Britprius

Bad luck there Shahpor. I would still ask them to pay your reasonable cleaning costs. The pictures should be enough evidence. John.

At long last I have received the correct batteries "tagged" from another supplier at £1-50 for five batteries. One of which has been fitted to the TPMS monitor, and fitted back into the tyre. No more warning lights, and Techstream shows the battery on that wheel as full. I am now waiting to see how long before the next sensor fails as two are showing low on Techstream. However at 30 pence for a battery now held in readiness, and £5 for my local tyre fitter to remove, and refit I am happy. John.

The ramps were only a method of getting the car raised. I then used 2 substantial jack stands with a trolley jack under the chassis to make the car safe. I took the picture just before driving the car off the ramps. You are correct to point out the need for safety at all times. John

Thanks Lee. I think it will get even quieter as it carbons up a bit, but I am more than pleased with the noise level "the thing I was most concerned with". The boxes are smaller than the OEM, but I bought the largest I could find. The length of them is the same as the OEM. John.

Below is a picture of the parts, cut, welded, and fitted to the car. The final cost being £199-71 plus £9-45 for a real of stainless welding wire = £209-16. I think this represents good value for a stainless rear exhaust. The exhaust seems to be as quite as the OEM. There is definitely no droning at any speed so in all I am pleased with the results. There is a placebo effect of the car seeming to be faster on acceleration because of the straight through boxes, but this at best could only be marginal. John.

Thanks again Shaun. Before I got married back in the 60's I lived on the Sutton road Walsall, and the moved to Heath Hayes when it was a small mining village. So I know the area reasonably well. I will PM you if I may when it's getting nearer the top of my list. John.

Thanks Shaun for your very kind offer. At the moment I have everything I need "I THINK", If I decide to re-plumb the front end of the system I may well take up your offer as I think it is all done in 2 inch pipe. I have to go to Stourbridge/Dudley area on a weekly basis so if the time comes I may be able to pick up some tube, and save you the trouble of sending it. John

I collected the exhaust parts this afternoon ready for welding. John.

I am keeping to the OEM pipe sizes. Surprisingly at the moment I am running with only one silencer with the hole in the "Y" piece being blocked off. This if anything has made the car quieter, and at the speeds we are allowed to do seems to have made no difference to performance. I will also be working on a couple of ramps. John

Hi Noo bie. Thanks for your input. I did look at using the Rover 75 single outlet boxes as I want to keep the car looking OEM also the Jaguar XJ6, but decided that if I went the mild steel route I would be doing the job again in 2 or 3 years time. However with the system I am building it would be easy to retro fit the rover boxes if the system is to noisy. I am using the OEM resonator box as the front end of the system is in good condition. The resonator has 2.5 inch pipes reducing to two 2 inch pipes at the "Y" junction. As far as building the system is concerned I am going to mount the silencers first so the tail pipes are in the correct position the plumb back to the "Y" piece flange joint. I am not using but joints as I have a tool for stretching the pipe diameter for sleeve joints. when I have got everything lined up I will drill each joint and fit a self tapping screw to hold the joint in position. There is plenty of room around the GS pipes at the rear. Then I will remove the system from the car for welding. John

If I find the exhaust to noisy for my taste I can add 2 more silencers 12 inches long 3 inches round into the pipes running out sideways to the rear boxes as there is room. I do not think these will be needed, but it is an option. The system will still lighter, and more free flowing than the OEM. John.

I have ordered this afternoon all in stainless steel:- 2 silencers 10 X 6 X 16 inches with offset entry, and exit 2 inch bores, 4 mandrel bent right angle 2 inch bends, 1 "Y" piece 2.5 in to 2 inch outlets, and 1 mtr of 2 inch tube. This will be all the parts needed to build the rear exhaust system. I intend using the original exhaust tail pipe trims as they are in good order, and see no point in changing them, and loosing the OEM look. Likewise I shall use the OEM mounting brackets from the silencers, but adding an extra mounting at the front of the silencers to remove the strain on the "Y" piece. This at a total cost of £199-71, and all being custom made ready to pick up on Thursday this week from a company in Worcester called "304 Stainless Exhaust Parts Ltd" This I think is good value for money. John.

