All-Weather-Tyres - just in Time

Two weeks ago I had decided that it would be a good idea to get all-year-tyres for MrPercy. I am planning to take the vehicle to areas where there might be snow and ice. The tyres which were now mounted were still ok, but would eventually need to be replaced. So I went once again to MyTyres and ordered online 4 new tyres. For this particular size there were only 4 brands to choose from. And only one had reasonable review results, so I chose the Vredestein Quatrac 3. Unfortunately not very cheap... but I hope this tyre will proof itself worth the expense.

Interesting: the tyres ordered through MyTyres are shipped from Germany, as in the UK it is basically almost impossible to get a choice of winter or all-season tyres. The shipping is included in the price, they ship the set of 4 tyres to a garage of my choice, which then do the fitting at a special fixed price (£ 15 per tyre).

Window Isolation

From B&Q I had bought a roll of metal foil insulating bubble wrap. This is used for thermal insulation in buildings, but I want to make window shades from it, for overnight stays and for blocking the windows. I started with the driver-side rear back door window. Also I had already fixed the isolation of the wardrobe which meant that part of that right rear side window would always be covered.

Trouble with China

In recent weeks I had bought many items on eBay, and many of them were available by sellers in Hongkong, Taiwan, Singapore, and China. Their prices are just without competition - even with the shipping the items are so much cheaper than anywhere in the UK. So far almost everything arrived ok, with sometimes very fast, sometimes a bit slower delivery. But then I hit two "rotten apples": I got sent two completely wrong items. Instead of a CCTV recorder, I got an automatic fish pond feeder. And instead of 5 cameras, I only got 5 little miniature camera stands. Maybe it is the nature of the objects that I have ordered - could it be that cameras and video equipment are somewhat suspect? All sellers on eBay display their customers satisfaction rates. Most are 100%, or maybe 99.8%. The ones that did those "mistakes" sending me wrong stuff had an approval rating of "only" 98.5%. I had thought that this was not much of an issue... but apparently it is. They promised now to send me the correct items. Let's see.

Battery Box

In order to "seal" the battery box, I bought a thick rubber seal which I then placed around the edges. When the rear doors are closed, there is still a gap between the seal and the doors which I plan to close with some additional foam. This will not be really tightly sealed... but will be much better than the compartment where the battery had been before: under the wooden wardrobe.

First Long-Distance Drive - and Fixing the Noise

I had to drive to Stansted Airport, to catch a flight. A great opportunity for some long-distance driving on the motorway, driving through the rainy night. But I noticed again immediately that strange annoying noise: it began already at 40 mph, then got louder with speed, and above 50 mph was note bearable. I did slow down, let trucks and lorries pass me, and was wondering what that noise was about. It seemed that the whole vehicle was vibrating: the window pillars next do the driver door had this inherent vibration too, which I felt when I touched them. Was it something in the drive train? Rolling along in "N", and the noise did not disappear.

I stopped several times to check, looked at the tyres, tried to identify the source of that loud resonance noise. Then, at a stop at a McDonalds, I suddenly realised what the reason was: the roof bars. Inherently, those bars seemed to cause some noise. And the fact that one of the bars was only attached by two screws did cause that loud vibration. The bars only came with 6 screws total. I stuffed some bubble wrap into the space between the bars and the vehicle roof, and when I drove again, the noise was much subdued. Still a bit, but I finally could drive with 70 mph without my ears falling off.

Then I had a well-deserved break at 3am - and had my first meal eating on the table within MrPercy.

Strange Noise...

Since yesterday, after several activities, there is now a noise coming from the rear left (passenger) side. It appears to be from the sliding door, but it could also be from further behind. It is a kind of resonance vibration, which starts around 40mph, but then also remains at lower speeds.

I did check several things to get rid of this noise, without success: removed the battery box, removed a few of the items I had placed in various locations. I suspect it comes from the wooden frame for the sofa/bed: the cover boards on top appear a bit out of shape, bent, and they do not sit very tightly on the frame. My next measure will be to put some kind of dampening there. Hopefully this goes away, because this noise is quite annoying.

