Bugger with a diff lock question*****

[Syncrobaz]

You were lucky it failed on your drive not in the middle of Salisbury plain !!!!!!!

[lloydy]

Or a 1000 miles from home up a mountain! All in all a pretty easy thing to fix, just a costly part.
Difflocks.......
Had a play with them today, front comes on instantly with no issues. The rear seems to want to work( you can feel it just catch) then gives up.
Jacked up one side of the van chok'd the van and started the engine. My thinking with this is I can turn the rear wheel slowly and see if it engages. It did engage enough a couple of times but seemingly not enough to trip the light on the dash. Most of the time no engagement. Pulled off hose onto actuator, it had suction but it did make me wonder how it was strong enough to work the pin. So checked the front actuator, hose was really hard to get off and when it did come off it hissed pretty loud and the suction felt stronger.
So any hints on where vacuum cam be lost at rear but not front?
I've checked the one way valve near the reservoir. This is still functioning as a one way valve.
I've checked along the pipes to the rear, all seem good. If the diaphragm has gone in the actuator will it cause low vacuum?

[syncropatrick]

Have you considered Pirtek.Might be worth giving them a bell...

Not a good idea.
That pipe has an internal baffle, if you do away with the baffle you end up with noisy PAS.
Pirtek etc will make a straight hydraulic hose without the baffle.

Yep, my PAS is noisier that the wasserboxer at idle because of this. I don't recommend running without it - the whine is really annoying.

[xriss]

lloyed have a little look at the red boot on the acctuator they split quite often

[lloydy]

Thanks, will do. Was hoping to not have to remove the actuator as it involves dropping the inner cv joint. Good time to do it though, seeing as I can't drive it for a while

[lloydy]

Top marks to xriss!
Removed the actuator and half the red boot is missing? How that had happened god knows.
New boot on order

[lloydy]

Got the hose off too, can just make out a split in the rubber on the end with the bango. Don't know how this end wasnt leaking, as one of the washers on either side of the banjo wasn't fitted!

[Simon Baxter]

Ah, that is an original.
Dont wang it!
See the crimp in the middle? Thats what holds the baffle in place.

[max and caddy]

So what does this baffle do then? I guess it's just a restriction? Why not just restrict the pipe at the union or use a smaller pipe?

[Simon Baxter]

Its surprisingly complex, about 20cm of polyamide tube with holes drilled along its length and then its crimped into place.

[syncropaddy]

Its surprisingly complex, about 20cm of polyamide tube with holes drilled along its length and then its crimped into place.

... and without it your power steering will sing like an X Factor competitor!

[slobbo]

My Powers steering used to sing until the pump packed it in completely. The replacement pump and fitting came to £130. Didn't think that was too bad. My neighbour Dougie runs Trix a VW boy racer shop and knows the VR6's like the back of his hand. That £130 also included removing the knackered oil cooler, metres of pipe and recommissioning the normal VR6 cooler and an oil change with race oil (keeps its viscosity at high temps). Van now runs at about 110 degrees normally and about 120 on a high speed run. Dougie reckons thats all ok with that oil. Says the turbo'd VR6's get up to 140 when pushed hard. Apparently the VR6 was originally designed as a diesel thats why they can be tuned up to ridicules horsepower and torque. Mine is pretty much a stock 2.9 with 180is bhp. No plans to "improve" it as the the syncro gearbox can't handle the extra torque. The 2.9 produces 241nm so any significant tweak will push the torque well over the 300nm the Syncro gearbox is rated to.

Power steering is silent now. The weird thing is I have owned the van for 3 years now and the power steering has sang the whole time. Surprised it hadn't packed it in sooner.

[rollercoaster]

The "quiet powersteering pipe" has arrived to me from SmallCar,

http://www.smallcar.com/index.php?dispa ... t_id=29864" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

and its about to get fitted..
Been putting up with the loud whining until now and wondering what to do,
maybe it started when the original baffled pipe was changed for something that could link to the Subaru pump?
I didnt know that it had a baffled pipe as standard, and it adds new questions to the context of the problem.
Will let you know how well the quiet pipe works,
it seems very thin and I cant imagine its got any actual baffles in it.

[lloydy]

Says it has the baffle in the blurb so it should. Guess you'll find out if it goes quiet
Not too much love for smallcar on thesamba at the moment

[lloydy]

OK!
new p/s pipe fitted, all ok and nice and quiet.
New red gaitor for diff lock actuator fitted and tested, all working
went out for a drive-no boost
had a look around engine bay, incase i'd knocked something off in my usual heavyhanded way, but no.
checked for fault codes-none. Went into measuring blocks found the expected and actual values of the MAF were way apart. Removed plug from MAF and found the plug had broken inside With a bit of care, refitted so the connectors lined up and retested, expected and actual values much closer together and van feels like a rally car again
Will have to change the plug now though.
Electronics made it super easy to diagnose, almost like working on a boiler