8v Update

Well I haven’t posted much on the 8v recently, but it’s getting daily use during the week as the Nursery wagon. There are a few things that now need a little attention. I stuck a new rear wiper blade on a few weeks ago as the one that was on the car may well have been the one that came out of the factory in the late 1990s.

The steering wheel on the car was an airbag one that was an optional upgrade on the model. Having an airbag in it makes it heavier, but it’s also a rather unattractive (albeit safe) hunk of plastic. In my case not made any more attractive by the Peugeot emblem having been painted (badly) in possibly pink nail varnish by a previous owner and also a big chunk had been gouged out of it.

So I picked up a non airbag wheel to replace it.

When you remove an airbag from the car then the warning light will stay on indicating that there is an issue. The solution is to wire in a 2ohm resistor to the cable that connects to the airbag tricking the electronics into thinking that it’s still there.

Before you can slap the new steering wheel on, you have to take out the rotating connector that sits behind it. This is held on by three self tapping torn screws, but can’t be removed without taking the plastic surround that goes around the stalks off first. If you follow the orange wire back under the steering column you will find a connector. Unplug to release the wire and then this comes off:

Snip the plug off the two wires that connect to the main part of the airbag loom. Then just solder on the resistor – I used a 2.2ohm one from Maplins that cost 24p. Put everything back together and when you start the engine the airbag light will come on and then go off after about 5 seconds as normal. Job jobbed.

There’s a few other things that need to be done – the cam cover is weeping oil and this is getting onto the exhaust manifold cover and is producing a nice burning oil smell. The rear heated screen is not working and the alternator belt is slipping a bit. So a few little jobs still to do…