Questions...

Just a quickie, does the 993cc have a diagnostics port for testing for sensor faults etc? If so, where is it, and is it a standard port or Daihatsu specific? My van has the CB-42, which I assume differs from the CB-41 by having EFi?

Also, would people mind if I used this thread for little questions about my van, that don't really warrant their own thread? I don't really want to clog up the forum with hundreds of threads. And yes, I promise to be a good boy and search past threads first, scout's honour.

Edit: D'oh, found it just now: Thread. But the proposal for this thread still stands.

What year is it? I think anything before about 2005 wont have an obd port so no scanners will work.

There is though, a little pair of wires in a connector block somewhere, which if you shove a paper clip into them the engine warning light flashes up blink codes.

Somewhere on here is a list of what those blink codes mean. If anyone knows where please post up!

Sure you can ask, whats the worst someone can say.... f*** off! This place is used to topic hijacks and random bollocks.

So, my latest one is my Speedo sticking at annoying points in the journey, such as when I go past a speed camera. It had a sticking issue a while ago but I thought I had fixed it. It sticks at 60 but that's not really a bother to me since I never do more than 55, but lately it's been sticking at 25 and 30. The way I get it to behave is to accelerate until the needle jumps to the speed I'm actually doing then works again. Obviously this is not safe and I'd rather it just worked properly. any ideas?

Before your needle sticks does it jump around wildly? (If Logi reads this I'm stuffed...) Mine gets occasional ADHD and there's no talking sense to it. Not had it stick yet. I thought it might be linked to automatic choke to start with but not so sure now.

Had the van serviced today The garage went through the paperwork and there's no evidence that the cam belt has ever been changed. Van is 12 years old but only done about 23,000 miles. New cam belt £155 I have broken a belt before and wrote off the engine so in some respects it's small change, but in other respects it's £155 and that's A LOT!! Any tips or suggestions?

Mine wobbles a fair bit up to 30 mph, but beyond that its stable. I should check to see when my cam belt was last changed, I'd hate to have it die on me half way on a long journey...

I think they are just extremely poor quality speedometers.

Mine used to oscillate wildly between 20 and 30 so was more or less useless; it has a habit of sticking at about 50 but it does occasionally do this at other speeds. The problem here is that when approaching a roundabout, when needing to slow down, the needle sticks at 50 but when finally close to the line it will suddenly knock about 10 mph off in one swift movement. This can leave you with totally the wrong idea about your speed and think the vehicle is simply not going to stop. (I just ignore it now, my personal speed judgement is getting better
).

I have also found that it will sometimes overread, sometimes under read and sometimes be spot on so that it is not even possible to assume that it will usually be a set no of mph out. In other words totally useless and possibly dangerous to one's licence if in the vicinity of the little yellow cash boxes on sticks.

My solution was to instal a GPS speedometer; expensive but I suspect spending out on a speedo cable and labour will just be a waste of time and nearly as expensive.

The cost of £155 for a cam belt sounds positively cheap. I had to pay over £200 a few years ago. I presume the cost included labour?

I'd risk the cam belt personally - as long as it hasn't done about 80k miles or lived in a very warm climate they go on forever.

I've stripped down engines with 140k miles on the clock, 20 years old, and the original belt is still pretty ok'ish.

I don't have the kind of money to spend on a gps speedo, and was hoping there was some kind of fix possible. I don't think it's a the speedo cable, since that has to be constantly spinning to give me a speed, so if it stopped, my speed would appear to drop to zero. I reckon it's a problem with the speedo panel itself, possibly a tiny drop of oil in the right place?

About the cam belt, I recently discovered by looking at my van's MOT history online that it had been clocked a couple of years back, so instead of 86k, it's done closer to 140k. Next thing I guess would be to check the garages that have worked on it in the past and see if any of them did a cam belt change.

Mines been clocked too I think.

If you ask Rich, he knows how to take the needles of the clock faces, I tried to take mine off and I think you just have to pull but I'm a bit scared of breaking them.

It should be pretty obvious inside, its usually some sort of spinning magnets that drive a worm gear, and I bet they are all skanky thus the jamming.

Wobbly speedo's tend to be down to the cable, and running some oil down the inner bit works a treat.

I'm sure you could fix that speedo, first pull the fascia off the dash, then take the clocks out with the 4 screws, then disconnect the cables, then there are a few screws that hold the clear plastic cover on, then the pull the needles off, unscrew the black backing dial plate and hey presto the little gear box is in there.

Cool, I'll have a go at that today. I always take the horn fuse out while I do it, otherwise I always end up setting it off when putting the steering wheel and horn cover back on.

Steering wheel can stay in place! Clocks come out with out access problems

Mine has had a new speedo fitted but to be fair to the last owner they did put it in the service book, date and mileage.

