Diary of an Ordinary Van

[Vee4]

Full moon tonight ...

... and no doubt the Ordinary Van will be out in the moonlight, assuming that we all survive the current solar storm.

The full moon often inspires the poets as with Byron's So We'll Go no More a Roving, featured last year. This time, I've chosen Mary Chapin Carpenter's The Moon and St Christopher from her 1990 album Shooting Straight in the Dark.



"I relied upon the moon and St Christopher to be my guide ..."

There is a great cover of this by Mary Black from 1992, and Black's site includes the full lyrics and some music clips.

Regular readers may comment that the Ordinary Van only plays 'country' music but this is not true at all. Both kinds of music are played: country and western! Carpenter would prefer not to be known as a country artist, but her early promotion as such by Columbia brought her a wider audience.

Back to more technical matters soon ...

[Vee4]

Braking News: brake light broken but now repaired.

I recently took the Ordinary Van for an ordinary routine service (of which, more later). I don't know if it was missed, but the following morning when I set off in the dark, I noticed that the central brake lamp had failed. It's possible to check from the driver's seat by glancing over your shoulder and looking for the light leaking through the cut out in the top of the door, so it can't have been out for more than a day or two. I check the main brake lamps every day that I'm out in the dark by looking for the reflection from nearby buildings, etc., and most times I check the central brake lamp too.

I guess the lamps are reaching the age when they will all need doing. Recently, I've had to do the headlamps and side lamps so I probably should check the main brake lamps too.

If you haven't done yours yet, here's how:



You'll need these - that's a Torx T25 key and the 12V 15W '921' lamp:



The screws are in nylon bushes so no damage to the paintwork if you are careful:



Reassembled onto a cleaned surface with a touch of silicone grease on the screw threads:



Job done. That'll be one shilling, please!

[Vee4]

An Ordinary Service

The Ordinary Van recently went in for a routine service, or ordinary service as we prefer to call it. At 45,000 miles, this was likely to be the last during the 3-year warranty period, so I asked for the two oil leaks (to be fair, they were more like seepages) to be checked.

A new air intake pipe for the turbo was fitted:



I just tried the mother-in-law test and it failed, so there must be a generic weakness. At least they tried.

The seepage above the EGR valve was cleaned up but I wasn't told if any action was taken:



In fact, the whole engine compartment was cleaned, which is nice for a while:



It almost looks like new apart from the obvious rusting on the bodywork and mounted components.

In addition, some ordinary items: oil, filter, drain plug; fuel filter (the first replacement); still no air filter listed on the invoice.

One item on the invoice that caught my eye was the GBP1.50 for a 'Cab Kit'. I had my suspicion and that was confirmed in a call to the Service Department: this is a charge for the three sheets of paper and plastic bag used to protect the floor and seat during servicing. This had never been charged before.

Anyway, last night the brake pad warning light came on! It's this one if you haven't seen it before:



At 45,000 miles I'm not surprised. In the good old (Mk5) days, the service department would have eyeballed the pads and changed them if they thought they wouldn't make it to the next service. Now, I guess they rely on computers and warning lights. It's difficult to assess the pad wear without taking the wheels off, but I had a look with the inspection mirror and it looks as if there is about 8mm remaining on the front pads and 6mm on the rear. Is this enough wear to trigger the warning? I will check for bad connections when I have time. From what I've read, the active loops are on the nearside, with dummy plugs or no wiring at all on the offside (I never did understand the offside rule). Today, the OV is stuck with its nearside up against a wall.

I'm interested in taz666's comment that there is more wear on the nearside. This reflects my experience with tyre wear - of which, more later (to coin a phrase).

[Vee4]

Broken Brake Puzzle Solved

Since the pad wear didn't look too bad (see posting above), I decided to check the vulnerable parts of the wiring to the brake pad 'sensors' and to check the continuity of the sensors. These are the access points:

Front (nearside only on later models):


Rear (again, nearside only on later models):


This what the connectors look like inside:


The socket-contact side goes to the vehicle. You can just see the red rubber ingress seal around the blue moulding. The pin-contact side is from the pad's detector loop, which will eventually be cut through as the pad wears, causing an open circuit and illuminating the warning light. I tested the loops with my continuity bleeper and they were both OK. Having cleaned and replugged the connectors, I found the warning light was still on so I went looking for damaged wiring on the vehicle. This is what I found:



The wiring assembly that connects from the vehicle body to the rear axle had cracked and fractured the wire. I don't think this is deliberate or accidental damage - the PVC sleeve is very brittle due to: age; poor choice of material; or faulty manufacture. Under repeated flexing, the sleeve has cracked and exposed the wire within to the repeated flexing. This short link is connectorised at both ends, on the axle and where it joins the body, so the replacement should be simple. I'd better book it in before the warranty runs out!

