Back On The Road

The car has undergone most of the "small" jobs that were left, and is close enough to completion for me to be driving it.

The rest of the metal surfaces under the plastic paneling were cleaned and protected with some antirust stuff, and the paneling was reattached with the correct fasteners. The panels are now much firmer - unlike before they don't feel loose to the touch.

The idle air control valve assembly was taken apart, cleaned and lubricated. However, the mechanic reported it had worked ok before the lubrication, so the high idle issue is likely not caused by the IAC valve being stuck/too stiff.

Block heater was installed and works ok.

We messed with the fuel mixture, but so far the result has been pretty much a shot in the dark. When I drove the car away from the shop yesterday, the idle was somewhat where it was supposed to be, however the idle was very rough and I thought it might be best to tune it a bit more. So we messed with it again, and now the idle is slightly higher, but still pretty choppy. Also, the engine doesn't pull smoothly, which is most likely caused by the misfiring cylinder #5 becoming more of an issue with the messed-with fuel mixture.

The misfire is not caused by bad spark which means the plug and wiring is ok. And coil is probably ok too. Currently the diagnosis is that the cylinder is not getting enough fuel. Need to diagnose this further. Well, at least I've got "enough" cylinders left over to get me to and from the shop.

Anyway, found out that the passenger side orthopaedic seat controller is also faulty, so need to source one of those.

The rear lights and wing indicators I sourced from a donor S-Class were a perfect fit. The latter were even identical which I wasn't expecting, I'm thinking the "tuning" indicators on this car were originally meant for a sedan and not a coupe. Unfortunately the front indicators I bought from the wannabe-Halfords were for a sedan and I can now confirm they won't fit on a coupe at all. So now I'm waiting for another parts shop to ship replicas which should be specifically for the coupe. They should arrive Friday.

So currently, I'm running mixed indicators, which don't look as catastrophic as I was thinking but still are worth the money to straighten out.

As you can see the car is running a bit rich...

The interior switches & lights project is still in the planning stages and should commence in week 2 or 3 of January...