Parrot of Doom

Posting more for info really, but for months my driver's mirror has been complaining when I fold it in/out, sometimes working, sometimes not, always making a clicking mechanical sound. Anyhow it's stopped working altogether, so I dismantled it to see what the issue is. I'm fairly certain the servo that controls the mirror position is faulty, it's still receiving power (it's just a simple 2-wire connection) but only buzzes for half a second with no movement.. I suspect the gearing inside has stripped or come loose due to the high torques involved, but as it's a very well sealed unit that I'd have to destroy to break into, I'm going to try a Chinese replacement. I'm certainly not paying salvage prices for a whole new mirror assembly. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32963740465.html is what I'm going to try. If you're trying to interpret the pictures below, the black metal semicircle is what the servo pushes against to rotate the mirror. The servo is in my hand in the final two photos, the loom for the mirror goes straight up the middle and out the top, the servo power branches off that loom.

I'll bear this in mind for the future, thanks.

System was empty, so they've refilled it and I'll have to keep my eye on it. Working fine now.

Just a generic obd2 bluetooth reader. My usual garage don't do aircon so I'm going to nip to Kwik Fit to see what they say. Apparently they don't charge for a quick look.

Nope, no codes logged.

No codes from the car, nothing on the dash. I only noticed it a few weeks ago but it was too cold to know if the AC was working or not. I will double check.

So it's stopped working on my car, a 2005 model. What I presume is the aircon compressor is buzzing when running. Here's a video (the fan and engine are running, but I hope you can hear the buzz). https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lGM0s0CaQeURnRMXoQzg9rGB8WNSoESE/view?usp=share_link I know it's the aircon, because it stops buzzing immediately when I turn the AC off on the screen. My question is, for anyone with experience of aircon faults, is this the kind of noise an aircon compressor might make if the system had a leak and was empty? Or the noise an ac compressor might make if it were faulty and just not doing it's job?

I imagine it's probably because the rubber parts at the ends of the struts are failing and allowing the chrome bits to get out of alignment at that angle. So instead of pushing in straight, they're pushing in at a very slight angle where there's too much friction. Lubrication isn't recommended on struts as it stops them holding things open, so if it bothers you, replace them. There's nothing special about them, plenty of strut sellers online who can help.

Thanks all, I eventually bought a kit from Simply Speakers on Ebay. Based in the US so it cost about 50 or 60 quid for a pair, and some glue. The surround is about 2cm too long so I cut it and overlapped. I also trimmed about a millimetre from the edge, all the way around. The glue provided is decent, it gets very tacky within a couple of minutes so it's fairly simple to fix the surround in place before it dries completely. It's not exactly pretty to look at but neither is the cone tbh, it's just a car door speaker so doesn't need to be perfect. Funnily enough it mostly does the low end, so driving around without it for a few miles didn't really sound that bad. I do actually own a decent hifi (Roksan, Naim, Musical Fidelity, Quad etc) so am what you might call an audiophile, but honestly, when you're doing 60mph down the motorway, who cares if one speaker sounds slightly different to the other...

Which seller did you use? The only likely candidate I've found so far is a company called Simply Speakers, based in the US.

Hi all, the speaker surround on my driver's door has failed. Pics attached. Obviously I'm not going to buy a brand new one for an 18-year-old car, has anyone had success with a foam repair kit? Or does anyone know what the driver is (Mark Levinson have helpfully put their own label onto what is very likely made by someone else).

Just an info post really in case others have a similar problem. The car started lurching at low speeds, which I initially thought was traction related. Then the engine warning light came on a bit later. Plugged my code reader in and I got PO300 and PO305, random misfire, and misfire on cylinder 5. Which was unfortunate because I was over 200 miles from home. Still, I managed to get it home driving carefully on the motorway, it seemed reasonably happy at 70mph so long as I didn't gun it. I also had the traction warning lights come on leaving a motorway services. This was fortuitous because when I called the garage it was about the first thing he asked; that it had done that gave him confidence over the phone that a coil pack had gone. And indeed that was the cause. Cylinder 5 coil pack dead. £70 for a new coil, couple of hours labour (it's at the back of the engine and a pain to get to), £200 bill and sorted. I can't complain really, it's the first major issue since I bought the car nearly 10 years ago. I'm keeping the car until rust or something else kills it. With any luck it'll be my penultimate car before I retire (at which point I'll go car-free).

That you're interested in improving your driving skills is a good sign you're a careful, considerate driver anyway. I did the IAM course about 20 years ago and it taught me quite a few things I've integrated into my driving, like observation before indication, being able to stop in the distance you can see to be clear ahead, always reversing into and driving out of parking spaces, braking to the correct speed before turning, etc. There's a lot of good stuff to learn. I don't really think you'll learn anything about driving a large, high centre of gravity car like the RX. Someone might point out its increased tendency to flip during high speed manoeuvres, but that's it. The most important lesson advanced driving will teach you is how to avoid getting into such situations in the first place. It'll teach you how not to write "all of a sudden" on an insurance claim form.

The ride height sensor failed on my old LS400. It was the metal part with ball joints at either end. I replaced it with a bent meat skewer and that worked perfectly.

Put wads of kitchen roll or toilet paper around the footwell, above where the water pools. The paper will get wet as the water passes through it, but not wet from the pooled water below it. That way, you'll be able to find out where it's coming from. From thereon it's just a matter of tracing it up through the car.