[Vee4]

Looking Back on Three Years of Forum Membership ...



and thinking, "Where did they go?" Cue song: Who Knows Where the Time Goes?, written and sung by Sandy Denny.

There's little time for a celebration, except perhaps a Veggie Burger at Big Moe's.

No doubt an opportunity will soon arise for a virtual party. I went to the trouble of transforming Transit Towers into a replica of New York's Greenwich Village in the 1960s so it would be easy to arrange an event at short notice. Excuse me while I blow out the candles (it's still the same 'cake'):


(Serving suggestion only - Transit not included)

Further 'looking back' reading:

• The Ordinary Van in 2011
• Look Back in Anger - the 1956 play by John Osborne, one of the 'angry young men' playwrights
• Don't Look Back in Anger - the 1996 hit single by Oasis

[Vee4]

OK! Just one more ...

I couldn't resist this one. It's round the back of the 'retail park' where Big Moe's Diner is situated:



Big Moe's was the venue for the recent London-area Transit gathering, as reported elsewhere.

Pylon of the Month posted an interesting example for March 2012. The Double Circuit explanation is quite straightforward: it simply means that the pylon carries two three-phase circuits, hence six conductors, and most common in the UK. Pictured above is a double circuit L2 deviation tower, for example.

Now that the days are longer and conditions are better for infrastructure spotting, I'll soon be revealing this year's choice of 'Infrastructure you can see from your Transit and take Nice Pictures of'. ** However, do keep checking in with the Pylon of the Month site.

** Yes, I know I shouldn't end a sentence with a preposition, but it's common practice in speech and if you try to avoid it, you can end up with clumsy sentences, of the kind up with which I will not put. This example is commonly attributed to Sir Winston Churchill.

[Altransit]

Now that the days are longer and conditions are better for infrastructure spotting, I'll soon be revealing this year's choice of 'Infrastructure you can see from your Transit and take Nice Pictures of'.

The camera is back in the van, at the ready

[blue estate]

My jumbo's rear brake warning wire has broken in exactly the same place and way sh@@ outer sheathing

[Vee4]

My jumbo's rear brake warning wire has broken in exactly the same place and way.

It does look like a potential problem so it doesn't surprise me that others have failed too. I hope it doesn't happen to anything more 'mission critical' such as the ABS sensors. Did you manage to have yours done under the warranty?

This is the new cable assembly in situ:



It does seem slightly thinner and more flexible so hopefully the specification has been revised and it will last a few more years. I didn't have problems like this with the old Mk5!

[blue estate]

No chance as the vans done 135k i will at some point get a new lead

[transitandy]

Now that the days are longer and conditions are better for infrastructure spotting, I'll soon be revealing this year's choice of 'Infrastructure you can see from your Transit and take Nice Pictures of'.

The camera is back in the van, at the ready

Mine will be as well

[Vee4]

No chance as the van's done 135k I will at some point get a new lead.

If mine wasn't still under warranty, I would have done a 'cut and splice' to keep it going until I could order and fit a new cable. I'll be interested to see the mileage when my pad warning light comes on for the right reason.

[blue estate]

I have done a cut and crimp job but light still keeps coming on so i will have to look further

[Vee4]

Economy Run Rerun

Everyone remembers the original Mobil Economy Run, don't they? Some may remember the Ordinary Van's Economy Run.



The above map may help you find fuel in these strike-threatened days, but you will need to go a long way to find a Mobil station! A time machine might help.

Anyway, the Ordinary Van will soon be staging a rerun, and with experience gained in the two years since the first OVER (Ordinary Van Economy Run), a better result is expected.

Just need to find some fuel in the first place, or the second, or the third ...

[transitandy]

I remember the old mobil stations and always wonderd what happend to them