done this? Is it doable? Or is there something I can buy (plastic?) that won't shoot off when I reverse in? I want something I can leave in place. Any suggestions?

I need to get the VIN number stamped into the chassis. I don't have a welder so I can't do it on a separate plate and I've read that the manual stamping kits are a bit iffy and could deform the chassis rail. One person said they engraved it with a Dremel - anyone done this? Anyone know where I can get a stencil for that (assuming I can't do it freehand)? Or any other methods?

Thank you all for your help - really useful and I guess it's better to find this out now than at 70mph or IVA Is it OK to leave the single flare joints (so the ones in the MC and in the rear 4-way) as they are male ends or would it be better to do them double's anyway?

Watched a video of making a double flare - definitely not what I've done. Bugger.

Why does it have anything to do with IVA? Flexible brake lines are not an issue and I can't read anything in the IVA manual that might be a problem - it just talks about materials and fixing points being of sufficient strength (it does say there can't be any leaks :-) ). I was more concerned that maybe a flexible pipe on one side and copper on the other might provide a different level of pressure or something?

Yes, it is at the panel join. I was thinking flexible only because the connections look far more secure and don't rely on me having to do a decent flare. I don't think I did a double flare but I haven't got leaks on any of my other connections (so far, anyway) and I did them the same way. I guess I could re-do the whole run off the car, as Ian suggested, but if I'm going to do that, I may as well go the flexible route, if possible (the extra cost isn't huge, I don't think?).

I did the original flare on the copper pipe myself (so could easily be the problem) but I have chopped off the end and done it again. The problem is, the pipe is now on the car and filled with fluid, so access is tricky and I've got slippery fluid all over the place while trying to do the flare. The 2nd attempt was better than the first but obviously not good enough and I'm running out of copper pipe to keep chopping bits off. Also, having to keep bending the copper pipe up (so I can get the flare kit to it) is going to snap it soon or at least weaken it for the future. Ian, I don't think the existing short length of flexi is a problem - I'm thinking of just replacing the whole run of copper pipe from MC to the caliper, with flexible pipe (so no joins, no leak). Can I do that on just one side (front nearside) without also doing the offside as well?

I've got a tiny leak in one brake line, at the join between the copper and flexible pipes (car not finished yet). I've tried several fixes but it's not having it. I'm considering changing to a flexible line the whole way but just for that one side - is that OK? Or would I have to balance it and do the same for the other side or even all 4 lines? In other words, can I mix copper ant flexible lines?

Hiring anything with a towbar is expensive (£100 a day) and most caravanners do much more than 2 weeks a year. My current tank is the best car I've ever owned;comfy and reliable. For excitement, I've got a motorbike and (hopefully soon) a kit car.

A fly or some other insect.