More Work Done

The battery box coincidentally fits exactly between the bars of the structure in the back. So I put it there and attached it with screws on the top and on the right side. First I wanted to put it to the very left, so that it would be covered completely by the left door. Then I decided it would be better to have it at the right-most end of the rack, so that it is closer to the "electricity distribution center" under the wardrobe at the right side, and that the cables would be shorter.

Attached new handles at the wooden doors of all furniture. Reworked the glove compartment closure and added a second catch. Placed the TV-antenna outside in the back, cable just going through the rear door seals. Hid all the cables coming from the central locking control box. Bought strong 25A cables for the battery connection.

Realised that the electric connection of the relay TEC3M is incorrectly done. At the moment it would always use both batteries, and any power consumption at the leisure battery would also drain the main battery. Which moron did the cabling of this relay?

Cleaned a bit the vehicle.

Hiding the Cables

The central lock mechanism for the two front doors works great! Except that until yesterday I had all the cables spread either on the dashboard or in the foot area. Which did not look very appealing nor was it safe to have those cables near the foot pedals, where they could get stuck or my feet could get entangled.

During this week, I did make several attempts to affix these cables somehow beneath the dashboard. I was able to find a place where I could screw on the control box, though with one screw only. I tried then to affix the cables with isolating tape. However, the tape did not stick anywhere on the dashboard plastic. I got black Duck Tape. The extra strong version. But neither this tape was able to get attached anywhere! It appears that Peugeot has coated every plastic surface with a kind of Teflon anti-stick coating, so that no dirt would get stuck. I was not able to find any place where the tape would hold. So the only choice for affixing anything would have to be mechanical. Fortunately I found a few holes and loops under the dashboard where I could wind the sticky tape through - and then I was able to wrap it around the central locking cables and let them hang from these fixtures. I did this along the underside of the dashboard from right to left, and so the cables for the central locking system are now hidden.

The final challenge was to get somewhere an access to a +12V connection from the battery. The obvious option was the cigarette lighter, which I had used temporarily with a plug until now. In contrast to many other vehicles, this lighter is powered even if the ignition is off. I tried to pull the lighter out, but it was affixed in a very non-obvious way - I was not able to get it out from the dashboard. So I had to look for other choices. The fuse box behind the glove compartment would be an option to get some electric power, but there appeared no usable slot nor any +12V cable that I could easily use. All is tightly packed, with sealed cable trees and snug sitting plugs. Another possibility would be the radio. I took it out and was able to connect a cable to the +12V "memory" input line, which was constantly powered even when the ignition was off. Now I had to find a way to get the cable from the radio down to the central locking control box. This was again quite difficult: the whole dashboard appears to be very tightly packed. No free space behind it. And the panels cannot be dismantled in any obvious way: I saw a few screws here and there, but when I unscrewed them, then there were a few more hidden screws which kept everything still together. A real nightmare! And I was not willing to dismantle all the parts of the dashboard just for getting one single cable through. Finally I found a duct at the left side of the radio. I pushed the cable through, and indeed it arrived below in the passenger foot area. Now just attaching the final connection, and the central locking is now functioning, with all the cabling hidden.

Ordered Items Arrive

In recent week I had conducted a shopping spree on eBay. Hongkong, China, Taiwan. The first things now arrived: - hard to get roof bars for the Expert van, battery box, reverse aid, 12V switch panel.

First I fixed the roof bars. Two screws were missing, and one could not completely be fastened. These bars are very heavy duty, but also are a bit bulky. I would have preferred something more "consumer" friendly.

Then I fixed the rear wardrobe insulation and view blocking. Took the battery box and mounted it in the rear of the vehicle. It fits exactly in the space between two horizontal wooden bars. Added a poster.