Chris. I have found the parts on the "net", and the price I quoted is for stainless. With a little DIY using existing standard mild steel silencers, and mild steel pipe, and fittings you could reduce the cost by around £50. This does mean you have or access to a welder "MIG" or "TIG". You can build a system without welding by buying a pipe expander about £15, and using clamps. This allows you to stretch the end of a pipe in diameter so that the next piece slides into it. This does allow for plenty of adjustment to get things aligned, but looks a bit messy. However it could be welded at a later date and the clamps removed If you want details of either system let me know, and I will try, and point you in the right direction. I had been quoted as much as £675 for a rear end stainless system. With a little thought building a rear system is not that difficult. John.

There is no such thing as a stupid question, but you can get stupid answers. John

I have been doing some digging on the rear exhaust, and found I can build one with larger silencers than most custom builders use for a tad under £200. So it looks like that is the route I will take. Pictures will follow when the work is completed. John.

That's a good idea john. I know some cars have minimal clearance. My Prius once had the wheels balanced at Quickfit "never again" on backing the car out of the bay both rear wheels locked up. There was not enough room between the wheel and caliper for the stick on weights. John

As john above says caliper clearance may be an issue, but judging by the clearance on my car I think it entirely possible. The actual reduction in radius is only half an inch, and I think the non hybrid version uses 17 inch wheels. John.

Loading the drivers for Techstream can be a bit hit ,and miss. Remove the drivers and program. Load the drivers only. Plug in the MVCI and the computer should recognize it and load the drivers. Now load the program. Once loaded open Techstream and go to "Set up" then in the drop down box choose VIM then choose VCI. Windows 7 32 bit will set up ok, but the 64bit version will not. It is much more complicated to load as the drivers were not made for 64 bit systems. If you plug in the VCI before loading the drivers windows installs it's own wrong drivers, and every time you plug in the VCI it goes to these drivers. John

Unfortunately there is no other option on the shocks than OEM as they are 17 stage adjusting units. Dealer price is around £320 each, but they can be found for around £260. The rears are not handed but the fronts are, but this is only because of the position of a bracket that clamps the cables to the speed sensor. Coil overs could be fitted cheaper but you would loose the ride adjustment ie normal/sport modes. John

The correct method for fitting wheels is to just spin up the nuts with an air gun, and then tighten with a torque wrench, but rotating the torque wrench in the undo direction and then in the tightening direction. The last time I had a tyre fitted at a place I had no choice but to use while on holiday they tightened the nuts till the air gun would go no further. I spoke to the manager and insisted they replaced all 5 studs on that wheel. After removing the wheel it was obvious the studs were stretched by the narrowing of the thread near the wheel flange. I took an hour for the to get new studs and 5 minutes to fit them. Digging out a torque wrench that obviously had not been used in months the "fitter" tightened the nuts properly. John.

The cause of the wheel stud snapping off is almost certainly down to the wheel nuts being over tightened with an air gun. This over time will stretch the studs, and eventually they break off. This is not down to you using a breaker bar to undo them. It is through over tightening. This may sound over the top, but I would replace at minimum all the studs on that wheel if not all the wheel studs on the car as they are cheap easy to change, and a safety item. John.

Give the valve thread a squirt of WD40 before trying to move it. Slacken it off first then some more WD. The air pressure inside the tyre will hold the valve in place. When it turns smoothly with your fingers tighten it gently and check for leaks with the soap solution. Just tightening can easily snap off the valve if it is seized. This will cost about £120 at the dealers or half that if you shop around, but the new valve will need to be programmed into the cars computer. John

Hi Ken. As already mentioned the 12 volt battery is not used to start the engine, and the Optima battery is not what it used to be, and way over priced. If you wan't a good battery at a good price use a mobility battery. The type used in mobility scooters. These are built to be cycled on a daily basis without problems. The thud you hear is almost certainly one or both rear shocks devoid of oil. This is very common. One item to check is the battery tray. The battery is fastened to this but the tray it self is not held down well, and can flex badly. Put your hand behind the battery and pull if it moves it can cause the thud. John

The battery could well be the problem if it is electric steering. The 12 volt power steering systems use a lot of amps to supply the electric motor. The hybrids often use 48 volts to run the power steering as this reduces the current to a 1/4. The hybrids use a voltage converter run off the high voltage traction battery. John.

Tom. It is likely that it does not work in reverse either. It is just the way the steering geometry is set that makes the steering lighter in reverse. Are you sure it is electric power steering? I was under the impression "I could be wrong" that only the hybrids had electric power steering all the others using a conventional hydraulic system. John