Waz

Right, will try cleaning up speedo tomorrow, one other question; How do I reconnect the wire to the heating elements on the back window? The door was taken off to be resprayed before I bought the van and I don't know how to reconnect it. I'm afraid to solder it for fear of breaking the glass. Ideas?

I don't think solder would get hot enough to break the glass, maybe some know's better.

Waz

easy one first the wires should just plug back on to the window with spade terminals and don't take the needles off the clocks pull the trim off and remove the three screws that hold the clocks in remove the clocks slowly until you can get your hand behind to get the speedo cable off the back and then pull them out and turn over you can then remove the wiring harness and then the back comes off to get to the mechanism do not oil the the silver disc that spins as this will bugger it up proper just clean it all with a dry rag.

The wire going to the window ends in a flat plate that is at a right angle to the wire, and there is no spade connector on the window, just a mark exactly the same shape as the plate that was there. If needbe I can take a picture and post it tonight.

Right, got my instrument panel in front of me now, and another issue is the paint flaking off where the speedo readings are. I'd like to be able to preserver the k/mph as well as the mph, as I'm planning on taking the van to spain this year.

Nearly got the panel out, except for two wires, one black one yellow, which appear to be clamped in. Any ideas how to loosen the clamp? Also, the speedo mechanism is held in by two green clips, which are proving a pain to release. Anyone got any experience with these?

My speedo used to jump all over the place. I swapped the speedo cable for a new(used) one and it solved the problem.

Afraid I cant help you there, deeper than I've ever gone!

Little Black Van wrote:The wire going to the window ends in a flat plate that is at a right angle to the wire, and there is no spade connector on the window, just a mark exactly the same shape as the plate that was there. If needbe I can take a picture and post it tonight.

Sounds like the flate plate was once attached to the glass but it's strange if you don't have a spade connector between it and the wire. To re-attach the plate to the window you could use an adhesive that conducts electricity, I have heard of one but can't remember the application.

CONDUCTIVE ADHESIVE

Ok, I've put my speedo back together without being able to get at the gears, these clips defeated me. I would have tried harder, but I'm at risk of losing all the speed markings if I push it around too much, so I've left it be. Here's a picture of the green clips that I couldn't undo, in case anyone has any ideas how to undo them with relative ease:

Warning: large picture.

Now I have another problem which worries me slightly. It's a loud pop that happens occasionally, mostly when struggling up a hill. It never used to happen, and seems to coincide with the time that I replaced my exhaust. Unfortunately, I didn't have any fresh exhaust gaskets and the old ones were knackered, so I bodged a seal with Holt's Fire Gum. Could this seal have failed and be the cause of these popping noises? At first I thought they were just stones being thrown up by my wheels, then I thought it was a tyre popping, but after several occasions and worried inspections of the wheels, all is well. It sounds like a misfire to me, but I don't know enough to be certain.

Looks to that you could have cut the wires then rejoined then with cable joiners.

Waz

Yes, I could, but I still have the problem of getting at the speedo gears.

you may need to take the dials off I find the best thing to pull the needles with is the wire type clothes peg used like a pair of tongs then you can unscrew the front the problemnis the refitting or more like refitting in the correct place I found that I needed to plug the clocks back in and fit the needles with a full tank of fuel and the enginge at normal temp.

As to your loud 'pop' (which could have described my dad down the pub!), a misfire won't cause any additional sound as it is a non-event. No explosion in the cylinder, due to lack of spark, fuel or timing results in a hesitation rather than sound. It's more likely a backfire due to weak mixture or timing not being spot on. Back in the good old days it used to be a sign of poor fuel or a faulty advance/retard mechanism. I'd guess timing in your case but, as only experienced under heavy load, not a great deal to worry about. Getting the timing spot-on would probably help fuel consumption though.

A backfire is what I meant, thank you. It did happen once or twice on a reasonably flat road, and it's never happened before. So, how does one go about setting the timing correctly? Bearing in mind I run this van on a shoestring budget so am not going to have the option of sending it to a garage, unless their price is very reasonable.

You need one of these:- http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/Vehicle-Parts-Accessories-/131090/i.html?_nkw=timing+light&_catref=1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m1538

Borrow, beg, steal etc... the one that's been in my tool box for 10 years is borrowed

At the same time you should check all the plugs are pretty clean and undamaged.

Will that work with EFi? I assume it will, but is there any other procedure required for it?

Yep, connect light to plug number one. Put jumper in the diagnostics connector. Run engine, point light at the timing marks on the flywheel. Adjust cam sensor to suit.

Well that's my guess anyway as I've not done a hijet yet, will be doing in a few weeks though.