Passenger Door now also Lockable

After installing the central locking mechanism at the driver side door, the next step was to install the same at the passenger side door. Some problems: the door panel was very hard to remove. There are a total of 5 screws, but a number of additional hidden fasteners which keep the panel attached to the door frame. What were the technical designers at Peugeot thinking when they mare this? I kept working, with the panel still partially attached - had to bend it so that I could use the screw driver. Finally managed to affix the motor and the rods - works fine. Now two doors have central locking.

Next step is to hide the cabling and the control box.

A Day in the Dales

Finally something else then city traffic. I took the van on a ride into the Yorkshire Dales. Drove fine, no problems.

Finally - the Car Can Be Locked!

A very important milestone today: I mounted the first of the central locking motors into the driver's door, and now I can at least lock one of the 4 doors from the outside, by remote control. It was not a very easy job: first I had to get a set of new tools, because the door panel screws had this strange hexagonal head. Then once the panel was (partially) removed (I was not able to remove the panel completely, it appeared to be stuck at one screw), the difficulty arose where to place the motor.

It should be placed so that the vertical motion would be in parallel to the door closing knob. And it should not block the sliding door window. Finally I spotted a suitable place, very close to the top. Affixed the metal holding bar, then attached the motor to it. Then bent the brass rod so that it would align properly with the door knob, and then attached the rod to the closing mechanism. A short test with the electrics - and it worked! Next was to manage the cables - a set of 5 cables needs to go from the motor to the central processing unit. I first wanted to use the protected duct between the car and the door, but I was not able to reach it: removed one of the panels in the driver foot area, but still did not get access to this duct. It appeared that there would be a special set of plugs needed. So instead of using this, I left the cables just dangling by themselves. Attached them with tape inside the door, so that they would not move about. For a temporary solution, I used the +12V from the cigarette lighter to power the box. It got dark towards the evening, and I had no time anymore to fiddle with finding the proper +12V lead for connecting it properly to the car fuse box. In any case, it needs power also when the ignition is off.

The next tasks will be: properly attaching the control box, hiding the cables, and installing the 2nd motor at the passenger door.

And now, since the car is finally properly locked all the time, I can actually make this blog public - no danger of anyone abusing the knowledge of my up to now always partially locked car.

Turn Indicator Bulb Replaced

Yesterday evening, the turn signal indicator for the right side suddenly began to toggle nervously twice as fast as normal - and I realised that the front bulb had gone. Bought one today at Halfords. Was not quite sure how to fix it, so I paid the £3.99 fee and let them do it. And it was more complicated than I had thought: it needed to be done from under the front wing, where the wheel is located. It took the guy almost half an hour! Good that I did not attempt this myself. The engineers/designers at Peugeot appear not to have the bulb changing procedure thought through a lot.

Planning the Electrical Circuits

Mr.Percy has already a functioning electric system. There is a reasonable leisure battery with 110 Ah capacity, and it is connected through a TEC3M relay to the main battery. The seller had already demonstrated the water pump, which worked fine. There are also two 12V ceiling lights, but only one of them is working. Upon closer inspection I noticed that the wiring for the second light is not connected. These lights give not a very pleasant light, and they probably use a lot of power. Therefore I decided that I would put LED lighting in the vehicle.

Maplin had a set of LED strip lights on sale, so I got three of them, including the extension. Each of those would use a total of 2 A at 12 V, which would actually be quite significant. But I tried and ran them at 9V only, and this worked fine, reducing the power requirements by approximately half.

The cabling appears not to have been done very professionally. In my opinion, the cable width is far too low; one would need good thick cables to avoid voltage drops. I am planning to redo most of the electric wiring, once I have some more time.

eBay has a lot of vendors which sell very interesting devices: combined volt/-amperemeter, voltage stabilisors, thermometers, etc. I purchased a few things, many of them quite cheap from Hongkong, Taiwan, Singapore, and China.

