radiator hoses

Nowhere near as often. Apparently nowadays they even make a LandRover that doesn't drip engine oil but I assume that's a marketing myth:-)

No, worn valve stems

It was on a Marina.

Apologies if I go into boring detail, but just in case anyone else googles for info on this, it might help !

Hyundai Accent 1.3 flasher relay unit 1994-2000 / indicator and hazard lights fault.

Sorted this one out too - there's a small switch panel to the right of the steering column that houses the dipped headlight height and the fog lights - it simply prises out if you get something like a scraper on the edge.

The flasher unit is a rectangular block immediately behind and slightly to the left, with a clip you need to press top and bottom to release it (it just pulls out towards you then).

I read elsewhere that they may be prone to solder fractures, but the solenoid housing simply clips on - sure enough, there were two joints gone - one hairline on an external connection, and a clearly buggered one to the solenoid / switch contacts.

Five minutes later, it was back in and working like a bought one :-)

To you perhaps. I was given a 1.3 Marina estate by my father in law. It had been driven into the ground carrying builder's materials and towing overweight trailers around. He'd taken it around the clock and we added another 30,000 or so before scrapping it when the diff packed up.

Are you saying it did 130,000 miles without any engine repairs? That would be remarkable for any engine with such an ancient heritage.

Chris

I've no idea of its history before my f-i-l got the car, but he'd owned it for a number of years, starting as a tidy motor and ending looking like a clapped out hack. During that time he did no more than necessary for MOTs (new trunnions every year or two). It was one of cars that just continued to drag itself along against all expectations. Even when the diff went, it got us home, freewheeling the last few yards into the village!

Its probably a case of "Triggers Broom" syndrome.

Its had 2 blocks, 4 heads, 3 sets of pistons, 2 oil pumps but its still the same engine ;)

My brother too. Loved his Marina estate as a large simple load carrier.

It bore little resemblance to the original 803 apart from the outside. Plenty of cast iron pushrod lumps can do high mileages. It's modern oils that make a big difference.

Quite. And even with period oils they could be a lot more capable than Chris would ever admit. And of course we're talking of an era when the majority of cars had their mileages trimmed every time they were sold, so stories of "low" mileage engines wearing out might well be explained differently.

In what significant way did it differ? The weakest point is the valve gear, and that had no major design changes to speak of, apart from the cam chain becoming duplex later in life.

Yep. Plenty of old Yank lumps, for example.

Not so many A series based engines made it to 50K when they were current without at least a cylinder head overhaul however.

My father's properly maintained Farina A40 ran its big ends at 40K ish miles; the top end was worn enough to make a recon the only practical repair.

BTW, I'm not "anti" A series based engines; I've owned at least a dozen vehicles powered by them, ranging from a '50s A30 to a 1275 Mini Cooper 'S'. I've maintained and repaired many more, belonging to others, as a second source of income for a while. They were significantly better than much of the competition at that time.

Longevity was not one of their strong points however.

Chris

Well we owned ours from new , it was serviced annually & it still had knackered valve guide by 18K.

Don't know of any 'weakness' in the valve chain for ordinary use - except a tendency for early engines to burn valves. Sorted by better materials. Same with valve stem oil seals.

I know of several. But maybe if you ran on the wrong petrol with the wrong timing and mixture it could be different. ;-)

That's not a 1275, though. The engine in that was from more than 10 years earlier. Later units (after they changed to the larger main bearings) were much stronger.

And you didn't find the later units lasted much longer than the early ones?

One swallow does not a summer make. ;-)

That was the worst one, I used to rebuild a lot of cylinder heads, It took me some time to find the valve spring compressor the last time I wanted it.

Camshafts, rocker shafts, and pushrod ends all had a higher twear rate than was acceptable.

Single timing chain on early engines rattled from new; not surprising as it had no tensioner!

What, *all of them?

Yebbut we were talking A series generally, not a variant.

No. Longer, maybe, but not much! (And of course the long-stroke 1100 units would break crankshafts if pushed even marginally over the rev limit.) I've never seen one go anywhere near 100K; often they didn't make half that without some engine work.

Chris

Didn't simplex chain ones have rubber ring tensioners? But they would rattle on for many many miles.

Dunno. But if you only knew of broken ones...

You started with the Marina. Which had the 1275 unit.

You can break any engine that doesn't have a rev limiter.

Nope, wrong way round.

A "token effort" tensioner, consisting of an O-ring in a groove around the camshaft sprocket, was only fitted to the later engines with a duplex chain.

Yes, they would rattle on, and seldom broke, but as the chain wore, the valve timing was affected to such a degree that performance was significantly reduced. Again, another reason why these engines needed overhauling long before 100K.

I knew of lots. Many of them were broken enough before 50K to make me very surprised that *any* ran for 100K plus with no engine repairs.

BTW the 1275 wasn't significantly different to the others, even in Cooper 'S' specification.

Of course you *can*. But A series engines in standard form are pretty much self-limiting in that they can't breath well enough to rev to self- destruct speeds, apart from the 1100. It was such a problem that they were fitted with a horrible crankshaft damper to try to stop the vibrations that made the problem worse. Even revving them to the notional limit was a risk.

Chris

Changing the timing chain counts as an engine overhaul?