Francesco

Hi folks. Sorry I've not been around a lot these last couple of years. Doing a garage cleanup and I came across a loose bundle of parts that I had made perhaps 10 years ago by a machinist in Greece…! Some of them are to convert 450 rear hubs to accept front brake calipers from IIRC a Mk2 or Mk3 VW Golf. If anyone is interested, please respond here. I'd be willing to let them go for the price of shipping, or I'd be ok with driving to meet anywhere within 80 km of CF Fairview Pointe Claire, otherwise they'd just end up at the local Ecocentre (recycling dump), and that seems like a shame. Once somebody is interested I can do a little bit of the research to find out exactly what years of VW calipers would be needed. Also in that pic are parts to convert 450 front hubs to four-piston Wilwood calipers, but I have zero recollection of which model. Again, free for anyone willing to do the research and cover shipping (or to meet me anywhere within 80 km of CF Fairview Pointe Claire).

If you're still looking, I just dug mine up and it's yours for the cost of shipping (preferably not Canada Post hah).

It’s a pain in the ass to repair the chafed wires in the harness that gets abraded by the intercooler and other edges up to the EDG. You’ll get good at removing the fender liner. I found that Liquid Electrical Tape was particularly handy for this area, followed by plenty of sheathing with Tesa fabric tape — the kind MB and the dealerships use, available online — to prevent it happening again.

I haven’t checked how crusty the oil feed line is. What are the chances?

Non-MBC source of an oil return line?

That’s great, thanks for clarifying for me! Yes, I searched, but “injectors nozzles” brings up around 400 hits. After three years parked, starting to tackle a few niggling issues that had me lose confidence in the little cabrio and count on my 27 year old Crapolla to get me to work on time. Changed the waste gate hose and clamps that kept throwing a P0238 overboost and semi-limp mode. Got that done, went for a nice long ride, then after dark remembered that the headlamp stalk had fried before I parked it! I’d already taken it apart and cleaned and greased the contacts but it went from intermittent to permanent after a short while. Kenny U-Pull Cornwall had two 450s with intact headlamp stalks today, so I grabbed both; the Kenny closer to me in Laval had a dodgy one (that I took, with fingers crossed, yesterday), but for $5 it didn’t pay out. Need two rear tires for the Michalak 16s but of course 195/40R16s are impossible to find now, so I’ll likely need a set of four in a different size. This weekend I’ll remove, clean out and lube the actuator and verify the state of the brass acorn nut, then preload it and do a full teach. The only other major issue is a new turbo, should I decide to keep the car next spring. It’s whining quite loud now, and the hole in the manifold is getting bigger. Considering rebuilding the old core I got from… I don’t remember whom! Blaast Performance does great work but that would be around twice the price of a whole new turbo from AliExpress. Still making pretty good boost overall, but nowhere near the low end torque or top end power as before I started seeing soot everywhere on the right side. Lots of decisions to be made, lots of work to do. I may not decide to keep it. But boy did I miss running about in the little scamp!

LOL yeah sorry about the ambiguity; it was late at night. My main question was how I secure the injector in my vise, do I need a plate like all the Cummins kits have? Or is there enough there to just grab the body and have a go at the cap? For the US cleaning, basically I can submerge it all except the plastic/electrics?

A few quick questions: 1) any cheapskate way to mount the injectors to a vise? And 2) ultrasonic clean the injector bodies in diluted Simple Green HD? 2a) old nozzles in place? Or off? 2b) submerge all the way up to/above the fuel inlet, but not the plastic/electrics?

About an hour and a half, start to finish, to re/re the rear roof section. Looks great, and it's so awesome being able to fully open and close the roof again.

If you follow my earlier thread about removing and reinstalling the rear roof section yourself, Rembourrage Réjean Cameron (450-371-1010) in Valleyfield will replace the window with nearly-identical 30-mil vinyl for about $125. Nice work, and quick turnaround (five days for mine).

Fire risk LOL yeah. I can imagine some day all the bituminous asphalt roads spontaneously combusting.

So do all the dealerships, snookering the gullible... At ten times Canadian Tire's price!

Only bathed the latch in mineral spirits, but may have gotten the creeping spray grease in the micro switch afterwards. No soaking or greasing of the lock actuator.

Noticed on the drive home that the door-ajar light is on, though the dome and console lamps turn off normally. I would've thought the one microswitch is used for both systems, but I guess not. Any idea what it might be? HHS in the microswitch?

A $20 annual gift to Evilution more than pays for itself.

Yeah, I followed along in the old thread and just like BigRick, after a night of soaking I took it out into bright daylight, blew it out with compressed air, and saw the little post in the pressed case. It still didn't move on its own but after working it loose and more working it in a mineral spirits bath it came free. Once I was satisfied it no longer hung up at all I dried it out and liberally sprayed every friction surface with HHS2000 and allowed the carrier to evaporate before cleaning the outside of he bracket and reinstalling. Works better than new now. Just like Duck, the most exasperating part of the whole exercise was getting the plastic rivet out of the triangle to partially remove the nose cone. Other than that, removing and reinstalling the handle, mirror, latch and door panel was a piece of cake. Not something one wants to do as "routine maintenance" -- in other words, really bad latch design -- but now I know it's not that tough.

This, to a Tee.

Well yeah. Unfortunately he knows the speed at which things like this are handled, and figures Corporate won't have an answer anytime soon. Meanwhile, tonight I removed the handle, took the mirror and door panel off, and removed the latch assembly. It's actually fairly clean all around. I can't figure out how it works, but no amount of liberal spraying with brake & electrical cleaner is making any other parts move inside the riveted box, and the visible "horseshoe" part of the latch simply doesn't stay locked in the closed position. Playing with the inside and outside handle levers doesn't seem to engage or disengage anything anywhere, as if it's missing another link to keep the horseshoe bit latched closed.

Popped off the outsid handle, cable is fine. Latch is needed seized and not tumbling. I took it to the dealership, Foreman came for a look went straight in to confer with the service manager, and came out with a camera. He took stills and video, and said it was being reported to MB Canada. Then he told me not to hold my breath, tear down the door and clean the latch, put it back together and NOT use the door for the rest of the summer.

Sway bars tend to keep wheels out of ditches.

Well, as CANMAN suggests, I may be barking up the wrong tree. I'll pop off the panels to make sure it's not a snapped cable first.

Opened the passenger door earlier today to give someone a lift, and it now refuses to close. Took a short video and texted it to MB Shop Foreman Neighbour; he responded that I should complain to MB Canada and write up a few nasty Facebook posts. Had to drive home from work at 1:00 am with the interior lights on and holding the door handle to keep from damaging the hinges on our terrible roads. Going to remove the exterior panel in the morning and get to the dealership to show them. I will try to leave it with them and get a 453 loaner...

???

Mine have been wonky since nearly the beginning -- remember I reported that there appeared to be no significant differences in the design apart from the colour of the bracket? -- and in the past few weeks I've had issues both opening and closing the less-used passenger door; it frequently refuses to close until I use the key to fiddle with the latch as CANMAN describes in the OP. The driver door also feels clunky and worn out just like the original latch felt.