Major Repair: Injector #2

I left MrPercy for a few days at the garage for identifying the cause of the engine noise. David suggested it could be the camshaft. But after some investigation, it turned out that it was one of the injectors. The same problem had occurred with the Peugeot Expert also in other instances, as documented by several YouTube videos, for example that one below.



After injector #2 had been replaced in the shop, the engine again ran smoothly and quietly.

First Interior Upgrade

The table was covered by a quite ugly greenish wood imitation plastic foil. I removed this and placed instead a more pleasant looking marble imitation foil on that board. Cleaned the floor.

Removed the curtains, as it seemed a bit embarrassing to drive around in a van with fabric curtains at the windows. And fixed the glove compartment with a few furniture parts from B&Q. First I tried to use a magnetic catch, but the force was too little - the glove box kept opening again at every road bump. Then I used a mechanical catch with little ball spheres - and that provided the necessary closing force. Is now a bit hard to open, but at least it does not open by itself anymore.

First repair: the fan

Driving in UK without a fan is not possible: the humidity will fog up the windows, and this is then unsafe to drive. So the very first order of action was to get the fan fixed. As the very first measure I had bought a fan/heater from Maplin, so that I could at least get a temporary fix of the foggy windscreen. But then I brought the car to the garage nearby, who always have done a great job, at reasonable prices, so that they could investigate what the problem with the fan was. It turned out that the fan was there and was working fine, but the electric power connection had simply been disconnected. When the fan was working again, it made a bit of an annoying noise, but at least I could switch it on and regulate it ok from the panel.

The mechanic told me that the Diesel engine did make a very loud noise, unusual even for an old Diesel. I made another appointment to fix that issue too.

First Purchases: Locks and a Fridge

The very first purchases for MrPercy were a few things for the inside: a 12V heater fan from Maplin, so that I could at least get some moving air. Some storage bags for putting things in, and some bedding for a single bed. And: I ordered on eBay a central locking system. Quite inexpensive, from China, where nowadays all the good stuff comes from. I would have to do quite a lot of work to get this installed in MrPercy... The motorhome did not have a fridge, so I did look for fridges on eBay. I was not interested in those 3-way adsorption fridges, because they would use a lot of electricity if powered by battery. And the gas supply is limited, would be more usefully applied for cooking or heating. Therefore I had put my mind to purchasing a compressor fridge, which uses much less electricity and provides a more powerful cooling - down to -18 C. Found one, a Waeco cool box, and I was the only bidder. For a while this will stand in the house, being tested as a freezer.

Naming "Mr Percy"

When I picked up the vehicle, the seller had told me that the name of the car was "Percy", because it was a "Peugeot". 

I usually do not associate cars with any gender. Some men do this, and for them all machinery is somewhat female. Probably for these men, the reverse is also true... For me, machinery is always neutral, it is "it", not "she". But here I felt that it would be fitting to call this vehicle "Mr Percy". 

Picking Up the Car

After two days of deliberation I decided that I would buy that 1999 Peugeot Expert. Offered a lower price, because of all the various faults that the seller had described and that I had seen. We agreed on a purchase price of £ 1,900.

It was a rainy evening. I took the train, partially going on an old historic train route, which was very exciting. The seller's house was within walking distance from the train station, which was very convenient. The formalities of the sale were quickly dealt with, and then I went out into the rainy evening, where the car was parked on the road. The seller told me that they had named the car "Percy", because it is a Peugeot.

A first surprise was that the doors were unlocked. I had been told that the sliding side doors could not be locked, but now I realised that also both front doors could not be locked from the outside with the key - the key just rotated in the locks without moving any mechanism. I should have checked this when I did the inspection of the car. Well, I would fix that sometime soon. The car started well, and I drove off, onto the motorway. On the way I stopped at a service station, to fill up. It was then that I realised that the LCD-display of the mileage was dark. I could only read it (with great difficulty) when shining a flashlight onto it. So apparently the counter was still working, but the backlight illumination of that display was broken - another thing that I should have noticed earlier. It slowly dawned on me that I probably would need to revise my vehicle inspection strategy significantly. The seller had told me that the heating would not work. In fact, the heating did work, but what was not working was the ventilator. Which is much more crucial, as the front windscreen began to fog in that wet rainy weather. So I opened the side window to let fresh air in. The glove compartment did not close anymore, it just stayed open.

The picture above is the first picture that I took of the car; it was still in front of the seller's house. I arrived well at home and parked the car, pretending I would lock the doors. But in order to get into the car later, I had to leave one door unlocked... I did lock three of the doors from the inside, and that one last door (the driver-side sliding door) I left unlocked, so that I could open it and then access the driver side door from the inside. Not exactly a very safe thing to do in the crime-ridden neighbourhood where I was living... But I had no choice.

The Ads - Visiting MrPercy

A few days ago I had a look at various ads of motorhomesn in the Autotrader. And there I found a few very interesting vehicles at reasonable prices. There was a blue 2001 Renault Master van, nicely converted to a motorhome with nice specifications, for £ 2,900. But it was obviously already gone, because the seller never picked up the phone nor called back.

Then I saw the add of a 1999 Renault Expert van conversion.

The description sounded nice, and so on a Sunday afternoon I drove 2 hours to see the car. It had been standing for a while. There appeared to be some mold on the rear side windows, and I was wondering if humidity had gotten into it. But it did not smell, so this was not a concern. The Diesel engine was rattling a bit loud, the sellers said this was a Peugeot-typical problem. The overall condition was acceptable. I drove it around a block of houses, and breaks and steering felt ok. The engine seemed ok too. The conversion into a motorhome seemed a bit "home made", with wooden boards from Wickes. One of the doors fell off when the seller opened it - the hinges had come loose from the wood. Another wooden door just did not stay shut. The glove compartment was always open, did not lock. The heater fan was not functioning, so no air ventilation could be switched on. But the overall price of £ 2,200 was at the bottom of what one could expect for a functioning camper van. The black/white squared floor looked nice, and the van had the basic equipment: cooker with gas, wash basin with electric pump, leisure battery, 240V external lead.

On my way home I gave it some more thought and deliberated if I should buy it.

The Idea

For a long time I had considered to buy a motorhome. When I lived in the US, I was intrigued by the possibility to buy one of those gigantic "recreational vehicles", or build myself one by buying a bus. Maybe an articulated bus even, or a doubledecker bus.

Now in Europe I did scale down my plans significantly, due to petrol cost, smaller roads, and smaller parking spaces. But I never gave up the idea and kept looking.

For a while I played with the idea of buying a caravan. This has the advantage that at a camping site one can leave the caravan and drive around with the vehicle, exploring the area without that hanger. I once saw a caravan that cost just £ 500. But driving around with a caravan hanger is more limited: many roads in the mountains are off limits to caravans.

I prefer to drive just with one vehicle that has everything together in one package. If I feel, I can just stop somewhere, go to the back and have a cup of tea. Or a nap. And then get up and sit in the driver's seat and drive on. All within the confines of one box, not two separate boxes. It just feels somewhat better to me.

In summer 2010 I saw an ad for a camper van, Renault Traffic, that only cost £ 500. That caught my interest. I did not buy the vehicle then, because I realised that much would need to be fixed there, primarily because the annual MOT was coming up, and I saw that there was some rust which would require welding. But since that time I kept looking out for motorhomes or campervans. In particular I liked the small Romahome motorhomes, which had on a very small compact space all the necessary amenities. I began designing a campervan conversion, based on a regular van. One option would be the Ford Transit, large wheelbase, jumbo-size, high roof. Those 4 m cargo length would allow for quite a decent living space, with all kinds of equipment (gas-powered generator, underfloor central heating, fridge and freezer, dish washer, large shower with on-demand water heating, etc.).

But due to financial constraints I also began looking at something more reasonable. The Autotrader website is a phantastic resource to get an overview over the market of used vehicles, and their motorhome section has always a good selection of various offers.